AN: Sorry about the delay. I've been kinda busy with school and stupid state standardized testing (MCASEVIL). If Emma seems kinda OOC, I apologize. I've just been trying to get this out for y'all. Well, bon a petit...
Chapter 3: This is SOOO much fun...
I woke up the next morning to a painful headache in my temple and a blurry room. I sat in bed until I could see my reflection in the mirror across my room. I looked like I had been run over by a truck. My hair was sticking up in about fifty different directions and my face was pale and sickly looking. I went to get out of bed when Gabi came into my room carrying a tray of something. She plopped down on my bed and handed me the tray.
"This will make you feel better. It's my cousin's hangover cure. She should market it; that's how good it works!" She urged for me to take a sip of the pink concoction in front of me. I hesitated and tried to push it away, but Gabi's, ahem, motherly force kicked in. She took the straw and shoved it in my mouth and said to drink it all. Which I did. Surprisingly, the "cure" worked pretty damn well, 'cause I was up and making my way to the bathroom not five minutes later. Note to self: Get Gabi's cousin's recipe for future hangovers. On my way to the bathroom, I nearly ran into Kim…well, what looked like Kim. She was worse off than I had been. I gave her a sympathetic look and said, "Go see Gabs; she'll take care of you." She groaned and headed towards the kitchen where Gabi's apothecary was.
I came out of the shower and went to get dressed. Now what to wear? Shall I really scare them all and wear my figure-skating outfit or should I just wear my sweats...Sweats, comfier. When I had finished dressing I made sure that my necklace was securely on, if I ever lost those rings I would have cried. They were my mother's. All I had left of her. I stared at my reflection until Mischa's voice woke me from my trance.
"Come on. Emmy! We're gonna be late fowr pwactice!" I grabbed my duffle bag and ran to the kitchen. Gabi was standing at the door handing of breakfast on-the-go for all of us. I laughed at her before taking a yogurt cup. She really was like our mother. And it was sometimes really scary. She grew up in a large family, an older sister, four boys, and her. Her mom was a homemaker and her dad owned Cruz's Car Repair. It sometimes baffled me how much we each brought from our backgrounds. Kim would deny having anything to do with her parents, but she always made sure we were locked every entrance or exit in the house before turning in (like her mother did), and Gabi made sure she helped everyone with their problems and of course the whole mechanical repairing of household appliances helped a lot. I wasn't the biggest help around the house, but I was extremely over-protective of my adoptive family (my roomies) because of my dad. He always made sure I was safe and I could defend myself if he wasn't there to protect me. As we drove to the arena, I chewed on this thought (and my yummy yogurt) while Kim and Michaela sang along with the radio. We pulled into the arena parking lot and got out. Kim had about three bags filled with heavy equipment and I offered to help her carry them in. We turned to the door expecting Michaela to be waiting for us. But she wasn't there. Kim was going into panic mode as we were searching frantically for her daughter.
We went into the arena after searching the parking lot thoroughly. She wasn't in the lobby, nor in the bathrooms. We ran into the rink area; no sign of her. Kim was really losing it now. She was running her hands through her hair, normally a sign of frustration or that she was hiding her fear. I was about to comfort her when we saw one of the hockey players walking towards the rink. I opened my mouth to speak, but Kim beat me to it.
"Have you seen my daughter?" she asked in a deadly tone as if to say 'If you don't tell me where my baby is I'll rip your vocal chords out and use them as dental floss.' The guy looked a bit worried; He has a right to be…, but motioned to the locker room. Kim ran to the door separating her from the uncharted territory of the locker room. She knocked on the door, but grew impatient and charged in. Trailing behind her at a distance, I heard complete chaos erupt from the room as Kim entered. I laughed to myself and joined Kim. She looked unfazed by the group of men all rushing to cover anything inappropriate for her to see. She just marched in and asked threateningly, "Have any of you seen Michaela? 'Cause if you haven't you're all going to help me find her." They all looked petrified of Kim, but her menacing glares ended when a heap of clothes spoke.
"I'm wight here, Mommy." Michaela's head poked out of a practice jersey, smiling and laughing. Kim scooped her up and gave her a big hug. "Don't you ever do that to me again! Kay-Kay, I was so afraid I lost you. You can't do that to Mommy. Okay?" Mischa nodded and hugged her mom again. When the little love fest had settled down, Kim became very aware that she was in a room full of half dressed men. She blushed and mumbled a "Sorry," before flying out of there at top speed. I laughed and ruffled Mischa's hair as we headed to Coach Brooks's office.
After getting lost (just for a second) we found Coach's office and him in it. Standing next to him was a white-haired man approaching his late sixties. Herb looked up to acknowledge us before returning to his paperwork. I stood there, expecting him to give some direction. All he did was talk to Craig about the players. Kim and I just looked at each other, communicating with our eyes that our new boss was a mental case. Five minutes had passed when he finally looked up and had the nerve to ask us, "What are you still doing here? Ms. Calhoun, I'm paying you to warm up my team, not stand around dawdling. And Ms. Capucco, you should go set up; we'll need those films of yours to help whip the team into shape."
I looked at him, ready to defend myself and set him straight, but Kim just nodded and dragged me out of the office. I was livid that he thought I was slacking off when it was his fault I didn't know what to do, but Kim calmed me down. She and I went our separate ways when we got to the rink. She and Michaela went to set up in the bleachers while I went down to the ice. I dropped my bag on one of the benches and walked onto the ice. It was crisp and clean from the night before, just waiting for someone to dance on it. This was my domain, I belonged there. Inhaling deeply, I waved up at Michaela who, of course, was playing around with "Jerry" again in her own world.
"…Well I wasn't my fault; I was skating and Collins just happened to get in my way," a solitary voice caught my attention, along with its comrades' voices. One by one, like brown, gray, and maroon ants, they hockey team piled out onto my territory. They kept chatting amongst themselves, even after I had cleared my throat multiple times. After a while, I got fed up with the talking and a yelled out, "ALL RIGHT, BOYS, TEA TIME IS OVER. GET YOUR SORRY ASSES ON THE ICE AND START STRETCHING!" From the looks I got, it seemed that I scared them all out of their freakin' minds. They immediately sat down and assumed their stretching. I relished in the fact that I was actually taller than them all and had complete control over them. That didn't last very long. The second they stood up, the comments started flowing.
"So, looks like we have a Mini Herb on our hands, don't it boys?" one overly cocky voice sounded. A couple of the guys laughed. Big mistake. I went right up to oh-cocky-one and looked him square in the eye.
"Laugh now, cry later," I said in my 'your so gonna pay for that' tone. I walked around them, trying to psych them out. It seemed to work. Almost. "So, Mini, what are we doing today?" Of course, it was Mr. Cocky again. I rolled my eyes and asked, "What's your name?"
"O'Callahan, or OC, either's fine with me babycakes." What an idiot. Even the guys who laughed earlier were rethinking it. "Well, OC, you'll be skating suicides while the rest of the team watches. How's that sound babycakes?" He smirked at me and skated towards me. "No problem, hon, as long as I get a massage when I'm done." Oh my God, did that son-of-a-bitch just wink at me? I made a disgusted face and walked to the side of the rink. Once there, I began my deep breathing Gabi taught me to control my anger. Behind me, OC kept make rude and crude comments, only furthering my annoyance. By three I gave up and walked towards OC, slamming my right-hook into his stomach. He hunched over in pain as I flexed my hand. Some of the guys went to support him, the others just stared half-stunned that I hit him and half-scared that I did. I smiled gently at them and told them all to skate ten laps.
OC regained composure quickly and caught up to his teammates while I watched them all. I recognized some of the guys from yesterday. Okay, that's Rizzo, #21. Buzzy, #25. He was sweet, made a complete idiot of himself with Michaela, but sweet nonetheless. Wonder how Kim's doing. I looked up into the stands to see Kim looking around and under the seats. Oh great, we lost her again. I skimmed the stands with my eyes while the guys finished their laps. None of them or me were paying attention to the little baseball cap that was bobbing around in the benches until it was too late.
"Emmy! Look at me!" I looked down in time to see Mischa standing on the edge of the ice, right in the path of ten sprinting hockey players. I ran towards her as fast a possible but I slipped before I could grab her hand. There was a high pitched scream and Kim's worried yelling. I closed my eyes, expecting something horrible to happen. The slush from skates stopping was heard, but nothing that led to a trip to the hospital. I looked up confused, and let out the breath I'd been holding.
There was Michaela, safe and healthy, in the arms of one of the players. I scrambled up to them as did Kim. I grabbed Mischa out of his arms and hugged her tightly. She buried her face in my neck and cried quietly, more out of shock than pain. I rocked her back and forth until Kim came to get her, jumping the boards and flinging herself at her daughter. She checked to make sure Michaela was fine before launching at her daughter's savior. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. God I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't gotten to her. Thank you!" Kim stood with Mischa on her hip while the drama on the ice died down.
It was 'Bah' Harrington who saved her. And little did I know then, that he would save me too…later on. I smiled graciously at him and realized he was the one who stood up for me against what Kim and I called "The Herb Factor". He smiled at us and ruffled Mischa's hair a little. "Well I couldn't let this cutie be turned into minced meat. Rizzo would've turned her into a meatball." Kim and I stood there, utterly confused to why the team found this so funny. Bah noticed our questioning faces and shook his head, "You don't want to know…"
Once everyone had settled down, I started the boys on some more drills. Kim and Michaela headed back to where the filming equipment was set up as I gave directions to the team. In no time, Herb was standing next to me and taking over the practice. He motioned for me to stand next to Craig without even a thank you. Well really, what did you expect? He's a hockey player after all. I threw my skates on while Herb was showing a new play. The boys seemed to execute the play pretty well until the forward went to shoot. He lost his balance and completely messed up the shot. Herb must have seen my scrutinizing gaze and told me to show Baker what was wrong.
Slowly, I glided over to Billy, examining his posture. If Madame Natasha saw this she would cry. And she thought my posture was bad. Finally, I pinpointed the problem, "You need to get more push off your edge. That way, you'll have more force and balance on your other foot, so you won't depend on the stick as much. You'll get a clearer shot." The whole team, minus Herb, looked at me in shock. "What? I've been skating since I was five. I know the basic properties." Herb smirked and continued practice. "Okay gentlemen, let's run it again." The play took of once again; Morrow passed it up to Silk, who passed to Verchota, who passed to Baker. Billy (Baker) pushed off perfectly and sunk the puck right in the corner of the net. That'll show them to ever doubt me again…
After practice, I met up with Kim and Michaela in the lobby. We were about to head home when one of the players caught up with us.
"Hey, Emma, Kim," Mac called out, "You two wanna hang out at the dorms with us later on?" Kim and I just looked at each other. I knew Kim needed time to just let loose, though she wouldn't admit it. Before Kim could reject the offer, I told him we'd be there if he'd give us the directions. Kim looked at me as if I had three heads. She dragged me aside after Mac gave me the directions.
"What the hell are you thinking? No normally I would encourage you to be spontaneous, but this is way to fast. Em, you've gotta change in moderations. Besides, what are we gonna do with Michaela? Just dumping her on Gabi would be mean, and I can't just hire a babysitter. Mrs. Lowell is out of town this week-" I cut her off. "We'll just bring Michaela, and Gabs, if she wants. It'll be fun. You need it. And don't even think of denying it." She was silent. "Good, that's settled. Now, let's go home and talk to Gabi!"
"Hey Gabi we're home!" I opened the door, expecting to see Gabi in the kitchen baking something (she was a bit obsessive about baking), only to see our barren blue kitchen. I wondered around the house, calling her name as Kim fed Michaela. Finally, I found her looking through some old pictures in the attic. Her face was tear-stained from crying and her hair was in knots. I rushed over to her and pulled her into a hug. She started crying again as I rocked her back and forth. Finally, her sobs subsided and she smiled meekly at me.
"Pete broke up with me. I thought he was gonna propose if anything. But he wasn't even nice about it! He practically told me to get lost. I just feel so stupid for not noticing anything." I shushed her and stroked her hair away from her face. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, he doesn't deserve you. I always thought he was rude to you, and you shouldn't have had to put up with that arrogant asshole." She chuckled slightly before becoming serious again.
"I thought he was the one. I mean, I thought everything was perfect between us, and I could picture us together in the future. I mean, I'm the only one in my family with relationship issues. Alejandro's married with three kids, Tony is engaged to his high school sweetheart, Tad has Lucy, Julio and Marley's baby is due in October, and Mercedes and Greg are adopting a little girl next year. Where does that put me? I'm gonna be the Old Maid Aunt for all of my life. I'll live in some old apartment with El Greco and his kitty friends!" Before she could rant on, I covered her mouth with my hand. "Gabs, as nice as it is to hear about your brothers and sister, I heavily doubt that they have perfect relationships. I mean, what about when Julio hid here last month because Marley was going on a hormonal tirade? And no offence to Alejandro, but he isn't the most responsible person and poor Grace probably shuffles Nicky, Lenora, and Gigi around all the time. See, no one has a perfect relationship. You'll find the right guy someday Gabs. Who knows, maybe even tonight when we go to the teams' place to hang out!" Gabs put up a fight but I convinced her with the classic "There's gonna be about 20 hot, college guys between the ages of 19 and 23" and she ambled downstairs to get all dolled up.
After Kim had fed Michaela and we all changed, we piled into the station wagon and drove to the address of the dorms. Some of the players were staying at the U's dorms while some of the others stayed at local apartments. We pulled into their building's parking lot. Michaela was excited that she was going to an adult party and that she would get to play with the guys. The four of us walked up the stairs to where we assumed everyone would be. Almost all of the players were out in the hallway talking and laughing at one another's jokes. Some had beer cans in hand while others were drinking out of party cups. Gabi seemed a bit wary as we made our way through the throng of people. Peeking into one of the rooms, I saw three poker games in play and a baseball game on. Kim looked horrified at everyone's behavior and held Michaela closer. Well this is gonna be…eww, please don't tell me that's actually food. Oh that's gross. Oh God…
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