From the last part.
“You never know.” Kevin said as he shrugged his shoulders. I was finished taking off my gear and was left with my under-armour shirt and knee-length shorts. I pulled my grey, t-shirt on overtop and then squirmed my way out of my under-armour shirt, something I’ve been doing for a while, so I didn’t take me long.
Now on with the story.
“Ready Justin?” I asked as I turned towards where he was sitting on my left, only to see him in just his boxers. “Justin! Hurry up and put some clothes on!” I complained and covered my eyes in mock disgust. He grinned sheepishly as pulled on his brown shirt and jeans. I was used to seeing guys like this since I’ve been playing hockey with guys for as long as I could remember, but it’s not like I just stare, I mean, only a few guys actually look good without their shirt on, so sometimes is scaring.
“Alright, let’s go Vic.” Justin said, laughing as I peeked between my fingers to make sure that he was dressed. I stood up and followed him out of the locker room with my bag over my shoulder and my sticks in my hand. We walked down the hallway, receiving the last few congratulations from the last few lingering people as we made our way up to the lobby. We dropped our stuff down on the floor and walked to the entrance to the office.
The office doesn’t really have a door, so we peeked our heads in and knocked on the wall. A voice told us to come in, so we did, and when we walked into the office and turned the corner to the larger area of the room, we saw the two men from earlier.
“Vic, Justin, my name is Coach Mallard, and this is Coach Daret. We were watching you two play, and we have a few questions for you. Where have you guys been playing, what team?”
“Oh, well,” I started, “we both moved here from Indiana, so we played on the Indianapolis All-Star top team.”
“When did you move? How long have you two known each other?” It was Justin’s turn to answer the intense questioning of Coach Mallard this time.
“We moved at the beginning of the summer and we’ve known each other, since,” he looked at me, “as long as I can remember.” I nodded and he turned his gaze back to the two coaches.
“That would explain why you two can play together so well. How old are you two, sophomores, or juniors?”
“Uh, well, we’re going to be starting our freshman year next week, but we’re both young for that group though, because we’re both 93’s.” I explained. I saw Coach Daret’s eyes widen slightly at this fact, but Coach Mallard didn’t seem phased at all, but continued with his interrogation session.
“We were watching you games in this three-on-three tournament, and we decided that we would like for you both to come to Palma Boarding School. We have already made the necessary arrangements for Vic to play on the team since there is no all girls team there. We can get you scheduled into the classes you need to take, and also get you boarding, no cost; a full ride.” My eyes widened and I was speechless. I looked over at Justin and found him staring back at me with the same expression on his face.
I mouthed a ‘Wow’ to him, and he did the same back. “Well, what do you say?” I glanced back at Justin before the two of us both turned back to Coach Mallard and nodded our heads enthusiastically. “Alright, here is all the paperwork for you two to fill out, practice starts later this week, and school starts at the same time as the school that you would be going to. Everything is here, and if you have any questions, my number is at the bottom of this top sheet.”
Coach Daret handed each of us a packet, about an inch thick, of papers. “That’s all; we’ll see you two soon.” I nodded and turned around. Justin and I walked out of the office, both with the same look of shock on our faces. Kevin and Nick were both in the lobby waiting for us. Kevin took one look at our faces and smirked.
“Was I right? Or was I right?” He asked. I glanced and Justin and then back at Kevin.
“You were way right. Local boarding school and all.” I managed to finally say.
“Dude! That’s awesome!” Nick yelled. Nick and Kevin both gave us high-fives, and we talked about what the new school was going to be like as we waited for Nick’s parents, who’s turn it was to drive us all home, to get to the Fresno Forum.
Once Nick’s dad arrived, we all shoved our smelly gear into the back of his truck and climbed in. Nick sat in the front and immediately began telling his dad about how we won and how Justin and I got scholarships for boarding school. That left Kevin, me, and Justin to squeeze into the back, so I was stuck in the middle.
Kevin joined nick in telling all about our last game and showed off their 1st place medals, while Justin and I finally got our voices back and were going through the stack of papers.
When I looked up from the papers, and glanced out the window, I noticed that we were no where near any of our houses.
“Hey, where are we going?” I asked causing the three boys to turn their attention towards the window.
“I’m glad someone finally noticed. We figured you goys would win, so we decided to celebrate with ice cream.” Nick’s dad said.
“Yes!” Kevin shouted. He turned towards me and held up his hand up for a high-five. I slapped his hand and so did the other two boys. We pulled up to the ice cream place and we all jumped out of the car; Justin and I both brought our stacks of paper.
“Hey guys!” My father called to us. We waved as we ran over, holding up our championship medals.
“Good job guys, way to go!” Justin’s mom said. We ordered our ice cream and sat down when we received it.
“So, what’s with all the papers?” My mother asked. I slapped my hand to my forehead for forgetting the most important news. I glanced over at Justin and we both smiled enthusiastically.
“We were offered a scholarship for Palma Boarding School!” I said.
“A full ride to play hockey there.” Justin added. Our parents stared at us for a moment, processing the information, before tackling us with hugs and congratulations. We left the subject for a little bit as we finished our ice cream, all with high spirits.
“Here’s an idea,” my dad started, “why doesn’t Justin come back with us, and these two can work on their papers together, and then later on, you all can come over for a barbeque tonight, to celebrate the tournament win, and as a going away party for Justin and Victoria.”
Everyone agreed, and Justin and I threw our gear into our respective parent’s cars, and Justin climbed into the back seat of my dad’s car with me.
“It’s going to be quiet and lonely around here without you two, make sure you call home every once and a while.” My dad said. I nodded.
“You could come to some of our games, and I’m sure we’ll go home for holidays.” I suggested. Justin nodded. We had finally reached my house, and I pulled my gear out of the trunk and brought it into the house and down to the basement. There I spread my hockey gear out so that it could air out. Then Justin and I grabbed our stacks of paper and went up to my room and began working on the forms while my parents got things ready for the party that night.
