Night Changes

Nine

Joanna’s POV- August 2014
Aria failed to mention that she knew THE Lucy Andrade. Lucy was a 3 time Olympic medalist, two gold and silver. She was an artistic gymnast, and she was dating Olli who was Beau and Sidney’s teammate. She was also two years older than Olli, apparently Olli just turned 20, and Lucy was 22.

“Did you do gymnastics?”

I looked at Lucy and nodded.

“Yea, I did but I wasn’t that good. My parents just put me in it because I was a ball of energy and they needed to tire me up” I told her making her laugh.

“Did you do something else?”

“Pole Vaulting, I discovered it in high school and absolutely loved it. I played softball but that was intermural” I told her making her nod.

She was at least 5’1 or so because she looked tiny compared to most of us in here. The funny part was that her boyfriend was the very tall one. I excused myself when her boyfriend came in and began talking to her in Finnish. I put my plate on a place matt and took a seat. Aria sat next to me and grinned at me.

“How do you know him?”

She had switched to Spanish and I looked at her.

“Later” I told her making her nod.

They all sat down and I noticed from my peripheral that Sidney had sat next to me. That and it was the only seat left for him. I could feel some eyes on me and Aria cleared her throat.

“Jo here is an engineer”

Lucy looked at me and smiled.

“What kind?”

“Architectural” I told her making her nod.

“Nice, you must be super smart. That is a hard major”

I smiled and nodded slowly as I took a sip of my juice.

“Where’d you go to school?”

“I did my undergrad and Master’s program at UC Berkeley” I told her.

She nodded slowly and chewed her food.

“Are you from the Bay Area?”

“I was born in San Jose, but my family moved to LA when I was 5 years old” I said making her nod.

“Why’d they move?”

I looked at Beau.

“My dad got a better job at UCLA” I said.

He nodded slowly chewing his food.

“Where’d he teach? San Jose State?”

I shook my head.

“He went there for his Undergrad and Master’s program. He was a professor at UCSC”I said eating some of my pancake.

Lucy smiled and looked up at me.

“My cousin goes there”

I smiled and leaned back.

“My best friend went there, so I had an excuse to be there every weekend” I said making her laugh and nod.

“The campus is gorgeous, you could go on a hike everyday”

I nodded agreeing and she smiled.

“What subject does your dad teach?”

“Calculus” I said.

She made a face and I laughed.

“I guess your good at Calc?”

I nodded and Ari made a face.

“Jo taught me Calculus, if she hadn’t I would have had to change my major”

Beau then smiled.

“How old is your friend?”

Ari looked at him and he turned to her.

“Megs needs a girl”

I laughed and smiled.

“You won’t get Gen anywhere near the east coast anytime soon. She’s in her last year of pharmacy school” I said.

He waved his hand.

“Never mind she’s to smart for him”

I nodded and smiled.

“What is his type?” I asked.

He looked at me.

“They just have to have a beating heart”

I looked at Olli surprised as everyone in the room laughed. He smiled and looked back down at his food satisfied and said no more. Lucy laughed lightly as she took a sip of her water.

“How was Finland?”

She lit up as soon as Ari asked that.

She told us how she went to Finland with Olli to meet his family. Apparently they adore her, Olli said this so it must be true. They both had really nice tans and they looked really happy. She spent her 22nd birthday with his family, and Kasperi who was a plus one. Ari told them about how Beau and her went to the beach house in San Diego. They didn’t leave the beach house for two weeks, how she is not pregnant is surprising to me as well.

Brunch was nice up until I was asked how I knew Sidney. Sidney looked at me and I pursed my lips as he coughed.

“We met at a coffee shop, some guys were harassing me and Sidney told them to back off” I said making Aria nod and smile at Sidney.

“Nice, and you guys just continued talking?”

Sidney glared at her and I cleared my throat.

“No, we bumped into each other at the beach after I had gone surfing. You, Gen, and Beau ditched me for lunch and I was hungry. I wasn’t going to let the reservations go to waste so I asked Sidney, Matt and Nathan to come to lunch with me” I said.

Aria nodded and looked at Beau who grinned at her. Kasperi left to go play with my hamster and Sidney turned to me.

“The hamster is yours?”

I looked at him and nodded.

“Yes, my brother gave him to me as a moving away present. He claims it looks like him” I said making him laugh.

“What’s so funny? I want to know what’s funny”

I looked at Aria and laughed.

“I was telling Sidney how Josh gave me the hamster claiming it looks like him” I said.

She laughed and nodded.

“Your brother is a dweeb”

I nodded; my brother is 17 years old and a total smart ass. I also get sentimental because he’s so grown up now. He’s taller than me and he’s starting to like girls, and this makes me so sad because I remember the day he was born. I remember him saying girls had cooties and I was the only girl, along with mom who could hug him. I’ve always been close to my brother because he’s my only sibling and I love him to bits.

My mom passed away when I was 4 years old and my dad and I relocated to LA when I was 5. He was a professor at UC Santa Cruz. He taught and still teaches Calculus, and well he got a job offering at UCLA. We moved to his hometown, and about a year later he found someone. My stepmom who I love to death, she’s an orthopedic surgeon. One of the best in the nation as well, and well they married when I was 7. By the time I was 8 turning 9 years old the dweeb was born. 8 years is a big age difference but I love my brother to pieces and he lets me hug and kiss him so it’s all-good.

Aria looked at me and clapped her hands.

“Lucy did you know her mom is a top class orthopedic surgeon?”

Lucy looked at me and wiped her mouth.

“No way, who’s your mom?”

“Dr. Karla Martinez” I told her.

She smiled and laughed.

“What a small world, she repaired my shoulder about a year ago”

“No way” I told her.

“Yea, she’s really good at what she does”

I nodded and she smiled at me as she leaned back on the chair she was sitting on. She clicked her fingers and sat up a little.

“Come to think of it, I do remember seeing you in a picture. You had brown hair in the picture though”

I nodded and smiled.

“Yea, I dye it brown or black from time to time. I’m usually not blonde for a very long time, but I am a real blonde” I told her making her wink at me.

“Don’t we have more fun?”

I laughed and shrugged.

“Martinez, so you’re Hispanic?”

Beau looked at him and with a serious face he said

“No of course not Olli, she just has a very common Hispanic last name”

I laughed and Olli frowned at Beau.

“My dad is Hispanic, my mom was French” I told him.

Lucy looked at me a little confused and I smiled at her. My stepmom was first generation. Her parents were from Colombia and Brazil.

“She’s my stepmom, my mom passed away when I was 5” I told her.

“I’m so sorry”

I shook my head and shrugged.

“It’s fine, they’re both my moms” I told her.

Olli nodded and looked at me.

“So do you know French?”

I laughed and shook my head.

“God no” I said shaking my head making everyone in the table laugh.

“So you know two languages?”

“Three actually; Spanish, English, and Portuguese” I said.

“Why do you know Portuguese?”

I looked at Olli.

“My stepmom knows Portuguese” I told him making him nod.

“I thought you knew Finnish since you bolted out of the room when I was talking with Luce”

I laughed.

“You purred at her, and I do know some. I was supposed to study abroad there but ended up going to London instead” I said.

He frowned.

“Where were you planning on going?”

“Well, the school had a program with two Universities in Finland. University of Helsinki and Jyvaskyla University” I told him.

His eyes lit up when I said the last one.

“I’m from Jyvaskyla, why didn’t you study there?”

“They dropped the program and I didn’t want to go to Sweden” I said making him nod.

“Good choice”

I laughed; I knew he was going to say that.

“Those two cities are beautiful though. I was excited but sadly I couldn’t go, I applied to Helsinki and got in for grad school” I said.

“Why didn’t you go?”

“The distance, and well I got into Berkeley. My parents would have had a heart attack if I left the country” I said as he nodded.

“You’re smart, I like you”

I laughed and thanked him as he stood up to go use the bathroom. He then came back and looked at me.

“Do you have the hamster ball?”

I looked at him and nodded.

“It’s in the box. Look around its green” I told him as he left.

Lucy looked at me and laughed.

“You can tell how old he is around animals”

I laughed and she smiled.

“So, which is your hockey team?”

I looked at her and then at Sidney.

“Honestly, I don’t keep up” I told them.

Sidney nodded and looked at me.

“By default then it’s the Penguins. You can’t disagree sorry”

I laughed and he grinned at me. I was going to like Pittsburgh.
♠ ♠ ♠
Here you guys go! Tell me what you guys think. I kinda needed to give you guys a background story and what a good way to do it right? :)
Also...i doubt any of you like the Kings but the Kings are my home team and they finally won a fucking game in Regulation and this makes me so happy.
It makes it even better when it was against the blackhawks because my neighbor is the biggest blackhawks fan and he died a little when he saw the final score...that asshole likes throwing it in my face that the kings lack offense.
Well that is all, i must go to bed because i have class at 8am tomorrow.