k a r r i s

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I sauntered confidently into the hockey arena with a smile plastered on my face. It was my first day as an official apprentice for the Willowridge hockey team and to say I was excited as heck would be an understatement. I was so thrilled that I literally could've bursted at the seams. My bra and panties even matched today so I knew I was going places. After learning the rules and receiving my ID and team jacket from Coach Benson, the two of us skated onto the center of the ice as the hockey team watched us from the benches.

Calum gave me a wink from the bottom front bench and I gave him a big smile. Ashton however, sat next to him with the biggest scowl painted on his face. He still intimidated me and knowing that he hated me and wanted me off the team made me feel nervous. However, as long as I had support from everyone else, there was nothing to worry about.

"Good afternoon everyone! Welcome to the start of hockey season!" Coach Benson whooped, causing a jubilant uproar from the team. The mean look on Ashton's face was actually wiped off for once and a smile replaced it instead. "To the old faces," he paused, giving a nod to Luke, "and to the new ones," Coach stopped again to acknowledge Calum, "welcome to the team!"

"Feels good to be back Coach!" Michael jeered happily from the top bleacher.

Coach gave him a thumbs up before continuing, "firstly, I'd like to introduce to you a new position on the team."

"Oo, I'm all about learning new positions," Luke snickered, wiggling his eyebrows. The rest of the team laughed at his ridiculous, sexual insinuation while I felt my cheeks feel hot.

"Hemmings! We just started the season and I'm already tired of your fuckery!" Coach yelled, causing everyone to howl in Luke's expense. "As I was saying, I'd like to introduce you to miss Karris Villanueva. She will be my apprentice and I will expect every single one of you," he glared at Ashton for a moment, "to treat her with respect. Treat her like any other coach. She has the power to bench you, so don't mess with her. She's tiny but she can pack a punch."

"You're the girl from the tryouts with the hundred mile slapshot aren't you?" Michael remembered and I grinned at him with pride.

"Yup!" I answered, popping the p.

"Why isn't she on the team playing then? She's got a faster slapshot than our own captain," Michael pointed out, snark in his tone. Ashton turned over his shoulder to shoot Michael a dirty glare, which shut up the purple haired boy.

"She can't be a permanent performing player because the handbook is gender sensitive. We'd get disqualified," Coach explained. "But if we want to win, I believe that Karris can help us get that trophy and win the Championship ten years in a row!"

Another round of cheers roared through out the arena and I stood excitedly next to Coach Benson with a wide grin on my face. I was itching to get started and I kept imagining how awesome the season is going to be; how transferring to Willowridge may actually work out. Plus, maybe I'll start to become less awkward around cute boys if I'm constantly surrounded by them.

"Karris is our secret weapon-- I see her as a surprise gift from the hockey Gods. She came to us just as we lost one of our own," Coach Benson's voice softened and I knew what was to come next. He looked over to me with his sympathetic brown eyes and continued, "your brother was very special to us."

"He was special to me too," I gave him a half-hearted smile before looking down at the ice below my skates.

"We have a new team captain this season and I'm sure he'll be just as great as Gabe was," Coach went on, "Ashton? Want to give the traditional start of season pep talk?"

I lifted my gaze to the brown-haired boy with the dimpled smile. He stood on top of the bottom bench before using his long legs to climb up the bleachers till he stood at the top with such a superior opulence. He lifted his arms up in a very theatrical God-like way before his voice boomed before us all.

"This is my fourth and last year as a Willowridge Thunderbird and I've seen these start of season speeches several times-- I just never knew that one day it'd be me standing on this bench. But I know you fuckers have horrible attention spans--"

"Wow! You're an asshole, Irwin!" Michael exclaimed before a snarky grin formed on his face.

I caught Ashton throwing up two middle fingers in number 24's direction, earning an obnoxious sexual gesture from him. Ashton reciprocated the motion by sending Michael a more sexual one. I felt my cheeks grow hot again and I looked down at the stack of papers in my hand, pretending to read something over.

"Okay! Okay! Enough with the bullcrap!" Coach bellowed. "Irwin! Finish your speech!"

"Anyway, before I was so rudely interrupted," Ashton snickered as Michael rolled his eyes. "I'm not graduating this school without leaving a mark on the school--"

"You left your mark all over the walls of the book club's supply closet when you hooked up with Missy Kingston!" Luke snickered and another player gave him a high-five in approval. I half expected Ashton to scowl and retreat to profanities but it never happened. He just shrugged innocently, a toothless grin forming on his face.

"Well, I mean, if we're talking about those kinds of marks..." Ashton chuckled, as he earned a disapproving scowl from Coach Benson. "Continuing on, I promise to take the Willowridge Thunderbirds to their tenth consecutive Championship win and that's the kind of mark I want to leave."

Excited shouting erupted from the team again and I relished in their happiness and enthusiasm to win. I had to give props to Ashton. He may have been a meanie who I wasn't particularly fond of, but he had leadership skills and knew how to get his team riled up.

Official practice would begin the following day and after a quick meet and greet with the entire team, we were dismissed to go home or something. That or something happened to be having dinner at a local pizza joint and bar called Mel's Pizza. It was the team's favorite place to be and when I sauntered into the European themed restaurant, I saw framed photographs of Willowridge hockey teams since 1994 hanging on the walls.

We pushed five tables together to create a long one at the center of the floor and I found myself sitting in between Calum and Luke, diagonal from Michael and at the end of the table, sitting like the king of the world, was Ashton.

"Hey Karris," Luke spoke up, finally looking up from his huge slice of pizza.

"Yea?" I dropped my slice of pizza back down onto the plate in front of me and turned to look at one of the team's defensemen.

"Are you going to show us cool tricks at practice tomorrow? Like the ones you did at your tryout?" Luke asked, hope in his blue eyes.

"Yea! Calum told us how you were able to improve his slapshot skills and I was wondering if you could all teach us too!" Michael chimed in. I looked over to Calum with a quizzical look, surprised that he spoke of me to the other guys.

"We need to first figure out if we can function as a team," Ashton declared. I could feel the tension rise as he shot me a glare that easily made me cower behind Calum's broad shoulder. "Tomorrow we're going to run a few old plays and figure out how we play as a team," Ashton paused to look at me, "slapshots aren't important."

"I guess you're right, Captain," I sighed, submissiveness taking over me as I succumbed to Ashton's intimidating demeanor. I looked down at my lap and at the corner of my eye I could see a satisfied smirk form on his face.

"Hey, you could teach us another time, Coach," Calum playfully nudged me on the shoulder, his words at a low whisper so only I could hear. I lifted my head and pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose to give him a smile. He winked which oddly gave me that weird butterfly feeling in my tummy.

Calum was cute. Really cute. Plus he was easy to talk to and I enjoyed his company. The only reason why I wasn't all over him besides the fact that I'm as awkward as a three-legged chair, was that Calum Hood had already placed me in the friend zone. He saw me as some geeky kid who happened to be good at hockey-- not a potential mate.

"It's good to see you boys here again," a new voice entered my ears and my eyes followed to the sound. Tegan Loelli stood next to Ashton with her arm draped around his shoulders. While she wore a simple pair of jeans and a white tank top, Tegan still looked like she could rock a runway. Sometimes I wondered how it felt to be that beautiful.

"How was the mall?" Ashton asked her, pulling Tegan down to sit on his lap.

"It was fun. Shopping is fun, duh. I bought a really nice dress that I'm excited to wear, but more excited for you to take it off, babe," Tegan giggled obnoxiously, leaning in to give Ashton a kiss.

I looked to the other guys who simply retreated back to eating their pizza, as if their team captain and some pretty blonde weren't sucking face like leaches. I guessed it was normal routine for the team because they weren't at all fazed by it. So I did what the guys did: ate my pizza in peace.

"Karris Villanueva, is that you?"

I lifted my head, mid-bite, as strings of gooey cheese stretched out from the slice in my hand and the hot piece in my mouth. I dropped the greasy delight back onto the plate, covering my pie-hole to chew, steam snaking its way out of the corners of my mouth.

"Hi Tegan," I gave her polite smile and a wave of my hand. I felt like a birthing llama whilst in her presence. She exuded such superiority while I was the epitome of awkward.

"I heard about your new position as a junior coach. How exciting?!" Tegan's naturally high-pitched voice reverberated off my eardrums with annoyance and I could tell her sincerity was forced.

"It's not exciting. It's a buzzkill," Ashton grumbled under his breath but I could still perfectly understand him. Tegan smacked him in the chest, shooting him a disapproving look.

"Baby, play nice," she scolded, before turning to look back at me, "Karris is perfect for the job."

"I-I am?" I stammered, surprised with her compliment. I looked at her pathetically through my glasses with my mouth slightly agape. I acted like she was some kind of Goddess or Beyonce. I was treating her how the world treated The Kardashians: giving credit where credit is not needed.

"Of course you are sweetie," Tegan started, batting her mascara-coated eyelashes, "being a coach means you're behind the scenes so the need to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye is unnecessary. You're already succeeding in that department so why put yourself through the physical demands of being center stage when your talents are best behind the curtain?"

Silence.

After Tegan's little spiel, no one spoke a word. The entire table just sat gawking at her with wide eyes and open mouths. Not to say the hockey team was brimming with dimwitted neanderthals, but the processing systems of their brains were definitely a tad bit slower than most people's. But I however, was able to sort through the propaganda and I knew exactly what Tegan was trying to say.

"What the hell does all that mean?" Michael spoke up, the first among the group to utter a word.

I sighed, looking down at my fidgeting hands before looking up at Michael and pushing my glasses up back the bridge of my nose, "she just called me ugly."

"Oh," was all number 24 could say.

"Excuse me," I breathed, pushing my chair back and grabbing my messenger bag off of the floor. "Thanks for inviting me to dinner guys but my mom's picking me up. See you at practice."

I jetted out of there, power-walking myself out of eye and earshot before letting the tears trickle down my cheeks. I pushed the glass door open and was greeted with the cool evening air as I started my trek back home. I hugged my official Coach's jacket closer to my body, walking up the street towards the stoplight.

Tegan got into my head so easily and I let her. It was hard not to. Her words are like a mind grenade, just ticking away until it exploded and completely consumed the brain. I wasn't as pretty as Tegan, or most girls at school, I knew that, but never once was I called out on it. It was stupid and pathetic how one little comment on my outer appearance was able to make me feel like complete crap. I just needed a warm bubble bath, good music and maybe a back rub from my mom to make me feel better.

A pair of headlights slowed down from behind me, unlike the many cars who passed by so rapidly. I walked a little faster, watching too many episodes of Law and Order and I was not in the mood to be slaughtered into a million pieces.

"Karris!"

I turned my head towards the sound of my name and found Calum's head sticking out of his car window as he continued to maneuver his car.

"Karris why are you walking home? I thought your mom was picking you up," he pointed out, bringing his car to a complete stop against the curb. I stood stationary, my chin to my chest as I shrugged my shoulders.

"I lied," I told him.

"Jump in, I'll give you a ride home," he offered. "You're gonna get kidnapped and get chopped up into a million pieces. Haven't you seen Law and Order?"

I didn't argue. I was getting cold and home was a good four miles away. It'd take me over an hour to walk home and I was yearning for that bubble bath. I sauntered over to the car and slid in, not saying a word to the kindhearted, dark-haired boy.

"You alright Coach?" Calum asked, reaching over to give my thigh a squeeze. I was startled by his touch and I guessed Calum sensed it because he quickly took his hand away. He drove me home in silence, the speakers playing one of my favorite songs by Mayday Parade.

"Fuck Tegan Loelli, alright Karris? She thinks she runs the school because she's hot and the star of the dance team. And just because you're our coach and doesn't mean you can't be a star either," Calum's pep talk out-pepped Ashton's from earlier. His words immediately filled me up with joy and my confidence was slowly rising.

"Thanks for that," I smiled, looking up at him. I sniffled, wiping away the remaining tears that stained my cheeks just as Calum pulled up to my driveway. The house lights were all on and I could already feel the warmth radiating out of my humble abode.

"Of course. We're friends, aren't we?"

Yup. Friendzoned.

"Yea, we're friends. Thanks Cal,

"No problem. You're like the kid sister I need to protect,"

Super friendzoned.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow," I smiled, pulling open the door and sliding out. I gave Calum one last wave before watching him back out of the driveway. I walked up the pathway to the front porch, digging around my bag for my keys. Just as I pulled out the jumbled mess of keychains, the front door swung open.

"Thank you for dropping by Sophie," my mom and dad stood at the door, just as our neighbor Sophie Torres exited.

"Sophie!" I screamed excitedly, throwing my arms around her neck and pulling her into a tight hug. "I missed you! Why are you here?"

"Nice to see you too sister from another mister," she giggled, giving me a peck on the cheek. We separated from the hug, giving me a chance to look up at the beautiful girl before me. "I actually came by to surprise you but apparently you're a junior coach for Willowridge's hockey team now?"

"Yup!" I smiled proudly, turning around to showoff the Coach emblem on the back of my jacket.

"I'm so proud of you Karris!" she declared.

"Thanks! Are you staying here long?" I asked, gesturing for the house across from ours.

"No, I'm actually driving back to Uni in about an hour. My Tuesday morning class is cancelled but I have to be back on campus before my 3PM class so I have time to nap and do some homework," Sophie explained. I gave her a sullen look, cowering within myself. I wanted to talk to her about today's events and besides Berkley, she was the only one I trusted.

"When are you coming back to visit?"

"Probably after midterms. I'll have to check my schedule. My sorority has a lot of events coming up. But hey, call me whenever you need to talk alright? And maybe one weekend you can come up and stay with me?" Sophie suggested with a hopeful smile.

"I think I'd like that," I pulled her back in for another hug before separating once again.

We spoke for a few more minutes before she headed back across the street to her parents' house. When Sophie left for University two years ago, it was pretty tough. She was like an older sister to me and when she rushed a sorority, her visits back home were less frequent. But she was doing things with her life and was someone I aspired to be like. Sophie wasn't just some dumb sorority girl-- she partied and studied hard.

"How was school sweetie?" mom asked, as I entered the kitchen and grabbing a cookie off of the plate that sat at the center of the counter. I exhaled annoyingly before giving her a pleading look.

"I need a bubble bath,"

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This was a long-ass chapter but I needed to get some things out of the way before the story starts picking up. I wanted to establish the hockey team more and show the friendship between Calum and Karris-- this will be important as the story progresses. Tegan's character needed to be developed too because she's not just going to be some dumb bimbo. Aaaand also I wanted to introduce Sophie Torres because she'll be popping in from time to time.

Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter and the story so far. Thank you all for reading. Don't forget to VOTE, COMMENT and SHARE it with all your friends. Thanks again for taking the time to read my stuff. Love you guys! <33