“Rivers, you gotta wake up,” a gruff voice attempted to disturb me from my slumber. I felt someone tug one of the earphones out of my ear.

“No,” I mumbled burying my head deeper into the airplane headrest.

“Like, seriously Rivers, we are literally about to land,” the voice sounded more amused than annoyed this time. I flipped my body over to face the speaker and cracked open one of my eyes.

I found myself looking at my friend Jennifer, who appeared way more peppy and awake than anyone should after an 8 hour flight. I grimaced as I wiggled my way into an erect sitting position, while hitting the button on my chair moving into an upright position for I saw the flight attendant about to walk by.

“You slept through breakfast, I didn’t bother to wake you cause you wouldn’t have eaten it anyways,” Jennifer chatted away, “I figure we can grab something at the airport or on the way to the hotel or whatever. I could do with a good cup of coffee for sure, though, are you off coffee again because the competition season is so close? Or is that faze over? I think your food restrictions are a little extreme sometimes but then again, I am not an--”

“Jennifer, you know sometimes there are people who want to have really big conversations really early in the morning, and it is alright to take down those people,” I muttered, “or the meme says something to that effect.”

“Geez, grumps! I hope when you meet with Nike later, your manners are a little better.”

I rolled my eyes as I felt the plane touch down. Taking out my phone from my sweatshirt pocket, I grimaced as I realized I hadn’t turned it off for landing, and slyly turned off the airplane mode. As I waited for the reception to recognize we were back on United States soil, I unplugged my headphones and wound them up stuffing them in back in my sweatshirt pocket. My phone started buzzing, but I ignored it to give it a little more time to catch up with the messages, turning to Jen I asked, “Did you get any sleep, at all?”

“Nope!” She replied cheerfully. Aside from being my best friend, Jen was an extraordinarily talented photography and filmer. Despite having plenty of job opportunities all over the world, she followed me around--from competition or practice trip--in charge of any of the photos or videos. Through the access she got from me, she was a well sought after freelance photographer in the snowboarding and skiing world and made a more than comfortable living. I knew she was happy, and I was grateful because she was one of the two people that could be considered closest to family I had left in the world. However, I still worried how much she was giving up for me. For instance, she wasn't able to sleep on planes and she really hated cold and snow.

I shook my head and looked at my phone. I unlocked it, going to texts and straight to the messages from the contact Bethany Rodgers, ‘Sent a car to pick the pair of you up, just look for the name Rose Brooks’. I chuckled, Bethany was one of the fiercest agents anyone could ever have, hell, she scared me half the time, but her creativity with airport names never ceased to amaze me.

“Lils, come on,” Jen urged me, motioning that it was time to disembark the plane.

I slid out of the chair, onto hers, before moving into the aisle. I reached into the overhead bin and grabbed my giant purse carefully before following Jen off the plane. It felt good to be moving after the long flight. We hurried to customs and both got through without a problem. We went to the baggage carousel to wait for our bags. I got distracted at the really cute sniffer dog, when Jen asked me a question.

“Sorry what?” I blinked looking at her.

“Sooo, what is the plan exactly today?” Jen grinning.

“Oh, yeah,” I dug my hand in my purse, taking out my phone again. I went back to the messages and pulled up Bethany. I went to the newest message from her and opened it, “Uh, well, we are getting picked up and I have about an hour before I need to head into her office before we go over to Nike. Then I have Nike for the afternoon and then freedom.”

“You don’t exactly need me?” Jen inquired hopefully.

“Jen, you gotta stay awake, you know this--” I paused as I leaned forward and took my boardbag off the belt.

“What I should do, and what I will do are two very different things,” she grunted as she pulled off one of her bags. I shook my head as I grabbed my second giant suitcase. We both piled up all our suitcases on top of our trollies before pushing them towards the exit.

I felt eyes on us as we exited the arrival area, and then the normal double take on me. However, I kept my eyes gazing straight ahead looking for the sign with the name ‘Rose Brooks’. Luckily, it didn’t take long to see a man dressed in a simple black suit and tie holding a sign with said name. I nodded to the man and we followed him through the airport chaos and out of the building.

“Miss Rivers, Miss Carrington,” he said, “My name is Kenny Smith and I will be with you for the next week. I trust you had an okay flight?”

“It was fine, thank you.” I said as he opened the back of a large black SUV. We all piled the luggage in then Jen and I slid ourselves in the middle seats.

“Straight to the hotel ma’am?” Kenny asked as he got into the drivers seat.

“Please,” Jen responded for the pair of us.

---

Check in to the hotel was very simple, and as always, Bethany had outdone herself. Knowing me, Bethany had ordered the room stalked up with food I would eat (i.e. greek yogurt, almonds, and lots of fruits and veggies, or as Jen scoffed as she saw all of it “Rabbit food”). The rooms were very luxurious, quite over the top, but again, this was Bethany. Bethany had also pulled a bunch of business outfits together for me leaving them in the closest, again her knowing me, because I hadn’t packed any business clothes for the meetings.

I took a long hot shower, enjoying the water running over my body. I came out feeling quite refreshed and ready for the day. I looked in the mirror as I started brushing my hair. I could only ever brush my hair when it was wet due to the curly nature of my hair. My auburn locks were nearly untamable, but over the years my hair and I had come to the understanding of ‘If you don’t touch the hair when it is dry, we will more or less look okay in wild curls’. My hair when dry and curly fell mid back.

I switched to brushing my teeth and stared into my face. Over the summer, my face seemed to collect even more freckles; how that was possible, I wasn’t sure. I think the count of freckles was up to a million, maybe up to a billion. ‘At least you look sorta tan with them now,’ I thought to myself looking at my porcelain (the polite word for pale) skin. I rinsed my mouth out before spitting a final time. I smiled at the mirror. My lips were decently full, they fit with my heart shaped face and small nose. My eyes crinkled slightly, and I widened them, looking into the rich green of them. My bright green eyes where what I loved more than anything else about myself. I felt my heart twinge and I looked down and hurried into the other room to find clothes.

---

“Lily! You look fantastic! I knew that outfit would be perfect,” I was tugged into a tight hug and quickly overwhelmed with the strong smell of perfume.

“Nice to see you too Bethany,” I squeaked, always surprised of Bethany’s strength. Bethany was only 5’3 to my 5’9, however unlike myself, she would not be caught ever wearing heels shorter than 4 inches. She was a tiger on heels, which is why 7 years ago when I had first started on the snowboarding circuit and realized I needed an agent, she beat out all the others.

“How was Saas-Fee?” she inquired as she steered me into the seat across her desk.

“Incredible. The powder was perfect as were the pipes and lines.” I replied, as I reached out for the cup of tea she was handing me. I took a sip of the perfectly tempatured tea; it was a green jasmine, no sugar--Bethany was good.

“I have always wanted to go to Switzerland, but never have had the time,” Bethany mused, as she sat in her chair across from me. I grinned at her. In the entire time I knew her, I had never known her to take a complete vacation away from all of her clients.

“Well, did Jen get lots of good videos and shots? Where is she? She is asleep, isn’t she?”

I nodded sheepishly and sighed. When I had come out of my room ready to leave for the meeting, I had found Jen passed out half in her suitcase and half on the floor. I dragged her up and moved her into her bed.

“But she got some incredible shots,” I added quickly feeling protective of my best friend, “She is planning on putting those all together by the end of the week and having a video edit up.”

“Perfect, I know being August is still early but I really think it is important to show your fans what you were doing all summer. Plus, those Sochi Olympics are only a year and a half away so garnering public support is important, even this far out.” Bethany sighed with relief, “Speaking about public support, we need to talk about your twitter account.”

I groaned, “Oh god, I twitted like, twice while in Switzerland.”

“Tweeted. You tweeted. And they were impersonal and boring tweets. As a face of the sport of snowboarding, you need to be more personable again. I know that it is hard, but think about what it was like a couple of years ago. You were so, so,”

“Carefree? Innocent? Wild? Invincible to anything?” I bluntly put.

Bethany blanched, “I didn’t-”

I sighed feeling bad, “I know. I’m sorry. That was unfair of me.”

There was a terribly awkward pause. I took another sip of my tea and Bethany stared me down. I glanced around the room waiting for the lecture probably coming. Bethany’s office was very modern and pretty sparse of anything personal though, she did have some pictures of clients up. My eyes were drawn to a picture with a much younger me, Bethany, and a blond woman standing together--it was after I had gotten back from the Turin Olympics and had won my first gold medal.

“I know you miss her, and frankly, it is incredible how you are doing,” Bethany started.

“I will work on the twitter,” I interrupted my eyes suddenly very intent on my mug.

Bethany took a deep breath, clearly wanting to pursue the topic, but instead, “Alright, there are a couple of things you need to know before we head over to Nike.”

---

“Oh Jesus,” I gasped, drawing Bethany’s attention from her phone to the enormous billboard nearby. We had just arrived at the Nike office building, and while waiting for Bethany to get out of the car, I had glanced around. I saw myself plastered across the billboard, decked out in Nike gear with the words “Just do it” scrolling across the bottom.

“Didn’t it come out perfect?” Bethany stated proudly.

I looked at her, laughing harder while I took out my phone. I snapped a picture with myself making an awkward face and the billboard in the background and typed up the caption, “Apparently there are two of me currently in NYC” and posted it onto twitter

“There, I twitted!” I pronounced proudly to Bethany. Bethany shook her head as we proceeded into the building and into the long hours of meetings.

---

“If you would all excuse me, where would the restroom be?” I asked finally not able to wait any longer for a opportune moment to interrupt.

“Oh, uhm, just out this door and to the left,” one of the interns supplied helpfully. I smiled both apologetically and thankfully, grabbed my clutch and hurried down the hall. I found the bathroom without a problem and quickly relieved myself. I washed my hands and paused, not particularly wanting to go back. I knew it was important for me to be involved with the business side of everything, but I was a snowboarder and not a businesswoman for a reason. I took out my phone to see if Jen was awake, and when I saw I had several new messages, I was convinced she must be. But none of the messages were from her. Some were from snowboarders, some were from people I vaguely knew who lived in New York, and one brought an instant smile to my face. I opened the message that was listed from the contact, Russian Bear.

'You in NYC? Why not tell me? When hangout?’

I immediately texted him back, ‘Wait, what are you doing in NYC? I am here on business. I am in a meeting for the next hour or two but then I am free.’

I looked around the bathroom trying to come up with some sort of reason to delay my return to the meeting room. Finding none, I just slowly started walking back to the room, hoping he would text soon. Luckily my hopes were answered.

‘Lockout meetings. When you finish text we hang out.’

‘Perfect!’ I answered before slipping my phone back into my clutch. As I entered the room again, I had a bit of a bounce in my step.

“Right, so where were we?” I asked cheerfully.

Notes

Hi friends! So, if you haven't guessed, this story is the 'prequel' to the other story I posted. I know we haven't gotten to the hockey players yet and this chapter is slow (sorry!!!). I pinky swear there will be LOTS of hockey from this moment on!

Please, please, please review, rate, comment. Any feedback is so beyond appreciated. I promise to get the second chapter up soon (hopefully tomorrow).