Until Hell Freezes Over

"Hey, where did you put the Red Barron pizza?" Claire called up to her best friend and roommate as she rummaged through the refrigerator. Being a blonde she had forgotten where a person would put something frozen.

But wait, I'm a blonde, too... Does that make me just as bad?... Probably.

Rolling my eyes, I shouted back to her as I flipped through TV channels, "It's in the freezer! Why don't you try actually looking for a change?"
  
“Found it!” She exclaimed to herself not a moment later, having not even heard me. 

Shortly after she walked into the living room/dining room and plopped down onto the couch with me as I put a recorded episode of ‘The Dukes of Hazard' into the DVD player after deciding there was nothing to watch.

Wait a second, let's back track a little. I'm Dillan Maxwell, I just graduated from the University of Michigan, where I played NCAA Hockey for the past 4 years. At the moment, I am waiting a call to find out if any NHL teams are interested in me enough to invite me to a camp.

The truely blonde one, Claire Reynolds is one of my best 'girl'  friends. We were introduced to each other by one of my teammates at his frat party. She was his girlfriend and I was his winger. We didn't get off to a very good start. In fact, she hated me because I spent more time with her boyfriend than she did. I told her that I would never 'date a team mate' because it just wrong, they are like my brothers. Claire didn't buy it and informed me that I was going to have to prove myself. Unfortunately, they broke up a couple weeks later because Claire caught him cheating on her with one of the guys from my art class! I couldn’t believe it! She just laughed it off, but I could tell she was embarrassed by the fact that her boyfriend was actually gay. From that day on, we have been BFFs 
 
Ok, now, we can continue!

“Beau Duke is so hot!” I gushed upon the first sight of the blonde haired blue eyed red neck. Claire feigned fanning herself and nodded in agreement. This had been one of the ways we had bonded: our love for those Duke boys and the General Lee. Halfway through the episode I started to smell something but I couldn’t quite put my figure on it.

“Hey, do you smell that?” I asked her as I walked into the kitchen.

“Smell what?” She asked me, looking at me with a confused expression on her face.

Then it dawned on me...

“OH MY GOD!!! THE PIZZA IS ON FIRE. HURRY, HURRY PUT IT OUT!” I exclaimed upon noticing the flames inside the oven. 

It was too late by the fire alarm had gone off and it started spraying water over everything! God, this was the perfect way to start off the weekend! Soon Marty, the guy who sat at the front desk got on the PA system and announced,

“There has been a fire started in room 202, please evacuate the building.”

We scrambled out of our room and down the hall, making sure to avoid the angered glares of the other attendants around us.

“Good going, Dillan. Look what you did! Because of this I’m missing the big game!” Kyle, one of the guys who lived on our floor gripped at us.

“Sorry, we were just trying to make pizza.” I explained, praying to God or whoever was up there to protect me from this crazy man.

Before Kyle could say anything else, Marty stepped in,

“Kyle, I need you to help organize everyone so we can make sure that not is in the building.”

Kyle nodded and went off grumbling about how stupid we were. After he was gone Marty turned to us, oh hell we were gonna get it now.

“Dillan, Claire, when is this going to end. This week, it’s a pizza. Last week, the washing machine. The time before that you basically flood the building because your toilet was clogged. What am I going to do with you, two?” He glared at us like we were children, with a frustrated sigh.

I decided to throw out a line that I had given him several times before, 

“I’ll pay you back-“I offered but he cut me off,

“With what? What money could you possibly give me that would help pay for the repairs to keep this dumpy apartment complex running?” He dared me, to actually pay up this time.

Just then my cell phone started ringing. And it was my dad, how appropriate.

“Hey, Daddy.” I answered, cringing for him to start telling me how disappointed he was in me.

..... But he didn’t, he was actually excited for once.

“Hey, Dil, guess what?” I sighed,

I played along, turning away from the building, the fire trucks, and everyone around me,
“What, Daddy?”

“The Chicago Blackhawks invited you to their prospect camp!” I suddenly felt like I was sick to my stomach. I had never been a Blackhawks fan and couldn’t believe that they had drafted me! “Hey, Dillan, are you there?”

“Yeah, I just can’t believe it.” I choked out to him, suddenly finding it difficult to breath as I finally realized that I was being given the chance to play in the NHL.

“I know, my baby girl is going to be a Blackhawk and the first female forward in the NHL! All of our problems will be done with!” He cheered, “Tell Claire to pack her stuff because we are going to Chicago!”

“Dad, you just can’t quite your job.” I told him, trying to be the rational person in this situation. “Claire and I-“

“Don’t worry, I’m just making sure you get to where you are supposed to.” My dad was awesome, but maybe just a tick, too protective. We quickly exchanged 'goodbyes' and I hung up.

“Claire, pack your bags once we get inside.” I annouced with a smirk as I turned to face her and Marty again.

“That was my dad. The NHL called and informed him that I JUST GOT INVITED TO THE BLACKHAWKS' PROSPECT CAMP!”

“Are you joking? Oh my god, you aren’t. This is huge, Dil!” She squealed as she hugged me.

“Marty, I just figured out how I am going to pay you back.” He smiled and what he said next surprised me,

“Don’t worry about it, kid. Go be the next Gretzky.” I smiled and hugged him, “I won’t ever forget what all you have done for me.” He returned my hug, briefly before pulling away and telling me,

“Yeah, yeah, that’s what they all say. Go on, go get your stuff.” With that Claire and I sprinted up to our room to get our stuff. The next few weeks were going to be chaotic.