to the stars through difficulty

And this kid did not have a lot of friends. His teachers thought he wasn't very smart because he made everything about hockey. And they dismissed him when he struggled with math and reading. "if you could just put some of your hockey energy into school, then maybe you would get better." His classmates laughed at the hockey themed valentines day cards him and his mom had to hand make because nowhere was selling hockey themed valentines day cards. And they laugh at him when he repeats the same thing over and over about "getting pucks deep, pucks deep, pucks deep." When he would play all by himself on the yard pretending he was skating, picking up any big stick he could find on the ground, they'd push him around. "Can we play? We'll be defenders" and ram him and take his stick. And he'd just go through all the penalties they would have just gotten over and over again until he can calm down. He celebrated every birthday at the ice rink in his full hockey gear even though he didn't really have classmates showing up. Not for lack of invite.

And his parents try to steer him away from it. They try and watch new sports, they try and get him to watch kids shows, get into things kids his age like, but all he wants to do is watch reruns of the metros cup wins. Wants to wear his hat backwards with his black shirt because that's how Shane looks in the interviews. Memorizes the answers he gives in french even though this kid never learned french in school. And its useless. This kid is hooked and they just kinda have to ride this wave.

So when the announcement comes for the Game Changers camp, these parents do absolutely everything to get him there. They don't care what it takes, this is like a light for all of them really in the midst of all the bullying at school and the meltdowns at home and the obsessive routines that fall apart if even one thing is out of place.

And they explain to the camp that their boy might have a hard time. Might need some time to adjust. That he struggles with math, and reading, and can get caught up in all the rules sometimes. Preemptively trying to say "he's not a bad kid. he's trying his best."

So at the end of the first day, his parents are prepared for a meltdown. Its new, its a lot of kids, the rink can get loud and cold, and he doesn't always do well with transitioning out of hockey. He's hard to pull off the ice at home.

And they can see some upset under the surface when they arrive. He clearly doesn't want to go home. Thats no surprise.

What is a surprise is the way Shane gets down on one knee next to where the boy is sitting upset on the ground. He doesn't move to touch him. He just gets down and the two of them softly have a chat. The boy is tugging on his hair and nodding at what Shane says. And eventually he stands and the parents walk over to them.

"You must be the parents. Its good to meet you," Shane says softly. "I was just going over some things about tomorrow. So that way he would know the schedule."

And they can see their son isn't quite happy, still clearly exhausted. He'll nap in the car and be grumpy at dinner. But he is much more regulated than they expected him to be.

"And, I was telling him about my schedule when I go home. About getting some quite time, making sure I can decompress. I think that's what all good hockey players need, right buddy?"

"Right buddy," he repeats.

I might've done Ilya a little bit dirty by putting that version of cottage hair on the poll, so here's my apology gifset to the cottage hair truthers <3

@hullomoon's Decades Bingo Masterlist

Bingo x 1 6 Total Prompts Completed 8,044 Words

Moon's Masterlist:

‘cause with the birds i’ll share by @hullomoon | Prompt: Red Hot Chili Peppers | Song: Scar Tissue | Word Count: 1141 | Rating: T | POV: Eddie | Relationships: None | CW: None | Tags: Canon Divergence, Post Season 4, Reunions

i’ve never been in love like this by @hullomoon | Prompt: Free Space (Garth Brooks) | Song: Shameless | Word Count: 1006 | Rating: T | POV: Steve | Relationships: Steddie | CW: None | Tags: Serenades

you gotta get with my friends by @hullomoon | Prompt: Spice Girls | Song: Wannabe | Word Count: 1990 | Rating: T | POV: Steve | Relationships: Steve & Corroded Coffin, Steddie | CW: Drug Use (Weed) | Tags: Canon Divergence, Pre-Season 4

i learned who i was by @hullomoon | Prompt: Alan Jackson | Song: Chattahoochee | Word Count: 930 | Rating: T | POV: Jeff | Relationships: None | CW: Underage Drinking, Underage Drug Use (Weed) | Tags: Post Season 3, Slice of Life

my heart thrown wide open by @hullomoon | Prompt: R.E.M. | Song: Near Wild Heaven | Word Count: 1598 | Rating: M | POV: Gareth | Relationships: Gareth/OFC | CW: None | Tags: Sexual Content, Break up, Angst with a Bittersweet Ending

in aotearoa, june isn’t our pride, it’s theirs. marsha p johnson and sylvia rivera are their historical figures, not ours. the phrase that “you owe your rights to Black trans women” is true there, but here we owe our rights to (mostly) Māori historical figures. i have the freedoms i do because of the legacy of an entirely different set of people operating in an entirely different context at entirely different times.

But because of american cultural imperialism, most queer people in Aotearoa don’t even know our own queer history. Carmen Rupe, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, the Dorian Society, Gillian Laundon, Georgina Beyer, and the Wolfenden Association are some of our queer history. We should know their names! we should know what they did for us! but because of the power of the american imperial machine, we don’t.

our national pride month should be july, the month that the Homosexual Law Reform Act passed in 1986. our two largest cities hold their pride festivals in february and march, respectively. american queer history has very little (or nothing, depending on who you ask) to do with our queer history. anecdotally, from my own queries, queer youth in aotearoa know more about american queer history than our own.