Story #12

Title: Thin Ice

Cast: Courtney (@RaenOfTerror) as Captain, Vanessa Rousso as Vanessa, Tiffany Rousso as Tiff, Tiffany Mitchell as Tiffany, Daniele Donato as Daniele, Maggie Ausburn as Maggie, Raven Walton as Raven.

In the distance, a noise echoes off the walls that mimics the sounds of someone in pain. Raven, a red-headed woman in her late twenties, is hovering over the toilet, throwing up. She is heaving, but not much else except water was emptying out. She had not had time to eat much in the day, in fact, she rarely eats at all. She is startled by a loud knock at the door. Raven mumbles “One min”. A voice answers back in a concerned voice, “Are you okay?”. Raven tries to reply but starts to black out and hits her head on the door, causing the door to fling open.

Many hours later, Raven wakes up slowly, and she is confused by where she is. A woman named Courtney is standing beside her and holding her hand. Raven asks “Where am I? Who are you?” in a very confused and ushering voice. Courtney explains that she passed out in the bathroom down the hall and that she was not sure what to do, so brought her back to her apartment. Raven explains that she just ate something bad, but Courtney knows from experience that Raven had been doing drugs as she works in a rehab facility. Courtney asks in a sincere voice “are you going through withdrawals?”. Raven explains that she is pregnant and that she needs to stop with her drug abuse because it has put her into a lot of debt and will harm the baby, physically and financially.

They both speak for a bit until Courtney remembers that she brought Raven’s bag from the bathroom. As she goes to pick it up, so that Raven can show her the ultrasound, the handle on the bag snaps emptying the contents of the bag on the ground. They both start picking up the items when Courtney picks up a piece of paper. It is a flyer for a Hockey tournament with a $250,000 cash prize for the winner, with incremental cash prizes for the top five teams. Courtney tells Raven how she would practice hockey with her sister all the time as her sister played for the school’s hockey team. Raven said she was using the paper to keep information on from her therapy meetings and she took it off the bulletins board at one of the meetings. She then jokingly exclaimed, “Hey, maybe we should get a team together and sign up”. They both laughed, but then Raven thought about all the bills she has accumulated from the hospital.

“Maybe we should actually do it, I mean, you have experience with the game, maybe you could get some people together and teach us?” Raven said with a very curious and excited face. Courtney was not sure about the idea at first because the last time she was around the hockey world, her sister and her had a huge fight. She had been secretly hoping her sister would ask her to help her again though and maybe this was a way to bring them back together. Courtney then agreed and told Raven that she would make a few calls, but to not get her hopes up. “In the meantime, you can stay here until we can find other arrangements for you” Courtney told Raven.

While Courtney was on the phone, Raven was focused on a piece of paper. She was writing for hours and hours, until Courtney finally got off the phone. Raven then stopped writing and looked up, while Courtney said, “We all meet Friday”. Raven was so excited, but Courtney explained they would need to get her better before then and they only have five days. Raven agreed.

By the time Friday came, Raven had been struggling badly, but the moment she woke up Friday, she felt pretty good. Courtney and she went to the meeting place, a small pub near the apartment. When they walked in, they saw a whole group of people, past teammates of her sister’s hockey team. Among them were two twins, Tiff and Vanessa, Daniele, and Tiffany. They spoke for a bit about how they would proceed, and they all agreed about what they needed to do. Vanessa stated, “Now all we need is a team name, and we can register”. Raven held up one of the pieces of paper she had been writing on while Courtney was on the phone getting people for the team. The paper said, “Chinchillaz”, and she explained that was her favorite animal, and the rest of the group loved the idea and accepted it.

“Alright then, it is decided, as soon as I scarf down this order of cheesy tater tots, I will submit the form,” said Courtney.

Over the next few weeks, Courtney coached them and taught them everything she knew, but most of these women had not played hockey in a while and one of them had never played before. After getting frustrated that she felt like she was not doing a good job coaching the team, she stepped back and decided to make a call to her sister. They talked for a few minutes and not thirty minutes later, someone came into the building. It was Maggie, Courtney’s sister. Courtney looked over at her and mouthed the words “thank you” as Maggie nodded in assurance.

Maggie took over as the goalie for the team as that was her position and Daniele that had been doing this, moved to defense instead. It took most of the day, but Courtney and her sister started to see a huge improvement. The competition was in under two weeks, so they still had time, but this would mean that anytime they are not working, they would be practicing. They did this every day until the day before. They used this day to celebrate how far they had come, and they made huge strides in progress that they almost looked like a professional team.

The day of the tournament, the team was up early. They all went over their plays and their plan of action. The tournament started and their first match was underway, they were struggling with the opposing team and down in the score. In the middle of the game, the referee stopped play and conferred with the judges. Everyone had a confused look on their face. Daniele walked over to the ref and asked, “What is happening?” The ref shrugged and then exclaimed that the other team was disqualified for using an illegal stick. Usually this would result in a Delay of Game penalty, but since the terms all teams agreed to before entering the tournament stated in automatic disqualification, the game was over and the Chinchillaz had won their first game.

This win gave them the confidence to continue with a winning streak. They had won four games and only had a few more left to be in the top five teams. Tiff even pulled off a hat trick in one of the games, and Maggie was able to do a few of her famous slap shots. All the sudden, the twins started fighting which got a little bit of attention but was quickly averted when Raven fainted. She grabbed her stomach and looked up to Courtney and said, “something is wrong”. The doctors promptly came and started hauling her off to the hospital. The team started to follow but Raven stopped them and told them to promise to stay and finish the tournament for her. They all agreed as Raven left.

After the tournament, the team rushed to the hospital to check on Raven. They go to her room and see her crying. The team had suspicious on what this meant, so they did not ask any questions, but they all knew that she lost the pregnancy. Raven still having tears in her eyes, looked up, and asked “so, uh, how did we do?” Tiffany looked at her and stated, “We got third”. Raven was sad and disappointed, but then Courtney said, “Well it is not 250K, but how is 100k?”. Raven leaped out of her bed and they all hugged and reassured Raven that everything would be okay and that they would help her get through this.

It was quiet while they were embracing, but Vanessa broke the silence and stated, “Let’s keep this team going and join the tournament next year?” They all looked at her and agreed, they wanted that first place spot.