Chapter 10

• The summer holidays seemed to pass too quickly. Alexander had changed my training routine and I now trained like a pro athlete. It was grueling and he had no mercy on me, but I welcomed it. I was working toward a goal now, the first one in my life and I desperately wanted to make the school team and know what success felt like.
• The training program strengthened my core, built up my arms and legs and I grew a few inches over that summer holiday and gained twenty pounds. I was the tallest and biggest Hawthorne boy and while the others worked on their games and music, I watched old hockey games and memorized plays.
• Most days I went to the ice rink with Alexander. He’d make me sprint and shoot goals. He taught me how to slam someone into the partitions without getting benched for two minutes and the first time I slammed him into it, his gloves came off and instinct made me throw mine down on the ice as well.