❝ you’re getting too old, too weak to keep holding on ❞

•••

Sophie stood between Connie and Julie as they walked to the rink, soaking in the applause of the packed arena. Sophie knew everything they had worked for came down to today. Everything her team had pushed through to get here could go to waste if they lost.

She let the other two girls step onto the ice before her, waiting for Kenny so that the two could enter the rink together. The pair skated around the rink together, waving at the people who had taken time out of their day to come and watch them play. It really meant the world to Sophie that these people would do that.

In the front row near their team’s bench, Sophie spotted Jennifer and Will cheering for them. Sophie grabbed onto Kenny’s arm, tugging him towards their coaches as her eyes watered.

“You guys came!” Sophie shouted at the glass as she stood against it.

The couple moved from their seats and closer to the glass.

“We wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Jennifer smiled as she pressed one of her hands on the glass, Sophie putting her hand up to where the coach’s was.

“We’re so proud of you two,” Will shouted over the cheers. “You’ve come so far.”

The two hockey players smiled at each other before they were called to the bench by Jesse. Sophie smiled before blowing a kiss at the two, letting Kenny drag her back towards the bench.

She was more than grateful that the couple had come to support her, Kenny, and the team but she now felt more pressure to win even if she didn’t realize it. She shook her hands out as she leaned against the wall, Dean’s arm slipping around her shoulders.

Bombay quickly began calling out the starters, Sophie mentally sighing in relief that she wasn’t one of them. Most loved being starters but she found that personally it made her very anxious to be one. She felt that being the first person to sub in for a starter was much better for her.

“Heads high! Stand tall! Fly straight!” Bombay called out as the entire team grinned at him excitedly. “USA!”

“All the way!”

Sophie quickly pressed a chaste kiss to Dean’s cheek as he was about to skate away. The boy squeezed her hand before skating to his starting point.

Averman was taking face off, immediately getting knocked to the ground the moment the puck hit the ice. Sophie cringed as her knee began to pounce up and down, beginning to slowly crack her knuckles one by one when Guy was knocked down moments later.

The puck was behind the net and Dean went to retrieve it, getting checked into the glass by Gunnar Stahl. The Iceland team shot the puck at the goal, Goldberg managing to do a stick save which lifted Sophie’s spirits just a bit.

That was until Goldberg was tripped and he wasn’t able to stop the second shot at the goal. Iceland had scored the first point of the game and Sophie found herself having to remind herself that it was just one point. For now.

“Too slow big boy!” One of the many blonde players for Iceland taunted Goldberg as he skated past.

Sophie jumped up, ready to go onto the ice herself and sort the guy out when Miss McKay pulled her back by her shoulders and rubbed them to calm her down. She turned to muttering profanities that made Julie smack her thigh in an attempt to silence her.

Nobody got to make fun of Team USA except for their teammates.

Bombay called for a line change, Sophie along with Guy, Russ, and Jesse going in. Dean patted her shoulder as he passed her, causing her to smile at him.

“That’s the shooter and the girl. Watch him. Get him. Taunt her.”

Team USA was completely oblivious to the words that Stanson was speaking to his team, only knowing that Iceland too, was doing a line change. Sophie’s heart beat in an odd pattern as she took notice of the larger players moving onto the ice even though it looked like their starters hadn’t even broken a sweat yet.

“That’s my boy!” Russ’ brother called when he saw him on the ice.

Sophie smiled up at their little group in the stands before she slipped on her helmet. Barely ten seconds after the puck was on the ice, Russ had two Iceland players on him as they both held them up to the wall. Sophie quickly rushed up behind them, knocking into one of the two causing him to fall into his teammate. The two Iceland players fell away from Russ who crumpled to the ground.

“The little lady is feisty today,” one of the Iceland players said as Sophie skated away, making her skin crawl.

She brushed it off, much better than anything that was said the other night when the team invaded her practice, and helped keep the other Iceland players off of Russ. He was passed the puck, getting ready to do his signature move when one of the Iceland players knocked into him and passed the puck to his teammate.

They managed to get the puck to the opposite side of the rink as Fulton jumped in front of one of the players, tripping him. As the Iceland player who now had the puck got closer to the goal, Sophie did the same as her brother and dived in front of him. He also tripped, landing on the girls back but Goldberg was able to stop the goal. Well until another Iceland player caught him off guard and scored literally five seconds later.

For the next few minutes, the puck went back and forth between the two sides of the rink, Team USA players getting knocked down left and right. Sophie’s back ached from the weight of the Iceland player landing on her back along with constantly getting shoved into walls or to the ice. Every time a player knocked into her, they seemed to have some snide, misogynistic comment to go along with it.

She finally had enough when one of the blondes forcefully shoved her into the wall before insinuating that she slept her way onto the team. The brunette threw down her stick before socking him across the face. Jennifer and Will both jumped at the action, watching helplessly as she was dragged to the penalty box.