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the team walked through the doors of the rink and were met with cameras and reporters, asking them how they feel about the game. fulton switched sides with arabella so she was in the middle of him and dean. he knew she didn't want to be near the cameras, especially with how she was feeling. 

they managed to escape the flashes of light and find their locker room, and the team began getting ready. most of them were having a pretty fun time, but arabella sat in silence in one of the corners of the room. 

it changed when bombay walked in the room, his hair slicked back and in a fancy suit. everyone cheered at this, and averman walked up to him. "hey nice jacket! did you get two pairs of pants with that?"

arabella didn't say anything, but was very confused. 'what the hell did that mean?'

she looked up and saw dean and fulton standing next to him, and saw fulton say something. she tried listening but it was pretty loud. arabella tried asking him about it, but fulton shook his head, saying he'd tell her later. 

as the team got onto the ice to warm up, arabella heard cheers from around the stadium. there were a lot of people, and that didn't help arabella. she kept warming up and skating around though, and she saw averman standing by goldberg, holding his stick as a microphone. it wasn't long before a referee came around and told them to start warming up. 

before the game, the team got their pregame talk before breaking apart to go line up. arabella wasn't on the first line, but she noticed jesse and dean were. they were both strong players, but arabella had a feeling that something was going to happen. 

right when the puck dropped, jesse and the other center were battling for the puck, when dean came out from defense and shoved the center from iceland. "come on fool, get up!"

the referee went up to him to give him a penalty, but when dean turned around, he knocked the referee to the ground. 

this led to dean getting kicked out, and arabella looked at the scoreboard. three seconds in, and he already got kicked out. that had to be a new record. bombay started to complain from the bench, like any other coach would do. "you're throwing him out? you can't do that! it's three seconds into the game!"

knowing his yelling wouldn't change anything, bombay sent arabella out to play as a winger, her usual position. the puck dropped again, and iceland got it. they skated down the ice towards goldberg, passing and knocking down anyone that was in their way. 

it wasn't long before they tricked goldberg, having him sprawl across the net to try and get the puck. an iceland player passed to his teammate, who told golderg to 'come and get it', before scoring. 

the line switched, but bombay kept arabella out for some reason, making her groan. "this fucker."

she went back to her position at the face off circle before hearing the iceland coach call out to the winger next to her, before saying something in icelandic. she knew it was probably about her feeling tired, so she knew she would get pummeled. 

when the puck dropped, she immediately skated backwards to try and get open as well as avoid the iceland winger. they finally got the puck, arabella didn't know who had it, but saw them fall due to an iceland player skating at them. 

arabella sighed as the puck was in iceland's possession, and she decided she wouldn't just wait for a pass anymore to try and stay safe. charlie was skating with the puck, but got smashed by two iceland players, making the puck loose. 

dwayne picked it up, but was messing around with it. arabella knew it would get stolen, so she tried calling out to dwayne. "pass the puck, dwayne!"

she was open, but dwayne was still messing with it. fulton also tried calling for it, but two iceland players sandwiched dwayne, making him lose it. arabella looked up in exasperation before going to the boards, feeling her legs want to give out. 

when she climbed over, she saw kenny sitting with an empty spot next to him. she knew if she sat there, he'd want to say something. but if she didn't sit down, her legs would buckle. 

she decided to stand, leaning against the board for some support. this didn't go unnoticed by kenny, who stood up and told her to sit down. "ara, you need a break. take my spot."

arabella shook her head, still standing. one thing many people noticed about her is that she's very stubborn, which isn't helpful sometimes. kenny realized she wasn't going to, so he grabbed her water bottle and put it next to her before sitting back down.

arabella watched as goldberg saved gunnar stahl's shot, and as adam picked it up to try and score. she cheered for adam, watching and hoping he would score. it was the second period now, and they didn't have a single goal. however, he got knocked over and did a front flip, but he was able to pass it to luis. 

"c'mon luis!" arabella called to the boy who was skating faster than she'd ever see before. 

he was about to score, but he got tripped, making him fly into the boards. arabella looked away and cursed, before heading out there to take his place as he skated back to the boards. 

"hey! arabella! what do you think you're doing?" bombay called out, but she didn't listen. she saw him turn and go to kenny, who was sitting with his helmet up.

they were talking for a minute, before kenny took someone off the ice. arabella watched as he got the puck, spinning between the two iceland defense. they immediately pushed him down, and arabella gasped. she was going to go over to help him, but realized the refs didn't call anything, so she had to keep playing. 

as much as she didn't want to admit it, she hoped he was okay. 

a few minutes later, gunnar scored, making arabella sigh. she had gotten off the ice and was sitting on the bench, waiting for her turn to play again. 

it didn't come, however, because the second period ended. the team was huddled up, listening to bombay as he complained. "you guys are running around like a bunch of chickens with your heads cut off!"

jesse wasn't happy about this, and he tried defending the team. "we're doing our best."

arabella looked over to bombay, waiting for his response. "your best isn't good enough anymore. blow this game and we are one loss away from elimination. you guys might want to go home early, but i sure as heck don't."

arabella was going to say something, but she was too tired to. she looked up at the score board and saw it was 4-0, and she groaned. 

she stayed on the bench and watched as goldberg tried and failed to save another shot. she was going to get up to switch the lines out, but bombay held her back. "you need to do better, arabella. you're a good player, but i'm not seeing it today."

arabella took a deep breath, trying to stop herself from yelling at him. it worked, so she only nodded and drank more of her water as she saw her line go out to play, with connie playing her position. 

bombay walked away, and told goldberg he was off. arabella shot up, realizing julie would finally have her chance to play. she cheered for julie as she skated to the ice, telling her good luck. 

dwayne came to sit next to her. "hey bella! how're you feeling today?"

"not good, cowboy."

dwayne grinned. "it's funny you say that. kenny said that to me earlier too!"

arabella's body seemed to shrink as kenny's name was brought up, but she didn't want to worry dwayne. "that's kinda crazy."

arabella turned her attention to the ice, where they were lined up. julie skated to the net, and two iceland players skated up to her. arabella knew the boys were probably saying something dumb, and she was proved right. 

julie turned to them and said something that arabella couldn't hear, but she saw the two boys lean over, and that's when julie shoved them both to the ground. 

of course, the referee kicked her out of the game for that. arabella threw her water bottle at the ground, before picking it back up to throw again. 

goldberg went back out, and bombay told arabella and fulton to go out on the ice, knowing they worked well together. 

dwayne had the puck, but passed it to arabella so he wouldn't get pushed down again. arabella looked to find fulton by the blue line, winding up, so she passed to him. she watched him shoot, hoping he would finally score for them. 

but the goalie saved it with his glove. arabella winced as he pulled his glove off to show a bruise. "that's gotta hurt."

she turned and skated to fulton, who looked disappointed. "hey, c'mon weedy reedy. it was an amazing shot, just forget about it."

the team switched lines, but arabella was told to stay on the ice. she passed the puck to adam, and skated next to him as he started skating past the players. arabella was blocked by an iceland player who was about to push her down, but she skated past him to see adam shoot the puck into the net, making a goal. 

she skated over to him and gave him a hug, congratulating him. "good job, cake eater!"

the crowd went wild, and adam cheered as he was by the net, putting his stick up so he could give arabella a hug. that's when an iceland player came out of nowhere and slammed his stick onto adam's wrist, making the other players on arabella's line yell at him. 

she turned to adam and knew his wrist was broken, but still asked him if he was okay. she only left when charlie skated over to him. the other players left not long after, cheering that they finally got a goal. 

arabella sat on the bench with adam, picking up some spare ice from the ground and telling him to hold it to his wrist. she was with him for a while, trying to help him, before bombay told her to go out and play.

sighing, she got up and grabbed her stick before heading to the ice. jesse won the face off, and passed the puck to her. arabella knew she should go wide, so that's exactly what she did. she successfully skated past the other forwards from iceland, and now just had to cut through to the center to score. she heard charlie's voice call from the net, but she didn't want to pass to him. she needed to show the world that she could play. 

as she looked up to the net, she saw a familiar face cheering behind it, and she almost froze. the iceland defense took this as a sign of weakness and smashed her into the boards, making her hit her head against the glass. she slid down, already dizzy from being on her period, before turning to look behind the net again, but the familiar face was turned around and was heading up the stairs. 

arabella got up to go to the bench, seeing as the refs didn't call a penalty. but when she reached the bench, she ignored everyone trying to help her, and she heard charlie yelling at the two iceland players for checking her, but she didn't pay attention to that. she turned her gaze back to the stairs in the crowd behind the net. 

the face smiled and waved before walking away, making arabella confused.

'why's he here?'