Love's Game

Great moments are born from great opportunity. - Herb Brooks “Miracle

“Do all hockey players have long shaggy hair?” Morgan asked, stroking my blonde locks back.

“No, not necessarily. Why? Do you not like my hair?” I asked looking down at her.

“Hah, do I hate it? No, actually I kinda dig it. You can pull it off.”

“You’re telling me this as if I don’t already know that.”

“Wow, Landon, that was so funny! I’m literally dying right now.” She said painfully sarcastically.

“Ahh, c’mon, you know you love me.”

“I hate it when you’re right.” She looked up at me before laying her head on my chest.

Morgan Brown was a special girl. I wish I could tell everyone that when I first saw her, I loved her, but I can’t. To be honest when I met her, I thought she was a shy naive girl who hated sports and loved books more than she should. She wasn’t my type. I was more into the cheerleader type. You know blonde hair blue eyes, athletic, and dress nice everyday type of preppy girl.

Morgan was different than these girls. She’s a brunette, has big round brown eyes, she would rather read than throw a football, and will probably be seen in sweatpants over a dress any day. Morgan was never meant to be more than an acquaintance, and obviously that didn’t work out.

Being a transfer student can be pretty difficult. It really does have it’s ups and downs, but when you transfer halfway through the year, you have more downs than ups. That was me, I transferred from my school in Rochester, Minnesota to the East Boston High School. While the first week was hard and stupid, I had learned East Boston High hockey was pretty good, and when tryouts came, I learned that I had found my place pretty quickly.

That group of guys became some of my closests friends. They were the ones that made me feel at home, and gave me a place at that school. School become easy for me, I knew I had to keep my grades to keep playing hockey, and that wasn’t so bad.

It wasn’t until seventh period biology that my life turned upside down without even realizing. Partners are always scary, I don’t care who you are. When the teacher tells you that you will have to work with partners, but they are assigning them, everyone’s heart rate rises and they start thinking of the worst possible partner that they can have, praying they will not get them.

Yeah, I had my people that I didn’t want to be with, so when Mr. Werther's partnered me with a girl named Morgan Brown I was a little relieved. When Morgan and I started working she gave me a look.

I don’t blame her for looking. I had my hockey jersey on, and my blonde hair flowing loosely had me looking like a bum. I had practice in the morning, so I probably didn’t look the best I could’ve, but I didn’t really care, she wasn’t my type anyway.

After a week of working on the project with her I considered an acquaintance, but nothing more than that. She was too shy for me. But, then on a cold Thursday night, I saw her differently for the first time.

Thursday night was always hockey night. I don’t remember much of that game, rather I remember what happened after the game. My teammates had invited me to go out to pizza with them, and just as I was about to answer I felt gentle tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see who it was and my smile faded a little, “Hey Morgan.” I responded half heartedly.

“Hey, I hate to interupt, but that assignment for Mr. Werther’s class is due tomorrow. I would finish it by myself but you have half of the notes, can I borrow them?”

I looked at her for a minute, the last thing I wanted to worry about was a bio project, but I nodded. If she was willing to finish the project if I gave her some measly notes, I would do it. “Yeah,” I answered slowly, stroking my fingers through my hair, “um the notes are in my locker, so I guess I can quickly grab them for you.”

“Okay, I’ll walk with you, my car is parked over there anyway.”

“Kay.” I answered not really paying attention.

There was an awkward silence as we walked down the hallway. The only noise you could hear were the footsteps echoing throughout the halls. “You had a good game tonight.” Morgan said out of nowhere.

The words hit me by surprise, but I wasn’t not going to respond, “Thanks.”

“Central has one of the best defenses in the state and yet you still found a way to weave through them. It was pretty impressive.”

Now I really didn’t know what to say. She knew hockey? “Yeah, well I trained in Minnesota and they taught me quite a lot, so I’m sure that helps.”

“Yeah, I guess it does.” She smirked a little.

“Hah, yeah. So, you’re into hockey?” I was a little intrigued now.

“Yeah, I guess I grew up having Sports Center all the time, and I would always be most intrigued when the hockey highlights came up. I guess that’s how it all started.” She smiled sheepishly.

“Who’s you’re favorite team?”

“Really?” She pointed down at the sweatshirt she was wearing with Bruins in big yellow letters. “If it wasn’t obvious, I like the Bruins. What about you?”

Okay, so by this point in the conversation I was just astounded that I had found a girl who enjoys talking about hockey without having to look things up on Google. Also, we were already by my locker and I had the notes in my hand, but I just wanted to keep talking.

I gave her the notes and answered her questions, “Minnesota Wild. I’m from Minnesota and ever since I was little I was taught to either love hockey or move out. So, yeah.”

Morgan gave out a little laugh. “Yeah, well thank you for these notes.”

She was just about to leave, but I wanted to keep talking. Which was weird for me, considering that I could’ve been scarfing down pizza with my teammates. But, for some reason, I needed to keep the conversation going. “Hey, um, let me help you with the project. I think it’s only fair.”

“No, I’m fine, really. You can go back to your friends now.”

“No, to be honest, if parents find out that I went to get pizza rather than do my homework I might be grounded for life.”

“Well, okay, just follow me, we can go to my house.”

It was right then that I realized that Herb Brooks was right. Great memories are born from great opportunities. This project was the great opportunity, and the days to come were better memories.