Our big win guaranteed that my teammates would be on board with Dad’s coaching, my own four goals were a career high for me, and I was ahead of Bosko by a goal. Nugget McDonald takes the lead! Awesome? Oh, yeah. I sang to myself in the shower, but very quietly, so I wouldn’t wake Wendy up. I didn’t need a perfectly good morning ruined by the crabbiest teenager on the planet. As I dried off and got dressed, I cut the singing back to humming. Practice was going to be just like I imagined, with me and Dad as joint heroes. Never mind the fact that all of my homework was done. I’d understood every bit of my Math assignment (except for three of the questions, but still) and I’d finished the book we were reading for English class a whole week early. Mrs. Foster had continued to freak out every time I raised my hand to answer her questions in class. It should have gotten old by then, but she was still surprised that I’d turned my study habits around. I was amazed how much I liked reading now, and not just hockey books.
