Hockey Story

I arrived at the rink early on that cold December day. I pulled my bag out of the back of my moms white truck and heaved it over my shoulder. I slowly made my way to the entrance of Ben Boeke, slipping on the sheets of ice that easily could be its own rink if it lost all the gravel. As I entered, the smell of sweat and chemicals hit my nose and I felt my nerves build. This was it. The championship game. My team had worked the whole season to get to this point. Every day of painful dry land and every practice all lead up to this game, The State Championship.

I entered the locker room and found a spot among the bags to deposit mine. Almost all of my team was already there, they must be nervous too. I sat down on the bench and stared off. I knew my team was watching the game in the stands right now but I wanted to be alone. I had been playing bad for the past couple of days. I had been making stupid mistakes like fumbling when I had the puck or taking shots that don't even hit the net. In some cases, even if it was aimed at the net, I would shoot it right at the goalie. I needed to do better. I needed to focus but I had been having trouble with that lately. I wasn't sure what it was about but I did have a lot of shit going on at the moment. My mom was getting a divorce again, for the third time, and she already had a new love interest she was bringing around to the house. I hadn't seen my dad for awhile. He had been working a lot and...