Page 4 of Trick Play

A few of the guys bumped into me as they passed, making comments about me being in trouble and telling me whatever I did better be worth the punishment. The usual treatment for getting called out by Coach. I was used to it, but this was the first time I had no idea why he wanted to talk to me. I hadn’t broken any rules, recently at least. No parties or scandals that I could recall.

Maybe I wasn’t actually in trouble. Good news for a change? Wouldn’t that be nice?

Coach nodded toward his office when I stepped off the ice, not even giving me a chance to change or shower. Was this time-sensitive information, or was I in that deep?

Before I stepped into his office, I glanced back to the locker room. Benjamin, Hunter, and Reid stood in the doorway, watching me. I couldn’t deal with the concern and questions on their faces. I didn’t have answers, so I turned around and took a seat in front of Coach’s desk.

He shut the door behind him before moving to his chair. He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his desk with his fingers steepled.

We stared at each other. Was he waiting for me to speak? Admit something? Magically know why I was there?

He titled his head. “I received a message from your counselor.”

Well. That wasn’t what I expected.

“You’re toeing the line, Ethan. You’re a tenth of a point from being on academic probation.”

I rubbed at my jaw, then the back of my neck as my knee bounced to an unknown rhythm. “Okay.”

He continued to stare. “Okay? That’s all you have to say?”

I should have gone into the locker room and grabbed my phone before this. He wouldn’t have liked me not following his instructions, but then I would have it with me. Haley got a textured sticker for me that I put on the back of the case, and it usually worked really well at distracting my mind enough for me to focus. Right now all I had was the ripple of my pads on my thighs which wasn’t as effective.

“I’m not sure what to say, Coach. I meet with my tutor every single day. I spend every free hour I have in the library. It’s to the point where my sister and some of the guys are suspicious I’m up to something because I’m never around.”

Reid accused me of having a secret affair, as if I had time for a relationship.

“What else can I do?”

He rested his lips against his fingers while considering. “I know you’re putting in the work. I think most of your professors do too, but it’s—”

“Not enough,” I finished.

He didn’t disagree.

I shoved a hand through my hair. This wasn’t fair.

“If school was graded based on effort, you would have a perfect GPA, but unfortunately that's not how it works.”

Which was absolutely ridiculous. It wasn’t fair to the students like me who didn’t learn or read or work the way neurotypical people did. Having dyslexia and ADHD made nearly everything at school more challenging for me. The university made some accommodations, but it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough. My very best was barely passing.

“What else can I do?” This was a conversion we’d had several times over the past three years. He reminded me how close I was to losing my spot on the team, I asked for help and advice, and things got better for a few weeks before we were back to where we started.

“She told me there was an elective course you could take that fits within your History major, and it’s known to be an easy A. If you can do that, it would lift your average enough to keep you in the clear for the rest of the year.”

“I finished all my electives last year.” That was also why it was so much harder to keep my GPA up this semester. My classes were all higher-level, major-specific courses.

“She said you can take this class, and she would switch it out for a different requirement.”

“She can do that?”

He nodded.

“Then why hasn’t it been an option before?”

“The situation hasn’t ever been this”—he cleared his throat— “dire.”

I leaned back with a sigh. Things were really bad. “I’m not sure I can handle another class right now. Obviously, I’m barely managing the ones I already have.”