You Won't Survive

"So baby Masters decided to grace little old Thunder Bay with her presence," Charlotte heard Tom Pyatt's voice from her side.

Charlotte jumped and quickly dropped Marc Staal's New York Rangers jersey and smiled when she saw Tom smiling at her. "Tom!" she greeted him happily, and lunged herself at him. She giggled when he tightened his grip around her and kissed her cheek.

"I missed you too. When did you arrive?"

"Last week. I came home with Becky."

Tom nodded and wrapped Charlotte in a hug again. "I'm glad you're back. I seriously missed you," he admitted, resting his head on her shoulders. "You look beautiful."

Charlotte blushed. It had been a long time since Charlotte and Tom were intimate like they were now and it took some getting used to on Charlotte's part. "I missed you too," she replied honestly.

"Are you here alone?" he asked, looking around for anyone Charlotte knew.

Charlotte shook her head. "I'm here with Cam, he's with the Eric, Jared and Marc."

"How is Cam? I haven't seen him in so long."

"Good, he's joined pewee. He wants to become a professional hockey player like the Thunder Bay boys," Charlotte laughed, remembering the news clipping that her mother send her about Thunder Bay and dubbed the Staal and Pyatt brothers and Patrick Sharp as the Thunder Bay boys. "Actually, I should probably go and see if he's done."

"I'll come with you; I haven't seen Marc in awhile."

Nodding, Charlotte walked beside Tom to where she left her brother and the Staal's. Approaching them, Charlotte let out a soft laugh when she saw Cam swinging a hockey stick around while Eric, Jared and Marc tried move around so they wouldn't get hit.

"Cam, be careful," she warned her brother, making the Staal's and Camden look at her.

"Lottie, I got my stick. Can we go now, I want to try it," he said eagerly, running up to his older sister and practically shoved the hockey stick in her face.

"Alright. Thank you so much for helping Cam," she said to the brothers who just nodded and smiled.

"Actually, we're about to go too," Eric said, showing Charlotte their things.

Eric and Jared were in the front, while Charlotte was in the middle with Camden and behind them were Marc and Tom chatting comfortably. Every few seconds, Marc would turn his gaze to Charlotte's backside, examining her.

She really had grown. She was taller; her hair was longer and shinier. Her body was more athletic than before. He remembered her to be chubbier, with a lot of pimples and she still had braces. It was like three years of not seeing her, everything about her changed.

Even though he never really knew her back then, he remembered to be a sweet girl who was always smiling and childlike. He couldn't remember a time where she wasn't happy or without Becky for that matter.

*

Marc drove out of his driveway with his pick up truck, running an errand his mother made him go and do. As he drove the three miles of dirt road that connected his house to the town, he saw a lone figure walking the same way he was driving.

Not many people lived where he lived. There was only him and his family and the Masters. There was also his cousins but they lived a mile away in the other direction. He slowed down his car so that he was driving at the same pace as the person and realized that it was Charlotte. He honked the car to get her attention.

Hearing someone honk at her, Charlotte jumped in surprise and ripped the headphones off of her ear to give the persona piece of her mind. She turned to the source of her fright, eyes narrowed, only to be greeted by Marc's smiling face. Quickly, her expression changed from anger to embarrassment and meekness.

"Hey Lottie, where are you headed?" asked Marc.

Blushing, Charlotte looked down on the dirt road. "I'm headed to town, just wanted to get some Tim Hortons."

"I can give you a ride if you'd like."

"That would be great," she said gratefully and climbed onto the passenger seat.

As soon was she entered the car, Marc could smell the scent of her hair when she leaned over to him to get in. It smelled like a mix of peaches and strawberries. He coughed awkwardly catching himself before making her uncomfortable with all his staring and started driving.

"Do you need a ride back?" he asked curiously, Marc wanting to spend more time with Charlotte.

Charlotte blushed as she stared at her lap, with her heard quickening. "No its okay. I don't want to rush you or anything," she whispered.

"It's fine. I'm just getting my mom's clothes from the dry cleaners. How about we get that first and stop by Tom Hortons after?" he suggested.

Charlotte beamed at the idea, she looked at Marc with a shit eating grin. "That would be great! I wouldn't mind that."

"Great! Marc eagerly said. "So, uh, what school do you go to?"

"Becky and I go to NYU."

Marc stared at the girl for a bit, his jaws slightly hanging. "NYU? Really? I didn't know, you could have told me and we could have gotten together at one point. What are you guys studying there?"

"I'm in their journalist program and Becky's in a science program. She wants to be a doctor," she said proudly of her best friend.

Becky had spent her whole life prepping to become a doctor. She always spent her nights studying and making sure that she had enough credentials to make it into NYU, her dream school, and Charlotte just followed her best friend.

"Why'd you chose to study journalism?"

"I want to be a freelance journalist. I want to be able to make a difference in the world with my writing. To be able to go to other countries and to write about what's going on in the rest of the world, not just Canada and America."
Marc stared at Charlotte for a moment in awe. He always knew that she was the smarter and more ambitious sister out of the two. While Diana was always blasting music in her room full of make up, posters and magazines, Charlotte's was always quiet and it was decorated with inspirational quotes, books and encyclopaedias.

Diana and Charlotte maybe sisters, but in personality and looks they were worlds apart. Diana was the life of the party while Charlotte was such a homebody and studious.

"To be honest, I want to get away from Thunder Bay. I'm not saying Thunder Bay is a bad place to live, I love Thunder Bay, to me, there's more to life than a hockey game and parties," she admitted. "Sorry, I'm ranting."

"No, I admire that," Marc reassured her, knowing what she meant. In Thunder Bay, hockey was everything and the local rink was the hot spot. Everyone gathered there whenever there was a game, and Marc knew the pressure of playing for a team that was the center of attention. All of his brothers knew what that was like. "I'm thankful that the Rangers have given me the opportunity to see out side of North America, actually."

"That's why Becky and I never came back during the summer. NYU offered summer programs in different countries and we've been doing that since then. It's amazing; we've already studied in London and Paris. And then we've visited Berlin, Milan and Monte Carlo," Charlotte gushed.

Even from where Marc sat, he could tell that Charlotte had a passion for traveling and writing, for making a difference in the world. She wasn't the typical girl in a small town, whose aspirations where to get married young, become a house wife and have their whole life surround their children and husband and to take their kids to every sport they're in. There was nothing wrong with it, since both his mom and Charlotte's went that route, but it was obvious it wasn't for Charlotte.

No, she was different.