Sticks, Jocks & Love

Sticks, Jocks & Love

Chapter One:

Happiness is Good Health and Bad Memory

No one, not even Nate himself, could say that life hadn't been kind to Nathaniel Sadler. He came from a well off family (they weren't Bill Gates rich but Nate had never had to worry about money one single day of his life), he had a sister he adored – though he would cheerfully endure a bikini wax rather than admit it – and he had two parents who loved each other and loved him just as much (though Nate would be the first to admit that he could do with knowing a lot less about their sex life, like the fact that his sister Nathalie had been conceived in a linen closet).

And, best of all, he had a gift: the gift of Ice Hockey. Granted, it wasn't like say, the gift of being able to paint like Monet, but Nate loved his gift just the same. His gift took him places: all over the country (and Canada) at first, and then all over Europe. His gift made him rich on his own right. And Nate knew not greater joy than stepping into the ice... that first second when his skates began to glide over the ice – he was 6 ft 2, and in the 200 pounds of pure muscle vicinity, but on ice he glided, he was fast, focused, the best – that second when the cold air filled his lungs giving him that fluttery feeling in the pit of his stomach... what most people described feeling when they fell in love, Nate fell that every time he touched the ice. It never failed.

His gift had a dark side, though. It all started with an injured knee, they had been playing the Red Wings and one of the players had smashed him against the ice, bending his knee into an unnatural position. He had had to have surgery and physical therapy... as well as lots of painkillers. Some people drank, he did painkillers. At first, it hadn't been a problem, until one day he had run out of them before a game without any time to go get more. He had been one shaking mess, a complete junkie, not even noticing the game he was playing (by then he had a multimillion dollar contract with the New York Rangers), they had lost. Nate knew as much, mostly because – while he had been shaking, not even able to tie his own shoes – the team captain had come over him and threw him against one of the lockers.

He had called Nate a piece of shit. Which was quite true, at that point, and which he hadn't been able to refute. The Captain had hit him in the jaw then – he had had a quite impressive black eye for the better part of the next month – and called him a 'waste of God-given talent'.

That was all. A Waste of God Give Talent.

Of all the words he had heard, those were the ones that had managed to get through.

The next day he talked to the coach and shipped himself off to rehab.

He hadn't returned to play for the Rangers after that, instead he had been traded to the Cavaliers, pride of his hometown. By then, he was quite happy to move and start over.

He had been playing for the Cavaliers for two years now and he was on top of his game, playing better than ever. He felt fit and strong, even if his knee did bother him from time to time, he never took anything stronger than Advil for it. If his sister would just stop pestering him to get married or at least get a girlfriend, Nate would have claimed not only that life was kind to him, but that his life was perfect.

Hannah Taylor was in no mood to welcome a bunch to hockey players into her classroom but alas, she didn't have a say in the matter at all. She should have called in sick, but the headmistress, anticipating Hannah's dislike of jocks, hadn't told her that their school was welcoming the Cavaliers until the very morning the event was to take place.

Until a few years ago, hockey hadn't been that important in their city; sure they had a team and there were fans but it hadn't been a big deal like say baseball or football until some big shot player transferred from the New York Rangers. Last year the Cavaliers had made it to semifinals, and now, with the season starting, the city seemed to have hockey fever. Hence the fact that the team was touring some schools to thank for the support the community had shown them.

Hannah didn't have any patience for jocks, and big men made her nervous. Other than her very own brother, she avoided all contact with men that towered her over her, since she really hated to be towered over but, given that she was only a couple of inches over five feet, practically everyone towered over her; which was why she had decided to become a first grade teacher, that way all her students would always be shorter than she.

Hannah sighed as she looked at the young faces of her students, half of them were wearing some sort of Cavaliers paraphernalia and the others were tugging at their t-shirts and craning their necks to try to see if the guests of honor had arrived. It was impossible to conduct class like that, so she just sat back and let them talk among themselves.

At around ten, the principal finally showed up. She was giggling and surrounded by five of the biggest men Hannah had ever seen. Now, Hannah hated jocks as much as the next nerdy girl with glasses that had been picked on by jocks all her academic life, but even she had to admit that one of the guys was completely yummy.

He was tall, had dark, short hair and dark brown eyes, he was a bit tanned but not much and, unlike the rest of the men who were with him, he wasn't all grossly muscular. I mean, he had muscles and all but he didn't look like he was on steroids twenty-four/seven. Yummy indeed.

Too bad he was a jock and jocks held no appeal to her, so instead of getting into flirty mode, she just smiled politely at the hockey players and asked them to introduce themselves to the class.

As Nate waited for his turn to speak, he couldn't help to think that this whole thing was oddly like being the new kid in the school. Miss Hannah, as the children called her, was making them stand in front of the class and 'say a little about themselves' the same way elementary school teachers asked you to 'tell how you spent your summer vacation'. And she seemed to be enjoying all of this, sitting behind her desk and pretending to listen. And Nate knew she was only pretending, he had a big sister and a big cousin, he would recognize that glassed-over look anywhere, it was the same look Nat had when he would begin talking about cars.

Now, Nate wasn't a conceited man – at least not much – but he was amazed that Miss Hannah didn't seem to care for him or the other players. The lack of female regard was something new for Nate, it hadn't happened to him since his sophomore year at high school when he had shot up to six feet and was selected to play on the varsity team. Women liked him, it was just that simple.

Too bad, Nate thought. Hannah Taylor was really a cute, little thing. She had long, strawberry-blond hair, pretty blue eyes and a sprinkle of freckles across her nose. She was just too adorable. Too bad she seemed to be sour as a lemon inside.

“Nate, your up.” His teammate, Pierre Junot, said in his French accented English.

“Alright,” Nate said and went to stand in front of the class like the rest of his teammates had done. “Hello kids, I'm Nate Sadler...” Nate said and talked a little about playing for the Cavaliers and then said, “So if any of you has a question...”

Instantly at least ten hands shot up in the air, and he realized he had actually been the only one to offer to answer questions.

“Okay, you.” Nate said, pointing to a red-haired kid with sticky out ears in the third row.

“Why did you decide to play hockey?”

“Well, you see my Mom's family is from the south and they are deeply into hockey, and then my Dad is deeply into food. So, basically in my family you could either cook or play hockey, and since my big sister Nat decided to become a chef, and since I can't boil water without burning it, I decided to play hockey. Turned out I wasn't so bad at it.”

The kids giggled and a boy in the front row asked him why he played in the Cavaliers, to which Nate answered that it was because they were his hometown team and told them about how he had grown up in the area. And then one girl in the back asked if it was true that hockey was only for boys.

Miss Hannah jumped at that, probably thinking that he was going to say something completely macho and chauvinistic but Nate waved her off and said. “Absolutely not. Both my Mom and sister love playing hockey, my sister played until college she was in the national team of the Teen Good Will Games. Hockey is for everyone, really.”

And for saying that Hannah gifted him with a brief but real smile.

Nate got to the conclusion that Hannah Taylor had a really lovely smile. But, as it happens with most chance encounters as soon as Hannah and Nate were out of each other's sights they promptly forgot about each other... unless dreams counted of course. But they tried to dismiss that; after all, what were the chances of them meeting ever again?

End of Chapter One