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pathetic.”
    “We think you’re pathetic too,” Scott said.
    “It won’t happen again,” Nick said. “We’ll be his parents. Now be a good little boy and eat your vegetables.”
    “That sounds like a great idea,” Trevor said. He pointed to the door. Everyone else had gone. “You might want to get going now.”
    “Thanks, Trevor,” they chorused, and took off laughing.
    Outside the door they all tried a group high-five while running and almost ended up flying into a bush. They were barely able to keep going they were laughing so hard, and Charlie felt grateful his friends were here. He couldn’t imagine what this camp would be like if he was alone.

6

HIGH RISK
    Charlie shuffled forward, cradling the puck on his forehand, waiting for his turn. Clark hadn’t lied about the hard work — the practice was intense. Drills lasted almost an hour, and they were brutal. Nick and Scott were on another rink, but Corey was with him. Charlie was still struggling to catch his breath, as he waited for the one-on-one drill to start. He felt good so far. At least his skating held up, and he’d been at or near the front almost every time. He was kind of surprised to find he was faster than Corey. It was weird because he looked fast, his form was perfect and he started off great. He just didn’t take it into high gear. Maybe he was saving it up since he was here last year and the coaches knew him. The big centre worked hard, though, and never let up, not even for one drill.
    At the far end, Corey was ready to go, and Slogger came out to defend. Charlie was interested in seeing what each of them could do. Slogger had already impressed him with his quickness. Corey drove hard tocentre, and then about eight feet from the blue line he head-faked left and then cut sharply to the outside. Slogger calmly pivoted on his left foot and forced Corey into the boards. It looked like Corey was cut off, but he refused to give up and continued on to the goal. Slogger lowered his shoulder and knocked Corey off the puck, and pushed it to the back boards with his stick. He then turned to rejoin the defencemen.
    Corey still didn’t stop. He raced over and pulled the puck back from behind the net, pushed off in front of the crease, and reaching around the goalie shovelled in a backhand on the stick side.
    “Guy’s a total nut job,” someone said.
    Charlie didn’t have time to think about it. He was next.
    He took off hard to gain maximum speed, and then he slowed slightly. The defenceman, a kid named Markus, slowed to match his pace, with one hand on his stick and the other held up shoulder height. He was fairly tall, so Charlie figured he was the poke checker type. As he crossed the red line, Charlie threw in a stutter step and drove outside on his forehand. The defenceman turned slightly, ready to head him off. Charlie faked an inside move. The defenceman overreacted and shifted his shoulders that way. Charlie immediately turned on the jets, continuing on the outside, leaving the defender flat-footed. About fifteen feet from the goal, Charlie cut into the slot. He thought of faking a forehand and going glove side with a backhand deke, when the goalie came out and dropped into a butterfly. The top of the net wastotally exposed. Charlie snapped a wrist shot over the goalie’s shoulder on the short side.
    The defenceman brushed against him as he cut to rejoin the forwards in the corner. “Try that chicken move again and I’ll drop you,” he growled before skating off.
    The fun of scoring melted away. Coach Clark had said camp would be competitive. Probably no surprise that some guys would take it over the top.
    Charlie took a couple more turns, fortunately not against Markus. He scored on his last try too. The defenceman kept backing in, so Charlie fired a low shot three feet inside the top of the circle between the defender’s legs and right through the goalie’s five-hole.
    Binns blew his whistle.
    “Black shirts down at the far