Ice in My Veins (19 page)

I felt dirty afterward. I called Moose to talk. He and I were such good friends. We still talked about everything.

He told me to shake it off, let it go. “Shit happens”! He reminded me. He told me the reason I probably felt dirty was because it was not like me to just hook up with guys. I looked at girls who did that as trashy, and was relating what I had just done to being trashy. It was a drunken mistake, and I just had to deal with it. Let it go. I knew he was right. People make mistakes all the time. It kind of put what Alex had done to me last year into perspective.

I played the next two home games then I was heading to Sarnia, Ontario, for the Top Prospects game. I was excited. All the scouts would be there and all the coaches would see the footage of the game and the Scout’s notes.

Making My Mark

Joe Sim and I drove together to Sarnia. It wasn’t that bad of a ride. We chatted most of the way about our families and hockey. We didn’t exactly have the same taste in music. All he wanted to listen to was rap. My head couldn’t take anymore of his choices. He agreed to listen to the radio for a while.

As we were driving I checked out the website using my brand new blackberry. I received it while I was on Team USA. I wanted to see my player profile for the Top Prospects game.

Assistant Captain for the Toronto Gophers. She is currently second in league scoring. She has sixteen multi - point games and five hat-trick performances; was named the OHL Player of the Month for November, and the OHL Player of the Week on December 15th. She has been named to the Eastern Conference All-Stars and the OHL All-Star Classic. Won gold with Team USA, and was runner-up for OHL Rookie of the Year last season.

I liked what I read. I was hoping to win one or two of the challenges. I was on Jerry Paddle’s team.

We finally reached the hotel and I was rooming with Joe. Not such a big deal except he snores. I knew he wasn’t going to bring any girls into the room, because he and his girlfriend had just gotten back together. He was trying to be on his best behavior. He told me to smack him if I noticed him screwing up while we were here. I would be happy to smack the guy, he sometimes got on my nerves.

In the morning there was a media type breakfast with all the players. We all gave interviews and signed autographs for fans.

Then we went into the arena for the Skills Competition. We were all wearing our own team’s jerseys for this competition. It was a lot of fun. Everyone was joking around. I was surprised how funny and friendly Ron Berry was.

He complimented me on my achievements. I wasn’t sure what he thought of me. He hadn’t said much in the media about me. I was aware of some of his past comments he had made about women getting hit in the head with the puck at games. He had said that they were to busy yapping. He was cracking jokes today, and tried a few of the skills himself. What a great guy he was.

Alex is a huge Ron Berry fan. He always told me that Berry lives and breaths hockey, and anything that is good for the sport he gets behind. Alex was right about him.

During the skills competition I won the ‘Fastest Skater’ with a time of 14.01 seconds. The closest time to me was from Derick Marlow with a time of 14.42 seconds. I also got 4/6 attempts in the ‘Shooting Accuracy Skills’.

The next day would be fun. The poor goalies. There was so much fire power here on the ice. They didn’t have much of a chance. They knew it coming into this event. For this competition it was the best of the best. I was honored to be part of it.

We beat team Berry, with a score of 16 – 12. I had so much fun. I improved my standings in the NHL draft with scoring 4 of those 16 goals and got 7 assists. If the NHL was going to be fair to me, I should be drafted in the first round according to the scouts. They had me placed 5th overall. The only negatives about my scouting reports were, that I was a woman.

On the drive back to Toronto with Joe he told me that he wanted to stop off and visit his family for dinner. I agreed. We were using his car, so I wasn’t going to be rude. I had met his parents several times. He said that he had an older brother, who was twenty-four that would also be there. I had never met his brother before. He said that he didn’t play hockey. He was more of a nerd. He told me that his brother was working for some fortune 500 computer company.

The drive from Sarnia to Toronto is only about three and a half hours. Joe’s family lived in a small town about ten minutes north of London, called Ingersoll. It was just off the 401 highway.

We exited the highway and drove into Ingersoll. It was a small quaint town of just under 12,000 people. I asked Joe what the town was known for. He laughed, and said “Cheese”. I had to laugh then.

“Cheese, well then that explains it!” I giggled. “That’s why you’re such a cheese factory out there.” I was laughing so hard I had to hold my tummy. “That explains why your entire rookie year you wore that damn cheese grater.”

It had some very nice neighborhoods. It was spotless, a very clean town. With buildings old and new mixed together. We finally reached his parents home.

They welcomed me graciously into their home. His mother had prepared us a huge turkey dinner with all the fixings. It was delicious. It was nice to have a home cooked meal. His brother was just like Joe had described him to me. A huge nerd. He spent most of the dinner discussing some computer chip that was going to be the next new big thing. I had no idea what he was talking about. From the looks of every one else’s face no one else did either.

His brother pretty much talked throughout the entire meal. He was even talking when others were talking and tuning him out. It was almost as if he didn’t care if he just sat there talking to himself. Very strange I thought.

Joe leaned over to me and said ”I’m sorry Chrissy, he’s got some serious issues upstairs if you get what I mean.” He seemed almost embarrassed by his brother.

“No worries, Joe. We all have one of those in our family.” I whispered. He started to chuckle.

I thanked Joe’s parents for a lovely meal and we headed back to Toronto. It was late and I was tired. I just wanted to take a long hot bath and crawl into bed.

Joe finally dropped me off at the Peat’s house around midnight. All the lights were off upstairs, the basement living room light was on, but Erik’s car wasn’t in the driveway.

I threw my bag into my bedroom and grabbed my toiletries and my pj’s and headed towards the bathroom. I poured in lots of bubble bath, it was a lavender smell. I decided to also drop in one of the bath bombs Cathy had given me for Christmas. I had never used one before. It started to fizz and move rapidly throughout the tub. It was quite amusing to watch. Once the tub was full, I slowly slid into it.

The water was extremely hot, but it was nice as the water engulfed my body. I completely submerged myself. Slid all the way under the water, letting the bath take over my entire body. It felt so soothing and relaxing. The bath bomb released something into the water that made my skin feel so smooth and soft. I was enjoying this bath immensely. I vowed that I would take a bath with bath bombs at least once a week from now on. It was heaven.

I didn’t want to come out of the bath, but I was starting to fall asleep in there. I dried myself off and put on my pajamas and went out into the living room. Erik had just gotten home. We sat up and talked for about twenty minutes before I managed to dragged myself into my bedroom and flopped on my bed. I was out right away; as soon as my head hit the pillow.

March came fast this year. I had been kept so busy all season that the months seemed to fly by. Alex and I had gotten even closer. I wanted to get back together with him. I just wasn’t fully ready yet. He was acting like we already were together. Boston was still treating him like a human yo-yo.

He was continuously shipped back and forth between Boston and Providence. Last week he had to get off the bus in the middle of nowhere, jump on a plane to play a game that night. It was starting to take it’s toll on him. He wasn’t complaining much, but I could tell. The last time we were on web cam together he looked drained. I would hate to be in the situation he was in, but on the bright side he was playing a lot of NHL games. I would kill for that kind of chance.

We had a good team this season and all of us had great chemistry. We didn’t have the best players in the league on our team, but what we did have was consistency. We were sitting 5th in the CHL standings. I was still 2nd in scoring in the OHL, and 4th in the CHL.

We won the first round of playoffs taking out Trenton in five games. In the second round we scraped through, finally winning the 7th game against Oshawa. The third round we took out Brampton in five games.

We were heading into the finals for the playing for the Bobby Orr Trophy in the East. We were going to play Barrie. They had done outstanding this season and going into the tournament they had the upper hand. They had home ice advantage and they had beaten us five of the eight games we had played them this season. However, we were the stronger team and sitting higher up in the CHL standings with more wins under our belt.

The coach gave us a pep talk before heading out onto the ice. His normal words of wisdom, some swearing about never giving up and some famous quotes.

Today’s quote, I had heard many times before. It was a quote from the General Manager of the New York Rangers, and of course he played all over the NHL from Boston to Edmonton and every where in between, Glen Sather. “You can have all the talent in the world, but if the pumper’s not there, it doesn’t matter”.

“So guys get out there and kick some Barrie Ass!” He yelled and he motioned for us to get out of the room. I laughed on my way out of the dressing room. He was a good coach, but on game days he was in his own little coaching world.

I didn’t start today’s game. Instead I was playing on the second line. My back was still a little sore and coach felt I would be better playing on the second line. I didn’t argue. It didn’t really matter to me where I played; as long as I got my ice time. My back had improved a lot but I still had my days.

The first period opened with a few chances that we managed to create, even with Barrie getting an early power play. Finally Joe Sim started the scoring with under four minutes left in the first when he tipped in Erik Wilson’s pass. Brett Welsh got the second assist on that goal.

Barrie got themselves into penalty trouble at the end of the first period and were down two men for 1:09 to start the second. I took quick advantage of it, when I flipped in a rebound that the Barrie goalie had just given up. Then Barrie came back and got one past Tyler Plouffe and we lost our two goal lead.

In the third, I managed to restore the two-goal lead when my backhand shot just barely managed to beat the Barrie goalie. The rest of the third was a lot of back and forth. Many penalties called but no goals. We won the first game of the series 3-1.

We battled hard through this series and took Barrie out in seven. We won the Bobby Orr Trophy. Now we would play the Winner in the West for the J. Ross Robertson Cup - OHL Playoffs Championships. We had to wait a few days to find out which team that would be.

My father called to congratulate me on our win, as did Alex. This season was different without Moose and Alex. I still had some of my close friends, but it didn’t feel the same.

Two days later we found out that we would be playing against London. They were a solid team. A much bigger team. They liked to throw their bodies around a lot out there.

They took us out in five games. The season was over just like that. They were moving on to play in the Memorial Cup Tournament, and our season was done. We all said our goodbyes at our team dinner with our billets.

I had this summer’s NHL Draft to look forward to. I was hoping that it would go well. I said goodbye to the Peats and shipped my things home.

I debated for a day whether I would fly to Providence and surprise Alex. I knew what happened the last time I did that. However, I did want him back. I missed him. He was my best friend.

I told my parents I wouldn’t be home for a while. They never argued with me about things like that anymore. To them I was an adult. They let me do what I wanted. I was mature enough to handle the situations I put before myself. They knew I wasn’t going to ruin any chance I had by doing foolish things.

I boarded the plane at Pearson International Airport and glanced down at the city of Toronto as the plane took off. Toronto was such a huge city.

When I arrived in Providence, I took a cab over to the team’s apartment complex. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. God only knew what kind of surprise might be waiting for me on the other side of the door.

Alex opened the door. He was standing there in only his boxers. His hair still wet from the shower. I just smiled. He was shocked to see me. He grabbed me up in his arms and swung me around. He kissed me.

“What a nice surprise. I am so happy you’re here Christine.” He cheered.

“I wasn’t sure about coming. It was kind of a last minute decision,” I said meekly.

“It was the right decision. Will you stay with me for the rest of the season?” He asked with excitement.

“Well that would be hard with you traveling back and forth to Boston all the time. What about you’re new roommate. I don’t think he’d like that at all.” I explained.

“If you promise to stay I will move us into our own place by the end of the week. I swear it won’t be an issue at all.” He was beaming with excitement.

“And I suppose you want an answer this minute?” I questioned him.

“No, how about by tomorrow morning?” He laughed. He pulled me into the bedroom and threw me on the bed and collapsed on top of me.

“If you stay this means you and me are back together and you have to take your ring back.” He insisted.

I pushed him off of me. “How about you go get dressed and take me out for some supper. I am famished.” I told him.

He went to his dresser and pulled something out of the top drawer. He walked back over to me and took my left hand. “Are we back together?” He asked me with those big green eyes. I couldn’t say no. I missed him and I did love him.