Page 185 of Loving Ladybug: Part One
“Oopsie, this little beta didn’t see the giant alpha,” I sniggered, then patted the goalpost.
Windy peeled himself up off the ice as Doobie headed after Boondock, who had the puck.
“You fucking bitch.” Before Windy could lunge himself at me, I smacked him again with my stick.
Boondock passed to Humpy, who passed to Maze. She slapped the puck toward Ty as a fight broke out, but Ty caught it. The ref blew the whistle. Both Windy and I got a penalty.
“I’ll take it.” Boondock sat in the penalty box, and someone threw an inflatable shark onto the ice. He grabbed the shark, did a dance, and put it in the box with him.
Windy tried to punch me and Freight Train slammed him against the boards.
“Don’t touch the fucking goalie,” she shouted.
A fight erupted and more penalties were awarded before we got started again. People dumped popcorn on Windy, which was a UNYC thing. Personally, I considered it a waste of good popcorn.
The clock ticked down, and the gameplay focused on UNYC’s end, as Maze tried to score a third goal. I danced around to keep my energy up. Mercy and some Maimers saw me dancing and started dancing with me.
Wait, was that…
I shook my head. No. It couldn’t be. Even if it was my ex, I wasn’t going to let it phase me. I’d been working hard with mytherapist to move forward, so I could be confident in my choice to be with Clark and Tenzin–and be comfortable with myself.
Yeah, I had this.
Tenzin waved and flashed a heart with his hands. I made one back.
“Miss me?” Boondock asked when he got out of the box and came back onto the ice, Alfie going back to the bench. He’d tried to take the shark onto the ice with him and the ref wouldn’t let him. Now it was being tossed around the crowd.
“Aways.” I got ready as Doobie took the puck. Windy was still in the box.
There wasn’t much time left. Bonnie stole the puck and headed toward the net. She took the shot, but Ty deflected it, setting Maze up for a corner rebound shot. The crowd counted down. The puck slid in right before the buzzer.
“RELEASE THE CHICKENS,” the announcer yelled, as it came up blinking on the screens and the silly chicken dance song played.
Three live chickens, one for each goal, waddled onto the ice. They wore little booties, so they didn’t hurt their feet, and had little sweaters to keep warm, all made by the admin for the biology department.
Much better than throwing bones on the ice like at PHL games.
“We won.” I did a happy dance and thanked the goalposts as our mascot chased the chickens around the rink. Their names were Puck, Stick, and Jock. They were the pets of the biology department.
Sure, this was an exhibition, but it was nice to win. I felt a tiny bit bad for Ty. But I didn’t feel bad for Windy, who was still being an ass about my breakup with Austin.
I took off my goalie mask–which was my good one that Carlos got repainted for me. It was burgundy with gold accents and hadour mascot on it, chasing three chickens. It also had acrownpainted on it.
The mask went well with my new burgundy goalie pads, which I’d painstakingly altered to fit me perfectly. One leg saidNYIT,the other had our mascot on it–a king with long flowing locks. For hockey stuff, the mascot held a hockey stick instead of a sword.
Like always, I wore 0 on my jersey.
Clark was right there waiting for me off the ice.
“You did so good.” Clarkpicked me upand raised me a little like he was going for a lift, then spun me.
“You’re wearing my jersey.” My eyes teared as I realized what he was wearing. A burgundy and gold NYIT Kings’ jersey withmyname and number was on his back.Oh, my heart.
“Of course I am.” He beamed.
“Where did you even get one?” They didn’t sell them with our names and numbers.
“Oh, Carlos did it for me over at his brother-in-law’s print shop. I’m so glad you like it.” His eyes sparkled as he set me down.
