k a r r i s

✖

Right after my last class of the day I jolted out of the room in a haste. As quick as my little legs would take me, I sped through the hallways, dodging all my peers who were exiting their respective classrooms. Down the steps I went, out the back doors, and towards the hockey arena. My heavy messenger bag was weighing me down slightly, bouncing against my butt as I scurried up the steps like Rocky Balboa-- seriously, where was my inspirational theme song?

I crashed through the glass doors, continuing my dash down the hall as my shoes squeaked against the linoleum floors. Finally, I made it to the boy's locker room, and because I was still running on the adrenaline pumping through my veins during my sprint through the campus, I pulled open the heavy doors with great force. None of the hockey players were in the locker room yet, leaving it completely empty. I looked through the window of Coach Benson's office, finding him sitting at his desk typing away on a computer.

"Coach!" I yelled, leaning against the door pane, panting extremely hard as I tried to catch my breath.

"Karris? What's going on? Sit down! Don't have another heart attack," Coach Benson shrilled with concern, standing from his desk and rounding it. He pulled the chair across from the desk and gestured for me to sit.

"I'm not having a heart attack," I annoyingly told him with a roll of my eye, even though my heart was working in overdrive. Maybe I should lay off all the Hot Cheetos. I took a seat, taking off my messenger bag and dropping it to my side.

"Is everything alright? When your mom sent me that email, I was very worried about you. You were making a great apprentice," he complimented, taking a seat at the edge of his desk, his arms folded across his chest.

"That's why I'm here," I began, "I'm still your apprentice."

"What do you mean?" Coach raised a brow. "Your mom made it very clear in the email that you couldn't help coach anymore. And to be frank, I agreed with her. If your health is on the line, I don't want you to exert yourself back into the emergency room."

"My mom freaked out; who's mom wouldn't? I was in the hospital for a week. They ran some tests, gave me tons of meds and I'm find now. I promise you," I gazed up at Coach, who still had concern painted on his face. "It took a lot of convincing, but my mom said I can still be a coach. As long as I keep up with her health food regimen and accompany her to hot yoga classes every Wednesday evening, then I can keep my apprenticeship."

Lying never came this easy to me; well, it's still pretty difficult for me to let a fib slip through my lips, but when it came to this coaching position I knew I wanted to do everything in my power to keep it. The words came out of my mouth, stringing together a smooth justification that my mom apparently crafted. It sounded pretty legit. And trust me, as someone who studied theories and legitimate arguments for the last three years at Brampcrest Academy, I knew a good defense when I saw one.

"Okay," Coach sighed in relief, shooting me a smile. His sudden leap of joy caused me to grin as well. "I just need your mom to send me another email confirming that you may continue coaching and you can get back on the ice ASAP."

"Wh-what?" I stammered, my eyes widening from Coach's negotiation.

"You heard me Miss Villanueva," he stood up, walking around his desk to take a seat on his rolling chair. "I need an email from your mom. It's for school records, to confirm that you and your mom are aware of the liabilities of this apprenticeship, considering your health history. Until I have that email, you're gonna have to sit out. Is that a problem?"

I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded my head. I heard a loud slam and a slew of chatter fill my ears. I turned over my shoulder to take a peek out the window, finding the hockey team filter into the locker room. My eyes met a pair of hazel ones, piercing into me with a cheeky smirk. Ashton threw his shirt over his head, tossing it to the side and revealing his very chiseled body.

Lord, have mercy.

My eyes were suddenly glued to his bare chest, the abs and the v-cut of his temple of a body. However, to my dismay, Ashton grinned even wider as I checked him out, causing my cheeks to flush in embarrassment. Quickly, I turned back around in my chair, mentally cursing to myself for being terribly awkward. I exhaled, gazing up at Coach with a forced smile.

"That email is no problem. I'll tell my mom to send one to you tonight," I assured with a head nod.

"Sounds perfect," Coach Benson grinned. "Glad to have you back on the team Coach Karris."

"Thanks," I pushed back the chair, standing up and grabbing my messenger bag off of the ground. "I'll see you tomorrow."

I waved goodbye, strolling out of the office as I slung my bag around my body. I kept my eyes to the ground, trying to eschew eye contact from cute, half-naked boys. But because this was me we were talking about, I wasn't exactly immune to being on the wrong end of target practice.

"So I know you're kinda like a dude and all," a voice echoed throughout the locker room with a superior boom, causing me to hastily turn around and accidentally ransack into another body.

I fell straight on my butt, my glasses hanging off of one ear as I looked at the figure who loomed before me. I gulped as Ashton stood there with an intimidating glare etched on his face. He had his padding and team jersey on, which I was thankful for because even though Ashton was very attractive without a shirt on, I knew I couldn't handle all of that.

"S-s-sorry," I stammered, readjusting my glasses. Ashton and the rest of the hockey team came into perfect, non-blurred view as they all crowded around me like skyscrapers.

"Unless you've got a dick inside those skinny jeans of yours, you need to get out," Ashton sneered. I gasped slightly, nodding my head in intimidation and quickly gathered my things that fell out of the side pockets of my messenger bag.

"Come on man, lighten up. Don't be so mean to Karris," Calum defended me, shooting Ashton a pleading glance. He stepped forward, holding out his hand towards me and with relief, I took it.

"Thanks Cal," my voice was soft, giving Calum a small smile. I was still surprised with the amount of tenderness and care he generously gave me. It made me swoon and only intensified the crush I had on him.

Calum crouched down slightly to meet me at eye level, both his hands protectively holding my arms, "you okay? You're not hurt, are you?"

"No, I'm okay now," I shook my head, hearing an obnoxious scoff coming from Ashton.

"Our Coach is a trooper," Luke stepped in, giving me a playful punch in the shoulder. I turned to him, giving the tall, cute hockey player a grin.

"Yeah, play nicer Ash. Karris is one of us," Michael confidently declared, shooting Ashton a disapproving glare before shifting his attention to me. Number 24 winked at me, sending my stomach into a whirlwind of feels. It was the One Direction concert all over again.

This was a little overwhelming for me. Never have I been surrounded by this many attractive guys before. Not to say that Brampcrest only cultivated cliche, nerdy guys who weren't cute at all, but the flawless concoction that made the boys at Willowridge was intense. And it wasn't just the fact that the hockey team were super cute, it was also the fact that these guys (in an exception to Ashton) were all really nice. Their sweetness was one of the main reasons why I wanted to keep coaching them; I actually felt like part of the team when I was around them.

"So it's really official then, is it?" Ashton continued and I turned over my shoulder to look at the captain. "You're still part of the team."

I took a deep breath inward, mustering every ounce of confidence I knew I had in me. I was surrounded by supportive teammates and honestly, Ashton was a douchebag-- hands down. I needed to learn how to stand up to him and I hated myself with how easily I could succumb to his dominance. Back at Brampcrest, everyone knew how to get into each other's heads especially when it came to academic competitions. Even if you knew you were going to bomb, you had to act like you knew it all. You had to put on your game-face and psych out your peers; you had to let them know who's boss.

"You know what Captain," I curtly spun on my heel, fully facing the pretentious doucebag, "I need you to respect me. I'm not asking, I'm demanding it. I have the power to bench you Ashton, no matter how much of a star you are on the team. In the halls of this school you're king, but the moment you step onto the ice, you're my bitch."

Silence.

The entire hockey crusade stood with their jaws dropped and eyes wide with great intensity. Not a word was uttered and not a muscle was moved. I coldly glared at Ashton, satisfaction radiating all around me as an icy-cold grimace formed on the hockey captain's face. Suddenly, after trying to stifle his laughter, Luke was the first to burst into loud laughter. Following Luke, was Michael, Calum and then the entire team were in a fit of giggles. I smirked joyfully, feeling empowerment surge throughout my body.

"You got served," Luke giggled hysterically, giving Ashton a hearty pat on the back. Ashton on the other hand was clearly not amused. Pissed was an understatement-- he was embarrassed, beat at his own game and I could tell he was ready to flip tables.

"Now you really have to be nicer Captain,"

"Karris you are queen,"

"Ashton's a little bitch,"

I knew practice was about to begin and I decided to jet out of there. I was pretty sure Ashton didn't want anything to do with me at this point. I wasn't sure if I made things worse between us, but I had hoped he realized that he couldn't mess around with me anymore. I still respected Ashton as a hockey player, because he really did work hard to be a great one, but being captain didn't mean he had to be an entitled d-bag. Especially because I was positive that my brother wasn't, when he was once captain.

"I have to go," I announced, back to my normal, light-hearted and soft spoken voice, "I think my mom's wondering where I am."

"Alright Karris, see you tomorrow?" Calum smiled and I nodded.

I waved my hands at him and the rest of the team who were still laughing and giving Ashton a hard time. Feeling good about myself, I strolled out of the locker room with a smile on my face. I walked through the empty hall, towards the main doors. My mom was probably wondering where I was, waiting out in the front of the school worrying if I fell in the toilet or whatever crazy situation her mind could create. As I was about to pull my phone out of my bag to tell my mother that I was indeed still alive and on my way, a series of loud thumping echoed in my ears.

"Karris!"

I turned on my heel the moment I heard my name reverberate against the walls clamorously. Ashton was running straight for me, an angry expression on his face while mine was oozing with fear. Before I could react, my entire body was grabbed by the furious captain and was pushed against one of the adjacent walls. In cheesy rom-com movies, this would be the part where the dashing male lead would grab onto the face of his female partner and kiss her senseless. However, this wasn't a Nicholas Sparks classic. This was Ashton. He hated me and I wasn't exactly too fond of him either.

"You're just asking for trouble aren't you?" Ashton sneered. His hands dropped from my shoulder, loosening the grip he had on me. His face however, was still very close to mine and I could smell the peppermint gum he was currently chewing.

"I'm sorry Ashton," I apologized, my confidence rapidly declining. "But can we just please move pass this? I'm really trying to just be a good person here."

"A good person would learn how to back off when told to," Ashton told me matter-of-factly, his ire still not subsiding.

"I'm not going to quit coaching because you don't like me," I said, my eyes falling to my fidgeting hands. "The rest of the team still does."

Ashton let out a chuckle, stepping back from me. I lifted my head to meet the devilish smirk playing on his face.

"They won't like you for long," Ashton hinted, and with that he turned away, walking back to the locker room.

I stood there utterly confused, yet at the same time utterly scared. Ashton's last statement came out more like a threat and who knew what he was capable of? Maybe telling him off wasn't the best idea? It still confused me; how Ashton was able to have so many friends, be liked by several people, and yet be such a total jerk. I can still hear my brother praising the boy like he were some saint and after dealing with Ashton first hand, my brother's testimonies were really hard to believe. Whatever Ashton does to punish me, as long as the other boys were on my side I think I'd be okay.

At least, I hoped.