Where Life Takes Us

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

W A D E

I strapped my helmet back in place, as I recovered from a five-minute break. Hockey practice to some people was more likely a chore, but I genuinely loved being at the arena doing what I loved, even if it was tiring at times. The feeling of the freedom of being on your skates and just having fun doing something that you've always been good at; no other feeling beat that for me. I played hockey for as long as I could remember, and it's been more exciting for me than others would think.

Because our team's next tournament, the quarter-finals, was next week, it was up to us to try our best to be one of the four teams to play in the semi-finals of playoffs from hockey teams all across Minnesota. We all put tons of extra effort just for the hockey games and it was definitely tiring, but we had to strive and make it until the end of the tournament. Our entire team had practiced about four nights in one week almost every week, and I had to say that we were doing pretty well to make it to the semi-finals.

"Yo, Wade!" Tyson called out, skating off the ice and joining me on the bench. "Coach Miller wanted to talk to you."

I quickly nodded, grabbing my hockey stick and making my way onto the ice. It's funny because I learned how to skate when I was three years old and started to play hockey when I was four and a half years old, but it doesn't feel like it. My sisters know how to skate as well, mainly because I was the one who taught them just for amusement and because they pleaded for me to show them how to skate as good as I did.

Just like hockey, skating rapidly became second nature for me. I was a quick learner, and I soon grew to eventually enjoy it and for it to become second nature to me. My parents always tried their best to almost always try to cheer me on at countless hockey games with my sisters and occasionally our grandpa. Except, things had changed and it was now my grandpa and my siblings.

I could see him through my visor, so I skated towards Coach Miller, our hockey coach. Whenever we did great at a local hockey tournament, he would always take the team out for pizza and ice cream, in which our parents found amusing considering all the slices of pepperoni pizza we all ate during those times and it still continued even when we grew older. All of us were always joking during hockey practice, even about the most ridiculous situations at the time. We all grew up together and it's something I'll never forget.

Coach Miller was basically a second father figure to me and all my teammates were brothers to me. We've always been close to each other since most of the members of our team started to play hockey beginning from their younger years. He was taking down notes of my fellow hockey teammates practicing drills to warm up, while he occasionally nodded, clearly impressed with our progress. I started to skate with more speed towards Coach Miller, until I abruptly stopped in front of him, covering his shins all the way to his skates with a light coat of snow.

Coach Miller shook his head, chuckling. "Walden Bradley, the biggest show-off I know."

Coach Miller had always been really close with my family, especially since he was one of my father's best friends back in high school. "The one and only," I grinned, clearly joking. "You wanted to speak with me?"

"Yes, yes I did," he crossed his arms, continuing to observe the team on the ice, who were free-shooting pucks inside the net or doing some other drill. "So, I was thinking that you have made a lot of progress throughout this hockey season. I've decided to think about putting you to play your centre-forward position during the quarter final game for the first period."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise, but although I could feel a smile tugging up on my face, I wasn't believing what Coach Miller was telling me. "But I know I wouldn't be playing during the entire game though, so what would happen when we would have to change shifts in between?"