"He shoots, HE SCORES!!!!" Dandy dances around on the ice, holding his stick above his head.

Sean Avery rolls his eyes. "Right, cuz it's really hard to score when the goalies aren't here yet."

Jesse grins. "Oh, right, because you've been scoring all kinds of goals."

Sean glares back. "At least I have a few goals. Unlike you."

This is how you know that you're a dork. Me, Dandy, Avery, Jesse, and Fischer are here at practice. An hour early. You'd think that we would have better things to do than skate around like a bunch of dorks, but apparently not. I came to the rink early so that I could be sure to corner Dandy and find out what had gone on between him and Shanny, but he was already there when I showed up, along with Sean and Jesse, who both said they were bored and figured they would come to practice early.

So, here we are. Shooting pucks, passing back and forth, racing each other, and basically acting like a bunch of little kids. It's fun, really, just goofing off like this. I dig the puck out of the net and start skating with it. "Here, Dandy, catch." I throw him the puck.

"Hey, come on, it's my turn!" protests Sean.

Dandy just laughs, skates backwards, and tosses the puck to Jesse. He takes it and starts skating away, Sean in hot pursuit. Just as Sean starts to catch up, Jesse tosses the puck to Fischer. Fish just stands there, holding the puck. Sean skates up to him, and Fish holds the puck out, as if he's going to hand the puck to Sean.....

Then, he pulls his arm away and holds the puck over his head, smiling evilly. "Oh c'mon, Fish, give me the puck," Sean pleads.

"Nope."

Sean crosses his arms. "Please? I'm begging you here."

Fish keeps smirking. "If you want it, you're going to have to take it from me."

"What?? That's not fair!" Sean yells.

We're all laughing, amused by Sean staring hopelessly up at the puck being held over half a foot above his head. "Can't reach?" Fish asks him.

Sean tries to stretch upward to grab it, but he only succeeds in hitting Fish in the chest. "Fuck," he mutters, starting to turn red. We're all laughing even harder. Sean sighs with frustration and attempts to jump up and get the puck. I have to sit down on the ice before I fall over, and I can see Jesse and Dandy both doubled over with laughter.

Sean keeps hopping on his skates, never even getting close to the puck. "Just give up, Sean!" Dandy yells out.

"I'm not gonna give up until I get the fucking puck!" Sean yells.

He keeps jumping, and we keep laughing. Then, from the bench, I hear "They're like a bunch of kindergartners."

I turn and see Steve standing there, shaking his head. "Uhm....hi," I say quietly. You know, I really need to stop getting all tingly every time I see him.

He smiles and waves. "Hi Boyd." He raises his voice. "Fischer!!!!" Fish spins around, shocked, still holding the puck over his head.

He blinks, looking quite a lot like a deer in headlights. "Yes?"

"Give Sean the puck." Steve commands.

"But..." Fish protests.

"Give. Him. The. Puck."

Reluctantly, Fish hands the puck to Sean, who does a miniature victory dance and skates away.

Steve just shakes his head. "If I go back to the locker room, can I trust you five not to regress back into toddlers again?"

"I'll make sure they behave," Dandy says, trying to look responsible.

Steve laughs. "You’re all doomed."

He leaves, and I stand up. "Hey Dandy, can I talk to you for a sec?"

He skates over. "Sure, what's up?"

I grin. "What were you and Shanny discussing so intently last Saturday? You two seemed to be having fun..."

He blushes. "Shut up."

"Oh come on Dandy, I'm your friend, you can't just not tell me what's going on..." He tries to skate away, but I movie in front of him to block him.

He sighs. "Ok, fine, I'll tell you." He looks away. "We....I....well, we talked, about how I had asked him if he wanted to do something, and he said that he'd like to do something, and since we were there already, that might as well be the something that we did," he takes a deep breath after that long speech, "and so we talked and stuff, and I found out that I really liked him and he found out that he really liked me, so we're going to do more things together, and..." he runs out of breath again and stops, panting.

I start laughing again. "I'm really happy for you, Dandy. You and Shanny will probably have....some interesting times together. Come to think of it, maybe we should warn everyone. You two could be a destructive combination..."

He grins back at me. "I'm sort of counting on it."

We separate for a few minutes to go practice by ourselves, and I can't keep my mind from working overtime. When I saw Steve today...I got a chill. I do every time I see him. How am I supposed to continue on like this? Am I going to explode from hormones? Why me?

By that point, it's time for practice, and I try to focus all my energy on practicing. All in all, it actually turns out to be a fun practice. Afterwards, I'm about to go to the locker room, when I feel a hand on my shoulder. I glance over and see that it's Steve. "Hey Boyd, could I talk to you for a few minutes?" he asks.

What I need now is an honest answer, to make things better
You can see now my hands are tied, and I surrender
So I'll wait here for your final answer, your final answer
Is there love without hate
Is there pleasure without pain?
-The Calling, "Final Answer"

Part 18 | Part 20