Chapter 23: Chapter Twenty-Two

That afternoon I drove to the ice rink half an hour before tryouts started. We geared up in the locker rooms and there were about thirty of us including last year’s team and reserves. Last year’s team skated onto the ice first and hit their sticks against the ice as the Coach got onto the ice as well.

“Settle down, guys, welcome to the first tryouts for this season. I’ll call you onto the ice in two teams to see what you all can do. Centers on the right, wingers on the left, goalies by the nets and defensemen in a group over there,” Coach Petter said.

We all divided into the groups of the position we wanted to try out for, and I headed to the left. I liked this position although center wasn’t bad either. Coach Petter looked at us and he smiled when he saw me.

“Alberts, Jones, Hamilton, Hawthorne, Cooper and Mills, you’ll be the blue team, jersey’s on,” Coach Petter said as we each grabbed a blue jersey and took our position on the ice.

He called out the names for the white team who we’d practice against, and he placed the puck in the middle of the ice in front of Alberts, our center and Gates, the white team’s center. We’d be playing ten minutes to see which team fared better and then we’d wait as the others played and he’d mix the teams up again.

“See this game like you would the State Championship game, this will determine if you get a seat on my team or not, play your hearts out and play clean,” he said and blew his whistle.

Alberts won the face-off, and I was right behind him as he passed the puck to me. I skated with ease through the defenders and scored our first goal easily. After ten minutes we were leading five to one and we headed to the bench as a team.

“James Alberts,” the center introduced himself.

“Kage Hawthorne,” I said.

“Where’ve you been hiding?” he asked me with a smile.

“I just moved here,” I said.

“Ah, Hawthorne, yeah, I heard about you guys, five brothers, right?” he asked me.

“Yep.”

We watched the rest of the games with interest, and I knew without a doubt that Alberts would be the team center, he was good, and I already knew that Mills would be the goalie. I was pretty sure that I’d make the team as well. I was feeling very positive as we played three more games in mixed up teams.

“This was great, guys, I’ll have the teams posted soon, keep an eye on the board, official practice starts on Thursday, don’t be late,” Coach said as he dismissed us for the day.

The next few days went by swiftly and Josh took every opportunity he got to either bump me with his shoulder in the hallways or glare at me in the classes we shared. I saw a few of the hockey players in the halls and we just nodded at each other.

On Wednesday during lunch, I was on my way to our table when Josh came from the side and slapped my tray of food out of my hands and pushed me. He had this grin on his face that I just wanted to wipe off with my fists, but I knew that I couldn’t throw the first punch.

“Josh Brown!” The voice said loudly from behind me. I turned around slowly and saw the guys from hockey tryouts I’d marked would make the team.

“Back off, Alberts, this has nothing to do with you,” Josh said.

“You touch my right wing, you touch the team, you know how this works,” James said as my head snapped towards his.

“I made the team?” I asked with a look of disbelief on my face.

“Welcome to the Blue Jays Hockey Team,” he said with a smile and handed me a jacket with the number thirteen and my surname on it.

“He plays hockey?” Josh asked him.

“Yeah, and he’s under my protection now, his brothers too. Touch any of the Hawthorne’s and we can go for round two in the parking lot,” James said and grinned. “I heard it went quite well for you the first time around.”

“Whatever, you’re not untouchable, Alberts,” Josh said with a glare.

“You football jocks are all the same, all bark and no bite,” Jeff Mills said, the team goalie.

“See you at practice tomorrow,” James said with a fist bump, and they all left the cafeteria.

Josh had walked back to his table still glaring at us as I joined my brothers as they slammed their fists on the table and chanted my name. Madison was laughing and she looked at me with a smile that I returned.

“Congratulations, Kage, now I owe you a cheer,” she said.

Everything seemed to transform then. People greeted us in the hallways and the rumors had settled down a lot since I joined the hockey team. On game days we’d wear our jackets to school and the spirit of winning affected me greatly.

We still kept mostly to ourselves but now people came up to our lunch table to wish me luck for a game or to tell me how well I had played the previous weekend. The same thing happened to my brothers in their respective circles as well.

Suddenly we were semi-popular, and girls started talking to us, pulling Madison away and asking her questions about us. She would complain about all the attention as Castiel laughed at her saying that she loved being a part of the Hawthorne group.

“You really think you guys are all that?” She asked Castiel. He lifted his chin and smirked as she laughed at him and swatted him away.

“Even if we aren’t, Kage is,” Endri said with a gleam in his eyes.

“Don’t let all the attention go to your head,” she said to me with a grin on her face.

“Wait until we win our first real game,” I said as she laughed and hooked her arm into mine. Sloan just smiled at me as they all laughed.

We’d won all our practice games and warm up matches and I felt good. It was going to be a great hockey season.