The Final Goal

Skylar was right; Fleury didn't play Monday against the Blues. The Blues are a good team and Skylar was waiting in anticipation all day, excited for the game. Unfortunately, the game got off to a bad start, the same bad start many of the recent games have had. Skylar watched as Zatkoff moved out of the crease, a second too late, to play a puck that was moving towards the net. He got caught out on the ice, away from his net, and when the Blues got the puck, Ian Cole moved in front of the net, trying to block the puck that was bound for the net. Unfortunately, he looked small in the net and the puck easily went past him. Skylar watched the Penguins lose 5-2, wishing Fleury was in the net, yet at the same time knowing he can't play every game. Skylar, reading some tweets on Twitter, felt bad for Zatkoff. She knew he was a nice person; she had gathered as much from their brief conversations. They've both never seen Star Wars, much to the other players' amazement. Hopefully the next game he played in would have a better outcome.

Wednesday afternoon rolled around, and Skylar was unenthusiastically working on a portrait. Portraits were always difficult for her, the eyes were so hard to make correctly. When people look at a portrait, everyone automatically looks at the eyes since they are a huge focal point. Struggling to get the right shine in the pupils, Skylar threw her pencil down and leaned back in her chair. After staring at the ceiling much longer than she had expected, Skylar walked down the stairs, searching for Patric.

"Patric!!" She yelled, turning the corner and walking into the living room. Patric looked up from his place on the couch, quizzically looking at her as she stood in front of him, blocking his view of the TV in front of him.
"Can we go do something?" Skylar asked, bouncing with energy.
"Sure? What do you want to do? And who do you want to invite?" Patric asked, still sounding slightly confused.
"We could play laser tag!"
Patric didn't need to hear anymore. He jumped up excitedly, running around the house in search of shoes.
"Who should we invite?" Patric asked again, coming back into the room only holding one shoe. He looked at it a second and frowned before turning around in search of the other one.
"Don't I still have to meet some of the new people? I haven't had a chance to really talk to any of the new guys," Skylar said, pulling on her own shoes that she kept in a spot next to the door. Patric walked back into the living room after he, finally, found his other shoe.
"Okay I'll call a few on the way. You drive," Patric said, handing Skylar the keys to his car.
"Yes! Finally!" Skylar yelled, running out to the car, glad she was finally doing something useful for once. As Skylar pulled out of the driveway, she heard Patric talking to someone on the phone.
"We'll be there soon. Okay, bye."
"Well?" Skylar asked, needing to know where she was heading.
"That was Fleury. I said we would pick him up. I can call the other guys and they should be able to meet us there. Beau and Brian are probably together anyway."

Skylar had no idea who Brian was but she focused on the road in front of her, driving the familiar route to Fleury's house. The second she pulled in the driveway, Fleury was walking down to the car. Climbing in the backseat, he leaned his head forward and gave Skylar a slight kiss on the cheek while Patric turned away in mock disgust.

"We picking anyone else up?" Fleury asked, buckling his seatbelt. Skylar glanced briefly at Patric for an answer.
"No we can meet everyone else there. I texted Beau, Brian, Carl, and Tanger."
"Okay cool. Where do I turn again?" Skylar asked, unsure.
"Take a left at the next light and it should be on the right I believe," Patric said, gesturing ahead.

Skylar moved into the furthest left lane, stopping the car as she waited for the light to turn green. Glancing up into the rearview mirror, Skylar saw Fleury looking out the car window. Patric said something to Fleury, but Skylar ignored it, mesmerized by the handsome man in the backseat of the car. His hair was slicked back and he was wearing a red and blue button down shirt. The top two buttons were left undone, exposing the white cotton shirt he wore underneath. The blue jeans he was wearing fit him surprisingly well. His legs were thin, but these jeans made his thighs look really nice, something Skylar realized she never noticed before.

"Skylar, you can go now," Patric said, pulling her out of her thoughts. Turning onto the next street, Skylar glanced back up to the rearview mirror and blushed when she saw Fleury smile knowingly. Turning right, Skylar pulled into the parking lot and parked the car semi close to the building. Once inside, Patric bought the tickets and waited for the others with Skylar and Fleury.

About 15 minutes later, everyone had finally arrived. Fleury was talking to Letang about something and Patric, who was standing with Beau, Carl, and someone Skylar had yet to meet, motioned for her to join their conversation.

"Skylar this is Brian Dumoulin. Brian this is Skylar, my sister," Patric said, motioning to Skylar, who smiled meekly beside him.
"Hi nice to meet you," Brian said, smiling warmly.
"Nice to meet you too," she said, taking in his features. He wasn't a bad looking guy, quite attractive actually. He has brown eyes, brown hair, and looks to be somewhere in his early twenties.
"We ready to go back?" Fleury asked, moving to stand beside Skylar and wrapping an arm around her waist. Brian's eyes shot down to Fleury's arm and Letang must have noticed Brian's confused look so he elaborated, "They're dating." Brian nodded, a look of realization dawning on his face as he said, "Ohh".
"Well let's go back!" Patric said, pushing Carl along with him.

The worker handed everyone their respective gear and they soon divided into teams. It would be Fleury, Beau and Patric against Skylar, Brian, and Letang. Once they were set, the worker opened the door to the room, giving them a moment to get ready before the game. Skylar looked at Fleury and smiled, "I'm gonna crush you!" Fleury just shook his head laughing, "I highly doubt that!"

Skylar followed Letang and Brian to a wall and she crouched behind it. The clock turned on, signaling the start of the game. "What's the plan?" Skylar whisper yelled, looking back and forth between her partners. "How about I go over there to scope out their corner of the room and try to get to their castle?" Letang asked, motioning towards the neon green corner of the room.
"You two can stay over here and protect our side. If they shoot that spot in the castle, they get 20 points," Letang said, pointing his gun towards the bright blue castle. Skylar nodded, remembering the instructions the worker had described to them before the game. Skylar watched as Letang looked to the right and left quickly, making sure it was safe. If their vest got hit, it would disable their gun for 30 seconds and the other team would also get 10 points.

Skylar looked at Brian who smiled. "We can do this! I got this side; you cover the other one," he said, walking over to the right side. Skylar moved to the left, following the walls until she reached the edge of the castle. There was a black ramp that led to a bridge with a bullseye on the wall directly behind the bridge. Skylar knew the bridge needs to be protected, so she stood behind the wall closest to it watched, waiting for someone to approach. She hadn't been waiting long when she saw someone closing in. Unable to make out who it was, she focused on the small circles on the vest and shot her gun. The sound reverberated around the room as she hit whoever was walking towards her. "Dang it!" Carl yelled, making Skylar laugh as he ran away. She heard another sound and a second later heard Letang yell, "Zut!". A second later, Letang was running towards her. "I got shot!" he yelled, diving behind her for cover. "I know. I heard!" she said, laughing. "Do you want me to go out?" she asked, knowing Letang had a few more seconds until he was able to shoot again. "Sure," he said. "Their castle is over there," he said, pointing in the direction he had come from. Skylar crept in that direction, using the walls as her advantage. The castle was getting closer and closer when she heard something. Spinning around in a complete 180 degree turn, Skylar saw Fleury behind her. It was dark but Skylar saw the bright white of his teeth as he smiled. "Got you," he said, and her vest lit up from the hit. "No!" she yelled, grasping her chest dramatically. Skylar could hear Fleury laugh as she ran off, back to their base.

"We need to have two people go, instead of one," Skylar suggested. "Okay how about I stay and guard?" Letang asked, looking at Brian. "Okay let's go," he said, moving past Skylar and taking the lead. She followed Brian down a different path, this time trying to get to the green castle from the other side. As they were walking, Skylar spotted someone trying to run from wall to wall and fired, hitting whoever was running. "Damn!" Patric yelled. Skylar heard fighting behind her and hoped Letang was able to hold his own; Skylar and Brian were almost to the castle. The ramp was in sight and Skylar almost ran up it, but Brian pulled her back. "What?" she asked, looking around nervously. Everything was silent, everything except for Letang defending the blue tower against the green team's attacker. Brian motioned to the green tower's bridge and Skylar saw someone lurking in the shadows like he was waiting for them. The person's eyes flashed over the bridge railing and Skylar knew they had been spotted. "Attack!" she yelled, charging towards the bridge at full speed. The man on the bridge jumped up too and they were all shooting at each other. Surprisingly, Skylar made it up the ramp unharmed. Knowing one of them had hit their opponent, Skylar made her way onto the bridge and shot the bullseye, hopefully winning the game as the clock reached 0.

"Nice job, partner!" Brian said, high-fiving Skylar once he was on the bridge. "Thanks!" Skylar sad, before turning back to their unknown opponent. The lights flickered on and Skylar laughed at Fleury, who was leaning against the bridge's railing. "You shot me," he said, obviously trying too hard to act upset. "Payback!" Skylar said, smirking. She grabbed Fleury's hand and pulled him down the ramp, followed closely by Brian. "C'mon I'll buy you some food you sore loser," she said. They met up with Letang, Carl, Beau, and Patric and made their way to the outside room so they could take their equipment off. "Nice job, Skylar!" Letang said, seeing she was the one that got the last second points to get the win. "Thanks!" she said, walking out of the building. "I didn't realize you were so good at laser tag," Patric said, surprised. "How could you not know? She's your sister!" Hagelin exclaimed. "Yeah well I never thought she would actually be good at something," Patric said, smirking. Skylar rolled her eyes at her brother. "Let's go get some food! I'm starving," Skylar said, stopping at Patric's car. "Dinner at Patric's?" Beau asked, looking hopeful. "Yes! Let's go!" Skylar said, excited for food.

After dinner Skylar said bye to everyone, slightly disappointed they had to leave so soon, but there was a game tomorrow and they needed to be rested. She got ready for bed, starting to become tired at the thought of sleep. Finally, she made her way to her bed and collapsed on the sheets and laid her head on the soft pillow. Sighing into its softness, she closed her eyes and drifted into a deep sleep.