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I had to hold back a smile as he began to skate toward the other side of the rink. It would take a miracle to transform that mess into the best player on the Rock Valley High hockey team. Still, it was always endearing to see Joe’s enthusiasm. Whether it was challenging me to the hundredth round of Mortal Kombat, or seeing him try to hit on one of the freshmen girls hanging around the club, it was entertaining.
“So...uh...G-man?” I turned toward Gabriel, unable to help myself to his new nickname. Anything to prod him a little in the side.
He winced and dragged a hand over his damp hair. “I keep hoping he’ll stop that.”
“Oh believe me, he’ll never stop.” I glanced over at Joe wobbling on the ice and laughed. “The guy has no filter. No off button. No social skills. And apparently, no athletic talent. But he’s a good kid.”
Gabriel nodded solemnly, his eyes trained on Joe. “Yeah, true.”
“So don’t be too hard on him, okay?” I waited until his gaze darted back to mine before continuing. “If you’re planning on hazing him or something, please don’t. Joe gets enough crap at school. He doesn’t need the hockey team piling on.”
The little lines around his mouth tightened as he stared back at me with an intensity that made me want to shrink a little. Still, I kept my spine straight. As much as Joe annoyed me at times, he was still my little bud. And the only boy at Rock Valley who would still game with me. If Gabriel and his brother were planning on picking on him, I’d be in his corner.
“He just needs somebody to give him a few tips,” Gabriel said, finally breaking the intense silence. He sucked in his cheeks and then exhaled loudly. “That’s all I’m doing.”
I narrowed my eyes slightly, a look my mother often did when she thought me or my sister were lying. It seemed to have the same effective on teenage boys, because he huffed and rolled his eyes.
“I swear, that’s all it is.”
Disbelief morphed into slight shock as I watched Gabriel plop himself on the bottom bleacher, wearing a sour expression. He seemed genuine, like he really was going to help Joe.
Someone could’ve knocked me over with a feather.
I’d never heard of the Corrigan boys doing anything nice—for anyone. Not that I hung around them often. I tried to keep a wide radius between me and either one of them. Usually, it was tales of Michael’s escapades that reached my ears. Just last week, he’d given one of the sophomore kids a dip in the toilet of the locker rooms, head first. It was stuff like that that I’d come to expect. Helping Joe Brewer out on the ice? Never.
“We should get back to the project,” I said, not feeling as brave as I did a few minutes ago. The guilt was back, pressing in on my stomach. Lying and catfishing weren’t the kinds of things I usually did. But I’d thought it would be easy with Gabriel. After all, he had it coming. This little interaction had me questioning everything.
“Yeah.” He swallowed and stared hard at the ice, refusing to meet my gaze.
Picking up my notebook, I sat silently next to him on the bleachers, leaving a couple of feet between us for safety. His pads made a lot of noise every time he shifted his body weight, but I kept my attention glued to the college-ruled paper in front of me. I’d run out of ideas.
“What about...” He shifted again and looked over at me, hesitation in his eyes. “What about this?”
He swung his arms wide and nodded toward the ice.
“What?” I stared dumbly at Joe falling on his rear on the other side of the rink. I’d hate to think of what that was doing to his skeleton and muscular system. We could probably write a book on Joe’s clumsiness and how bad it was for his anatomy.
“Hockey.” Gabriel beat his fist on his chest twice with a proud smile. “We could record some video at the game this weekend. Do a report on what we see.”
“Um...”
My breath hitched in my lungs with uncertainty. I knew pretty much nothing about hockey, other than it was colder than Antartica in here. Gabriel would definitely have the advantage here. Was that fair?
I opened my mouth to speak, but shut it quickly. My first instinct was to fight him off. Go back to one of my earlier suggestions. But seeing the pride on Gabriel’s face kind of put a damper on that. Maybe I owed him this, even if he didn’t know it. I could concede this one battle. In a couple weeks, he’d still hate me, but at least this wouldn’t add to the flames.
I could be the bigger person.
“Sure, why not?” I shrugged and closed my notebook. “I can get on board with hockey. And my dad has some camera equipment in his research lab I can borrow to film the game.”
Gabriel nodded, a hint of what almost looked like a smile on his lips. “Perfect.”
Oddly enough, he didn’t look half as intimidating now.
“Sounds like we have our project.” I dared to smile back at him, the charitable feeling in my heart washing away the remaining guilt from lying to him. Being the bigger person felt nice. “This’ll be good. Maybe, at the same time, you can teach me what all the excitement is about pushing a rubber disc down the ice. Because honestly, I just don’t get it.”
“Maybe I will.” His eyes twinkled with humor as he glanced down at his hands and then back at me. “Miracles do happen.”
I found myself frozen, unable to look away from the softness in the slight upward curve of his lips. It was so unlike his brother and so foreign on that face that it was like finding a Shotgun Hammer in Call of Duty. It almost felt like we were bonding, in a weird sort of way.
