Times of Change

September 26th, 2032
Sunday
UMaine Campus, Orono, ME
7:00 P.M.

“You came!” said Shannon excited.

“Of course I came,” said Willow. “Where is everyone?”

“Inside come on,” said Shannon taking her hand. Shannon led her into the crowded house. Willow pushed past all of the dancing bodies and saw her group of friends all standing together. She smiled when she saw her boyfriend, Marc standing with his back turned to her. She tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around to her smiling.

“Hey Will,” he pulled her into a hug and kissed her lightly.

“Why are you here?” asked Willow teasing her boyfriend. “Don’t you have hockey practice in the morning?”

“Not tomorrow morning,” he said “in the afternoon.”

“Come with me,” said Willow she took his hand and brought him out back where there was a bonfire going. It was less crowded and they stood off to the side to talk.

“Are you coming to stay with me tonight?” asked Marc getting close to her.

“I am,” she said looking up at him through her long eyelashes. He pulled her to him and tried to kiss her neck.

“Save it for later,” she said laughing. She pulled away and said

“I have to go visit my parents this weekend.”

“Can I come?” asked Marc excitedly. Knowing Marc loved talking to her father she said

“Sure, I’m going to my moms first and then to see my dad.”

“We’re going to Nathan Horton’s?!” asked Marc excitedly. Willow laughed and said

“Ya that’s where my dad’s been living.”

“Yes!” said Marc. “This is going to be an awesome weekend!”

“Just try not to act like a fan girl.” said Willow smiling.

“Two great hockey legends in one room with me, how can you expect me not to.” said Marc.

“You know my dad well enough to be used to him by now.” said Willow secretly enjoying the admiration he had for her family and the people she knew.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be used to it.” said Marc. Wanting to hear more admiration she said in a downcast voice

“You don’t just like me for who I know do you?”

“Absolutely not,” said Marc taking her back into his arms. “I love you for who you are.” She smiled and kissed him again.

“Let’s go sit.” They went and joined their friends at the fire.

Back in Boston, Luca Lucic was playing the new Xbox he and Vlad had just purchased. They had bought the newest NHL game along with it and were furiously trying to beat each other. Vlad managed to score in the last few seconds of the game and win. He jumped up off the couch yelling.

“OH YES YOU’RE MY BITCH NOW LUCIC!!” Luca threw the controller onto the floor in a frustrated defeat.

“I could beat you with any other team,” said Luca. “It’s not fair I was the Columbus Blue Jackets.”

“You just suck,” said Vlad. Luca ignored him and said

“Let’s go another round, this time I’ll be the Caps and you can be Tampa again and we’ll see who wins.”

“I’m going to get something to eat,” said Vlad going into the kitchen. He returned a moment later with a huge bag of chips.

“That’s our dinner?” asked Luca looking at the bag of chips in disgust. Vlad shrugged and said

“It was either this or ramen again, I’m not eating that for the 11th night in a row.”

“We should go out and get something nice to eat.” said Luca.

“The McDonalds across the street.” said Vlad.

“Some decent food,” said Luca. He got up off the couch and went to pull on a pair of jeans. The two left their apartment and walked down the street to go to their favorite pizza place. They slid into one of the booths and kept their heads low as they talked, not in the mood to be recognized.

Luca took out his phone and placed it on the table. When an incoming call from his mom came up on the screen Vlad grabbed it before he could and answered.

“Hey Mrs. Lucic,” said Vlad. Luca took the phone from him and said

“Hey mom, sorry about that.” he heard her laughing.

“It’s alright,” she said.

“What’s up?” asked Luca.

“Your sister’s coming to visit; can you get her tickets to your game this weekend?”

“Ya sure,” said Luca. “Where’s she staying?”

“Here,” said his mom. “And I think at Nathan’s for a night.”

“It will be good to see her,” said Luca. He hadn’t seen his twin sister in a few weeks and he wished she hadn’t gone to college so far away.

“What have you and Vlad been up to?” asked his mom.

“Xbox and hockey,” said Luca laughing.

“That’s it?” asked his mom.

“Pretty much, we just bought the Xbox; we haven’t left the apartment for anything but practices and games since we got it set up. Tonight’s the first time.” said Luca.

“You two need to do something with yourselves,” said his mom laughing.

“Maybe eventually,” said Luca. The pizza came to the table and Luca said

“Mom I gotta go eat, I’ll talk to you later, love you.”

“K bye love you too.” she said. When he hung up Vlad said in a mocking voice.

“Oh mommy I love you bye,”

“Shut up,” said Luca. Vlad pulled a slice of pizza off the pan and said

“Mommy’s boy.”

Emmett stayed close to his father as a crowd of people bombarded them. He was used to it by now. Whenever his father went somewhere people wanted him to write his name on their Bruins shirts and hats. It scared him sometimes, the way people closed in on them. He kept one hand tightly gripped onto his dad’s pant leg as they made their way through the crowd. He signed what he could but if they were going to make it to the movie on time he couldn’t sign everything.

When they finally made it to the theater door the crowd disperse and they went inside. Emmett knew his dad was famous. He played hockey and people knew him for that reason. Emmett looked up to his father. One day he wanted to be able to play like his father did, but he didn’t want to be famous. He didn’t want to ever have people bombard him like they did to his father. They found seats in the middle row and sat down. They were seeing an animation movie about animals he’d wanted to see for weeks.

“How’s school going?” asked his dad.

“Good,” said Emmett. “My teacher Mrs. Cook is really nice.”

“Your mom and I have open house next week at your school. We’ll get to see all the work you’ve done so far.” Emmett continued to chew at his skittles, thinking about his parents. There were things he didn’t understand about his mom and dad. They used to love each other back when he was little. Then they started yelling. Emmett remembered sitting up in bed, listening to there fights. He was completely alone, by that time Luca and Willow had left. Some of the things they’d fight about made sense to him and some did not. Another thing he didn’t understand was his baby brother. One moment his mother had been pregnant, telling him how he was going to meet his little brother, and the next she came out of the hospital without the little brother she had promised him and completely changed. She told him that his brother had gone to heaven because it wasn’t the right time for a baby. Still deeply confused but scared to ask his mother anymore questions, he kept quiet. His dad stayed in the gym and his mother was always sad. When he’d ask her what was wrong she’d tell him everything was fine.

He still felt the feeling of dread whenever he heard adults yelling at each other. The fights got worse and he started seeing his dad a lot less. Finally he remembered coming home one day to find that all of his dad’s things were gone. That’s when he started going back and forth between his house and Evangeline’s every weekend. His mother sat him down one day and explained that she and his father thought it would be better if they lived in separate homes. She told him that they both still loved him, his big and brother and sister unconditionally. Emmett felt left out and unsure. He still didn’t know what was going on with his parents. All he knew was that they clearly didn’t love each other.

“Why are you going with mom?” asked Emmett. His dad looked confused.

“Because she wants to see your classroom too.”

“How come you don’t do it separately like everything else then?” He could see his father was shocked at his bold statement.

“You’re our son,” said his dad carefully. “That’s why we’re going together.”
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