Avalanche to the Heart

Flashback to the Past

Nathan’s POV

The table was quiet as they all processed what Matt had just said. Nathan shot a few glances to where Lillian had vanished too. She was sitting at her table, laughing and talking to her best friends.

“No way. Lukas and Janet were it.” Austin said not believing it.

“That’s not true. She was four years younger than Lukas, so no one knew who she was and once it came time for her to go to high school, her parents sent her to a boarding school in Upper Nova Scotia, where the rest of their family is because they didn’t want Lillian to have to deal with all the shit her siblings left for her,” Matt explained sadly.

“Seriously?” Austin questioned, stealing a glance himself. “But then why is she here now?”

“Things didn’t exactly work out.”

The rest of lunch was silent as we all thought about it, another Kinnan child, thought about all the damage her brother and sister had done. I now knew why everyone looked at her a little differently, disapprovingly almost. It was depressing that people judged her because of who her siblings were and what they had done. It almost wasn’t fair.

It was because they thought she would do the same thing as they had done - that she would ruin what we had built up again after her brother and sister had left and no one wanted that. It just wasn’t fair to judge her for what her last name was, who she was related to. But he had to admit, that it was hard when what had happened in the past, had the near possibility of repeating itself.

He knew some people would say “well it’s only sports,” but at Halifax High, sports was what the school did best and if they weren’t doing well in that, well, they weren’t doing well in anything. And that was a disastrous outcome.

Lillian’s POV

She finished her lunch with her two best friends, Destiny and Jeremy and then bid farewell to Jeremy, as they split up and went their separate ways.

Destiny walked with her, heading to their lockers, which were three down from each other. They were nearly there, when Lillian was stopped by Nathan and the other guy he had been with this morning when they came late to bio, “Nichy” (She thought his name was).

“So I have something to do today after school, but maybe we can work on the project afterwards?” He asked her, leaning against the locker, like a cool kid. He was trying too hard to play his “popular guy” role. It was amusing and funny to her.

“I’ll let you know at the rink.” I said smirking.

“She’s good. I like her,” his friend “Nichy” exclaimed, from beside him. He clapped his hands and then put a hand on Nathan’s arm.

“I’m Val,” he greeted kindly, as she shook his hand.

“Well, hi Wal.”

“It’s Val,” he corrected, attempting to articulate the “v” better.

“Wal? Oh, Val?” She snorted with laughter and apologized to him.

“As in Valeri Nichushkin,” the blonde Russian-born kid spoke, with a grin.

“Oh! Well, nice to meet you, Val.”

There waa a moment of awkwardness between the four of them, before Lillian spoke up once more. “I have to go, but I’ll see you both later.”

She walked in between them with Destiny trailing behind her. The latter waved, nervously to them, as they parted. They got to their lockers and her snowy haired friend couldn’t stop smiling. She looked to be on Cloud 9 and she sighed romantically.

“What’s up with you?” Lillian probed, as her best friend leaned against the locker next to hers, sighing again.

“Oh nothing.” She was desperately trying to hide her smile now.

“You like Val, don’t you?” Lillian asked grinning. She folded her arms and gave her friend the “I know that girly look you have, you can’t fool me that easy” look. “You like Nichy!”

“No I don’t!” She said defensively. That was the clue she needed. She was pulling the same crap that she had used earlier with being interrogated about Nathan.

“Oh don’t lie to me Des. You’re more swoon then a Disney princess. I saw the way you were looking at him.” She shut her locker and turned to her friend.

They headed for their French class after a few seconds. Another class they had together.

“Oh shush… he doesn’t like me anyways. I mean I’ve known him since we were six and he’s never even said three words to me.” She kicked a rock in front of her that happened to be in the hallway at the right moment in time.

“Well whatever… come to the rink with me today after school. Come on, it’ll be fun!” Lillian stated, as they reached the classroom.

“Ugh, fine.” She sighed rather heavily and dramatically, as they headed in to the classroom.

“It’ll be fun and a blast! Nathan and Val will both be there!”

As soon as the class started, the teacher was only speaking in French and everyone looked very confused and she said something rather profane. Lillian burst out laughing. She looked over at her shocked, as she realized that she understood what she was saying. That’s when, she started asking her a bunch of questions in French and finally one last one, “Ah, vous devez être Mlle Kinnan.” (Ah, you must be Miss Kinnan.) Lillian shook her head vertically and then she smiled at her and continued on with the class.

After class she called her over, “Vous savez, ils ne devraient pas avoir à vous mettre d'entrée de gamme français.” (You know, they shouldn’t have put you in entry level French.)

Lillian sighed and agreed with her, “Ils ont dit que depuis que je suis nouveau qu'ils devaient.” (They said since I’m new they had to.)

She answered very simply, “C'est des conneries.” (That’s bullshit.)

Lillian giggled at the sound of a teacher, even a foreign language teacher using profanity and cursing in a classroom with students.

“Okay, I know my French isn’t great, but I thought we weren’t allowed to swear in class.” Lillian spun around on her heels and spotted Nathan, leaning against the door frame. He’d been the one to speak.

“Ah, Mr. MacKinnon, I’m glad you remember my rule. Only the very advanced students can swear and Ms. Kinnan here is very advanced.” She said smiling at the young lady and patted her shoulder.

“I’m well aware,” he didn’t sound shocked and Lillian was puzzled by it. “Matt told us your family is from Quebec and moved to Nova Scotia, to Halifax.” He flashed a small smile.

“Oh,” was all Lillian could think of to say. “Well, I should get going because I have study hall now and wouldn’t want to interrupt your class.” She sent a kind smile to the French teacher, “See you tomorrow.” And then she walked out the door.

“See you at the rink,” Nathan remarked to her, as she passed him. He touched her shoulder, lightly and she felt a shiver go down her back… damn.

Once the final bell rang, she headed out to her car and drove the short drive to the rink which was down the street from the school and was parked in the spot her brother would always park in when he came here. She gathered a few items that she wanted and dropped off her books, before heading inside to see the practice in full swing.

Destiny had sent her a text saying she’d meet her there soon.

After about five minutes of waiting in the lobby, she came in, excitedly and they headed into the rink.

“I’ve never been here before. It’s huge.”

They made their way up the stairs to the highest seats and sat down quietly to watch the practice below. Matt took a shot on the goalie and hit the crossbar. He let out a loud grunt, before being playfully shoved by Austin into the boards. They began to get in a staged fight, laughing and twirling around like a pair of ice dancers.

Nathan and Val were passing a puck back and forth and had to abandon their exercise, as the two twirled into their path in the middle, knocking the puck away and sending it gliding backward on the ice.

“Matty! Aus!” they both whined.

After about fifteen minutes of sitting there, Matt noticed that they were there and waved, followed by Val doing the same and when Lillian looked over at Destiny, she thought she saw that the poor girl was going to faint.

“Keep it together Des. I mean if you’re going to act like this when he waves from that far away, what are you gonna do when you talk after their practice today?” The brunette smilied about the small plan she had created in her head.

“Ha! You’re really funny hun.”

The practice, without the boy goofing off, lasted about another hour and then the two girls overheard him and the others talking about some big surprise. They brought them both back to the locker room because he said he had something for Lillian.

“Girls coming in! Be decent!” He yelled at the top of his lungs. They both laughed at the comment, but Destiny looked at her bewildered.

“It means don’t be naked when we come in,” Lillian explained, still cracking up, as they entered the room.

Destiny immediately covered her eyes, but not before they nearly popped out of her head.

“Dammit Nichy, I told you to be decent!” Lillian heard Matt yell, as he threw a towel at the blonde haired man. She was laughing at Katie’s reaction, so she hadn’t even looked over.

“She must be laughing at the size of your dick,” one of the other players, a ginger, joked from the corner which caused her to laugh even harder.

“Hey, shut up Zippy!” the playfully retort came back.

“Alright boys, don’t be idiots. These are only ladies,” another the boys stated, as he came up and put his arm around Lillian’s shoulder.

“Hands off,” she commanded simply and he let go.

“Damn, feisty.” He winked at her and walked away.

“That idiot is Jordy or Jordan. And why don’t the rest of you introduce yourselves,” Matt remarked, as he put his shirt on.

Everyone introduced themselves by their names and when they got to Val, Destiny turned a bright red in the face and hid behind her friend. And once the turn came to Nathan, he just continued to pack up.

“Hey Nate, don’t be rude,” Austin scolded, smacking the boy’s shoulder.

He whirled around and glared at his friend and teammate. “I already know them. Destiny is in our Bio class and I’m doing a project with Lillian for social studies. You ready to go? I figured we could just go work on it at my house,” Nathan spoke, as he hiked his bag over his shoulder.

“Your house? Nice try Nathan MacKinnon, but I’m not that easy. We’re going somewhere else.” She made sure to sound like she was in charge. She articulated to man’s name, earning a collective “ooh” from the audience. She winked at Matt, as he smiled.

“You’re in for a treat MacKinnon,” Matt laughed, as he passed by the two.

Nathan just shrugged and headed out of the locker room.

“You’re doing a project with Big Mac-Kinny-the-Razor?!” Destiny whispered at her best friend. Oh, yeah, she didn’t know about that little detail, right…

“Ugh, stupid nickname and yes, I am.” A lot of people referred to and called Nathan MacKinnon, “Kinny”, his pet name. Some called him “Big Mac” and some called him “Little Mac”. It was a hockey tradition that players be given a cute nickname to go by. It was easier to communicate on the ice with. Nathan’s most popular nickname just happened to be “Kinny”. And his second popular nickname was, “Razor”, which was based on his style of play.

“Oh, hey Val.” He finally had clothes on and was dressed. He was wearing his typical outfit, a buttoned down dress shirt in a grayish color. And a pair of dark navy blue jeans. He came over to them. Destiny’s face flushed.

“Hey.” He put his arm up on the frame of the door and leaned against it, purposefully showing off and acting cool. He looked at the snowy-haired girl with the “deer-in-the-headlights” look. He flashed her a smolder, just to rile her up.

“Well I better get going because Nathan and I have a project to do, but you two talk, mingle, but have her home by eleven.” She was joking of course. She wanted to lighten the mood for her friend, who was unmoving and bright red.

“Will do!” He shouted, as Lillian saw Destiny look really nervous. She looked down at her feet finally, and shuffled them. He put his arm around her shoulders, making her gasp in shock, as Lillian walked out, after Nathan.

She shot her a text saying “you’ll be fine, this is good for you” before leaving the arena completely.

As Lillian Kinnan walked out of the building, she was still looking at her phone and didn’t notice Nathan in front of her. He had halted in step and had appeared to be waiting for her. She bumped into him, accidentally. “Sorry!”

“It’s alright!” He caught her by the arms making sure that she didn’t fall and hurt herself. She looked up at him and those gorgeous blue eyes that she swear anyone could get lost in.

They just stood there like that for a minute, with her dipped over to the side, like he was going to kiss her or something. Someone beeped a horn and they both saw it was Matt, who was smirking at them and he swung her up to her feet and they both let go of one another. They headed for their cars.

“So uh, just follow me.” She got into her father’s old blue Subaru and he got in his Charger, with a silent nod. He threw his hockey stuff into the back quickly and then hopped in. He rolled down the window and gave her a thumbs-up sign, like he was ready to go.