Whirl Wind

The flight to Prague was very long and very gruelling. The 11 hour flight from Toronto was not an enjoyable one and I knew that I was going to have jet lag. I just wanted to get to my hotel room and sleep. We are going to be able to see Sidney play 5 games. Two preliminary and three (hopefully) elimination games. The team is looking very good this year, some people say it is one of the best teams they have ever seen at the World Championships for Canada, which is pretty awesome that my boyfriend is playing for. It has been hard trying to keep in contact when he is in Prague, and I went back home for two weeks. We only skyped once and that was a week ago. I really miss him, but I know that he has to find some chemistry with the team and hang out with them. I know of most of the people on Team Canada, there isn’t a Hab there because they are still in the playoffs. Sid told me that Geno is there so hopefully I will get to see him around. I have met Mat Duchene and some of the other players that were at Team Canada Camp.

We find our bags, we flew with most of the players’ families that came from Ontario through to the Maritimes. Taylor, Trina, Troy and I find a cab to take to our hotel. Prague is absolutely beautiful and I cannot wait to sightsee with Sidney and his family, but I need to sleep off my jet lag. So to bed I go. It is 10 in the morning here in Prague and I am pretty sure Sidney is at practice at the moment. So I will probably see him later today but right now I’m going to sleep.

Sidney’s pov

We just finished a fairly easy practice and now I was heading back to the hotel, hoping to see Charlie. I have missed her so much while in Prague. We have barely spoken and I feel bad about it, I am hoping that I get to have her all by myself today so we can go sightsee as a couple, but I think my family will come along too. I don’t want to be rude to my parents and sister, I just want to spend more time with my girlfriend. Charlie and I are going on a vacation after Worlds, we will be going to Monaco for a week, Nathan Mackinnon and Brayden Schenn are also going to be in Monaco so we will meet up with them sometimes. The four of us are all flying together. I am so very excited and I hope Charlie is too. Taylor had texted me saying what hotel room they were in before I assume they were having a nap. I hadn’t gotten a text from Charlie, I guess she knew that Tay had texted me. I walk back to the bus with Nathan Mackinnon and Jason Spezza. I know of most of the players on our team, but I knew Nathan, Jason, and most of the Colorado boys plus Hamhuis from the olympics. I had finally met Brent Burns who is an awesome dude, Tyler Seguin who I have heard lots about and he is a fun guy to be around. I have gotten along with Claude and Sean, but I am not on a line with them, so its kinda weird but we are getting to know each other.

We get on the bus and head back to the hotel. I am happy that the families get to stay in the same one as us. I get off the bus and head to Nathan and I’s room. I quickly change into jeans and a sweater before saying goodbye to my room mate and heading to Charlie and Taylor’s room. They are four floors down from me, I quickly take the stairs to avoid any fans, right now I just want my girl. I basically run because I am so excited. I missed her so much. I knock on their dropdoor and I can hear the two girls groan and Tay tell Charlie to get up and see who it is. I chuckle and knock again knowing it will annoy them. Charlie slowly opens the door and I grab her by the waist and my lips find hers. She lets out a small squeal before kissing me back. I pull away nuzzle my head in her neck and place fluffy kisses on her collarbone. She is wearing one of my t shirts and spandex shorts. She looks so beautiful even with her hair up in a ponytail and it being a bit messy from her sleeping. We haven’t even spoken to each other yet. Just kissed and have held each other. I breathe in her scent before finally letting go and then we walk quietly over to her bed. I take off my jeans and climb back into bed with her. I wrap my arms around her and pull her to me. She tangles one of her legs with mine and wraps her arms around my abdomen, just like old times. Charlie closes her eyes and I open mine just watching her sleep. She is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen, she looks so peaceful when she sleeps. She has a little smile on her face and her lips are pursed, I want to kiss them right now but I know she wants to sleep. They only got in about two hours ago and I know my jet lag didn’t go away until the third day. Soon enough I feel my eye lids begin to droop and sleep occupies me from looking at Charlie.

I am awoken by light kisses on my neck. I smile knowing that Charlie is know in Prague with me.

“Hi.” Charlie whispers to me.

“Hey.” I whisper back. I look at my sister in the bed beside us who is still asleep.

“How are you?” She asks.

“I am good, what about you?”

“Tired and hungry.” She chuckles.

“Want to go get something to eat?” I ask.

“Can we just go get ice cream?” She smiles.

“Yeah, I will leave a note. C’mon.” We quietly get out of bed and I put my jeans on and Charlie changes into leggings and a hockey sweater she brought.

I leave a note for my sister that we went for a walk to get ice cream and should be back soon. I make sure we have Charlie’s key and we head out to get some ice cream. I am not really sure where we can find ice cream but I am going to ask the receptionist of the hotel and then we can try and find it together, it will be fun. I lace my fingers with Charlie’s as we head to the elevator. I press the button and smile down at Charlie.

She sees me smiling. “What?”

“Nothing, I am just glad you are here now.” I smile more and kiss the top of her head.

“So Austria tomorrow right?” She asks as we get into the elevator.

“Yep.”

“That’s exciting.” She says.

We head out of the elevator and I walk with her to the receptionist. “Hi, I was wondering where the closet place is for ice cream?” I ask her.

She smiles and types something on her computer. I hope she understood what I said. Soon she looks up and says. “There is one just down the street. Go out the doors and turn left, walk down the road for about 5 hundred metres.” She smiles at us and we thank her. Her english was very good, I guess you kind of have to be when you work at a hotel where you can meet people with many different languages.

On our way to the ice cream place, I was only stopped twice by fans. Charlie didn’t seem to mind, she never did. She either just waited for me by the side or she would offer to take the picture if they wanted a picture. I hated “selfies” and I think Charlie knew that too because all the pictures we took together were either taken in the mirror or someone took it for us. I didn’t have social media to show our pictures on but I know Charlie has twitter and instagram that are both private. Although she does tell me what she posts. She had made a new account when we started dating and she only lets people who know both of us follow her. She wants me to get instagram so I can look at her pictures or players from the team.

Charlie doesn’t stop taking pictures on her phone of Prague. It is very pretty and the first couple days I was here I think I took almost a hundred pictures. We order our ice cream and decide to eat it outside at one of the tables they have set up. I got Vanilla and Charlie got strawberry. We sit down and I take out my phone and sneak a picture of Charlie looking at everything around her. I love it so much. I want to put it as my screensaver. Charlie is smiling and looking around at the buildings and the people. I have found that the people in Prague are so nice and will always smile at you when you are walking by. I get ready to take another picture of Charlie, “Smile Char.” I say to her. She does and I get another great picture of her. “You’re so beautiful.” I say to her and she blushes and looks down at her ice cream.

We finish our ice cream quickly before we walk a little more exploring Prague together. We go into little shops to see the culture of Prague.

“I brought a pair of swim trunks for you.” Charlie says to me. She is really excited to go to Monaco.

“I was just going to buy a new pair.” I say as we walk back to the hotel.

“Well now you can save money.” She laughs at me.

“Did you forget anything for the trip?” I ask because she usually does.

“I’m not really sure yet so we will have to see.” She smiles at me.

“I think there is going to be a Grand Prix event when we go to Monaco. Would you want to go?” I ask. It sounds like fun but I don’t think I will care that much if we miss it.

“Sure! That sounds cool.”

“Okay, I will look into it.” I smile as we get to our hotel I see my team Canada team mate, Tyler Seguin.

“Hey Segs.”

“Hey Sid!” He smiles and looks at Charlie.

“Oh!! This is my girlfriend Charlotte, Charlotte this is Tyler.” I introduce them.

“Hi” Charlie says shyly.

“So you are the famous Charlotte. Its nice to meet you.”

“You too.” Char says with a smile.

“Do you know Chelsea Smith?” Tyler asks her.

“Yeah I met her last week at a CWHL training camp. Why?” She says. I feel bad as her boyfriend that I haven’t asked her how that went yet.

“She is good friends with my sister, Candace. She’s crazy good at hockey.”

“Yeah she is really good.”

“So do you play for the CWHL?”

“Uh not yet. I hope to, I applied for the draft this year.”

“So you don’t live with this great guy here.” Segs hits my shoulder and I chuckle.

“I just finished school in Minnesota, if I don’t get drafted then I will probably live with him.”

“She will get drafted, she lead her NCAA division in goals and her team mate led in assists.” I pipe in. Charlie rolls her eyes at me.

“Who knows, maybe I won’t?” Char says.

“Maybe a NHL team will look at you, if Siddy over here keeps saying how good you are, you might get interest.” Tyler says.

“That would be cool but I doubt it.” Char shrugs it off.

“Well I should go, my sisters are making me take them shopping. I guess I will see you guys later. It was nice meeting you Charlotte. Maybe we will see you playing against Sid and I soon.” He smiles, waves, and walks away.

I lead Charlie to the elevator.

“You know his reputation seems wrong.” Char says.

“It is. He likes to have fun and he is a nice guy. Thats what Jamie told me too.” Charlie just nods.
“Do you have a lot of Gongshow clothing?” I ask her out of the blue, I had been looking at her red Gongshow sweater.

“Yeah, this is a men's sweater, but I bought in because I like how baggy it is. A guy Ryan that I know helps design the clothing and I try and get the ones he designs.”

“Is this one of his designs?”

“No, this is like one of the first designs there were. He only gets to design t shirts. Do you have any Gongshow stuff?” She asks.

I shake my head. “Nope, Tay wears some stuff and I saw you were wearing something so I wondered.”

“I guess I will have to buy you something, then we can match and everyone can laugh at how cheesy we are.”

I laugh and wrap my arms around her head in a little hug when we are in the elevator. “How was the camp last week?” I ask.

“Tough, it kicked my ass, but in a good way.”

“Well your ass does still look very good.” I say and drop a hand down to her butt and lightly tap it.

Charlie laughs. “Lets talk about your abnormally large ass.”

I scoff. “Don’t offend it, it has feelings.”

We both laugh when the door opens up and we walk to Charlie’s room. She opens the door and we find my parents and sister laying on her bed watching tv.

“Hey guys.” I say and go give them all hugs. We talk about how the city of Prague is and of coarse hockey. My dad thinks we can win a gold medal which would be super cool. My mom asked about Geno. I haven’t seen him yet, but I have texted him seeing when he isn’t too busy so we can hang out but its hard being on a different team.

We lay around talking and watching tv before we decide we should go get something for dinner. Its really nice being able to just hang out with my girlfriend and my family. I don’t get to do that often because my life is always go, go, go and a lot of stress, so it is nice when you get a chance. We are going for dinner at this pub that I was at last week with the team, it was pretty good. I sit beside Charlie and rest my hand on her thigh. I order a burger and Charlie orders a wrap. I don’t pay attention to what my family got. Charlie and I are having water, I have a game tomorrow although I would have liked a beer like my dad ordered.

Hanging out with the people I love the most is the best feeling, we are all together because of the best game in the world. I am very fortunate for the life I have; I play the sport I dreamt of doing since the age of 6, have the most supportive family, and a girlfriend who shares the same passion for hockey and who I love and admire more and more everyday. I would love to share the gold medal of this tournament with Charlie. I have celebrated the Cup, two olympic golds, and several awards with my family and this one would be special for Charlie and I. Let’s just hope we win.