A recreational hockey league game at her local ice rink was occurring, parents and siblings were walking in and paying for the fee, walking into rink, sitting down at the stands and cheering for their sons and daughters as it was a mixed sex league. She had only just joined the league as their Coach saw potential and passion in her. He trusted she’d play good even if she had her own troubles like skating and numbing feet and burning aching calves and choppy crossovers and her stumbles. But she was passionate alright. Very. Even if it was difficult. He was stretching, getting ready for the game. He glanced over at her every now and then. Once the game started and the face-off started she kept the pucks from scoring into their net. Her crossovers were choppy and she kept tripping over herself and catching herself with her edges. She wasn’t perfect at skating and her calves were burning and screaming due to the lactic acid but she just kept going, even if her feet were numbing in her too tight hockey skates. She just pushed through. At a certain point in the game Andrei injured himself from the puck flying. He hurt the side of his hip even if the hockey breezers provided padding, he was pulled aside and the game had paused for the moment to check the injury, he pulled his core short’s waistband down to expose the injury from beneath the hockey breezers, pulling his jersey up.