Pucking Fantastic

Chapter 2: Rink Leader

Hiya! Keep your eyes out for the <>!

I laughed at something my friend Quinn said during our lunch break at school that same day. "You are so right, Quinn," I said to her as I picked at my salad, trying to work up the motivation to force it down my throat. Ever since I started on this new training diet, I lost my appetite, although I was sure it was because I was eating salads with chicken breasts all the time and it bored me.

Suddenly, the table grew quiet causing me to look up from my protein-packed leafy greens and frowned at the sandy blond kid in front of me. "What Garret?" I asked the boy, knowing that this wouldn't be a pleasant conversation.

He looked uncomfortable as he rubbed his shoe into the ground. For someone so confident in front of everyone else, he was always was so awkward talking to me. It put a smile on my face to know that I scared him or at least knocked his confidence down a level. "Hi El," he said with a small smile.

I shook my head at him, not willing to put up with the pleasantries. He never came to me unless he needed something, so I wanted him to spit it out before he wasted any more time. "Hi Garret. Now what do you want?" I asked as I put my plastic fork on my plate.

He sighed as he chewed his cheek, looking as awkward as can be. He didn't want to come here, someone must have put him up to it, probably lost a bet. That was how his entire hockey team did everything, betting. It was about time it bit him in the butt. "Can you tell the figure skaters to patch up their potholes they make in the ice after they're done?"

I put my elbows on the table, leaning closer to him with a smile playing on my face as I looked at his tan face. Finally, something I could use as leverage. I looked at the group of people that sat around me as they all waited to see what I would do next. We were all figure skaters at the same rink and they wanted the same things I did, for the ice to be cleaned up by the hockey players. "That depends, will your mutt crew clean up your C cuts you make on the ice?"

He took a step back as shook his head as if I asked him to move a mountain. His face showed this conversation disappointed him. "It's not that easy. We do that for practice and we have no time to clean them up."

I leaned back in my chair as he lost my interest. This is where we had an impasse. "Then no. My crew isn't doing anything until you shape your team up."

I watched as his face grew red, either from embarrassment or anger. Maybe it was a mixture of the two. He opened his mouth, then quickly shut it. Good thing too, he probably should be quiet before he dug himself into a pit. He didn't want to make an enemy out of me, or anyone at the table. Without another word, he turned on his heels and walked away.

Our table remained silent until he was back at his table of hockey friends, which was across the cafeteria. Finally, my group around me broke out in laughter. "I do not know how you do that, El!" Quinn said with a smile. "Few people can stand up to Garret's charm."

I nodded with a smile. I knew they couldn't. That was why the figure skaters at the rink made me their ring leader. I didn't vote for this position but I fell into the position perfectly, as if I always belonged there. I was queen of the ice skaters and I would stay there forever. "That is why I am the spokesperson."

I would call the eight people around me friends, on top of skating together almost daily, we ate and had many classes with each other at school. I wouldn't call myself popular at school, but at the rink, I was. Everyone knew me and if they weren't friends with me, they wanted to be. After all, I was the best skater at the rink since I was the only one that qualified for senior ladies' sectionals last year and this year.

I liked all the people at the rink, but my best friend sat right next to me, Cami. She was the only person I trusted with my life and she thought the same about me. I turned to face her and watched as she took out her phone with a frown as if she read terrible news. "I have to go," she said as she stood up her the bench.