Page 11 of The Pucking Kiss

“It’s top secret,” I winked, ruffling his hair slightly. At six foot two, I easily towered over most people.

“Yeah, yeah…”

“That was amazing, Captain,” Jake tapped my shoulder before engulfing me in a full-fledged hug. “That’s some real voodoo shit you’re able to do.”

“It’s just practice,” I laughed, letting him in on my “top” secret. “Keep training with me, and I’ll have you playing like this too.”

“Nah, you have real talent,” he said sincerely. We were making our way over to the locker rooms at the end of the game. “I swear this school has never seen a player like you before.”

I wasn’t one to care much about compliments. But when it came to my game, hearing other people appreciate me was extremely validating. Ice hockey was my biggest passion, and I knew that I was not going to stop until I was the best.

“You’re flattering me,” I finally replied, smiling humbly.

“Yeah, well, it’s a wonder,” he said. “Anyway, I’m gonna head to the showers now. I am not looking forward to chemistry later.”

I shrugged as I began to rummage through my locker, trying to pick out a clean outfit to wear for the rest of the school day. “You’ll be fine. Just do what I do, zone out.”

“Nah, man. Mrs. Johnson is on our ass these days since exams are coming up. I almost didn’t manage to complete the assignment.”

“Assignment?” I stopped rummaging through my locker for a minute and turned back to look at Jake. “What assignment?”

Jake’s mouth contorted into the shape of an ‘O’. “You’re kidding, right? Oh man, you’re properly fucked.”

“It’s not funny, Jake,” I narrowed my eyes at him, a hint of panic now creeping into my voice.

Mrs. Johnson and I didn’t exactly have the best track record. She was constantly on my ass for not paying attention in her class, and I was barely scraping by with my performance.

Even though I was a legend on the ice rink, academics were a whole different ballpark altogether. It’s not that I wasn’t smart, but just that I didn’t see the point of working so hard at school when I already knew most of it wasn’t useful for me anyway.

I was an athlete at heart, and I knew I could make my way into college through my sports performance. Who cared about organic chemistry when there was practice to attend?

“How could you even forget?” Jake continued on. “She basically rambled on about how important it was all of last week.”

I rolled my eyes. “I was busy thinking about other things.”

“Like girls?” he snorted.

“Like how I am going to deal with it as it comes,” I said, turning around to close my locker. “It’s not like she can kick me out of class.”

One hour later, I found myself at the wrath of Mrs. Johnsons’ disappointed expression.

“Bryan,” she crossed her arms out in front of her, trying to keep her tone calm even though it was obvious that she was furious, “Where is the assignment?”

“My dog ate it?” I tried to lighten the mood.

“That’s not funny, Bryan. I told you this will count as 30% of your final grade. You had over two weeks to do it. How could you be so careless?”

As I stood there getting yelled at by my chemistry teacher, I could feel the weight of my classmate’s eyes on me. Some of them seemed amused by how strict she was being, and others just looked bored. The class nerd, Romai, stared at me without saying much, chewing on the ends of her pencil.

Fucking nerd. She had been the first to turn in her assignment. If only I could somehow recruit her to do all my papers for me…

“Bryan!” Mrs. Johnson’s shrill voice brought me back to the present, “Are you even listening to a word I am saying?”

She had her hands firmly placed at the edges of her hips now, and every shred of self-control she had been practicing earlier had gone away. She looked FURIOUS.

“Yes, um..” I said sheepishly, causing some of the students to chuckle, “The assignment. I’m sorry. I told you, my dog ate it. I really worked hard on it, too.”

“Do you think everything is a joke, Bryan?” she shot daggers at me, “You’re not going to get away with this just by making a lighthearted joke.”

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