Y'all... I've eaten way too much, I'm still in my pjs, and I'm not really sure what day it is... Must be the Christmas holidays! LOL!

I hope those of you who celebrate had a lovely Christmas. I was spoiled with perfume (I LOVE perfume and I was running low), tickets to one of my favorite comedians - front row, center so you know he's going to pick on me, and my friends really brought their A-game with their gifts this year: I got a Marvel Scentsy warmer and - wait for it - Thor's hammer on a necklace.

No, you dirty birds, not his schlong. I wish! I wouldn't let that thing go to waste by hanging on a necklace, FFS! It's a delicate recreation of Mjöllnir, and I love it so!

I have a lot to tell y'all about in so far as what's coming up in the new year, but I know you're all way too excited about Savannah and Justin - AKA #Savaj so I'm just going to drop the second (unedited and subject to change) chapter of Freezing the Puck and call it good.

Freezing the Puck

Chapter 2

Savannah

(14 years old)

School sucks.

I had such high hopes for my new school, but it turns out that my second week of high school is destined to go no better than the first.

It’s day nine, and no one has said a single word to me yet—other than my teachers, but they kinda have to talk to me.

Not one freakin’ word.

I mean, to be fair I haven’t spoken to anyone either, but that’s beside the point. Mom said teenage girls never shut up and it would be super easy to make friends, but it doesn’t feel easy.

The weight of my loneliness presses down on my shoulders as I take a seat at an empty table in the cafeteria. It’ll get better, right?

It has to get better.

I spent the last year of middle school excited about starting high school. I’ve been preparing all summer.

Mom took me shopping for new clothes—it took a while to find a middle ground between the babyish clothes she wanted me to buy and the edgier, “inappropriate” clothes I kept picking up—but we got there in the end.

I smooth out my cropped sweater. It had felt like such a victory at the time. But sitting here, surrounded by my peers in their little cliques, chatting and laughing while I’m on the outside, the win over a stupid piece of clothing now feels as hollow as my on-display belly button.

When Mom finished helping me with my wardrobe, Dad took me to get my school supplies. I had gotten a haircut, we walked the route from home to school a couple times—just in case I forgot the layout of the neighborhood I’ve lived in my entire life—and he introduced me to one of the neighbors who we’d be sharing a carpool with when the weather turns.

We had it all figured out.

Or so I’d thought.

I hadn’t given much thought to the fact I might not make friends in high school. I had friends in elementary school and middle school. I wasn’t the most popular

kid in school or anything, but I had my people. Or so I’d thought. Only a handful of my middle school friends had come to this high school, and so far, not a single one of them had acknowledged me.

I press the heel of my hand into my chest, trying to soothe the wound left when my best friend, Malika, left the United States over the summer. Her dad works for some huge oil and gas company which sent them to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her name means ‘queen’ and she was the most badass queen I’ve ever known. Another twitch in my chest makes tears prick in my eyes, and I blink over and over to make them go away.

Malika and me? We had plans. We’d go to high school together, then college, and we’d get jobs together. Doing what? It didn’t matter because we’d be together.

I grind again at the dull ache in my rib cage. The time difference between Minnesota and Malaysia makes it hard for us to catch up. I miss her. I run my fingers over the colorful friendship bracelet wrapped around my wrist. I miss her a lot. She’d know what to do right now. She knows how to talk to people.

I push the lumpy mashed potatoes around on my plate, making a mental note to bring a sandwich from home on mash potato days.

I glance up, and oh... snap!

Two of the hottest boys in school are coming my way carrying trays of their own.

I swallow down a mouthful from my juice box that seems to have turned to honey on my tongue and will the wild flapping in my stomach to stop.

Act cool, Savannah Jane.

Act. Cool.

But I don’t know how.

Justin Ashe is just a teenager like me. He’s a normal, human being, just like me.

My stomach tightens.

Except he’s nothing like me, he has perfect hair, perfect skin, the perfect smile... I bet he’s freakin’ perfect when he plays hockey, too. And he seems to know everyone in school.

Everyone that is, except me.

And I want him to know who I am. More than anything I want him to smile at me, to sit with me in class, and to make dreamy eyes at me like I’m the only girl in the whole school he ever wants to look at. I spotted him on the first day of school and was instantly a goner for those dreamy blue eyes. And here he is, standing only a couple feet away.

Pressing my nerves down, I cast them a shaky smile as they approach. “Do you want to sit?”

Justin meets my gaze and offers a soft smile before his friend, Johnny White, comes to a stop a couple feet from where I’m sitting. From what I’ve heard in the girl’s bathroom, Johnny White is some mysterious hockey hotshot who moves around. A lot.

Calista Jones says it’s because his brother is an even bigger hockey whizz than he is.

Aniyah Bowsley says it’s because Johnny has been kicked out of every school he has ever gone to.

Chihiro Daigo says it’s because Johnny’s dad can’t hold down a job because he was recently released from prison. It’s the second week of school and already everyone is talking about him. Or at least all of the girls.

Either way it’s not good.

By all accounts, Johnny White isn’t someone I should be hanging out with. Mom would probably ground me for a week if she knew I was even thinking about talking to him.

He isn’t someone I should want to know my name.

He’s trouble.

But he’s also Justin’s best friend, and if I want to hang out with Justin, maybe I need to get on Johnny’s good side. And I can’t do that if I don’t say ‘Hi’ and introduce myself, right?

Johnny’s face contorts like I asked him to eat asparagus, and his eyes darken with a wickedness that snatches my breath away. He snorts and takes a step like he’s going to walk past, but before I can breathe again, he stops and turns to me.

“Why would we want to sit with you?” The derision in his voice is sharp, like shards of glass that slide under my skin.

“I... uh...” I risk a glance at Justin, maybe he’ll pat his friend on the chest and encourage him to move on and leave me the hell alone. Justin’s face is flushed as though he’s embarrassed by his boy’s behavior. But he stays quiet. Is he afraid of Johnny? Or is he simply every bit as intimidating and mean as his friend?

Johnny sets his tray onto the table and my heart constricts. I feel like a deer caught in the crosshairs, Johnny’s crosshairs, and from the tilted smirk on his face, he’s going for my jugular. He braces both hands on the edge and leans over me, sneering. “I said,” —his voice is low and threatening—“Why would we want to sit with you?”

All of the air has rushed from my lungs. My throat refuses to let me speak. My ears ring with the pounding of my heartbeat. My tongue is thick and heavy, and my skin crawls with what feels like thousands of eyes around the cafeteria: all trained on me.

All I did was offer the boys a seat.

Johnny curves a single eyebrow, and somewhere deep inside me, my inner self lets out a hysterical hiccup. I’ve always envied people who can raise one eyebrow. No matter how long I practice, I just can’t get my eyebrows to work independently. Couldn’t play piano either, for a similar reason. My hands just can’t operate separately.

Why I’m thinking about my inability to learn piano while Johnny’s hot breath tickles my skin as he continues to heave out air in my direction, I don’t know. But he’s still waiting for an answer, and the longer I take to give it, the more he seems intent on making me uncomfortable.

I cover my exposed midriff with my arms, a deep vulnerability pulsing through my body, all the way to my toes, making my leg jitter under the table.

“I...” I huff out a breath of air, but it stutters. Over Johnny’s shoulder, Justin’s face has turned a darker shade of red and a frown pinches between his perfect eyebrows. But still he stays quiet. What can I say to make this imposing figure in front of me leave my airspace?  

A chair squeaks against the linoleum floor to my left, and a warm arm curls around my shoulders. I flick my stare from Justin back to Johnny. Whoever is by my side has drawn his attention and part of me wants to protect them from him, but the rest? The rest of me is bolted in place by fear. I’ve never had the displeasure of being face-to-face with a bully before, but that’s what this guy is.

Johnny White is a bully. And from the hushed whispers rippling around the cafeteria around me, I’m the last to know.

And I’m terrified.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” the dark-haired heroine next to me snaps at him.

He slips onto the chair in front of me, leaning back, and tucks his hands behind his head. “She asked if we wanted to sit with her.” A confident shrug. “Maybe we do.” He jerks his chin at the last remaining empty seat at the table, but Justin doesn’t move.

The girl swipes Johnny’s tray off the table, leans forward, and angles it as though she’s going to dump his lunch on his lap. “Keep moving, Johnny.”

He glowers at her, but she only tilts the food closer to his crotch. Neither of them blink for a long moment before Johnny jumps to his feet, grabs his tray, and strides away to somewhere behind me. Justin gives a sympathetic last glance before he follows close on Johnny’s heels, and I’m finally able to let out a full breath.

“Say it with me: Johnny White is not our people.”

I turn to face the girl who is now crunching on a carrot.

“Sure, he’s pretty, but he is not someone we want anything to do with.” She cups my face, giving my cheeks a squeeze. “You are not the bad-boy kinda girl, mmkaay?”

She’s right. I’m not. But I also have no interest in being Johnny White’s... well, anything now. When the stranger touching my face moves her hands, I try to nod, but I’m not sure my head moves. “Th-thank you.”

She flaps her hand like she’s swatting a mosquito. “Screw that asshole. Don’t let him bother you.” She taps the half-eaten carrot on her lips. “I have no idea what Justin sees in that jerk.”

I clear my throat, take another sip of juice, and urge my racing heart to slow. “Y-you know Justin?” I’m sure my face is as red as Justin’s was only moments ago. Way to play it cool, Vannah-Jane.

The superhero who rescued me from the bad guys nods and leans closer, dropping her voice. “I’ve had a crush on him since I was five. I’m going to marry him someday.”

My heart sinks as the level of noise around me returns to the usual level. Chit-chat, clinking of silverware on dishes, people playing games and videos from social media on their phone. It doesn’t drown out my pain, though.

Of course the only person in school to talk to me is also madly in love with Justin Ashe. And why wouldn’t she be? He’s delicious. And she looks like the kind of girl he’d go for.

Confident, beautiful, strong.

It takes less than a second to make my decision—though there wasn’t really a decision to be made—Mom always says: friends before men. If this girl is going to be my new friend, I’m not going to compete with her for the love of Justin Ashe. I’m nothing if not loyal. Not just because I need a friend, any friend... something about her makes me want to be her friend, her very bestest friend. From the grin on her face, she seems like she knows how to have a good time, and she’s already earned kudos for being able to handle bullies.

I suck in a steadier breath and nod before sticking out my hand at her. “I’m Savannah. Savannah Jane Bowen. Thanks for stepping in and saving me from Johnny. My brain stopped working, and I guess I forgot how to speak.”

“And I bet you’re now thinking of all the smart-ass comebacks you could have spat at him in the moment. I used to be like that. But now I just say whatever the fuck I want, and if people don’t like it...” She shrugs and offers a sympathetic smile as she slips her hand into mine. “I’m Molly. Molly Morrison. And I’m your new best friend.”

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Until next time,

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Bookish. Bold. Beautiful. And entirely out of his league.

On paper, all-American boy next door, Lincoln Scott, has it all. But behind his slap shots, straight-A report card, and easy going charm, Linc hides a secret only his best friend knows.

When he attempts to return a misplaced bra, a wrong number gets him way more than the hook-up he bargained for. No one has ever looked beyond the star hockey player, until the mysterious woman he can’t stop texting sees him for who he really is.

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Welcome to the Minnesota Snow Pirates, where skilled and sexy mother puckers’ lives get turned upside down by strong and badass heroines. Curl up with your next book boyfriend today.

Justin

I thought I’d left my past in Minnesota when I moved to Iowa, but it was right there waiting for me.

Long blonde hair, curves in all the right places, and a death glare that hits harder than a slap shot to the solar plexus. On the ice, I’m a pro at blocking shots, but Savannah Bowen has slipped behind all my defenses and made a home in my heart.

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Hell freakin’ no.

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