But You're Supposed To Be A Boy

NOAH’S POINT OF VIEW.

“And I have decided, the team that will represent this school on the national rink will be….” We stared at the boys' team, biting back our smiles because we knew what the coach would say. “The wild cats!!”

Our smiles dropped the moment those words registered; the sound of loud cheers from the boys' team hit the arena like a bullet. I stared at the Coach, my father, with widened eyes.

“What?” I gasped and stepped closer to him. “That makes no sense, Coach.”

“I’ve made my decision, Noah.”

“That decision is stupid.” Everyone gasped, and he glanced up at me. “The girls' team just won regionals; we’ve beaten every single team that played against us for the past six months. We deserve this, not them.”

“Noah, first, I’m the coach here; I make the decision. Second, the school has decided to cut funding to the girls' hockey team.

You guys can find something else to do…..you know, normal girl things.”

“What are normal girl things, Dad?” My left eye twitched. I knew why he did this.

“Yeah, princess…..go play with some dolls or something.” One of the guys from the boys' team hooted, but I ignored him.

“Noah…” Coach released a breath, pinching the edge of his nose. “Come on, don’t be difficult.”

“Difficult?” I scoffed. “The girls and I have worked our asses to be not only good but better than the boys at this. We have a much better record than the boys, and we pull crowds too.”

“First, girls will never be better than boys. It’s just science, sweet cheeks.”

“Cal me sweet cheeks again, River, and I’ll knee you so hard, your grand kids will feel it.”

“Look, Noah; I know you’re disappointed… so let’s do this,” Coach finally faced me. “How about you girls wait a year?”

“A year?” We scoffed.

“Yes, let the boys go now, and next year I’ll see if I can get you guys in. But you must work really hard.”

How much harder do we have to work, Dad?”

Before he could speak, my boyfriend, the captain of the boys' team, stepped out from behind. Nursing a bottle of water, he approached us.

“Finally, Thank God, Justin.” I finally smiled and walked closer to him.

“What's going on?”

“Dad says your team is going to represent the school…”

“Oh, sweet!” He clapped a guy nearby.

“No, not sweet, Justin. The girls should be the ones doing this, and you know it.”

“What?”

“Yes, now tell Coach that’s what should happen; tell him we have a better record and presence, and we should get this chance. It’ll be the first time girls will ever get that opportunity in the history of this school.

Our team deserves this.”

“Why would I do that, Noah?” He asked with a bemused smile. I stared at him, my heart slamming against my ribs.

“Justin…” I let out a shaky chuckle. “Stop this; why are you acting like this?”

“I’m sorry, Noah, but we know that’s not practical. The scouts there will be searching for professional players….not a bunch of pretenders.”

“Pretenders?”

“Yeah, the only reason this school even lets girls play is so they seem inclusive. We know who really owns the show here.”

“Justin!” I scoffed, glancing from the girls' team to the coach and my boyfriend of three years. “How could you….? Just yesterday, you said I played better than more than half the guys on your team.”

“Uhh…. I..” He flustered; the guys grabbed his shoulder.

“You said that, captain?” They asked at the same time, with amused smiles.

“Come on, Noah…..let’s not make things up cause we’re angry.”

“I am not lying!” It was my turn to pinch my nose. “Come on, the coach will listen to you if you just tell him to let the girls play”

“I’m not doing that.” He sipped on his water. When he realized I wasn’t joking, or that the hurt in my eyes was real, he straightened. “Come on, Noah….girls don’t belong on ice. We can find a special cheer team for you guys instead.”

“Justin…” I licked my lower lip. “If you don’t tell the truth right now, it’s over between us.”

“Fine, I’ll tell the truth.” He shook his head, glanced at the guys and the coach. Silence filled the rink as everyone waited.

His team formed a line behind him. Coach stared at him. He glanced at the guys, lifted his arms, and hollered;

“I guess we’re going to Nationals!!!!” They rushed to him, lifting him in the air with loud cheers and roars. Air knocked out of my lungs as Justin winked at me, pulled his index and last finger to his ears in a ‘call me’ fashion.

If he thought I would call or even look at him after that, he had another thing coming. I walked back to my team, their saddened, disappointed gazes felt like arrows straight to my heart, especially as their captain.

“What are we going to do, Noah?” Cassie, one of the girls, asked.

“Yeah, we worked our asses off this past few weeks, barely getting any rest so we could win every game, but they get to play the big rink?”

“It’s not fair.” Their protests shot into the air.

I glanced back at Coach, my father walking off into his office, phone pressed to his ear.

“I think we should just leave it.” Tina, another one of the girls, said suddenly. We glanced at her, brows furrowed.

“How could you say that?”

“What? I’m being honest. Coach prefers the boys' team over us; nothing we do would make him change his mind. Plus, the school is on his side… maybe we wait a year as he said?”

“Tina, the previous team waited a year; last year was supposed to be their year, but they got cut. The same thing happened to more than five teams before that.

The only reason the school acknowledged us is that we won every game, and the crowd loves us.

Waiting for Coach is not an option; history will be repeated.” Another countered.

“So what do we do then?”

They shrugged, looking from the ice to me. They wanted answers… and I had none.

“Maybe I should try talking to him again?”

“What’s that going to do? You heard him earlier, didn’t you?” Hailey, the newest member, slapped her hand over her face.

“What's the harm in trying ?” I clapped and ran off towards his office without a second glance. It doesn’t take me long to find it.

Pushing the door open, I find my dad pacing, his phone pressed to his ear.

“Dad, what the hell was that out there?”

“I'll call you later.” He said into the phone before dropping into his chair. “Nice to see you again, Noah.”

“Dad, you know we’re good. Why won’t you let us make it to nationals?”

“You know why.” His grey eyes shone with one thing; it made me square my shoulders.

“You agreed not to be like that anymore.”

He let out a sigh, grabbed a mug of what smelled like coffee, and spoke again.

“Noah, you know the history of this family. Every single one of my brothers has produced a hockey prodigy; your cousins are killing it in the big leagues.”

“And I will if you just let me play. We discussed this, Dad…..you promised.”

“Noah..” he stood and walked over to me. “Your cousins playing in the big leagues are all men; all wonderful, talented men. Imagine how it’ll look if I met my daughter playing instead of my son at the national level.”

“But I’m better than Owen.”

“We both know you are, but hockey isn’t something girls play, Noah. Go enlist in the debutante thing your mother spoke about at dinner. Forget this; this is Owen’s shot.

Let him take it.”

I swallowed, pain bleeding into my heart. “When, Dad?” He sighed. “When are you going to finally choose me instead of Owen? When will you accept that I can be good at this, too?”

“You’ll understand why I’m doing this soon enough, Noah. But I’m sorry; you can’t play, nor can your team.

Go home now; I’ll see you at dinner tonight.”

I pressed my lips together, my eyelids stinging as I pushed back tears. He moved in for a hug, but I pulled back and walked out the door.

A man dressed in a dark suit nearly crashed into me just as I stepped out. “Sorry, sir.”

“It’s alright…..wait….Noah Brooks?” He did a double-take.

“Yes.”

“Wonderful!” He grabbed my hand and shook it. “I’m glad to finally meet the hockey prodigy.” I was just about to ask who he was when my dad’s office door opened

“Scott!” He gasped upon seeing him. “I’ve been expecting you. Come on in.”

He rushed out, grabbing his shoulder to pull Scott in. “Wait, Brooks, I just met Noah…”

“I know.” He slammed the door on me. I blinked, ready to storm out of there to beg my mother to speak to her husband.

But as I took one step away, I heard their hushed voices behind the closed door.

“Is that your daughter? I’m super excited to take her team to nationals. Have you sent the proposal to the dean?”

My heart nearly jumped out of my chest. He wants to take us? Really?

I stepped closer untill my ear pressed against the wood.

“No,” Dad said, tone snippy.

“No? What do you mean, no?”

“I mean, you’re not taking the girls to Nationals. You’re taking the boys.”

“What are you saying, Coach Brooks? This wasn’t the plan!” An unfamiliar voice yells.

“Look, I understand your frustration, but trust me. The boys' team is much stronger, much better than the girls.”

“Mo, Coach. I watched those girls play, and the decision stands; we want the female team to play at nationals.”

“Come on, Scott; who’s going to watch a bunch of girls play hockey? They might change their minds when they see the size of the crowd. Let’s go with the guys instead.”

My heart thundered against my ribs as my father’s voice slammed into my ears. They wanted us… but he was the one who said no?

A moment of silence passed between them until Scott spoke. “Tell me, Brooks, what’s the deal?”

“Deal?”

“Why do you seem so against these girls playing, huh? We’ve sent the deal more than five times already; some were for teams that came before these.

There is serious potential here. Why are you wasting it?”

For a moment, no one says anything. Just when I thought they wouldn’t, Dad breaks the silence. “My son, Owen, I want him to play at nationals level. We’ve never gotten this chance before; I want Owen to take it.”

I swallowed hard; the memories of my childhood flashed before my eyes. As always, Dad… it’ll be Owen over me.

“Was he on the ice earlier? Which one was he?”

I could see dad wince before he replied…..and we knew why; “number ten.”

“Number ten?! What? Who should be the water boy instead? He barely knows how to hold the….” The Scott guy sighed. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“No…..my family has produced a male hockey prodigy for generations now. Owen is my only son; he needs this more than his sister.”

“The boy has a bad leg! He’s wobbly on the ice.”

“That’s because of a terrible accident, but it doesn’t change the fact that he can be better with time.”

Dad’s tone became lower; as did my heart fall. It’s because of me that Owen is like that. It happened when we were thirteen. I wanted to play so bad, but I was grounded. Owen decided to sneak me out of the house and take me to the local rink.

On the way, he was hit by a truck. His leg wasn’t badly damaged….but it wouldn’t be anything like before ever again.

“They look quite alike, too; are you sure you don’t want us to put Noah in a wig and make her Owen instead? No one needs to know.”

“No.” Dad shut it down.

“There’s barely six weeks to nationals, so you understand the risk we are taking?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, but at least tell me the other guys are better than what I saw out there; if they go ahead with Nationals, they’ll be playing against the Wolves….do you know who just transferred into that academy, and their hockey team?”

“It can't be..”

“Jace Donovan. If we are going against a team he is on, you'd better bring your A-game.”

Jace Donovan?! The hockey King? Even I knew that name. Every hockey player in the country did. The guy was already being called the future of Canadian hockey. And if the Wild Cats went to Nationals, they'd have to face him.

It was him, Jace Donovan! Owen’s former best friend and my one-time crush. The arrogant jerk who broke my heart on my eighteenth birthday after I confessed my feelings, the last person on earth I wanted to see was Jace Donovan. My first crush, my first heartbreak, my first guy I swore I'd stay away from forever. 

And if I do this thing on my mind, I have to be with him in the same school for at least six weeks? 

Apparently, the universe has a twisted sense of humor.

I’ve always wanted to play against him, not only for bragging rights, but so I could kick his ass, and I have the chance, but Dad doesn’t want me to take it?!

My hands clenched at my side as my heart rate spiked. I swallowed hard; if Dad doesn’t want me to play because I’m a girl, I’ll become a boy.