Confessions from a Ranger's Roommate

After a few weeks of little to no sleep, many library sessions and even some traditional dorm hallway baseball-a finals tradition started by her, one of her Columbia friends Yoshi and his roommate Johnny when they were too delirious from the lack of sleep, she was finally done with her finals as of 10 AM. Michael however had been partying so Teodora took this opportunity to start yelling the lyrics to Independent by Webbie to wake him up. “I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEAN?" She hollered.

"Jesus. You know you're supposed to be exhausted after all the finals you've done," Michael laughed as he came into the kitchen. Naturally he had been out partying and had just gotten up. Though 11 AM wasn't too bad for his day after partying habits. "You should eat before you and Alex fly-OH! Of course. I stand corrected," he laughed as she set her lunch on the table. "Of course its foreign stuff. So what's this?"
"Tteokbokki," she replied. "Korean."
"Gearing up for Alex's mom's Korean lessons?" Michael teased as she shook her head. "He told me she was gonna make it her mission when you were home to start learning to write it finally."

Sliding over some food for him to try, she shrugged. "We'll see. Alex's sister Ariel's curious for Tampa people to play."
Michael tasted a little. "Spicy. Hmm, not bad. Remind me to buy those rice noodle rolls-let me try it! Bánh cuốn again-," he said and paused to laugh and high five her because he had pronounced the Vietnamese dish decently. "But yeah, Stammer told me. What games you going to again?"
"LA and San Jose," Teodora replied.

"Seguin text you about meeting you?" Michael asked. "He said you could come to a game if you want."
She made a face. "Kinda cutting it close if we do that. Tell him lunch cause our flight's in the later afternoon. Especially since LAX is a bitch to get through."
Michael nodded and pulled out his phone to text him. "I'll give him your number."
Teodora smiled wickedly. "Will I get interesting drunk texts from him too?"
"Hey now," he smiled his perfect smile. "And as if we don't get drunk texts from your little Alex Chung friend."
"We get texts. Not just you," she corrected him. "Go get ready for practice because it'll take you a couple hours at least. Alex should be here soon."

He left to get ready, leaving Teodora to finish her food when she heard a weird scratching at the door. Slowly, she got up and opened it to see Alex Chung was outside. "Where's DZ?"
"Bathroom," she replied and beamed when he produced a very small string of Chinese fireworks. A typical prank of theirs that worked beautifully to scare the shit out of people. "Though try not to set off fire alarms," she said and then forced some windows open. An icy freezing breeze came in but at least the fire alarms wouldn't go off. Alex dug for a cooking pan that she had bought and put the fireworks inside.

3...2...1...Alex counted off silently, knocked at the door and then lit the fuse.
"Sup-WHAT THE FUCK?" Michael screamed at the short string firing off. Teodora promptly picked up the pan to put in the sink.
"You partied last night. We were just concerned you weren't awake," Alex smirked at him.

"You guys are fucking assholes!" Michael bellowed. "If something burned I'm gonna kill you!"
"Nah, we perfected it so there's little to no damage," Teodora replied after coming back.
"Plus it helps our families are loaded so we got the money," Alex chimed in, making her laugh. Even Michael had to laugh at that. There was a knock at the door and Teodora let Brian Boyle in, their "taxi driver" to JFK airport.

"No wonder I heard loud noises," Brian Boyle came in. "These two are reunited. Do I smell smoke or something?"
Michael pointed at them. "They just threw fireworks at my face!"
Brian cackled as Teodora scowled. "We so did not you baby. We lit them from behind your door."
"Yeah, cause that helps you," Michael retorted.
"Like Chung said. We have money. Sucks when you kinda have a loaded roommate and a loaded friend," Teodora shot back.

"Can I bribe you so that you don't do that to me?" Brian asked.
Teodora scowled. "That's no fun, taking money off you like that. Last year, Columbia University people went to Japan to visit some of Yoshi's family over break. His cousins all put in money, betting I wouldn't eat live octopus and I did no problem."
"That's gross!" Michael scowled.
Teodora smiled and patted her stomach. "Comes from eating the more interesting stuff when I was living in Van Nuys. Especially when you have the Asian moms encouraging you to eat fish eyes because its good for the eyes or cow brains make you smarter."
Alex jerked his thumb at her. "Its true. She does have an iron stomach. She can eat stuff like pig face, intestines or chicken feet no problem."

She laughed as the Canadian boys gagged. "You guys need to toughen up! Man, I'm the girl!"
As they filed out to the car, Alex suggested, "Make them eat yàn wō."
"Birds nest soup. Literally," she told Michael and Brian. To Alex, she asked, "You paying? Like, it costs thirty to a hundred dollars in Hong Kong for one stupid bowl!"

"Oh don't you worry," Michael replied. "I'm dragging you both up to every single Canada game. Edmonton, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto...I'll turn you warm blooded California kids into icicles."
"And we'll just push you into the snow," Teodora retorted.
"And I'll make you two learn how to drive. In snow," Michael retorted right back.

Teodora tried to turn to sock him in the chest but Brian had a firm grip on her neck. "I thought you guys had these things called finals, that you're supposed to be exhausted from."
"Nah, we're kinda delirious at this point," Alex laughed.
"Before I drag you guys to Canada, please sleep when you both are in California," Michael pleaded. "I don't think I've seen Teodora sleep more than three hours for a few weeks now."

As Brian pulled up, she laughed. "Oh don't worry. We'll be sleeping in."
The boys got out to help them with their luggage and to say goodbye. "So, I think we'll still be roomies after your break's done," Michael said and she was a bit startled by his comment.
Would they? Who knew with her cousin. She nor Alex had gotten word of her cousin in Afghanistan but if Lina wanted to keep silent then she was on her own explaining things to the family. Teodora was done. Pushing past this, she said her goodbyes. "See you Boyle," she said goodbye to Brian. To Michael, she pointed, "You'd better fucking not get more stitches or you're dead!" As Michael sputtered in outrage, she shut the door on him. "You don't think we went too far, did we?" She asked.

Alex shrugged. "We can take him if he retaliates. It's us after all."
Teodora and Alex pushed through the holiday crowds to board the plane. Usually neither minded flying coach but after their long finals, both gladly paid for first class seats.
Teodora had been in the middle of fishing around for her laptop to watch IRIS, an addicting Korean drama when a towering guy sat down in front of them.

"Biznasty! Paul Bissonnette!" Teodora said in surprise. "You play for the Coyotes." Inwardly, she praised herself for recognizing a hockey player without any help!
"Yup. Let's see, New York kids. You Ranger fans?" Paul asked with a smile.
"New York? We're LA and Bay Area kids," Alex shot back and Paul grinned. "And let me guess, you're Canadian!"
"Duh," Paul cackled.

"Yeah, I room with Del Zotto from the Rangers," Teodora said. "Plus we know some other guys. The Staals, the Stevens from Tampa-I mean Stamkos and Downie-,"
Paul cut her off. "All the Staals? I used to play with Jordan."
Teodora sat up happily. "No way! Though technically I couldn't meet him yet cause that idiot Del Zotto got his side sliced from the skate. Hey, you know Evgeni then?"
"Do I know Malkin?" Paul laughed at the question.
"Not cause he's the Russian superstar from the team. Just cause he speaks Russian like I can pretty much do," Teodora replied. Paul nodded thoughtfully. "Though I'm probably not Russian. I mean, technically I was adopted but I'm a bit darker to be Russian. Not like Malkin, Ovechkin or Kolvachuk-,"

Alex laughed as Paul made an awkward face. "You fight him or something?" Alex pressed eagerly.
Teodora couldn't help but chime in. "You should see his reaction during fights. OH MY GOD!" She imitated his loud voice.
Paul had to stop laughing as Alex simply grinned. "Ah, no. I mean, I kinda gave him shit about his contract stuff with the Devils. May have said sorry communist, go back to the USSR. Sorry if he's a friend."

Teodora shrugged. "I suppose Afghan friends of the family might be sore against the USSR. I was adopted by an Afghan couple so some family or friends might be a little sore about the whole invasion things. Oh well, it happens."
"Your parents hate the USSR?" Paul asked.
She shook her head. "If they were to hate someone, it'd be by their personal actions, not what someone's country did. My dad's too chill for that stuff anyways."
"Except when Newcastle United or Manchester plays. Her dad grew up in the UK after they left Afghanistan so he lo-oves the football there," Alex replied.

"Just soccer? Try any sport. You should hear him cuss out Kobe when the Lakers play," Teodora laughed. "Or Sunderland A.F.C. Dad's a huge Newcastle United fan from when he went to school there."
Alex suddenly asked, "Hey, Coyotes weren't playing the Islanders were they?"

The two of them looked at Paul until he coughed awkwardly. They laughed as he admitted, "In person hearing for a hit."
"Nice!" Teodora laughed with Alex. "Though maybe that's not something we should be laughing at."
He shrugged. "Nah its okay. Actually its why I really like you two. You two kinda remind me of myself actually."
A memory struck her. "Oh yeah? You mess with Sean Avery at all?" Teodora asked. "I may have, you know. Kinda mouthed off and got in his face. And then Ilya and Zach Parise from the Devils may have gotten Boogaard to make him leave."
Immediately Paul leaned over for a high five. "Now I really love you kids. You got in Avery's face. I wish someone recorded it."

Wrinkling her nose, she admitted, "He was kinda embarrassing actually. Like I beat the shit outta this wannabe Chinese gangbanger at my elementary school from years ago when he wanted to jump one of my foster brothers. Sean Avery's a hockey player and he was all whiny sounding and stuff."
"Maybe because you grew up for eight years in the hood and he's a softie Canadian," Alex mused as Paul pointed in warning.

"Probably," Teodora laughed. "Sorry Biz. Though don't broadcast this whole hood thing. DZ already spazzes about my damn hearing aid and me being a girl in the 'big city' despite me being a big city girl my whole life."
"No big deal," he shrugged. "I can see how it'd piss you off."
Finally! Some hockey players that didn't fuss or cry about her pre adoption phase in her life! Plus it was kinda funny that Biz and Kovalchuk were the ones that didn't fuss considering that Twitter issue.

The flight eventually ended for Teodora and Alex's layover in Phoenix while Paul had to head back with his team. "You kids come hang out if you're here. Seriously," he said and gave out his phone number.
"You keep calling us kids," Alex scowled.
Crossing her arms, Teodora laughed. "I was gonna say, the players that know us are probably gonna shit themselves that us three know each other now. Oh!" She dug for her phone. "Let's send a group picture to DZ." Paul grinned wolfishly and leaned in with them for a picture. Reading her text aloud, she said, "Guess who's our new ally." They didn't have to wait long for Michael's reply. "Hankie-Henrik Lundqvist says oh god. Stallsy and Prust laughed. I say you're dead if you pull something," she read Michael's reply.

After they said their goodbyes to Paul, she went through missed calls and saw none from her parents. Weird. "Your parents call at all?" Teodora asked. "Mine didn't."
Pulling out his phone, Alex shook his head. "No. Usually they ask if the flight's on time. Oh well we have some time, I'm stopping in a gift shop. I'm fucking thirsty."

"Yeah," she agreed and finally remembered to shrug off her stupid coat. "We're finally in our weather." Alex did the same and then left to go find something to drink.
For awhile she leaned against the wall to text both her parents to remind them about her flight. Still nothing. Very weird. Teodora licked her lips and decided that something to drink did sound good. Sticking an earbud in her better ear, she started to play Deja Vu by SS501 and started to walk to Starbucks when there was a commotion behind her.

"Wait," an accented male voice begged her and found her wrist being grabbed.
Making a fist with her free hand, she turned to face whoever had her and felt her heart jolt in surprise. Hot guy from the Rangers game! Artem's girl Ksenia never told her if she figured out who he was. "Ah, uh....hi," she stammered.
"Do you remember me? From the Rangers game?" He asked.
Teodora nodded and quickly shut off her music. "Sorry," she apologized and yanked off her earbud. Though of course this would happen. The first time she saw him she was sweaty from running to the shootout. Now she was out of it from her lack of sleep from finals.

In his hand was a jacket with the words staff stitched in. Oh, so he was staff? Oh well, it'd probably be easier possibly dating staff anyways, she decided happily. "So, you do NHL stuff then?" She asked.
A smile played across his lips. Damn it was hot and cute at the same time. "You could say that," he said. "This is my second full year in the NHL." Which meant he was close to her age.
"Yeah. I'm in my second year at Columbia University for pre-med," she said. "And no its not a medical trainer for the NHL! I room with one of the Ranger defenseman and the team keeps trying to pull me from going into Ear, Nose and Throat."

"When are you back to New York?" He asked.
"Roughly the last week of January I go back," she said. "I live in the Bay Area-I mean, San Francisco."
He twisted the coat in his hands. "The Ranger game is an afternoon one on the weekend. Do you wanna do something after? I mean, I don't know if your seeing your roommate..."
She laughed hard. "Not a chance with Del Zotto. He fusses over my hearing aid and I torment him with pranks. But yeah. I can do something...."

There was an odd and very loud grunting sound from behind. Teodora didn't need to turn around to see who was the culprit and yelled the Korean word for hey. "YA!" Alex stopped immediately as the girls near him giggled. "Seriously!" She cried at him, seeing he was struggling with the cap to his drink. "I don't get how your girlfriend can stand you sometimes!"

"Shut up and hurry up! They're calling our seats!" Alex shot back and hoisted his heavy backpack back up.
"Unbelievable," she said and turned back to the staff guy. "So, we could meet where we saw each other the first time?"
"Sure," he agreed and slid his hand off her wrist so he could squeeze her own hand. "I'll see you soon."

Teodora managed a goodbye as her ears rang. Oh. My. God. Ksenia was going to die. Hell, she was dying now! As she got on her last flight to LA, she wondered what that accent was. Swedish? Finnish? Czech? Swiss?

Her thoughts were interrupted when Alex elbowed her sharply. "Uh. Our parents are in court."
Teodora wrinkled her nose. "Court!" Not that shit again! She had to suffer through it during her time in the foster system and then when the Ansarys were adopting her. "Are they testifying for some medical thing?" She mused. "Though why bring your mom? She's a language teacher?"

"Some lawyer came out of nowhere and pretty much announced he was suing on you, Manny's and Jerome's behalf for the foster system leaving you with abusive parents."
Both stunned at the sudden news, they sat through their flight in silence until they reached LAX...

Notes