Overtime (3 page)

“We better boogie, boys,” Charlie said. “Our empty pad could be full of guys by now. Let’s go.”

They ran off, Charlie out in front. He turned the corner towards the pad, and this time the others had to swerve to avoid him as he skidded to a halt.

“Joyce, do you have a death wish today?” Scott said.

“I have a wish to play ball hockey,” Charlie said. “But look.”

Ten players were lined up, ready for the drop of the ball — ten girls!

“We seem to have a problem,” Pudge said.

“Dalton’s reffing,” Nick said. “Let’s investigate.”

Charlie followed uneasily. He had a bad feeling about this.

“Hey Dalton,” Nick said. “What gives? Tuesday is our day.”

“Correction. Tuesday is grade ten day,” a girl said.

Charlie had never seen her before. She was tall, with her hair in cornrows. He certainly knew the girl opposite her, though — Julia.

“Hey, boys. We thought we’d take a turn,” Julia said. “You can play the winner.”

“Yeah … but … girls have never played before …” Scott’s voice trailed off.

“So?” another girl said.

“Oh, hi, Rebecca,” Scott said to her. “I didn’t see you … there … behind Alexandra … there.”

Scott was never at a loss for words except when Rebecca was around.

“You boys take a seat,” Alexandra said. “We won’t be too long — maybe half an hour, or so.”

“Watch and learn,” the tall girl said. A girl behind her laughed; she was much shorter than her friend, but looked strong and athletic.

Dalton bounced the ball a few times. “I had to concur that it was only fair that they have the opportunity to play,” he said.

Charlie tried not to laugh. Dalton had a funny way of talking, always using big words. But he was a good guy, even if he might be a bit geeky — and he had a point about it being fair.

“Let’s watch from the hill,” he said, pulling on Scott’s arm. “At least you can eat lunch.”

Charlie sat on the ground, and his friends plopped themselves down too. The game was first to score two goals. Julia, Rebecca and Alexandra were the best junior girl hockey players in school, and he figured they would win quickly.

“Julia and the girls will smoke ’em, and we’ll be playing in a couple of minutes,” Charlie said. “Eat up.”

“I know the fourth girl on Julia’s team is Michelle,” Charlie said to Pudge. “I remember her from the Champions Cup. But who’s the girl in net?”

“Not sure,” he said. “Who’s in net for Julia’s team?” he called out.

“Why?” Scott said.

“Charlie wants to know.”

“I thought he was in love with Julia?” Nick said.

“Are they breaking up?” Zachary said.

Charlie could feel himself go red. They were always kidding him about Julia. He knew it was pointless to tell them she was just a friend; he had said that about a thousand times already.

“I think her name is Cassie,” Pudge said.

“If you knew, why didn’t you just tell me?” Charlie said.

“More fun this way,” Pudge said.

He growled and pushed Pudge on the shoulder, and his friend laughed.

Dalton held the ball over his head, and Julia put her stick down for the draw against the tall girl.

“Time for the ol’ razzle-dazzle,” Alexandra said.

“Back to you, Becca,” Julia said.

“In your dreams,” the tall girl said. “It’s right to you, Emily.”

“Number two when you win the draw, Trisha,” Emily said.

“They have plays?” Charlie said. He wondered if they were any good.

Dalton dropped the ball. Trisha knocked Julia’s stick aside, stepped forward, and muscled the ball to Emily, who cradled the ball a few times, drifted to her right, and then rolled it across to her defence partner. Alexandra pressured and passed it back to Emily, and she in turn flicked it up to Trisha, and took off up the right side.

Trisha one-timed it perfectly and Emily roared down the wing with Julia in pursuit, and Michelle angling over. Charlie watched Trisha glide up the middle and then take off full speed at the net.

“I think I get Number Two,” Charlie said.

Emily was a right-handed shot and she wristed the ball into the slot. Trisha kicked out her left foot to control the ball and coolly blasted it into the bottom corner, beating Cassie on the glove side.

Zachary whistled in appreciation.

“That was a bit of skill,” Charlie said.

“I can’t believe she meant to do that,” Scott said. “Lucky bounce.”

“We should probably replace you on the Rebels with her,” Nick said, “just in case.”

“So who is she?” Scott said.

“I thought you loved Rebecca,” Nick said.

“I do, but I want to know the name of the girl who’s taking my spot on the Rebels — so I can be her friend on Facebook,” Scott said.

“I heard her friend call her Trisha,” Charlie said.

“Okay, Joyce,” Scott said. “That’s the second time we’ve caught you cheating on Julia. Behave yourself.”

“She’s new,” Pudge said. “She’s in my science class. Her friend’s name is Emily. Both of them look like they’ve played before.”

“Even if they haven’t, we should replace Scott,” Nick said.

“We may as well go ahead and replace Nick too,” Scott said.

Dalton dropped the ball and again Trisha won the draw. The ball came to Emily. Her defence partner ran up the left wing and she gave her a pass. Alexandra chopped at the ball and it bounced off the rocks that formed the boards and ricocheted backwards. Trisha raced over, taking it on her forehand. Julia trotted over, holding her stick out. Trisha whirled around and passed between Julia’s stick and her left foot up the middle, where Emily calmly took the pass, went forward, and beat Cassie in the right corner over her blocker.

It was 2–0, and the game was over just like that.

“I guess we’re up, boys. Who’s ready?” Charlie said. He felt a few drops of rain. “And we better hurry. Those clouds look angry.”

Zachary tossed his sandwich back in his bag. “I’ll eat this later … maybe. I’m ready.”

“Count me in,” Pudge said.

“Fine. I’ll play, but only because you’re lost without
me,” Scott said.

They wandered slowly onto the pad.

“Awesome snipe, Em,” Trisha said, and she gave her friend a high-five.

Alexandra’s brow wrinkled as Charlie came over. “That was just a warm-up,” she said. “We’re playing for real now.”

Charlie felt himself go red again. “The rules are first to score two goals wins. The losing team sits …” he said.

“We’ve been waiting to play for weeks. You guys have been hogging the pad the whole time. Give us a break,” she said.

“Who wants the honour of giving me their stick?” Scott said, as he joined them.

“I will,” Alexandra said. “But let us play one more goal.”

Scott looked confused. “I thought they got two goals already?”

“Come on, guys,” Rebecca said. “That was like five seconds.”

Charlie felt ridiculous, as if he had been caught doing something wrong. But the rules were the rules; and he wanted to play at least one game. “I know. It’s just that … you can play the winner.” The rain fell a bit harder.

Julia had come over. “It doesn’t matter. Take it.” She threw her stick on the ground and left the pad.

It did not take a genius to figure out the girls were ticked off; and maybe Alexandra was right about the boys hogging the pad. But then again they’d never asked to play before.

“It’s cool. You go again,” Charlie said. “I didn’t even finish my lunch. Go ahead.”

“I didn’t know the rules,” Alexandra said. “You boys play.”

She put her stick down, and Rebecca, Michelle and Cassie did the same, and all five of them walked back to the school. Charlie closed his eyes and sighed. How did a simple game of ball hockey turn into a fight? When he opened his eyes Trisha was looking at him closely.

Trisha tilted her head to the side. “You’re Charlie Joyce, right?”

He felt himself blush. “Yeah. Sure. I guess.” Emily laughed, and Charlie knew he was blushing even more. “I mean, I know I’m Charlie Joyce … rather than … guessing …”

The rain began to fall in earnest, the drops bouncing off the pavement and stirring up the dust.

Trisha leaned her chin on the butt of her stick. “It’s nice to meet you, Charlie Joyce, but it looks like we’ll have to postpone this game.” She held her hand out to catch the raindrops. “What do we do with the sticks?”

“I’ll put them away,” he said, and she and Emily gave him their sticks.

“Thanks, Charlie Joyce. Come on, Em.”

“See you later, Charlie Joyce,” Emily said.

They jogged towards the school.

“It doesn’t look as if we’ll be able to fit in another game,” Dalton said. “With any luck, this inclement weather won’t last long and we can play after school. It has been raining something terrible this fall, hasn’t it?” He took the sticks from Charlie.

“Yeah, it sure has,” Charlie said mechanically. He was watching the two girls turn the corner.

Scott put a hand on his shoulder. “Joyce, I’m very
impressed by the way you remembered your own name,” he said. “I think Trisha was impressed also.”

His buddies were grinning from ear to ear. He had to laugh at himself.

“I can spell it too,” he said.

“You are one special kid,” Scott said.

A crack of thunder interrupted the ribbing.

“Gents, I suggest a mad dash to the school before the tsunami hits,” Nick said.

“All in favour,” Scott said, “say ‘Aye’.”

A chorus of Ayes sounded as they started to run. Charlie kept thinking about Trisha and Emily. Those two could play. He wondered what they could do on the ice.

Out of the corner of his eye Charlie caught sight of Zachary kicking his board into high gear. He cruised into a nose grind and stopped a metre in front of Charlie.

“Howdy, Mr. Charlie.”

They exchanged a high-five. “Where’s everyone else?” Charlie asked.

Zachary flicked his eyebrows and nodded over his shoulder. Charlie heard the unmistakable whirl of skateboard wheels growing louder. Pudge, Scott and Nick rounded the corner of the school and rode over.

“Zachary Jackson, you better slow down or you are going to hurt yourself,” Scott said in a high-pitched voice.

“Yeah. He’ll get wind burn,” Nick said. He pointed to Charlie’s board. “How’s the Buy-A-Real-Board fund coming along?”

Charlie held his board up. It was so old and beat-up the nose was falling apart. He was saving up money by working at his mom’s café.

“A few more weeks and the new board is mine,” Charlie said.

“You should buy this one,” Scott said. He had
nicknamed his ride Black Beauty, on account of its shiny, black deck.

“The deck is too wide,” Zachary said. “I’d go with a slimmer model.” He held his board out.

“I’ll take them both,” Charlie said.

“You’ll go twice as fast,” Nick quipped.

“Not sure the weather’s gonna cooperate,” Pudge said.

“Yeah, and the rain’s scared off the competition,” Scott said.

Charlie had convinced the guys to play ball hockey after school. The rain had let up, but it looked bad now.

“We wanted a tougher game, but we’ll take you guys on,” someone called from a distance.

Charlie turned in the direction of the voice. Alexandra was laughing as she made her way towards them, with Julia and Rebecca at her side.

“Let’s divide up and play before we get dumped on again,” Zachary said.

“Sure, sounds good,” Julia said.

An awkward silence followed. Rebecca crossed her arms, and Alexandra pulled her hair back from her face and tied it with a scrunchie into a ponytail. The boys kept their eyes on the ground or looked off into the distance.

Charlie knew they needed to clear the air. He took a deep breath.

“We were talking, some of us, about how you girls were right, about the ball hockey. I mean, that we were sort of hogging the Tuesdays — the boys, I mean …” Everyone was staring at him. He felt his heart pounding, and he prayed his voice wouldn’t crack. “I think we should speak to Dalton about the days, and share them,
I mean the boys and girls, and maybe … we should … share the pad.”

Alexandra raised her eyebrows and stuck her tongue in the side of her mouth. Rebecca looked down at the ground.

“That would be awesome,” Julia said. “We don’t have to play all the time — but some of the girls have been talking …”

“It works for me,” Alexandra said.

Again, there was quiet, but it did not feel so uncomfortable to Charlie now.

“Actually, it’s good that you guys are here,” Julia said, finally.

“It’s always good that we’re here,” Scott said.

They all laughed.

“It’s good that you’re here because we were trying to come up with ideas to present to the fundraising committee,” Julia said.

“Do you really think we can raise that kind of money?” Nick said.

“I think you’re forgetting my penny collection,” Scott said.

Nick slapped his head. “Oh yeah! What are you up to?”

“Twelve bucks,” Scott said.

“TFH is saved!” Nick proclaimed, shaking Scott’s hand.

Julia eyed the two jokesters. “Maybe we should come up with one or two more ideas?”

“Car washes, bake sales and chocolates are too lame,” Nick said. “I pray we don’t have to do that.”

“Never diss chocolate,” Scott said.

“You can count on those,” Pudge said, “and probably the parents will be asked to contribute. We have seven hundred fifty kids in school. If every parent puts in a hundred …”

Charlie suddenly felt worried. That would give them seventy-five thousand dollars, which was a huge amount — but only half way there. He felt a drop of rain — as if he were not depressed enough.

“Whatever we come up with will have to be indoors. It’s been raining every day,” he muttered.

“Do you have an indoor idea?” Pudge said.

He paused, hoping one would come to him — and then it did! “What about a movie, for the whole school, in the gym, and we can sell popcorn and drinks and charge admission.”

He waited for Scott and Nick to make a joke.

But they didn’t.

“That’s a great idea,” Pudge said, and the other guys seemed to agree.