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“Oh, no, we can do better than that, Woody. I think it’s safe to assume everyone likes hockey because you’re all in this room and you’re all on the hockey team.”
“Yeah, Captain Obvious,” Tim Coffey cracks.
Woodrow rolls his eyes. “Fine. I also like baseball. I pitch for Briar in the spring.” He glances at the pastel robots for confirmation that he passed their test.
“Excellent,” Sheldon says. “To the rest of you—that will be the only sports answer allowed.”
“Oh, fuck you, Woody,” Trager mutters. “Way to hog the one sports answer.”
“Let’s try to expand our horizons,” Sheldon advises. “Dig a little deeper.”
“All right, Woody,” Nance chirps. “Bean that bag.”
She should be arrested for that phrase.
Woodrow throws the beanbag to Austin Pope.
“I’m Austin.” The freshman mulls for a second. “I like video games, I guess.” He pitches it to Patrick Armstrong.
“Yeah. I’m Patrick, a.k.a. the Kansas Kid. I like dogs.” He tosses the bag to Shane.
“Shane Lindley. I like golf, and I don’t care that you said we can’t pick sports. Because I like to play golf.” He throws it to Beckett.
“Beckett Dunne. I like sex.”
There’s a wave of muffled laughter.
For some reason, his answer has the opposite effect on me. Suddenly I’m hit with the memory of Beckett’s tongue in Gigi’s mouth, and it brings a tight clench to my chest.
I’m not jealous, damn it.
I don’t get jealous. Jealousy implies I care about something enough to covet it for myself, and caring is not in my wheelhouse.
“We are going to assume that as red-blooded American hockey players, you all enjoy sex,” Sheldon says graciously. “Pick something else.”
Beckett purses his lips. “All right. I’m into time travel.”
Nance claps her hands. “Well, that’s interesting! I’d love to hear more. Wouldn’t everyone love to hear more?”
Will Larsen glances at Beckett, curious. “Like, talking about it? Theorizing?”
“Everything. Discussing it, digging into the theories, watching movies. Both fiction and documentary—”
“There are no documentaries about time travel because it’s not real,” Shane grumbles in exasperation. “How many times do we have to go over this?”
“Anyway,” Beckett says, ignoring Shane. “That’s what I like. Time travel.”
He sends the beanbag sailing toward Will.
“Will Larsen. I would say time travel because I’m also into it. But maybe, like, sci-fi movies?” He throws the bag to Case.
“Case Colson,” our cocaptain says. “I like camping.”
I already know the beanbag is coming to me next. Colson even puts a little force behind it, so that it smacks into my palm.
“Luke Ryder,” I mutter. “I like history documentaries. Like, about World War Two and shit.”
“Psycho,” Trager says.
I roll my eyes at him.
And on and on it goes, the torture, until everyone has stated their name and some stupid nonsense they like. Then Nance claps her hands and declares, “That was fantastic!”
Sheldon nods in fervent agreement. “Our next exercise is called…”
“Somebody kill me now,” Trager finishes, and that gets a few laughs.
But a few laughs ain’t going to cut it. I honestly don’t know if this team is ever going to gel. How can it when one of its cocaptains is showing up at the other captain’s house and dragging his ex-girlfriend out for daring to socialize with us? We’re still the enemy to Colson, and I suspect we always will be.
So I probably shouldn’t mention that I’m seeing his ex again tomorrow night.
HOCKEY KINGS TRANSCRIPT
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 09/23
© THE SPORTS BROADCAST NETWORK
GARRETT GRAHAM: MOVING AWAY FROM THE PROS. OUR producer, Zara, compiled some really cool facts about this upcoming college men’s season. Turns out there are ten rosters this year that feature eight or more freshman players. The honor of having the largest freshman class goes to St. Anthony’s, but Minnesota State is a close second. It should be interesting, watching all those rookies hit the ice when the season officially starts.
JAKE CONNELLY: And the D1 programs have over one hundred and eighty NHL draft picks this year. That’s incredible.
GRAHAM: But before we take a deeper dive into this—a quick word from our new sponsor, TRN. Check out TRN’s brand-new fall lineup, including The Blessing, a dating show where the dads call the shots. That’s something Jake and I can get behind, right, Connelly?
CONNELLY: Damn right, G.
GRAHAM: Make sure to check out TRN for all your reality show needs. TRN. All real. All life. All the time.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
GIGI
Beckett gets around
WE’RE ONLY A COUPLE OF WEEKS INTO THE SEMESTER, AND MY schoolwork is already piling up, so it’s hard to keep up the after-hours schedule. On Tuesday Ryder and I are able to book private ice time in Munsen at six o’clock while the rink is still open to the public.
And he’s insufferable from the moment we step onto the ice. I’d like to say he’s just being himself, but there seems to be a lot more trash talk than usual. Hockeywise, he’s giving me exactly what I asked for. Muscling me around, forcing me to step up my game. But the combination of his incessant taunting and having him in my personal space eventually causes me to snap.
