Kellie and Brad Ch. 11

"Well?!" she said to Anita. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?!"

Heather suddenly had strange, conflicting thoughts. She knew very well that, even though Anita's words hurt at that particular time, it was only a short while later that they helped lead to such a beautiful moment in her life, when she and Jennifer came out of the closet to Amber, Sandra and Kellie, and they accepted the two of them without hesitation.

So what was she doing? Why was she trying to ignore this part of her personal history? Just because she thought she could score points against Anita in some sort of ridiculous pissing contest? What was all of this accomplishing, anyway?

Shaking her head, and unable to stop the tears from flowing, Heather ran towards the exit doors as fast as she could, not waiting to see if Anita would answer her, and not even caring either way.

Jennifer sighed. "I guess practice is over," she told her sister. "I'd better go get Heather."

"Yeah," Amber replied. "I'll see you later."

Out of the corner of her eye, Anita watched Jennifer leave. She turned to go elsewhere, hoping to find something, anything, that would take her mind off this mess. But she did not get very far, freezing in her tracks when she heard Amber say, "Anita, wait!"

Anita sighed and faced Amber, saying to her through teary eyes, "Amber, please... I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm ready to hear..."

"No, please, hear me out!" Amber interrupted. "I promise I'm not here to yell at you. In fact, I kind of feel like I need to apologize."

"Seriously?" a stunned Anita asked. "Why?"

Amber shrugged. "When Heather first started in on you, I was worried. I was sure it would end really ugly for everybody. But, to be honest, I thought, if she was going to do it then I wanted her to go all out and really hurt you, to get back at you for all the hurt you caused her.

"But... then I watched you just stand there and take it. Everything Heather said to you, all the hate and bitterness she could drag out... and she really laid into you, she didn't hold back, I've never seen her that angry before... and still you didn't say anything, didn't even react, not even once. It made me think that maybe you're not the Anita we all remembered. That maybe there really is truth to the rumours that you have changed."

Still not completely sure how to react, Anita shrugged, and she spoke quietly. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. I mean, things have happened, and..."

"It's OK, Anita," Amber gently interrupted. "You don't have to explain right now, if you don't want to. Now is probably not be the right time, anyway. Not after all that, plus you're at work and..."

Amber sighed, wondering what to say, before deciding to proceed with her intended proposal.

"But maybe, another time... I mean, maybe you already have someone you can talk to about this kind of stuff... but if you feel you need someone else... "

Anita's eyes widened. She pieced together Amber's offer through her awkward words, but she couldn't quite believe it was true. "You really want to spend time talking with me?" she asked tentatively. "You'd do that for me?"

Amber's nervousness started to fade away with Anita's reaction. She nodded, smiled and said, "Sure. Why not? You look like you can use another friend. And don't worry about Heather or Jen, or Kellie for that matter, just yet. When you're ready, we can figure out a way for you to approach them, if you want. But for now I won't tell if you won't. It will be our little secret!"

"Sounds like a plan," Anita said, a small smile escaping her lips.

The two exchanged phone numbers, and as she was leaving Amber promised to call as soon as she could. Anita watched Amber walk... no, skip... away, as if she were a carefree pre-teen on a summer's day.

"What the hell just happened?" she asked herself.

She tried to return to her work routine, but for the rest of the night she was easily distracted, her mind reeling over the events from earlier that evening.

It had started with unexpected chaos and recrimination, but somehow out of that she managed to gain a friend.

Of all that night's surprises, that was the most shocking of them all.

********

Before Amber's new arrangement with Anita was complete, Jennifer and Heather had long left the Blue Granite for the night.

Jennifer found Heather leaning against their car with her head in her hands. She carefully bundled her sobbing partner into the passenger's seat before getting in and driving them home. She just as carefully helped Heather climb out and led her into their home. They went straight to bed, where Jennifer held and comforted Heather as best as she could until the tears stopped.

"Are you all right?" Jennifer asked. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Heather's face was red and raw from crying. She hemmed and hawed for a long time, searching for the right words to say. Finally, she looked at Jennifer and said, "That... didn't feel nearly as satisfying as I thought it would."

Jennifer looked deep into Heather's eyes and felt great sympathy for her. "Honey," she said gently, "you must be exhausted. I'm tired as well. Let's get some sleep. We'll talk about it tomorrow, when you feel better."

Heather sighed and nodded in agreement. The two women lovingly kissed, laid their heads on their pillows and quickly fell asleep.

*******

"Brad, we need to talk."

Those words from Kellie, and the tone she used to deliver them, caused Brad to rack his brain. 'What did I do wrong?' he asked himself, only half-jokingly. He thought about what happened last night and today, to see if he could find any obvious reasons why Kellie would ask him that question.

Last night was parent-teacher interview night, and based on the feedback they received it surely couldn't have anything to do with that. E.J. and Kaitlyn were both doing great in school, and their teachers were full of praise for them as students and as young kids. There were only two gentle warnings: E.J. was sometimes a little too social during classes, while on the other hand Kaitlyn was sometimes too shy and didn't interact as well with her classmates beyond her best friend Chelsea and one or two others. Besides continuing to support their kids' efforts in school, encouraging E.J. to channel his energy properly and trying to draw Kaity out of her shell a little more, there didn't seem to be much more Brad and Kellie needed to worry about.

Beyond that, today had been nothing more than routine. The more Brad thought about it, the less reason he could find why Kellie would be so concerned, which in turn made him even more curious.

Brad lay in bed next to Kellie and asked her, "OK... so what's on your mind, hon?"

"Is there something you want to tell me?" she asked.

Brad's stomach lurched. 'What was with the third-degree treatment?' he wondered. It was so out of place for her.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I can't honestly think of anything."

"Really? That's interesting." Kellie's voice continued to be coolly impassive.

"And why is that?"

"Because I talked to Jennifer earlier today. Apparently the practice she, Heather and Amber were supposed to have last night, they ran into a big problem and had to cancel it early. Why do you think that would be?"

Kellie's cryptic speech was starting to get to Brad. "Seriously?" he asked, his voice sounding a little more indignant. "I mean, with all due respect... how the heck would I know?!"

"Oh, come off it, Brad!" she snapped. She was beyond irritated that Brad seemed to be so uncommunicative with her. It was so out of place for him.

"What?! What are you on about, Kellie?! Stop it with these silly guessing games and tell me what's going on!"

"I can't believe this! Are you for real?! Are you actually going to tell me you didn't know Anita was working last night?"

Brad closed his eyes and groaned. He hadn't even considered the possibility that Anita and Kellie's teammates might have ran into each other last night, let alone that any such encounter might also turn nasty. He had to admit the truth, though.

"All right, all right, I see where you're going with this. Yes, I knew Anita was working last night, OK? I told you Murdoch, my night maintenance guy, had quit on me, right?"

Kellie calmed down, at least a little bit. "Yes, you did, and you did say that you've been working on finding a replacement. But you never said it would be Anita."

Brad thought for a moment. Kellie was right, he supposed. He hadn't mentioned Anita would be filling in for now. In truth, he hadn't pictured needing to do so.

"It's just a temporary thing," he explained. "She agreed to help me out for now until I find a permanent replacement. It had to be her because no one else on staff is capable of doing that job."

"So why didn't you say so before?" Kellie asked.

"I suppose I never thought you or the girls would actually run into each other. I figured she'd be too busy and out of the way, and you'd be so wrapped up in your practice sessions that you wouldn't even realize she was there."

"Brad, don't be so absurd. Why tempt fate like that? You know what's happened whenever we've ran into her before. If I had known she would have been there to start an argument with..."

"Hold on," he interrupted. "Do you know for a fact she started anything last night? What really happened, by the way?"

"Well... I don't think I've heard the full story yet, but from what Jennifer told me, it sounds like Anita got into a big argument with Heather." Left unspoken but implied in Kellie's statement was her unshakeable belief that Anita was at fault.

"That still doesn't prove Anita started it. Listen, honey, I know how you feel about her. I know you can't get past what she used to be like. I get it, really, I do. But I've said it before and I'll say it again, Anita's not the person you think she is anymore. It would really mean a lot to me if you could start to see that for yourself."

Kellie softened her tone further, but at the same time she effortlessly brushed off Brad's argument. "Honey, let me put it this way to you. If you knew there would be a night when the cooling plant would be shut down for maintenance and so there would be no useable ice, you would have informed me and the girls about it, right?"

"Yes, of course I would have."

"Well, this is the same thing..."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think it is."

"Brad, to me it is, OK? Please understand. I know you believe Anita has changed, but I just can't believe it's possible, and I'm not going to test that theory anytime soon."

Brad was too tired to continue the discussion. "Fine," he said, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice and just about succeeding. "I'll let you all know when we've hired a new night maintenance person. Until then, during the week, Anita will be working nights. There's nothing I can do about that until we have the new person on board."

"There!" Kellie smiled. "That wasn't so hard, was it? Thank you, honey. For now I'll have to change our team's schedule so that we're doing more off-ice training, or maybe going on the ice earlier in the day, but I'm sure we'll work it out. And it won't be for too long, will it?"

"No, it shouldn't be. Maybe another two weeks, tops."

"Great! I knew we could make do. And I'm sure if something else happens in the future where there's more of a chance we'll run into you-know-who again, you won't forget to let me know."

Brad smiled back at Kellie, hoping it didn't look as faked as it felt. "I promise I won't forget," he replied.

"Thanks again, baby. I'm glad we didn't get into a big fight about this. I hated when we fought last time."

"Yeah." On that, at least, Brad could agree with her. "Me too."

Kellie kissed Brad good-night and went to sleep easily, much easier than Brad did. He had too much on his mind to allow him to sleep right away.

He couldn't help but feel he had been accused of something that was never really his fault, nor ever really in his control. It annoyed him, but for the love of his wife and the sake of marital peace, he held his tongue before things got out of hand.

He wished that, someday, Kellie would open her mind about Anita and see how much her former enemy really had changed for the better. It would be healthier for Kellie to drop her grudge... not to mention that it would make his life so much easier!

He finally chalked the whole thing up as just another example of how women are just... different than men. And that, for as much as he was sure he knew Kellie, and as much as he loved her, he would probably never completely understand her.

*******

The hiccup created by the spat between Heather and Anita was resolved, or forgotten about, as the case may be.

Thankfully, it had little effect on the preparations for Olympic qualification for Kellie and her teammates. Their work was now well and truly underway.

Kellie provided a message of caution to Jennifer, Heather and Amber a number of times early in the process. She told them that the journey would be long and difficult, that there were a number of things that had to be done beyond the basics, and there would be setbacks along the way.

As it turned out, even Kellie had no idea how right she would be.

The physical, tactical and strategic work, both on and off the ice, was gruelling, but it was to be expected. All four women knew they had to commit to this plan in order to keep pace with the other elite teams in the country. They implemented strength and flexibility training programs, gearing them down during the meat of each competitive season but ramping them up in the late spring and summer months. Targeted weight training and hot yoga were adopted and embraced as key parts of their fitness plans. They paid extra attention to good nutrition and healthy eating, learning how to properly fuel their bodies for competition. They carried those lessons through to their home lives and families as well, to the occasional disappointment of some, like E.J. and Kaitlyn, for example, who sometimes wanted fries instead of broccoli with their dinner.

On the ice, Kellie arranged to supplement their practice and competition schedules with combined training sessions with a talented men's team out of the Blue Granite, who were also seeking to qualify for the Winter Olympics. The skip and third shared strategy tips with Kellie and Jennifer, and the front end demonstrated brushing techniques that Heather and Amber practiced diligently to adopt in their game. The arrangement wasn't a one-way street; Kellie and her team gave as much as they got, providing their own ideas and insights. The men were very thankful because they had great respect for the women and their achievements, and they got as much out of the teamwork as the women did.

What Kellie, Jennifer, Heather and Amber didn't expect was the significant amount of time they had to put into fundraising. Everything about being an elite athlete is expensive, and while the prize money in curling events is much greater than ever, it still isn't enough to guarantee that any team will make enough to properly train while also allowing each person to support themselves and their family.

So Kellie and her teammates networked and prepared presentations to attract sponsorship. Those efforts, thankfully, did bear fruit, as they were able to land some key local companies as sponsors, including the health club where Kellie worked as a personal trainer.

Their work, however, was only beginning. In return they had to make themselves available for corporate events, as a draw to help their sponsors attract their own current and future clients. Kellie tried to convince her contacts to allow Brad and their kids to attend the events with her, and sometimes she was successful, but there were still too many nights when she had to take time away from her family to attend these "schmooze-fests" for her liking.

These were all part of the trade-offs Kellie had to make to have a chance at achieving her sporting dreams. It was more difficult for her than the others because of her children. Jennifer, Heather and Amber knew this and, in gratitude for everything Kellie did as their skip and leader, not to mention the fact she never shoved her extra problems in their faces, they did whatever they could to help ease her burden. It wasn't always possible for them to completely replace Kellie because, as the captain and face of the team, she was the one in most demand.

Because of these competing demands on her time, Kellie had to rely on Brad to do more than his share to keep the household running, and even though they were still so young, she had to ask E.J. and Kaitlyn to understand her occasional absences, to support her in what she was doing and to support their father as he tried to keep everything together.

They were not perfect, and there were certainly stumbles along the way. However, they all tried their best, and in the end they all came through with flying colours, much to Kellie's eternal gratitude. She was certainly very busy, but she made sure not to be an absentee mother and wife. She spent as much time as she could with E.J., Kaitlyn and Brad, and she cherished all the moments they had together. While she was striving to help her and her teammates reach their curling dreams, at the same time she made sure to notice the progress her kids made in school and the continued success her husband enjoyed at work.

To Kellie, it was both amazing and unremarkable at the same time. Amazing in how much her family and her teammates sacrificed for each other, unremarkable in that it felt like the most natural thing in the world for them all to do.

*********

From the day Kellie, Jennifer, Heather and Amber made the commitment to reach for their goal of Olympic qualification, nearly three years had passed.

As Heather had said would happen on that first day, the time had flown by in the blink of an eye.

Thankfully, they made very good use of that time. All the hard work and training they were doing led to some clear and positive results.

The team raised their game to the point where they were considered once again one of the most talented and consistently successful squads in women's curling. The respect and admiration other teams, media and the fans had for them only increased further.

Heather and Amber had perfected their sweeping technique and were widely acclaimed to be one of, if not the best, at their craft. Canada's main sport television network covered most of the high-profile curling competitions, and their programmers prepared a feature on the front end during a telecast, creating an ingenious method to show viewers just how good they were. They placed a small camera on a curling rock and used it to record Heather and Amber in action during a practice session in the midst of a tournament. It was a unique view, and it was one many people enjoyed, both when it originally aired and through the wonders of social media.

Once the segment aired Heather and Amber received a lot of positive feedback for their skill and determination, and they enjoyed the rare chance to steal some of the limelight from Kellie and Jennifer. For their part the skip and third teased their front end for being "glory hogs", but it was all in good fun; in fact they were extremely proud of them and happy they were receiving deserved recognition.

Besides the obvious improvements to their game, there was another way in which their training resulted in changes for all to see.

The four women were all fit, healthy and beautiful before they started their Olympic quest, but now, with less than a year left before the Olympic trials competition, they all looked even more incredible. Strong and toned, they looked the epitome of the modern female curling athlete.

The changes certainly didn't go unnoticed. At various times they all found themselves having to fend off advances from enamoured male suitors. Thankfully, most were of the funny, creative and innocent variety, mostly young guys or jokesters sporting "MARRY ME!" signs in the audience, to the amusement of all. Some guys gave the women lustful looks, arousing jealousy in Brad and Jamie when it came to Kellie and Amber, while causing discomfort for Jennifer and Heather, given their lesbian orientation. Fortunately, none of these looks resulted in any confrontations.