"And I asked him, Would you like to stay for dinner?" said Charlie as he explained the story of how coach apologized to him. "Charlie!" I groaned. "Yeah that's what my mom said, but guess what.....he stayed," he said excitedly. We were in the van on the way to someplace coach was taking us. Everybody else was fooling around while Charlie and I talked about nonsense. "Do you think coach will actually be able to help us or do you think he will end up like our last coach?" I asked. Coach Bombay was different from all our other coaches we used to have. Yes, he did yell but he wasn't fat and he didn't yell all the time. Also, he knew what he was talking about when he was coaching us. He was the only coach that actually apologized to us too. "Yeah I guess he will be able to help us, so far he has proven his loyalty to us and he's a lot nicer than our old coaches," replied Charlie. He took the words right out of my mouth.

We stood inside Han's Sport Shop waiting for what coach was going to say. I blew a bubble with my bubble gum and Charlie popped it. The worst thing about popping my bubbles is that they get stuck to my braces. I shoved him. He started laughing as I tried to collect the remaining bubble gum off my braces with my tongue. "Go ahead kids and pick the stuff you need. It's all on me," said Bombay. All my teammates ran to pick up things and play with them. I walked up to the cash register. "Hi there, my name Brie Davis. I wanted to ask you what equipment would fit me best? I use all my dad's old stuff but now it is kind of falling apart and he bought all his stuff from here." I said to the man behind the cash register. He chuckled then replied to my question. "Ah, Kenny Davis. Your dad was an amazing hockey player. I should've known I would be seeing his kids here sooner or later." I could tell he was foreign by his thick accent. I thought it was cool that he knew my dad.

After my first conversation with Han's, he took me around the store and showed me all the things that would fit me best. I quickly grabbed it all and he put it to the side to ring it up with the rest of everybody else's stuff. Han's went to the back as I admired the collage of old team pictures and newspaper articles that hung on the wall. He came back and stood beside me. "I don't care if I never go anywhere with hockey, I want my picture to make it on this wall," I explained to him. "May I ask why?" he asked. "This wall is filled with a bunch of old hockey players. Some of them went places and others didn't. These things are memories, precious memories. I don't care if I win or lose every game I play from now on. I just want to be on this wall. It gives off good...." I said trying to come up with a word. "Energy..." Han's concluded. He handed me a new pair of skates. "Here, they are on the house....as long as you come to work with me when you are 13," he said. I tried to protest but he waved me off. "Keep them." he ended the conversation and walked to the register.

|Time skip....Practice|

The van pulled up to the rink that we were renting for practice. The whole team walked in and watched as the figure skaters. "Anybody know who they are?" asked Bombay. "That's Tommy Duncan. He's in my science class," replied Terry Hall. "And that's his sister, Tammy," I added. He shooed us away to go get changed in the locker rooms. I walked in and placed my stuff next to Connie. It was awkward to get changed with the boys in the locker room since we were the only girls. "Hey, I was wondering if you were able to stay the night tonight?" I asked her as she sat next to me. She nodded. "Yeah sure." I was ecstatic. This was the first time I had a girl friend even come to my house. Coach interrupted my excitement by bringing us to the ice.

The first thing we practiced was skating in between the cones. It was a breeze for Tammy, Tommy, and me. The others were a bit shaky. I watched as Charlie made his way through the cones. Not even halfway through he slipped and made the cones go all over the place. "Good going Spazzway," said Karp. I turned to him and punched his arm as hard as I could. "Ow, what was that for Brie?" he asked while rubbing the soon to be a bruise on his bicep. "I'm only allowed to call him Spazzway. He fell by accident." I explained while defending him.

After trying the cones a couple more times coach brought out eggs. "Soft hands. You don't shoot the puck to your teammate. You sail it to him. Karp, on your feet. You send it." he exclaimed by passing the egg to Karp. Once it hit his stick it shattered and spilled its continents on the ice. My teammates around me complained about how gross it was. Charlie nudged me. "Look karma," he said giggling. I chuckled along. "You don't stop the pass. You accept it. Cradle it." Bombay described.

Since Charlie tried to pass the egg to coach and it exploded all over him we were told to 'sail ' it to each other. I was one of the many people who didn't crack their eggs. Goldberg was my partner and complained the entire time about how this was never going to help him. "Goldberg if it's that big of a problem to you then go and talk to coach. He took my advice and spoke to him. Before I knew Goldberg was tied to the goal and we were shooting pucks at him. At first, he screamed like a baby. Then after a few minutes, he realized that it wasn't hurting him and his screams turned into laughter.

When we all finished our pucks we did the cones one last time and we all got it. Today was the best practice we had in years. I was glad to have these kids as my teammates and my friends. Coach Bombay had something that none of the other coaches had, patience and determination.