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It was safe to say that my resentment toward Gabriel had cooled since class. He hadn’t meant anything by his comment. He was just as worried about missing the tournament as me. It was too bad I couldn’t talk to him about it.
“So...”
My gaze darted around the science lab, looking for a possible topic to distract both of us from the growing pile of nauseating sludge in the trash between us. It landed on a giant Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey poster near Mr. Hart’s empty desk. That was his alma mater. He was a Gopher fanatic and constantly talked about their games in class. I’d remembered Battlescar13 telling me about taking a trip to visit the college this fall. Maybe that was a safe enough topic.
“Has Mr. Hart convinced you and Michael to go to Minnesota for school yet?” I asked, shooting Gabriel a quick glance. “He’s probably already got the coach calling you guys for try-outs.”
He nodded, a sullen expression pulling at his lips. “Yep. Michael’s already applied.”
“But not you?”
There was a slight sucking in of his cheeks before he answered. “No. Not yet.”
That was int
eresting. I’d always imagined the twins would be attached at the hip for the rest of their lives. It seemed that they always did everything together. Maybe that wasn’t what Gabriel wanted, though.
“Where would you go, if you could go anywhere?” I asked, pulling handfuls of glass rocks from the bottom of my tank and tossing them in a strainer to be cleaned.
He froze, the squeegee halfway down the glass wall of the tank. His brow wrinkled and he pursed his lips in thought. It was obvious there was an answer just sitting on his tongue. Whether or not he trusted me enough to spill was another question.
“Texas A&M,” he said quietly, almost as if he didn’t want me to hear. He went back to cleaning the glass, the squeegee moving smoothly over the surface.
I chuckled. That was not what I’d expected. “Wow, not a lot of ice in Texas.”
“Right.” He made eye contact with me for a second and then looked away. “Maybe there are more important things in life than ice.”
“Like what?” I leaned my elbow on the top of the tank and grinned at him. Now this, I had to hear. What in the world could be more important to a Corrigan twin than ice and hockey?
“Like a great engineering program.”
I blew out a puff of air. There was no making fun of that. Engineering was an awesome career path. One that I’d considered for myself, although it was one of a dozen I was still mulling over. My mom was pulling for a premed program and my dad was pushing me to check out a great microbiology program at University of Wisconsin-Madison. I wasn’t sure what I wanted yet, other than to get out of this small town. Texas was just far enough away from home that it also had a lot of appeal. I could see why Gabriel had his sights set on Texas A&M.
“That’s actually really cool,” I said, dumping the rest of my stones into the strainer. The red-bellied piranha that had previously occupied the tank swam circles in a bucket at my feet. “I’ve been considering Texas A&M myself.”
“Really?” He perked up slightly, his shoulders straightening. “I haven’t really told anyone yet. I keep thinking people will think it’s some kind of joke.”
“Well, I didn’t laugh.”
“Yeah.” He really looked at me then, his gaze taking in my face with an intensity that made my heart pump a little harder. “Thanks for that.”
“No problem.” I gulped, feeling slightly unnerved by the changing emotions in his eyes. “Um...what about Michael? What does he think?”
He blinked hard and then his face reddened. “Michael doesn’t know yet.”
“What? You gonna wait until move-in day to hit him with the bad news?” I joked.
We both carried our tanks over to the large sink and began to hose them out. These were the last two in a long line we’d cleaned since detention started. I was hoping Mr. Hart was nearly finished with us. He’d promised to pop in his head randomly whenever he could step away from hockey practice, but we’d spent the entire two hours alone scrubbing every tank in the place until it was shining.
“Not move-in day,” Gabriel said, spraying the inside of his tank with a hose. He bit his bottom lip and then looked up at me. “Maybe the day before?”
I threw my head back and laughed. That would be something to see—Michael going off to school himself. I wondered what he’d do without the other half of his muscle. He wasn’t going to be nearly as intimidating on the ice with just one of the Corrigan twins. Or off the ice.
“You really can’t stand up to him, can you?” I asked with a laugh, turning off the water and wiping a strand of wet hair out of my face.
I’d meant it as a joke. We’d been getting along so well, I hadn’t felt the need to prod him where it hurt. But when I glanced up at his face, I could see my jab had landed hard.
“You know, it’s not that easy,” he said, clouds forming in his eyes. His shoulders were thrown back and tense, as if he were readying himself for a fight. “Ever since we were kids, Michael’s always known what he wanted and went after it. It didn’t matter who he had to bulldoze over to get it, he found a way. I’m not like that. It takes me a long time to carefully think through my options. I don’t make a move until I’m certain it’s the one I want. It was always easier to just go along with him. At least, that’s how it always was...until now.”
