The Moonstone Starlet

Chapter 11

The Blackhawks won the next four games at home. Elia’s life had become so intertwined with the Blackhawks organization that she started to wonder what she ever did with her time before she got involved. Not only was she constantly at the UC and the Icehouse for games, meetings and practice, but she had pilates and yoga with the WAGs, physical therapy with Burish, closing down bars with Kaner and Steeger, working out with Toews, and a variety of other social events.

In addition, Adam had seemed to be shifting his approach at winning over Elia and had been inviting her out for dinner and activities. They had gone kayaking on the river, tried new restaurants like the Publican and L2O, drove out to Plainfield to take Elia’s Wrangler off road, and saw the documentary “The Cove,” which Adam even suggested himself. Elia rewarded this behavior by allowing him to hold her hand when they were out. Sometimes. And sometimes, when they were out drinking she may have let herself get carried away. Even with the warnings coming from every direction, Elia was having trouble resisting him. He was a lot of fun to hang out with. When they were out at the bar and he would put his arm around her waist, it was comforting. The times when he would lean in to speak into her ear over the noise, pulling her closer, she found herself wrapping her hand around his neck and pressing her cheek against his as she answered. Despite their new coziness, Elia never let him kiss her. No matter how much she wanted to try it, she swore to herself she wouldn’t until the season was over.

Midway through November they were leaving the city for a week long road trip. First they would head North into Canada, then continue West, and finally down through California.

While they were waiting for the plane to be taxi’d Elia knelt on her seat and looked over the back at the seat behind her. Jonny was sitting with Quenneville. She handed him a booklet with a light blue cover. He took it and looked at her.

"This is literally the only copy I've given out of this screenplay. To anyone." She said sternly.
"How did you get people to sign on to do it if they haven't read it?"
"Don't you know what they say about me?" She asked, almost sarcastically.
"Everything you touch turns to gold."
She nodded, almost regrettably.
"If it were true the Cubs would have won a World Series in the last century. Everyone likes to overlook that part. Anyways, just do not let it out of your sight." She sighed and turned back around to her seat.

Before Elia had started riding Amaryllis the horse hadn’t placed higher than 6th in a claiming race. Once Elia took the reins they were undefeated. In fact, Elia had never lost a race if you didn’t count the race she never finished. Almost every film she had been in won some kind of award. The legend grew.

Jon slowly opened to the first page of the manual in his hand.

“The Advantages That You’ve Had”
The Great Gatsby, as adapted for the screen by Elia Downs
Jon knew that she was doing a modern adaptation of the Great Gatsby. He had read the book three times since he found out, and pulled the book out of his carry-on bag. It was marked with post-its and underlines. He set it on the table next to his chair and opened the screenplay.

She sat down in her seat next to Kane. They had been sitting on the tarmac for an eternity. Apparently there was some snow passing through and they were waiting until it was done. Elia and Kaner decided to do some internet research on her laptop. Adam walked up from the back of the plane.

"What are you doing?" He asked.
"Self diagnosing ourselves on webmd. I have a lot of illnesses." Elia stated.
"Me too." Added Patrick.
Elia was clicking a plethora of symptoms.
"You have yourself listed as a male," Adam pointed out.
"Yeah, if I put female it just diagnoses me as pregnant."
“What?!”
“It’s not like I am. Have you seen how much I drink and smoke? I am pretty sure my body is a completely uninhabitable environment for living organisms.”
Quenneville stood up.
“Burish go back to your seat. Elia, I have told you before to stop going on Webmd, and now you’ve got Patrick into that?”
“Sorry Coach, but what if I have Thrombocytopenia? It would explain why I always feel fatigued!”
“You don’t. Why don’t you watch a movie? Burish go back to your seat.”

Adam reluctantly went back to sit with Sharp. Elia and Patrick decided to watch True Blood but found the opening title sequence too creepy, so they tried watching the AMC show Breaking Bad. This was worse because it opened with Bryan Cranston in his underwear. Kane thought Mad Men was boring so they picked a show on Netflix neither of them had seen before. Lost. It seemed innocuous at first, but Quenneville would rue the day he inadvertently caused them the start watching Lost. It added phrases to their vocabulary such as “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” and “We live together or die alone!” Once they finally took off and nobody could leave their seats Elia pulled out some brown Gatorade with vodka in it. After taking a sip she passed it to Kaner.

Halfway through the Gatorade she whispered to Kane, “I’m going to prank Burish and Sharpie. Tonight.”
Pat thought she must be insane, “Why are you telling me this?”
“In case I die, you must avenge my death.”
“I can’t,”
“You can Patrick, I know you can, you have to. Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”
“You’re quoting hobbit stuff at me? .....Damn it.... Samwise can’t leave Frodo.”
“Wait, you’ll help me do it?!”
“Yes," he reiterated reluctantly.
“If you and I are Frodo and Sam, does that make Tazer Gollum?”

It was a philosophical question neither of them could answer. She quietly outlined her plan to him, emphasizing how much it meant to her that he was willing to put his life on the line to help her. They would lay siege on them tonight, because once the fathers joined them the next afternoon the guys wouldn’t be able to retaliate.

When they arrived in Calgary. Elia and Pat acted as normal as possible. They put their luggage in their room, got dinner with the guys, and then headed to Brouwer’s room for video games. Elia actually had a surprise for the guys.

“I know how much you guys love rock band. And I know how much you love dancing.”
She revealed a new playstation game called Sing Star Dance. It was a singing and dancing competition in one. Versteeg and Seabrook were really excited, but much of the room was filled with dread. Elia challenged Versteeg to a dance off of the Pussycat Dolls “Don’t Cha”. It was a blowout, Versteeg beat her by almost a thousand points. Once they were engrossed in the game, Elia announced she had to go find a Calgary equivalent of Walgreens. When pressed for more information she yelled that she had to get tampons and then the guys were practically pushing her out the door. She waited around the corner for Kane, who came a few minutes later.
The plan was to fill Burish and Sharp’s beds with shaving cream. They ended up needing to hit a few different stores to get enough. Elia had also brought penis shaped confetti to hide in their bags, so as they grabbed their clothes out it would get everywhere. Earlier in the night Elia had stolen Bur’s room key. They had been hugging in the hallway, Burish was talking about her meeting his Dad the next day. It was too easy to slip her hand into his back pocket as she looked up into his eyes smiling.

Filling the beds with shaving cream had seemed like a good idea, but after they had done it they realized it made the entire room smell like shaving cream. It was too late to change it now. Quickly they made their way back to Kane and Toews room where Jon was sitting up in bed reading. They got to work plastic wrapping the inside of the door across the top, assuring Jonny that it was for his own good. He became very alarmed by this, but they didn’t want to tell him what was going on, for his own good. When they started to grab their bags to leave Jon stopped asking questions and just grabbed his own bag to follow them.

No words were spoken until they were safely in the alternate room Elia had booked under a false name. Patrick told Jon what they had done. He was astounded, but not angry like Elia thought he would be. Sharp and Burish had dominated the prank game for too long. It was time for them to get some of it back. They got into their beds and waited for phone calls from angry Burish and angry Sharp. The silence was more terrifying than anything. Pat and Elia had a restless sleep, waking for every noise, expecting Adam and Sharp to burst through the door. They never came.

In the morning Jon was sent out for a scouting report. He texted that he couldn’t tell if their original room had been compromised. Later he texted that Duncs and Seabs could confirm Adam and Patrick had gotten into shaving cream beds. They had not seen the two of them that morning.

“They are playing mind games with us.” Patrick concluded. He was probably right. They knew it was more terrifying to keep them wondering. They were evil masterminds. Their revenge wouldn’t be rash, it would be well thought out, plotted. The pair gathered their courage and went down to the executive lounge where breakfast would be served. They had just brought some breakfast over to a table and were about to sit down when Adam grabbed Elia from behind. She screamed.

“There’s my little El Belle,” Adam said, as he wrapped his arms around her and held her in a tight embrace. She looked up over her shoulder at him, he was smiling maniacally down at her. “Did you sleep well?” He asked. She nodded. “I didn’t. I was up all night, thinking about you.” He said. “Thinking about all the things I want to do to you.” He kissed her on the cheek, let go of her and walked away. She stared at Kane sitting across from her until Adam was across the room. “What the hell was that Kaner!” She whispered as she sat down.
“We are so fucked. We’re totally fucked.”
“I never imagined this would be the way I was fucked by Burish.” Elia mused.
Kane looked at her disgusted.
“And trust me, I have imagined many, many ways.”
“El, that is really not something I want to know.”


The rest of the day Elia and Patrick were on high alert, but it became clear that Adam and Sharpie were not going to strike back. At least not until Elia and Patrick had been lulled into complacency. They were pretending as though nothing had even happened. In the afternoon the player’s fathers arrived, and would be staying until they reached Los Angeles later in the week. Adam was eager to introduce Elia to his father as soon as he arrived and insisted she sit with them to watch the game later. It was an insane game. The Blackhawks scored seven goals and held Calgary to one. Two days later they beat the Oilers 5-1. Even though Burish and Sharp were acting like there had been no prank, it was impossible to fully ignore. Tiny, shiny, metallic penises would pop up randomly, stuck to pants, falling out of shirts. The constant reminder was haunting Elia and Pat.

The next night they would play the Canucks in Vancouver. Jonathan had been cleared to return to playing. The Blackhawks won narrowly in Vancouver, scoring only one goal. They then travelled to San Jose to play the Sharks. It was Marian Hossa’s first game back from shoulder surgery and he scored two goals. Christobal Huet made 22 saves, only allowing 2 goals. In total the Blackhawks tallied 7 goals.

Everyone was in a great mood heading into Anaheim. Elia did a morning interview with Ducks’ players Teemu Selanne and Ryan Getzlaf. In the early afternoon Adam stopped by Elia’s hotel room and asked her if she wanted to go swimming in the hotel pool. He had bought a blow up raft so there was really no turning him down. The pool was surprisingly empty. Adam put some speakers on his phone and put some music on. He wanted to do some water exercises for his knee. Elia did them with him, saying she felt like a senior doing aqua aerobics. Adam smiled and said he would love to do senior aqua aerobics together in forty years. She rolled her eyes. He was such a player. They did some cannonballs, some pencil jumps, and cheerleader jumps and were surprised by how exhausting all the jumping was. Everything was so much easier as a kid.

Resting on the raft was relaxing. Adam lay on his back and Elia laid partially on her side partially on Adam, with her head resting in the space between his shoulder and his chest. His arm rested on the small of her back. They floated around the pool, talking and laughing. At one point Adam moved his hand up her back, and slowly started pulling on her bikini top string. She looked at him and shook her head.

“Do you just like leading me on?” He asked.
“I’m trying to figure out if thats what you’re doing. Do you want me to be your girlfriend?” She replied.
He was noticeably uncomfortable with that question.
“I don’t know, but I’d like to try and find out,” he replied slowly.
“The only way you can figure that out is to have sex with me?” She asked, sighing. Adam didn’t know how he had gotten himself into that corner. Elia rolled off the raft back into the pool and swam towards the ladder. Adam called after to wait but she was done talking about it. He swam after her and stopped her at the ladder, turning her around and looking into her eyes.
“You know that’s not what I meant,”
“I don’t want to rush into something, least of all with you, but if you think hooking up will make it easier for us to figure it out, you’re either an idiot or a liar.” She pushed him back, turned and climbed up the ladder.

That night the win streak came to an end as the Blackhawks were shut out. They took the short flight to Los Angeles that night, and would play the Kings the next day. The team had planned a golf outing in Los Angeles for the guys and their Dads before everyone would head back to Chicago November 30th.

Notes