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“You don’t have a date?”

A date? For what? Maybe I did. That would wipe that smug look off his face. I turned away from him and nudged Ariele who gave me a blank shrug. So I raised my eyebrow at her indicating that she needed to ask about this as I was supposed to know already. She turned to Maria.

“Maria, what dance? This is the first I am hearing about it.”

“Oh, it’s no big deal. It’s just an excuse to get dressed up.”

I could hear Kellan chuckling.

Ariele continued, “Get dressed up in what? Do we need a date?”

Maria smiled, “Well, we use it as an opportunity to get dressed up in long gowns or cocktail dresses and some of us have dates. But we’re all going as a group so there’s no
need
for a date. Much more fun without one most of the time!”

I nudged Kellan again, “Do I go to this?”

“Yes, with me.”

“Was I always going with you?”

“No, but you are now.”

“Is anyone going to be upset with me?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know, Arizona. If someone else asked you, you didn’t tell me. It doesn’t matter anyway, you’re going with me.”

I didn’t feel entirely comfortable about that. I was happy we were going as a group. We had to include Ariele and we could also include anyone else I had inadvertently asked. I wondered if I had anything to wear? Perhaps Ariele and I could go shopping after the tryouts tomorrow. We could take Ella. My baby sister seemed to know her way around fashion.

“Ariele,” I whispered, “Lets go shopping for dresses tomorrow after the tryouts. It’ll be fun.”

She shrugged, “Shopping with you is never fun! You hate it. You’re a total nightmare at the stores. How about just getting something online?”

“There’s not enough time, I’ll be good, I’ll be Barbie Arizona, I promise!” I laughed.

I leaned over her and pulled at Ali’s sleeve, “Do you guys want to come shopping with me and Ariele tomorrow night for dresses?”

Ali looked bemused, “You’re not wearing that silver number? Ella is going to be pissed!”

“I might, but I wouldn’t mind another look. Besides Ariele needs to go shopping anyway.”

Maria turned to Ariele and nodded, “We’d love to, it’s a date.”

Last night’s sleepover was just the distraction I needed. It had been fun, especially after the boys left us alone. The four of us shared one big room with two king size beds. I shared one with Ariele. For most of the night, the girls teased me about Kellan. But, I guess I deserved that. I had kind of thrown it in their faces earlier and as a result spent a long time answering a lot of “how and when” questions. I didn’t mind.

We talked some about the upcoming dance and the Halloween Party. I made a mental note to make sure that I had the right things to wear for these occasions. I also managed to extract from Ali that I had been asked to the Orionids dance by David. I had, of course no idea who that was, probably some poor soul from my debate team with a crush on me. I hoped that I had let him down gently. I made another mental note to make sure to talk to David and ask him to join our group for the dance. I just had to figure out who he was.

Today was another day though, hockey trials. I needed to get my game face on. Kellan’s dad kindly dropped Harry and me off at the house so we could get ourselves organized. I hurried up to my room to throw on some fresh clothes and put on some lipgloss before I tore down the stairs to dump my kit in the Jeep and head off. Harry was already in the car waiting for me. I was obviously being
taken care
of today again.

“Shrimp, I wish you had told me about you and Kellan.”

“Sorry about that, Harry. Kellan wanted to tell you himself.”

“I wish he had.”

“Are you ok with it, Harry? I don’t want you to be mad. I really like him.”

“I suppose,” he said and turned on the iPod.

We were a bit late and the parking lot was full, but I managed to find a space at the very end. As I rushed toward my locker, I saw Ariele standing by it, fumbling around trying to look busy, but she was obviously waiting for me. She was my first
bodyguard
of the day.

“
A
, I can’t go shopping tonight. My mom wants me home for something. I don’t know what. It’s so annoying. She said I could go to the tryouts though, so I guess that’s something. Can we go shopping after school tomorrow instead?”

“Sure, no problem. I think the last tryouts are on Wednesday so tomorrow should be perfect,” I reassured her.

“Ariele, could you do me a favor? I need to know who this David is who asked me out to the dance. It’s probably some guy from the debate team. I feel bad and I want to invite him to join our group for the dance. Could you find out for me?”

Ariele chuckled and then nudged me, “He is right behind you, you silly!”

I turned around, but couldn’t see anyone likely so I turned to Ariele again and shrugged, “Where?”

Ariele took my shoulders, turned me around and said, “Hey, David!”

I nearly collapsed as this six-foot, ripped, total hottie (step aside Edward Cullen!) turned around. I was dumbstruck. I had turned
this
down! I really must be ill.

“Hi, Ariele! Hey there, poppet. How are you? I’ve been hearing some rumors about you.”

I nearly swallowed my tongue, “Hi, David. What kind of rumors?” I wondered about the word
poppet.
I had heard Mom use it before, maybe he had English parents as well. I liked it, it sounded nicer than
Shrimp
!

He looked somber, came closer and put his hands firmly on my shoulders and looked at me with what I hoped was mock hurt, “You turned me down for Kellan?”

I felt another set of hands around my waist pulling me back from behind.

“Hi, David! We missed you at the tryouts. Are you still planning to play this season?” Kellan asked from behind me.

I shrugged and smiled at David as he winked at me and said, “Wouldn’t miss it for the world. I hear you’re playing, poppet.” He said looking at me.

I could feel Kellan’s grip stiffening as I playfully thumped David’s shoulder and told him that I would see him at tryouts.

“Ready to walk to physics, ladies?” Kellan asked.

We nodded as Ariele ineffectively tried to suppress her giggles.

“Would you rather go to the Ball with him?” Kellan whispered annoyed.

“Of course not!” I said surprised and elbowed his chest.

We got to class and I noticed that Justin was already in his seat. Kellan gave my hand a reassuring squeeze and went over to the seat beside him. Maria waved and smiled as I sat down next to her.

“Ready for this afternoon?”

I nodded and got my books out of my bag. This was going to be a long day of “waiting.” I hoped not to run into Simla.

I ran over to the Jeep with Ariele as soon as the final bell rang and took off to the ice rink. Maria and Ali were going to meet me there and I expected Kellan and Harry would be waiting for me in the parking lot as well. I spotted them standing by Kellan’s bike.

“Ready, Shrimp?” Harry asked.

My neck still felt a bit raw, but I nodded to assure Harry I’d be able to handle the tryouts. I walked in with the girls and they waited outside the restroom while I changed. It felt great putting my kit on. I wondered if David would be here. How strange that I had turned him down especially since it didn’t seem like I was interested in Kellan then, or was I? I must get to the bottom of this. I’d have to get Ariele to look into it. I looked at myself in the mirror once I was done and put my helmet on. I looked so different from before, I really looked like a Barbie trying to play hockey, except I didn’t have to
try.
I could actually play.

Ariele, Ali and Maria performed some weird warrior dance as I exited the restroom.

“Very funny,” I laughed. As we walked into the rink I could clearly see that there were a lot more players trying out today. Coach Stanislaw saw me and waved me over to talk to him.

“Ok girls, wish me luck!”

They did one better, a group hug.

I walked down the bleachers to the box where the coach was standing. He looked at me and nodded.

“Darley, you ok? I heard about your mishap. I’ve had a word with Justin. I let him know that if anything happens to you, I’ll hold him personally responsible. So, I don’t think you need to worry anymore. He’ll behave.”

I nodded, “Thanks. Who told you about Justin?”

“Harry. Do you feel up to trying out?”

“I’m fine, can I continue to tryout? I missed Friday.”

He pounded my shoulders and gave me the thumbs up so I got on the ice and started skating around to warm up. Kellan was by my side in a flash, but kept his distance as we warmed up. I noticed a big player waving at me from a distance. I could only guess that it was David by the size of him. The whistle sounded and we skated back to the coach who looked grim.

“I’m going to push you hard today. This is going to have to be the last tryout as the ice rink won’t be available on Wednesday. I have to get a team ready to go for our first game next Monday. I notice that there are quite a few of you who have turned up for the first time today. Come and talk to me. If you don’t have mighty good reasons for missing the last two, you’re out.” He looked around and then focused his attention on someone at the back.

“David, I see that you’ve decided to grace us with your presence. Did you decide against football? You can’t do both, you know,” he said sternly.

David laughed, “I heard that you have the pretty girls trying out, so it was a no brainer.”

Coach looked like he was going to explode and everyone tensed up. He turned bright crimson and then exploded in laughter, “Good one! Well, whatever reason makes you join us is good, thanks PH!”

Everyone relaxed as Coach shouted out the first drill, up and down, doing dead stops and turns. Same as last time I remembered, at least he was consistent. We were split into two groups before we started, as there were too many of us to go at it together. The two groups would play each other at the end of the drills.

Harry and Kellan called out the groups. I was called first, which made me feel a bit self-conscious. Harry had called his kid sister to his group and I could almost hear the smirking. Kellan called Justin and so it went. I skated off with my group and we started our drills. We didn’t spend much time on the dead stops but quickly moved on to skate, pass and shoot drills. I was comfortably keeping up with everyone else, in fact much better than some. Harry skated up to me half an hour into the drill and asked about my neck. I had completely forgotten about it, couldn’t feel a thing. He seemed pleased as he ordered up the next drill set, sprint point and shoots. I was really enjoying myself now. There were no surprise drills. I had done all these a million times before.

An hour into drills the coach’s whistle sounded. I looked at Harry, he nodded at me, and it was time for a scrimmage. He skated up to me and asked “What position?”

“Left defense.”

He looked surprised but placed me in the starting line up. I noticed that I was playing against Kellan. Too bad, I didn’t want to hurt him. I noticed that Harry had chosen to play defense too. Now that was strange, he usually started the game for the team.

The scrimmage was really fun. I even managed to check Kellan a few times. He didn’t seem to try that hard though. I never came up against any of the competitive players or Justin, even David. This had been so rigged by Harry and Kellan, I should be furious. I took out the little fury I had during my encounters with Kellan. Boy, did he seem surprised when he was jammed into the boards! All in all though, I was a little grateful. I didn’t need any unnecessary drama today. I just needed to show the coach that I could hold my own and play a good game, which I was more than doing. My team narrowly won and we headed back to Coach Stanislaw on the bleachers.

“Good work, kids. Coach Pickett, Harry and I are now going to go through our lists and discuss the possible lineups. We may have enough players for a JV team, but we can discuss that once the varsity team has been picked. We’ll be picking eighteen players and two reserves. Our decision will be final and based on both tryout performance and history. So, Kellan, you’re in though you got whooped by a girl,” he laughed.

With that the three of them left and I watched the boys head to the changing room. Kellan stayed behind.

“Shrimp, you did good! I’ll be very surprised if you’re not on the team.”

“Thanks for
babying
me out there. It was sweet of you but no need in the future.”

He laughed, “You don’t have to tell me, I’m red and sore!”

I skated close up to him, removed my helmet and met his lips full on. It felt so good. The day was pretty much over. I had done my best without ruffling any feathers. Just then, Ariele, Ali and Maria arrived and I left Kellan to go and change, as I needed to get out of my kit and clean up a bit. I really stank, but had come prepared with baby wipes this time.

“Arizona, I’ve got to say, you’re pretty amazing out there,” gushed Ali. Maria nodded and Ariele gave me her knowing gaze. I stopped and got a soda on the way to the restroom and, as before, the girls waited for me outside. I changed back into a skirt and t-shirt, combed my hair through and added some lip gloss. I looked in the mirror, looking good, but the bruises were still visible so I covered them up with a scarf and went out to meet the girls.

“Kellan called me to ask us to join them in the cafeteria for pizza while we wait for the decisions,” said Ali.

Pizza sounded perfect, I was starving. We headed over to the cafeteria and walked over to Kellan and he immediately handed us slices. I sat down and gobbled mine up and looked at him for another one. He laughed and brought another slice over to me and sat down with us.

Ariele looked over to him with mock concern and asked, “Are you ok, Kellan? You took quite a beating out there.”

Kellan laughed, “Yeah, she can be mean, all right! She did good. I hope she gets on the team, I’m so proud of her.”

“You should be! Poppet, wow, way to go!”

I looked up into David’s delighted eyes.