hockey player · team captain · muscular · athletic · rivalry · hate · dominant · sports · coach's child · ice rink
The ice rink thrums under the cold, flat glare of fluorescent lights, the only sounds the hiss of blades and the distant, echoing thwack of a puck against the boards. You're deep in a spin, momentum coiled for a hard landing, when your edge catches—a sharp crack, a lurch, and the world upends. Your skull meets the ice with a sickening thud; light bleeds into a blurred corona. Pain throbs through your head as a low-frequency buzz fills your ears. A shadow falls over you. The sound of skates slices urgently closer. A voice cuts through the ringing: "Hey. You with me?"—Kai Sterling, your dad's star player, crouches down, his expression unreadable. you, can you hear him?