Cole nodded along understandingly as she explained her position. He felt a little disappointed that she wouldn't be joining the team on any of their road trips throughout the year but instead of voicing that, he answered her question.

"Yeah mostly because, well it's Canada's sport, my parents enrolled me when I was little and I liked it. The thing that really made me fall in love was watching the Toronto Maple Leafs making their playoff runs in the early 2000s, I was only a little kid, a year or so into learning how to play myself, and I felt so disappointed when they fell short every time, Carolina in the semifinals, Philadelphia the next two years in a row. Some part of me said 'one day, you're gonna be there, and you'll get them over the finish line' call me a crazy kid, living on wishful thinking, but I genuinely believed it, for years that was my reason for getting up early in the morning on the weekends for the practices and tournaments, and all of that. But yeah, that was what got me in, and love of the game itself just grew over time, you know?"

Alex forgot momentarily that she was here on business. She needed to get the story down. So midway throughout his story she retrieved her notes and continued to scribble away. Her handwriting wasn't the neatest, but it was her own unique handwriting. If one glanced it looked like cursive, but this was because she rarely lifted her pen off the paper, unless to separate words.

"That sounds pretty cool, I know what it feels like to be a diehard fan too," she commented, completely understanding his loyalty to the Leafs. "What are you majoring in?"

"Well, uhhh, nothing yet. I haven't put much thought into it really." he thought for a minute "I like writing, always did, maybe I'll find something in that area to major in. Until then, I'm undeclared I guess you'd call it, just trying to do good with these general studies while I focus on getting back up to speed as a player. Been a while since I had an opportunity to be part of a team full-time."

He ate some more as she scribbled down his replies, hoping the interview would last longer than the meal, which was rapidly coming to an end.

"Oh yeah, that makes sense. I almost went for an English major before I realized I would probably end up broke and jobless or as one of those miserable high school teachers who clearly hate their job." With that, she polished off the last few fries, glad the restaurant seasoned them well. There was nothing worse than an unseasoned fry, except maybe a reheated fry. Once more she forgot the main point of their meeting and continued, "I don't know, maybe one day I'll write a book. That would be awesome."

"What do you like to write?" Alex questioned, doing her best not to talk this poor guy's ear off.

He nodded as she spoke, English degrees didn't usually lead to much in the way of career prospects, he understood her not wanting to commit to it, despite her interest.
"I'd be first in line to get your book, someone with your passion and talent, it's a guaranteed hit! As for me, I haven't done much of anything for a few years, but when I did, it was mostly short stories, stuff like that. Although...." he trailed off for a second and felt himself start to blush as he said quietly "I have been known to mess around with some poetry."

His face was a deep red as he grinned nervously and hastily added on "Please don't put that in the interview. This is all still for that, right? Or are we just chatting?"

Alex chuckled as soon as the blush rose on his cheeks. "No, no, don't worry! When I interview people I like to make conversation as well. It helps them get comfortable, you know? And plus you seem like a really nice person, I've really enjoyed talking to you so far."

The waitress came by and dropped the check. Alex didn't dare check it, as Cole said he would pay and she believed it was rude to check it if you weren't the one paying. "Really? Poetry? Can't say I'm not surprised. You don't seem like the kinda person. What are your short stories about?"

“I like talking to you too” Cole said as took the cheque “If I can admit to something, it’s been a while since I’ve talked to anyone, one on one like this. It’s been a lot of fun!”

The waitress looped back around, took Cole’s card and the cheque, then he continued.
“The stories are kind of all over the place. Some are about sports, some are about this sci-fi world I helped design for a creative writing project back in high school. As for the... y’know, poetry. I don’t really advertise it at all. It’s kind of a newer thing for me. I had this girlfriend back home.... didn’t end well. Between trying to get her back and just trying to... I don’t know, cope with it, I just started writing it.”

He hushed up a bit, still red in the face as the waitress returned his card and the cheque. She thanked them both and walked away with a bit of a smirk on her face, probably misinterpreting the situation and his very obvious blush.

Alex saw the waitress's sly smirk and shook her own head, just as amused. Even when she worked in customer service she tended to assume every man and woman eating together was on some sort of date unless they looked related.

She listened attentively to Cole's talk of his stories. They seemed interesting and she would be willing to read them if he were willing to share. But she let him continue to talk about his poetry. "Oh yeah, relationships ending bad are... Well it's the worst."

Since Cole gave a bit of his own history, Alex figured she'd give some of her own. "I had a nasty breakup a couple months ago. My ex, we were going really strong, you know? We'd been together for such a long time, we even played around with the idea of getting engaged. That was all until I found out she was cheating on me the last year or so of our relationship. I had no idea! I never saw her as the type to cheat but oh well."

“Oh, that’s horrible!” Cole said “I’m so sorry”

Well, so much for asking her out after this.

“On my end, things seemed to be going so well. Then out of nowhere, she said she ‘couldn’t do this anymore’ and left... just like that. I tried for months to get her to talk to me, but every time we did, I felt like I was being lied to. Last I heard, she moved to Florida with an ‘old friend of hers from school’. End of the day, she just didn’t love me. I’m over it now, but, still hurts sometimes, you know?”

"Dang, I'm really sorry about that," Alex said. "I'm not really so upset about it anymore- at least I don't think. Karma is a b, so she'll get what's coming to her eventually."

Alex looked down to her watch. Yes, she still liked to wear a watch even though they were pretty much obsolete to use for telling time. She liked watches because she could take quick peeks at the time without having to pull out her phone. It was especially handy when she didn't want to seem too rude about checking the time. Glancing at her watch was much less obvious than pulling out her phone. Upon checking her watch, Alex found that they had been here for almost an hour and a half! Were they really talking that much?

"Can you believe we've been here over an hour?" Alex asked, unable to keep the surprise out of her voice, "Is there anything you have to do today? I don't want to hold you up from anything."

“Oh wow, I didn’t notice it at all! Time really flies when you’re having fun!”

He chuckled then felt in his pocket for his phone.
“Actually, I wonder if you could help me out with something.” He got his phone out, opened it and found the note “during practice, one of the straps on my shin guard snapped. Coach gave me the address for a store that sells a replacement, but I have no idea how to get there. It’s on... Yankee Street? Ever been?”

"It sure does!" Alex agreed with a bright smile.

Alex looked at the address and thought. "Yeah, that's not too far from here. It's actually only a few blocks down, about a fifteen minute walk. I can explain how to get there, or I can show you myself if you'd like." She didn't have much to do the rest of the day, except for getting a bit of a head start on the next chapter for her bio class. The article wasn't due for another couple days, but it wouldn't take too long to finish.

“Uh, yeah. If you’re not doing anything, I definitely wouldn’t mind the company!”

He smiled warmly, welcoming the extra time to any out with this girl who had treated him so well. A new friend definitely wouldn’t go amiss, especially given his situation.

“But” he added as he stood and grabbed his bag “if you’ve got anything else you’re supposed to be doing, the directions will be fine! Don’t want you to miss out or be late to anything on my account!”

"Nope, I'm not doing too much! I'll take you over there." Alex stood, held her notes and folders under her arm, and crammed her pens into her back pocket. She called out a "Thank you!" to the service team as they exited the restaurant.

"It's real easy to get to the store, you just..." and Alex explained the easy path as she led him on it. They walked the few blocks, talking and exchanging stories as they went until they finally made it to the store.

It was a large sports outlet, so even though hockey supplies were rare in California shops, this one had just what they needed. Cole explained some of the rules of hockey as Alex listened intently. She had never actually sat down for a hockey game before. Once in a while when she went out to dinner the bar area would be playing a game and she would catch a glimpse here and there. Other than that she never watched hockey, but wasn't opposed to it either.

Cole paid for his gear and they returned to campus.

"Look out online for your biography- it should be up by next week," Alex said with a smile. Most people liked to read their own biographies. Heck, she was proud to get her own on the staff portion of the newspaper. Who wouldn't be?

"I, uh, guess I'll be seeing you around then?"

All-in-all, Cole seemed like a great guy. They clicked so quickly and naturally, it was like a breath of fresh air. Alex thought he was cute, funny, and incredibly kind. Knowing of the breakup he just went through, she wasn't intent on making any moves, or even asking him for his number as friends. Not that she didn't want it, but she didn't want him to be uncomfortable.

Cole thanked her time and time again for all her help. They exchanged numbers, because even if she wasn’t into guys, it was still nice to have a friend outside of just one of the guys from the team. They parted ways with some tentative plans to hang out when their schedules allowed it.

Not 2 days later they crossed paths again. Turns out they were both enrolled in the same Biology class. Mid-lecture, Cole sneakily typed in a text with an offer to be study buddies, which she thankfully accepted, because sure, he was a week behind in the course, but he was completely lost. They shared a laugh at the coincidence once the class had concluded. Later that week they found the time to hang out, a few hours after Cole’s early morning skills session with the team’s assistant coaches, which he felt he did pretty well in.

Monday after classes was another full team practice. Coach Bombay announced that the league had submitted the finalized schedule for their season, and their first game was that Saturday against Anaheim’s team. Cole chuckled to himself at the obvious parallel to the NHL’s LA/Anaheim rivalry and listened up for his assignments. He was paired up with Sam Gelinas, a two-way Center who was one of their faster skaters, and Trevor Whitmore, one of the bigger players on the team, a true heavyweight who was defensively sound. He was also told he’d be part of the special teams- secondary power play and he’d possibly see some time on the penalty kill. They’d be the ‘third line’ throughout normal play, the veterans of the team clearly getting more ice time due to their previous work. At the end of a successful practice, the coaches told all of the newer players that they could get a handful of free tickets if they wanted them. Cole fished out his phone and made an offer to the only person he knew in the city.

Hey Alex, we’ve got a game coming up this weekend, interested in being my cheering gallery? *laughing emoji* if you don’t have any other plans of course!

Alex was busy editing her latest article when she received the text from Cole. That sounds great! I'll be there! Just send me the info :)

The past week proved fairly uneventful for Alex. She was solidifying her schedule, still getting used to college life. Most of her classes were in the morning, leaving her the rest of the day to work on articles, exercise, write, or go to the Taekwondo dojang in the area.

~~~~~

Alex sat in the stands, waiting for the game to start. She wanted to go down to the locker room before to wish Cole luck, but she realized that might distract him. That, or she could get in trouble for being in there. Instead, Alex opted to wait until the end of the game to see him.

Overall, she was glad that she had met Cole. He was a great guy- great looking too. She enjoyed tutoring him in biology. She found that he was pretty bright, just needed the extra guidance. Their friendship was going good and she hoped it would continue to do so.

Cole sat in his stall in the locker room, his left leg was shaking a little, skate tapping impatiently on the padded floor. This would be his first full game in months, and the nerves were definitely getting to him. The preparation was done, all that was left was the performance. His stall was next to Sam’s. The two of them had gotten pretty friendly over the last week. Between them and their line mate Whitmore, they had worked out how the others liked to play and developed at least a bit of chemistry in that regard. Gelinas could see the nervousness on his face and shot him a reassuring wink. Apparently it was tradition that no one spoke in the Raiders locker room until the coaching staff arrived.

Cole took a deep breath and tried to settle down a bit. The fact that Alex was there to cheer him on was a calming factor that he centered on. His phone buzzes next to him, (the ringer was silenced). He took a look to see a text from one of his best friends, teammates, and confidantes from back home.
‘Good luck today buddy. Remember, hockey is supposed to be fun, the score will take care of itself :)’
He quickly typed in a thank you and sent it off. The words were a callback to a tough conversation the two of them had not all that long ago, when his budding career was on the downswing. He made a snap decision and motioned to Sam to hand him a marker. Most of the players put a small touch of personalization to their gear, or the tape on their stick as identifying markers. Cole usually just had his number in between two dash marks on the butt-end of his sticks (-50-) but with the marker, he quickly put a little smiling face on the corner of the white fabric in the palm of his left glove. The door of the locker room opened up and the coaches walked in.

’Let’s have some fun’ Cole thought.

“Alright men” coach started “there’s nothing more I can tell you than what you already know. We’ve done our pre-scout, you all know your assignments, let’s get this year started right boys! Starting lineup: between the pipes, Tyler Julian!”
Everyone clapped and cheered as each name was read out.
“On defence, Ricky Wolf….. Rich Highmore. Left wing, Brenden Brake! Right wing, Johnny Locke! And center ice, our captain for the year, Mr. Greg McCullough!”
The loudest cheers of all as the boys started clapping in time chanting ‘speech, speech, speech’

“Settle down, settle down!” Greg said as he stood up “I’m not saying anything coach didn’t already say. We’re ready for this, we’re here to win, let’s get after it boys” he stuck out his hand to the coach “cheer for these guys now, they’re the reason we’re gonna win tonight! Thanks coach Bombay”
The team cheered and clapped one final time, then Greg led them out of the locker room, they walked single file and as they walked into the spotlight, and one by one stepped onto the ice, the crowd roared. Cole didn’t know what he expected, but it definitely wasn’t this. The arena was packed. The crowd was raucous and Cole couldn’t help but beam as he skated around, going through the motions of warm-up. He found where Alex was sitting and waved as he skated by, still unable to wipe that silly grin off his face.

Soon the game was ready to begin. The in-arena announcer welcomed the fans, covered all the standard housekeeping and ran through the opening lineups. Cole took his place on the bench and watched as it started. Greg and the top liners dominated the opening shift, winning the puck back to their defencemen, charging into the offensive zone and putting the Anaheim guys on their heels. The puck eventually found its way into the goalies glove and coach Bombay called for a full line change. The second line and defence pairing hopped over the boards and Cole’s heart started pounding. They’d be going soon. Nathan Brooks, the second line center and his linemates Shelby and Paulsen, had a good shift of their own, though it wasn’t quite as one sided.

Finally, coach called for a change on the fly and before he knew it, Cole was rolling over the boards. Anaheim was advancing up the ice with the puck, so he picked his man to cover and skated back, ready to play. He blocked a pass to his man using the blade of his stick and tried to chip the puck out of their zone, but Anaheim’s defenceman managed to hold the line and slid it across to his partner. A shot careening towards Julian was deflected away and Tyson LaRusso, the Raiders defenceman closest to him gained possession for their team, he made a crisp pass to a streaking Gelinas and Cole got his feet moving to join the rush, trailing his Centerman just enough to enter the offensive zone cleanly, Anaheim’s big burly defenceman bared down on Sam, who slipped the check and dropped the puck to Cole. He cleanly handled the puck around to his backhand, slipped around the defenceman, slid back to his forehand, gripped down hard on his stick and ripped a shot towards the net. The goalie made the save, but the shot earned him a pat on the shoulder from both Sam and the coach as they got back to the bench.
“9 times out of 10 that’s going in” Sam was saying as they sat on the pine “Guy just got lucky”

All in all, a pretty successful first shift.

From there the game settled into a groove, more or less uneventful until late in the period when a perfectly executed play by the second line resulted in Adam Shelby scoring the first goal. The bench erupted when the lights went on and everyone in the building, supporting the home crowd at least, were on their feet. Cole and his mates stepped out to take the next shift once the celebrations had died down. The period ended shortly afterwards.

The message in the locker room during first intermission was clear- keep the foot on the gas, don't give them an inch. Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as planned. Anaheim tied the game early in the second off a penalty shot, then took the lead off a heavy slapshot from one of their defencemen a few minutes later. Anaheim hadn't just turned the tables, they were dominating possession and putting the pressure on. Over halfway through the frame, a strong shift from Cole, Gelinas and Whitmore led to them breaking out into Anaheim's zone and cycling the puck as they waited for the perfect play or shot to materialize. Cole was tripped by one of the opposing players and he heard the ref blowing the whistle as he pushed himself back to his feet. The Raiders primary power play unit converted that penalty into a game-tying goal. Once again, the building lit up, and Cole got some minor props for drawing the penalty out of them.

Disaster struck at the start of the third period, a broken play resulted in Cole's line getting trapped in the defensive zone long after their shift should have ended. Cole, completely exhausted, mishandled the puck under pressure and passed it to the wide-open Anaheim center, who put it into the net. Cole's face fell as he realized what he'd done and he labored over to the bench, head down, looking completely dejected. Coach patted him on the back, told him to relax, that it was okay, but Cole felt like shit and he could feel that under the surface, Bombay was pissed.

They didn't play much more that period, it was starting to feel like he had benched them, or at least bumped up the 4th line to take their shifts in the normal rotation. Anaheim scored again to make it 4-2, Locke and Brake teamed up on a nice play to get them back within one. And, with under a minute to go in regulation, their goalie pulled for an extra attacker, McCullough banked in a tying goal to send the game into overtime!

After several chances back and forth for the first few minutes of the 10 minute overtime period, Coach patted Cole on the shoulder as he walked by.
"Shake it off Cross, you guys are up next" he said lowly.
Cole looked at his hand, saw the smile there, and nodded as he remembered the words his friend had told him.

The third line jumped over the boards, they'd be taking a face-off in the offensive zone, if they could win it, they had a chance to finish. One shot is all they needed.

Sam won the face-off, Wolf and Highmore were the defencemen on this shift. Wolf picked up the loose puck and sent it up the side-boards to Cole, he wheeled quickly, slipping a check from an Anaheim defender in the corner and passing the puck to Sam in the center-slot. He was too well-covered to make a clean shot so he slid it out to Highmore. Everyone rotated into place for the developing play, Highmore passed to Wolf, who was sneaking into the left wing territory, he sent the puck all the way around the back of the net, Whitmore checked the Anaheim defender’s stick, and the puck rattled around to Sam, who had vacated the slot, Cole slid into the center-ice area, stick on the ice, ready to take the pass. He picked his spot as the puck came to him, he gripped, shot and watched as time slowed down, his follow-through suspended in the air as the puck soared up off the ice, above the goalie’s shoulder, and hit the back of the net.

Pandemonium ensued. The goal horn blaring, the crowd screaming, Cole’s arms shot into the air, he screamed triumphantly. Suddenly he was almost knocked over as Sam nearly crashed into him, racing over to celebrate the victory, three more thumps quickly followed as the defensemen and Whitmore joined the scrum. In between the cheering and repeated shouting of expletives, the rest of the team joined them and mobbed Cole. He honestly lost track of where he even was on the ice by the time the music died down. Cole got one more slap on the back as the horns blared out one final time and en masse, the entire team raised their sticks in a celebratory salute to the crowd.

The mood in the locker room was much more jovial than it was before. The guys were still hyped up, dancing and laughing. Someone was playing music and Cole was starting to remove his pads when the coaching staff walked in. The music died down as Bombay took the center of the room.
“Great job out there boys, great effort, Cross, excellent goal, keep that up. I think it’s only fitting we name you player of the game, which means you better hurry and get dressed, there’s a young lady from the school paper waiting out there for a quote. Oh and here” he held up a puck and tossed it over, Cole caught it, immediately noticing the tape around the edge with the words ‘First NCAA goal’ and the date written on it “one for your trophy case kiddo. Gents let’s give him one last round of applause, and we’ll see you Tuesday for practice!”

Cole had a funny feeling he knew who was waiting. He hurried up and got out of his gear, deciding he’d shower back at the dorms. As others started to leave they congratulated him one final time and made him aware of an after party later that night. He pulled on some street clothes branded with the team logo and headed out into the hallway, grinning widely as he spun the game puck in his hands, looking around for the reporter, hoping it’d be Alex.

Alex sat in the stands, sporting her very own ULA Raiders sweater. She felt that it was a forty dollars well spent. This was her first hockey game and she wanted to represent her college, especially against their rivals. Despite hockey not being one of the more popular sports of ULA, the arena was packed.

The game began and Alex was engulfed. She didn't understand all of the rules of hockey or really understand the positions, but she knew what a goal was. The reporter cheered and rallied with the other ULA fans, excited through the first two periods.

Come the third period, Alex's heart broke. She watched as the energy depleted Cole gift wrapped a goal for Anaheim. The look on his face twisted her heart. She remembered playing softball when she was younger. There was nothing worse than being the reason the other team scored a run. She assumed the feeling here was similar.

He exited the game and she had half a mind to go see if she could find him. Then she remembered that hockey wasn't the same as softball- if you were taken out you could be rotated back in. And eventually Cole was put right back in.

She watched the back and forth, hoping Anaheim would give up shots and that ULA would pull forward. Alex watched intensely. Finally, Cole made another shot. Her jaw dropped as the puck flew over the goalie's shoulder. Everyone, including herself, jumped up and screamed. She couldn't believe it! Cole managed to redeem himself in the most spectacular way possible!

Once the excitement began to die down, Alex made her way down towards the locker room and waited outside. She happened to pass Coach Bombay.

"Coach Bombay!" she called out. He spun around to face her, clearly happy by the win. "Cross did amazing tonight!" she praised and pulled out a notepad for authenticity, "Is there any way I can get a quote from him for the newspaper?"

"Sure thing, come inside," he offered and entered. They entered together, but she was left behind in the hallway to wait for the players to make their way out of the locker room.

"Hey!" Cole said, racing over to Alex once he saw her waiting with her notepad. It was impossible to hide how happy and purely elated he was, he couldn't hold back, and before he knew what was happening, he found himself moving in to hug her.

He was still kinda speechless, all he could really say was "This doesn't feel real"

"Oh, god, I'm sorry!" he said, suddenly aware of himself and stepping back from the hug "You're here as a professional, and I'm probably sweating all over you."

Alex laughed and hugged Cole back, delighted by his victory and his pride. He dropped her and seemed incredibly embarrassed. Alex began to laugh even harder. "Cole, you are such a Canadian! Don't worry about it!"

Alex looked around making sure no one else could hear her before continuing, "Actually I wasn't here on business. I told your coach that I was here to get a quote so I could get in. In reality I just came to support, see?" she smooths her ULA hockey sweater down and proudly shows it off. "But if you do want to give a quote I'm sure I can find a way to sneak it in somewhere."