Forums → Art, Music, and Writing → Burning Ice (By: Acmed) 2nd Thread
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Chapter 17: Mean Mr. Mustard
Michael walked to Hillside Arena a bit more satisfied that day. Even though his ton weighing bag slung his shoulder bone down to his thigh, he felt like a big weight had been lifted off of him. Not just from Ryan's apology, but the stuff it also fixed with it. He may have known him for less than a week, but remarkably changed quite a bit about Michael.
Kicking a block of ice on the grass in front of him, Michael walked into the parking lot of Ferndale Recreational Hockey Center, as it's letters on the front called it. He called it FRHC, pronounced like frihick. Obviously, no one would ever think of this besides him, so the name is completely original.
Before walking into the parking lot of the arena, he heard a thud, and a cold force hit him in the back. A wet mark sat on his not thick enough sweater, chilling his back with the frozen water. He turned and planned to be angry, but instead, he gave a smile.
Jackie stood right there, laughing and smiling her teeth as white as the snow near her feet. A little hat laid on top of her head while the strings rested on her cold red ears. Who would count this all and name in all in perfect detail? Michael Lambert.
She went up and wrapped her arms around the boy, "I'm sorry Lambchop. Are you cold?" asked Jackie in an intentionally cute way.
"Lambchop?" Michael replied, ignoring the question.
"Nickname. Get used to it." She giggled and kissed him on the cheek. The cold already made his cheeks red, but inside he was blushing, "So, do you mind me watching you guys practice?"
"If you plan on being bored out of your mind," he responded, "We don't do anything interesting."
"Whatever. I just want to see your *** in a hockey uniform." Jackie smiled, "Plus, Ryan won't bother you anymore."
Michael thought about it. Ryan. Though things were safe with him, what would their relationship be like? Michael will always feel bad for him and he didn't plan on making things worse. Should he keep his distance even though the peace has been restored?
"But, we shouldn't really rub it in his face. You know, he still loves you." answered Michael.
"Wait, he still loves me?" Jackie asked in shock, as if it wasn't obvious.
"Yeah. You broke up with him, right?"
"Well, yeah. But that's the thing, we broke up. He can't do that. Isn't he supposed to hate me?" She was on the verge of ripping her hair out in confusion. Michael looked at her as if she was insane.
"Why would he hate you?" He asked.
Jackie looked down at the floor. She knew it'd be hard for him to understand, "Once you made a lot a friends in this school, you're going to make a lot of enemies."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm a popular person, so, yeah." responded Jackie.
"But that's a good thing Jackie." Michael explained, "What you're going through is brief. People hate me and my friends on a daily basis. We get **** thrown at us every day."
She hesitated, putting herself into Michael's shoes for a moment, "Well, I guess I'm new to it." Jackie admitted. Michael looked at her eyes, saddened by the fact. He didn't understand one bit. This is something he goes through constantly and yet Jackie is living in some abstract world compared to his.
Then he came to a swift realization. The reason Jackie and Ryan did fine in the first place was because they came from the same group of popularity. Her and Michael however have nothing in common. Jackie generally likes big men who can protect her and are fairly strong and tough. Michael on the other hand spends his time playing Portal games and reading internet memes and rage comics.
In the names of science, anything removed from its original state will eventually return to its original state. Obstacles push it back to where it belongs, and repels against the goal it's reaching. Michael was a fish in the water, all happy and free. Then he sees a sexy little seagull on the sand named Jackie. He jumps out the water and attempts to woe her over.
There's only 3 ways this could go down in Michael's perspective. He could go back into the water where the only thing he can worry about is sharks and narwhals. The other option is that he can be eaten alive by this girl (Because seagulls eat fish, right?). Finally, when he's out of the water for too long, he will suffocate and get flushed down the toilet at a bait shop on the shore. Then and there, he's done.
However, there is the rather impossible secondary outcome that will just be used for this metaphor. If the fish can spend enough time learning about the land culture, then he himself will gain a taste of their everyday. A taste turns into a thought, then an action. Next thing you know, little salmon Michael turns into a generic American Bald Eagle, subsequently leaving his little underwater friends helpless against petty basket sharks.
So that would be the only options. Jump into her world, back into his own, or die.
"Alright then" He plainly remarked. The cheerleader expected a bit more sympathy, but that was the best way he could summarize after his epic thinking moment. Jackie just walked along side him again.
Before they took another step, a crash thudded to the ground behind them. Michael and her turned around and saw Peter Skywalker spitting snow from his mouth and getting back up from his trip. He was very out of breath and his face was as red as a tomato.
"Michael!" Peter panted, placing his hands on his knees, "Grant got beat up!" He exclaimed.
The two only looked at him in confusion, "What?" Jackie asked, not really in a concerned way.
"Grant got beat up by Ryan. And aren't you that crying girl?"
"Wait, he did?" questioned Michael, "What happened? Who started it?"
"Grant threw the first one verbally, then Ryan slammed him into the locker. He chased after me for a while." He explained. Peter knew he didn't have much time.
"What did Grant say?"
"He called Ryan an offensive word and got pretty mad. He said something about taking you and Ben out."
Michael nearly fell to snow in disbelief, "Are you serious?" A sense in him told Michael not to believe Pete. He saw Ryan 7 hours ago, and he was perfectly fine. They had a truce, and everything was normal again. Was this really happening? Was this a permanent scar between the two? Conveniently, a blow from the back of his spine helped him out.
He imagined himself sitting down in his parent's living room when he was little kid, watching a rerun episode of Thomas the Tank Engine. The one where Duck crashes into the barber shop. Michael felt like he had just done that and fell into a pile of freezing cold shaving cream. The worst time to be a steam train would be at that exact moment.
With snow gripping at his sensitive teeth, nose, and chin, Michael turns and faces his head up to the sky. He only hears the words "Ryan!" come out of Jackie's mouth, and the sounds of Peter contemplating what he's going to do. Soon enough, Ryan's face is seen above Michael's frozen face.
"Well, you happened to screw things up between us completely in a 7 hour span." He shoved a wad of snow in the defensemen's face, smiling an evil grin as he does so.
Michael tried to talk to him through his slight coughing fit, "Ryan, I didn't say those things. Grant did. He didn't know."
"He didn't know what?" exclaimed Ryan, shoving more of the crystals in the center of his face. Jackie had been trying to haul him off of her boyfriend, but it was useless. Peter still stood there, shouting Fus Ro Dah and Yol Toor Shul at Ryan, not realizing he can't speak the dragon language.
"He didn't know we had a truce. He didn't know." Michael panted, spitting out snow in the meantime.
Ryan had a look of understanding on his face for a good half second, and laugh pitifully, "Well, he certainly did have a reason, right?" He gained an inch closer to the downed hockey player, "I know you hate me, and I know your friends hate me too. But I'll have you know I'm not going to tolerate that? Got it?" With his teeth clenched and fire in his eyes, this made Michael, for the first time, fearful of Ryan.
"Ryan, you don't have to do this." Michael pleaded, "You can change."
"I'm not changing for anyone, especially not for a few nerds like you guys!" Ryan didn't need to mention it, but his primary motive was because of Jackie being taken away from him, "And that little prick of a friend you call Ben." He started to laugh psychotically, picturing a gruesome scene in his head.
"He was only trying to protect me. You charged after me!" Michael exclaimed, changing from beg to debate in a moment's notice.
"Protect you?" responded Ryan with an eyebrow raised. He got up from pinning Michael, allowing him to sit up straight. Ryan grinned amusingly, "Ain't that a rat's ***? A kid coming to protect little princess Michael." He paused with a disapproving nod, "I'm not buying it."
Michael gave him an answer with a quiet voice, "He's my friend."
He stepped closer to Michael with curiosity, "I'm sorry, what? He's your friend?" Ryan looked directly into Michael's eyes, and then into his soul, "If your 'friend' cared so much, why did he have to get involved?"
That left Michael the defenseman in a state of question and a bigger state of finding the answer. Whose fault was this? What would have happened if he didn't know them? Would things be better? Worse?
Ryan had set the stage, "It's not your fault I want to kill you Michael. It's your friends' fault."
He didn't pay any more attention to Michael, as he looked over at Peter still trying to master the thu'um. This time, he was trying to call a dragon named Odahviing, which so far wasn't working.
"Oh-dah-viing!" He yelled. Ryan didn't even laugh at how pathetic his attempts were.
Instead, he gave Peter a look that he used so well, "What the hell is your problem?"
The amateur shot master replied, but was sure the words would come out stupid, "I'm just, trying to stop you."
"From what?" asked Ryan.
"You hurting Michael."
Ryan gave Michael a quick glance. He had made the dork say the right phrase. Now for the kill, "Why?"
Michael mouthed the word "no" to Peter, but it was no use, "Because, I consider him my friend." He replied, not thinking it would do any harm.
The team captain laughed for a good 5 seconds, "Did you not just hear our little conversation?"
"Conversation?"
"Oh," he nodded, "Perhaps I'll summarize for you." And he did just that. He gave Pete a look that told him to run, as if he was some sort of forest animal preparing to be eaten.
Unfortunately, the Dragonborn wannabe forgot his Whirlwind Sprint shout the Greybeards had taught him up at High Hrothgar. It was perfect timing for Ryan the World-Eater to hit him with his Ice Form shout. The downed leader of the voice, Paarthurnax, sits in horror, watching the mauling. Ryan prepared to knock the dragon blooded freak off his feet with a swift Unrelenting Force.
Like a spear running through Peter's abdomen, Ryan forced him down into the compacted crystals, while at the same time knocking all the air out of his lungs. The "oof" sound of the impact was sounded over by Pete's girly like scream. Bashing blows were plowed into Peter's face, as Michael and Jackie attempted to stop him.
Jackie was pushed off easily by Ryan, while the defender received a big backhand to the face. Subsequently, he was knocked down right across from his friend, who was now bleeding slightly from the right nostril. His attack was over though, and turned his attention back to Michael, laying down on the cold surface.
Ryan nodded his head in approval and stated his words of wisdom shortly and sweetly, "Get your **** straight with your friends." He paused, letting the words sink in, and smiled very amusingly, "Or I'll do it myself."
He walked away with as much swagger as he could. Michael looked at the bloodied Peter. Sincerity was coursing through the nerd's eyes. Michael just watched as he walked away, disappointed and upset. He never saw anything more saddened in his life. The only thing trickling through his mind was the guilt. He knew Ryan didn't hurt him. Michael had hurt him.