Chapter One Logan Grant’s skates flashed across center ice His strides were short and crisp The puck stuck to his stick like it was on a string A huge defenseman wearing a red uniform moved in to challenge him Block him at the blue line But he was no match for Logan’s speed Nothing would stand in his way this afternoon He shifted to his left and stickhandled around the big D-man like he wasn’t there Now there was only the goalie to beat The netminder edged out of his crease to 11
cut down the angle But Logan saw an opening on the right side He wound up and blasted a slap shot The goalie stabbed the air with his glove hand But it was too late The puck sailed right past him bulging into the net behind Logan raised his stick to celebrate But there was no cheering from the crowd No mobbing by his teammates No skating by the bench and fist-bumping the other players Instead he skated straight to the corner of the rink He turned sideways cut his skates sharply into the ice and stopped sending a spray of snow into the air Then he smiled and said Milk It’s for everybody everybody Cut shouted a man with a thick black beard who crouched behind a big video camera Another man held a microphone on a long pole over Logan’s head Bright lights shone down on the spot where he had stopped That was really great Logan the bearded man said But let’s do one more take This time give me your biggest smile 2 Eric Howling
right into the lens He pointed at the front of the camera Okay let’s go again Logan skated back to the other end of the rink and waited for the command Action The director’s voice boomed across the arena Logan made his way up the ice scored and stopped in the corner sending another snowy spray toward the camera He smiled the biggest toothy grin he could and repeated his line And cut This time the smile on the director’s face was even bigger than Logan’s I think we’ve got it Pam The director looked over his shoulder at Logan’s mom who was watching a small video screen replaying the last take Looks good to me she said giving a thumbs-up If the ad agency is happy then I’m happy the director said loud enough for all the crew to hear That’s a wrap Within minutes the lights were taken down the camera and microphone were packed away in hard black cases and the ice was cleared of all the video equipment 3 The Mask
