1. Puck Drop

Finding out that her hockey practice was, yet again, bumped for the boys team made Kitt want to scream.

"Why do they get to just kick us out? It is OUR ice time! I bet I could skate circles around their defense. Those jerseys are wasted on the backs of those assholes!" Kitt ranted riding the elliptical bike in the work out room.

"Those jerks had the nerve to blow fucking kisses from the ice." Josie, Kitt's right wing sneered ramping up her intensity on the stationary bike.

"All because Axel-the-asshole scored at the last minute sending them into the playoffs! What about us getting ready for OUR playoffs??" Teri the left defense of the second line chirped in, kicking the bar on the leg lift machine.

"Ladies! There is no usefulness in griping, the university athletic director gave them the ice time, fair or not, we can use this time and this frustration to fuel our cardio work outs!" Coach Ten said with frustration evident in her voice.

"Coach, I think we need to make a point this weekend." Kitt said with a powerful and steady voice.

"That's the spirit McCoy!" Coach slapped her shoulder.

Kitt was the starting forward for her university's women's hockey team. She was in her second year at Xavinn Olitor University studying sports medicine and kinesiology. Her teammates all looked to her as a leader even though she hadn't been voted captain yet.

"Yeah, you little fancy boys have to face the wrath of the XOU Princesses!" Josie  bit off as she stood to peddle even faster.

"Those Knights have no clue, what we are going to do to them.!" A voice from the back of the room called out in support, which was met with a rowdy round of cheers.

"Oh look it's the ice princesses! To weak to be real Knights." Kitt seethed at the comments of Axel and his bro squad. "I am going to wipe the grin off his face AND THE TEETH OUT OF HIS HEAD!"

Coach Ten stepped out of the room looking at her phone, which meant one of two things, one, the NHL had finally gone co-ed or the Athletics Director had finally called her back. Coach Tenzine Von Ahlefeldt AKA Coach Ten, had a serious hatred for cell phone use during practice, or games, ... or locker room... or work outs... or meetings...  basically she hated them all the time. She was a former national player for team Canada and had three Olympic medals for her efforts, too bad no one outside of the world of Women's hockey cared too much.

Kitt checked her watch, both for the time and her heart rate. She let her anger fuel her as she pumped her legs on the bike.

"I have good news and bad news." Coach Ten said stepping back into the the work out room.

"They are offering equal athletic scholarships to female hockey players now?" A loud voice yelled at the back of the room making all the girls laugh dryly. Only twenty hockey scholarships existed at the university, nineteen of them were given to players on the men's team. The other went to Kitt.

"Funny, but no." Coach said pointing to the back of the room. "We got our ice time replaced."

The room erupted in whoops and hollers.

"At five a.m" Coach said holding  up her hand.

"What the f-" Coach cut Josie off with a warning look. Josie had a potty mouth on the best days, Coach had warned her several times already.

"No, seriously WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK? They would NEVER ask the guys team to practice at 5 am!" Josie's face was red and she was off her bike now. "This is some seriously sexist BULL. SHIT! BULLSHIT!" Josie slammed her towel down on the bar of an empty machine before storming from the room.

"I know it isn't ideal-" Assistant Coach Jarvis started to say before the room was so loud with voices all talking at once no one could hear her.

"I'm going for a run." Kitt said shaking her head. She needed to decompress and the chaos of her angry teammates was never going to allow for that. She tossed her duffle bag into her athletics locker and slammed the door before pushing through the back exit and taking off down the freshly salted running path behind the Athletics center.

Xavinn Olitor University was a beautiful campus, it had four main areas, including the main campus,  Gingerbread Forest, Sherword forest, and Candy Land. They all got their names names from the buildings in each respective mini campus.

Kitt lived in the Sherwood forest campus, named after the forest in Robin Hood. It was the only part of the campus that didn't have direct access to the lake that bordered the campus on two sides. It did have a great little river running through it though and in the spring and summer it was a great place to sit and study.

As she ran the manicured paths she regretted not dressing for the weather better. She wore a track suit but the cold March wind cut through it like a knife.

She was incredibly stubborn, so when she realized how cold it had gotten, she just pushed on even though it probably would have been quicker to turn around and go back to the warm locker room.

Her room was on the second floor and had access through the wrap around balcony. She hip bumped the gate at the bottom to access the stairs, hoping her key fob would catch through her clothes. When the door clicked open she didn't waste any time clearing the side steps. She tried to hip bump her door access panel but it was too high and she fished the fob out of her pocket to buzz herself in.

Her room felt too warm on her cold skin. She wanted to lay down and sleep right away but she needed a shower first.

"Dylan is always at practice these days, I mean they are on the ice like all day every day." A voice echoed through the white tiled bathroom. The bathroom was shared by four rooms, two singles and two doubles.

Kitt recognized the voice of her floor mate but was not in the mood to engage with her or her roommate. She popped her water proof headphones in and let herself into one of the four shower stalls. Each had a saloon door into a small changing area and a shower stall sperated by a curtain.

Once Kitt was back in her room she was glad she had a single. No one would be asking what was wrong or preventing her from pacing and mumbling to herself before settling in to bed with a wattpad story pulled up on her phone and German choir music playing on Spotify.

****

A five am practice meant an alarm at four. Her equipment was already at the arena so she just had to get herself there.

Since cars weren't allowed on campus, the school allowed golf carts to be used for transportation. There was a process to getting a permit and sign outs, so Kitt rarely used them, but fridged temperatures and early morning were her exceptions and today had both.

She met up with Josie and Kiesha who had started to walk and they both eagerly accepted the ride.

"Mornings are stupid!" Josie grumbled.

"Especially, when they are entirely unprovoked!" Kiesha agreed.

"Unprovoked?" Kitt couldn't help but laugh at the second string Goalie.

"You know, like not by choice? I didn't CHOOSE to wake up before Jesus this morning, yet here my face is, all conscious and participating." Keisha had a strange way with words sometimes.

"Well, I'm happy you are here, Lenora will probably be late. I mean she worked at the bookstore until close last night." Kitt shared, feeling frustration at the fact their star first string goalie had to work so hard to be able to afford school, when the men's team goalie was well rested and riding a scholarship.

"Maybe the director should have to get his ass out of bed and work out in the FREEZING FUCKING COLD at four am, then he can tell us what a favour he is doing. Gee thanks so much Sir." Josie said with her teeth clenched.

The arena was still dark when they let themselves in the side door. The caretaker wouldn't arrive for a few more hours, so Kitt went to flip on the lights over the ice surface and turn on the heaters for the dressing rooms. Maybe by the time they got off the ice the dressing room would be warm, but probably not.

Coach Ten walked in right as the lights flicked on. Several players followed her in all with the same tired expression on their face.

"Morning Coach." Kitt nodded as they all filed into the dressing room.

"I can see my breath." Kitt heard one of her teammates mumble.

No one was in the mood to chat and rib each other. Normally the dressing room was filled with voices and excitement, but this morning the mood was low and the team looked defeated.

"Absolutely not. We look like we lost the championship, and we haven't even played yet." Kitt whispered to Josie.

"Probably because they all feel insulted by just being here. Talk about a second class citizen. The director offered us this time as like an insult, or like a joke. Because honestly what self-respecting athletic team gets given the left overs? We are a real valid team at this school, yet we are treated like the idiot kid brother with the unplugged controller."  Keisha said changing her hoodie for her long sleeve long John's.

"But we need to take this time and make the most of it. Like show them we can take their garbage and turn it into a trophy." Kitt said feeling determined to show the chauvinistic dictator aka the athletic director, that he can push them down but he can't keep them there.

"Ladies? This is not ideal, but we need to go out there and practice like we mean it. Let's show this school that they have a championship team!" AC Jarvis said with conviction.

The girls nodded in agreement and flooded out onto the ice.

Kitt set up pylons and grabbed a bucket of pucks. Practicing her puck handling as she moved through the course. Shot on the open net TINK the puck hit the cross bar. Kitt sneered as she watched it ricochet off towards the boards.

She smoothly swung around and scooped up another puck with her stick.  She passed it back and forth through the pylons and shot it, it sailed straight into the net. She nodded, that was better.

AC Jarvis called the team to center ice to work on some stretching exercises. Kitt found a spot and slid into the splits.

"Show off." Alex laughed as she struggled to do the stretch.

"Dad liked hockey, mom like gymnastics and ballet." Kitt shrugged.

"Sounds about right." Alex nodded.

"I'm honestly surprised my mom didn't insist on ice dancing or something." Kitt said shaking her head.

"My dad raised me and my brothers at the rink. I think I spent more time there than I ever did at home. I had more skates than shoes, I learned to skate before I could walk I think." Alex said grinning.

"I wish, I had to fight to get ice time. For every extra classes or programs I had to spend extra time in the gym or studio." Kitt rolled over onto her back lifting her legs to follow the couches instructions.

"Sounds busy." Alex said following the work out.

"Yep, no time for anything else." Kitt agreed.

"Ladies! The more you talk the longer we go! V sit, hold it up!" The Assistant Coach yelled before blowing her whistle.

Two hands on your stick held above your shoulders while keeping your legs and torso off the ice was a form of torture. AC Jarvis liked to use it when she wanted the teams undivided attention on her instructions.

The team went silent.

"The game this weekend, is our chance to prove that we aren't some little girls playing make believe." She yelled over the soft grunts of the team holding the pose.

"Listen! We don't have to prove anything. We just are better. So when we play the charity game this weekend, it will be obvious. Our goal isn't just to win against the men's team, it is to show of OUR SKILL, OUR TALENT. If that just so happens to humiliate those puck hogs and make the Director choke on his participation medal, so be it!" Choach Ten said making the whole team cheer.

Kitt got up with a renewed sense of purpose. She was going to do exactly what the Coach said. She was going to show off her own skills, the Knights were in for a rude awakening. She noticed the mood shift on the ice, the team pride was back and the determination showed in their faces.