Confessions from a Ranger's Roommate

Teodora and Alex landed in LAX and found their hotel only find their parents not at the hotel. Instead Alex's sister Ariel, Alex's girlfriend Sara Teodora's little brother Joey were waiting for her. Of course there was no Lina to be seen.

"Hello," Sara greeted them first: of course kissing Alex first and then giving Teodora a hug.
Ariel made a disappointed face as she too came to hug them. "I tried a lot of ways to sneak into court. Didn't work. Hi though."

Teodora laughed. "No big deal. Plus let's not have you arrested or anything. This one eat at all?" She asked and lovingly combed her fingers through her little brother's hair.
"Pasgetti," Joey promptly replied, making Alex snort.
"Spagetti, what else?" She laughed and then said, "So you had lunch, which means..."
Joey pouted his lower lip. "Aw man!" He whined and then hugged her legs. She did her best to not cave in but still patted his 4 year old head. "No nap! Puleeze seester! I missed you!"
Alex took over. "We'll put him down," he said as he scooped him up with Sara following them back to the hotel room.

Sitting down into the lobby, they took out laptops and promptly typed in search engines. "You know this lawyer guy's name? My parents told me nothing," Teodora asked.
"John Stevenson. Older guy, African American. Didn't say a word when I questioned him," Ariel replied. "Just told the parents he was representing ALL of you."

Teodora texted the name to her Columbia classmate Kurt so he could ask his stepfather who was the governor of Connecticut. "We'll see if Kurt's stepdad knows something."

There was some more silent typing until Ariel couldn't contain herself anymore. "So. When can we meet this Del Zotto? Don't tell my brother but he is fucking hot," Ariel giggled.
Teodora grinned. "Hey. I'm not disagreeing."

Fishing for her phone, Ariel asked, "You see that one bitch player again? What's his name. Avery? Alex told me of course. Shame that Parise kid stepped in. Though he's hot too."
"Ha!" Teodora barked. "No, Avery probably got sent down again. Though I've been holed up for those damn finals of mine." Her cheeks grew hot as she poked Ariel's arm. "So. Sure, I don't know his name but he's staff from another team but I got asked on a date."

"For real?" Ariel hissed and then cried, "Why the hell didn't you get his name?"
Crossing her arms, she asked, "One guess who made me forget." Ariel rolled her eyes, knowing it was her brother. "But I'm meeting him the weekend I get back after the game. So we'll see."
Leaning in, Ariel asked, "So is he Canadian?"
Teodora made a face. "I dunno. Probably European something with that accent. Guy's team is orange or red, I can't remember the team it was. Not sure if he sounded like this Max Talbot guy from Pittsburgh. French Canadian guy that spent half his time following around calling me ma belle."

Shifting in her seat, Ariel laughed. "I don't know shit about hockey but I'm so friggen excited to meet all these hockey people. I wanna see that Lecavalier guy you and your friends said was really hot."
She straightened up, remembering she should warn Stamkos and Downie that they wouldn't be at the game. Hoping she would get Steve Downie, the rougher enforcer that would understand court stuff a lot better, she pouted slightly when it was Steven Stamkos. "Hey, so...we can't make it to the game tonight. I dunno if Anaheim would work easier..."

"Oh it's okay. It'll be easier tomorrow for you and Alex," Steven said cheerfully. Teodora made a face. Why was he so cheerful about it. "Consider we lost a bet to Del Zotto."
"The hell?" She wrinkled her nose.
"We lost a football bet so now we've got to retaliate to you and Alex for Del Zotto," Steven replied.
Teodora tilted her head back and mouthed a fuck. Of course the fireworks prank was going to backfire on them. "You'll have to catch us first!" She retorted and hung up on him laughing. "OH ALEX!" She hollered and started storming to the elevator.
"I thought we were looking at court stuff," Ariel said but quickly followed her.

Snorting, Teodora said, "Oh no. Alex just got us into another mess. He lit off some fireworks in Del Zotto's apartment-oh sure, you laugh!" She spat when Ariel grinned. "You're not getting chased by NHL players. And you know how fast Stamkos is?"
Teodora jabbed her room key in as Alex opened the door. "I thought you were still downstairs," he said.
Jabbing him in the chest, she said, "Hey. I told you those fireworks were a bad idea. I told you Del Zotto would retaliate! The Tampa Steves lost a bet so now they're running us down tomorrow at Anaheim."

"BUA!" Alex yelled in Korean. "WHAT?"
There was laughter from inside the room. "Oh, sure! You laugh Sara!"
"I am laughing," Sara beamed at them. "So they're chasing you two down? This should be interesting."
From behind, Ariel was looking at game clips of Steven and Steve. "Stamkos is fast. That Downie looks like a tank."

Alex snapped at his sister, "Oh thanks little sister," he scowled as Teodora moved to watch the clips. "Damn I haven't ran in ages!"
Looking up from Ariel's phone, Teodora said, "You know we do have all that walking distance we get from college. Plus our San Francisco hills. Maybe if we divide and conquer?"
"You get Stamkos. Downie's gonna go easy on you cause of the hearing aid," Alex replied promptly.
Tapping the door frame, she said thoughtfully, "I think I'll go a bit ahead tomorrow to the Ducks rink. Scope it out a little. If there's incline, it'll be to our advantage."

Suddenly, Ariel snatched Teodora's phone out of her hands. "Where's that one kid's number? The Pittsburgh Penguins janitor that used to be the gang member that you knew years ago?"
"Oh Ray?" She asked and then shrugged. "He might know. Yeah, text him."

After awhile wait, Ariel finally cleared her throat. "Elijah X is what he used to go by. Now he's reverted back to his old name," Ariel said, handing Teodora her phone back.
Teodora straightened up. "Nation of Islam?" She guessed. That made zero sense. This guy sounded like he had something to do with Malcolm X or the Nation of Islam. She knew of black power leaders, Malcolm X in particular that threw off their original last name, saying it was their slave name from when their ancestors were slaves.
Ariel picked at her lip. "Ray didn't mention that. He did however say ex Black Panther and he's done stuff for the NAACP."

Everyone looked at Sara who was Italian and slightly newer to the United States. "You need anything explained?" Teodora asked.
"That makes no sense," Sara said. "I was there. He said firmly I'm representing all of them. That's not pro-black anything."
Teodora nodded. "That does make no sense. Manny's blatantly not African anything, I doubt I am. Why's he helping us?" Her phone buzzed and she read her text. Lisa. What fucking ever. Not bothering to open the text, she continued to look around Google to find as much as she could about the guy.

Suddenly there was a pounding at the door that made them all jump. Gasping, Teodora got up to yank the door open. "My little brother is sleeping!" She hissed and narrowed her eyes when she realized who had finally showed up.
"Where the fuck have you been!" Lina, her cousin snapped back and the rest of the group looked up in shock.

Notes