'Star of the night'

By: Victoria Liu-Pearson

All Rights Reserved ©

Chapter 1

She groaned in annoyance hearing all the noise coming from the downstairs kitchen obviously her parents and older siblings were already up having breakfast. They didn't need to be so noisy though it was too early to even think of getting out of bed. Judging by the noise they obviously didn't care she wanted to sleep in and carried on, the smell of eggs started waft into her room; with a sigh she threw her duvet to one side and sat up. Swinging her legs off the bed she slowly stood up giving a big stretch walking to the bay window in her room she pulled aside the curtains. All she saw was a blanket of white snow covering, the ground from the grass to the road and the trees, and cars were barely visible.

'Vickie! Come down and have breakfast!' her mother yelled.

Reluctantly she moved away from the bay window grabbing her favorite wool dressing gown and wrapping it around her body along with the bedroom slippers and she made her way downstairs. As she'd thought her parents, mom Carol was hovering at the stove and her dad Phillip was already sitting on the dinning table the morning paper keeping him from view. Her older brother, Scott and sister Chelsea were also sat at the table munching on their breakfast.

'Morning sleepyhead.' Carol remarked Vickie only grunted in reply she went to sit down at the table and her dad at least for the moment stopped reading his newspaper placing in front of him.

'Vickie don't forget about tonight.' He remarked she looked up sharply alarmed.

'What? What's happening tonight?' she asked Chelsea rolled her eyes.

'God are you that daft and forgetful?' she asked in mock humor.

'My company's boss has given us a welcoming treat tonight at the Dallas Stars game.' Phillip explained Vickie inwardly cursed she had completely forgotten about it. Her dad had taken a job with a media company Western Digital in Dallas a couple of months ago after finishing his 3year contract with Globe Holdings in Boston in July. Western Digital is a highly successful company especially in sports where they had a large presence particularly in Dallas. They also owned corporate boxes at the home grounds of the Stars, Cowboys and Mavericks. Vickie faintly recalled her dad mentioning to them about a dinner function their family had been invited to in November by Western Digital's boss Murray Shaw. Initially he had suggested they attend the Cowboys game but her dad mentioned his daughter was more of a hockey fan so they'd agreed to attend the Stars home game against the visiting Carolina Hurricanes.

'Do I have to go?' she asked her dad gave her a glare.

'Yes, you do. There will be a lot of people from the company there, and I expect you will use the occasion to do some networking,' he said she sighed. * Great! It's just another excuse for him to show off and tell everyone how I'm following in his footsteps. The only dutiful child in the family taking after him unlike the other two * She thought. Chelsea and Scott weren't pushed into the same field they wanted to pursue careers in other fields and didn't want to get involved in the media, so then her dad insisted she had to do it given no other choice. He had it all planned out ensuring the schools she'd been to would cater for media studies, journalism, film and so on. So far she had survived all of it and was already into her final year of collage studying a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism. Being so close to completing the study side of it her dad was pushing to get her working in the industry as soon as possible and any events that came up he insisted on her attending partly to shop her around to any organizations looking to take on a soon to be graduate. Vickie felt sure she could very well find somewhere to work without her dad constantly being on her back but he always knew best apparently and wanted her to do exactly what he did, he had started purely as a journalist too before moving through the ranks into management.

'If you do things right, Murray will let you go down to the locker room to meet the players for interviews.' Phillip continued Vickie nodded her head.

'Ok well that will be great at least.' She remarked.

'But dad that's not fair! I want to meet the players too!' Chelsea groaned.

'No Chelsea, you can never control yourself and I can't afford to have you messing the evening up,' Phillip answered picking up his papers again to continue reading Scott sniggered over his breakfast and even Vickie had a smirk on her face.

'Not fair I never get to have any fun.' Chelsea grunted bored of her breakfast she stood up and took the dishes to the sink. Carol finished coking the remainder and served up the fresh eggs and muffins onto a plate for Vickie.

'Thanks mom.'

'Make sure you dress well there are a lot of people to impress.' Carole answered.

'I know, I know.'

'And none of that attitude.' Phillip added from over his newspaper Vickie remained silent and instead ate her breakfast. This was going to be another of those nights she had to play perfect little daughter to her parents, she didn't enjoy it the way they made it as though she was some sort of prized possession in front of people instead of their actual child.

Tonight's game between the Stars and Hurricanes didn't start until 7:30pm though Phillip insisted they be there early at 5pm. He had to meet his boss and all the other staff members whom were going to be in attendance tonight. Chelsea hadn't stopped complaining about not getting to meet the players and Scott kept teasing her about it.

'Chelsea you won't be going if you don't stop whining. I made my decision and that is it.' Phillip remarked sternly, she sighed out loud and folded her arms in a sulk.

'I don't like you dad.'

'Let's go.' He said ignoring her comment Vickie was the last one as always to join the rest of the family downstairs in the hallway. Her mother had insisted her to wear a dark green cocktail dress and her hair done up in a bun and of course she just had to use heels and of the stiletto kind not her favorite choice.
'Ok, now look at this and tell me who do you think is hotter.' Chelsea said to Vickie showing her individual photos of three Stars players Tyler Seguin, Curtis Mckenzie and Kevin Connauton. Vickie shook her head, at times her sister acted like the youngest in the family always cooing over some good-looking guy she never knows the name of and flirts with any guy she thinks is hot even if he has a girlfriend. Somewhat trying to appease her sister's insistence Vickie scrolled through the three photos pondered it for a few minutes.

'I think Tyler.' She said Chelsea grinned from ear to ear.

'Good choice and yeah he is pretty hot for sure. No doubt you'll get to talk to him after the game and so don't forget to mention about me.' She answered Scott pretended to gag Vickie was highly amused by her sister's comment.

'You have got to be kidding me. Why would I mention anything about my family or siblings to a random person I don't even know? Besides I'm supposed to be interview the players not making polite chit chat,' she said.

'What? There's no harm in making conversations anyway. Don't these sports people always feel really suspicious about people interviewing them especially women?' Chelsea asked Vickie shrugged her shoulders.

'I guess.'

'Well, exactly so to make them less uncomfortable and you of course because hell in a room full of like super hot guys is extremely distracting.' Chelsea answered a dreamy look crossing her face Vickie shot her a annoyed look.

'Stay on the subject,'

'What?'

Vickie rolled her eyes.

'Dad is what Chelsea said true? I haven't done interviews like this before so what's like the protocol?' she asked.

'First of all we don't know if you will get to do the interviews yet that is up to Murray and if he thinks you are up to it. Chelsea does have a point however, you don't see too many female journalists interview athletes post match especially in locker rooms, majority of the interviews are conducted in more friendly places.' Phillip explained.

'See?' Chelsea remarked with a smirk.

'Ok so these guys are all professionals so surely the whole being friendly and doing idle chit chat isn't necessary,' Vickie said Phillip gave his daughter a crocked smile from the rear view mirror.

'I'm not going to give away all the secrets you will just have to discover it on your own.' He answered.

'Lovely.'

Sitting back in the seat she instead paid more attention to the scenery outside the snow had stopped falling yet everything on the landscape remained basked in white and as expected any drivers out on the roads drove with caution. She never liked attending these sorts of functions with her parents they always knew everyone, and mingled like the typical high-class people expecting the same from their children especially her and most of the time she had to stay silent only nodding and smiling politely and talk when spoken too. Now it seemed her dad wanted her to do just as much mingling like a boss almost and she had no idea how to do it.

'Look at this pic!' Chelsea said nudging Vickie in the side and showing her a new photo she had come across of Tyler and upon taking a look at it she had to admit he certainly did look great.

'Yeah I get it he's very good looking and you probably fancy him now just by finding lots of photos even though you don't know a thing about him. Now do you mind not trying to distract me?' She answered. Chelsea laughed shaking her head returning her attention to her phone. Just then Phillip's dad phone rang he had it all hooked up via Bluetooth in the car and simply pressed a button to answer.

'Murray we're on our way over now will be at least 15minutes.' He said.

'Yeah no hurry Phil plenty of time box is just getting set up for everyone's arrival. Listen I had a chat with the GM and the team manager, they've agreed to have a few of the players come up to the box at around 6pm they wont stay for long probably 20minutes to half an hour max since they'll need to get ready for the game,' Murray explained.

'Ok that sounds good see you there.' Phillip replied and seconds later they hung up.

'Oh my god! Dad you should have asked him which players.' Chelsea exclaimed.

'Chelsea you will not embarrass your father or me in front of everyone tonight. I don't want to see you acting like child and that goes for al of you.' Carol said.

'I think we'll be great so long as Chelsea isn't drooling,' Scott remarked she stuck her tongue out at him in reply.

'Behave and be professional.' Phillip said.