Fire & Ice

ten

When I woke up the next morning I wasn't surprised to feel the ache in my shoulder. It's going to nagged me all game and on the long drive home. I powered through getting ready and got downstairs to the ballroom to eat some breakfast. As I was finishing up, our trainer Marissa came over to look at my shoulder. She helped me stretch it out and wrapped me up with some ice for now.

            It didn't take much longer before the rest of the team to file out of the hotel and onto the bus. With this game being at noon, we aren't getting to skate before the game. Today there will be a lot more stretching during warm ups. When I got onto the bus Becca made me sit in the aisle seat so she wouldn't accidentally hit my shoulder. The bus ride was quiet today as most of the team was still in the process of waking up.

            As we got off the bus in front of the arena some Ohio State players happened to be walking in at the same time. Just my luck one of them happened to be Tatiana.

            "How's the shoulder feeling?" She asked smugly.

            "Pretty fine after my goal and the win yesterday." I responded not in the mood for her shit today.

            The other Ohio State players had to pull Tatiana away from me as my team formed a wall around me and walked me into the locker room. I sat down in front of my locker and was about start peeling the wrap from my shoulder when a shadow cast over me. I looked up saw Marissa standing in front of me with Coach Decker. Neither of them said anything but pulled me into the training office.

            "I don't know if I should play you today." Coach said once the door was closed.

            "I need to play today." I said not even wanting to entertain the idea of siting out.

            "I don't think it's a good idea. Marissa told me your shoulder is bothering you and taking the day off will give you some time to rest it and let it heal up." Coach said.

            "If I didn't think I could play, I would tell you guys. I'm okay to play today. If it starts to get worse during the game I will tell you and you can bench me but right now I'm good." I said trying to push my point.

            Coach looked at Marissa and then at me again. He didn't say anything for a long while before he okayed me playing. Marissa gave me some more padding to add to my chest protector when I started to suit up to help if I take another hard hit. I'm just going to have to be more aware of what's going on around me today.

            Once all the padding was added I really had to hide the grimace that appeared on my face when I raised my arm up to put my jersey on. I'm happy Becca helped me into the jersey and she hid my face from our coaches who were still watching me like a hawk.

            "You sure you're okay to play today?" Becca asked quietly once the jersey was over my head.

            "I'll be fine, if I'm not I'll go to Marissa." I said.

            Becca seemed to believe me and let the conversation drop as we both finished getting ready. Just as I finished lacing up my skates I grabbed my eye black and smeared two lines over my cheeks and grabbed my helmet to go onto the ice. We got onto the ice as I started to skate around to stretch my legs out.

            After skating around for a few minutes I slid next to Toni and followed her in stretching out my limbs. A few other players came around and joined up for the warm up. As the count down to the game got closer to puck drop we broke apart and did a few shooting drills before warm up time was over.

            We got back into the locker room and the dull ache in my shoulder started to fade the more I focused on game time approaching. Megan and Toni had the music blasting and we all started to get focused. Coach Decker and Jackie ran through a few pointers on last minute things and before I knew it we were already walking down the tunnel to the ice again for the start of the game.