Linc trotted onto the hockey field with a grin on his face. He was so glad to see the old team back together. He thought about the first time he'd set foot on this hockey field.

What a difference a year made. Back then he'd been a twelve year old kid who could barely walk. Linc knew anyone watching him now, wouldn't detect the slight arc to his gait.

He wondered what Rob would say if he saw him right at this very moment. Linc thought he'd be proud. One day, when he was older, Linc was going to tell Rob how grateful he was for really seeing him. Not just with eyes kind of seeing, but the soul kind of seeing.

Linc chuckled at this thought. People would probably think he was a nutter if he told them that Rob could see people's souls. Rob also wouldn't see it that way. Linc shook his head at his thoughts. His mates definitely wouldn't understand it. Becky did. After all Rob had seen her soul too. They had talked about it more than once. She said Rob was their soul saviour but he didn't know it. Becky reckoned that Rob would say it was more about getting into her pants than saving her soul. They'd both laughed when she said that. If they hadn't laughed, Linc was sure they would have both cried thinking about how important Rob was to them.

"You're late!"

"Sorry, Drew. I had to catch up on some notes in Mister Campbell's class." Linc beamed brighter. "Are you going to be coaching us again this year?" His heart beat faster. Could this year get any better?

Rob was the big brother who saw a lost kid. Drew was an extension. An arm, who'd, kept Becky afloat as she struggled to hold her and Linc's heads above water before Rob had moved to town. Not many people knew that Drew had been Becky's only confidant when things had gotten really bad at home. He'd lied for her more than once so she could build walls to keep their life a secret. Linc knew Drew lived a similar life and had been Becky's ear when she needed one.

He looked at Drew now, waiting for his answer with baited breath.

"Yep." Drew peered at Linc, and then at the faces staring back at him. It seemed most of the kids had grown a foot since he'd seen them at the end of the previous year. He tucked his lips back in a grin. "If you fellas will have me."

"Yes!" Linc and Carl high-fived. "We'll have you," the team cried out in unison.

"We thought you went to Uni with Rob," one of the boys called out.

"Nah... that's not for me." Drew chuckled. "I'm a hands on kind of bloke. Doing carpentry. I got an apprenticeship so here's the deal. My boss says I can get off early on a Thursday to train you guys so, in future it'll be three-thirty. Not three, like today, but three-thirty." He grinned and looked around the group. "Repeat after me because I know you lot have the attention span of goldfish. Training will be at three-thirty on Thursday afternoons and five o'clock Tuesday afternoons."

The boys grinned and dragged out, "Training will be at three-thirty on Thursday afternoons and five o'clock Tuesday afternoons."

"Hey!" Linc's face lit up. "That means we can go to the café after training on Thursdays!" He scanned the faces of the rest of his team-mates. "Who's in?"

"Hell yeah!" multiply boys cried.

Linc just knew it was going to be the best year ever. He had a phone and social media. He was back with his mates. Drew was going to be their coach. They could start their own tradition of going to the café after training and, a new girl had started in his art class. He smirked at this thought.

Three months ago, as he'd said goodbye to Becky, she'd said he'd want to kiss girls this year. At the time the thought revolted him.

Now...

Not so much.

*****

"How did training go?" Sheila stepped from the kitchen with a tea towel in her hands and grinned at the sprawl of mess on the lounge room floor. Hockey stick, school bag with books spewing from the opening at the top. School shirt, one hockey shoe, lunch box with no lid. A water bottle still rolling across the carpet and Linc hopping on one leg while peeling his sock from his foot.

"Yeah. It was great. Drew's back." Linc beamed as he fell sidewards onto the couch. "Well, I know he didn't go away. I mean he's got an apprenticeship as a carpenter and he's going to be our coach again this year."

"Good on him. I'm so glad he's back coaching." Sheila screwed up her face in thought. "Didn't we tell you he was going to be a builder?"

"No." Linc sat up and shook his head. "You just said he was going to live in our old place."

"Oh. It must have slipped my mind." Sheila jerked her foot out to stop the water bottle from rolling further away, and then added, "You pick this stuff up, mister, because I'm not going to be promoted to slave."

"Yeah... I will." Linc gave her a wink. "But you'd be a good slave," he chortled as the tea towel Sheila had been holding landed on his face.

"I'll give you slave," she said with a chuckle. "Get in here and wipe the dishes while I get dinner started."

"But... Mum... I've got math homework." Linc grunted as he gave his second hockey shoe a tug. It gave way and tumbled onto the floor with the rest of his belongings. "I need new hockey shoes," he called as Sheila disappeared around the corner.

"You'll have to come into the kitchen because I can't hear you." Sheila's face ached from smiling. She wondered if Linc realised how much joy he brought into her life. "And bring the tea towel with you," she called over her shoulder.

Linc ran into the kitchen, jumped up on the bench and slid toward the dish drainer with the tea towel in his hand. "I said my hockey shoes are too small, deaf head." He shuffled his bum to get comfortable, and then lifted one of the plates to wipe. "There's a new girl in my art class."

"Is there now?" Sheila kept her back to him as she beamed. She loved that every afternoon he jumped up onto the kitchen bench and talked to her about his day. She turned to face him with the cutting board and knife in her hands. As she placed them on the bench she added, "And..."

"And what?" Linc said as he shoved the tea towel into the centre of a glass.

"And what do you think of the new girl?"

Linc gave her a cheeky grin. "She's pretty."

"So... tell me what she looks like." Sheila took the glass from him and jiggled her eyebrows.

"It's not like that!" Linc laughed. "I just said she's pretty. It doesn't mean I like her."

"Okay." Sheila poured some orange juice into the glass and handed it to him. "Whatever you say."

As Linc gulped the juice he looked at her over the edge of the glass, and then burst into laughter. Orange juice spluttered all over Sheila's face. "Shit!" Linc slammed his hand over his gob, swallowed the mouthful and said, "That was your fault. You made me laugh."

Sheila grabbed the tea towel and wiped her face. "My fault! It's not me who's got a crush on a pretty girl."

"Mum...! I haven't!"

Yay!!! Drew's back.  I'm as excited as Linc. ♥♥♥

Photo copyright - Alamy Stock Photos.