As Nadia walked to her seat, behind the USSR goal, she looked around at all of the signs. Many had sayings such as "Go USA!" "I Love Jim Craig!" or "Beat the Russians!" It pained Nadia to look at the "Beat the Russians!" signs almost as much as it pained her to walk. Her side was still aching. Nadia looked around at the numbers on the seats and walked until she reached hers. Someone was sitting in her seat, smiling evilly. It was Kit, alongside her friend Cady, the girls Nadia had to fight off of Vlad at the club.
"Well, well, well." Said Cady, "If it isn't… um, I never caught your name."
"And you never will." Said Nadia, "Why are you here?"
"Why do you think?" said Kit, "To see our sweetie Vlad!"
Nadia laughed a little.
"Okay, one, he's my boyfriend and two, he was drunk when he saw you! He didn't know what he was doing and he probably won't remember you!"
"No, me and Vlad have been really close!" Kit lied.
"Excuse me!" said Cady, "He and I have been close!"
Cady kind of motioned to Kit that Nadia was laughing at them fighting and they both turned around.
"Well, you are such a slutty, know it all and that's why he likes you!" said Kit, "Your little mind tricks!"
"Okay, yeah, sure… he likes me because I use mind tricks on him." Said Nadia, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. So get out of my seat and go away."
"No, we're here to watch Vladislav." Said Kit.
"Okay, do you want to make this easy on yourself?" said Nadia.
Kit and Cady looked at each other. Nadia saw fear creep into their eyes. She couldn't believe she was bullying these two girls, but she loved Vlad with all her heart and didn't want them to interfere. She would do whatever it took to let Vlad play without distractions.
"Well, whatever!" Said Cady, "There are much cuter guys on the American team!"
They walked up three rows and sat down next to another girl who was holding a sign that said, "I Love Jim Craig!"
Soon after, the game started. It was more than enough for Nadia to handle. Everything happened so fast between Tikhonov taking out Vlad and replacing him with Vladimir Myshkin and the Soviet team, therefore, losing 4 to 3 in the end. When the crowd erupted with excitement after the clock had run out, Nadia couldn't help but stand up and cheer along with them, shedding tears of sorrow and joy. The Soviet team had been the best in the world for fifteen years. Fifteen long years of training nonstop and never getting to be with their families. And the year that they lose is the only year that little Nadia Petrova is with the team. It was her fault that they had lost the game, but it was also her fault that they had learned so many new things such as how to have fun and take a chance.
After things had quieted down, Nadia found Sally and they went back into their hotel room to discuss what they would do, now that their team only had one game left to play.
"Sally…" Nadia said, "even though they lost, I feel happy. I don't know why, though."
"Well, our home country still won!" said Sally, "Our boyfriends my have lost, but at least they lost to a great team!'
"That's true…" said Nadia, sadly. She gazed out the window at the falling snow, wishing to be held in Vlad's arms. She needed his comfort more than ever now. She couldn't help thinking about what had happened before the game and how that made Vlad miss the first two goals of the game.
"I need to find Vlad." Nadia said quickly, getting up and running out of the room.
Just as she ran out of the door, she bumped directly into Vlad who had been waiting to see her. He smiled down at her and spoke four words.
"Your room or mine?" he asked smiling.
Nadia screeched with delight and jumped into his arms.
"Wait." She said, "Let's do this tomorrow. Your probably still tired from the game."
"If you mean my butt's tired from sitting the bench, then you're right!" he said.
"Tikhonov is retarded, Vlad!" said Nadia, "You should have stayed the entire game!"
"Well, he kept his promise to take me out if I let in more than one goal…" said Vlad, "I just can't believe he really did that, though. I guess I was too distracted."
Then, Vlad smiled suddenly. "I guess, now that that game is over, we can do as we like."
Nadia smiled along with him. "I guess so." She said quietly and kissed him.