Coach Loving put a lot of trust in me in my senior year. She made me do all of the talking in between periods. She made me work ten times as hard as the rest of the girls and made me stay late after practice to run suicides on skates. She was basically killing me. I was exhausted and almost failed one of my classes. I confronted Coach and she agreed she would take some of the work off of me but not all of it. One night she asked me to come an hour before the rest of the girls came to our game. I agreed and when I got there I saw Coach Loving on her skates in the locker room.

     "Why did you call me here, Coach?" I asked putting my skates on.

     "I need you to know something. Tonight at our game we are having a Dallas Stars' coach watching. He has his eye on you," She said. She was going to continue when I cut her off.

     "Why me? I'm a girl," I said confused.

     "The NHL has let him choose a girl for his team. He asked around and heard about you. He's been to quite a few of your games already and tonight he'll make his decision. We need to win tonight to make it to the playoffs. You know this of course. I need you to play as hard as you can. This is why I've been working you so hard. You need to do your best. Sky, this could be your chance at a professional career. Take it," She said looking at me with a serious face.

     "Ok, why did you call me here this early?" I asked.

     "I brought Samantha here, too. Take as long as you need to warmup. We'll call you in when the other girls start arriving," She said. I nodded and finished suiting up. I slid out to see Samantha stretching.

     "I heard about your possible future career. Let's do this," Samantha said smiling. The two of us skated a few laps and then she went to the net. I took a puck and threw it on the ice. I spent like half an hour shooting and forcing myself to skate suicides. That's when Coach called us back since girls would be arriving soon. I went off and sat down on the bench. Coach walked over to me.

     "Don't tell anyone that the coach is here. They will feel stressed and we might lose," Coach Loving said quietly. I nodded. She smiled and walked back to her assistant coaches. I sighed and wiped my sweat off when I saw Ally come over and sit by me.

     "Did Coach overwork you before we got here?" She asked. I just nodded. She smiled at me and we waited. Eventually we went out to warmup. Samantha was still tired as well, so we were both kinda tired. When we had two minutes left we huddled.

     "Ok, if we win tonight, we're in the playoffs. If we lose, we're out of the playoffs. I love you girls and you know I hate bragging about myself, but I need to stay with y'all as long as possible and you guys need me. I love you girls so much. Let's do this!" I yelled. The girls cheered and I smiled. We had a bit of time to take a few more shots, so we did. We went back to the locker room for a bit before we had to go back out. When we skated back out I subtly scanned the crowd. I saw Coach Montgomery from the Dallas Stars. I smiled as I skated to my position. Ally won the face-off and passed to me. I flew down the ice ahead of everyone. I took a shot on the goalie and it went in. I hugged my teammates. We went for another face-off. Ally barely missed it. I slid back a bit as a forward flew towards me. I skated in and stole the puck. Ally kept up with me and I passed to her. She shot and the goalie barely caught the puck. Ally did another face-off. She won and passed to me. I took a shot and made it in. Boom! Hat trick watch!

     "You go, girl," Ally said skating up to me. I smiled and we went off the ice. Coach walked up to me and patted my back.

     "You're doing great. Keep up the good work and you'll have a shot at this," She said into my ear. I nodded and kept my focus on the game. One of our smaller girls got hit by a defensemen and didn't get up. The ref blew the whistle and some of our assistant coaches ran over to her. She was holding her arm. All of the girls were standing up trying to see threw the refs and medics. Coach Loving came up behind me and told me to go on for her. I got up and skated over to her. She looked up at me with tears in her eyes. I got down on my knee beside her.

     "Do you think you broke it?" I asked her with my hand on her shoulder. She nodded and I put my arm around her. I helped her go back to the bench.

     "I hope your ok," I said to her as she went onto the bench. She nodded a thankful nod. The stadium was now quiet. I looked at my current lineup, all sophomores. I shook my head. The sophomore this year weren't great. Our best sophomore just broke her arm. I sighed and waited for the face-off. Our sophomore center won and passed to me. I flew down the ice quicker than everyone once again. The goalie had literally just finished drinking some water when I started flying at her. She immediately got ready to take my shot. I shot and it went just in between her legs. Hat trick, baby! I went and celebrated with my lineup. Then I went to the bench and got off. Coach Loving bent down.

     "You're so in," She said into my ear. I smiled.

     By the end of the game we won in overtime 4-3. We were in the playoffs. We celebrated like we just won the Stanley Cup again. I knew though that now I had a chance at actually winning the Stanley Cup. After we celebrated I went out to my family I saw my best guy friend, Ty, and hugged him. He picked me up off the ground. I smiled as he set me down.

     "Congrats! You're in the playoffs!" He said yelled.

     "I know. I'm so excited," I said with a huge smile. My mom hugged me from the back. I smiled and turned around to hug her. She smiled at me.

     "I'm so proud of you!" I smiled and looked to see my now twelve-year-old sister, Lily, and my now eight-year-old brother, Jake. My father always promised he would come to my important games, but I knew he hated hockey. I sighed.

     "What's wrong?" She asked looking concerned.

     "Dad just promised he'd come to my important games," I said shaking my head. 

     "I know he did. He said he was too tired to come tonight," She said. I knew he wouldn't come but I always hoped he would.

     "It's just he-" I stopped myself. It was normal for him not to come. 

     "Let's go home to celebrate," She said changing the subject. I nodded. Lily came home with me. In the car I started talking to her.

     "Did you know there was a Dallas Stars' coach watching?" I asked smiling.

     "No, why was he there?!" She asked looking over at me.

     "Apparently he's had his eye on me for a while and he was making his decision tonight," I replied.

     "I hope you get on the team," She said excited.

     "Thanks," I said smiling. We got home and went inside. Just as I was about to tell the rest of them the good news I got a call from a random number from Dallas. I decided to take it. I walked into the other room.

     "Hello, is this Skyler Smith?" A male voice asked.

     "That's me, and you are?" I asked.

     "I'm Coach Montgomery from the Dallas Stars. I have been blessed with the opportunity to have a female on our team. I wanted a girl from Texas so I asked around. All I heard was Skyler Smith. I've been watching you for a while and I have not been disappointed by your skills. You are incredible and I was wondering if we could meet with you and your parents tomorrow for lunch?" Coach Montgomery asked.

     "Yes, that would work," I said smiling.

     "Perfect, since you're from here, where is a casual place we could meet for lunch?" He asked.

     "There is a place in Bulverde called 'The Branch' which might work," I replied.

     "Ok, send me the address of the place. I will see you there at 11:30," He said.

     "Sounds great, see you then," I said as he hung up. I exploded. I was so excited. I ran downstairs and told them the news. My mom immediately agreed to coming. We were barely able to convince my dad to come. I was going to possibly be an NHL player!