Nick looks over his shoulder and shakes his head as he sees AJ clinging to one of Boosh’s legs in the middle of the locker room.
“Say it ain’t so Boosh. Say it ain’t so,” AJ says.
Yeah AJ wasn’t exactly thrilled that Boosh wasn’t going to be able to come to the Washington Capitals game. Nick was more worried because Keith Primeau wasn’t going to come either, but was their choices not to come. Kevin was walking around the room with his gear bag slung over his shoulder making sure he had everything before they left out to the bus. Nick had figured out by now that Kevin had a tendency to fixate on things that only got him more agitated then he normally was. To make matters worse Brian had a cold and was sneezing and coughing up a storm. Yeah that’s all they needed was a sick goaltender.
“No you know what?” AJ says standing up and facing Boosh, “you get two minutes in the penalty box for pissing me off,” he states then walks away as Boosh cracks up.
“Five for fighting,” Brian states pointing a finger at AJ before sneezing twice in a row.
“God bless you,” AJ says looking at Brian.
“Ok guys lets go,” Kevin says checking his watch and heading out of the locker room as the rest of the team follows.
“Good luck guys,” Boosh says to them all as they pass him leaving the room.
“Why isn’t Boosh coming?” Nick asks walking up to AJ as they walk out into the parking lot toward the bus.
“Personal stuff. His wife isn’t feeling so well lately. Her knee is really bad because she used to play basketball and he wants to stay home and help her out.”
“Oh ok. Who you sitting with on the bus?”
“I dunno I’ll probably sit in the back at one of the tables and play cards. Wanna play?”
“Yeah how much money did I lose to you last time again?”
“Is that a no?”
“No, just a point.”
“Whatever happened to Ace of Base?” AJ asks Nick sitting next to him on the bench as Kevin throws his gloves down on the ice and hits a Capital square in the jaw with a left hook.
“Ace of Base?” Nick says looking at AJ.
“Yeah whatever happened to them?” AJ says as two refs come over to break up the fight that had broken out pulling the two players over to their separate penalty boxes.
“I don’t know,” Nick says focusing his attention back on the ice.
AJ was getting comfortable now. The Flyers were up 4-1 and it was fifteen minutes to the end of the third and final period. Brian was having one of his best games yet even though he complained about how he was screened on the one goal during half time. You knew when AJ was feeling over confident because he would start acting like a five year old on and off the ice. He would break into choruses of songs and get in more fights then he would normally allow because he wasn’t afraid of getting sent to the penalty box for five minutes. Nick never really understood that aspect of AJ because he never felt comfortable slacking off during a game even if they were up by three goals. Fifteen minutes was plenty of time for the Capitals to come back of course if they did Brian would probably have a heart attack.
Brian was still having problems with his shoulder and he ended up having to ice it after every game and practice. To say the least he was not happy about it and Kevin was not happy with his knee either. His one knee looked huge compared to the other because he had to wear a brace on his bad knee. It also took him an extra five minutes to try and pull all the other pads over it, which seemed to disrupt his whole schedule.
“It’s supposed to rain tonight,” AJ says out of nowhere and Nick looks over at him and stares.
“I heard.”
“No, you don’t understand Nick it’s supposed to RAIN.”
“What?”
“It’s supposed to rain hard you idiot.”
“So.”
“So your house is near a river that has over flowed every year since I have been here.”
“Oh shit,” Nick mutters as a line comes in and he gets up and jumps over the wall onto the ice.
Nick had just made probably the biggest decision in his life so far and that was to buy a house. He didn’t live in the city like AJ and most of the others instead he opted for a nice house in the suburbs about twenty minutes away from Philadelphia. What attracted Nick most to the house though was there was a small river touching his back yard. The realtor probably just “forgot” and left out the fact that the river tended to over flow on many occasions and it only came to his attention once he told AJ where he was going to live. Maybe if he asked Brian to pray for no rain God would listen and his backyard would still be there when he woke up the next morning.
The game ended 5-1 with Gagne scoring in the last few minutes to help them gain even more of a lead then it was time to get on the bus which was going to take them to a train that was going to take them home that night so the next day they could get ready to play the Maple Leafs that night at home.
AJ opens his eyes unwillingly and throws his arm over his face shielding his eyes from the sunlight as his phone rings in the back round.
“Son of….” AJ mutters as the phone rings for the eighth time and the answering machine picks it up.
~Hey this is A Jayyy’s phone I’m not home right now and yet your sitting around with no life unlike me. If your mom I’ll call you back right away, but if your not and say someone like I dunno BOOSH I’ll get back to you as soon as possible~*Beep*
“AJ PICK UP THE DAMN PHONE!” Nick voices yells into the answering machine as AJ turns his head to look at the phone on his nightstand, “I HAVE A SITUATION HERE AND I KNOW FOR A FACT YOUR LAZY ASS ISN’T OUT YET!”
“Ah shit,” AJ says and picks up the cordless phone and holds it to his ear, “Hello.”
“AJ I HAVE NO BACKYARD!”
“Stop yelling first off.”
“Ok, my river flooded.”
“Told you so.”
“And now I have no backyard.”
“And you’re calling me at 9 in the morning because?”
“Well I need your help.”
“Yes because I can bail your backyard back bucket by bucket.”
“C’mon AJ.”
“Alright alright I’m coming…I can’t believe I have to deal with your receding backyard and Boosh’s money pit of a new house that he hasn’t even moved into yet. Listen I’ll be there in twenty minutes ok.”
“Alright.”
“Ok bye.
“Bye,” Nick hangs up.
“I hate people who get up early,” AJ mutters getting out of bed and falling flat on his face when the bed sheet gets stuck around hi leg, “I hate early morning,” he mutters again.
“It really sucks to be you,” AJ says looking out Nick’s second floor window down at the backyard, which was flooded over with water up to the back porch front step.
“Shutup,” Nick says looking up from the back porch and stepping into the water with his rolled up pants.
“Doorbell,” AJ yells as Nick’s doorbell rings.
“Can you get it its probably Brian?”
“Yup,” AJ says running away from the window to the stairs and sliding down the stair’s banister falling off at the end and spring back up before opening the door.
“You ok there?” Brian asks staring at AJ.
“Yup,” AJ says as Brian walks in and shuts the door behind himself.
“Hey Nick I brought you a boat,” Brian yells walking out to the back porch and holding up a box which showed a yellow blow up boat on the front of it, “I figured you might need it.”
“Haha very funny,” Nick says.
“You think I should get a dog?” AJ asks walking out and sitting on one of the railings around the deck staring at Nick.
“A dog? Why?”
“Well I figure if I don’t have a girl to talk too I can talk to the dog.”
“Yeahhhh you do that.”
“You didn’t leave your skates out here did you?” Brian asks.
“No thank God. A bench floated away though.”
AJ rolls his eyes as Brian pulls out the deflated yellow boat from the box and begins to blow it up.
“That is really not going to help Brian,” Nick says staring at him as his cheeks get red.
“Yo, U2 is coming to the FU center,” AJ says out of nowhere.
“Your point being,” Nick asks, “U2 is not going to come and help save my backyard.”
“I wanna go to the concert you guys wanna go?”
“Yeah sure,” Nick says as Brian nods still holding the boat valve to his lips.
“You doing ok AJ?” Nick asks as AJ looks at him oddly, “With the whole trading thing.”
“Oh yeah I’m fine,” AJ says, “I just get that way sometimes. I mean those guys are my friends and have been for a good amount of time then they’re gone like that, “ he says and snaps his fingers.
“You ok Brian?” Nick asks as Brian’s raises an eyebrow with the valve still to his lips, “You with the whole goal tending starter spot?”
“Oh,” Brian says lowering the boat, “Yeah I just get like that sometimes. I’m really sorry if I got you guys scared or anything it’s just hard ya know. I don’t want to be back up goalie and sit on the bench almost all of the times like Boosh did last year. Not that Boosh should have to do that either, but I have the play the sport ya know. It’s a tough sport and only the strong survive in it and if I don’t play my best and win I won’t make it. I mean look at Neil Little. AJ you know him. He is good and if I slack off he is there to take my position at anytime and move up from the minors. It’s just hard because there are so many wings and forwards and defensemen, but only two goalies competing for one spot. You guys would be the same way if you had to compete for the chance to play or not.”
“Probably,” AJ says, “What with you Nick?”
“Huh?” Nick asks looking at him.
“You and Williams? You’re talking on minute and then the next you are looking at him like you wanna kill him.”
“Oh it just all goes back to the Whalers. He joined and I got bummed down to second string. Same thing here except its third string for me now.”
“You try to hard.”
“Huh?”
“You’re not playing your best because you are trying to hard to play this amazing game. When you try to hard and don’t love what you do it’s pointless I think. I play because I love the feel of the ice, the cheer of the fans, the way I feel after I win a fight, the way you feel after a goal. That is why you play ice hockey. Yeah you go out to win, but it’s not worth jack shit if you don’t love to play the sport, right Brian?”
Brian nods as Nick shakes his head and trips suddenly falling face first into the water and then pops back up soaking wet.
“Son of a bitch,” Nick says, “Stupid sprinkler system came up…”
AJ bursts into laughter and Brian smiles widely.
“You better get changed we have to get to practice soon,” Brain says smiling.
“Ah hell,” Nick mutters walking up the steps as he leaves a trail of water behind him.
Kevin looks around the rink as group one starts to play group two in a scrimmage. He was protecting Brian in front of the net along with Therein and Richardson and Dejarsdens were down at the other end protecting Boosh. AJ, Primeau and Williams were on the front line for his team and LeClaire, Gagne and Recchi were on the front line for Boosh’s team. The game tonight was only a few hours away now and AJ had just found out from Coach Barber that Sports Illustrated wanted to do an article on him along with the rest of the team, but mostly focusing on him. Typical now.
Now Kevin knew that AJ was a valuable part of the team, a very valuable part of the team, but it still got to him when all the attention was focused on AJ and not the team as a whole. Of course with a player like AJ you were just asking to have attention thrown on one person. Especially since that certain player was now skating around during the scrimmage singing “Any Way You Want It” by Journey at the top of his lungs. Well at least Nick knew all the words as well.
Nick was still a question to Kevin. He was good there was no doubt about it, but he seemed too unsure of himself to go out on the ice and play as good as a game as he probably could accomplish. Of course his backyard had just gotten flooded, so that may have something to do with it now.
Brian still worried Kevin though. He was his cousin which made Kevin a bit more partial to him then too Boosh, but if Boosh wad doing better then Boosh would go in. Mentally Kevin could not deal with the two of them anymore if one of them wanted to throw a temper tantrum that person would have to deal with it himself now. He had put up with their antics for a good amount of time and now he was through with it. He would try and console Brian after practice, but he was not up leaving practice to going chasing after Brian especially since the last time he tried to a week ago he had gotten a goalie mask throw at his head. He was keeping his distance now in fear that it would be a skate next time.
Kevin stares as AJ takes off down the ice dodging around Richardson with the speed and agility that made the guys wonder if AJ had some kind of sixth sense that made it easy for him to avoid checks similar to Williams. AJ gets a quick shoot off on Boosh and it sails over his stick hand into the net. Boosh look over his shoulder into the net as AJ skates back to his position. The next thing they knew Brian was standing up and skating over to the bench, grabbing his spare stick and then storming off the ice back into the locker room. The rest of the team stops and looks around from one to another and then back at the empty net.
“Ah fuck,” AJ mutters slamming his stick onto the ice and goes skating after Boosh off the ice.
“We really do put the fun back in dysfunctional teams don’t we?” Nick asks skating up to Kevin and sighing.
“Unfortunately,” Kevin mutters.
