Page 51 of Fake Skating

I was setting up the camera when my dad texted.

Dad: I’m here. Just paid. Is there anywhere in particular I should sit?

What?? I looked up at the stands, my heart racing as I texted: Wait, you’re here in Southview? At the hockey game?

No.

No way.

He couldn’t actually be here ,at the game, could he?

Why was he in town at all?!

Panic ballooned in my chest. This can’t be happening. I haven’t even had a chance to talk to Mom about Dad yet. And now he was here. Without telling me he was coming.

No, no, no, no, no.

I glanced in the direction of where the hockey parents were sitting, and I could see my mom next to John, Sarah, and the twins, right in the middle of their row.

I jumped when my phone buzzed, and my heart was beating in my ears when I read: Since it’s been nearly impossible to reach you, I decided to fly in so we can talk. I thought I could surprise you!

Nonononononoonoooooooooo!

I texted: I’m going to be busy during the game with manager stuff and it’s pretty packed tonight, so maybe we should just meet up afterward. What hotel are you staying at?

Please, please leave.

Dad: I’ve already bought a ticket, Daniella. I’ll watch the game and we can connect afterward.

God, I couldn’t believe he was actually here.

I texted: Sounds good.

My hands were shaking and my stomach churned because I was actually going to have to deal with this. There was no more avoiding it, I was going to have to tell my dad the truth.

I want to live here with Mom, but I also want you to move back so we can see each other.

I didn’t want to say those words, not to the colonel, but he was my dad. Even though it wasn’t his idea of perfect, he’d want to make the sacrifice to spend time with me, right?

I turned back to the camera and hit record just before they started announcing players, deciding any negative thoughts were going to have to wait until after the game.

I needed to focus.

I watched Alec skate toward the bench, his face so serious that it was hard to believe it belonged to him.

He looked mean.

His dark eyes were focused, his mouth a hard line, and I felt queasy for him, knowing how badly he wanted this.

How badly they all wanted it.

Hell, all you had to do was look around the Doug and you could feel the electricity from how badly everyone in the town wanted it.

“I’m so nervous!”

I looked away from Alec as Cassie ran up beside me. “Yeah, same.”

“Do you realize that if we win, we’ll be staying at a downtown hotel in less than a week, missing school to watch hockey boys all day?”

“You can’t say if we win,” I said. “You have to say when . Say it again the right way.”

“Someone’s getting superstitious,” she teased with a smile.

We didn’t talk as they announced Edina’s team (though the student section had a lot to say about them), and when the announcer shouted, “Your Southview Packers” and the crowd went wild, Cassie and I were screaming right along with them like insane fangirls.

And we got worse.

We yelled when they announced Richie, we hollered when they announced Vinny, and Cassie whistled with her fingers when they announced Kyle.

But my heart was in my throat when they announced Alec.

The rink was deafening with shouts of “Zeus,” and I felt like I was going to have a heart attack as he skated onto the ice.

I’d seen multiple reporters around the arena, and according to him, there were probably NHL and college scouts there as well.

Part of me was too nervous to be excited—I kind of wanted to throw up—and part of me couldn’t look away from him.

And it was a silly thing to be thinking at that pivotal moment, but he looked ridiculously attractive in his game uniform. It was hard to enjoy his… eye candiness , though, when I knew how stressed he had to be at that moment.

Please win, please win, please, God, let them win.

It felt like I stopped breathing the second the puck dropped.

Edina was freaking good , so good that it was giving me heart palpitations. They were pushing us around, playing very physical hockey in their stupid green jerseys, but Alec was always in it, slamming people into the boards as he went after the puck.

I was probably biased, but I swear to God we were in it because of him. He seemed to always be there to stop them from scoring, and he seemed to always send the puck exactly where it needed to go, where we came this close to scoring.

Unfortunately, they had a guy just like Alec.

When I paused filming at the first break, it felt like my blood pressure was at an unhealthy level. We hadn’t scored yet, and neither had Edina.

“This is insane,” Cassie said. “We have got to get control of this game.”

I glanced in the direction of the hockey parents and my blood pressure spiked a little higher as I wondered where the colonel was sitting. “Hey, do you care if I go say hi to my dad really quick? He just got to town.”

“Of course,” she said. “Go. You need to tell him.”

I’d told her about the situation with my dad at Bryce’s party, when she found me almost in tears after talking to him, but I’d been nervous ever since that she was going to tell someone.

Alec, specifically, and he didn’t need the distraction.

“I know, I know,” I said, being vague like it wasn’t a big deal.

I started walking up the steps, but stopped when I saw him.

My dad was sitting in the very last row, up by the mural, and he was glaring.

At my mom.

He was craning his neck, staring down at where she sat in the very center of the Packer parent section. She looked happy and like she was where she belonged, and he looked utterly disgusted.

It was sad and made my stomach hurt.

I had no idea what to do with myself at that moment, so I did the only thing I could.

I hustled back to my filming spot and hoped for the best.

“That was fast. How’d it go?” Cassie asked as I sat down beside her.

“I chickened out,” I said, forcing myself not to look up in their direction. “Didn’t even talk to him.”

Just then the guys came back out, and the second I saw number seven, I stopped thinking about my dad altogether.

Because when the game started back up, it was no less intense than before.

Edina scored almost immediately, but a minute later, thank God , Richie sent one into the goal and evened the score.

I was screaming as I watched Alec’s stick go up, and he skated over in celebration.

After that, things got even more physical. Alec totally slammed Edina’s number six face-first into the boards and got sent to the penalty box for the hit, but as the Edina fans heckled him through the glass, he grinned like he found them to be adorable.

Dear God, he was cocky in the hottest way.

We scored again—Kyle this time—but Edina followed up with their own goal.

I never would’ve imagined a hockey game could be this terribly, horribly riveting.

I was losing my voice from all the screaming, especially when Alec scored a goal three seconds before the period ended.

Cassie knocked over the camera when she shot out of her seat, and we started jumping up and down together, hugging and screaming, and I didn’t even lean down to pick it up until after I got to see Alec be surrounded by his teammates, and then they did a chest-bump-the-plexiglass thing in front of the rabid student section, and the crowd lost their minds.

My throat was tight, my heart was full—I was in jeopardy of bursting into happy tears as I watched them leave the ice, energized by their sudden lead.

I didn’t move from my seat during the intermission this time because I didn’t want to see that— with my parents—again.

Watching the Zamboni and stressing over the game sounded like a lot more fun.

All thoughts of my parents vanished when the guys came back out. I hit play and focused on Alec— as always —watching his face as he got ready for the third and final period.

It took all of thirty-three seconds for Southview to score. Kyle got the rebound on a shot from Richie on a two-on-two breakaway, which meant Cassie and I nearly broke the camera again, jumping and screaming.

After that, I couldn’t sit still because the clock seemed to be moving way too slowly.

Yes, we were up by one, but Edina was way too good for that to be a comfortable lead.

I clapped and yelled random nonsense that no one but me could hear or understand, and then with a minute left in the period, the entire crowd started counting down the seconds until… five, four, three, two… one!

“Oh my God!” I screamed, leaping to my feet.

“Holy shit!” Cassie shouted, hugging the custodian who was standing beside her.

The buzzer sounded and it was over.

We were going to the X!

“Oh my God!” Cassie yelled in my ear as she hugged me and we freaked out with the rest of the arena. I was screaming and crying and jumping, but my eyes were stuck on Alec and the team.

It was happening—we made the tournament.

I could barely see through the happy tears as the team piled on top of each other in front of the student section, and as I stood there with Cassie, watching the celebration, I knew that nothing was fake. As hard as I’d tried to create a separation, every single thing was real.

This team, Cassie, the Doug, Southview—I was obsessed with everything in this moment, not as a person using them as a backdrop for a ruse, but as a person who truly and genuinely wanted to be a part of all of it.

“You’re so happy!” Cassie said as she looked at my teary face, shaking her head. “Look at you!”

And she pulled me into a hug that made me happy-cry even harder.

I glanced up at the bleachers as she hugged me, and I saw my dad standing by the mural, talking to Big John.

Holy shit, he’s talking to Big John.

The few times I remembered my dad ever coming with us to Minnesota, quick little trips for weddings and graduations (never the monthlong summer vacation), he’d always been okay with John. I wouldn’t say he liked him, but they’d always gotten along.

So had they just connected that minute, or did my mom already know my dad was there? I quickly checked my phone after Cassie let go of me, and the lack of messaging from my mom—and him—assured me she’d had yet to encounter my father.

But shit, shit, shit , it was only a matter of time.

“Girls!”

The trophy came out, and Coach Oz yelled for us to come onto the ice for pictures.

Apparently, team managers really were part of the team.

I swallowed and went out with Cassie, laughing with her while something in my chest burned with a warmth that felt like it had to glow ,it was so intense. Because this photo was going to be in the yearbook, maybe on the mural, and my time at Southview was going to be forever not left behind.

I followed Cassie onto the ice as some adult yelled instructions, trying to get the team to line up for photos, but when my eyes met Alec’s, the dark brown eyes of the best friend I was so fucking proud of, it was over.

I ran at him and his big arms caught me, holding me against him in the tightest hug.

“You did it,” I said, the tears back yet again. “That was amazing, Barczewski.”

“Thanks,” he said, and when he pulled back, I loved how huge his grin was. That was the smile of my old friend, the full-on beam of the happiest boy I’d ever known.

“You’re going to the tournament,” I said, lifting my hand to touch the chain around his neck as I squealed out the words.

“Hell, yes, we fucking are,” he said, squeezing my waist and grinning, looking like he wanted to shout again. “You know you’re gonna have to reenact the locker room tie-up for the rest of the games, right?”

“Of course I am,” I said, feeling almost breathless with joy.

But as I looked at his wide smile and the way it made his eyes squint as he looked down at me, all I could see was the Alec I’d always loved, the nerdy boy I’d kissed in the shed.

There was no Zeus, no fake boyfriend—just my Alec.

Holy shit, I love him.

The realization settled over me, shocking and absolutely unsurprising all at once.

“Your face,” he said, amusement shining in those brown eyes. “What is that look?”

I met his gaze as my heart raced, and I couldn’t stop myself from blurting, “I really, really want this to be real.”