Sequel: Hidden in the Shadows ›
Status: Completed :) Onto the sequel!!
Playing the Game of Love
Chapter One
October 3rd, 2010
Sunday
Ristuccia Arena, Wilmington, MA
7:00 A.M.
Raina felt the familiar ice cold air wash first over her face and then her body as she pushed open the swing able doors. She felt the gust of the swinging doors blow back her brown curly hair. Her light brown eyes lit up with excitement as she looked around the rink. She looked around the rink she had seen so many times in the past 4 years of her life. She smiled to herself as she saw four men sitting with their backs to her on the bleachers in front of her talking quietly about something to do with the start of the hockey season. They were in full hockey gear and had on gold, black, and white jerseys with their last names written across their upper backs. They had skates on, and the blades were covered with rubber guards so the blades wouldn’t be ruined. In a line the names on their jerseys read from left to right BERGERON, RASK, SOBOTKA, and WHEELER. She felt excitement rise in her chest and she yelled
“Hey you guys!!” they turned around in surprise. The first to recognize who she was was Tuukka who quickly rose to his feet with a huge grin on his face and said
“Raina! I haven’t seen you since last season!” He did a strange quick waddle over to her trying to balance him self as he walked on his skates. He seemed to fall into hugging her as he leaned forward awkwardly on his skates. She wrapped her arms around his wide frame, feeling the shoulder pads underneath his jersey. They broke apart and she felt another hulking form grab her from behind and swing her over his shoulder. She heard a man yelling as he twirled around. She saw a flash of blonde hair and knew it was Vladimir Sobotka.
“Put me down you vampire!!” Ever since Raina had found out Vladimir’s first name she had nicknamed him vampire due to all the vampire characters having the same name. She beat her fists against his back although she doubted it was making any impact on him as he was wearing his hockey gear. He finally set her down so she was now facing Bergeron and Wheeler. Instead of being as immature as Vlad had they smiled at her and Bergeron said
“Oh my God Raina you’ve grown, how old are you now? 20? 25?”
“65,” Said a joking Sobotka. She gave him a side glare as he smirked at her.
“18 now,” she said, looking back at Bergeron and Wheeler.
“Well happy late birthday then,”
“Thanks, when are the other guys arriving?” questioned Raina looking around the empty rink.
“Your father’s down in the locker room and the rest of team is coming soon, we just got here early.” As soon as Bergeron had finished speaking she heard the back door on the other side of the rink open to see Marc Savard step through with a large bag full of hockey gear wheeling behind him.
“Savvy!!” She yelled from across the rink. He seemed to jump in surprise as he looked up to see where the call had come from. She saw him smile as he saw her with the other four hockey players standing next to her. He waved to them and continued his way towards the locker room to get ready for practice. As excited as she was to see all the other members on the team she was especially ecstatic but also nervous about seeing one particular player. Her longtime friend and crush Milan Lucic. Ever since she was 14, the age she had first met him, she’d always had a cute girlish crush on him. But it had been nothing more than that, a silly feeling of affection she felt towards him. But last year, towards the end of the season, her feelings had become more serious then just a simple crush. She wanted to let him know about it considering now that she had turned 18 it was consider a legal relationship even though they were five years apart. To her sadness, she had come to find out he’d gotten a girlfriend. She didn’t know much about her because she had only heard about her from Tuukka towards the end of the year after the last practice. All she was aware of was her name was Brittany, she was 19, and she played college soccer. Since Tuukka and sometimes Vladimir were the only players she kept in touch with over the summer she had found out other small things about the couple from them. Such as that towards the end of the summer they were officially living together back in Vancouver where Milan went when the season was over. It had broken her heart. Both Tuukka and Vlad went back to their home countries Finland and Czech Republic she was only able to occasionally call them on the phone and send them letters. They had also informed her that he was returning with her to Boston where they would be living in Milan's high class apartment on Beacon Hill. Both Tuukka and Vlad knew of her feelings for Lucic and kept their mouths shut about it.
She grew scared that Milan was going to walk through the door at any minute. Tuukka, Patrice, Vlad, and Blake were all talking about the upcoming season and usually she would join into the conversation enthusiastically, but making sure they didn’t notice, she slowly backed away from the group heading towards the bleachers on the other side of the rink. She knew exactly where she was going. She quietly climbed the bleachers looking back to see they still hadn’t noticed her disappearance. She went to the highest row on the bleachers and smiled to herself when she saw the narrow opening in between the wooden bleachers and the white painted brick wall. Not sure if she was going to be able to fit, she slid her legs down the opening first. She was able to wriggle her hips through the opening when they didn’t go through, and then easily slid the rest of the way through the opening. Raina was a slender girl, but the opening was extremely narrow. When her feet hit the ground she turned around to find herself in a small room-like area. It was only the size of an elevator, and the bleachers and walls closed her in from all sides. She had discovered this place when she had first come to the rink when her dad had begun coaching the Bruins. She still wasn’t sure what it was used for or why it was there but it was a small room-like area in the wall. Since going under the bleachers to get there was impossible since they had been blocked off on the other side she had to slide down the opening to get there, which had been so much easier when she was younger because she had been smaller. The small room had nothing on the walls, and no windows. She’d come there when she wanted to be alone, was upset, or didn’t want anyone to find her. A few of the players, including Milan knew about the hiding spot. She hoped Milan wouldn’t remember when he arrived that this would be where she would be hiding. She went to the corner and sat down, sliding her back down the wall slowly until she was fully sitting.
In the only 18 years Raina had been on the Earth she’d probably been more places and met more celebrities than the average person. Raina had been born to the Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien, and Karen Julien. She had an older sister named Katryna Chanel that was two years older than her. Since the moment she had come into the world her whole life was surrounded by hockey. She was a complete rink rat. She had born back in her father’s hometown Blind River, Ontario, Canada but until she had turned 14 she had constantly moved from place to place. Her father had coached many different teams, and gone many different places, demanding that the family come with him. She had never had too many friends because she had always been home schooled by her mother. The only activity she did besides attend all of the hockey games of the teams her father coached was horseback riding. Her sister Katryna had owned her own horse for awhile and Raina had gotten into the sport although she never owned her own horse. She had ridden from the age of eight. When her father started coaching the Bruins in 2006, and they had settled down in a large house in Lexington, Massachusetts, her mother insisted she go to a real school. She was instantly enrolled in the private all-girls high school The Winsor School which was in downtown Boston. It was her first year of high school, and she hadn’t been very good in making friends because she had never had any true friends before and she was extremely shy. The other girls had begun to ridicule her and poke fun at her not only for her shyness, but for how abnormally tall she was for a teenage girl. Raina stood at the height of 5’8” which was four inches taller than what the average woman would be in the U.S. She withdrew even more and only talked to her parents. Her sister Katryna also offered no help as she was attending the same school and liked to poke fun at her little sister herself.
She liked to help at the Bruins practices, she usually was out on the ice picking up the pucks the players had shot into the net during drills and set them back up to be shot into the net again. It was around the first few practices that Milan had approached her and asked who she was. Being as terribly shy as she had been, it was hard for her to even say something back to him without her whole face going read in embarrassment. It made it even worse that she had thought he was cute and good-looking from the moment she had seen him. Within the next few months she had started to become more comfortable with him and they were able to talk freely. Also during that time, she had met more with the other players and become closer to them, especially Tuukka and Vlad. It seemed to her that Milan, Tuukka, and Vlad were the only three she could trust to go to with her problems whether it was a small problem at home to her balling her eyes out over something that had happened during school.
She was now out of high school as of last year, and still deciding on college plans. She knew she wanted to go somewhere in Boston, and she was interested in thing like law and crime but she was still looking into it before she made her final decision. She didn’t want to end up like her sister, constantly going out partying and shopping with her friends and living off her rich parent’s money at the age of 20.
She listened to Tuukka, Vlad, Patrice, and Blake still talking about the upcoming season, when she heard the back door open again from the other side of the rink. The buzz of their voices stopped and everything went silent. Then she heard Vlad yell
“LOOOOOOCHHHHH!!!!” He was here. She debated with herself if she wanted to stop being nervous and just go up and see him or stay put. She got up and peaked outside the opening. She could clearly see Milan standing there on the other side of the rink, a large hockey bag in his hand. She couldn’t see his face well, but could tell he was smiling.
“I’ll see you guys in a minute,” He turned away and continued towards the locker rooms. She watched him go until he disappeared into the doorway the led to the locker room. A few seconds later she saw Marc Savard enter in full hockey gear. He walked over to the small group of four.
Raina hopped down from the opening and went and sat back in the corner again. She listened to Marc talk about how his summer had been.
“Where’s Raina?” She heard him asking. She heard Blake reply.
“I don’t know, she probably went to the bathroom, or went to see her dad down in the locker room or something.” She held her breath and expected to hear Vlad yell “I know where she is!!” and hear the sound of his running skates as he came over to find her in the opening. But instead, to her relief, she heard their conversation start up again. She knew eventually she was going to have to talk to Milan. It was unavoidable.
She leaned her head back against the wall and let out a sigh. She sat there for the next 10 minutes, still listening to the five hockey players talk. She found herself slumping over, and falling into a light sleep when she heard Tuukka say
“Hey Lucic how’s your summer been?” She sat up straight and heard Milan say
“Stayed close to home in Vancouver, worked out at the gym a lot, nothing to exciting.”
“What about that new girlfriend of yours?” said Blake.
“She’s doing well she’s back at the apartment setting things up.”
“So you two are officially living together?”
“Yep, it’s official!” She heard him say with happiness.
“So how is she?” said Vlad in a suggestive voice.
“Shut up Vlady,” Milan laughed. There was a pause and then she heard Milan say in excitement
“Where’s Raina? I haven’t seen her in forever!!”
“I don’t know she was hear about 20 minutes ago,”
“I think I know where she is.” said Milan. She heard him laugh as the sound of his skates hitting the concrete ground grew closer and then she heard him start to climb to the top of the bleachers. She knew she was found and stood up waiting for him to look down into the opening at her. Milan was far too big to even think about trying to get inside the opening, she was barely able to get even her own hips and shoulders through.
Suddenly a man’s face appeared in the opening looking down at her. Her heart jumped into her throat as she recognized it as Milan’s. He had the same dark skin, dark brown hair, and dark brown eyes as before except his face had matured making him look even more manly and sexy in Raina’s opinion. He seemed to smile from ear to ear when he saw her. She wasn’t sure if she was smiling back or giving him a deer in the headlights look.
“Raina!! I have so much to tell you!!”
__________________________________________________
Hope you enjoyed the first chapter. :)
Five reviews before I continue please!
Sunday
Ristuccia Arena, Wilmington, MA
7:00 A.M.
Raina felt the familiar ice cold air wash first over her face and then her body as she pushed open the swing able doors. She felt the gust of the swinging doors blow back her brown curly hair. Her light brown eyes lit up with excitement as she looked around the rink. She looked around the rink she had seen so many times in the past 4 years of her life. She smiled to herself as she saw four men sitting with their backs to her on the bleachers in front of her talking quietly about something to do with the start of the hockey season. They were in full hockey gear and had on gold, black, and white jerseys with their last names written across their upper backs. They had skates on, and the blades were covered with rubber guards so the blades wouldn’t be ruined. In a line the names on their jerseys read from left to right BERGERON, RASK, SOBOTKA, and WHEELER. She felt excitement rise in her chest and she yelled
“Hey you guys!!” they turned around in surprise. The first to recognize who she was was Tuukka who quickly rose to his feet with a huge grin on his face and said
“Raina! I haven’t seen you since last season!” He did a strange quick waddle over to her trying to balance him self as he walked on his skates. He seemed to fall into hugging her as he leaned forward awkwardly on his skates. She wrapped her arms around his wide frame, feeling the shoulder pads underneath his jersey. They broke apart and she felt another hulking form grab her from behind and swing her over his shoulder. She heard a man yelling as he twirled around. She saw a flash of blonde hair and knew it was Vladimir Sobotka.
“Put me down you vampire!!” Ever since Raina had found out Vladimir’s first name she had nicknamed him vampire due to all the vampire characters having the same name. She beat her fists against his back although she doubted it was making any impact on him as he was wearing his hockey gear. He finally set her down so she was now facing Bergeron and Wheeler. Instead of being as immature as Vlad had they smiled at her and Bergeron said
“Oh my God Raina you’ve grown, how old are you now? 20? 25?”
“65,” Said a joking Sobotka. She gave him a side glare as he smirked at her.
“18 now,” she said, looking back at Bergeron and Wheeler.
“Well happy late birthday then,”
“Thanks, when are the other guys arriving?” questioned Raina looking around the empty rink.
“Your father’s down in the locker room and the rest of team is coming soon, we just got here early.” As soon as Bergeron had finished speaking she heard the back door on the other side of the rink open to see Marc Savard step through with a large bag full of hockey gear wheeling behind him.
“Savvy!!” She yelled from across the rink. He seemed to jump in surprise as he looked up to see where the call had come from. She saw him smile as he saw her with the other four hockey players standing next to her. He waved to them and continued his way towards the locker room to get ready for practice. As excited as she was to see all the other members on the team she was especially ecstatic but also nervous about seeing one particular player. Her longtime friend and crush Milan Lucic. Ever since she was 14, the age she had first met him, she’d always had a cute girlish crush on him. But it had been nothing more than that, a silly feeling of affection she felt towards him. But last year, towards the end of the season, her feelings had become more serious then just a simple crush. She wanted to let him know about it considering now that she had turned 18 it was consider a legal relationship even though they were five years apart. To her sadness, she had come to find out he’d gotten a girlfriend. She didn’t know much about her because she had only heard about her from Tuukka towards the end of the year after the last practice. All she was aware of was her name was Brittany, she was 19, and she played college soccer. Since Tuukka and sometimes Vladimir were the only players she kept in touch with over the summer she had found out other small things about the couple from them. Such as that towards the end of the summer they were officially living together back in Vancouver where Milan went when the season was over. It had broken her heart. Both Tuukka and Vlad went back to their home countries Finland and Czech Republic she was only able to occasionally call them on the phone and send them letters. They had also informed her that he was returning with her to Boston where they would be living in Milan's high class apartment on Beacon Hill. Both Tuukka and Vlad knew of her feelings for Lucic and kept their mouths shut about it.
She grew scared that Milan was going to walk through the door at any minute. Tuukka, Patrice, Vlad, and Blake were all talking about the upcoming season and usually she would join into the conversation enthusiastically, but making sure they didn’t notice, she slowly backed away from the group heading towards the bleachers on the other side of the rink. She knew exactly where she was going. She quietly climbed the bleachers looking back to see they still hadn’t noticed her disappearance. She went to the highest row on the bleachers and smiled to herself when she saw the narrow opening in between the wooden bleachers and the white painted brick wall. Not sure if she was going to be able to fit, she slid her legs down the opening first. She was able to wriggle her hips through the opening when they didn’t go through, and then easily slid the rest of the way through the opening. Raina was a slender girl, but the opening was extremely narrow. When her feet hit the ground she turned around to find herself in a small room-like area. It was only the size of an elevator, and the bleachers and walls closed her in from all sides. She had discovered this place when she had first come to the rink when her dad had begun coaching the Bruins. She still wasn’t sure what it was used for or why it was there but it was a small room-like area in the wall. Since going under the bleachers to get there was impossible since they had been blocked off on the other side she had to slide down the opening to get there, which had been so much easier when she was younger because she had been smaller. The small room had nothing on the walls, and no windows. She’d come there when she wanted to be alone, was upset, or didn’t want anyone to find her. A few of the players, including Milan knew about the hiding spot. She hoped Milan wouldn’t remember when he arrived that this would be where she would be hiding. She went to the corner and sat down, sliding her back down the wall slowly until she was fully sitting.
In the only 18 years Raina had been on the Earth she’d probably been more places and met more celebrities than the average person. Raina had been born to the Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien, and Karen Julien. She had an older sister named Katryna Chanel that was two years older than her. Since the moment she had come into the world her whole life was surrounded by hockey. She was a complete rink rat. She had born back in her father’s hometown Blind River, Ontario, Canada but until she had turned 14 she had constantly moved from place to place. Her father had coached many different teams, and gone many different places, demanding that the family come with him. She had never had too many friends because she had always been home schooled by her mother. The only activity she did besides attend all of the hockey games of the teams her father coached was horseback riding. Her sister Katryna had owned her own horse for awhile and Raina had gotten into the sport although she never owned her own horse. She had ridden from the age of eight. When her father started coaching the Bruins in 2006, and they had settled down in a large house in Lexington, Massachusetts, her mother insisted she go to a real school. She was instantly enrolled in the private all-girls high school The Winsor School which was in downtown Boston. It was her first year of high school, and she hadn’t been very good in making friends because she had never had any true friends before and she was extremely shy. The other girls had begun to ridicule her and poke fun at her not only for her shyness, but for how abnormally tall she was for a teenage girl. Raina stood at the height of 5’8” which was four inches taller than what the average woman would be in the U.S. She withdrew even more and only talked to her parents. Her sister Katryna also offered no help as she was attending the same school and liked to poke fun at her little sister herself.
She liked to help at the Bruins practices, she usually was out on the ice picking up the pucks the players had shot into the net during drills and set them back up to be shot into the net again. It was around the first few practices that Milan had approached her and asked who she was. Being as terribly shy as she had been, it was hard for her to even say something back to him without her whole face going read in embarrassment. It made it even worse that she had thought he was cute and good-looking from the moment she had seen him. Within the next few months she had started to become more comfortable with him and they were able to talk freely. Also during that time, she had met more with the other players and become closer to them, especially Tuukka and Vlad. It seemed to her that Milan, Tuukka, and Vlad were the only three she could trust to go to with her problems whether it was a small problem at home to her balling her eyes out over something that had happened during school.
She was now out of high school as of last year, and still deciding on college plans. She knew she wanted to go somewhere in Boston, and she was interested in thing like law and crime but she was still looking into it before she made her final decision. She didn’t want to end up like her sister, constantly going out partying and shopping with her friends and living off her rich parent’s money at the age of 20.
She listened to Tuukka, Vlad, Patrice, and Blake still talking about the upcoming season, when she heard the back door open again from the other side of the rink. The buzz of their voices stopped and everything went silent. Then she heard Vlad yell
“LOOOOOOCHHHHH!!!!” He was here. She debated with herself if she wanted to stop being nervous and just go up and see him or stay put. She got up and peaked outside the opening. She could clearly see Milan standing there on the other side of the rink, a large hockey bag in his hand. She couldn’t see his face well, but could tell he was smiling.
“I’ll see you guys in a minute,” He turned away and continued towards the locker rooms. She watched him go until he disappeared into the doorway the led to the locker room. A few seconds later she saw Marc Savard enter in full hockey gear. He walked over to the small group of four.
Raina hopped down from the opening and went and sat back in the corner again. She listened to Marc talk about how his summer had been.
“Where’s Raina?” She heard him asking. She heard Blake reply.
“I don’t know, she probably went to the bathroom, or went to see her dad down in the locker room or something.” She held her breath and expected to hear Vlad yell “I know where she is!!” and hear the sound of his running skates as he came over to find her in the opening. But instead, to her relief, she heard their conversation start up again. She knew eventually she was going to have to talk to Milan. It was unavoidable.
She leaned her head back against the wall and let out a sigh. She sat there for the next 10 minutes, still listening to the five hockey players talk. She found herself slumping over, and falling into a light sleep when she heard Tuukka say
“Hey Lucic how’s your summer been?” She sat up straight and heard Milan say
“Stayed close to home in Vancouver, worked out at the gym a lot, nothing to exciting.”
“What about that new girlfriend of yours?” said Blake.
“She’s doing well she’s back at the apartment setting things up.”
“So you two are officially living together?”
“Yep, it’s official!” She heard him say with happiness.
“So how is she?” said Vlad in a suggestive voice.
“Shut up Vlady,” Milan laughed. There was a pause and then she heard Milan say in excitement
“Where’s Raina? I haven’t seen her in forever!!”
“I don’t know she was hear about 20 minutes ago,”
“I think I know where she is.” said Milan. She heard him laugh as the sound of his skates hitting the concrete ground grew closer and then she heard him start to climb to the top of the bleachers. She knew she was found and stood up waiting for him to look down into the opening at her. Milan was far too big to even think about trying to get inside the opening, she was barely able to get even her own hips and shoulders through.
Suddenly a man’s face appeared in the opening looking down at her. Her heart jumped into her throat as she recognized it as Milan’s. He had the same dark skin, dark brown hair, and dark brown eyes as before except his face had matured making him look even more manly and sexy in Raina’s opinion. He seemed to smile from ear to ear when he saw her. She wasn’t sure if she was smiling back or giving him a deer in the headlights look.
“Raina!! I have so much to tell you!!”
__________________________________________________
Hope you enjoyed the first chapter. :)
Five reviews before I continue please!