Chapter Text
2003
Mom had told him to try out new hobbies, she loves that he loves hockey, but his world can't be entirely about hockey. She heard that from some mediocre kid's parent, that they're Johnny? Timmy? He doesn't know-who won't continue the sport.
Some hockey-mom had told his Mom, that he might end up burning out and hate hockey and hate them. As if.
But knowing his Mom, no matter what he says it'll be a losing battle. Especially if his Dad was on his Mom's side.
So during his entire summer break, instead of going to the hockey camp in Montreal he's desperately been begging to go to.
He was forced to try a million of hobbies. And after trying a million of hobbies, from soccer, lacrosse, arts and craft, they finally settled on skateboarding.
Since it was the only hobby he enjoyed out of all of the options they tried, they tried rollerblading but it wouldn't stick if he wasn't holding a stick.
And lacrosse was too similar to hockey, even played recreationally it made Shane want to play ice hockey.
2005
Now Shane still loves hockey, but during the summer he gets to enjoy his hobby and meet up with his friends who don't judge him or his personality.
They just listen when rambles about hockey the same way he listens when they ramble about comics or movies.
"Dude, wanna get your ears pierced at Macy's?" Eli asks him, while they're practicing this sick trick they saw on MySpace.
"Why the eff, should I pierce my ears?" He replies with a confused frown.
"Cause it's rad as heck, like you'll be cool AF with the other players." Jace adds, trying to get him to get his ears pierced since Jace and Eli got their piercings earlier before the summer without him.
Which was annoying as hell, since they could've told him instead of him finding about it on MySpace from a friend of a friend.
"I'll ask my Mom, 'kay? Also most hockey players don't wear earrings, I think?" Shane shrugs, before almost getting the trick right, well almost right.
You can get piercings in hockey, you just got to take them out before a game, that'll be a hassle, and... "Isn't that girlie?" He muttered, before turning red, stuttering trying to apologize if he sounded offensive.
"Dude, nah, noooot at all man. You'll look fly, like how we got you to wear those jeans instead of the slacks Mrs. Hollzy's got you." Eli shakes his head, reassuring him it wasn't offensive, while they skate to a shaded area.
While Shane looks down at his baggy black jeans. A bit scuffed from wear and tear. It was the better choice, it made him fit right, also doubled as semi-protective wear.
"Yeah, baggy jeans is the RIGHT option man, waaaait ONLY option, cuz skating in slacks ain't buffing anything dude." Jace added, sounding like a salesman.
Shane just scoffs at what Jace's saying, "there's a thing called knee-pads Jace."
"And they're buffing your swag. We've been skating for a while, and you're the only ones that's improving the quickest." Jace huffed, to which Shane rolled his eyes at.
"Dude," Eli smacks Jace on his chest, offended before pointing at Shane. "He's on the ice non-stop, that's gotta help his skills."
"Hey!" He huffs, before chuckling with his friends. Since being on the does not help his skills on the skateboard, only on the ice.
Resting a bit, in an empty area in the skate park, since this area's a pretty annoying to skate in, since it's got uneven surface and got a shitty repair job last summer.
"Like, no joke man. I love your ass and all, but you gotta get piercings, like you'd look fly as shit, and YOLO y'know?" Jace gestures to his and Eli's ear piercings. Which they do look good.
And he's considering it. Until Eli piped up.
"Also, if you want, we can get you those clip-on earrings, that girls get. Like my older's sister scared of needles, boom! She also got those clip earrings from Macy's."
That sold him, since he does not want clip-on ear piercings, he saw Eli's older sister. Because they look brutally huge and painful to wear.
"Oh yeaaaah," he nods, remembering when he saw Eli's sister go to prom.
"Guess I gotta call my mom? Cause I want piercings, and they heal up if I don't want it, right?" He asks, pulling out his flip phone from his pocket, already nervously dialing his Mom's number.
"Yeah, if you don't feel like it you can get rid of it, also you got like the entire summer for it heal if you do wanna keep it?" Eli shrugs, which makes Shane feel a little bit better, while waiting for his Mom to pick up the phone.
L(ﾟ皿ﾟﾒ)」
If Eli and Jace weren't his friends he'd beat up their asses, and if beating up people wasn't illegal he'd do it.
Because they didn't tell him it'd hurt this fucking much.
It didn't bleed, sure. Because the pink-haired teenager who shot his ear, pressed the hole till it turned red.
So you can't tell if it bled, cause the flap of his ears are completely red.
"Hey, it doesn't look that bad bro..." Eli awkwardly says with a wince, not really that convincing him.
While Jace is measuring which earring style looks good on him. He doesn't care regardlessly.
"God, my Mom shouldn't have allowed me to get piercings..." Shane groans, while leaning on the 'Do Not Lean On' display case of jewellry with an ice pack on one ear, switching them in between.
"You look good in any color man, what style d'ya want?" Jace asks.
"I don't know? Black? Anything not shiny man, don't want people judgin' me." Shane hisses, since he's a little nervous once school starts, and when school starts hockey season does as well.
And he's scared if the guys'll call him names, and all that crap.
"Oooh, go do those acrylic black ones, they'll look rad on you man." Eli pointed at something from the aisle, to which Jace chirped at in agreement, while he rolled his eyes leaning on the cold glass display case. Still reeling from how damn painful it is to get pierced.
Never again.
2007
They say that once you start getting a piercing it doesn't stop, like how it is with a tattoo. Right now he's got six ear piercings, on both ears, and a tongue piercing. So in total seven.
And he thinks he's done, for now. Obviously, because if the hockey career doesn't work then... That's future him's issue, personally he'd get an accounting degree near home.
At the moment he's way too good at hockey, his coaches told him off after his first piercings, but if he puts the points on the board, and he takes them out before going on the ice? They couldn't care less.
So he started playing with his style, messing around with it. Trying out stuff with his friends, and no can judge him? Well they can.
But it doesn't really matter to him, since he likes what he's wearing. His baggy hoodie, baggy jeans, or his long sleeved graphic tees, with his scuffed up sneakers.
And his parents are pretty chill with it.
His Mom doesn't care as long as he does well in school and is a good kid in general. And his Dad says as long he doesn't go to Macy's their piercers aren't licensed, so his tongue piercing was at an actual licensed shop.
But essentially, he isn't doing anything illegal or horrible, and that's all that matters to them. Stay safe, stay kind, and stay smart.
He's also at that stage of self-discovery, like most teens, so they just made sure to be pretty active and supportive. As if they weren't already overly supportive and active in his both school and social life.
Sure they were worried about Eli and Jace at first.
Until they realised those kids at thirteen years old are still the same at sixteen. Just kids that want to skate on their skateboards and have fun, just taller and more self-conscious.
So they didn't bother with being too concerned, since Shane came home before nine everyday, and his friends would always greet them politely when they came to pick him up or drop him off.
Especially when they learned that these kids are just as awkward and shy as their own kid. Birds of flock stick together, as the saying goes.
(゜ー゜)(。_。)
During the summer, he just skates around the park, hang out at one of his friends' place.
Sometimes they hang out with other people, like other peeps skating around the park, or hanging at the mall, trying out new gear, going to the Arcade.
Something that twelve or thirteen year old him expected, that he'd be at hockey camp training in Montreal or Toronto.
But hey as his friends and parents say, you're only a teenager once.
So they're currently hanging out in the mall. Hanging out at thrift stores and the gear shop, since Shane needs to buy another grip tape since he bought the wrong kind last time.
"Heeyy, I'ma wear this." Jace says proudly behind the rack, then lifting up a stupid shirt that says 'I Got My Clit Pierced At Macy's' which made him internally cringe.
"No, no, no... Mhmm, put it back." He shook his head no repeatedly.
"Whyyyy?"
"Cause you don't got a clit?"
"How can you prove that Hollzy?"
"Oh my God, I'm not talking to you about genitalia in public." Shane huffs, turning a shade of red his friends love teasing him about.
"Woah-woah, big words Shane." Eli swoops into the conversation, while reorganizing the rack, then snorting at the shirt Jace is holding up.
"You should get it bro." Eli chuckles, to which Jace loudly agreed to. Because it just made sense.
He's the heavily pierced one out of the three of them, so it sorta-really-doesn't make sense. Like if he was a girl maybe, but even then he wouldn't pierce anything on his torso or crotch, that'd be difficult to remove or even if it's removable for ice hockey.
"How's the part-time job treatin' you?" He curiously asks Eli, since he decided to take a summer job at this thrift store, since Eli wanted to get a car soon. Which sounds insane considering he gets paid minimum wage, and they're not even sure if tips are possible.
"Ehh, fine. A cute girl keeps coming in."
"Aw, I thought you were with Becky C. from your school?" Jace asks, while Shane checks out the racks for something decent to wear, since he found a neat Godzilla tee from here.
"I wish, but naah. Outta my league." Eli sighed with a fake sob.
"Oh can you guys believe my sister's dating chocolate cologne dude," Eli shares with a pair of the most sassily rolled eyes at them.
"Noooo." Both him and Jace gasped.
"Isn't he the guy that called us three musty-teers?" Shane asks, recalling something.
"Yup." Eli nodded, while popping the P.
"Eeeew, but I get us she called us geeks."
"No, no, no. She called me a geek, not you two." Shane huffed.
"Yeah, but she called a me a nerd for liking Pride and Prejudice. Matthew Macfayden was PERFECT I tell you!" Jace says, starting his rant about while they sighed listening. As if they weren't all together watching the movie in the cinema back then.
>゜))彡
Now Shane wouldn't call his friends idiots, they're not... fully? He's not sure.
Because they're at his parents' cottage, his parents' aren't with them, just him and his two best friends.
It couldn't get any worse, until they started fishing. They can't fish for the life outta them.
"Your Dad's like THE white dad, like he's got a kit for fishing and a boat-thingy." Eli says while trying to put a bait on the hook, while both him and Jace stare at Eli.
"Hey! I'm white, it's not racist." Eli gruffs out, struggling to put the fake plastic bait.
"What?" Both him and Jace say confused.
Since they didn't even want to go fishing. Until Eli said he needed his wing men to back him up and hit on a girl that he saw that was out fishing with her brothers. Older brothers.
"Dude, this isn't gonna work, like... she's with her TWO older brothers, like..." Jace argues, still flabbergasted while Shane reluctantly rows the boat down the lake.
"Like, like, you know?"
"I was thinking, I hit on her, you two distract her older brothers, like wink, flirt, be my bait to get me a bae." Eli says with a big ole grin, that made Shane hold Jace back from getting Eli punched.
"No, mhmm, I'm rowing back to my parents' cottage. No, no, no." Shane shakes his head profusely, while Eli huffs, trying to row against Shane with his hands.
"My parents got a lotta movies in their CD case. You know Howl's Moving Castle?" Shane says already exiting the boat mentally with Jace, as he rows back to shore.
"Didn't the director of that movie ditched the Oscar thingy?"
"Yeah, but the movie's really rad. Like the animation's cool as fuck and my grandparents really liked it."
Eli groaning in the background of their conversation, since he's already getting bored. "Can we watch White Chicks, instead?"
( -_・)?
During the first week of their stay here, Eli's been itching to get hit in the face and Jace is tempted. Since every single damning day, Eli hits on a girl or a girl hits on him. Then they scramble following and being supportive wing men.
Now being supportive wing men, and worried friends they staged an intervention.
"Have you jizzed in a while?" Jace starts, to which Shane stutters at confused since this was not the planned script.
"No!"
"You haven't jizzed in a while bro? I brought my mags with me if you want." Eli butts in.
"No, no, no, NO! Repeat, redo, I'll start!" Shane huffs, standing up as he makes both of his friends sit down in front of him.
"Me and Jace are getting concerned, you've been running around flirting with everyone, and we're concerned if you're going through something." Shane nervously says, since Jace was the one who was supposed to say this, he's the only one out of all of them that has a dating experience that lasted more than two months.
"Yeah-yeah, I hear. But like since we'll be going to college soon, I was thinking about life and all that." Eli says, pretending to be Yoda for a minute.
"Also cause I heard the ladies don't dig virgins."
"Huh?"
"Yeah, my older sister's boyfriend said that. Not the chocolate cologne guy, the one that has his briefs showing."
"Huh?"
"Which huh are you guys huh-ing, the new boyfriend or the virgin thing bro?" Eli says while tapping his fingers together.
"The boyfriend." Jace answered.
"Both. Because how does she move on that quick? Like when me and Jess broke up, even if we were only together for two weeks, it hurts man. I liked her as a friend."
"Yeaah, dude I'd break up with you too if you liked me as friend." Jace tsks at him, while Shane shows his hands in defense.
"Dude, my sister likes the chase I think. Also, if my future girl says that 'I liked you as a friend' I'll be calling you guys pissed off crying, because what?" Eli adds, which isn't helpful since Eli's points are usually wrong, but a broken clock is correct twice.
"What's wrong with that? My parents said a relationship needs friendship?" Shane huffs, getting defensive about this.
"Yeah, but your parents have been married for twenty years man. Like, highschool relationships ain't the same dude, we are a horny group of losers." Eli says gesturing to the three of them.
"Yeaaaaah, but also no. Like dude, you gotta be into someone, like you see yourself making out with someone or find hot as fuck." Jace adds, which made both Eli and him think.
Looking at Shane like some idiot.
"What?"
"Nothing..." Both Jace and Eli replied immediately, before quickly changing the subject to how's his hockey team's going, which quickly defused his defensiveness and got him distracted.
2007-2008 Hockey Season
"Hollander, don't you get pissed with all the piercings you gotta remove and put back in before and after the game?" A teammate of his asks, while he's putting his piercings back in.
Which is a bit of a damn, struggle especially with his tongue piercing.
"Nah, just frustrating, especially my t—" He says while trying to put his tongue piercing in again, since sure in the long run he can't keep doing this, but he shelled out 150 bucks on his tongue piercing at an actual place, not like Macy's.
So he'd like a year or two on this.
"Fuuuck, got it in." He sighs, relieved that his tongue piercing's back in, fiddling with it for a bit before, he continued dressing up.
"Ouch, that looks like it hurts Hollzy." Another teammate says, looking at him after coming out of the showers.
Yeah, he looks weird. Punk-ish? Emo-ish? Well it doesn't help that he wears thrifted clothes, and hangs out at the skate park that a lot of his classmates see him.
Not that he cares, but people do treat him differently than most.
But everyone gets treated differently. He thinks.
"Yeah no, my tongue's fully healed up, it's just a struggle sometimes, and you really can't wearing piercings on the ice." He awkwardly smiles, before showing off his tongue piercing and ear piercings, since they look pretty curious.
"Fuck, Hollzy... That looks insane." They hissed, since sure he looks like he has a lot of piercings, but it's just seven in total. And they're not obvious, earlobe piercings, and two helixes, and a tongue piercing. Nothing too scary.
"Fuck you're a freak." Another added, as they got changed.
And he'd usually think about that freak comment, but his friends say freak a lot, and on MySpace oddly enough. Eli's MySpace's top 8 is called 'Freaky Top 8' so he can't be bothered to overthink about.
"What's the most painful outta all of them?"
"The earlobes, cause it was my first time." He replied casually, as he struggles to put on his shirt, careful not snag his earrings.
"Easiest?"
"The ones I plan on getting." He teased, before putting his hair into a simple half-down hairstyle. Getting a few boos before heading out.
His parents are already there, waiting for him, praising him and congratulating him.
They came to his game, like usual, but he's pretty thankful they can watch his games in person, unlike other parents who're working and can't come.
And the few times they can't watch him in person, he has a hard time focusing, but he's gotten used to it, and got to learn to savour whenever they do come to watch.
"Kid, 24. You better get rid of those decorations if you want to get into the NHL, cause they won't like that." An old man says, commenting, gesturing to his face and ear piercings.
Personally he's unsure who this adult man was, looking a bit nervous if he was recruiter or something and he messed up his chances to get into the NHL.
"Yeah, no. Shane's doing well, and his appearance is not your issue sir." His Dad chuckles, that forced polite chuckle, that he knows won't end until that man left the conversation.
"Suit yourself." The man says, huffing and puffing in offense as he walks away.
"He should focus on his team, they have no coordination." Mom just huffs, as she kisses Shane's cheek, while proudly placing her hand on his shoulder.
While he just realised that the's the coach for the other team, and he totally didn't just lose his NHL prospects.
"God people need to mind their damn business." She added, crossing her arms, while his Dad tucked him under his arm like some kid.
（＾＾）人（＾＾）
And on the drive back home, he expected this conversation, "Shane, honey. Do you think that we should cut your hair neater or dress up more cleanly? It'll maybe make you more marketable? Possibly, no pressure." His Mom nervously suggests from the passenger seat.
His Mom overthinks things a lot, it's her worst and best quality, it assures her and everyone around her, at the same time it worries them alongside her.
He's a bit like her in that prospect, he worries, he panicks, he overthinks, then spirals out of control. Unlike his Mom, she does not spiral nor panic.
It's lessened over time his spiraling, maybe it's because he has learned a few new things about himself, he's a bit more open. A bit more confident, secure, all that.
His Dad says it's because of his friends Eli and Jace, while his Mom thinks he's maturing and learning to be confident as he grows up.
He bets on both sides, because he sure as hell would be a boring nerdy jock if his friends didn't push him out of his comfort zone.
For example, he'd never get piercings, yet he loves them. He never thought he'd hate certain foods and love new foods.
He'd never have friends if he didn't have his Mom and Dad weren't concerned about him, and pushed him to try new things.
But he still would rather stick to his own style of play rather than whatever the coaches are telling him. He knows better.
Everyone can bug him about everything else, except hockey. He loves hockey, and he's confident about everything about it.
"I like it. I'll keep it Mom, maybe get a more stylish cut in this length and yeah I should probably get not thrifted stuff, can we get something similar?" He replied with a compromise.
Maybe also about himself. He's stubborn like that.
2008-2009 Hockey Season
He didn't really have a fun summer since he decided to go to a hockey camp, and yada-yada to prove if he's NHL material.
In short he spent an annoying summer with people who don't get why he has a tongue piercing.
All sorts of questions ranging from: Why the hell was he considering getting a nose piercing? Also why does he wear pants like that, won't he trip? And skinny jeans are better the girls dig it.
Just annoyed because he shouldn't have let his anxieties get a hold of him now he had a shitty summer and his friends went on road trip across Ontario.
So fuck them.
Not really they sent him a cool thrifted Ottawa Centaurs shirt, and a cool vintage guitar pick out of an old Canada Dry bottle cap, so yeah.
He wasn't that pissed off, just at himself for ditching them.
"I had the worst fucking summer. People kept asking me why should I get a nose ring, and all that crap? Like— how was the trip..." He groaned, tired of his rant before it even started.
"All I can say that our city is the shittiest."
"Why..."
"Oh and Toronto was pretty rad it's so fucking bright at night."
"Why..."
"Oh and we also saw Niagra falls, not that impressive but you'd like it."
"Stoooop. I know I should've joined you guys." Shane groans, smacking his head in frustration.
"Anxiety is one hell of a drug."
"Isn't that about depression?"
"But hey, you became captain for that team thingy!" Jace says, trying to lighten up the convo.
"Yeah, but like only for two years, so if we lose this year I'm a shitty captain." He sighs.
"Yeah-yeah, I don't think that works that like that dude." Eli points out.
For most non-hockey familiar one out of all of them, he makes a good point.
"Media's hyped me all up, since they took one, ONE photo of me looking like some preppy clean boy, like my street cred is dead." He mopes about, since he hates looking like a normal kid, he didn't spend all the time and effort looking like this.
To be on some news article, showcasing him as this clean, smart, kid. Well he is that, but his style is not.
"When did you get street cred? And I think it'd be in the negatives or you're credit rating be'll like a 300. Cause you told a lotta old skateboarders that smoking kills you and your surroundings."
"Yes, and have we seen them again?"
"No, cause they found a diff skating spot I think."
"Oh, anyone wanna get McDonalds they got this new burger thing." Eli says, to which all of them agreed to eating some abomination-burger.
Eat the stress, frustration, anxiety, all that away.