It was three in the afternoon the following day. The Air Canada Centre was sold out. Both teams were ready to start the third period and Kara was ready to break the glass in front of her to wake the guys up. It was only her second game, but she already felt like a part of the crowd, a part of the team. She’d learned even more the night before and the morning before the game.
He Bruins had played an okay first period and a really bad second one. Toronto had scored two goals, the Bruins zero. They had to step up their game and come back stronger now to win this game.
Coach Claude had offered her to stand behind the bench with him and join them in the locker room during the intermissions, so she could see how everything worked. She’d declined. Why? Because she didn’t feel comfortable with it. She wanted to get to know the team more first. She could join the Coach in a few weeks, but not today. Knowing what they were talking about would also be helpful so she needed to read and learn more about the game.
The third period started and Kara tried her best to follow the puck with her eyes. Easier said than done but she was able to keep up pretty good until all hell broke loose.
Tyler Seguin hadn’t been one to get into a fight but Shawn Thornton had taken it upon himself to teach the kid a thing or two over the summer. Learning from Shawn had been the best thing to happen to Tyler because now he wasn’t afraid of throwing a punch anymore. He knew how to hit and more importantly how to protect himself.
Bergeron was in the middle of the face-off circle. Former Bruin Phil Kessel stood opposite Tyler Seguin and decided it was time to mock the younger one a bit.
“Hey Seguin, your Mom cheered for me in bed last night. Louder than she did for you during the finals.” Kessel smirked at a not so impressed Tyler.
“So?” He shrugged a shoulder, not particularly interested in what Kessel had to say. “How would you know how loud she cheered for me? I don’t recall you being there.”
“Well, she screamed my name at the top of her lungs.”
“You know what?” Tyler straightened, looking him straight in the eye. A little smile was playing on his lips when he said the following words. “Thank you, Kessel.”
Phil Kessel was the first to drop the gloves, Tyler followed suit. He hadn’t trained with Shawn for nothing. Adrenaline was rushing through his veins when he grabbed Kessel’s jersey and landed the first punch. He heard the sound of hockey sticks knocking on ice and plastic. That was when Kessel’s fist made contact with Seguin’s lip and he tasted blood. That only made him want to win this fight more. Tyler defended himself and landed a few great punches until Kessel dropped to the ground and the referees had to tear them apart.
The whole Bruins bench was smiles. They were proud, especially Shawn. But Tyler’s lip was still bleeding and it didn’t seem to stop. They had to lead him down the tunnel so that they could take a closer look at the injury and make the bleeding stop.
“I taught the kid well,” Thornton said triumphantly and leaned forward. They still had a hockey game to win.
Pouliot, Kelly and Peverley spilled on the ice, Seidenberg and McQuaid stayed as defensive unit. The puck dropped and Pouliot skated forward as they’d planned. They needed to take advantage of this moment.
Kelly picked up his speed and wove his way towards the goal, the puck at the end of his stick. He passed to Peverley, who passed to Pouliot who was now nearly directly in front of the net. He shot and he scored!
“YES!” Benny screamed and embraced his line mates in a big hug. This was what they’d been waiting for. First Tyler’s fight and then Benoit’s goal. From then on, the Bruins were back. They pushed forward and tied the game at two with a goal from Horton.
There were only two minutes left and Seguin wanted to get back in the game. It had taken longer than they’d thought to stitch his lip up, but he would be okay. Claude Julien thought about this for a moment, but nodded his head in agreement.
And it proved to be the best decision in this whole game. With barely thirty seconds left Tyler Seguin scored the game winning goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The only thing he was missing for a Gordie Howe hat trick was an assist. And Kara was more than happy that this popped up in her mind as she stood there cheering for her team, because it meant that she’d really learned about hockey.

“To Tyler, the number one star of the game!”
Some of the Bruins were having a celebratory beer in the hotel lobby that evening and they had taking Kara along with them. She was only down with them for one beer, because she still had to get some work done. Her plan was to write down a few notes after every game, work out her feelings and things that might have gone through the players’ minds while they were on the ice, their facial expressions, and the way they celebrated.
Tyler couldn’t have a beer that night because of the painkillers he had taken. It didn’t look really pretty but he’d heard the sentence Stitches get Bitches often enough so that he didn’t mind. What was a hockey player without scars or bruises? And apparently it worked, because he had Kara’s attention.
She leaned forward and carefully touched her fingers to the stitches on his lips. “Does it hurt or is everything numb from the painkillers?” Slowly she sat back in her place. She ran her thumb along the neck of her beer bottle, keeping her eyes on the stitches a little longer.
“It doesn’t hurt but it itches.” Tyler smiled to himself. “And the painkillers are making me really tired. I’ll probably go to bed in a few minutes.”
She could understand that he was exhausted. Going to bed, or in her case her room, sounded like a good idea. She could finish her beer in no time and then take Tyler to his room. She saw in him a little brother. Kind of. And she wanted to take care of him and see that he got to his room without falling asleep on his way there.
“Yeah, you should get a good night’s sleep, Ty.” Soupy looked at his teammate. “We’re not leaving early tomorrow so you should be fine.”
“I know.” Tyler took a sip from his water.
“And you know: Stitches get Bitches.” Tuukka Rask uttered the sentence Tyler had been thinking about minutes ago. “Especially the ones you’re interested in. They’ll be gone in the morning and won’t care that you didn’t call them.”
“Tuukka!” Nathan Horton said out loud, trying to suppress the smile on his lips which posed to be more difficult than he’d thought. Tuukka was right after all.
“What? I know that for a fact. They dig hockey players with scars even more. Nothing wrong with giving them what they want.”
“That’s not the point.” Horton shook his head and pointed to Kara. “Yu forgot that we have company.” He turned to Kara to apologize to her, but wasn’t able to say a word. The sight of her sitting in her chair giggling to herself caught him by surprise.
“You mean because of me?” Kara finally asked after a few seconds. “Oh guys, act normal. I’m not some stuck-up bitch who can’t handle the way you talk. I’ve heard and said worse than this.”
That caught them by surprise. Not that she looked like a “stuck-up bitch” as she’d phrased it, but they still thought that they should watch their language around her. When she finished half the bottle of beer in one wig they were even more impressed. They’d definitely underestimated her.
“That’s the German in her, you guys. Don’t look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Dennis Seidenberg tried to explain the situation. And he was right. Growing up with a German father, Kara was used to drinking beer and she liked it a lot more than wine. Especially German beer like Becks. That was her favorite.
“Don’t worry, I’ll go to my room now anyway.” Kara put the empty bottle down and slowly got up.
“Why?” Soupy looked up at her, pulling his brows together in a frown but he immediately stopped because his stitches still hurt a bit.
“I told you that I had to get some work done.” She smiled warmly at him. She liked Gregory Campbell. He was a nice guy and nice to look at as well.
“I’ll come with you.” Tyler stood up as well. “I mean, to my room of course. I need sleep.”
“Good night, guys. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She smiled at the bunch once again before she left for the elevators together with Tyler. They stepped on the first one that arrived and pushed the button to the twelfth floor. There rooms were a few doors apart.
“Are you enjoying watching the games? Or is it something you’re doing simply for your book?” Tyler was curious and it was different to ask her a question in private or in front of all the other guys on the team.
“To be honest, I would have loved to write about soccer instead of hockey.” Kara crossed her arms beneath her breasts and looked up at him. “But I think I’m beginning to love hockey. I mean, the atmosphere in the arena is amazing, the game is intense and it watching you guys out there is exhilarating. The more games I watch, the more I understand the game and the more fun it is.”
“That’s good to hear.” Tyler let her step off the elevator first, then followed her. “If you have any questions, feel free to ask.”
“Thank you. And now get some rest.” Kara winked at him in front of his door and left him alone. She had to get comfortable now and start on her notes before she forgot about everything again.
As soon as she was in her room she kicked of her shoes and took the clips out of her hair. It felt so good to run her fingers through her hair and shake it free. Now clothes!
She stepped out of her jeans, threw cardigan, shirt and bra on top of her suitcase and slipped on her Springsteen shirt and the black shorts she had taken with her to sleep in. These were the most comfortable clothes she had here. Now she only needed her notepad and her pen and she was settled for the night.
At least she thought she was. Looking around her room, she found nothing to drink. She’d bought some water before the game but there was only a drop left in the bottle.
“Aw hell no,” she mumbled to herself. There was a mini-bar in the corner of the room but the things were usually ridiculously expensive. On her floor was a snack-machine. She’d seen it earlier but she didn’t know whether that thing held drinks as well. Taking a look wouldn’t hurt anybody and that way she could treat herself to a chocolate bar.
She grabbed her wallet from her purse and left the room. Silently she walked along the hall on the plush carpet. She wanted to have carpet like this at home in her apartment.
When she reached the snack-machine she knew immediately what she wanted. A KitKat and a bottle of water. She punched in the numbers put her money in the machine and leaned down to retrieve her purchase.

When Benoit rounded the corner to his room he was greeted by long legs and a nicely shaped butt. A woman was standing on front of the snack-machine bent over so she could collect what she’d just paid for. A small grin spread out on his face. This was really nice to look at so he decided to step closer.
The woman straightened again and held up a bottle of water and some kind of chocolate bar. That was when Benny realized that it was Kara Robinson standing in front of him in nothing more than a light grey shirt and black shorts. She wasn’t even wearing shoes and he could see that her toes were painted a deep red.
“Getting a little snack before bed?” He stepped closer until he was next to her.
“Oh.” Kara let out and jumped a little. She hadn’t heard him and was a little embarrassed about seeing him while she wasn’t properly dressed. “Hey. I didn’t expect to see you here.” She pushed her hair from her eyes and looked up at him. “Yes, I needed something to drink for the night so I decided to treat myself to some chocolate as well.”
“Uh huh.” He nodded and looked her up and down. On closer inspection he saw that her short was from the Bruce Springsteen tour in 2008, but that wasn’t what caught his attention the most. She must have been cold because there were two distinct points on the front of her shirt. He smiled to himself. So, she wasn’t wearing a bra.
“And what about you?” Her cheeks slightly flushed she looked at him and forced him with her question to look back up at her as well. “I thought you were having a drink with the guys.”
“I was.” Benoit nodded and forced himself not to look at her shirt again. “I finished my beer and the others decided to head to a club of some sort. Going to bed and catching up on my reading sounded better to me, so I decided to stay here.” He shrugged his big shoulders and leaned against the wall. “Are you cold?”
His questions caught her a little off guard. “What?”
“I said: Are you cold?” The look of confusion on her face made Benoit crack a smile again. He couldn’t suppress it and he didn’t even want to do so.
“Yes, a little. Why?” Kara put the bottle along with the chocolate bar in one hand and clutched her wallet to her side with the other.
Benoit’s eyes darted to her shirt again for a second, before he answered: “Just curious.” He pushed himself away from the wall. “Good Night, Kara. I’ll see you tomorrow.” And with that he stepped away from her and into his room.
Kara looked after him, replayed that small conversation in her head and tried to make sense out of his words.
Are you cold?
She looked down at her outfit and it hit her.
“Oh Fuck,” she mumbled to herself instead of screaming it like she wanted to. Could the ground open up and swallow her, please? This was so embarrassing.
Benoit obviously hadn’t minded. And here she’d thought he’d looked at the shirt she was wearing and reading what was on it. She should have figured he was looking at the result of the cold air.