Page 8 of Rookie Rules

"The puck went in."

The room quieted without anyone asking it to.

Luca's posture stayed loose. One hand rested on top of his stick. He looked neither apologetic nor openly disrespectful. He looked ready.

Rowan felt the shot again in exact pieces: outside weight, inside pull, release through the defender. Not luck. Not a mistake rescued by a weak goalie. An answer almost nobody else on the roster could have created.

That was not the point.

It was too close to the point.

"If you want to play alone," Rowan said, "there are sports for that."

Silence held for one beat.

Luca glanced toward the net. "Do they have goalies?"

Jace coughed into his glove. Finn's head dropped.

Rowan did not give Luca the laugh he was hunting.

"Again," he said. "This time run the drill."

Luca's grin held, but some of the shine thinned. His gaze stayed on Rowan for another second before he pushed away.

"Your ice, Captain."

It should not have sounded like a challenge.

Rowan returned to the line.

Vale said nothing. He did not need to. He reset the pucks with one sweep of his stick and sent the next group. Practice moved because Rowan had told it to move and Vale had allowed that authority to stand.

That should have settled the matter.

It did not.

Rowan watched the next two reps, corrected Eli's gap with a tap to the outside lane, told Jace to stop crossing before the center had possession. The familiar order of cause and correction returned.

Then Luca's group came up again.

This time Mateo shaded the right side earlier. Eli held the middle. The breakout moved through the center and out to Luca at the line.

The same picture formed with smaller spaces.

Luca could have forced the middle again. Rowan saw him consider it. His top hand shifted. His inside edge bit.

Then he moved the puck to the center.

Not a surrender. The pass came hard and flat, arriving early enough to pull Mateo another stride inside. The center touched it across. The weak-side winger shot before Eli could recover.

Benji caught it against his chest.

No goal.

Better play.

Luca coasted through the end of the rep and looked toward Rowan again.