Chances Taken

“Mags,” I heard and groaned, not wanting to wake up, “Maggie,” I heard again and shook my head, “Come on, wake up.”

“What time is it?” I muttered, my face snuggled against Pat’s neck.

“I don’t know, but come on, we fell asleep,” I heard and then sighed, opened my eyes and then sat up and looked around, seeing that it was late in the afternoon.

“I’m hungry,” I said and Pat chuckled.

“Another reason why I’m waking you up,” he said and I yawned and pushed myself out of the bed and walking over towards the window, looking outside to see that it was a winter wonderland outside. I smiled and then heard people laughing out in the hallway.

I sighed and then walked over towards the dresser, grabbed my sweats and my hoodie and threw them on, looking back towards Pat to see him throwing a shirt and sweats on. Pat and I walked out of the room and headed down the hall and down the stairs, to the kitchen and raided the fridge.

Pat and I ended up just sitting at the table eating a ham and cheese sandwich. We heard people walk into the room and saw Zdeno Chara and Tuukka Rask.

“So you two are here,” Tuukka said and Pat smirked, “Wondering when you two were coming out of the room.”

“Uh,” I looked at them, blushed and rubbed the back of my neck, “Yeah, got nothin’.”

Tuukka chuckled and then took a seat next to me and looked at me, “So this is your second All Star?”

“Yup, your first?” I asked and he nodded his head, “They’re pretty fun.”

“Most of the guys that were on our team last year, are on the other team this year,” Pat said and I nodded my head.

“We just got word that some of the guys are going to be late because of this snow storm,” Chara said and I looked at him and then looked outside and sighed.

“Gotta love the snow,” I grumbled and the guys chuckled, “Who’s all here?”

“Uh, I think-“

“Only the important people!” I heard and looked to see Tyler Seguin walking into the room.

“Segs, what’s up man?” Pat smirked and then stood up and did the bro hug with him.

I rolled my eyes and then stood up and headed over towards the garbage, throwing my paper plate away and then deciding to explore the house. I didn’t like Seguin, so I didn’t really want to be around him when I didn’t need to be.

I was walking down the hallway and heard a piano and smiled, Jon wasn’t here, so I knew it wasn’t him, so it was either Mike, or there was another person here who could play well. I smirked when I turned the corner and saw Mike, he and Geno were sitting there, Mike was messing with the keys.

“You sleep well, Geno?” I asked and Geno smirked and nodded his head while Mike glared at me

“Mikey say he understand why no one want room with me now,” Geno said and I smirked, leaned against the wall and slid to my butt, “I no understand.”

“Aw G, don’t worry, we know you like to cuddle, he just is afraid to cuddle with you,” I teased and Geno rolled his eyes.

“How come you no my roommate?” he asked and I smiled.

“Because if I was your roommate, I’d have to make sure I didn’t take advantage of your cuddling,” I winked towards him, Mike scoffed and Geno smiled brightly.

“You take advantage any time you want,” he said and I giggled, got up, sat on his lap and kissed his cheek.

“You’re a teddy bear, G,” I laughed and then patted his shoulder and stood up.

“You go to dinner tonight? Nealer and Tanger comin,” Geno asked and I looked at him.

“Uh, probably not, thanks though,” I gave him a small smile and he nodded his head, understanding my hesitation.

“Let know if you change mind,” he said and I nodded my head.

“You know,” Mike said turned around, “This whole going to dinner thing, that’s if we can get out of the driveway, it’s snowing pretty hard out there,” he said and I looked outside and nodded my head.

“Who’s all here?”

“About half the team,” Mike said and I sighed and nodded my head.

I left the room and then headed around the hallway and suddenly felt arms around my waist, I turned my head and relaxed when I saw a smiling Pat, “You scared me.”

“Sorry,” he chuckled and then kissed my cheek.

“You wanna do something fun?” I smiled towards him and gave me a confused look, “Come on!”

I grabbed his hand and pulled him up the stairs and towards our room, “Oh, I’m liking where this is going!” he said and then wrapped his arms around me against and I giggled.

“No! Get warm clothes on!” I said and he looked at me confused, “I wanna play in the snow!”

“What are you five?”

“Plus seventeen,” I said and he snorted and rolled his eyes.

“Do you have snow pants?” he asked and I smiled.

“I always bring snow pants when I come to Canada in the winter,” I said and he laughed and nodded his head.

Pat and I threw on our snow pants, boots, gloves and winter jacket. I had a hoodie under my jacket, so I was going to use the hood as my hat. Pat and I hurried out of the room, down the stairs and out of the house to the backyard. The snow was everywhere and it was starting to stick so I grabbed a heaping pile of snow and formed it into a ball and threw it at Pat when he was still walking into the backyard.

“What the- Did you throw that?!” he yelled, knowing that I did.

“Me? No! Why would you think that?!” I asked a smirk on my face.

“Ok good, because if you did,” he bent down and picked up some snow, and I did too, “I’d have to get you back!”

“Good thing I didn’t throw it then,” I giggled and Pat started to run at me and I squealed and threw the ball I had at him and started to run around, which was really hard in snow.

We were both running around, taking breaks to grab some snow and throw it at each other. Sometimes I wouldn’t have enough time to form a ball, so I would just grab a pile and throw it at him.

“I’m gunna get you!” Pat yelled after I threw a pile of snow at his face.

I laughed and started to run, turning around and ducking when a ball came at me, “Missed me!” I teased and stuck my tongue out at me, but the screamed when Pat tackled me to the snow and I laughed when I landed in the soft white fluff.

“Got ya!” Pat yelled and I laughed and grabbed some snow from the ground and just started to throw it at him and he was scooping some up and just burying me in it.

“COLD!!!” I laughed and Pat chuckled and I squirmed, feeling the fluff falling down my hoodie.

“Snowball fight!!!” I heard and felt Pat being tackled off of me and sat up, turning to see that Duncan Keith, a player on Team Alfredsson, came over to play in the snow with us.

I laughed and stood up only to feel a snowball hit my back, I turned around and laughed when I saw Steven Stamkos, Henrik Sedin, Shea Weber and Keith Yandle coming over, more players from our team last All Star game. I saw James running over and smirked, ‘…Guess we’re having a snowball fight…’ I thought and turned towards our house and saw Chara, Seguin, Rask, Mike, Geno, Phil Kessel, another teammate from last years All Star game.

There ended up being twenty of us, no team in particular, just a bunch of adult hockey players bringing out their inner child and having an official unofficial All Star snowball fight. Snow was going everywhere, at one point I just went over to some tree and hid behind it because I was getting pounded with snow.

“Chicken!” Pat yelled and I then laughed when Mike got him in the back with a snowball and Pat turned around and I smirked when Mike was standing there smirking and bouncing another snowball in his hand.

I screamed when I felt myself being picked up and then laughed when I saw it was Duncan. I covered my head as Duncan was being hit with snowballs, “Going down!” he yelled and I laughed as he fell to the snow.

“Man down, man down! We’ve got a Dunkin Donut down!” I yelled and Duncan laughed and I stood up and dodged a snowball from Tuukka, “Rask! You’re goin’ down!” I said and he smirked and I grabbed some snow and when at him.

I laughed and laughed the whole time, ending up seeing James come up behind me and hold me while Geno shoved snow down my jacket. I screamed and then started to hit him, but my gloves and their puffy winter coats; I doubted I was making an impact.

I ran to the back porch and started to unzip my jacket to try and get some of the snow out. When I did, I zipped my coat back up and I pulled out my phone and started to take some pictures, even a little video. I smiled and watched the war in front of me and giggled. We might be rival teams only coming every once and a while to pull together a team like this, but it was awesome and I liked my career, ‘…Moments like this, I love my life…’