Narrative

Sydney Turcot Final Draft

“SKATE! SKATE! FASTER, FASTER!” My coach is absolutely screaming her head off on the bench, because I am on a break away with 30 seconds left in a tie game. This is my moment and I am determined to make it count. Three cross-overs to the right, three to the left, the puck going back and fourth, back and fourth across my stick, all while the clock was ticking down,down,down. It is 5 seconds left when my eyes lock in on the goalies chest, I wind-up for the shot, and it snatches the net in the top left corner. The buzzer goes off, blending into the sound of everyone in the stands screaming their lungs-out and my team trampling each other trying to get off the bench. They pile on top of me chanting “ You did it, you did it!” I feel proud and happy, every goal I score is a step closer to the pro's, and after that the Olympics!

That night I am laying in bed trying really hard to go to sleep, but I am thinking about my future. What I want is to graduate high school with good grades, go to college and play hockey, then after that play on a women's professional team and then after that go to the Olympics, win gold, and then have kids. Its a big dream and a lot to do. I decide that I can't sleep. I get up, flip on the light switch then I turn and look into the mirror. The girl standing there has messy platinum blond hair piled on top of her head in bun, eyes as blue as the sea but covered by gigantic glasses, high-cheek bones dotted with pimples, and plump red lips with braces underneath them. I look hideous as usual. I always wear sweat pants and baggy shirts to school because I don't see the point in putting the effort into looking pretty when that can't possibly happen. My Mom is absolutely gorgeous though. I wish I looked like her, she is a model, with her clear skin, beautiful blond hair that is always perfectly straight, blue eyes not covered up by ugly glasses, and of course her flawless teeth. Also another thing she has that I don't have is height. I am five four, and she is five ten. I guess the only good thing my height is that it can be used for weaving in and out of other players on the ice, one of the secrets of my success in hockey.

I sigh out loud and head over to the cat box next to my closet. Inside the box are eight sleeping kittens curled up tight next to their mother. Bon Bons had eight little kittens 3 weeks ago. They are tiny and playful little things! Next to the cat box is my huge and fluffy dog named Dexter. He comes up to my waist, weighs 200 pounds, eats like an elephant, and slobbers constantly. His fur is so fluffy that when its really cold at night I use him as a blanket. He and Bon Bons are best friends, they are also my best friends. My only other friend is named Hailey. She is amazing and we share a bond that I'm sure could last three lifetimes. If I lost Hailey I don't know if I could go on living. We share the love of hockey and we have plans to play on an olympic team together. I know that if I'm with Hailey than I'm almost always happy. I wish that she was my sister. I have five siblings, Sara is the baby, she is only 2 months old, next comes Graham he is 5, then there is Stacy who is in fourth grade, then comes Brandon who is in seventh grade, then me, and then there is Derek Jr who is currently a senior and the star of the boy's varsity hockey team he is heading out to California next year to play for the Kings. I wish Hailey was my sister because sometimes the only thing a person wants, in a family that is always moving and changing, is a little stability. I head back over to my bed deciding that I need sleep. I have a huge test tomorrow in Social Studies, and I need to keep up my flawless grade. Oh yeah, thats another thing, Hailey and I are complete geeks. We both have 4.2 GPA averages and are getting 100% in every class that we take. I fall asleep to the sound of little kitten meows and Dog snores.

The next day at hockey practice my coach tells the team that we are playing the Hawks in two days in the division finals. The news sinks in and we all stare at her with shocked faces. “ What! How could that have happened I thought we were supposed to be playing the Rebels!” Exclaims Zoey “ I thought so too, but they were disqualified.” My coach responded.

What? How could this have happened. I feel dizzy, the Hawks are our biggest rival and our toughest competition. Last year one of their players checked me so hard that I smashed into the boards and ended up somehow breaking my tailbone. I had to be taken out of the game and our team was taken out of the play-offs by those cheaters. The girl that took me out of hockey for three months ended up scoring the winning goal. She should have been thrown from the game, but she wasn't, so because of her we lost the game and our chances of getting to the finals. The Hawks went on to win in the finals 7-4. They want to defend their title and we want to take it away, so its guaranteed to be a great game!

After a grueling practice of plays, conditioning, and skills my muscles are screaming and I'm sore all over. I'm back at home and I hop in the shower wanting the water to alleviate my sore muscles. I am very skinny, I weigh 100 pounds, but have very muscular legs and a great six pack. All I want to do after my shower is lay in my comfy bed, but no, I have homework, and Derek's girlfriend is coming over for dinner. Great, just great. It's my night to cook. I can say proudly that I can cook, very well in fact, but I do not want to be looking like a house keeper in front of Derek's perfect girlfriend. Her name is Angelina, she is tall, super thin, and has beautiful long silky brown hair that falls to the middle of her back. Her eyes are the most beautiful shade of green I have ever seen in my life. Standing next to her I look like an ugly dwarf. It's bad enough that she is coming over, but the fact that I have to cook makes it so much more horrible. Oh, and of course since I have to cook, I have to clean. This is like the worst day ever, I barely slept, I found out that I had to play the toughest team in the league in two days, and I have to play house keeper for Derek and his beautiful girlfriend.

I start on dinner and soon I have prepared a beautiful Shepard’s pie and made my special zebra brownies for dessert. I quickly change into my dinner clothes, a blue sweater with black baggy yoga pants. I brush my hair out into a blond curtain that is very frizzy, and take off my glasses and put contacts in, then I surprise myself by picking up my bottle of mascara and swiping some on my long eyelashes. I take a step back and look in the full length mirror that hangs on my closet door. I gasp. I actually look kind-of pretty. The blue sweater lights up my eyes and the mascara makes my eyelashes long and full, my hair falls to my waist and though it is frizzy it is really beautiful. I think for just a moment that I give Angelina some competition, and then correct myself, because that is not possible. Angelina is beautiful and I look normal. But usually I look horrible so normal is a step up for me.

At six o'clock I hear Derek's car pull into the drive way. I start to panic and think that I cannot do this, I hate popular people, well except for Derek, and I know for a fact that he is popular. Angelina is the prettiest and most popular girl in our school, I am a nobody next to her. She outshines me, she is like the sun, and I am like the nightlights that my little siblings keep in their bedrooms. I suddenly have the urge to faint. I quickly sprint to the bathroom as the door is opening. I can hear my mother calling after me but I don't care. I lock myself in the bathroom and sink to the floor, thinking to myself, I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't do this! After about three minutes I pull myself together, unlock the door and march down the hallway into the dining room.

Seven pairs of eyes instantly lock onto me. “ Sorry,” I stammer out “one of the kittens fell out of the box and I um....” I trail off unsure of what I was going to say.

After a moment of awkward silence my Mother says, “ Ok, so Nicole, why don't you meet our guest, Angelina.” I just want to leave the room at that moment and disappear. Instead I say, “ Nice to meet you Angelina, we've heard a lot of great things about you.” I smile sweetly and look right into her green eyes. “ I have heard a lot of great things about you too, Nicole. Nice to meet you!” Angelina says with such grace its like she is reciting poetry. //Her voice is even perfect// I think bitterly. We shake hands and then I hurry off to the kitchen to get the Shepard’s pie. We eat with me barely in the conversation. All of my siblings adore her and my parents love her too. The whole time I eat my Shepard's pie and think about how sweet and nice that she acts around my parents and siblings when I know that all of those popular people are pretty on the outside but just plain ugly on the inside. During dinner I learn that Angelina is a soccer player on the JV team, she volunteers at the animal hospital, is an honors student, and is attending Stanford next year. My parents are impressed, but what I know and they don't know is that Angelina’s Dad happens to have a very high position at Stanford for his job. I'm almost positive that this is one of the reasons that she got in.

I decided I have had enough of this and I pick up everyone's plates and bring them to the kitchen. This takes two trips and the whole time Angelina has a stupid little smirk on her face. I bring out the delicious zebra brownies. They are made with layers of white and dark chocolate on top of a delicious fudge brownie. After the desert course Angelina leaves with many thanks and after she is gone a huge sigh of relief leaves my mouth.

I go to bed dreaming about the big game tomorrow. The morning starts with me getting a wake-up call from Hailey. She is a complete morning person, I do not know how she does it. After getting ready I jump in my car and go to pick her up. When I get to her house she skips out the door and jumps into my car cheerily. “ Hello! How are you?” She practically shouts. “ Fine” I grumble back. “ Wake up sleepy pants!” “ No” I say very unenthusiastic.

We ride to the stop-light in silence. The light seems red for an unusual amount of time, when it turns green I gun it. The car comes out of nowhere. It slams into my buggy, causing us to go round and round. I scream and then promptly pass out when I slam my head against the wheel.

When I wake up I am aware of flashing lights and a medical person pulling me onto a stretcher. I scream at him, “ I'm ok, I'm ok! Is Hailey ok?” He does not answer me and I scream it again at him. When he doesn't answer again I break down crying. How could this have happened? One minute the light was green, and the next my car was slammed into and spun a full 360. What did I do to make this happen? I promptly pass out again.

The next time I wake up I am in a sterile white hospital bed. Blue curtains are on either side of me and my whole family is staring at me intently with wide eyes. “ Honey, honey, are you alright?” My Mom says with such a panicked voice. “ Mom, I'm ok. Where's Hailey?” My Mother and my Father look at each other. “ Sweet-heart, Hailey is getting x-rays right now. She might have broken a few bones and she might have a concussion. She is very lucky she was not killed. So are you. What happened was a truck ran a red light and slammed into your car. The driver claims that the brakes would not work. His truck slammed into Hailey's side of the car. You only have a few cuts and bruises. She might have broken her right arm and right leg.” My Mother says this solemnly.

I feel like I am going to pass out again, Hailey is hurt. It's all my fault! I can't believe this! Then it hits me. The game. OH NO! The play-off game against the Hawk's is today at 7 P.M. She is going to miss it! My Mom said that I only had cuts and bruises, that probably means that I can play. I am a huge part of the team, but so is Hailey. I am a forward, the one who scores the goals, and she plays defense, the one who stops the goals. Without Hailey I don't know how we can win the game, she is such a huge part of the team. I then decide that I will play smarter, faster, and better than ever before, because I want to win for her. All of this goes through my head in a matter of seconds. I respond back to her, “ I really hope she is going to be ok. Can I go and see her?” “No, not right now.” My Mom responds. “ Can I play tonight?” I ask hopefully. “ Yes, you should be fine. But only if you feel like it honey, you don't want to hurt yourself.” “ Of course I want to! It is the most important game of my life!” I look at my father when a say this and see a tall muscular man that played hockey for 30 years. He was so good he was a star on his professional hockey team. His team made it to the Stanley cup finals, he had the opportunity to score the goal that would win the cup, but he missed the net and they lost the cup. He was ashamed of himself, so was his team, coach, and fans. He was an embarrassment to his team and he has hated hockey ever since. I inherited his skills and I know that it's very hard for him to watch my games because it reminds him so much of the skills he used to have.

A few hours later I am released from the hospital. I am deathly afraid of hospitals. It is just a place filled with so much pain and scary stuff, I'm so glad I can go. I feel absolutely fine, just a few cuts and bruises. I am ordered to rest in bed for the rest of the day until the game.

I am down at the rink 5 hours later, and in the locker room coach gives us a pep-talk. “ Alright girls, this is the moment where we can make the season or break the season. We have a very important player that is not here tonight, we all know who that is. She is an amazing player, teammate, and person. Hailey Montgomery will not be able to play tonight, but she will be in the stands cheering for us. We have to play for her and we have to play harder than we ever have. We want to go to the finals. We have to win this game in order to get there. Tonight we are playing the Hawk's, our biggest challenge and rival. We have to skate hard.”

The first period goes by quick. The score is 1-0, us. I scored the goal, a nice snap shot. I feel good but I feel like I need to play better. In the second period the action picks up a little with a few penalties and another goal by me. But the third period is where all of the action happens.

The drop of the puck is won by me. I pass it to Kristin, who gets it to Natalie, she gets it back to me. I skate up the center and do a quick drop pass to Zoey. Zoey skates up the boards towards the goalie, then she gets around a defense and then passes it across the goal line to Gabi who puts it in the net! She jumps up and down in celebration and the rest of us cheer. Now we are in the lead 3-0. In the next five minutes the Hawk's have scored one goal. At three minutes left in the third period they score again. Our defense is falling apart because we don't have Hailey. At two minutes left, they score again. My coach is furious, she is shouting at us non-stop and she is not happy with our performance. At one minute left I find myself with the puck, skating towards the goalie on a break-away. As I skate towards her I am not thinking of the game, but rather my father. He had the same opportunity in his Stanley cup final. He skated towards the net on a break-away, he winded up for the shot, slapped the puck hard, it missed the net by one inch. He lost the game for his team. I don't want to be like my father, I want to make my own path of success, not follow his of failure. I look into the goalies eyes and stare into the deep green, they look nervous, she is scared of me. I lift my stick, and fire the puck faster than a missile right below her blocker. Oh my gosh, I just scored the goal that put us in the lead! I skate back to the bench accepting high fives and cheers from my teammates.

The next 60 seconds are the most stressful of my life. I watch from the bench as a girl on the other team gets a break-away. She skates up to our goalie, Kate, and shoots the puck confidently. Kate grabs the puck in her glove, and saves the puck. Yay! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. We won! We pile on top of each other and scream so loud, we jump up and down, and as soon as the handshake is over I skate off the ice and go to hug Hailey. She has a black eye, and is in a wheelchair with a Green cast on her right arm and a Blue cast on her right leg. I go up to her and give her a huge hug, “ I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.” I start to sob and she hugs me and starts crying too. We celebrate in the locker room afterward's and I decide that this is the best and worst day of my life. I got in a car crash, and I won a semi-final hockey game.

*** One month later I sit facing away from a large mirror about to turn around and look at myself. It is the night of my hockey banquet and it is a very formal occasion. We ended up going on to win the final game, 4-1. Now we celebrate with a fancy banquet party. My mom did my whole look, my hair, my make-up, she even chose my dress and shoes. I spin around and I am absolutely shocked to see how breathtakingly beautiful I look. My dress has a one shoulder strap that is covered in silver sequins and it transitions to an aqua blue below my chest, it goes great with my eyes and hair, the dress falls to my knees. My shoes are fantastic, high-heels are my guilty pleasure, I just love them, and mine are fabulous. They have a four inch heel, they are zebra stripe with strips of blue intertwined and a bow made of silver sequins that covers my toes, they go perfectly with my dress. My hair falls in beautiful blond ringlets to my waist. My cheek-bones are highlighted with a rosy blush, and my lips are a spectacular pink that goes very well with the blush. My eyes are the most striking feature of all, they are framed with perfectly curled black lashes with a silvery blue eye-shadow that brings out my deep blue eyes with flakes of aqua in them. My face and body look flawless and I am not merely pretty, I am beautiful and radiant. I did not even know that I had this beauty in me. I thank my Mom and I go to the banquet and have the time of my life.

Five years later: I am training for the 2012 London Olympics. I graduated college and I currently play for a professional women's hockey team and am a star forward. My father is now playing hockey every Tuesday night and he loves getting back into the game. My brother broke up with Angelina and is currently a center on the Tampa Bay Lightning. He is engaged to a great girl that works as a teacher. Hailey is on the same Olympic team as me and we hope to win gold! We will just have to wait and see!