Disregard the Lies

Sadie walked into the conference room in Joe Louis Arena, looking around to see if she could recognize anyone around her. Earlier that day, she had gotten a call from Don Jennings, the executive that was in charge of choosing the Ice Girls for the Detroit Red Wings, telling her that they had chosen her to become an Ice Girl.

She recognized the red hair of Kyra, and she ran over to her. “Thank God they chose you, too,” Sadie told her, giving her a quick hug. They had only known each other for less than two days, and yet they had already become friends.

“I’m glad to see you here,” Kyra said. “I was worried that I was going to be alone here. I’ve already seen the two girls that refused to talk to me after they learned about Sophia,” she told her.

“Which two girls?” Sadie asked, looking around the room. She couldn’t believe that people would stop talking to someone just because she was a mother.

“It’s those two over there,” Kyra replied, pointing over to two short, bleach blonde girls who were looking around and pointing towards different girls and then laughing. “But, don’t worry about it. I don’t really care what they think about me. I mean, I’m a part of the group, and they’re going to have to deal with it.”

“Good point,” Sadie told her. “And, you may be okay with them, but I’m not,” she said, walking over to the two girls. She put on a fake smile, walking up to them. “Hey,” she said, putting on her best valley girl impression.

“Hey,” the two girls said, looking over at Sadie.

“I’m Sadie,” she introduced herself.

“I’m Amber,” the slightly taller girl with shoulder-length blonde hair and angled bangs said.

“I’m Macy,” the other girl with long, curly hair told her. “So, which guy do you have your eye on?” she asked her.

“What?” Sadie asked, confused.

“Which guy do you have your eye on?” Macy repeated.

“Yeah, which guy on the team do you want to hook up with? We’re making sure that no one’s going to fight with each other over a guy, so we’re making our picks now. Like, I want Ericsson,” Amber clarified.

“Yeah, and I want Helm,” Macy told her. “Who do you want?”

Who do I want? Sadie thought to herself. I don’t even know who the players are! How am I supposed to know who I want to hook up with?

“Um…” Sadie trailed off as Don came to the front of the room, asking for their attention. Sadie was thankful for the distraction so she wouldn’t have to answer their question. She still couldn’t believe that they were making picks on who they wanted to sleep with.

She started to walk back towards Kyra when she felt a tug on her arm. She turned around to see Amber clenching her arm, pulling her down into the seat next to her and Macy. Sadie looked over at Kyra with an apologetic look, to which Kyra just smiled, letting her know it was fine for her to sit with Amber and Macy.

Don stood in the front of the room. “Okay, girls, look around because these are going to be your best friends and family for the next seven months. You will be together a lot of the time, and it’ll be much easier if you all just get along,” he began.

Sadie could hear Macy and Amber mumbling to themselves about something, and she rolled her eyes as she continued to listen to Don. “I’ve got some contracts for you all to sign. Basically, it is saying that you are to work every single home game, along with any outside events that we assign you. If you are unable to make it to some outside event for some reason or another, you must switch with someone. There are no excuses for someone not showing up or someone not covering for you. Now, I want you all to read through these contracts, and please ask if you have any questions,” he said, passing out the papers along with a pen.

As soon as Sadie got hers, she began reading everything inside. She had been around long enough to know that you needed to read everything before signing your name to it. Not even two minutes later, she could hear a bunch of chattering around the room. She looked up to see that most of the other girls had already signed their contract and given it back to Don. Sadie looked back down at her contract to see she was only on the second page, and then looked back up. She looked around the room to see that Kyra was the only other one still reading her contract. Not caring about the other girls, Sadie continued reading, making sure there was nothing weird thrown in there.

Satisfied, Sadie finally signed and dated the contract, handing it back to Don at the same time Kyra finished. Don walked back up to the front of the room before turning around to the girls. “Okay, now you all will go out onto the ice and meet up with Maria who will be talking to you about your responsibilities as an Ice Girl,” he announced.

Sadie stood up and made her way over to Kyra. She started to say something when all of a sudden she found Amber standing in front of her, glaring at her. “You are not to talk to her,” she told her.

“Excuse me?” Sadie asked. “You cannot tell me who I am and am not allowed to talk to!” she exclaimed, continuing to walk next to Kyra as they made their way out to the ice.

“Sadie, I’m telling you, it’s not a good idea to talk to her. She’s a mother!” Macy said, emphasizing the word mother as if it were the dirtiest thing in the world.

“Yes, I know,” Sadie told her. “And, she’s also my friend. And, if you two have a problem with that, then you’ll just have to deal with it!”

“You’re going to regret this,” Amber warned her, before walking faster to get out onto the ice.

“Thanks,” Kyra said, smiling at Sadie. “Thanks for standing up for me, and not choosing them over me,” she explained.

“Of course,” Sadie told her, walking out onto the ice. She looked up into the stands to see at least half of the players sitting up there. Her eyes immediately locked with the brown eyes of the man from her audition. She looked over at Kyra, whispering, “Who is that?”

“Who’s who?” Kyra asked, looking up at the guys, trying to figure out who Sadie was talking about.

“The guy with the dark hair and dark eyes. He’s sitting between the two blonds,” Sadie told her.

“I don’t know,” Kyra told her. “I don’t exactly know all the players. But, I’m sure you can just look him up online. They have a roster on their website that has pictures of everyone.”

“God, I’d be like a stalker,” Sadie joked as Maria began talking, and her focus went to the petite woman in the middle of the ice, whose booming voice surprised everyone.

“Okay, ladies. I’m Maria Johnson, and I’ll be your boss around here. If you have a problem with anything, you come to me,” she began. Sadie continued listening to her talk, using all of her willpower not to look up at the sexy guy in the stands. “And, as you can see,” Maria continued. “Some of the players have decided to come and watch today. I asked them here because you’re going to have thousands of people watching and yelling at you every single night. You can’t let them affect you. You must do your job, and not worry about what they are saying. So, let’s begin, shall we?”

They began doing simple figure skating tricks, including numerous jumps and twists. Sadie was soaring through these, silently thanking her mother for making her figure skate when she was younger. “Okay, now one at a time,” Maria announced. “Sadie, you’re up first,” she said.

She started skating, and as soon as she had completed her first trick, she suddenly heard the boys cheering, yelling, and screaming at her. She heard someone cat whistle before she heard another yell, “Why don’t you come over here so we can get a closer look at that sexy body of yours!” Sadie spun around to look at them, noticing the dark haired guy smirking at her.

She opened her mouth to say something, when Maria spoke up. “This is exactly what I don’t want you to do,” she informed them. “I don’t want anything that anyone says to affect you, as it did Sadie. Every single night, you will hear these things, along with some things that are a lot worse. You can’t listen to anything that they say. Instead, you need to just continue skating and doing your job. Sadie, why don’t you take a break?” Maria asked, and Sadie nodded as she skated over to the boards to stand next to Kyra as she heard Amber and Macy laughing at her. “Dawn, you’re up next,” Maria called out.

“Nice job,” Kyra told her sincerely. “You really are a good skater.”

“Thanks,” Sadie smiled. “My mom made me figure skate when I was younger, so I’ve been doing it for a while.”

A little while later, Maria told them all to take a ten minute break. Sadie took a drink out of her water bottle as she heard her name being called. She turned around to see the dark-haired guy yelling at her. She skated over to him, keeping her water bottle in her hand.

“You did a nice job out there. You didn’t get too angry about us yelling at you like that,” he told her.

“Thanks, and that’s part of my job, isn’t it?” she asked. “I can’t take anything that anyone says too seriously.”

“Right,” he smiled.

“So,” she told him. “You seem to know my name, but I don’t know yours,” she said, hoping to figure out who this guy was.

“You don’t know my name?” he questioned, somewhat surprised.

“Sorry,” Sadie apologized, shrugging her shoulders. “So, are you going to tell me?”

“Jonathan Ericsson,” he smiled as Maria called out that their break was over.

“Good to know,” Sadie told him with a small smile, skating away and back towards the group of girls in the middle of the ice, as he continued to stare at her.