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.”