Smile

13.
Today was finally Friday and it was almost time for Arabella to leave her apartment and head for the airport. Jon was eating breakfast at the mess hall with all of the athletes. This was the day that both of them was counting down for since the games had started.

“So your girlfriend flies in today right?” Richards asked taking a seat diagonal from where Jon was sitting.

“Yea, her plane lands at four forty-five.” Jonathan replied feeling a buzz in his pocket.

“Is she coming to the game then?” Sidney asked joining in on the conversation.

“Um, no I didn’t have an extra ticket to the game. Plus she didn’t really want to come to the game.” Jonathan replied to his girlfriend’s text message causing him to miss his teammates disapproving looks they gave each other.

“So since she’s missing the game, what is she going to do?” Richards asked dragging out the ‘o’ in so.

“She’s going to hang out with Kaner.” Jonathan replied not even looking up from his phone. Seabs and Keith couldn’t help but roar with laughter as soon as Jonathan replied.

“I don’t get it?” Sidney said feeling left out on the joke. Here Seabs and Keith were laughing and Jonathan not even paying attention to any of this. He was just texting Arabella.

“Ara and Kaner are like a cat and a dog. One minute they can get along with each other but the next they’ll be at each others throats.” Seabs barely got out after laughter to hard at the fact that they wanted to hang out with each other.

While the guys had moved onto different topics about life and things like that, Jon was the only one not contributing to the conversation. He, Richards and Sidney had their own conversation but every time Jon’s phone would buzz on the table he stopped talking. The more Jonathan stopped paying attention the more Richards didn’t approve of this girlfriend of his.

Arabella had her all of her things packed and was double checking to make sure she packed everything. She’s carrying her big purse, a duffle bag and a small rolling suitcase. As she was double checking her bag, she was texting Jonathan.

“Do you have everything packed?” Dean asked twirling his car keys. Dean was the only one out of her close friends that had a car.

“I think so.” Arabella mumbled not really paying attention since she was texting Jon.

“Must you wear 6 inch heels?” Dean exclaimed looking at Arabella’s feet. She was wearing 6 inch heel boots, skinny jeans and a white long sleeve shirt. Her coat was red thinking matching it with Canada’s colors.

“Yes, I have to piss off Kaner. Now, let’s go before I’m late.” She replied picking up her tote while Dean got the duffle bag and the rolling suitcase.

They got to the airport just on time so Arabella had 2 hours for going through security and things like that. Ara was thankful that this flight was only going to be 3 hours instead of the usual 8 hour flight she takes from Chicago to Paris. When Ara was to land Kaner was supposed to be waiting for her. The problem was that everyone in Vancouver know who Patrick Kane is and that he plays for the team that beat Canada. So Kaner said he would be wearing a beanie trying to blend in with the crowd, making it harder for Ara to find him.

“Where are you?” Patrick Kane asked as soon as his teammate’s girlfriend picked up her phone.

“I’m looking for you!” She replied with an irritated tone.

“We agreed we would met by the Tim Horton’s counter when you plane landed. So again where are you?” The American asked looking for the French.

“Oh, I see you know. Bye.” The Frenchie, the nickname that Kaner gave to her after just a few days of knowing her said hanging up her phone.

Patrick Kane brought along his friend Zach Parise to meet Arabella. Both boys had nothing to do today and wanted to get out of the village. Parise played for the New Jersey Devils and was a good friend of Kaner and Tazer.

“Change your shoes.” Were the first sentence Kaner said to Arabella face to face since everyone left for the Olympics.

“I thought you liked it when I’m the same height as you.” Arabella replied sweetly with the ever present smile on her face.

“This is my friend Zach, Zach this is the Frenchie.” Kaner said smirking at the glare that he received from the Frenchie.

“My real name is Arabella, nice to meet you Zach.” Arabella said shaking Zach’s extended hand.

The three of them went to get Arabella’s small suitcase before they caught a taxi to the Four Season’s. When Sharpie and the guys brought the tickets for Arabella they purposely forgot the hotel tickets. They wanted Jon to offer Ara to stay in his room hoping Ara would help Canada with that gold medal. But that plan didn’t exactly turn out nicely when they found out Jonathan was rooming with the ‘Chosen One’ and that Arabella got a hotel room.

“We’ll wait down here in the lobby so don’t take long.” Patrick Kane told Arabella as her and the bell boy were going to catch the elevator to her room.

“She seems nice.” Parise said after it got quiet between the boys.

“Yea, she can be nice I guess. She’s sort of like a gremlin she can be nice but sometimes she’s evil.” Kaner said feeling the buzz of his phone in his pocket. He grabbed his phone and saw that he had a text from non other than Captain Serious. Literally that was Jonathan’s name in Kaner’s contact list.
If Ara tries to buy anything don’t let her pay. I’ll just pay you back.-jt
Yea sure dude. -pk
thanks -jt
“I changed my boots just for you.” Arabella said seeing both boys on their phones.
They walked out of the Four Season’s ready to see the city and experience watching a hockey game at a Canadian bar. There was a bar not far from the arena and village open where they play the hockey games. Parise and Kaner both wanted to go there and now they finally have an excuse to do so.

“So how do you know Kaner?” Zach asked Arabella as they watched Patrick flirt with some girl instead of getting them ketchup.

“I’m dating one of his teammates.” Ara said stealing a few of Patrick’s fries.

“If you don’t mind me asking, which one?” Zach asked as Patrick got the number of the girl and started to head back to the table.

“Jonathan Toews.” She replied taking more fries from Kaner as he took his seat glaring at this almost gone fries.

“Really? With the constant smile I would think you would be dating like Sharpie or something. But I guess it’s the fact that you could pass as Kaner’s twin.” Parise said earning a stare down from both of the blondes.

“We don’t look a like. I’m the pretty one.” Both blondes said at the exact time with the exact same tone of voice, irritation.

“Woah, woah, woah, it was just an observation don’t need to get snippy here.” Zach replied holding his hands up in defense of the two blondes both clearly irritated that they look alike.

After the snack they had the three of them went to go get look around. The tour that Kaner and Parise gave wasn’t that great. All the two boys did was point to the various buildings making up what they were. Plus it was difficult to see anything with the crowd starting to grow.

“I want a Canada jacket, mitts and a hat.” Arabella said standing infront of the Canadian gear store.

“You wanna go in there?” Patrick pointed to the overly packed store. That store was just waiting for someone to fall and get trampled on. And surely that person was not going to be his captain’s girlfriend.

“Yes.” Ara said bounding off into the store before both boys could protest this idea. From where they were standing they could see the small blonde weave her way in and out of the crowd. She was moving so graceful it was almost like she was dancing ballet.

“I think we should go in.” Praise said jogging to the other side of the street where the store was located. All Patrick did was mumble ‘yea yea yea’ to soft for anyone to hear him.

As the both of the guys were frantically searching the store for the little blonde girl they couldn’t find her. And whenever one would catch a glimpse of her, she would suddenly disappear. It was like a ballet magical act or something along those lines.

“I got the hat first!” A lady screamed holding one side of the hat. The girl holding the other side was Arabella’s. The crowd got silent and formed a circle around the two girls.

“I think you’re clearly mistaken, I got to the hat first.” Ara said in such a calm voice it was like she did this every time she went shopping.

“Take you’re filthy American hands off this hat. It’s for my daughter.” The lady screeched clearly displaying her Canadian French Accent.

“First of all I was born in France, second of all I clearly remember you’re daughter wanting boots.” Ara said with a little more edge in her voice. From the corner of Kaner’s eye he saw the manager with security guards making their way to the center of the circle.

“Mother, stop this. You’re embarrassing me and mom, this is the girl that was hanging out with Jonathan Toews last week when we went to Chicago.” The girl said. She was a few years younger than Arabella but clearly knew who her hockey players are.

“Oh, my bad. Let’s go get your boots dear.” The mother said letting go of the hat and pushing her daughter to the boot section.

“Alright, nothing to see here. Go back to your own business.” Zach shouted waving his hands ushering the crowd to go back to shopping. Before the Zach and Patrick had a chance to say anything to Arabella she had disappeared again.

“Where did the Frenchie go?” Kaner asked looking all over the counter only to see Arabella paying for her things. On the counter were a Canadian blue jacket, the hat and a pair of boots. She was buying boots for the daughter of the crazy lady.

As the three of them made their way outside only to see that there was only 10 minutes left before the game started they ran to the bar. Kaner didn’t say anything about the boots and Parise didn’t say anything about the crowd.

“Here’s to watching our first Canadian game in Canada.” Zach said holding up his beer. All three of them clanked their drinks together getting ready to watch the game.

It was ending of the second quarter and Canada was leading with 3 goals and Slovakia had no goals so far. They decided that it would be best to leave before the game ended because the streets were going to be a madhouse. Thankfully some taxis were still driving around town allowing the three of them to catch a taxi. Of course the radio was tuned into the game.

“It’s a Croc store!” Kaner said leaning over Ara pointing at the window to reveal a brightly lit Croc store.

“Disgusting.” Ara said shaking her head at the fact that the store was packed.

“You don’t like Crocs? Doesn’t Jon where them?” Parise asked not surprised over the fact that Ara doesn’t like Crocs. His own girlfriend doesn’t like his, she’s always threatening him that she was going to throw them away.

“Nope, he wears something else that’s ugly but way better than Crocs.” Ara said shooting daggers at the Croc Store. She wasn’t happy with the fact that there had to be a traffic light right there.

As the third period ended the men of the Canada Hockey team couldn’t believe it. They were going to the gold medal round. After not getting gold last olympics this was their goal. And it mattered even more since they’re playing in Canada and hockey is their game. After press was done the guys started to

“Back to the village to party!” Eric Staal shouted as the guys started to take off their pads and shower.

“So some of the guys are just going out to dinner with the girls. You should bring your girlfriend.” Sidney told Jon ignoring the look that Richards was giving Sidney.

“Sounds good, I’ll ask her.” Jon said putting his belt through his pants. Just then security came in making sure all the guys were decent before the families came in.

As the families started to fill the room Jonathan and Sidney were the only ones sitting alone. With their lockers being next to each other the big gaping hole wasn’t hard to be missed by the rest of the players. Richards glanced at his two younger teammates and couldn’t help shake his head at Jonathan’s no show girlfriend.

“Did you see his face?” A girl voice said causing another girl to erupt with laughter. The laughter sounded just like Arabella. In walked the locker room was Taylor Crosby and Arabella with Crosby’s parents right behind.

“Are you wearing makeup?” Crosby asked his little sister noticing that her eyes were more defined with black liner.

“Yes, thanks to Arabella! I love it! Mom, why couldn’t I have an older sister?!” Taylor asked turning to her mother.

“Trust me, having an older brother is fun. They always have the hot friends.” Ara replied shocking Jon. He’s never heard of Ara talk about her family.

Soon enough Crosby and his family moved over and gave the couple some time to talk. After not seeing each other for two whole weeks was killer for them especially since Jon forgot to bring his laptop so they couldn’t video chat.

“I missed you.” Jon leaned down to whisper in his girlfriend’s ear.

“I really missed you too.” She said leaning into his body while wrapping her arms around his waist.

“The guys are going out to dinner do you want to go?” Jon asked not really caring if his girlfriend wanted to or not.

“Sure, sounds like fun.” Ara said looking up at her extremely tall boyfriend.

Then the couple made their way out of the locker room and arena to the sidewalk. It was snowing outside. As the girl danced in the falling snow the boy couldn’t help but laugh at her. And as his Canada teammates filed out of the arena this was the first time they’ve ever seen the serious boy smile that big and laugh that hard.