You Won't Survive

"Charlotte honey, can you go and get some things in the grocery?" Susan Masters asked, entering her daughter's room. "And can you take Camden with you? He needs to get some things for hockey."

Charlotte looked up from her book and nodded. "Sure," she said, taking the grocery list from Susan's hand. "C'mon Cam, we're going shopping!" she said excitedly to her eight year old brother as she barrelled down the stairs.

Camden immediately leaped off the couch and was beside Charlotte instantly. "Yes!" he exclaimed. "I want to get a new stick. My old one broke last night when I was practicing," he explained to his older sister as he got inside their blue Chevy Colorado.

The two siblings entered the grocery store quietly. It was too early, so there weren't many people shopping around. She greeted the cashier, Ashley Kirchen, whom she went to high school with. Camden excitedly took a cart and started pushing it around.

Charlotte first went to the aisles, checking off all the things that her mother wanted her to get. Then came her dreaded enemy, produce. Charlotte was terrible at picking produce. She wondered what her mother was thinking, trusting her to get produce. Every time she was in charge of groceries, she always ended up picking the worst fruits and vegetables.

She stood in front of the broccoli create trying to pick out the best when she heard a voice.

"Charlotte Masters?"

Charlotte looked around, searching for the source of the voice and saw Linda Staal heading towards her with her youngest son, Jared, in tow. "Linda," she said happily and hugged the friendly woman. "Hey Jared."

"I haven't seen you since you moved to New York. Your mom told me you've been traveling very summer."

Nodding, Charlotte smiled. "Yes, I have. Last summer Becky and I were in Spain. We were supposed to go to Greece this summer, but mom insisted that I come home for the summer," she informed her family's friend.

"Well, I'm glad that you're home. It's not the same without you dear," Linda warmly said to her.

"It's good to be back. I missed Thunder Bay," she replied, blushing slightly as she thought of Marc. "I should probably hurry here before Cam gets impatient. He really wanted to go to Hockey Life and get another hockey stick."

Linda nodded, understanding how impatient boys could be. "Actually Marc and Eric are there. Jared, why don't you go with Charlotte?"

Charlotte was about to protest, not wanting to interrupt Jared and Linda knowing that Jared probably tagged along to help his mom with the groceries. But Jared just nodded and Linda smiled at Charlotte, giving her arm a squeeze and left.

Smiling at Jared, Charlotte began to wheel her cart to the cash register with Jared in tow. She looked between her cart and Jared, once she realized that she had no idea where Cameron was. "Could you put the stuff in while I find Cam?" she asked uneasily.

Jared smiled. "Sure."

"Thanks," she said gratefully and went searching for Jared. She easily found her younger brother in the candy aisle, looking between the Hershey chocolate bars and the fuzzy peaches. "Cam come on, didn't you want to go to Hockey Life?"

Camden dropped his concentrated look and smiled instantly when he heard that Charlotte was ready to leave. "Yes!" he said excitedly and jumped. His eyes widened when he saw Jared standing by their cart putting the food in conveyer belt. "Jared!" he yelled happily and ran to hug his favourite Staal brother.

Jared smiled and effortlessly picked up Camden. "Hey Cam. I heard that you needed a new hockey stick."

Nodding enthusiastically, Camden had a look of admiration in his face. "Yeah. Lottie said that she would take me to get a new one. Will you help me pick one?" he asked hopefully.

Jared set Camden down and nodded. "Sure, and maybe we could get Marc and Eric to help us out."

Camden's eyes widened at the mention of Jared's two oldest brothers, whom he considered heroes. "Really? I want to see Marc and Eric!"

The Staal brothers were pretty much Camden's heroes. He looked up to them like a younger brother would their older brothers. Since Camden grew up with two older sisters and a father that was considered too old for rough housing, Camden hardly had anyone in his family to really play with so he always went across the street to play with the Staal brothers.

Eventually when each of the brothers were drafted into the NHL, they would find time in the summer to take Camden to the rink and teach him a thing or two about hockey. They were more like older brothers to him than anything.

Charlotte quickly paid the cashier and loaded the grocery into the car. Luckily, Hockey Life wasn't too far from the grocery store so they decided to just walk there. As soon as they entered the store, Charlotte watched Camden's eyes widen and light up as if it was Christmas.

"Come on Jared," Camden urged Jared, taking a hold of his hand and dragging him to the hockey sticks.

Charlotte nodded, telling Jared that she would follow them soon. Once she was alone, Charlotte wandered around the jersey section of the store. For some reason, Charlotte always loved the jerseys, it didn't matter what team it was, but she always loved jerseys.

Marc and Eric turned their heads to the right when they heard a little boy's voice call for them. They instantly had a smile on their face when they saw Camden Masters barrelling towards them with Jared right behind him.

"Hey little dude," Eric greeted him and gave him a hi-five. "Did you come here alone?" he wondered since Jared came with him and his brothers.

Camden shook his head vigorously. "No, Lottie came with me. Mom made her take me."

With the mention of Charlotte, Marc's head snapped up and instinctively searched the vicinity for his older sister. Once he realized that he was actually looking for Charlotte, he tried to look less obvious, not wanting to get teased by his brothers for his interest in Charlotte.

He quietly slipped away from Jared and Eric as the two were too engrossed with entertaining Camden, and went to find Charlotte. A smile appeared on his face when he saw Charlotte going through the jerseys. He laughed when he realized that she was going through the New York Rangers jerseys as he walked over to her.

Marc abruptly stopped when he saw a tall blonde haired figured approach her. His eyes widened when he recognized the man to be his friend, Tom Pyatt. He watched as she smiled when she saw him and gave him a big hug.

Marc racked his brains trying to figure out how Tom was so close to Charlotte. From what he could remember of Charlotte, she hardly hung out with anyone but Rebecca Sinclaire. In fact he never saw her with anyone but Rebecca, so it was odd to see how comfortable she was laughing and getting all friendly with Tom.

He decided to head back to Eric and Jared, not wanting to interrupt Charlotte and Tom seeing as it would be weird if he just approached the two since he was never really close to Charlotte and he didn't want to raise any suspicion because of his disappearance. But he made a mental note to surreptitiously ask Tom how he knew Charlotte.