I pull off a goal by picking the puck up on the blade of my stick and throwing it like a sidearm lacrosse shot, and Delilah straight up lifts me off the ice while Kovy shouts, “Oh shit, he’s got the dangles!”
Delilah’s screeching in my face and spinning me in circles. I roll my eyes. “Put me down?” I say, and she does only to take me by the hands and keep spinning.
“Dangles?” Cauler hisses as he slides up next to Kovy. He gives me this scathing look with the faintest glint in his eye that gets my blood pumping. “More like betrayal. Might as well dump him at the lax house where he belongs.”
I dig my skates in to stop Delilah’s spinning and tilt my chin up at him. “You really expect to go Frozen Four without me?” I keep my voice low and even, fighting a smile.
Cauler steps closer, until we’re almost chest-to-chest, forcing me to look up at him. “You’re way too small to have such a big ego.”
I quirk an eyebrow at him, and Delilah lets go of me. “Okay, can I get at least ten feet away before you two do … whatever it is you’re doing?”
“This is called intimidation tactics, Delilah,” Cauler argues. “Get your mind out of the gutter; this is your brother we’re talking about.”
I laugh. Loud and uncharacteristically, enough to get a bunch of the boys to whip around and look at me.
“What are you doing to him, Caulfield?” Zero skates over with mock concern in his voice and puts a hand on my shoulder. “Is this boy hurting you, my poor grumpy child?”
“Yeah, I think I ruptured something.” I clutch my stomach, and Cauler’s watching me with this soft kind of look on his face. The kind of look I’ve seen Delilah and Jade give each other, or Bailey and Sid and Karim.
I choke on my next laugh and let Zero lead me away by the elbow before I can jump to any more ridiculous conclusions.
We don’t get far before Cauler calls out, “Hey, Terzo. We should practice our poses for draft day.” He holds up his pointer finger, the way a number one pick always poses in photos with the top three. Like he expects me to go ahead and hold up two.
I cock my head to the side. “You wanna try that one again?”
He stretches his arms, pulling them across his chest and shaking out his wrists like he has to limber up for it. He holds up his fist and slowly raises one finger. I lunge forward and grab his hand, trying to force it down. The entire game’s devolved into trick shots and hockey players pretending to be figure skaters at this point. Zero doesn’t even try to break up our shoving match. He watches until Cauler gets me into a headlock and skates away saying, “Children, all of you.”
I should be embarrassed, what with my arms flailing uselessly at Cauler’s side, bent over and trapped in the crook of his elbow. But he’s laughing, and I’m laughing, and honestly, both teams could vanish off the ice right now, leaving just the two of us, and I wouldn’t even notice.
* * *
NICOLETTE SENDS A link in the group chat in the middle of my Italian class. I don’t usually use my phone in class, but it’s just finals review, and Italian is probably gonna single-handedly keep me from flunking out next week, so it’s not like I really have to pay attention.
The link takes me to a video that I have to panic mute before it gets me in trouble. It’s Hugh and Alyssa in front of another graphic of me and Cauler, this time standing next to each other in our Royals gear during a break in play. He’s saying something with his head bent toward me and pointing down the ice, but I’m looking up at him.
I’ve got this bratty kind of look on my face that makes it seem like I want him to shut up, but it was probably just sweat in my eyes.
Plays perfectly into the Royals Rivalry Heats Up banner they’ve got on the bottom of the screen.
I glance up to make sure Professor Iacovella isn’t staring me down, but since she realized I’m nearly fluent and took this class for the easy A, she pretty much started ignoring me. I’m just lucky she didn’t get me kicked out and sent up a few levels.
I sink lower in my seat and hide my phone under the table anyway.
“Now, you’ve always been one of Mickey James III’s biggest critics, so I’m sure you have plenty to say about his turnaround this season,” Hugh’s saying in the captions.
“I do,” Alyssa says with a deep nod. “We’ve really seen him come out of his shell these past few months. You can tell he’s bonded with this team in a way he never has before.”