Page 205 of Loving Ladybug: Part One
Gwen
“Again,” Coach Hirata yelled, as the entire team did sprints, or ‘buggies’ as my team called them, across the ice.
Practice should have ended by now and the skate smash team was pissed at us, as they did skate drills on the other end of the rink.
“Fuck.” A firstie ran over to the bucket the assistant coach had put out and puked in it.
My stomach threatened to rebel and my feet hurt. Fucking firsties. Coach had warned us that skipping out on cardio, conditioning, and strength training would merit punishment.
“Back in line,” Coach yelled. “Keep going.”
Taking a deep breath, I went again. This wasn’t the day to wear my new skates–though they were more comfortable than I’d expected.
Also, better than I’d expected. They handled almost as well as the ones Tenzin got me.
I’d spent last night making some alterations and breaking everything in. This morning, I’d used the sharpener at work, and gotten the skate blades the way I liked them.
Here I thought it would behilariousto wear it all to practice tonight and try everything out.
There was no clock, and I didn’t wear a watch, so I didn’t know how close we were to the Knights’ puck-drop. I’d definitely missed watching warm-ups. Possibly dinner in the family room too.
Coach was fully aware that the Knights' home opener was tonight and that most of the team planned on heading to Marabou Mike’s to watch it.
Finally, she let us go.
“Dinner’s cold, but that’s what you get,” she snapped. “Now get out of here. Next time you better listen to me or it’ll be worse.”
“Worse?” Giggles looked like she was about to puke.
“Yeah, it can get worse.” Bonnie gulped as we headed to the locker room.
Shit, I stunk. I should wash my hair, but there wasn’t time. However, I did soap myself down twice in the shower. Shoving my practice clothes in a grocery sack, I tied it, so it didn’t make everything else smell. Then I threw on my Knights’ EBUG PJ pants and hoodie, and slipped my feet into the cloud-soft slides I’d stolen from Clark.
At least I had no blisters.
“Are you going to eat or go straight to the bar?” Bonnie still looked green.
“I have a ticket to the game.” There was a super cute outfit waiting for me on my bed, along with my bucket bag.
I grabbed a couple of recovery drinks and some hydrogels on my way out, my bag full of my new hockey gear and my backpack over my shoulder. As I jogged to the subway stop, I checked the time. Shit.
The Maimers were doing a promo before the game to promote their season and I wanted to see it. This morning Constantine had told me who was doing the opening game ceremonial puck drop and sworn me to secrecy.
Yeah, I didn’t want to miss that.
Did I go home and change, risk missing everything or head directly to the game as-is? The problem was that I had all my stuff with me and it would burn time to take it back to the locker room.
I’d go straight there and deal with that when I got to the arena, glad I always kept all my credentials with me. On the subway, I focused on not puking and getting the recovery drink down.
I entered through the back of the arena, like I did when I was an EBUG, flashing my EBUG pass. Usually, I stored my things in the equipment office, which was attached to the locker room.
This close to the game, I didn’t want to bother anyone. Were there public lockers? It was almost time; I didn’t even have time to go to the family room and get food.
Oh! The family room.
I kept running, since it was close to the locker rooms. There were cubbies for the MASOs to store diaper bags, strollers, and coats. I’d drop everything there.
At the door, I flashed my shiny new family room pass and stumbled inside. A bunch of the MASOs were still there, finishing dinner and drinking wine. A couple of little kids played hockey with mini sticks.
