Chapter 3:
Do Not Fuck the Players
Honor
Five days later—Thursday evening.
I was painting in the spare bedroom when I heard the pounding at our door. I listened for a beat or two, hoping the sounds of videogame warfare—brat-a-tat-tat-tat! BOOM! Aaaaah!—would cease for a moment.
But they didn't.
“Are you going to get the door?” I called out to Todd. He was right next to the front door, after all.
“I can't!” Todd yelled back. “I'm in a match!”
“Okay,” I groaned, setting aside my watercolors as quickly and carefully as I could.
I raced through our apartment and flung the door open. The package delivery man had already started his trek back to his truck, and I had to sprint after him.
“Hey! Sorry! I can sign for that.”
I knew what was inside the small box—and the excitement made my feelings of annoyance melt away. I couldn't wait to try the outfit on. I scurried back into the house, hiding the package from Todd, although he didn't look away from his videogame.
Tearing into the package, I pulled out the replica ice girl outfit and smiled. It was so cute!
The busty crop-top and the playful mini-skirt were a perfect fit. I might not have looked as good in those as that one girl that Todd liked, but … I could definitely pull it off. And hey. If anything could steal Todd's attention away from those videogames, I'd like to think it'd be his girlfriend in a small and sexy outfit.
I sneaked into the living room, walking lightly on my tip-toes.
“Oh, To~dd,” I called.
“Huh,” he answered.
Plastic buttons furiously clicked and clacked under his fingers, and explosions and screams blasted from the TV. BOOM! Aiiiie! Brat-a-tat-tat-tat! Boooooooom!
“I have something to show you, Todd,” I sang.
“Okay. Just—hold on. One minute.”
I waited, my brow furrowing, for a minute. And then a few more, until finally I grew impatient and stepped to the side of the TV.
“Hi Todd.”
He did a double-take. “Whoa.” He chuckled uncomfortably. “What, uh, what are you wearing there, Honor?”
“Oh, just a little something I ordered after we got back from the game.” I turned to the side, modeling it for him. “What do you think?”
“Hmmm.” He kept playing his game. “Well, what in the world did you want that for?”
I sat by him on the couch and let my knees touch his. “I saw how much you liked those ice girls. I thought a little role play might be fun.”
Todd scoffed. “Honor. I told you earlier. I don't like the idea of you, wearing that.”
I stared at him while he played his game like a zombie. Blood boiled in my veins. Didn't he realize what I was practically propositioning him here? Okay, maybe he didn't want me to be an ice girl, but—this was strictly role play! And sex! Didn't he find me sexy? Shouldn't my boyfriend want me?
“Forget it.” I stood and left him in a huff.
“Hey! Honor! What's your problem?” he yelled after me.
I slammed the bedroom door behind me and changed out of the stupid outfit. Out in the living room, I heard him whine, “Aw, motherfucker—I died.”
When Todd finally came to find me an hour later, I was back at work on my painting.
“Sup. My match is over now,” he said quietly, shuffling behind me. “You changed out of that outfit.”
“Sure did.” I stared into my painting, just like he'd stared into that TV.
Todd ran his fingers up and down my neck—which was what he always did when he wanted to initiate sex. It made me shiver, but not in a good way.
“Please don't.” I shrugged his hand off my neck. “I need a steady hand for this.”
“Jesus—alright. You don't have to bite my hand off. I just thought you were in the mood.”
I added some careful brush strokes.“Well, I was, but I'm not anymore.”
Todd blew out a short breath. “Pft. Fine.” He stood silent, watching me paint, but I knew his anger was about to boil over. I knew he was about to lash out, same as he did anytime he got upset.
And then, sure enough, it came.
“I'm soooo sorry that I don't think you're sexy in that ridiculous outfit.”
Ouch. I let out a wounded breath. I always hated it when he acted like that—he sounded like a moody teenager talking back to his mom. Having done his damage, Todd stormed out of the room and made for the door. But I stopped him before he slammed it shut.
“Hey Todd.”
“What?”
“I've been thinking about it, and I want to go to that audition after all.”
“What audition?” he snapped back.
“The ice girl audition, obviously.”
Todd didn't reply.
I calmly added, “It's tomorrow evening. I can take the bus there while you're at work, but I'd like a ride home afterward.”
After a long silence, Todd finally answered, speaking lowly, “I told you earlier, Honor. I don't want you doing that.”
“It's something I want to do, though. And I need to find work. I'll call you when I'm ready to be picked up.”
Todd shut the door behind him.
***
Forty, maybe fifty other girls had come to the audition. Despite the impressive turn-out, none of us seemed interested in actually talking to each other. Maybe it was nerves; maybe it was the ugly spirit of competition.
While we waited for the audition to officially begin at 5:00, I did my warm-ups on the ice by the bench—a stretching routine from my figure skating days that I couldn't forget if I'd tried. A few girls seemed to notice that I knew what I was doing and quietly followed my lead.
My heart thudded with nervousness, but excitement, too. I couldn't wait for the actual audition to begin, if only so my blood could warm up. The audition posting said we should come dressed in dance shorts and a sports bra, and I was a little chilly.
Right at 5:00 on the dot, two girls dressed in official Colorado Blizzard ice girls gear came skating out to meet us. One girl blew her whistle, long and shrill, and waved us to gather at center ice.
“Hi ladies! Thank you so much for coming out here today! My name is Madison Sanguinetti, and I'm the captain of the ice girl squad.”
Madison's voice was raspy, but at the same time, bright and cheery. I recognized her, too—with the long, platinum blonde hair, the navel piercing, the long legs and nice butt and big boobs? She was the girl that Todd had ogled at the game last week.
Not that I'd hold that against her. Because Todd's gonna Todd. Madison sounded sweet and kind, and it wasn't her fault that she was a babe and Todd could act like a creep.
“And this here is Cora, the assistant captain.”
Cora greeted us with a smile. “Hi girls.” I remembered Cora from the game, too—she'd stood out, with her copper-red hair and a complexion that reminded me of coffee with the perfect amount of cream.
“We're going to start with a skating trial,” Madison continued. “You don't have to be a pro skater by any means—but if you can cross-over, pivot, skate backwards? Hey, that's great, show us what you got. It can only help. But really, we just want to make sure you can stay on your feet. If you slip and fall? Sorry! You'll be asked to leave.”
Won't be a problem, I thought to myself. I looked around and noticed some of the girls didn't look so confident hearing that, though.
“Secondly, while you're skating, show us your pearly whites! We want to see your smiles, ladies. Huge, ear-to-ear, enthusiastic, and most importantly, genuine smiles. A lot of you have backgrounds in cheerleading—great. You know what we expect.”
Some girls nodded confidently. I didn't have cheerleading experience, but I figured it wouldn't hurt me too bad. Because I sure knew how to wear a big ol' toothy smile while I skated.
“Lastly, we'll end the audition with one-on-one interviews with all the girls that survive the cuts. We're only hiring one new girl today. What I'm looking for is a girl who can skate, smile and wave, and most importantly, follow directions. So listen up and show us your best, ladies.”
One girl? I thought as I looked at the big group of girls around me. Not the best odds.
Madison looked around at us with a smirk. “And with that said, we've got our first round of cuts. The audition posting clearly stated you come dressed in dance shorts and a sports bra. If you didn't read the directions closely enough that you came dressed in something else, you can leave now.”
A number of the girls chuffed with disbelief. No one moved.
Madison nodded sternly. “I'm dead serious, ladies. If you aren't wearing the proper attire, you're done. Go home. Buh bye.” She blew her whistle, loud and long, until the ten or so incorrectly-dressed girls finally left the circle.
The outcast girls glided off the ice, coolly muttering to each other. I heard words like ugh and can't believe her and bitch. Madison grinned—she seemed to revel in it.
Yikes, I thought. Madison's kind of serious.
She blew her whistle again. “Alright! Let's start skating!”
***
That night, it was a frequent request heard echoing around the rink: “Smile, ladies!” “Smile—smile!” “Smiiiiile!”
Like I said. I was confident with all that. I smiled, I waved, I skated. The group of try-outs shrank, slowly but surely, as the weaker skaters tumbled to the ice and Madison seemed to derive a sense of joy in telling them to get lost.
After an hour, a group of seven was all that remained. Madison blew her whistle one last time.
“Congratulations, ladies, you made it to round two. We'll start interviews now.”
We followed her into the dressing room, where we took off our skates, and nervously waited for our interviews.
“Good luck,” I said to the first girl that Madison escorted out to a private room.
I looked around at the other girls. They were all … well … sort of in the same mold. The same type of girl as Madison—attractive in that classic American beauty way. I wasn't nearly as tall or as thin or, hell, toned as they were. They had golden tans, while I couldn't tan—I just fried. Looking at them and then looking at myself, I was the obvious odd-woman out.
Had I embarrassed myself to prove a point to Todd? And what point was I trying to make, exactly?
Er … that I'm attractive? Yeah, well, talk about a backfire! I didn't feel very pretty next to these girls.
When Madison called my name, I was the last girl to get interviewed. She took me to a conference room filled with fold-out chairs, all sitting in front of a big white-board that was still marked up with a mess of squiggled lines—the Blizzard's hockey strategy. I took a seat and Cora and Madison sat opposite me.
Madison looked at her clipboard. “So. Honor Bennett. That's an unusual name. Is that your real name?”
I smiled shyly. “Yeah. It's a family name.”
She smiled back. “I like it. Hopefully it means I can trust you.”
Her eyebrows arched, almost as if she were asking me a question. I laughed, a little uncomfortably—and so did Cora.
“Well—er—yeah, I think you can!”
Madison consulted her clipboard again. “Okay, Honor. Here's the thing. You were by far the strongest skater out there. Great eye contact, great smile. You have a skating background, I take it?”
“Sure do! I figure skated for five years.”
“I figured.” Madison pressed her lips together into a tight smile. “I was a cheerleader myself. But after four years of doing this, I can spot the figure skaters now. We've had a couple girls over the years who figure skated in the past, but you'd be the only one on the squad now. So what's your deal? I see you're 20 years old—are you a student?”
“No …” I trailed off. “I thought about going to art school for painting. But my boyfriend says it'd be a waste of time and money to get an arts degree. He wants me to work instead, and just pursue painting as a hobby. Who knows, he's probably right.”
Madison's eyebrow arched with interest. “You said you have a boyfriend?”
“Yeah. We actually just moved to Denver the other week from Minnesota.”
Her eyes and her smile both brightened, as if she suddenly liked me more. “Oh! Welcome to Colorado!”
“Thank you.”
“So you and your boyfriend live together, then?”
“Yup.”
“Ah-ha.” Madison nodded and scrawled a quick note on her paper. “Good, good.” She stared at me long and hard. “Okay, Honor. I'll cut to the chase. I saved you for last, because I figured I'd offer you the job first. So if you want it, it's yours.”
My heart practically stopped beating. “Wait, really? Are you serious?”
“I sure am.”
“I definitely want the job, Madison!”
“Great.” Madison clicked her pen against the clipboard over and over, narrowing her eyes at me, as if something were bothering her. “I just—have to go over some policy things with you first.”
“Oh, um, sure.”
She bit her lip and laughed. “This is going to sound crazy, since you live with your boyfriend, but rest assured. I have to say this to all the girls. It's nothing personal.”
I shifted in my seat. Um … okay …
“We have a strict no fraternization policy with the players. You'll see them on the ice, you'll work alongside them at charity events. You'll know their names, and in time, they'll come to know yours.”
“Right.”
“Any contact that occurs here at work, is obviously fine. Any contact outside team events is not okay. You will be terminated immediately. If you're at a restaurant, and you see a player walk in? The burden is on you to remove yourself from the situation. You'll be expected to leave the establishment immediately.”
I gulped. “Oh. Er. Okay.”
Madison gave a bubbly laugh. “I hate to say what I'm about to say—especially considering you have a boyfriend. But other girls might have benefited from getting this same warning I'm about to give you. So, again, don't take this personally.”
My brow furrowed as I waited for her warning.
“Listen. Honor. You seem like a sweetheart.” She clicked the cap of her pen again and again. “Do not fuck the players.”
I reeled back in my seat, my jaw unhinged. Even Cora hid her face in her hands.
“I know, I know. You have a boyfriend. But the players are hot, rich and charming. They love to flirt with the girls—but they're not in it for love. God forbid, but if it happens, I will find out about it, and you'll be gone. Understand?”
I stuttered and stammered, not knowing what to say. “Yes?”
Madison laughed. “I know how awful it sounds, and it won't be a problem since you have a live-in boyfriend! But really, I have to say that to all the new girls—and even still … well, you'd be surprised. Anyway. Welcome to the team.”
She hopped out of her chair. I rose to my feet and put out my hand to shake, but she hugged me instead.
“You're going to do great, Honor.”
The hell did I just get myself into? Todd's gonna kill me.