The Life of a Fan-Fiction Writer

Meeting the team

Olli woke up just in time for practice with his face stuck to his phone, the battery dying and beeping at him. He jumped out of bed to check the time and plugged his waning phone into the wall to charge. After getting dressed he rushed off toward the arena with just enough time to get to practice, not noticing the new emails he’d gotten from management.

Practice went by as usual, but what the guys didn’t know was that their teammates knew what they knew, or at least the ones that bothered to read Sid’s email did. Olli couldn't look at Geno without picturing him taking Sid’s fictional girlfriend on his kitchen counter, unintentionally knocking her up. How could Malkin do that?

But it wasn’t the real Malkin, the lovable Russian he knew and enjoyed playing hockey with. No, this was the fictional Evgeni Malkin, who was willing to have sex with his teammate’s girlfriend, in his own house.

Not the Geno he knew.

Brandon Sutter kept to himself, not the usual outgoing guy his teammates knew him as. After reading Crosby’s email last night, and again this morning, he couldn't help wonder what this ‘Lila Smith’ had against him. Why was he falling in love with Sid’s girlfriend, and why was he the platonic best friend of Olli's girl? Surely there was more to that than the ‘male best friend’ or ‘secret love interest,’ right? He didn’t even think the fans noticed him that way.

Practice was a little awkward, and no one admitted they’d read the fanfiction Sid had e mailed to the team. That was probably not something teammates would talk about. But their captain had sent a mass email.... maybe it had some importance. But Brandon wasn’t about to bring it up. He chatted with his teammates as usual, about other sports or random ‘guy things’ as they took off their equipment and got ready to shower.

Mario walked in before anyone got the chance to leave. The media had left and he made sure they wouldn’t be coming back, so he made his way into the locker room.

“Guys, I’m sure some of you have been reading something Crosby sent out last night, and I can guess you have a lot of questions.” He started, and most of them pretended to have no idea what he was talking about. “Something has been brought to the the attention of the ownership, and I have decided to deal with it the only way I see fit. A ‘fan’ has been writing fanfiction about my team, the Penguins, and my star players, in such a way that makes me uncomfortable. If you’ve read it, and I know you have by they way you’re glancing at Maatta, but if you read it all you would understand what I meant. Instead of suing this girl for Libel, or insisting she take her work offline, I have found a better punishment. Boys, I present to you our official team fanfiction writer, Lila Smith!”

He smiled and the door’s open, but nothing happened. He looked back irritably and motioned the unseen person behind the door to come forward. Hesitantly, a foot peaked around the door to the locker room, then disappeared. Mario reached behind the doors and grabbed her, pulling the small blond girl into the locker room.

Lila had written this scene, in the role of Emme, and as Hannah, so she know how they would react to being presented to dozens of shirtless hockey players. But how would Lila react? The shy librarian, using her spare time to write fanfiction and live out the fantasies that grew in her head as she stocked the small rural library's shelves; what would she do when faced with the subjects of her creative wanderings?

“Lila has written several stories about our team, and I think she…” Mario rambled on, but Lila didn’t hear anything he said. Her ears started ringing, and as she focused on each of the players she’d mentioned before, everything slowly started to turn black. The last thing she remembered seeing was Sidney Crosby’s concerned face.

“I...I think she’s going to faint,” he said quietly as Lila stared at him with a desperate expression. Slowly, she swayed from left to right as her knees gave out, and unbeknownst to the fanfiction writer, her star rushed across the room to grab her before she fell.

“Good catch, Olli,” the team owner commented as the young defenceman caught the anxiety prone grad student. “Perhaps introducing her to the entire team at once wasn’t a good idea…”

Lila blinked awake under bright lights. She heard voices murmuring quietly and tried to remember where she was.

Who is that? Was that Geno? Why is he….

Oh my God. She closed her eyes and lay still, hoping they wouldn’t notice she was waking up and that they would all leave. Why had she agreed to this? Wouldn’t going to jail be better? Or getting fined a ridiculous amount she could never dream of paying off? How was this supposed to be easier??

“Lila?” A soft voice asked. “Are you feeling better?”

She blinked, but didn’t need to open her eyes to know who that was. Oh God. Why him? She wasn’t expecting the players to still be around.

Lila nodded and covered her face, shielding the bright lights and hiding her embarrassment.
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I wrote this over a year ago, and honestly cannot remember who I intended the player speaking to her in the end to be! I think it's either Sid or Olli. Opinions? I could go either way.

This is all I have written so far. If you're interested I'll keep writing!

Thank you for reading!