of more than sixty-five thousand seats, if not quite as many fans. But no matter how many empty seats there might be at the final, it was certain that the championship game would be seen by more fans than any peewee hockey game in history.
Nish might finally get into the
Guinness World Records
. Not by mooning the most people in history, or by stuffing more straws into his big yap than anyone had ever done – but as part of a
team
, if the Owls made it to the final.
“
Hey!
” a voice growled from behind Travis.
He didn’t need to turn to know who it was.
“
Our boy Travis lost his head!
” Nish squealed.
Everyone laughed but Travis. He stared blankly at Nish – the defenseman’s face bright enough to light a dozen Pittsburgh bridges – and shrugged as if to say he hadn’t a clue what everyone was talking about.
Little did Travis know that before the Screech Owls were back on a bus heading through the Fort Pitt Tunnel to the airport and home, he would dearly wish he did have a second head.
A spare head, sort of, that he could use to replace the one that no longer worked right.
2
“
P
erfect!
” Sam and Sarah said simultaneously, their voices dripping with sarcasm.
“Whaddyamean by that?” a familiar voice squealed.
Travis turned around – not to identify the voice, which obviously belonged to Nish, but to see exactly
what
it was that Samantha Bennett and Sarah Cuthbertson were ridiculing. The Screech Owls were waiting to head out for their first practice, most of them sitting around the coffee shop in their hotel.
Travis first saw the two girls shaking their heads in disgust. Then he saw Nish.
Or, at least he presumed it was Nish. Whatever it was, it was wearing an ice-blue mask, which covered the eyes but couldn’t disguise two puffy cheeks that were growing redder by the second.
Nish was not only wearing a mask, he had on this tight T-shirt, whitish blue, with a huge icicle forming the letter
I
splitting his chest in two.
“What could be better than a big
I
on you, Big Boy?” Sam shot.
The other Owls were giggling.
Nish looked about to burst. He tore his mask off and tossed it onto the nearest table, almost causing Fahd Noorizadeh’s cherry Coke to tip into his lap. Fahd, who had never been known for his good hands in hockey, caught the drink just in time.
Nish’s mouth moved as if it were trying to trap a bumblebee. “The
I
,” he said, speaking very carefully and very loudly, “stands for ICEMAN ! I am the new Iceman! And if you don’t smarten up and shut up, I’ll freeze you both solid!”
“Deal, Big Boy,” laughed Sam, using an elastic to put her red hair into a ponytail. “We’ve been trying to freeze you out for years now.”
The rest of the Owls roared. Nish slammed his thick fist down on the table – this time causing Fahd’s cherry Coke to jump completely off the table and onto the floor. Nish grabbed his mask and stomped back toward the elevator.
“I’m going to get my equipment,” he said in a defeated tone.
Sam took one last shot: “
Don’t forget to thaw out your underwear, Mr. Iceman!
”
Travis hadn’t seen this coming. Maybe Fahd might do it. Maybe Simon Milliken. But Wayne Nishikawa?
The Iceman?
Though when he thought about it, there had been some signs. In the past few months, Nish had become obsessed with superheroes. He had all the X-Men videos, and had even taken up reading – mind you, comic books rather than real books, but reading all the same. This was a huge change for Nish, who had once told Travis that the onlypossible use he could see for books was to use them as goalposts while playing mini-stick hockey in the basement.
Nish had convinced his poor suffering mother to buy every superhero movie at Walmart and now considered himself the world expert on Superman and Batman and the Flash and Green Lantern and Spider-Man and Wolverine and even Wonder Woman. He knew about special powers, magic rings, and bracelets. He knew all about the
Nish might finally get into the
Guinness World Records
. Not by mooning the most people in history, or by stuffing more straws into his big yap than anyone had ever done – but as part of a
team
, if the Owls made it to the final.
“
Hey!
” a voice growled from behind Travis.
He didn’t need to turn to know who it was.
“
Our boy Travis lost his head!
” Nish squealed.
Everyone laughed but Travis. He stared blankly at Nish – the defenseman’s face bright enough to light a dozen Pittsburgh bridges – and shrugged as if to say he hadn’t a clue what everyone was talking about.
Little did Travis know that before the Screech Owls were back on a bus heading through the Fort Pitt Tunnel to the airport and home, he would dearly wish he did have a second head.
A spare head, sort of, that he could use to replace the one that no longer worked right.
2
“
P
erfect!
” Sam and Sarah said simultaneously, their voices dripping with sarcasm.
“Whaddyamean by that?” a familiar voice squealed.
Travis turned around – not to identify the voice, which obviously belonged to Nish, but to see exactly
what
it was that Samantha Bennett and Sarah Cuthbertson were ridiculing. The Screech Owls were waiting to head out for their first practice, most of them sitting around the coffee shop in their hotel.
Travis first saw the two girls shaking their heads in disgust. Then he saw Nish.
Or, at least he presumed it was Nish. Whatever it was, it was wearing an ice-blue mask, which covered the eyes but couldn’t disguise two puffy cheeks that were growing redder by the second.
Nish was not only wearing a mask, he had on this tight T-shirt, whitish blue, with a huge icicle forming the letter
I
splitting his chest in two.
“What could be better than a big
I
on you, Big Boy?” Sam shot.
The other Owls were giggling.
Nish looked about to burst. He tore his mask off and tossed it onto the nearest table, almost causing Fahd Noorizadeh’s cherry Coke to tip into his lap. Fahd, who had never been known for his good hands in hockey, caught the drink just in time.
Nish’s mouth moved as if it were trying to trap a bumblebee. “The
I
,” he said, speaking very carefully and very loudly, “stands for ICEMAN ! I am the new Iceman! And if you don’t smarten up and shut up, I’ll freeze you both solid!”
“Deal, Big Boy,” laughed Sam, using an elastic to put her red hair into a ponytail. “We’ve been trying to freeze you out for years now.”
The rest of the Owls roared. Nish slammed his thick fist down on the table – this time causing Fahd’s cherry Coke to jump completely off the table and onto the floor. Nish grabbed his mask and stomped back toward the elevator.
“I’m going to get my equipment,” he said in a defeated tone.
Sam took one last shot: “
Don’t forget to thaw out your underwear, Mr. Iceman!
”
Travis hadn’t seen this coming. Maybe Fahd might do it. Maybe Simon Milliken. But Wayne Nishikawa?
The Iceman?
Though when he thought about it, there had been some signs. In the past few months, Nish had become obsessed with superheroes. He had all the X-Men videos, and had even taken up reading – mind you, comic books rather than real books, but reading all the same. This was a huge change for Nish, who had once told Travis that the onlypossible use he could see for books was to use them as goalposts while playing mini-stick hockey in the basement.
Nish had convinced his poor suffering mother to buy every superhero movie at Walmart and now considered himself the world expert on Superman and Batman and the Flash and Green Lantern and Spider-Man and Wolverine and even Wonder Woman. He knew about special powers, magic rings, and bracelets. He knew all about the
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