The Beginning to the End

Ricki and Bobbi left Nashville early on December 23rd wanting to beat the Christmas Eve traffic.

Tweet from Bobbi

Our road trips from city to city keep getting longer @RickiMartin7 #13hours #arewethereyet

Tweet from Kaner

Least you have a fun travel partner @BobbiHull9 Captain serious doesn’t know how to have fun on trips like @RickiMartin7

Tweet from Ricki

True that! @88PKane #iamsomuchfun

Ricki and Bobbi made it to Bobbi’s Aunts house by 10 o’clock. Nobody was home, since her family decided to go to Myrtle Beach for Christmas leaving the girls the house for a few days.

~*~*~*~*~

Text from Jordan Staal to Ricki

What are you and Bobbi doing on this lovely Christmas day?

Text from Ricki to Jordan

Watching X-mas movies and ordering Chinese.

Text from Jordan Staal to Ricki

That sounds like fun…not.

Text from Marc Staal to Bobbi

What are you and Ricki doing on this lovely Christmas day?

Text from Bobbi to Marc Staal

Watching X-mas movies and ordering Chinese.

Text from Marc Staal to Bobbi

That sounds like fun…not.

“Something seems fishy.” Bobbi said when they told each other about their own converstions.

Not even a half hour later the doorbell rang. Bobbi slowly got up from her comfortable spot on the couch and made her way over to the door. She slowly opened it up not knowing what to expect but in came Mrs. Staal carrying a prepped turkey that just needs to be cooked, behind her were Tanya, Lindsey, Mr. Staal and Parker all carrying food.

“Hi?” Bobbi asked confused as they all barged in.

“Hello dear, I’m Linda, Jordan and Marc said you two were celebrating Christmas alone so
we decided to bring the party to you.” Mrs. Staal smiled politely.

“You didn’t have to do this.” Ricki said taking the food from Tanya who had Levi in her arms.

“It’s Christmas nobody should be alone on Christmas.” She said as she disappeared into the kitchen after Ricki.

“SO where are the boys?” Bobbi asked noticing that all four Staal brothers were nowhere to
be seen.

“They are on their way, they just had to pick something up.” Tanya smiled just as the doorbell rang again.

Ricki and Bobbi went to go get the door and when they opened it up 3 of the four brothers were standing there with nothing in their hands.

“You are not allowed in unless you have food.” Ricki told them blocking the door the best she could.

“We brought something better.” Marc smirked.

“Oh really and what may that be?” Bobbi questioned knowing there is pretty much nothing better than a home cooked meal when you have been eating on takeout and restaurant food for months.

“Ricki, Bobbi, we give you your Christmas present.” Jordan said as he, Marc and Eric stepped away from each other to show Jeff Skinner wrapped in wrapping paper with a bow on his head being held up by Jared.

“Oh my God, you got us Jeff Skinner.” Ricki and Bobbi screamed.

“Let us in and then you can unwrap him.” Eric smiled.

Ricki unblocked the door to let them in while Bobbi ran and grabbed the flip.

“Merry Christmas lovelies, Rick and I are here in my Aunt and Uncles place. Since they are on vacation we were just going to chill for Christmas but that’s when the Staal’s came up with an idea.”

“They all came in with food except for the brothers.”

“They brothers brought us our Christmas present.” Bobbi said panning over to the couch where Skinner sat still wrapped up.

“So we are going to open our present, while we do that you guys enjoy your Christmas day and be great.”

Once the flip was turned off the girls unwrapped the very embarrassed Jeff and took off the duct tape that was on his mouth.

“I’m sorry about just barging in earlier, but our hands were full.” Mrs. Staal apologized.

“Oh it’s perfectly alright.” Bobbi smiled at her.

“Let me introduce you to everyone else than shall I? I am Linda as I said before, the mother of those four bozos. This is my husband Henry you know Marc and Lindsey, as well as Jordan. This is Eric and his wife Tanya and his two son’s Parker and Levi.” Mrs. Staal said.

“And I am Jared.” Jared introduced himself before his mom had the chance.

“It’s a pleasure to meet all of you.” Ricki said happy that she was able to spend Christmas with family even if it wasn’t hers.

“What did you guys do?” Mrs. Staal asked when she noticed the red faced Jeff Skinner on the couch surrounded by shreds of wrapping paper. “Did you guys do what I think you did?”

“You mean did we give Ricki and Bobbi the best Christmas present ever, than yes, yes we did.” Jordan smirked.

“Oh my goodness, you poor boy.” Mrs. Staal cooed walking over to Jeff and put a comforting arm around him which caused him to turn a deeper shade of red.

“You four are now on dishes duty.” Mrs. Staal pointed at the boys as she punished them.

“But Ma,” Eric started to complain but stopped when Tanya sent him a glare. “Fine” he hung his head.

“That’s what I thought.” Mrs. Staal smiled. “Dinner will be ready in a few hours.”

For the next few hours we sat around in the living room with Christmas music playing in the background while we just talked until dinner was ready.

Dinner was a completely different story. Mrs. Staal made sure everybody got plenty of food before the five hockey players could put any food on their plates. Which was a very good decision because once they dug in the food was immediately gone off the table.

After dinner and the dishes were done everyone was preparing to leave all going their separate ways due to game schedule.

“You two better come and see us in New York again.” Lindsey said as she gave the girls hugs.

“We will try our best” Ricki said hugging back.

“There is no try, you will come back to New York and work for the team so we can see you every day.” Marc said with authority as he hugged Bobbi and Ricki.

“Don’t listen to him, you will choose Pittsburgh and see me every day.” Jordan said pulling the girls away from Marc.

“Guys, don’t get your hopes up. You know that after the girls take a tour of Bridgestone arena tomorrow they won’t want to leave, especially since I have this guy here as a bargaining chip.” Eric said pointing at Jeff, who turned completely red again.

“I would have to agree with Eric on this one.” Jared spoke up before all hell broke loose and the guys started to argue which team Ricki and Bobbi would choose to work for.

“Boys stop.” Mrs. Staal scolded them which caused them all to hang their heads before leaving the house.

“Sorry about them, I don’t think they will ever grow up.” Mrs. Staal said to the girls.

“It’s ok, boys will be boys.” Ricki smiled finding the fighting siblings refreshing, reminding her of home.

“That’s true, so I will see you girls at the game tomorrow?” She asked hopefull.

“Of course.” Bobbi said as Mrs. Staal gave her a motherly hug before giving the same hug to Ricki. The motherly hug was something both the girls needed, especially since both the girls were starting to miss their family.

*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~

“It’s time to get up!” Ricki yelled jumping on Bobbi’s bed.

“You better not have had another Monster.” Bobbi groaned covering her head with a pillow.

“What makes you say that?” Ricki asked innocently.

“Maybe the way you are super awake when it’s only 8 in the morning.” Bobbi explained.

“Oh yeah, about that I didn’t have a Monster.” Ricki explained causing Bobbi to relax a little bit.

“Then why are you like this?” Bobbi questioned now more awake now. Ricki replied by handing her phone over to Bobbi.

Text to Ricki

From: Zach Praise

Get ready to go out to lunch with the coolest team ever after your tour.

“Someone’s a little excited to see some old friends.” Bobbi replied now just as excited especially since they hung out so much with the Devils while they were staying at Ricki’s cousins house.

“Hell yeah I am excited now get ready, we need to be at the arena in an hour.” Ricki said throwing a pillow at Bobbi.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“I hope you enjoyed your tour.” Kristina Boyce finished off the tour.

“We did, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule for this.” Bobbi replied.

“No problem” Kristina smiled at us. “Enjoy the game tonight.” With that she left us where we were supposed to meet Praise and Palmieri.

Ricki and Bobbi were just talking to each other when someone was pushed into them. “Oh my gosh I am so sorry.” A red faced Jeff Skinner said.

“Oh hey Jeff.” Ricki smiled at the blushing kid.

“Hey Jeff aren’t you going to introduce me to your two friends?” Jamie Mcbain asked.

“Jamie, this is Ricki and Bobbi.” Jeff introduced the girls.

“So wait you know them?” Jamie asked causing Jeff to nod. “So I didn’t have to shove you into them in order to make you talk to pretty girls?”

“No” Jeff said blushing again.

“When did you meet them and why don’t I know them?” Jamie asked.

“He was their Christmas present from my brothers and I.” Eric said coming out of nowhere causing Jeff to turn even darker.

“He was the best Christmas present we have ever got.” Bobbi said pinching Jeff’s cheeks.

“Aww Jeff did you hear that you were their favorite Christmas present.” Eric joked.

“I think I am going to go to lunch now.” Jeff said quickly before walking away.

“What are you two still doing here?” Eric asked after he stopped laughing.

But before they could answer Brodeur spoke. “Oh my god are you two Ricki and Bobbi?” he joked bringing them back to the day they first met the Devils goaltender.

“I guess that answers my question.” Eric smiled at the girls. “You two behave with the Devils.”

“Behave; you obviously don’t know them that well.” Praise joked as he put his arm around Ricki.

“Touché” Eric said leaving with Jamie to go to lunch.

“How have you guys been?” Palmieri asked as they headed to the restaurant.

“Busy, but having fun getting into loads of trouble.” Bobbi answered.

“Speaking of which you know normal people wouldn’t get away with all that you have done.” Praise said.

“What can we say people just fall for our charm?” Ricki smirked at her.

“I know, I am one of them.” He gave Ricki a shy smile.

Ricki went to respond to Praise but was interrupted by the rest of the Devil’s yelling when they saw the two girls. The rest of the lunch went by with them all catching up and reminiscing about the time the girls spent in New Jersey.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

“You guys just totally kicked the Devil’s ass!” Bobbi yelled as she burst into the locker room without telling the guys and Skinner was only in a towel while everyone else was already dressed.

“Guys don’t you knock?” Jeff asked once again red.

“Eric texted us and told us we were ok to come down.” Ricki replied smirking at Eric.

“Ok I feel as if you guys are here to gain up on me.” Jeff said before he disappeared so he could change.

“No we love you Jeff we wouldn’t do that to you.” Ricki and Bobbi yelled together before laughing evilly.

“Sure you do.” Jeff yelled back.

“Alright boys I think it is time for our infamous interviews.” Bobbi said pulling out the flip.

“So Mr. Cam Ward, before we get started how did it feel scoring a goal?” Ricki asked.

Amazing something that I wish I could do more.” He answered.

“That’s what I thought you would say.” Ricki smiled. “Now with the more important question, do fish get thirsty?”

“Um, I am going to go with no.”

“Interesting answer.” Ricki replied just as Jeff re-emerged and Ricki and Bobbi made their way over Jeff and Eric.

“So Eric this is the most important question Ricki and I have ever asked.” Bobbi paused. “Can we keep him?” she pointed at Jeff.

“Sorry but we need him for the season.” Eric answered making Jeff relax considerably.

“We will keep him just for the summer.” Bobbi countered and Jeff looked extremely nervous.

“We promise we will feed him, play with him and take him for walks.” Ricki persuaded.

Eric looked at Jeff who was shaking his head no, practically begging Eric not to agree to that. “I am ok with that.”

“Guys I have to go visit my family.” Jeff said trying to get out of this because he had a feeling that they would actually follow through on this.

“Don’t worry about it, your mom already agreed to this.” Ricki smiled causing Jeff to groan.

“We’ll guys it’s been fun but it is time to go, until next time be great!” the girls signed off.

The girls said goodbye to their new found friends, who had to catch their plane to Pittsburgh before going back to their hotel and catching a goodnights rest before they had to make another long leg of their trip to Florida.

Tweet from Ricki

Mission: See how much we can make Jeff Skinner blush = complete @BobbiHull9 #winning #offtothewarmweather