The I Love You Challenge

When Melissa returned the Raleigh the day after the bet she already knew who she was bound to choose. Jeff Skinner not only looked like he was still a little kid, but she thought he behaved like one as well. He may be a god on the ice but off ice, she could hardly stand him. He always seemed to be smiling about something and he was too sweet in her opinion. Always being positive was not a good thing to her, she wanted the bad boy.
He was one of the only claims to fame that the Hurricanes had, besides one of the Staal brothers. She would have to deal with Skinner’s annoying attitude for the time being. He wasn’t too bad looking; he wasn’t sexy or hot, but he looked like the boy next door she could deal with that. She had come to Raleigh to get her teaching degree because she loved working with children; they were the kryptonite to her usually bitchy behavior. She hoped that the fact that Skinner often looked like a child would help her not kill her.

When Melissa checked her e-mail the day after she left Michigan she had two messages that caught her attention the most. The first was from Lizzie, highlighting the rules and wishing everyone good luck on the challenge. Melissa thought she was lucky to have friends like Lizzie, Chelsea, and even Jamie. The other girls had stuck with her even when she turned bitch in middle school after her parents bitter divorce and her brother's incident that torn them apart and she was grateful. Even Jamie, who had received the bad end of her attitude most often, still liked her.

Jamie has a better chance with Skinner, Melissa thought resentfully. Why did she have to end up with the good kid? She was wondering why she chose some city with a bunch of nobodies on a team. She was broken from her thoughts at the sound of her e-mail telling her that she had a new message. The message was from Chelsea and had just been sent. It was titled “First Weekly Update”.

“Only Chelsea would already have a weekly update,” she said under her breath while opening the email.

“Hey Girls
Shockingly, I already have some news on my progress. Yesterday after I got home, I went out to a club I knew was frequented by the Pittsburg Penguins. Luckily, a large portion of the team came out to celebrate their win. I ended up dancing with none other than hockey superstar, Sidney Crosby. At the end of the night I gave him my number and today, just a few minutes ago, he called me and asked to go out to lunch with me today! I have successfully completed the first step to my prize money and enteral glory!
Hope you all had safe travels and are getting started on getting your hockey player! May the best girl win!
Xoxo,
Chelsea”

Melissa could practically see the cocky grin that was on Chelsea’s face while she was writing the email. If any of the girls would have a date already, it would be Chelsea, and the email wasn’t truly a surprise to Melissa. Her drive to win everything would push her to win. Although Melissa was competitive too and she would love to see the look on Chelsea’s face when she fell short of the task. She had to put a move on Skinner and fast.

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“Melissa, I’m going to step out of the class while you are teaching after recess,” Mrs. Nelson, the teacher of the class Melissa was student-teaching in told her as Melissa cleaned the book shelf. “The principal is coming in around halfway through your allowed time, but I will let you finish later this week,”

“Why is the principal coming in?” Melissa asked.

“I’m not at liberty to say, just be on the lookout okay? You will do fine,” Mrs. Nelson replied before grabbing her bag and walking out of the room.

Melissa had planned a lesson about the seasons for her students. When the students returned to their seats after recess, she began teaching. They went over the first 3 seasons uninterrupted and got halfway through winter when there was a knock on the door. Through the small window in the door, she saw the principal and gestured for him to come into the classroom.

“Hello class!” the principal said when he came in. “I have a very special surprise for you all. Our school won a competition and we received a visit from Raleigh’s very own stars the Carolina Hurricanes!” the principle announced and on cue, five of the players walked in. The captain Eric Staal walked in first followed by Jeff Skinner. Melissa’s jaw dropped all the way to the Earth’s core. The kids erupted into cheers, grins, and excited laughter. Hockey wasn’t nearly as big in North Carolina as it was in the northern states, but the city did a great job of playing up. The Canes had a substantial fan base. She instructed the kids to put their things away as calmly and collectively as she could.

“The Hurricanes have come here today to interact and learn with you kids so have fun!” the principal said stepping aside letting Eric Staal step forward.

“Hey kids!” Staal began. “I’m Eric Staal, captain of the Hurricanes. Do we have any Hurricanes fans here today?” The class cheered loudly. “Alright! Well, here with me today I have a few of my teammates. This kid here is Jeff Skinner,” he said gesturing towards Skinner who grinned like a kid in a candy shop and waved. The kids cheered but Melissa found his enthusiasm to be annoying. She probably could have dealt with Eric Staal but he was older and married with kids.

“This is Brandon Sutter,” there was more cheering from her excited students “Mr. Cam Ward and last but not least Chad LaRose,” Once again the class cheered. “We’re so excited to be here today, especially Skinner seeing that he practically just got out of the first grade,” The class and team laughed while Melissa just smiled. “Maybe your teacher can help us out and tell us what we should do first,” All eyes landed on Melissa. She was flustered. Not only was she unprepared for planning the afternoon without taking a lot of time but she unprepared for them even being here.

“Um, well,” she scanned the room. “How about you guys take turn reading to the kids?” she suggested. The team agreed and the kids went down to the reading rug. “Um, so, I’m Melissa and I am the student-teacher. I just wanted to thank you for doing this for the kids,” she told the players before they went over to the rug. The team shrugged it off obviously they were used to doing these kinds of things.

She went ahead of them to grab some books for them to read dropping one in the process. She bent down to pick it up and her shirt came up showing off a small section of her lower back. Her hand quickly flew back and pulled her shirt back down, hoping no one saw her Redwings tattoo she had there. Her face flushed as she handed Eric Staal a book to read to the class. She stepped off to the side of the rug and stood next to Jeff.

“A Redwings fan, eh?” he whispered to her during Eric’s reading. She gawked at him, confused on how he had figured it out.

“I saw your tattoo,” he explained.

“I grew up in Michigan,” she explained. “I came into this world a Redwings fan and I sure as hell will leave it a fan.”

“What brought you to Raleigh?” he asked.

“I thought warm weather would be a nice change,” Although the weather was a nice change compared to the freezing temperatures of Michigan, it was not the only reason she moved.

“I think someone has a soft spot for the Canes.”

“What part of ‘I’ll die a Redwings fan’ didn’t you get?”

“The Redwings part”

“Well I don’t suppose you grew up a Canes fan and all you wanted was to play here.” Jeff gave no reply to her, “I thought so.”

“Maybe if you came to a Canes game you would change your mind,”

“Well when I work up enough money to pay the bills, eat, go to school, and spend my leisure time at a hockey game, I will.”

“I could bring you,” he said nervously and she raised her eyebrows. “You could sit up in the box with the other player’s wives and girlfriends. You could even help Tayna Staal watch their kids Parker and Levi.”

“Whoa slow down there cowboy, we just met like five minutes ago. Isn’t that jumping the gun a bit?” she said a bit shocked at what he had offered.

“I was just saying box seats are the best and I can see that you like kids and I don’t mean to rush or whatever but you seem really nice and a good girl to be around—” he said trying to explain. His eagerness and embarrassment was annoying to her and the fact that she came off as a nice good girl humored her. She was used to guys who played hard to get, Skinner was not one of those guys.

“Don’t worry Skinner, I was only joking. I would love to go to a game. But maybe the proper thing to do would be to take me on a date before I join the Wives and Girlfriends Club.” Melissa interrupted him.

“You can call me Jeff,” he told her honestly.

“That’s all you got out of what I just said? That I used your last name?” she asked.

“No! I mean, you can call me whatever you want,” she rolled her eyes.

“I’ll stick with Jeff,”

“Okay cool. I guess what I’m trying to ask you is—” he was interrupted by the kids clapping. Eric had finished reading his book to them. It was Jeff’s turn so he switched spots with Eric and started reading.

“Thank you again Mr. Staal. It means the world to these kids,” she said to Eric.

“Don’t mention it. These things make playing even better,”

“You seem to be great with the kids.”

“You seemed to pay more attention to Skinner.” He replied smirking. Melissa blushed a deep shade of red.

“I’m so sorry,”

“I didn’t know the kid moved so fast. He’s been kind of a loner since we acquired him last year.”

“He does seem kind of, um, young and inexperienced,” she observed.

“He’s a good kid though. His intentions are good. He’ll surprise you with how much he changes once he gets to know you better.”

“Well he’s very enthusiastic, I’ll give him that.” They both laughed and then fell silent as she tuned in to Jeff’s reading. His method was different from Eric’s; while Eric had read like a parent, Jeff was reading as if he was one of the kids himself.

She couldn’t help but think again, how perfect Jamie would go with Jeff; especially now that she had met him. Unfortunately, she was stuck with him and she would have to make it work. On the plus side Jeff seemed to be very open with his feelings so she didn’t think it would be hard to get him to say I love you.

Once Jeff finished she could tell the kids were getting antsy so she put a stop to the reading time and split the kids up so they were in a group with one of the players. Jeff’s group was coloring and they enlisted her to be the judge. She sat in between Jeff and one of the kids as they asked him questions about hockey and his life.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” one of the girls asked plainly. Jeff laughed nervously.

“Not yet but I think I may soon,” he said glancing over at Melissa who narrowed her eyes dreading where the conversation was heading.

“So you like someone?” he nodded. “Is she pretty?”

“Very pretty,” he said staring right at Melissa who glared at him. The kids were looking at her as well and she prayed that they wouldn’t make the connection of what he was inferring.

Once they finished their drawings the kids handed them to Melissa who went through each one carefully with the intention to pick one of the kids. When she came to Skinner’s she raised her eyebrows. It was a flawed drawing of what looked like him playing hockey but it also had words that read: ‘Go out with me tonight? Winner= Yes Loser= No’. She was not happy about this. She didn’t want to pick him over the students but she needed that date.

“I think everyone wins!” she finally decided. They all stared at her confused and Jeff looked at her and scowled. It was what he deserved.

“Um, Miss Melissa,” a student started. “That ain’t how competitions work,”

“Today it is.”

Shortly after that the team and Melissa both had to leave (she got out an hour before the school closed). The team stopped to talk to the principal and Melissa stood far away in the hallway pretending to be intrigued in a bulletin board she had seen a 1,000 times. She saw out of the corner of her eye Jeff looking at her so she knew that her message that she wanted to talk to him was communicated. When the rest of the team left, he lingered behind and she walked up to him as she did he grinned.

“What kind of move was that?” she said irritated. The smile fell from his face making it obvious that this was not what he was expecting.

“What?” he asked.

“Making me choose between you and the kids? What about that ‘I don’t have a girlfriend yet’ bullshit, are those your best moves Skinner because so far they ain’t working?” She told him.

“I figured you would rather me ask you on paper than out loud in your workplace. And I didn’t think the kids were old enough to pick up on my references!” he defended himself.

“Well it was still embarrassing to me,”

“I’m sorry.” She sighed.

“Okay, thanks I guess.”

“You did say everyone is the winner and that includes me so you were agreeing right?”

“Yeah sure whatever, I’ll go text me at this number and I’ll give you my address so you can pick me up.”

“I look forward to seeing you tonight!” he said as he took her number and pocketed it.

“Whatever gets me into a hockey game.”

Famous last words.