check! please

–

“Thanks. You can put it on the counter in the kitchen.”

That had been Jack’s first mistake.

It wasn’t so much the words he said, but rather the fact that he’d said them in French.

However, to Jack’s credit, he had been in the middle of revising a chapter when he’d heard the knock on his door, and the fact that he hadn’t had any caffeine yet due to the broken coffee maker had thrown off his entire morning.

He had been expecting Georgia, the lady he rented the cabin from, to be standing on his door step. However, instead of the landlord, he got a blond guy with wide, brown eyes staring back at him.

There was a sort of gurgle of surprise and a nervous giggle from the other guy for a moment before he blurted, “Hi, I’m your new housekeeper!”

Jack raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything in his confusion. Francine, Georgia’s wife, usually stopped by once every couple of days to tidy up the place, but neither of the two ladies had mentioned anything about a new hire.

Jack must have been lost in thought for a moment too long because the other guy took this as a sign that Jack didn’t speak English. “Uh, you know, cleaning?” He mimed a sweeping action and then pointed at Jack. “Ummm, je… travaille pour Georgia?” he said in a truly horrendous accent.

Jack gave an impatient nod of his head.

“Je m’appelle Eric or you can call me Bitty. Actually, je m’appelle Bitty,” he said proudly with his hand out.

There was something about the other guy’s candidness that made Jack pause, or maybe he had been trapped in a cabin for too long, but he reached out and took the handshake.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Jack replied in French.

And that had been his second mistake.

When Chris meets Jack Zimmermann, the first thing he thinks is, I thought he’d be taller.

It’s not like Jack Zimmermann is small, or anything—he’s a perfectly reasonable height for a hockey player! And everyone on the team looks tall next to Bitty or Lardo. But Nursey and Dex are both taller than Jack, which is just weird.

The second thing Chris thinks is, I don’t want to piss him off.

He’s pretty sure the other frogs feel the same way. Everyone else on the team jokes around with Jack, and Holster seems to actively try to annoy him, but Jack has a lot of… grit, or something. Something Chris does not want to see turned his way, at least not before he has a chance to suitably impress Jack with his hockey skills. Or hockey competence. Hockey decency? Anyway. Chris is going to try to not be annoying until he’s sure that Jack likes him. He’s not really sure how he’s going to determine that, but he’ll figure something out.

Their very first full-team meeting wraps up, and Coach Hall and Coach Murray go back into their office, and the other guys all charge out into the hallway talking about team lunch, and Chris is following them when Jack catches up to him and says, “Hey. Chowder, right?”

Chris nods slowly. “Yeah.” Then he worries that sounds unenthusiastic and rushes to add, “I’m still getting used to the nickname! But I’m sure it’ll only take a couple days.”

Jack shrugs. “I wouldn’t know. But I just wanted to let you know, I saw the tapes you sent in with your application, and they’re really good. We’ll be figuring out line-ups for a while, but you definitely have a shot at starting goalie.”

“Are you serious?” In the letter he’d gotten from John Johnson, the starting goalie who had graduated last spring, Johnson had said something like that, but the whole letter had been so weird that it had kind of slipped off of Chris’s radar. He’d been more concerned about all the references to narrative structure.

“I am.” Jack’s mouth pulls into a hint of a smile. “It’s nerve-wracking to join a new team, eh? It might take you some time to get your feet under you at practices because of that. So I just thought I’d let you know that you don’t have to worry too much if you make mistakes as you’re starting out. You already made the team, and you’re good.”

“Wow.” Chris grins—he can’t help himself. “Thanks, Jack!”

Jack nods. “Anytime, Chowder.” Ransom yells something about bacon at him from up ahead, and he jogs to catch up, which leaves Chris at the back of the group.

We protect Yanic Duplessis with everything we have okay

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