The Hardy Bros in Hot Ice by Ann ~ Chapter 1

HOT ICE

Chapter One

   “Watch it, Frank!” yelled his younger brother, seeing the huge opponent barreling toward his big brother.

   Frank gave a slight nod to let Joe know he’d heard. He’d already seen the goon coming fast in his peripheral, looming larger every second. Waiting just a few more seconds, until the last possible moment, Frank slid out of the way, smooth and calm. The goon went whizzing by, a startled look on his face as he turned to stare at Frank. This wasn’t how he had thought it would go.

   “Remember that next time you think you can blindside anyone, punk!” called Joe, watching as the dude finally came to a stop. By landing without any grace or cool after flying off the ice and bouncing on a inflatable raft someone had brought to sled on.

   The hotly energized impromptu ice hockey game on the large lake on the edge of Bayport held mostly friendly competition. Yet there seemed always to be at least one jerk who didn’t play with the right attitude. There had been no call for that kind of action he had just displayed. The punk knew he would have really hurt anyone he ran into like that.

   After some laughter at the punk’s reward for his not-cool move, the game resumed. Callie Shaw, with an injured leg, sat in a foldable chair and took in the action. She enjoyed playing, but watching was fun, too. With a couple of snow days off from school, then an already scheduled day off for some necessary school maintenance, to be followed by the weekend, all made for some extended winter fun.

   Her leg injury had resulted from the high school’s negligence three days earlier. Some bright teacher had promised credit for anyone washing her car to remove the salt collected from off the road that’s used to prevent slipping. A bucket of water had gotten left near her car and the teacher had pushed it in annoyance out of her way, instead of actually picking it up and moving it to where it belonged. So the angry push caused the bucket of water to tip over and it ran – and froze – over part of the sidewalk.

   The teacher failed to get signs put up, salt down, or even report it for someone else to do those things. She was in a hurry and not about to be bothered. The sooner she got to the closest casino, the more time she’d have to gamble her paycheck.

   Callie had gone out the exit near there because she’d been helping a fellow student researching for an essay and that was the closest one. She’d stepped down, the icy patch in the shadow of the building, slipped on the ice and twisted her leg, but thankfully didn’t break anything. Another teacher had come along and had offered to help. Callie didn’t think anything was broken and didn’t want to go to the emergency room. She’d ridden to school that day with her boyfriend, Frank, whom she called so he could drive to that area and pick her up. The other teacher stayed with Callie until Frank got there.

   The following days as Callie was recuperating at home, friends stopped by to see her. The teacher, Ms. Faring, who’s fault it was, hadn’t even bothered to send any type of ‘get better’ sentiment.

   Callie’s mom and dad were understandably upset with what had happened. Callie hadn’t complained or anything, but the other teacher who’d stopped by to help had told the principal about the accident. That’d started an investigation into it.

   Now at the hockey game, her boyfriend Frank skated up near her and smiled that particular smile with the sparkle in his eyes that was just for her.

   “Nice move!” Callie congratulated him. Then she wiggled her gloved fingers at him and he quickly obliged, bending down to receive the kiss she offered to him. They were soon interrupted.

   “Okay, captain, get back in the game – timeout is over!” a teammate yelled to the elder Hardy brother.

   Frank reluctantly moved from where he was, but gave Callie a wink as he skated backwards toward the spot where gameplay was about to resume.

   “I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” Joe told a member of the opposing team from a nearby town. The blond haired Hardy brother had quickly put his hockey stick into position and blocked the tripping efforts that an opponent had intended for Frank. Joe continued his comment about the ignorant potential tripper, “But then again, if I were you, I wouldn’t be too bright.”

   The other hockey player sneered and snatched his hockey stick away. “Outta the way.”

   “Who are you talking to?” asked Joe. “No one’s in your way.”

   “Maybe he’s talking to me,” said Iola Morton, Joe’s girlfriend, as she skated up. She was superfast on the ice, like a hummingbird. Joe wasn’t sure how she could move so fast just from how the helmet seemed it would slow her down.

   The puck soon went into play and goal scoring, and blocking, took center ice. Iola zoomed in between players, shooting the puck to a teammate, which was her brother, Chet. He shot it quickly to the next player, Phil Cohen, who in turn angled it with a power slide to Tony Prito. The opposing team intercepted it and sent it winging down to Bayport’s net, guarded by goalie Biff Hooper.

   Biff took a mighty swing and the puck skimmed along the top of the ice right to where Frank waited. He gained control of it and skated it toward the opponent’s goal. The score was even and the tiebreaker would complete the game.

   Catching his brother’s attention, Frank gave a signal to indicate what he had planned. It was a play he and Joe had been practicing for a while, getting it timed to the second. Joe looked casual, but he was ready. Frank moved his stick as if to give it a power drive to the goal. The opponent’s goalie got ready, anticipating, sweating under the helmet, holding his stick at the ready. Most eyes were focused on the puck. Joe watched and waited, set up for a clean shot to the net, as soon as his brother passed it to him, straight across the ice.

   Frank quickly re-positioned and hit the puck with an angle that sent it right to Joe’s waiting stick. The whole shot was so fast and fluid, any blinking might have missed it. As soon as the puck got to the right place, Joe sailed it into the net. The Bayport team sent up a cheer along with those on their side who were watching.

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