Playing to Win

After a brief silence, Alex made a bold statement. “Noah is an idiot.”

“Agreed,” Jordan said.

Hannah leaned forward to look at the other two. “You know the real trouble with tomboys?”

Alex arched a brow, a twinkle in her eyes. “They’re afraid of us.”

Jordan laughed, “Exactly.”

CHAPTER ONE

Jordan

Hannah: Good luck at your first day of school!

Me: Thanks. I’m more worried about hockey.

Alex: Don’t sweat it. You got this.

Hannah: You’re awesome. Don’t forget it.

Best friends were a girl’s lifeblood, right? I didn’t know what I’d do without mine. We had to work a little harder than most to stay in touch since we lived in different states, but that was okay. I knew no matter what, Hannah and Alex had my back. I could tell them anything and they’d understand.

Which was why I texted them as soon as I found out I’d made it onto the boys hockey team. Hannah played intramural soccer on a co-ed team, so she had a lot of great advice about dealing with the guys on my team. But even she’d never been the only girl on an all boys team before.

Like Alex, I had a lot of brothers, so dealing with dumb guys wasn’t a completely foreign concept, but still. I was nervous.

Me: As long as I remember Rule #1 I’ll be just fine.

Alex: *groan*

Hannah: Here we go…

Me: Hey! Some of us *cough, Hannah* would have less problems right now if they stuck to The Rule.

Hannah: Don’t bring me into this. I’m doing just fine.

Alex: As much as I love you guys, gotta go. Some of us have been in school for a week already and have stuff to do.

Hannah: Yeah, I have to go, too. Seriously, Jord, don’t stress. Everything will be amazing. You will be amazing.

Me: Thanks. You guys are the best! TTYL

Talking to my camp besties was just what I needed. Not that Alex and Hannah were my only friends, they just offered an outside opinion when I needed one. And after our experience at Camp Haversham, I knew they understood what it was like to compete with boys.

“You ready, Jordan!” My younger brother, Payton, shouted up the stairs.

“Just a sec!” I shouted back, taking one last look in the mirror. I dressed like a tomboy, no denying it, but I wasn’t built like one, for sure. With long blonde hair and an hourglass figure, no one could mistake me for a boy even in all my hockey gear. There would be no hiding my obvious female attributes on the all-male hockey team. And starting that afternoon, right after school, I’d get a solid look at being the only girl on the ice.

I fluffed my blonde curls one last time and headed down the stairs.

Payton waited, impatiently shifting from one foot to the other, holding a duffle bag and a hockey stick. Mine were already in the trunk of my car.

“Okay, let’s go.”

For all his fidgeting, Payton was in no hurry out the door to the beat up car sitting by the curb in front of the house. I’d inherited it from my older brother, Joe, when he moved out last year. Before that, it belonged to our oldest brother, Bobby, so you can imagine it had seen better days. I didn’t care as long as it ran.

After stowing his stuff, Payton hopped into the front seat, excited to finally sit shotgun now the older boys were out of the house.

“Excited for your first day?” I asked.

Payton grunted and stared out the window.

I drove to the middle school, on the whole other side of town from the high school. I only had to drive him to school and he walked to hockey practice after school.

“Seventh grade, huh?” I took my hand off the steering wheel long enough to nudge his knee. He didn’t react except to move his leg out of my reach.

Five years younger than me, Payton had started each school year by himself where I’d always had Joe, and sometimes Bobby, at my side. My older brothers could be a pain, but they’d always been there for me. I tried to do the same for Payton, but the age difference made it difficult and he’d grown into a bit of a loner.

I pulled up to the curb in front of the middle school. Payton didn’t say a word as he picked up his stuff from the back.

“Have a good day, Pay!” I called the door slammed shut. He didn’t acknowledge me, but that wasn’t unusual. I hoped he’d keep it together this year. He’d been grounded for most of the summer. We were all hoping with the start of hockey season he’d be too busy to get into trouble.