Fire & Ice - Chapter 30: Chapter 30

After the win in Minnesota, the rest of the night was a blur. We got back to the hotel in one piece and then we all headed to the ballroom to celebrate. Coach was turning a blind eye to all the alcohol, we just had to stay inside the hotel, something we all got behind right away. The music was bumping, the champagne was flowing and we all wanted to hold onto the trophy for a part of the night.
The only downside to the win was waking up the next morning severely hungover and have to suffer through a four-hour bus ride back to campus. I chugged some power aid and took a few aspirin for the headache I have before I lowered my shades and grabbed the trophy. Somehow the trophy ended up in bed with me last night. I didn't ask questions when I found it as I knew nobody probably knew the answer. When I got onto the bus holding the trophy everyone started cheering as I handed the now beer smelling trophy off to coach before taking a seat in the middle of the bus.
Once I sat down I pulled my phone out and found it's dead. I guess I forgot to charge it in the mist of my drunken haze last night. I pulled the cord out of my backpack and plugged it into the charging port in my seat. It took a few minutes for it to load all of the messages I got but once it finished I sent a text to mom to let her know we were on our way back to campus and I would give her a call when we get there. Next was to Cassie as the bus started rolling down the road. I know I need to try and sleep otherwise I might end up throwing up and that's the last thing I want to happen right now. I told her we were on our way back to campus and I would let her know when we are getting close. She is going to be meeting us at the hockey house when we pull up.
I did manage to fall asleep not long into the bus ride thank God. By the time I woke up, my throat and mouth were dryer then the desert and I needed to use the bathroom badly. When I checked in with some of the other girls I found out we were only about a half hour away from campus. The time went by quickly when I started to go through the message from last night. I sent text messages back to everyone who sent me one wishing me congratulations. Next I opened my photos and it was a bit crazy. There were a lot of drunk selfies with almost every single one of my teammates along with some videos of us singing along to whatever music was playing. There was also a video of me drinking some kind of alcohol out of the cup of trophy. Once it was gone I yelled and ran off with the trophy. So that's what happened.
There wasn't much time to to go over much of anything else as we started to pull into campus. I put my phone in my pocket and packed everything away in my backpack. As we pulled onto the street of the hockey house, we could see a sizeable crowd in front of the building. A smile made it's way onto my face when I saw the guys team waiting for us along with a lot of the student body. It was a nice turn out and to have their support in this win.
The bus pulled to a stop right in front of the house and coach stood at the front of the bus to take all of us in.
"Take a moment to take this all-in ladies, you earned it. Practice is still on for Tuesday morning and we are going to be flying out to Pennsylvania Tuesday night for our first game Wednesday night. Be on the look out for the email for more information tonight. Now, how about our captains lead us out of the bus to the waiting fans." Coach said with a smile and picked up the trophy.
We all cheered as Megan and Toni went forward on the bus and took the trophy from him. The bus door opened and the girls walked off first to the loud cheers of everyone waiting for them. It didn't take long for the rest of us to make our way off the bus after them. Once I hit the side walk, the cold winter air hit me right in the chest. But then I heard people screaming my name and it warmed by heart to see Cassie standing with Travis and Chad holding a sign that said Bertinelli, my number one. I pushed pass a few people and got right over to them.
Once I got over to Cassie she handed Chad the sign and jumped into my waiting arms. I held her thighs tight in my grip as Cassie pushed my hat up on my head before leaning in and giving me a hard kiss. It didn't last long because I knew we had an audience but it was still nice to get this one moment with her while it lasted.
After I pulled away I grabbed Travis for a hug and even pulled Chad in for one too. It took a few more minutes before a lot of the fan fare died down and the bus was unloaded. While I was with the team going over some more stuff Chad and Travis grabbed my bag for me and put it on into the truck. Then finally the team was released and we all made plans to celebrate tonight. When those plans were made we all went our separate ways for now. I know I won't be getting any sleep tonight.
Cassie drove us back to the dorm after we told Chad and Travis the plans for tonight. As much as I wanted to have my way with Cassie and celebrate with just the two of us, if I want to survive tonight, I need a shower, some food and a nap, in that order. Cassie the angel that she is, had food ready for us when we got back inside the dorm and I sat right down at the table and ate. The food helped settle my stomach a bit and when I was done I put my head down on the table.
"Mac, don't fall asleep, you need to get in the shower first." Cassie said and rubbed the top of my back a bit. I groaned and turned my head to look at her.
"I cannot drink again tonight." I said and slowly stood from the table.
"Then how about we only go to bar for a little bit and head back here?" Cassie suggested.
"You're an angel" I said and gave her a kiss before walking off to the bathroom.
I tried to speed through my shower so I can go off to nap but needed an extra second to get the left-over soap out of my hair. Then finally I was off to bed for a nap. Cassie didn't join me for it and I was a bit disappointed not getting to cuddle up with her. But the nap did it's job and I was up and ready to go celebrate for a little while with the team. The party at the bar was jumping by the time Cassie and I got there. I was barely inside for five minutes and could already tell I was going to leave with a headache.
The team was pulled up onto the bar and given a few rounds of shots on the house and by other bar patrons and I just handed mine off to someone else who wanted it. I barely got to spend any time with Cassie as I was pulled in different directions by a lot of people. After about an hour of it I finally had enough and told the rest of the team I was heading out once I found Cass. I ended up finding her sitting at a table with Travis and I sighed and pushed my way through the crowd of bodies to get over to her. Once there I rested my head on her shoulder while wrapping my arms around her stomach.
"Can we please get out of here?" I asked in her ear. I didn't even hear a response, just a pat on my hand told me she was ready to go. Travis followed us out of the bar and we gave him a ride back to campus.
I spent Monday close to Cassie's side. I didn't want to stray far from her right now. I think it was my anxiety for the frozen four games that made me want to stay close to her. But we still had classes even though I have an exemption for the later half of the week. So I had to let Cassie go to class even though I didn't want too. While she was gone I spent my time packing. I needed to make sure I had enough clothes for six days if we make it all the way to the finals.
After Cassie came home on Monday we spent the evening in, made dinner and had a movie night. It helped settled my nerves and made me feel a little bit better about leaving right after practice tomorrow. We only made it half way through the movie when my wandering hands were stopped by Cassie. She gave me a look and I stopped the movie and carried her off to bed.
The next morning I woke up to find a dark purple bruise on my collar bone and it made me smile to have it. I triple checked my bags before I gave Cassie a kiss goodbye and left the dorm. Becca was walking out at the same time and we walked together over to the hockey house. The coach bus was parked outside when I got there and we handed over our bags to the driver before walking inside. Most of the team was ready and waiting when we got into the living room. We only had to wait another few minutes before coach came out of the office with Megan and Toni before we loaded up onto the bus and took off towards the arena.
We had a full practice before we all showered and got changed. When we left the arena we went right over to the airport to catch our flight out to Pennsylvania. Seeing as it was a random Tuesday in March, there weren't any lines at the airport. We all got onto the flight without issue and were off towards Pennsylvania. The flight was actually pretty short, just over three hours and we were on the ground again.
Coach already gave us packets with our room assignments so I already knew I was rooming with Stacey again for the trip. It was nice to know ahead of time and not trying to figure it out when we checked into the hotel. The bus right over to the hotel wasn't long and before I knew it Stacey and I were getting set up in our hotel room. After we unpacked a bit we met up with Becca and went down to our ballroom for dinner. Toni took a seat with us when she picked up her dinner and we started to go over some plays that were deep in our play book we don't run often. We wanted to brush up on them just in case we needed them.
When we were finished Becca joined us in our room for a while. Stacey and Becca curled up together in bed while I took another shower and started to get ready for bed. Our first game wasn't starting until 7pm tomorrow night. Mom, Alyssa, Cassie and Travis were all flying in tomorrow morning for the games and because we knew a head of time, I just so happened to tell them what hotel we were staying in. They managed to get two rooms in the hotel and it made me happy to know that Cassie will be with me at night tomorrow. While Becca and Stacey continued to watch their movie I let the white nose of the TV lull me to sleep.
The next morning I woke up ready for the game. I just hated that these game times are later in the evening. We had all of this time to kill before the game started and I hate that I had to fill this time with stuff to do to try and keep my anxiety at bay. I was just happy we had morning skate today. After the team had breakfast we got onto the bus and went over to Erie Insurance Arena and got to skate around and test the ice. I spent a lot of the time shooting pucks off the boards trying to gage how the puck will bounce. When I was satisfied I moved on to pushing myself into the board. Coach started to yell at me after he saw me do it more then twice. But I tried to reason with him to say we needed to know how much give the board will do so we better know how to take care of our bodies if we get checked into them. He let me hit the boards a few more times before he called the end of practice.
After practice was over and we returned to the hotel, I got a few text messages from my mom telling me that her and Alyssa arrived and checked in if I was free and wanted to meet up for little bit. I quickly agreed and set an alarm for when I needed to get back to my room to finish getting ready before I had to go back to the arena for the game.
Mom and Alyssa were both sitting in the hotels coffee shop sipping from large mugs when I got downstairs. It made me happy to see them both and I called out to mom when I got close. They both turned around at the sound of my voice and mom jumped out of her chair when she saw me. She came over to me and pulled me into a tight hug right away and I melted into her arms. When she broke away from me I saw Alyssa standing not far from mom and I gave her a smile and pulled her into a hug as well.
"Thank you both for coming, it means a lot to me to have you both here for this." I said once we took a seat at the table they had.
"You know I wouldn't miss it for the world McKenna." Mom said and gave me a smile.
"And now Felicia actually knows how to use her vacation days, something she just realized she actually has a lot of." Alyssa said and chuckled.
"So many days does she have?" I asked looking back and forth at the both of them.
"Like three months worth." Mom said and sighed.
"Well I hope you took time off next week too." I said wanting her to be around when Cassie and I come home for spring break.
"Of course she does, I watched her do it myself." Alyssa said and took a sip of her coffee.
"Good" I said and smiled.
I spent a good part of the afternoon with Mom and Alyssa. After they finished their coffees we actually got lunch together in the hotel. As we finished up lunch I got a text from Travis saying that him and Cassie got to the hotel and checked in. After the lunch bill was paid I had Cassie and Travis join Mom, Alyssa and I. Travis was all excited to see my mom again as it's been quiet a while since the pair has seen each other in person. When I introduced Cassie to mom again it felt like they were meeting for the first time all over again. They've only met each other a few times but never got the chance to have an extended period of time together. So we will see how this week and next week goes.
After both Travis and Cassie formally met Alyssa, I needed to head back to the room to get ready for the game. Stacey was in the shower when I got back to the hotel room so I just took my time getting dressed. I brought my suit with me for these games. Even though I might feel anxious on the inside, I wanted to show I was ready to go on the outside.
Our first game is against Providence. We haven't played them at all during the regular season so we had to watch a lot of game tape as team to try and get a strategy together on how to face them. They don't seem to have many large girls on the team this year so it will most likely become a speed battle. Once coach went over some defensive points and some newer plays he wanted us to try on offense, we were ready to go.
As we took the ice for warm ups I could feel the crowd. They are into this game more then I thought they would be for a quarter-final game. Warm ups didn't last as long as I was hoping for before we knew it we were back in the dressing room getting ready for the game. Becca, Toni, Stacey and Lilly all lined up in front of me to paint on eye black for them. In this moment I knew we were ready for this game. Everything we have been working for has lead us here and we were ready for this game.
The game started quick, just like we thought it would and we were having a hard time keeping up with them. But we found a flow and got into it. While I was on the bench regrouping with Toni about a new play she wanted to run, I watched as Megan was on the ice with her line, flying up the center. I knew something good was about to happen so I shook Toni and her head snapped towards the ice just as Megan crossed over the blue line with the puck. She took two defenders with her and that was the opening we needed. She passed the puck backwards to one of our defensemen and once they got it onto the blade of their stick she shot it forward. Toni and I both held our breath as we watched the puck sail top shelf into the net.
Our bench exploded as the we scored the first goal. All of us were on our feet once the goal horn sounded. Megan lead her line down in front of the bench and we all gave fist taps to them as they came across. With that first goal under our belts, this game felt like it was ours. The game continued on but it looked like we took the sails out of Providence with that goal. When the goal horn sounded again for the end of the first period we all went back into the locker room giddy. Coach reminded us that we still had two more periods of hockey to play and that was a lot of time left but I think he felt it too. He knew with that first goal; we had this game in hand.
The second period went by quick. Providence came out and showed some life but we were the bigger and more physical team so we were able to keep them off of us without much of a problem. We went into the locker room still up by one. The mood in the locker room was light. We all knew we had this one last period to close out the game and couldn't let the get to our heads.
So for the start of the third I knew we needed to push for another goal. And that's exactly what I did. Our line was out there for the second shift of the third and I pushed my way in front of the net. I stood there and watched as Toni let a puck fly towards the net but I knew she wasn't aiming for the back of the net. She was aiming for me. I was able to knock the puck down and slide it right into the side of the net where their goal was lacking in coverage. We all jumped into the air and piled into each other. All of us knew we were winning this game at that moment.
The rest of the third came and went. With three minutes left in the game Providence pulled their goalie to get the extra skater on the ice but it back fired as our fourth line was able to score an empty net goal from behind the red line. It was the one thing all of always practice on when we were at practice. Hitting empty nets was something that was so ingrained in us now that pretty much all of us could probably hit an empty net from anywhere on the ice blindfolded.
The last remaining minute finally came off the clock and the goal horn sounded and we all jumped up and down in excitement. One game down, two more to go.