Page 2 of Goalies Don't Date Ice Princesses

“Yeah,” Adelynn sighed. She looked up over my shoulder and I didn’t have to ask what she was looking at: the view of Sinclair Academy we got through our window. The schools had changed this year to become two co-ed schools, with Sinclair Academy being a school for grades 7-9 and Westwood being a school for the upper grades, 10-12. We hadn’t gotten much warning before we were told that last year would be our last at Sinclair and all of us were still reeling from the shock of it, but Adelynn especially so.

“I saw Archer today,” I told her.

“Well, he does go to school here,” she said.

“He was with the hockey team,” I said, ignoring her comment. “We were taking a tour of the athletic buildings and they walked by. I’m pretty sure half the figure skating team is in love with Archer already.”

“Who knew so many figure skaters had such terrible taste?” Adelynn asked. I snorted. I wasn’t sure what answer I was expecting.

“I guess I’ll have to help them see the light,” I said. “Or maybe they will as soon as they try to have a conversation with him and he doesn’t say a word to them.”

I first met Archer Rainn when I was twelve years old. Adelynn and I had met in the seventh grade and become friends very quickly, so when I told her I couldn’t go home for spring break, she immediately invited me to come to her house instead. She warned me before I got there that things might be a little awkward since a lot of stuff had happened in her family the year before and everyone was still struggling with it, so I was prepared for it to be uncomfortable. What I hadn’t expected was for Archer to be out of the house for the whole first day.

Which meant that my first time meeting him was when we both went into the bathroom to brush our teeth. I tried to say hello to him, just to be polite, but he just ignored me. And as soon as he was done brushing his teeth, he walked out without saying bye or acknowledging my presence whatsoever.

I thought that maybe it would get better with time, but it never did. He seemed surprised and confused every time he saw me after that, like he couldn’t remember who I was. To this day, I was pretty sure we’d never exchanged more words than “please pass the salt”. Not exactly boyfriend material.

But hey, who knew? Maybe he would surprise me. I doubted it, but I was always one to give people a second chance. Or in this case, a fiftieth one.

* * *

“That boy is sitting out there,” Blair said.

“What boy?” I asked. I was stretching on the floor of the change room and I wasn’t quite tall enough to see through the glass window that faced toward the ice.

“The hockey boy,” Blair said. She pulled her legs up onto the bench and moved to a kneeling position, staring out the window. I just hoped that from this distance, the mystery boy wouldn’t be able to tell that she was totally staring at him. “Brown hair. Deep voice. The one who stared at you.”

My hands slipped out from under me and I face-planted onto the ground.

Archer was here? He was watching practice?

“Oh my gosh, are you okay?” Blair walked over just as I rolled onto my back with a groan. She held her hand out to help me up, and I took it gratefully.

“Lost my balance,” I murmured. As if anyone ever lost their balance from doing down-dog. I rubbed at my forehead where it had hit the ground and glanced at the rink. Sure enough, there was Archer sitting in the stands.

The boy’s hockey team had the rink right before us, so I’d been getting used to seeing the guys around, but normally it was just in the halls. Why was he watching practice? He’d changed out of his hockey gear but wasn’t wearing his actual uniform either—he was dressed in the school’s uniform gym clothes, like he’d been planning to go to a gym class but decided against it for some reason.

“Is there anything sexier than a guy with wet hair?” Blair asked. She was practically hovering over me, looking through the small space we could.

“How is he not freezing?” I retorted. “He doesn’t even have a jacket.”

“A boy that hot doesn’t need anything to keep warm.”

Okay, ew. That was my best friend’s triplet brother, after all. I couldn’t be thinking of him ashot.

Not that he was unattractive—a far cry from it. But I couldn’t say that aloud and I definitely couldn’t imply that I liked him. I didn’t even want to imagine what Adelynn would say to that.

“Come on, let’s go out,” Blair said.

“But— “ She didn’t stop to listen to any of my reasonable objections, the main one being that most of our teammates hadn’t even left the change room yet, let alone gotten on the ice.

As Blair tugged me towards the exit of the warm-up room, I couldn’t help but feel a mix of excitement and apprehension. Going out onto the ice with the presence of Archer was bound to make my heart race. But I couldn’t deny that there was an undeniable curiosity pulling me towards him, like a magnet drawing me closer.

I stumbled in my skates, struggling to keep up with her pace. As we reached the door that led to the ice rink, the frigid air hit us like a wall. I didn’t mind it, though. I liked the cold. Blair released my hand so we could get on the ice and begin skating laps to warm up. I tried to focus on skating, but as I circled around, I caught a glimpse of Archer out of the corner of my eye. He was perched on the bench, watching us with an intensity that sent strange shivers down my spine. What was he doing here?

As we finished our first lap, Blair suddenly took off quickly. At first, I thought she was going to yell out “race me” (which she totally should have said before taking off), but then I realized she didn’t want me to follow—because she was headed right for Archer.

Blair skated towards Archer with a determination that matched the gleam in his eyes. My heart skipped a beat as I watched her approach him, even though I knew there was no reason I should care. What did it matter to me if she was talking to him? He didn’t look particularly thrilled about it, but that’s what he got for sitting in on our practice.

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