As soon as I stepped on the ice, any nerves I had were thrown to the back of my mind as an after-thought. I looked around as other players made their way out to the ice. There appeared to be about fifty guys here and thirty of us would be cut by the end of the week. I would do everything I could so that I was not one of them.

I watched as Fox stepped onto the ice and glided over to where the coach stood, whispering something in his ear. When Fox skated through the crowd, it seemed to part for him like they knew of his importance.

After another minute, Coach blew his whistle and all conversation ceased. We gathered around and waited for him to speak.

"Good afternoon, boys," Coach began. "For those of you who don't know me, I'm Coach Silva."

He paused for a moment, looking around at all the hopeful faces, before continuing.

"This is your captain, Fox Ridley," Coach Silva said, motioning to where Fox stood, leaning on his hockey stick. "Let's cut to the chase, boys. I can only keep twenty of you and I already have one," he continued, motioning toward Fox again.

After seeing Fox on the ice, it didn't surprise anymore that he was the captain with his powerful demeanor that could command a room.

"Those who don't make the team will be dropped to Junior Varsity," Coach explained. "With the potential to be pulled up to Varsity if we need you."

I had never played on a Junior Varsity team in my life. I wasn't going to start my senior year of high school.

Coach Silva looked to Fox as if he was waiting for him to say something. Fox stood up straight, no longer using his stick for support.

"Listen up," Fox said in a deep, commanding tone. "Forwards over there," he continued pointing to his right. "Defensemen over there and goal tenders over there." Fox pointed to his left and to the center respectively.

I felt Fox's eyes on me as I gracefully glided to the left side of the ice with the other defensemen. We briefly made eye contact and he was the first to look away. I wasn't going to let him intimidate me, not if hockey was on the line.

Fox skated over to the forwards while Coach Silva came over to the defensemen and goalies, holding a bag of pinnie jerseys in his right hand.

"After we do some drills, we are scrimmaging." Coach explained, starting to hand out the pinnies. "The color pinnie I give you determines the team you will be on and you're stuck with whatever you get."

I was handed a blue pinnie and let my eyes drift over to the forwards to see what color Josh had gotten. He got red. I didn't need Josh to be on my team, but it would have been nice to be with someone I already knew. My eyes snapped back to Coach as he began speaking again.

"Defense wear the inverse color of their pinnie so if you got blue, you wear the black side, if you got red, you wear the white side," Coach Silva said when he was done handing out the jerseys. "Understand?"

We all gave him verbal confirmation that we understood before he nodded and met Fox over at center ice. The two of them conversed for a few moments before Coach blew his shrill whistle, grabbing everyone's attention.

"We're starting with a skating drill!" he announced. "Blue team take a seat for now, red team line up on the goal line."

I took a seat on the bench and watched as the red team lined up. Coach blew his whistle and everyone skated to the other side of the ice. I looked at Coach and Fox as the two of them watched the skaters. They were looking at their feet, evaluating their foot work and skating technique. I had done this drill plenty of times to know what was expected of me.

After a few of those, he had the red team line up at the center line and sent two skaters at a time to skate to the blue line and across and then round one of the face-off circles. Again, they looked at the feet to see the footwork of the skaters, this time adding in crossovers, pivots, and backwards skating.

Coach Silva spoke to a few of the guys individually before telling the red and blue teams to switch. I lined up with the rest of the blue team on the goal line and dashed off as soon as I heard Coach's whistle. I kept my feet moving fast when I side stepped to turn the other way, making sure my movements were precise.

We did the same drills he had the red team do, with him and Fox watching us with their scrutinizing gazes. These drills were nothing to me. I would pretty sure I could do these in my sleep, but it was obvious some of the other guys were struggling. When doing skating drills like this, it is easy to see who the skilled skaters are and who aren't. It was all in the technique and it was obvious to see who wasn't using any.

Coach skated over to me as he sent the blue team on a water break after we were done with our skating drills.

"What's your name, son?" he asked, looking at me quizzically with Fox standing right being him, a sullen look on his face.

"Elijah Ellis, sir," I answered respectfully.

Coach nodded. "Good footwork. You must have been skating for a while."

I smiled and nodded. "Since I was three."

"Good job," Coach complimented with a clap on my shoulder. "Keep up the good work."

I thanked him, not bothering to spare Fox a glance, before skating away to get a drink of water. My smile seemed to be permanently etched onto my face for a few moments. Coach didn't single out everyone to tell them they were doing good, but he singled out me. Hopefully, that meant good things for my future on this team.

The next drill, Coach called for everyone to be on the ice. He decided we would be doing a shoot and pass drill. Essentially, the drill would consist of three players in the attacking zone, with a goalie in net, skating around cones while also passing the puck to each other and one player shooting the puck. It was a simple drill used for forwards and defensemen to see how each player handles the puck. Coach set the blue team up on one side of the ice and the red team on the other with Fox looking over them.

When it was my turn to do the drill, I made sure my passes were accurate and on the tape of the other player's stick. Eventually it was my turn to shoot and, since I was a defenseman, I shot from the blue line, making sure to keep the puck low. The puck flew into the back of the net, passing the goalie's left pad.

"Good shot, Ellis!" Coach yelled out to me as I made my way to the back of the line. I smiled to myself, my confidence growing pretty much every second. I was in my zone now, and there was no stopping me.

We did a goal scoring drill after that which was also fairly simple. We shot from the blue line and he also had us come up the middle as if on a break-away. I got both of my shots in, my confidence soaring as I saw a look of approval from Coach Silva.

The last drill we did before the scrimmage was a one-on-one drill where a forward was paired with a defenseman. I was paired with Ryan, the boy I met earlier. My job was to keep him from scoring while his job was to get around me and shoot the puck. My golden rule for playing one-on-one was to never play head-to-head. That would give the other player too much freedom to get around me. It was important to give him room on one side so I could force him in the direction I wanted him to go. I was able to take the puck away from Ryan and skate it away from him before Coach blew his whistle for us to stop, giving me a nod of approval.

When it was time for the scrimmage, Coach Silva had each team sit on their respective bench, with Fox coaching the red team along with our assistant coach. Coach Silva assigned the forwards to lines and the defensemen to pairings. I was paired with a boy named Tim, who looked like he was a freshman. I hadn't paid much attention to how anyone else did during tryouts, but I was sure Tim didn't match my playing ability. Coach sent the first line and Tim and I out first for the start of the game. Josh and his friend Alex stood across from each other at the center dot, ready to take the face-off.

Tim and I stood in front of our blue line, ready if the play came our way, with Tim on the left and me on the right. Fox dropped the puck on the center dot and Josh cleanly won the face-off, taking the puck down to our end. I instantly sprang into action, moving to block his way and force him toward the boards. When he saw that I gave him nowhere to go, he sent the puck off in a clever pass to one of this teammates and I went toward the net, prepared to block a shot if I needed to.

The player from the red team went to make a pass, but I was able to intercept it on its way, taking it into the neutral zone. I passed the puck to Alex before we got into the attacking zone and stayed at the right point to keep the puck from leaving the zone. After having to keep the puck in a few times, it was eventually cleared, but we were quick to clear it out of our zone and Coach Silva called for a line change.

The red team ended up winning 3-2, but I wasn't too discouraged by it. I knew I played some great hockey, even scoring one of the goals for my team. I just hoped I would be able to keep it up for the rest of the week.

***

"How were tryouts today boys?" Dad asked as we all sat down at the dinner table. I was in my usual spot beside Josh and across from Mindy.

"Good," I replied blandly, twirling my pasta on my fork before taking a bite.

"Elijah was really good today," Josh added, looking toward Dad. "Even Fox said so."

My eyes went wide at that statement. The same Fox who would only look at me with a glare or a blank expression? The same Fox who pulled me into a closet and threatened me had something nice to say about me? Needless to say, I was shocked.

"He did?" I asked, not even trying to hide my surprise.

Josh nodded, though he didn't elaborate.

"That's great," Dad said with a smile to which Mindy kindly agreed. "It'll be nice to have both of my boys on the same team this year."

"I haven't made the team yet," I reminded him with a pointed look.

"But you will," Mindy assured me, mimicking my tone.

"Trust me," Josh started, taking a sip of his water before continuing, "We are in dire need of good defense and you were the best one out there today. I'm sure your spot is guaranteed at this point."

While that was good to hear, I didn't want to get too far ahead of myself. I knew I was good and had made an impression on Coach Silva, but there were four more days of tryouts and anything could happen. Especially if I did anything to upset Fox Ridley. I wouldn't be surprised if I made one wrong move, Fox would decide I wasn't good enough and convince Coach Silva of it too.

Once dinner was over, I headed up to my room to finish up some homework. After about an hour of that, my phone went off, signaling I had an incoming FaceTime from Trevor. My eyebrows knitted together in confusion before I answered the call.

"Hey!" Trevor greeted me with a wide smile on his face. He looked like he was in bed, sitting against his headboard. His usually gelled and styled hair was in its natural state, which I had never seen it in before.

"What's up?" I asked, not bothering to hide my confusion as to why he was calling me. Trevor and I had only talked outside of school a few times in the month I had been here. And those times were gatherings with other members of the GSA club, like Lexa and Nadia and a few others.

"Just wanted to see how tryouts went today," he answered casually, the smile never leaving his face. It seemed like Trevor was always smiling. He was definitely the friendliest person I met at Pine Valley.

"Oh," I said, clearing my throat and sitting up on my bed. "They were good."

"Do you think you'll make the team?" Trevor asked, adjusting the position of his phone slightly.

"Josh seems to think so," I told him with a slight laugh, looking at myself in the phone. My hair was a mess due to raking my hands through it and pulling the ends in frustration at my homework. There was a red mark on my cheek from where I had my head resting in my hand. Overall, I looked rough.

"That's good!" Trevor cheered enthusiastically, his eyes widening in excitement. I just nodded in agreement, not knowing what else to say. "There's another reason I wanted to call you," Trevor admitted after my silence.

"Hm?" I hummed.

"A few of us from GSA are getting together at my house Friday night," he told me. "Do you want to come?"

It wasn't the first time Trevor had invited me to a GSA gathering. In fact, he had invited me to one my first week here. I used to think it was just out of obligation to invite the new gay kid, but I wasn't technically in the club anymore, so I was confused as to why he was inviting me now.

"Uh," I started, my confusion evident, "sure. What time?"

"Great! Everyone's coming around seven," he answered happily. "We'll have food and movies and stuff. It'll be fun."

"Yeah, fun," I said, trying to sound enthusiastic, but probably failing.

"Anyway, I gotta go. I'll see you at school tomorrow!" Trevor bid me a goodbye. I sent him a wave before he hung up.

I sighed, tossing my phone down on my bed before turning back to my frustrating math homework.

**