Chapter 3

It was hard to believe that we were finally on the plane. It felt like my entire life so far had been leading up to this extremely short flight.

It was now almost 3 months since I had been invited to try out for world juniors. My entire team had gone ballistic when they found out, and even though we had calmed down a bit, Mattie, Marty, Consti, Carrol and I were all bubbling with excitement once again.

Before I knew it the plane was touching down in New York and after grabbing our luggage (which took way longer then it should have thanks to Mattie's decision to ride the conveyor belt), we headed off to find the bus that would take us to Lake Placid.



"Ok for the hundredth time... I understand that this bus is for the World Juniors training camp, and -" I continued cutting off the security guard, before he could start again "I also understand that it is for players and not family or girlfriends, but I am not 'family' or 'girlfriend'..."

"Riiiight because you got invited to try out for the World Juniors. Look dear, I'm sure you're a nice girl but ever since all the hype Sidney Crosby got a few years back, we get girls trying to get on the bus all the time -" he replyed cooly.

"... I'm gonna say this one time, and one time only so listen up" I leaned in, my temper at a dangerous level "I have spent my entire life, working my ass off, to get on that bus. When it leaves, I will be on it... So you have one of two choices left... either move and let me get on that bus or I'm going to take this hockey stick and shove it so far up your -"

"OOOOOOOOOKayyy! Carlie, looking for you... nice to see you again, come right this way..." Dean Jennkins, one of the World Junior trainers I had met with a few weeks back, was leading me away from the now red-faced security guard and onto a greyhound bus parked a few feet away.

I dropped my hockey bag and luggage on the ground beside the opened storage compartments and made my way onto the bus. As I expected everything got quite when I walked on. The crowded bus of teenaged boys began looking around to see what guy was going to intorduce me as his girlfriend; someone amoung them had obviously forgot something and I was clearly returning it. From somewhere in the back I heared "Carlie! CARLIE! Back here, we saved you a seat!" I looked up to see Mattie waving his hands above his head, a goofy grin on his face.

As I made my way towards him, all eyes seemed to follow me. I sat down beside Consti who was playing Mario Bros on his PSP, as always, Consti was flaunting his ability to become completly oblivious to atmospheric changes in any situation. People always said he never lost his cool under pressure, I smiled to myself, that was only because he didn't notice the pressure. I looked over at Mattie to my left, who was now busy drawing lude pictures on his iphone. "Classy Mattie" I sighed. He laughed.

"Dean tell you who you were sharing your room with?" Mattie asked still emerged in his drawings.

"No," I answered slowly, aware that many of the bus' occupants were still staring at me.

"Oh, well your with me... he just told me before I got on, asked if it was ok and stuff... it is ok right?" he asked, looking up for the first time. It still made me laugh a bit that Mattie got insecure like this sometimes. We had been friends for so long that it was refreshing when he got nervous about situations like these, ones where he had to remember I was a girl.

"Of course!" I smiled "Remember how much fun we had in Detroit at that tournament last year?"

He flashed me a quick grin before turning back to his 'game', "Yah it's all fun and games till somebody steals a shopping cart and almost dies with it in the pool..."

"Ok, number 1, I didn't almost die and number 2, it was Consti's idea!" Marty responded, trying to keep a straight face as Mattie, Carrol and I exploded with laughter.

"Don't put this on me!" Consti fired back "You're the one that did it!"

"Oh man, are you talking about the memorial tournamnet in Detroit last fall?" a painfully cute blonde guy looked back and asked.

I smiled and nodded "Were you there?"

"Yah, we were at the Holiday Inn too... I think it must have been you guys down at the pool... did you end up throwing all the pool furniture in too?" He asked looking at Consti now.

"Oh man, I forgot about that... Coach was so pissed. We stood out that bad that you remember us?" We all laughed.

"I guess, well yah... just cause... well not to sound like an asshole but I recognized you" he smiled at me, "I don't play against girls that often..."

"Well, I am a girl, and I'm the only girl in our league so... I don't think you sound like an asshole at all!"

He flashed a heart-stopping grin at me "I'm Jake by the way, Centre..."

"Carlie, Centre too..."

"Oh well, I guess we'll be seeing alot of each other then won't we?"

I nodded back "Yah... I guess so."

Jake smiled again and turned back around just as Consti snorted. Mattie continued to star at the back of Jake's head and Carrol chuckled "So it all begins..."

Hmmmm this might be a more eventful month than I thought... I smiled to myself, so far so good. Not that I wanted to have every guy here hit on me but, if I had to choose, I'd rather them not all hate me before we even get on the ice.

I heard a snore from behind me and realized that Marty was asleep, Carrol was looking out the window and Consti was back playing his PSP. I looked over at Mattie to see that he was still staring at Jake, his iphone held limply in his hands. He looked at me and I smiled, he gave me a small smile back and started playing with his iphone; lacking the enjoyment he had had before.



"No! NO NO NO! No way in hell am I sleeping under that!" Mattie shook his head, one hand on his hip, the other pointing at the Sidney Crosby poster I now held in my hands.

"First off, show some respect... that happens to be one of the hottest things in hockey... and you won't be sleeping under him, I will be!" I smirked down at him. I stood on what was to be my bed, and began to duck tape (classy I know!) my poster to the wall. Mattie sighed in defeat and flopped down on his bed, which was pararell to mine. He watched me, hands intertwined behind his head, while I continued to plaster our room with posters.

I stood back with my hands on my hips to admire my work. Malkin, Talbot, Crosby, Fleury and a Pens team poster all smiled back at me from the wall.

"Done now?" Mattie asked, his eyes still on me.

"For now yes..." I smiled back at him. "So... what do we do now?" I asked crawling beside him on his bed.

"Ummm what do you mean?" His voice cracked as he proped himself up onto his elbows, his eyes never leaving me.

"Like... what do we do... hang out here, watch a movie, go for a walk around, go play hockey...?"

"Oh... oh..." he blushed a deep scarlet, and licked his lips before answering: "ummm... hockey sounds good."

"Alright... everything ok Mattie?" I asked, cocking my head to the side. After assuring me that it was, we grabbed our sticks and a ball, and headed down the hall.

As I could have expected, the dorm was already a mess. There was discarded luggage everywhere and boys yelling, running and laughing in between. "Hey Carlie, wanna get in on a game?" Jake yelled across the rec room where we were now walking. Someone had already set up a TV, XboX and Guitar Hero.

"Later for sure!" I called back, "Mattie and I are gonna go play some hockey" I gestured to the sher-wood stick in my hand.

"Ok cool... see you later then" He smiled. I couldn't help but smile back... he was so darn cute!

We exchanged a few 'hellos' and 'what's up' with some random guys as we made our way out to the parking lot. I could hear some girls laughing and the loud carrying voice of Consti as Matti and I walked into the warm sunlight.

"Candice won't be too happy about that will she?" Mattie chuckled as he pointed his thumb over towards the massive shape of Consti. I let out a small laugh too, none of us were very fond of Consti's long time girlfriend.

We decided to invite Consti to play some ball hockey with us, and we made our way over to him. As we neared the group we realized that he wasn't the only boy there. Marty was with him, looking disinterested, flipping open his phone every now and then; probably sending some texts to his girlfriend Kelsie. There were two other boys with them, both were very broad and tall, they both also had easy smiles and great tans: it was clear they were brothers, if not twins.
"Oh hey guys, unpacked already?" Consti turned his attention towards us.

"Yah... and the walls have been covered with the Penguins' finest" Mattie laughed.

"So... you're the girl everyones been talking about?" One of Consti's friends asked, looking me up and down.

"Guess so... disappointed?" I asked slowly, half laughing at the expression on his face.

He laughed, "No, I was just expecting you to be... alot bigger... what are you, 5'1", 10 pounds?"

"Close! 5'2", just under 100." The guys all laughed, the girls looked annoyed. They all glared at me but, this I was use to.

"Wanna come pay some hockey boys?" Mattie asked, Consti and the twins (Ben and Nigel) all nodded.

"Let us grab our sticks and we'll meet you down by the parking lot" Ben said before turning to leave.

With that Mattie and I headed down to the parking lot to wait for them, leaving a group of glaring, abandoned girls in our wake.