Jules: Getting Starbucks.Want anything?
Jules: ordering in one minute
Jules: I got you a Caramel Macchiato because why sleep.On my way there.
“I wonder what Hudson McClain is doing here,” Suki says softly.
I don’t know who that is, but I’m grateful for the change of subject.If word gets back to Magnus that I made a spreadsheet and he’s on it, I won’t be able to face him.
Hopefully, Suki, Mara, and Jules will forget he even came up.
4
Magnus
Game days bring out the quirky rituals in all of us.For Isaac, it’s fart yoga and two Snickers bars eaten an hour before we hit the ice.Carter doesn’t like to talk on game days—he gets introspective.Silas does tai chi in the weight room and then sits in a corner with a hoodie over his eyes, visualizing his performance.
I’m not superstitious.Some guys don’t wash their socks or shave when they’re on a hot streak.There are things I always do on game days, but I wouldn’t call them superstitions.
Before I put on any gear today, I pinned two small, overlapping squares of cloth to my compression shirt.One is from a shirt my dad used to wear all the time.The other is from one of my sister Elin’s worn-out cloth headbands.
Those little pieces of fabric have been with me during every game for the past eleven years.They were there when I played my first pro game in the US, in Tampa.Still there when my shoulder was broken during a game in Boston.I had them pinned beneath my hospital gown when I was recovering, and in my pocket during every grueling rehab session in Minneapolis.
Sometimes Minneapolis feels like a fever dream.I was able to pay for intensive rehab with physical therapists, sports trainers, and a former college coach.Being out of the game for so long as I recovered was tough.I didn’t just have to rebuild strength and mobility in my shoulder, but in my entire body.
Someone turns on country music in the locker room, and I immediately put my headphones on.My pregame playlists all have Metallica, Eminem, and Rammstein.Music helps me get into a good headspace before games.
Our trainer Melina approaches me and I move my headphones aside so I can hear her.
“Hey, you ready?”she asks.
She never forgets.No matter how hard you rehab and how well you heal, anytime you’ve broken bones, they’re more prone to break again in the same places.Melina works on my shoulder before and after every game.
I get up and follow her into the training room, where I lie down on the training table on my stomach and she puts a moist heating pad on my shoulder.
“It’s feeling okay?”she asks.
“Yeah, it’s good.”
Isaac’s on the other side of the room with Talia, getting his quads massaged.
“You in your hat-trick zone?”he asks me.
“Hope so.”
“That was epic, Magnus,” Talia says.“Did you see the social media post from the woman who said she’d crawl naked over shards of ice for one night with you?”
“No.”
“How would he see it?”Isaac says.“Gramps has a flip phone and no social media.”
“I can’t imagine a life without doomscrolling,” Talia says.
Melina hums her agreement.“Social media makes me feel smarter than average every day.It’s like a bad relationship I keep going back to.”
“You ever think about getting a smartphone?”Isaac asks me.
“Not really.”
