"Ever since those boys left, not only was my school working getting worse, but my social life was struggling. I was no one without those boys. I still can't believe they forgot about me. It's only been eight months. Is it possible to forget someone in that amount of time?"

Chapter 3

Life on the Ice

A picture went full screen on Sophie's laptop. The picture was of Sophie and the four boys when they were 14. It was taken at the middle school finals after the boys had just won the cup. Sophie was sitting on James and Kendall's shoulders holding the cup as the rest of the team celebrated around them. She really missed those days, she had learnt how to skate on ice after meeting the boys when they were 12. Ice Hockey just wasn't the same without her four friends. After they left Sophie would still go down to the in rink after soccer and watch the practices or games but like her letter replies it she would go less and less till she didn't go at all.

"C'mon, you know how to skate fine, just try the ice, just this once?" the boys had just finished their first hockey practice of the season and were mucking around on the ice. Sophie had caught the last 30 minutes of the training session after coming from her own practice for soccer. Kendall was leaning over the boards to talk to his friend.

"Kendall, you know I will still find a way to hurt my self. I would much rather have my feat planted on the ground rather than a blade," Sophie tried holding her ground from her seat on the bleachers.

Seeing what Kendall was doing, the other three guys came over to help him, "Sophie, you have to come skate, it's fun. See," Carlos then begun skating backwards, round in circles and just mucking around, trying to show his friend how fun it is. Sophie shook her head at the gesture.

"I won't let you fall," the three boys shook there heads, agreeing to Kendall's statement.

The only girl in the group of friends let out a breath, nodded and let out an annoyed, "fine." She got up and went over to the skate hire booth and hired out a pair of skates while the boys celebrated their win.

After tightly lacing up the boots, Sophie awkwardly walked over to the gate to let her self onto the ice. With one foot on solid ground, she nervously put one foot onto the ice. The other foot slowly picked up and was placed firmly down. With a death grip on the boards she shuffled her way around to where the boys were talking. All four caught sight of her and cracked up laughing. They were soon silenced from the glare they received. Carlos motioned to his back, "jump on and I'll give you a tour of the ice."

Sophie momentarily let go of the wooden boards to clutch on tightly to Carlos, "if you drop me, you are dead."

Carlos began skating away as he slung his friend onto his back. Getting to the middle of the ice, the Latino boy dropped his Kiwi friend onto the ice and skated away. "Have fun," he laughed as he joined the other four who wear mucking around on the other side of the ice.

Sophie's face dropped as soon as she realized that Carlos had ditched her, "you dick, I swear when I get over there, I'm going to strangle you." With her arms flailing about, the soccer player tried putting one foot in front of the other as if she was walking only to find herself face down on the ice. "I hate you all," Sophie laid there pouting, not moving an inch. Feeling sorry for the girl, Kendall gracefully skated over to Sophie. She glared daggers at the other boys before turning her attention to the outstretched hand and lapsed on. "Thanks Kendall," Sophie blushed at her embarrassment and tried getting off the ice.

"Wooo, where do you think you're going? You haven't started your lesson yet," still with their hands entwined Kendall began skating in the opposite direction, forcing Sophie to slide along the ice behind him. Giving in more easily than normal, Sophie copied the actions of Kendall and found herself gliding over the ice just as easy.

Sophie did a few slow laps around the rink and began picking up pace as she got more confident. Getting cocky, Sophie decided to skate through the middle of the hockey game that the guys were playing. It was when she realized that the guys weren't planning on moving anytime soon that she figured out that Kendall didn't teach her to stop. There was a full on collision between Sophie and James that left them on the ground, "hey James, want to teach me how to stop?"

James groaned at the heavy weight that now occupied his midsection, "want to get off me?" He rubbed his head in pain but stopped when he noticed that it was Sophie on top of him, "actually on second thoughts, you can stay there as long as you want." A smirk played across James' face and Sophie all but jumped off the perverted 13 year old.

"Come here," Kendall motioned to his side and when Sophie followed his orders, the blonde boy demonstrated to her how to stop. Holding tightly onto Kendall, Sophie tried it a few times and when she felt she had it she slowly let go of her grounding.

"Heads up," Sophie looked up in time to see the hockey stick flying at her. "You can team up with Carlos and I'll ref."

"But Kendall," Sophie wined. "I don't know how to play. There was like 4 ice rinks in all of New Zealand."

Kendall had a surprised look on hi face, "it's just like field hockey but only on the ice you have to watch out for checking."

The newbie was confused, "I can do that. Wait, what do you mean, 'watch out for the checking'?"

The four boys smirked, "you'll figure it out eventually." Kendall gave an evil grin and chucked the puck towards the group. "Go," he yelled and the three boys all raced towards the flat black puck.