Do I Dream Again

“What’s up with you?” Kristina asked as she walked into Kyra’s apartment with Sadie, seeing Kyra sitting on the couch, nervously bouncing her knee up and down. “Did something go wrong at the doctor’s or something yesterday?” she asked cautiously. Kyra shook her head, but didn’t say anything else. “Then, what’s going on? And, why aren’t you ready for the game yet?” she asked, noticing that Kyra was not clad in any Red Wings gear, even though she was going to the game with Kristina and Sadie, which started in less than two hours.

“I don’t think I’m going to go,” Kyra suddenly spoke, and both Kristina and Sadie spun their heads around to look at her.

“What?” Sadie questioned. “This is their first preseason game. You have to go.”

“No, I don’t. I already told Hank that there was a possibility that I wasn’t going to go, and he said he was fine with that,” Kyra explained.

“Hank would tell you that he was okay with you running off to a foreign country if he thought it would make you happy. But, we all know that he wants you there tonight. So, what gives? Why are you thinking about not going?” Sadie asked.

“They know, and they’re all just going to stare at me and whisper all kinds of nasty things about me. And, I don’t know if I’m ready for that,” Kyra answered, and Sadie sighed as she nodded her head, understanding what the problem was. This was the first time Kyra was going to go out where there was a bunch of Red Wings fans while she was pregnant, and she was scared of how the fans were going to take her pregnancy.

“You can’t let some fans stop you from going to the game. You have to go. Besides, you have to go see what kinds of poor saps they got this year to be Ice Girls,” Sadie added, bringing a smile to Kyra’s face.

“I’m sure Macy and Amber are still there,” Kyra spoke, remembering the two girls who had tried to make Sadie and her lives a living hell the previous year when they had all been Ice Girls.

“See, you have to go and see if they mess up while on the ice,” Sadie smiled, and Kyra sighed, standing up and walking back towards her bedroom.

“Fine,” Kyra said. “But, if anything goes wrong, I’m blaming you two,” she called out, grabbing her Red Wings jersey that Henrik had given her and throwing it on over her t-shirt that she was wearing, and then she slipped on a pair of tennis shoes before grabbing her red pea coat off of the coat hanger in the living room.

“Nothing’s going to go wrong. And, I bet you that Hank will reward you for going to the game,” Kristina smirked at her.

“Oh, is that what Val does for you?” Sadie asked with a laugh. “He rewards you for going to the game to watch him?”

“Oh, no,” Kristina said, shaking her head. “I reward him,” she continued with a wink, as both Kyra and Sadie erupted into laughter.

***

“Can you believe it’s only been a year since we met each other,” Kyra said to Sadie during the first intermission, as Kristina had run to the bathroom. “And, we met because we were Ice Girls? God, that seems ridiculous when you think about it now.”

“Yeah, and I met Jon because of a practice,” Sadie recalled.

Kyra started laughing as she remembered that day well. “Yep,” she smiled. “We had no idea who he was back then, just that he was some hot guy that was heckling you. And, now look, you two are together, and happier than ever.”

“God, so much has happened in the past year,” Sadie commented. “I met you, began dating Jon, broke up with Jon, lost my job, got back together with Jon, and got a new job. You dated Lance, had Hank beat him up, started dating Hank, and now you’re pregnant. It seems like everything’s happened so fast.”

“It has,” Kyra agreed. “And, just by you saying all of that, it makes it seem like we’re on some soap opera. Seriously, we’ve had so much shit happen to us.”

Sadie started laughing as she realized how true Kyra’s statement was. “We really should have just created our own reality show. I’m sure people would have been obsessed with it,” she said with a laugh.

“What?” Kristina asked, sitting down in her seat, having just missed the two other girls’ entire conversation.

“We’re just talking about our crazy lives,” Sadie replied as she looked up at the clock to see how much time was left in the intermission. Kristina nodded her head as she stared out at the ice, waiting on the boys to get back out there.

***

With only two minutes left on the clock and both teams having four goals apiece, Kyra sat in the stands with her fingers linked together, silently saying a prayer. She didn’t know why she was so nervous, as it was only a preseason game, and it didn’t really mean anything for the team. Plus, Henrik had played spectacularly all night, having already scored two of the four goals.

“Kyra, calm down,” Sadie laughed at her when she glanced over and saw how nervous Kyra was. Sadie herself wanted the team to win, too, but she wasn’t getting that worked up about it. She knew they couldn’t win all of their games, and one preseason game wasn’t going to make that big of a difference.

“I can’t help it!” Kyra exclaimed. “They need to win,” she muttered just as the goal horn went off, and everyone jumped to their feet. “Oh my God!” she exclaimed as she saw everyone gather around Henrik, congratulating him on his hat trick.

“He must have seen how nervous you were and was worried for the baby,” Sadie joked, causing Kyra to lightly hit her on the arm. “Hey!” Sadie yelled, and Kyra simply smiled at her, as she celebrated along with all of the other fans in the arena.

As the game came to an end a minute later, Sadie, Kristina, and Kyra all leaned back in their seats, deciding to let the fans clear out before they made their way down to the locker room. “I’m telling you,” Sadie continued, looking at Kyra. “Hank scored that last goal just for you so that you wouldn’t hurt the baby from all that worrying you were doing.”

“Will you shut up!” Kyra exclaimed. “Are you really going to tell me that you weren’t nervous there at the end?”

“Not like you,” Sadie countered. “Come on, Kristina, back me up here for a minute.”

“I’m staying out of this one,” Kristina said, holding her hands up in defense as she stared out at the ice once again, watching the zamboni drive along the ice, as her two friends continued fighting. A little while later, tired of hearing the two of them argue, Kristina stood up, saying, “Okay, let’s go see the team. Maybe then you’ll stop fighting.”

“We’re not fighting,” Kyra and Sadie said at the same time.

“You two are like a married couple,” Kristina rolled her eyes as she made her way towards the locker room with Sadie and Kyra following her.

Henrik saw Kyra walk into the locker room, and he immediately smiled at her, meeting her halfway. “Congratulations on the hat trick,” she told him, giving him a kiss.

“As soon as I saw you in the stands, I knew I had to score for you,” he told her. “I wasn’t sure if you were going to show up tonight or not, but I’m glad that you did.”

“I’m glad I did, too,” she said, as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she leaned into his body.

“Hey, Hank,” Sadie called out, and Henrik turned around to look at her. “So, Kyra and I were having this argument about your last goal,” she began, and Kyra began laughing as she shook her head at her best friend.

“What about it?” he asked her.

“I say that you got that last goal because you saw her in the stands freaking out, and you were worried about the baby. She says you didn’t. So, which is it?” she asked.

Henrik started laughing at the question. “I did it for both of them,” he replied.

“See, I was right,” Sadie said, sticking her tongue at Kyra.

“Shut up,” Kyra told her.

“Okay, stop it, you two,” Kristina interrupted before looking up at Valtteri. “You ready to get out of this place and away from these two nutjobs?” she asked.

“You bet,” he told her.

“I’ll see you all later,” Kristina said as she and Valtteri left hand-in-hand.

“So, what are your plans for tonight?” Kyra asked Sadie and Jonathan.

“I don’t know. You feel like going out to dinner?” she asked, looking between Kyra, Jonathan, and Henrik.

“Sure,” Kyra smiled as the four of them walked out of the locker room, talking about the game and their predictions for the season.