Chapter Thirty Three;

Emily’s eyes moved back and forth, following the rubber puck as it was passed from Penguin to Penguin on the ice. The score was tied at two at the mid-way point of the third period. The third line consisting of Jordan, TK, and Matt Cooke, was on the ice. Jordan took a shot but it was gloved and held by the Panthers’ goalie. The ref blew the whistle and the lines switched during the TV timeout.
Emily adjusted her position in her seat, right behind the Panthers’ net. Ashley was on her left and Lauren on her right. They were in their own conversations with Ashlen and Leah, though. Emily looked out to the ice and saw Evgeni skating her way. His line, including Pascal Dupuis, Ruslan Fedotenko, and himself, was making their way to the circle for the face off. The defensive pairing was Kris and Mark Eaton.
Geno smiled and waved at her. She did the same back. But stopped when she saw Kris glaring at Geno when he noticed them. He said something to him, but she couldn’t hear what. Geno looked mad and said something back. Kris responded, and that’s when things got bad.
Geno yelled at him and gave him a cross check to the chest. Emily could hear the confusion from some of the people in the crowd around her. Kris cross checked him back, and more people were paying attention now. The rest of the Penguins and the Panthers gave each other confused glances. The refs didn’t do anything to stop them.
After a few more shoves and foul words, they threw their sticks on the ground and dropped the gloves.
“Oh my god!” Emily stood up from her seat, her hand over her mouth in shock.
Kris got in a quick left, but Geno shot back and got him square in the jaw. He shook it off and the two of them continued to go at it. Neither of them showed signs of stopping.
Some people in the crowd cheered, for lack of knowing what else to do. Emily could almost hear the announcer saying, “Never in all my years have I seen something like this!” She couldn’t believe no one was trying to stop them. She pounded her fists on the glass and yelled, in effort to get their attention. She didn’t want them to fight. Especially like this and because of her.
“Stop!” She yelled again in desperation. But whether they heard her or not, they continued their brawl. “Stop! Stop! Stop!…”

“Stop!”
Emily shot up in her bed, awaking from her nap and getting out of that dream. She rubbed her eyes and sighed. Ashley wasn’t in her bed, but she could tell she once was by the way the covers were strewn about. She could hear the sound of the shower running in the bathroom and assumed that’s where Ashley was. Although she had already showered before breakfast, you could never be too clean.
Not moving from her spot in her bed, Emily heard the front door open and moments later Ashlen appeared.
“Hey, how was your nap?” She asked seeing that Emily was awake.
“It was alright.” She replied, remembering her dream. She wanted to change the subject, “Where were you?”
“Oh, I just went to get a smoothie.” Ashlen said, holding up the pink drink in her hand with a smile. “Want some?”
“No thanks.” She passed. “Were you here when she got up?” Emily asked, referring to Ashley.
“Yeah, she seemed to be feeling better. She said she wanted to take another shower to refresh herself after her nap though.” Ashlen replied with an amused tone as she explained what she had said.
“That’s Ashley for ya.”
“Yeah, well once she gets outta there we better get ready to go. Don’t wanna be late for the game. I’m personally looking forward to seeing Geno and Jordan owning everyone. Sid texted me and told me they’ve been practicing some secret plays together.” Ashlen said and took a sip of her smoothie.
“Figures they would be.” Emily chuckled, “You think they’re actually gonna score a bunch?”
Ashlen shrugged, “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”



“You know, his birthday’s only a couple weeks away.” Lauren said to Leah, speaking about Max. “If you two are dating by then, what do you think you’d get him?”
The two of them were just hanging out in their room, watching TV and talking while they waited until it was time to go to the game. They were both already dressed and ready. Leah had on a white skirt and a colorfully stripped polo. Lauren had on light blue shorts with a loose white tank from Forever21 that read 'Drunk with Love'.
“Hmm, I’m not sure. What do you think he’d want?” Leah asked as she tried to think of something herself.
“I’m sure having you would be all he could ever ask for.” Lauren replied cheesily and Leah laughed.
“Yeah, I’m sure.” She replied sarcastically.
“Don’t doubt it.” Lauren smiled, “I’ve got a feeling that if things go well tonight between you two, you’ll be a couple in no time at all.”
“I hope we’re as cute a couple as you and TK.” Leah said with a grin.
Lauren smiled and shrugged, “Well it takes time and a lot of love to be as cute as we are, ya know. It won’t be easy, but you two might be able to match us someday.”
“If you say so, Laur.” Leah laughed.
Lauren smirked, “Oh, I do.”




Emily looked in the mirror. Her hair had a soft waviness to it, and she took a couple of bobby pins and used them to clip some of the hair on the left side of her head back and out of her face. She was wearing a strapless navy tank from Hollister with a purple, orange and light green flowery design on it paired with light yellow short shorts. Her and the other girls were dressed not only for the game, but also the festival afterwards since they were planning on going straight there from the arena after the game.
“You almost ready?” Ashley asked as she walked into the bathroom, her reflection appearing in the mirror. She had on a short denim skirt paired with a purple and light blue racerback tank from Victoria’s secret. She was looking and feeling better after having taken a nap and shower and relaxing for a bit before she got ready. Plus she was excited for the game that Jordan insisted he was going to do wonderfully in.
“Yeah, pretty much.” Emily replied just before she swiped a thin layer of gloss over her lips.
“Ooh, gimme some.” Ashley held her hand out for the sparkly pink tube. Emily laughed and handed it to her.
“Hey, you guys coming?” Ashlen asked as she stepped inside the room. She was wearing a cute pair of white shorts and a baby blue cami.
“Acourse!” Ashley replied with a smile and tossed the lip gloss back on the sink counter.
“Sounds like someone’s feeling better.” Ashlen laughed.
“Well, that second shower helped.”
“I’ll remember that for the next time I get trashed.” Ashlen joked and the other two laughed.
Emily heard her phone vibrate on the table in the other room. She went to go check it while the other two continued to chat about the game and such.
Em picked up her phone and saw it was a text from Lauren.

From: Laurennn(:
me and leah are in the lobby. u guys ready?

She typed up a quick response and hit send.

To: Laurennn(:
yeah. we’ll be right down.

“Laur and Leah are waiting for us.” She called to her friends as they stepped out of the bathroom.
“Alright! Game time!” Ashley exclaimed, obviously excited.
“Who do you think’s gonna have more points today? Sid, Geno or Jordy?” Ashlen asked either of them, also sounding excited for the game.
Emily, not as enthusiastic due to her dream, thought about the question.
“I’m gonna have to go with my boy, J.” Ashley replied without hesitating, “He’s so determined to get out of paying Dan. He’s probably gonna be a goal monster out there today.”
“Honestly, I’d say Geno for sure.” Emily answered after thinking about it. Sid was currently the top point getter on the team, but today he didn’t have the same motivation that Geno and Jordan would cause of the rule breaking incident. And when Geno has real motivation like that, he plays the best games of his career. “He’s gonna turn it up quite a few notches today. I can feel it.”
“What do you say we make a bet out of this?” Ashlen smirked, obviously on Team Sidney. “Whose ever boyfriend gets the most points today wins full bragging rights for the next month?”
“Sounds good to me!” Ashley agreed.
“Okay, I’m in.” Emily decided. “But we can’t tell the guys about it until the games over.”
“Deal.”
“Deal!”
“Kay, deal.”

Chapter Thirty Two;

Kris and Philippe finally entered the restaurant, where the rest of the team was now. But Kris immediately noticed someone missing. After further inspection, he realized that four someone’s were missing. He didn’t know whether that was a good or bad sign. Though he wanted to see Emily, he didn’t want to see her with Geno.
“Yo, Tanger.” Max called to him from his seat at his table with Sid, TK, Marc, and the other three girls.
Kris looked to Boucher, who told him to go ahead. He’d be over with Billy G. Kris walked over and took a temporary seat next to Max.
“What’s up?” He asked as he sat down, hoping at least some one’s response would be the explanation as to where Emily was.
“Dude you missed it,” Tyler began with a smile, “Danny B found out about Jordy and them sneakin out last night. He’s back in some room probably still yellin at them bout it now.”
“Oh, well that sucks.” Kris replied, not really sure if it did or not.
“For them.” TK said and laughed.
“How long they been back there?” Kris asked, assuming they’d be coming back out soon and he’d have to leave.
“A while.” Sid said. “They probably got fined and knowing Jordan, he’s most likely trying to talk his way out of it.”
“Oh, here they come now.” Ashlen said and they turned to see the four of them coming back into the restaurant. Ashley and Emily first, followed by Geno and Jordan.
“Uh, I’m gonna go get some food.” Kris said and got up from his seat.
“Kay, dude.” Max said, giving him a sympathetic smile. Kris gave a quick wave and walked over to where Philippe was.
Tyler, Lauren, Sid, and Marc immediately began hassling Jordan and the rest of them the second they made it back to the table. Emily sat down next to Max and Geno, but ignored the conversation going on around her and turned to Max.
“Did you talk to him?” She asked quietly and in French. She had seen Kris get up from the exact seat she was sitting in now and go to a different table just before she came back. It hurt her a bit inside, but she understood why he left.
Max shook his head, “Barely. Just hi and bye.”
“Oh, okay.” She sighed, wanting to speak to him herself. But she remembered what he said, he didn’t want to talk to her. Not today or the next day or the day after that. That hurt too.
“Sorry.” Max tried, not wanting her to be sad. She gave him a half smile to show him that it was alright, even though it wasn’t.
“Fifteen thousand dollars?!” Ashlen sounded shocked when Jordan told them the amount they owed.
“Yeah for a bunch of bull shit rules we broke.” He made a face.
“But they’re gonna score a bunch of goals today so Dan will have to lower it.” Ashley explained, obviously confident in Jordan and Geno’s abilities.
“Ha, good luck with that.” Tyler laughed, not as convinced as Ashley was.
“I’m on your line, dumbass.” Jordy stuck his tongue out at TK. “So if I don’t get any points, you most likely won’t either.”
TK scowled at him, “Whatever.”
“So how’d he catch you anyway?” Sidney asked, changing the subject.
“He had the surveillance videos from the elevator.” Emily replied.
“Ha, did he have any from the halls?” Marc-Andre asked.
“He didn’t show us them if he did.” Geno said.
“That’s lucky for you then, huh?” Marc said to Sidney and Ashlen.
Sid shrugged, “Yeah I guess so.”
“Wait, you guys broke the rules too?” Jordan asked, unaware.
They nodded.
“What the hell?! How did you get away with it?”
“I guess we’re just smarter than you.” Ashlen laughed.
“And apparently more bad ass.” Ashley added, raising an eyebrow at her boyfriend.
“Curse you, Crosby.” Jordan shook his head slowly, looking at Sidney with a narrowed eyes.
Sid laughed, “Sorry, Staal.”




After everyone was done with breakfast the guys had to head to the arena for their morning skate. So the girls had to stay at the hotel. Lauren, Leah, and Ashlen went out by the pool while Emily and Ashley opted to stay in their room.
“Think I should take a nap? My head’s killing me.” Ashley said as she laid down on her bed as soon as her and Emily walked in the room.
“Sounds like a good idea. There’s not much else to do till five.” She shrugged, “I might take one too. I’m not feeling very good either.”
“You think last night was even worth it?” Ash asked, her eyes were already closed as she laid there.
“Not at all.” Emily couldn’t help letting out a chuckle as she replied, shaking her head. She was laying on her bed now, too.
“I’m sorry I made you go.” Ash said, laughing a bit as she spoke as well.
“It’s okay.” Emily forgave her.
“What did you and Geno do when you guys left us?”
“Just walked and talked and, kissed a little.” Emily replied, remembering what Geno told her and decided to tell her friend, “He told me he loves me.”
Despite how tired she was, Ashley opened her eyes at Emily’s last comment and turned on her side to face her, “What did you say back?”
“Nothing.” She admitted, “That man started chasing us before I had time to even think of what to say.”
“So your feelings for him didn’t change? You still like Kris?”
Emily shook her head, let out a sigh, and stared straight up at the ceiling, “I still love Kris.” She said, “And those feelings will never change.”


“I’m so glad the guys brought us down here.” Lauren said to Leah and Ashlen. The three of them were sitting in the hot tub relaxing and drinking fruit smoothies.
“Tell me about it. This is a perfect break from all the snow back home.” Leah agreed.
“It doesn’t even feel like January here.” Ashlen took a drink and continued, “It’s so beautiful.”
There were a few other people out by the pool, but not many. It was quiet and peaceful and they could hear the sound of the ocean waves crashing against the shore.
“It’s just too bad the guys have practice.” Lauren sighed, thinking about Tyler.
Ashlen nodded, thinking about Sidney, “I know. It’d be nice to have Sid and TK with us right about now.”
“And Max.” Lauren added with a smirk, looking at Leah through her oversized sunglasses.
Leah blushed, “Lauren!” She exclaimed, but couldn’t help but smile. She knew she was right.
“You like Max?” Ashlen asked, intrigued with this new information.
“Well, sort of.” Leah replied.
“By sort of, she means yes very much so.” Lauren explained with a laugh.
“Awe, that’s too cute!” Ashlen smiled, “Are you two gonna date?”
“Well, I don’t know. I mean, I thought he might like me, but it seems like he lost interest. He didn’t really talk to me much last night or today.” She told her, looking a little upset as she spoke. Leah then turned to Lauren, “He seems more interested in your sister.”
“Em? No way. She’s got Geno.” Lauren assured her.
“Well,” Ashlen began, not as sure as Lauren seemed, “Her and Max are together a lot. And they speak in French sometimes, like they don’t want anyone to know what they’re talking about. And before we got down here even Geno thought something was going on between them.”
“Yeah, remember when Max got mad at him when Geno kissed her before we got on the bus at your place?” Leah said, reminding her.
Lauren scrunched her eyebrows, thinking about what they said and what she knew, “You know, he did call me asking for girl advice the other day. I thought he might have meant you, but maybe he meant…” She paused, thinking to herself. The two of them had gotten noticeably closer over the course of the past week. They had been friends for a while, but suddenly they seemed like more, “You don’t think there’s something going on between Max and Em, do you?”
“I don’t know, but if there is Geno’s gonna be pissed. He likes her so much.” Ashlen said.
“He won’t be the only upset one.” Leah admitted, stirring her drink with her straw.
“Awe, Leah don’t worry. I don’t think Em would do that to Geno anyway. She wouldn’t cheat on him. Her and Max are probably just becoming better friends since her and Kris haven’t been talking much recently.”
“Yeah, that’s true.” Ashlen agreed, mostly for Leah’s sake but she also could see what Lauren meant, “It’s almost as if her and Kris are avoiding each other. Like today at breakfast when he left when she came back. They must of gotten in a fight or something, and she just needed another guy friend to talk to.”
“You think so?” Leah wasn’t fully convinced yet, but she was considering.
“Yeah, I do.” Lauren told her, “Tonight at the festival you should hang out with him. Em will probably be with Geno, Ashley, and Jordan. Once you two get to talking more you’ll be a couple in no time!”
“Alright, I’ll try.” Leah said, feeling a bit better about the situation after hearing their explanations.
Ashlen smiled, “Good. You guys would make a mega cute couple.”


The team was out on the ice of the Bank Atlantic Center, going over some plays and practicing things they needed to work on for the game later that day. Geno and Jordan were working together to perfect their shots and scoring techniques so that they could prove themselves and make Dan cut their bill in half. After a while of working on it, the two of them took a break over at the bench to re-hydrate and talk.
“So I figure we ought a score a bunch today so we can score with our women later tonight.” Jordan smirked at Geno as he squirted some water in his own face and down his back, “I know Ash loves it when I have two plus goal games. Get a hat trick and I guarantee Em will be all over you. Then you can finally get some.”
Geno rolled his eyes, but laughed, “We’ll see.”
“I’m serious, dude. You say you’re taking it slow, but I know you, man. That’s not what you really want.” Jordan smiled watching Geno’s expressions. He knew he was right, “You oughta get on that tonight. It’s the perfect timing.”
“Oh, and why’s that?” Evgeni asked, trying to hide the fact that what Jordan was saying was actually appealing to him.
“Cause, dude,” Jordy replied like it was obvious, “You got that Festival tonight. Everyone’s gonna be there. You tell her you wanna go back to the hotel for something, tell her she looks real pretty, turn down the lights, and get it on. Coach can’t complain cause he’ll be partying it up back at the fest. And your roomie won’t be there either. You’ll pretty much have the place to yourselves. Then if you finish up there you’ll even have time to come back to party before curfew.”
Geno thought about what Jordan had said. It did sound like a foolproof plan, in a sense. “Maybe.” He finally said after considering the idea.
“Ah, you know you like the sound of it, don’t cha?” Jordan shot him a grin and a playful punch in the arm.
“Yeah, yeah.” Geno laughed, as Max skated over next to them.
“What’s so funny?” He asked with a smile as he got a drink. “Is Jordy trying to convince you he’s a hardcore bad ass again?”
“No,” Jordan sneered at him, “We were just talking about how Geno’s getting laid tonight.”
“So he says.” Geno added with another laugh.
Max didn’t like the sound of this. “By who? You?” He raised his eyebrow at Jordan.
“He wishes.” Jordy scoffed. “Obviously we mean Emily. You know, his girlfriend? Duh.”
“Don’t be a bitter little bitch.” Max smirked at him, ignoring the seriousness of this for the time being.
“Who’s bitter? I’m not bitter.” Jordan replied sassily, “How bout you, Geno? Are you bitter?”
Geno shook his head, “No, I’m not bitter.”
“That’s what I thought. Maybe you’re the bitter one here, eh Talbot?” Jordan returned Max’s smirk with one of his own.
“Maybe I am the bitter one, Staal. But at least I’m not the one that owes Coach fifteen grand.” He stuck his tongue out at him, then squirted some water in his mouth, and skated away.