Behind Enemy Lines

Alyssa.

Alyssa’s lips were pursed with concentration as she leaned in forward towards the decorative mirror hanging above the wooden desk in their hotel room, carefully drawing a thin line of charcoal black eyeliner across her top lid. She jumped unexpectedly as the room’s door flew open, causing her to jump and the eyeliner to slant upwards awkwardly at the crease of her eyelid. Cursing under her breath, Alyssa turned to glare at her best friend who had just entered the room.

“We’re going to hell,” Phoebe announced in a sing-song voice as she pranced into the room, tossing her favorite chocolate brown Coach tote carelessly onto the top of her bed.

Alyssa shook her head with a sigh, turning back towards the mirror as she wiped the excess eyeliner from the edge of her eye with a newly manicured finger. “Oh no,” she breathed, “What have you done?”

Phoebe pouted, feigning hurt as she plopped onto the comfortable bed, bouncing a couple of times on the springy mattress for good measure. “Why do you always assume it’s something bad?” she pouted, blowing a piece of her long sidebangs away from her eye.

Placing a hand on her hip, Alyssa turned on her heel to glare pointedly at her friend. It was true that Phoebe could be a loose cannon more often than not, usually having little to no regard for the consequences of her actions. She had been known to hit countless parked cars in the parking lot, ditch out on final exams that she just assumed she would fail, show up wasted to the school homecoming dance junior year… Alyssa cleared her throat, prompting a response from her friend, who was waiting patiently with a shit-eating grin across her tanned face.

“Well, little miss pessimistic,” Phoebe began, earning a raised eyebrow from Alyssa. It was pretty much common knowledge that of the two, Phoebe was usually the one assuming everything would go wrong. “I was just in the lobby talking with Danny Kristo from yesterday, and he said that he was going back up to his room to nap or whatever. And I was all, why are you randomly napping the middle of the day? And he said it was because he had a game tonight. So obviously I wasn’t going to act like I knew what he was talking about, they can’t know we’re here with Bray. So I acted confused and then he explained to me that they’re on Team USA, blah blah blah.”

Alyssa squinted her eyes in confusion after her friend had finished her rambling. “Why does this mean we’re going to hell again?”

Phoebe smirked snugly, leaning back as her eyes strayed towards the ceiling and she twirled a strand of long dark locks around her finger. “It means, my dear, that there are two tickets for tonight’s USA game waiting for us at will-call.”

Alyssa’s impossibly blue eyes went wide as the idea registered in her mind. “Yup, we’re going to hell,” she agreed in a small voice, feeling slightly guilty that they had even met the Team USA boys in the first place. She knew how big of a deal this world championship tournament was, and how much that winning it meant to her cousin. Alyssa knew that Brayden would be less than unhappy to discover what was going on behind his back. “Bray’s going to kill us.”

Phoebe shrugged, clearly not affected by the tension that was sure to happen if the younger Schenn uncovered the facts. “I mean, we’re American,” she pointed out. “We’re just cheering for the home team.”

“Yeah, but I’m Canadian,” Alyssa reminded her friend. Even though her immediate family had moved from their native Canada when she was a baby, Alyssa was still legally a Canadian citizen and the majority of her extended family resided in the neighboring country. “And we’re here to support Brayden. And it doesn’t get any bigger than the rivalry between Team USA and Team Canada.”

Phoebe sighed dramatically, repositioning herself on the bed so she was now lying flat on her stomach, facing Alyssa with her feet dangling in the air behind her. “Don’t try to tell me that you weren’t absolutely loving on those boys last night.”

Alyssa bit her lip, knowing that she couldn’t deny the statement. She had been torn by the adorable cuteness of Jason Zucker and his teammate Tyler Johnson, but that didn’t stop her from feeling guilty about the situation. “You just want on Danny,” she smirked, trying to change the subject.

“Soooooo bad,” Phoebe whistled, causing Alyssa to laugh.

“Well,” Alyssa gave in with a sigh. “I guess we’ve got a game to go to.”

…………………………………………………………….

“Brayden doesn’t believe me,” Alyssa gulped in a strained voice as the two girls walked into the front doors of the arena three hours later, newly acquired tickets in hand. She had just gotten off the phone with her cousin, who had felt bad that the girls had nothing to do in the city and had offered to take them out to dinner as Canada had the day off.

“What’d you tell him we were doing?” Phoebe questioned as the girls’ tickets were scanned and the security guard granted them access into the crowded arena.

Alyssa chuckled awkwardly, knowing that there was no reason Brayden wouldn’t be suspicious after the whereabouts that she had given him. “The zoo…”

Phoebe eyed her friend incredulously before bursting out in to laughter. “The zoo? Is there even a zoo around here?”

Alyssa shrugged, honestly having no idea if there was a zoo within even a fifty mile radius of the heart of Saskatoon. Phoebe had gone to will-call to pick up their tickets as Alyssa had conversed with her cousin, leaving Alyssa in a rush to get Brayden off the phone as soon as possible before he questioned where they could be with so much noise in the background. In her haste to get him off the line she had thrown out the excuse that they couldn’t hang out due to being at the zoo, to which Brayden had sounded very confused before Alyssa had hurriedly ended the conversation.

“Whatever, Brayden’s not your babysitter,” Phoebe shrugged off the situation, pulling her phone out of her pocket and smiling as she read a newly sent text message. “Want to go down by the locker room?”

“Yeah, we’re going to hell,” Alyssa grumbled as her friend grabbed her arm excitedly, reading the directions that Danny had texted to her as she pulled her in the direction of the locker rooms.

Alyssa remembered the layout of the locker room area from their first day in Saskatoon, where Brayden had taken them down into the large area underneath the arena. How could she forget the place where she had first laid eyes on Stefan Della Rovere, after all? She waited patiently as Phoebe knocked on the door, only to be engulfed in a hug by a fully-geared up Danny Kristo.

Danny stepped aside, letting the girls into the locker room to wish their new friends luck as he introduced them to the members of the team that they had not yet met. All the boys seemed excited and geared up for the game against Latvia, the same team that Canada had annihilated 16-0 in their first game of the tournament. There was no doubt in any of the American boys’ minds that they were going to come out the victors in this game, and it was written all over their equally cocky faces.

“Come to wish us luck?” Alyssa spun around as Jason Zucker threaded a strong arm around her slim waist, smiling sweetly down at her.

“No,” Alyssa joked with a shocked expression, “I’m a big fan of Latvian hockey, didn’t you know?”

Jason’s blue eyes seemed to smirk into her own, laughter dancing across his perfect irises. Alyssa gulped, trying to force her mind to stray away from thinking about the sheer beauty of the boy wrapped around her. “I had no idea,” he replied dryly.

Just as Alyssa was about to respond, the chattering room fell silent and she followed the unanimous gaze of the team towards the main door, where a tall brunette boy had just entered the locker room. By the way that all of the boys suddenly fell silent upon his entrance combined with the embroidered ‘C’ on the left side of his USA jersey, Alyssa automatically recognized him as the team captain. Her intense physical attraction to Jason Zucker which had been raging inside of her only moments before had seemed to be slammed to the back of her conscience as she took in the sight of the new boy in front of her. A sharp hitch in the breath of her friend behind her told Alyssa that Phoebe had noticed the exact same thing.

“Sorry boys,” Captain Beautiful announced, clapping Danny on the back as he approached. “But anyone not on the team’s gotta head out.” He smiled, his clear eyes landing on Alyssa and Phoebe, who until a few moments before had been flirting with Danny as if her existence depended on it.

“I take offense to that,” Phoebe spoke up with a slight smile. “We’re Team USA all the way, right Lyss?”

Alyssa only nodded as she found herself surprisingly slightly annoyed at her best friend by the way that the shorter girl was visibly ripping off the Captain’s jersey and pads with her eyes. Danny had also seemed to notice, as Alyssa read the gaze the golden-red haired boy was shooting at his Captain as saying clearly fuck off.

Captain Beautiful chuckled, running a large hand over his short light brown hair. “Okay, how about anyone without a dick needs to get out, because I’ve got a speech to give.”

“Sexist,” Alyssa heard Phoebe grumble, but she only laughed, allowing her gaze to meet the Captain’s eyes. She was beginning to wonder if it was a requirement for all members of USA hockey to have beautiful blue orbs, but this particular boy’s were different. They were ice blue, unique and intoxicating, and it took Alyssa more strength than should be needed to pull her focus away from them.

“Has anyone ever told you that you have like, the prettiest eyes ever?” Phoebe asked, smiling sweetly up at him. Alyssa clenched her jaw, amazed once again at how her friend’s mind seemed to be on the exact same wavelength as her own, yet growing increasingly annoyed by the way that her best friend was looking at the Captain. Alyssa noticed that her thoughts seemed to be mirrored by Danny Kristo’s, who looked less than pleased as Phoebe’s attention was no longer fully focused on him, but on his Captain.

“Well considering that we’re Team Vagina,” Alyssa offered, earning a chuckle from Jason beside her, “I suppose we’ll get to our seats then.” Her eyes ventured once again to the Captain’s, who was smirking at her previous comment. “It was nice meeting you…” she trailed off, waiting for a name to match the perfect face.

“Derek,” he smiled, those impossibly ice blue eyes twinkling. Alyssa nodded, giving Jason another quick squeeze as she saw Phoebe try and hug Danny, who still looked less than enthused as the girls turned on their heels and exited the locker room.

“Team Vagina?” Phoebe mimicked as the girls made their way back up the stairs from the peace and quiet of the locker room area into the craziness of the main concourse. “I’m not on Team Vagina, I’m on Team-I-Want-Derek’s-Di—"

“What happened to Danny?” Alyssa asked, cutting her friend off before she could go any farther on whatever team she happened to want to be on.

Phoebe shrugged, brushing imaginary lint off of the navy blue USA Hockey sweatshirt that she was wearing. Both the girls had received the hoodies earlier in the day as a gift from some of the boys after they had agreed to attend the game that night. “Obviously I still want on Danny,” she announced as if she didn’t understand the question.

Alyssa shook her head, nearly jumping as she felt her phone vibrate in the back pocket of her favorite jeans. Pulling the slim device out of the denim pocket, Alyssa stared at the screen in confusion, wondering why the hell he would be calling her right now.

“Who is it?” Phoebe asked, noticing the expression on her friend’s face.

Alyssa frowned, tapping the touch screen and pressing the phone to her ear before mouthing ‘Luke’ to her friend. “Hello?”

“Aly?” Luke’s voice sounded through the speakers, Alyssa having to hold her free hand against her other year in an attempt to block out the insane noise of the arena. “Where are you?”

“Luke, I’m at the zoo with Phoebe,” Alyssa answered instinctively, causing Phoebe to smash her palm against her own forehead. “But uh, it’s time for the dolphin show. I’ll call you later. Gotta go, bye.”

Phoebe eyed her friend incredulously as she hung up the phone, shaking her head. “What is up with you and the zoo?” she sighed.

“Well I can’t exactly tell Bray I’m at the zoo and then tell Luke that we’re at a candlelight dinner now, can I?” Alyssa snapped as the girls settled into their seats just a few rows behind the USA net just as the team was taking the ice.

Phoebe shrugged as Alyssa focused her attention on the boys in front of her, taking special notice of the number twenty-one with the big C on the front of his jersey, the name Stepan embroidered on the back. But as the puck dropped and the game began, Alyssa’s mind reeling with thoughts of why on earth her cousin Luke would have called her so out of the blue to ask what she was up to, Derek Stepan was the last thing on her mind.