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at?” he snarled as he hung his coat up.
    â€œWell,” I said, making sure I smiled so he’d see I was joking. I wasn’t scared of him. I just wanted to make sure our team played as a team. “If I were standing right beside you, I guess I’d be staring at a reflection of myself off your head. That’s some haircut.”
    â€œMichael Jordan shaves his head,” Luke told me. “It’s something that only the coolest athletes do.”
    I didn’t have a chance to answer because Coach Price walked into the dressing room.
    â€œHey, guys,” he said. If he noticed that Luke was bald, he didn’t say anything about it. “Glad you’re both here. I need to talk to the two of you.”
    â€œAbout what?” Luke said. “You and I already talked about the fight during practice.”
    Coach Price frowned at his rudeness. “We’re going to mix up the lines tonight.”
    I nodded, wondering why he was telling us. Maybe because Luke was the captain and I was one of the team’s two assistant captains.
    â€œCowboy,” Coach said, “Luke is moving down from the first line to play center on your line. We’re going to move Dougie up to play center on the first line.”
    On our team, the first two lines were equally strong. It didn’t mean Luke was moving “down.” But it did mean he and I would be playing together.
    And I didn’t want him on my line. This was the guy who had flipped out in practice over a small joke. The guy who had punched me in the mouth. Worse, even when he was at his best, he wasn’t much of a team player. All he wanted was to score his own goals. That meant he sometimes hung on to the puck instead of making a smart pass. And Luke wasn’t at his best. Everyone knew that.
    I didn’t say any of this to Coach Price. Dad had taught me to accept new situations a nd ma ke the best of them w ithout complaining.
    â€œWhat?” Luke said. “I haven’t played second line for years.”
    â€œStarting tonight you will,” Coach Price told him. “Cowboy is one of the strongestleft wingers in the league. He’s a great anchor for the second line, and I think this shift will be good for the team. And for both of you.”
    Coach Price stopped and cleared his throat. “There’s a slight problem, though. With this change, no one on the first line will have an A or a C.”
    I knew instantly where Coach Price was going. If there is a disputed call, only the captain or one of the two assistant captains can talk to the ref. The coach can’t. Often the player will get instructions from the coach on what to ask the ref. Coach Price needed a captain or an assistant on the ice at all times. With Luke and me now on the same line—
    â€œCowboy,” he asked, “mind letting Dougie wear the A for a while?”
    â€œSure, Coach.” I’d worked hard to get the A for assistant captain on my jersey. But I tried to agree cheerfully. Coach Price was going to do it anyway. There was no sense complaining about something I couldn’t change.
    Coach nodded, and then he left us alone. I didn’t have much to say to Luke. But itdidn’t matter. Other players started to arrive. They teased Luke about his new shaved look. That left me alone to worry about Big Boy, Stephanie Becker, whether we would win the game, and what it would be like to play on a line with Luke.

Chapter Eight
    Coach Price was wrong about the line change being good for Luke and me. From the beginning of the game, I skated until I thought my legs would drop off. It didn’t seem to make any difference. Whenever I got the puck, Luke was out of position to take a pass.
    That meant I had no one to pass to. At left wing, I was usually too far away to make a pass to Gordie Penn, my right winger. Hisposition was on the other side of the ice. Passing cross ice is hardly ever smart. Too many other players