Chapter 2

       Today was our school Edgewater Secondary's ice hockey team's very first game of the season and I was very excited to watch it. Being the last year of high school, it was a very important year for Justin and my twin brother Dalton. Both of them had such important positions on the team this year and I couldn't wait to support them.

       While I was at my locker getting my supplies for my first period class, someone suddenly said from behind me, "Hey, Lark."

       And of course, it made me jump a bit since I was easily scared.

       I turned around to look at Justin, giving him a glare and punching his arm. "I told you to stop scaring me like that," I said. "You could give me a heart attack."

       "Sorry, but it's cute when you get scared," Justin said with a smile. "Anyway, I need a favour from you."

       "What is it?" I asked.

       Justin held up his hockey team's purple and yellow varsity jacket, which caused me to turn my glare into a smile. Every time Justin had a hockey game, I wore his varsity jacket during school. It started out when I got cold one day and I was too lazy to go to my locker to get my jacket, so Justin let me borrow his varsity jacket. He ended up doing extremely well at that hockey game, so it ended up being his sort of pregame ritual.

       He wasn't really a superstitious person but that was one tradition he couldn't break, and I definitely didn't mind.

       Justin helped me put on the jacket and once it was on, I smiled up at him. "You are going to do great at the game today," I said.

       "So long as my good luck charm is there," Justin said.

       "Well, as much as I'd like to take credit, you and I both know you'll do amazing either way," I said. "You are one of the strongest players on the team."

       "I'm not going to deny that," Justin said. "And please, keep boosting my ego. I definitely need it."

       I rolled my eyes and grabbed my English notebook out of my locker before closing the door right as the first bell rang. "Oh, would you look at that. I can't boost your ego anymore because I have to head to class."

       "Uh, we do have first period together and your kind of my tutor in that class," Justin said. "So sounds like you can keep boosting my ego."

        "Yeah, not happening," I said. 

        "Oh, well, it was worth a shot," Justin said. "Now off to my absolute favourite class. Can't wait."

       Justin wasn't really fond of English class; it was one of the few things that made us different. It was one of my favourite classes and it was definitely Justin's least favourite class. Not because he didn't enjoy reading or writing. It was mainly because English wasn't his first language and he learned it not too long ago It wasn't even his second language. Needless to say, all the essays annoyed him.

       Which I understood completely. Even though English was one of my favourite classes, essays annoyed me too.

       Shortly after the tardy bell rang, the weekly announcements started. I wasn't fully paying attention to them until they said something about the newspaper club.

       "At three o'clock, there will be a mandatory meeting for all those in the newspaper club."

       Justin immediately looked at me with a worried frown. His hockey game started at three-fifteen and most of the time, meetings definitely weren't shorter than fifteen minutes.

       "Don't worry," I whispered to him. "I promised I would make it to the game. I wouldn't miss it for the world."

       If anything, I would just drop the club if Mr. Grimes, the teacher in charge, wouldn't let me miss the mandatory meeting. I was not missing the hockey game.

       The school day couldn't have gone any slower for once. Normally, it went by sort of fast, but not today. Even the classes I enjoyed went by very slow. And it didn't help that both Justin and Dalton had to leave last period early, so I felt very lonely.

       When school finally ended, I immediately went to the classroom where the newspaper club meetings took place. Thankfully, Mr. Grimes was already there so I knocked on the door. "Ah, Lark," he said when he saw me. "Just the student I wanted to see." He took one of the cameras out of the equipment drawer before walking over to me. "I already know why you're here so I am giving you your assignment for the school's paper. I want you to cover the hockey team's first game."

       "How did you know I was going to ask if I can skip the meeting so I can attend the game?" I asked.

       "Well, for starters, your brother is the captain so I assumed you would want to go," he said. "And you're wearing one of the team member's varsity jacket. Anyway, like I said, your assignment is to cover the first game of the season. Take pictures and pay close attention to the game. Make note of the players that do extremely well."

       "Will do," I said.

       I placed the camera carefully in my backpack before heading towards the exit of the school. On the way there, I ended up almost bumping into Nia and she didn't look happy to see me. "I thought I told you to stay away from that guy," she said.

       "Yes, you did," I said. "But two things. One, this isn't some petty high school drama so I'd rather not listen to you. And two, you do realize that guy, Justin, has a girlfriend, right? And they have been together for almost two years. And his girlfriend would rather not listen to the girl who stabbed her and her best friend in the back many times. I'll see you around though." I started walking off, but I turned around again to face her. "Oh, and welcome back to the school."

       I left the school and headed home, and unfortunately had to walk there. It wasn't too far to begin with, but I was normally feeling lazy by the end of the day but Dalton took the car when he had to leave early and he was my personal chaperone. He just didn't know it.

       Mainly because when he was starting to suspect I was only using him to drive me around, I would get Justin to drive me places.

       I got home at the perfect time because my family was getting ready to head out to the hockey game. They were all so excited to see not only Dalton's first hockey game of the season, but his first hockey game as the team captain.

       My four year old brother Miles was definitely the most excited to go to the hockey game. Since he and Dalton were the only boys of the family, their bond as brothers was as strong as they could be. Miles was always asking Dalton to play street hockey with him outside, so he was definitely going to enjoy seeing his older brother play on the ice.

       I had three other siblings; Skylar who was twelve, Kelsey who was nine, and Amia who was six. While they all weren't that into sports, they still loved hockey and really enjoyed going to Dalton and Justin's games.

        We all got to the ice rink and the first thing we did was meet up with Justin's family. They were actually our neighbours, which was one way Justin and I got to know each other extremely well. Shortly after the family moved in from Saskatchewan, my mom and his mom Manon became the best of friends.

       We were all able to get seats close to the ice, which was perfect since I had to now take pictures of the game. I took the camera out of my backpack and hooked the strap around my neck.

       "I really hope they do well today," Justin's sixteen year old sister Lenora said. "Their first game of the season is basically going to define them throughout the rest of the games. Remember last year when they didn't do as well as they hoped and Granite Lake High assumed that we were going to lose the championship."

       "Our hockey team didn't lose the first game, though," I said. 

       "Yes, but they were close to losing," Lenora said. "And they ended up losing the championship. I blame Justin for that."

       "Okay, it's not fair to blame Justin for the team losing," I said.

       "Sorry, I'm just used to blaming my brothers on everything," Lenora said.

       "Then why aren't you also blaming Tobias?" I asked.

       "Uh, because he wasn't on the team last year," Lenora said. "I'm surprised he even made it on the team this year. They don't normally allow ninth graders on the hockey team."

       "Well, he's almost as good as Justin is," I pointed out.

       "Fair enough," Lenora said.

       When the game was getting ready to start and the hockey teams were on the ice, Miles started getting excited and waving happily at Dalton. When Dalton noticed, he couldn't help but smile at wave back. Dalton was looking very excited to play.

       Justin, on the other hand, was looking very nervous. I really hoped he did good during the game.

       He looked over at all of us since his grandpa, Ezekiel, was trying very hard to get Justin's attention. Ezekiel smiled, giving Justin a thumbs up and saying, "Powodzenia!"

       Justin smiled his thanks before looking at me, and I gave him a thumbs up as well, which made him smile even brighter. I did promise him that I would make it to the game. Nothing could have stopped me.

       Justin seemed to have some of his confidence but he was still looking worried. I didn't worry about him though. I knew as soon as the game would start, the adrenaline would kick in and throw his nervousness away.

       And that was exactly what happened.

       The whole team was doing extremely well for the first game, and I was making sure to take a lot of pictures for the school newspaper. I just had to try and not only take pictures of Justin, no matter how much I wanted to.

       The other school, Heritage View High, was unfortunately doing just as well. Edgewater was leading when the first period ended, but Heritage View caught up and was even leading four to two when the second period ended.

       "Oh, he's chocking under the pressure," Lenora said while looking at Tobias, who was the goalie for the team. "I've seen him at practice. He hasn't done this bad before."

       "It is his first game," I said. "He'll get the hang of it."

       The game continued and thankfully, Tobias was able to not let anymore goals get passed him. Edgewater were able to catch up to Heritage View goal, tying the game with less than two minutes left.

       "It's official," Lenora said. "We lost. I'm blaming both Justin and Tobias."

       "The game isn't over yet," I said. "They've got this."

       I still had hope even when I was watching the clock go from two minutes to one minute, then to thirty seconds.

       Heritage had the puck and they did try scoring, but Tobias was able to block it and one of the defensemen on our team was able to get hold of the puck. He was about to pass it to Dalton, but Dalton made a subtle gesture to get him to pass it to Justin.

       He did and I found myself holding my breath as Justin took a shot on the goal.

       I released my breath when he scored.

       All the spectators from Edgewater cheered at the goal. Unless Heritage could score in less than seven seconds, that goal right there won us the game.

       And it did. Edgewater had won the very first game of the season. I had a feeling it was going to be a great season for them and maybe, they could win the championships this year.

       I really hoped they did since it was both Justin and Dalton's last year on the team.

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lol it's 2:30 am and i started this at 9pm. as you can see, i get distracted easily.

and here's a translation for you all: Powodzenia means Good luck in Polish.

aaaaaaand i should go to bed now ahahahahaha. but yay for justin and lark because i'm loving these two so much. <3 they're definitely going to make their way to the top of my ships. (they'll never reach number 1 though)(that's still being held by jerlan and it's been idk how long. two years maybe?)