Decisions Ch. 09

"Coach! Please!" I begged. "I can still play. This is my destiny!"

I didn't even care if I was being dramatic. In a way, this was my destiny. I didn't go this far just to have to sit out. Coach Butler looked at me, then at the ice, then back at me. He struggled with what to say next until I beat him to the punch. "Coach, you always said you wanted to prove that nonhumans are better than humans. Now let me prove it."

A tight smile spread across his face. "You're a human, Chris." He observed, before he cupped his hands around his mouth. "Zach! ZACHARY! BRADY! OUT!" He turned back to me, a proud look on his face. "Go get 'em, Chris!"

I grabbed my stick and hopped over onto the ice, hissing in pain when I landed on my right leg. My knee was still shooting with pain, but my resolve to finish this game and win beat any cowardice I was feeling. When the packed stadium realized I was skating out onto the ice, they jumped to their feet, screaming in approval.

"M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P!" They chanted.

I stuck out my fist, bumping it with Brady on the way to the formation. "Finish it off, Chris." He ordered.

"I got you, Zach." I declared.

"I know you do." He said. "I know you do."

******

Overtime hockey is one of the most exciting things there can be. It's sudden death, so whoever scores first, wins. The number of skaters is reduced from five, to three. Viktor, Jesse, me, and the other lines were going to be the ones deciding whether or not we were going to the State Championship.

We fought hard, trying to make plays were we could. We managed to keep the tie locked until two minutes let. By this time, everyone was fatigued and mistakes were becoming more apparent. Seeing my chance, I called for the puck from Jesse, who passed to me. With less traffic to navigate through, I decided to end the game in a hail mary. As soon as I had the puck, I was going, skating as fast as I could.

Even though my knee screamed in protest, I refused to listen. It was me against the goalie. Everything fell away and turned to black as the both of us got tunnel vision, focusing solely on each other. I locked in on him, giving him a little display of my puck handling skills. The goalie was mesmerized and utterly focused on the hardened piece of black plastic.

Big mistake.

Using my head and shoulders, I faked a shot to the left and the goalie bit on it. Hard. With a wide open net, I fired off a slapshot from the blue line and....-

"YES!" I screamed.

When the light went off, the stadium exploded. I skated past the goalie and back to our bench. As 'Holiday' by Green Day blared from the loudspeakers, I slammed into Viktor, hugging him with all my might and collapsing onto the ice.

"Ladies and gentlemen," The announcer screamed. "Your Belcourt Minotaurs are going to the State Championship!"

We were joined by the entire team, blows raining down on our backs and our heads, everyone hugging one another. I came to my feet, ripped off my helmet, and held it up, a gleeful grin on my face. State Championship, here we go!

For once, the crowd was allowed to come into the rink to celebrate with the players. It was curtailed by the administration, but the administration wasn't going to be able to stop the packed stadium from coming down and celebrating with the player.

By the time I was halfway back to the bench, a beautiful blur with raven hair and a white jersey with #14 emblazoned on it was running to meet me, our families and friends not far behind. My breath was knocked out of me when Stasi slipped on the ice and slammed into me, knocking me over. She wrapped her arms around me, hugging me tightly and planting cold kisses on my face, neck, anything anywhere my sweaty skin was exposed.

"Don't do that!" She gasped, dried blood trails on her pale cheeks. "Don't do that ever again! P-please don't. I can't take it. I love you so much, but never do that again! M-m-m-oye serdtse ne mozhet prinyat' yego." She made to say more, but I cut her off with a passionate kiss, ignoring the cameras that were going off around us.

"I won't. I promise." I panted, adjusting my leg so my knee wasn't hurting as badly.

"How did you play on that leg?" She hiccuped. "Please tell me!"

"When I made eye contact with you while I was getting checked out by the athletic trainer, did you say that you loved me?" She nodded mutely. "That's what gave me the strength to keep on playing. You did."

Stasi cried and sealed my lips in a passionate kiss once more. "Woo!" Viktor screamed next to us, making us break our kiss. He was carrying Abby in his arms. Her wheelchair was gone but neither of them seemed to care. "We're going to States! We're going to States!"

"States, states!" Ricky shouted, helping Stasi and I to our feet. When we were on her feet, he crushed me in a hug and probably breaking my ribs. "Sorry Annie, I'm going to have to borrow your lie-oo-bov for a sec'. CHRIS! AMIGO! YOU FREAKIN' HERO!" He screamed, making my head throb.

"Oui, indeed!" Josie said, in her silky French accent. "Un homme brave!" She cupped my cheeks with gloved hands, planting a kiss on both sides and leaving me very red. "What a game! But, I don't recommend playing like that! We were having trouble calming Anna down!"

"Yes, we did, but oh my god, what a game, Chris!" Lucy screamed, excitedly. She skittered over to me and gave me a hug, planting a kiss on my cheek. "I'm so proud of you!" I hugged her back, then turned to Jazz, who looked pale and quite shaken.

"Jazz?" I asked.

"I'm sorry I jinxed you." She said, wringing her snake tail.

"What?"

"I said it was the wingers that get clobbered!" She bawled. "I jinxed you!"

"Forget about that. We're going to States!" I cried, giving her a tight hug. She settled into my embrace, planting another kiss on my cheek.

I gave everybody hugs. Josie, Lucy, Jazz, an ecstatic Yulia and Anton, who were more occupied with their son having a girl in his arms, and finally, my parents. My mom didn't say a word, stepping up to me.

"I'm sorry, mom." I said.

"Don't be. I'm so proud of you, Chris." She said, holding back tears and crushing me in a hug. She wiped her nose when she broke it, gesturing to my dad. While Stasi consoled her and let her get her tears out by hugging her, I turned to my dad. He looked worse for wear, the game probably having aged him a few years.

"You ok, dad?" I asked, a tired smile lighting up my face.

"What... a... game..." He breathed, crushing me in a hug.

"Thanks, dad." I said, breaking the hug. Suddenly, I was hit by a blonde blur.

"Good game, bro!" She squealed, crushing me in a hug. "You're a hero!" She stepped back, holding out her clasped hand. She was holding onto my bundled t-shirt. The T-Shirt was extra large, with Northern California Conference Champions plastered on it. It was large so it could fit over my hockey pads. "I'd leave you to put this on, but I think Annie wants to do it more!"

"That's right, I do." Stasi said, taking the t-shirt from Elena. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

"Yep! Good thing you remembered, too. Where's the goalie?"

"Who? McCoy?" I asked.

"No! The slime! Eric!" Elena said, grinning.

"He's over there." I pointed. Elena looked where I was pointing, thanked me, and hustled off. I turned to Stasi. "What was that all about?"

"I think someone has a crush." Stasi giggled. "I caught her looking numerous times at the goalie box when Eric was in and when the puck was way out of the defensive zone. Now, let's get this shirt on! I want to see how it looks!" Without further ado, she unfurled the white t-shirt and together, we admired it before she finally tugged it over my hockey pads. When she finished, she kissed me on the cheek.

"It looks great, lyubov." She gushed, hugging me. "Now, let's go congratulate everybody. Then, we can head home, get something to eat, and in bed!"

I went with her, leaning on her for support because of my knee and together, we congratulated the rest of the team, said hi to fellow classmates, answer a few questions from reporters, and hug the teachers that decided to show up. Ms. Euthixie was positively jumping up and down, cheering like a madwoman while Mr. Coppergut, in his trademark children's Minotaur costume, was following Stasi and I, jabbering about what a good game the team had and complimenting me on my 'toughness'.

I was going to say that it wasn't me being tough and that Stasi deserved the credit for giving me the strength to keep on pushing and just as I was about to turn around to say it, Stasi pinched me, as if she knew what was going to come out of my mouth. It was right then and there that I decided to let sleeping werewolfs lie.

We decided to skip Eric, who looked to be positively melting under Elena's suddenly awkward and shy attitude. For a guy who always said he liked to sit in the back and watch others make a fool out of themselves, he seemed to be looking the fool now! We also skipped the Kelly twins. Dan, the louder and crazy one, was trying to chat up a succubus, and Henry, the quieter and more laid-back twin, was talking to Lucy, of all people.

Finally, just when it seemed I got everybody, the Captain from the Bear Mountain Hockey Team approached me. Stasi stepped up next to me protectively, her fangs elongated. To Stasi, the entire Bear Mountain Hockey Team was dirty and out for my blood. But to me, the captain was alright. She played well and clean. It was the one dude that tried to take out my knee that I hoped Stasi didn't see. When the captain stepped up to me, she stuck out her hand. "Good game." She offered cordially.

"Good game." I replied. "Christopher."

"I know who you are. I was looking forward to playing you for a while. Rebecca. Say, are you single?" She asked.

"Nope, sorry." I laughed. "My heart's taken by this beautiful girl right here."

Stasi rolled her eyes but gave me a peck on the cheek, regardless. Rebecca laughed as well. I realized that she was actually very pretty. Despite her intimidating and muscular appearance, her honey-blonde hair framed rather delicate facial features. But, she didn't have anything on Stasi. "Shoot! Not only are you an excellent hockey player, but you're taken as well! You'll have to send me a text in the offseason so we can practice together! I need some of your stickhandling skills. It just isn't fair!"

I looked at Stasi who smiled at me happily. No, it was not. How could this be fair? With everything that went so wrong in the past month and in our lives, everything was also going so right. We were on our way to the State Championship! I had a wonderful family, great friends, a perfect school. I also had my vampiric best friend, Stasi, the love of my life, the one I couldn't do without.

It just wasn't fair.

In a good way.

To be continued.

*****

Author's Notes: Thank you so much to my wonderful editors, PH and WR for making sure that this story was in tip top shape for you guys. As always, I love to hear from the people who read my stories, so if you have something to say, send me a PM! It could be criticism, encouragement, ideas where to take our two lovable protagonists, or simply just a 'hello'. I still want to hear it. :)

Stay awesome,

Holt