AAOOOSC! #10

Nestled by a main street in Pittsburgh, the pizza restaurant, Papa Crosby’s, is booming with business.

Well, that’s what happens when over fifteen hockey players stop by for a bite all at the same time.

Inside the small restaurant, our heroes and their friends are munching on all sorts of pizza from pepperoni to Hawaiian to the works to the Meat Lover’s to just plain cheese pizza.

On one table is Sidney, Jonathan, Nathan, Toews, Jonas, and Patrick.

“I’m so happy you can finally go outside!” Sidney exclaims to Patrick as he holds a pepperoni pizza up in his air, propped in his hand.

“Same here, man,” Patrick replies. “It’s radical to be out of that medical wing.” He has a white bandage around his forehead, which is partially covered by his curly blond locks. Although he is decorated with bruises, gauzes, and adhesive bandages, he is back to himself.

“And back with me?” Toews adds in, eyeing his buddy.

“Defs, dude.” Patrick then uses his non-bandaged arm to fist bump the ruler of the NHL.

Sidney takes a bite of his pizza then puts it down. “Yay!” He claps his hands and swallows.
“We’re all friends here!”

“Yeah!” Nathan yells, throwing his hands up in the air.

“Yeah!” Sidney tells him with the same degree of excitement.

“Yeah!”

“Yeah!”

“Yeah!”

“Yeah!” Sidney high-fives his friend.

Jonathan exchanges looks with Jonas with disapproval.

Then two other people join them.

“Howdy!” Carter greets them as he plops himself in the booth, right next to Jonathan. Pekka follows along with him.

“Hey, Carter! Hey, Pekka!” Sidney waves to him with a sweet smile. Nathan waves along as well.

Carter catches sight of Patrick. “Hey, Kaner-- How’s it going?” He nods to him.

“Getting better, dude.”

“Yup!” Toews wraps his arm around him. “Thank you, really, for saving him.”

“Yeah, thanks for saving me, man. I wouldn’t be this gnarly at all if it wasn’t for you.”

“Aw, no problem!” Carter waves an arm in the air. “Just doing my ninja job.”

Pekka chuckles. “Some ninja you are if he knows who you are…!”

“Hey, I’m working on it, Peks,” Carter informs him cooly.

“I’m only joking.” Pekka punches Carter’s shoulder lightly. “It’s good for Kane to know who saved him!”

Carter grins. “Oh yeah.”

“Do you guys want some pizza?” Nathan asks the goalies as he points to the disappearing pizza that is in the middle of the table.

“Or do you want some chips?” Jonas pulls up a box filled with an assortment of bags of chips.

“Actually, we already ordered a pizza,” Pekka tells them.

“Yeah, we just decided to sit here to not be lunch,” Carter randomly adds in.

Jonathan gives him a concerning look. “You guys are lunch? Who’s gonna eat you?”

“Wait, you guys hadn’t seen…?” Carter’s voice fades off as his eyes drift next to him.

Everyone else follows Carter’s gaze to see what he is talking about.

On the other side of the restaurant are the Penguins, where they are huddle around a large table, snacking on pizzas. Next to Evgeni’s feet, well hidden from the Penguins but not the others, is Rozi. The tiger is quietly pawing and yanking at a whole pizza with her paws and teeth.

The others on the other side eye the tiger with trepidation.

“Yikes,” Nathan squeaks out.

“Ehhh...no worries, the tiger won’t do anything to us…,” Toews forces out.

Rozi tosses the pizza up with her mouth into the air then snatches it into her mouth, chewing on it happily.

“...my powers say so,” he finishes off.

“I need to tell Geno to bring his fluffy bunny more often,” Sidney says unsurely with a fearful look at the tiger.

“Ah, fluffy bunnies are nice, but a twenty inch pizza is nicer!” an Italian voice rings from behind them.

They all look to see who just talked and is approaching them: It is the owner and maker of the pizzas, Papa Crosby himself with his famous apron on.

“The works!” Papa Crosby exclaims as he places a massive pizza in the middle of the table, on top of the empty silver plate.

“Thanks, Dad!” Sidney tells him happily.

“No, this pizza is for these two gentlemen!” Papa Crosby places a hand on Carter’s and Pekka’s shoulders.

“Ooo, pizza!” A hand comes out from next to Papa Crosby and snags three slices from the perfect, big pizza.

“What--!” Carter turns to see who the pizza thief is.

Standing behind the chef of the pizza is Nick. He is helping himself to the pizza slices.

“Ritch--!” Brandon hisses as he marches up to his friend. “That’s not your pizza, that’s theirs!”

Nick looks down at him with lazy eyes. “Huh?”

Brandon sighs. “Never mind.”

The other Gulls, Joseph, Matt, and Ryan approach their two teammates.

“Guys?” Sidney makes a confused look at them. “Aren’t you suppose to be back in the past? Or…?” He gasps. “Oh no, are we in the past?” He takes Nathan’s shoulders and shakes them harshly. “We’re in the past!!!”

“No, no, no!” Autumn’s voice, which sounds worn out, cut in.

Everyone turns to face where Autumn’s voice was coming from: Autumn enters the restaurant, huffing from what might have been a mile or two run. In her arms is John the cat, who is certainly not enjoying the experience.

Autumn halts next to Ryan. With her free hand, she brushes her hair out from her sweating face. “I inadvertently escorted them to the time to come while venturing to convert John to a personage.” She turns to the AHLers. “I am regretful, menfolk, but we’ve must retreat to the laboratory. You’re not obliged to be hereabouts.”

Nick then plops himself next to Pekka and begins helping himself to more pizza.

Everyone else just gawks at him.

He perks up at the others. He holds up a half-eaten pizza slice. “Want some?”

The Gulls exchange each other looks. Then Ryan turns to Autumn. “Just let us hang out with our friends for a bit-- We helped them out.”

Autumn gazes down at the cat. The cat makes a furious look. She then turns back to him. “Alright, I presume. I do yearn for some pizza.”

John makes a growling sounds of disapproval.

“Sweet!” Ryan pumps his fist into the air, then spins around to Matt. “Alright, what pizza do you want?”

Matt turns to Papa Crosby, who is still standing by the table. “Is there a hamster pizza?”

Papa Crosby’s eyebrows shoot up. “Hamster pizza?”

“Yeah, for Mr. Ernie.” Matt holds up his hand, where his friend’s hamster, Mr. Ernie, is sniffing the air.

“Ah!” His eyes light up. “I can make a pizza just for your little buddy!”

“Oh my goodness, catering to a rat,” Joseph murmurs to himself while rolling his eyes.

A smile appears on Matt’s face. “Thank you!”

Papa Crosby turns to Ryan. “And what would you like?”

“The works--”

“--with no olives,” Matt adds in sternly.

Ryan turns to him. “What? Why--?”

Matt stares hard at him.

Realization appears on his face. “Oh, right!” He turns back to the chef. “Yeah, the works with no olives.”

Matt nods his head in agreement with a sweet smile.

Papa Crosby then turns to Brandon. “And how about for you, sir?”

“Uh, do you guys have salad?” he asks back tentatively.

“Salad?” he asks back incredulously. “No, only pizza is served here at Papa Crosby’s!”

Brandon’s face falls. “But I can’t have pizza…” He eyes the cheesy, bubbly, greasy pizza. “...but it looks so good.”

“Two pizzas: one cheese, one Hawaiian,” Nick demands to Papa Crosby.

“Okay!” Papa Crosby turns to Joseph. “And how about you?”

Joseph eyes Brandon with a smirk. “The goat cheese pizza. We’ll share.”

“What? No…!” Brandon covers his face with his hands.

“You’ll love it, Monty Muffins,” he replies.

Brandon just groans weakly behind his hands.

Papa Crosby turns to Autumn. “And how about you, my lady?”

“Hawaiian pizza, please.” She scratches the cat’s neck. “Thanks be to God my allergy pharmaceutical is working…!”

“Alright!” He faces to the others. “Your pizzas are coming right up!” He then strolls back into the kitchen.

So the Gulls and Autumn with John settle down in the table next to Sidney’s table, since it is a bit too small for them all to fit.

Silence hovers in the air before Sidney cuts it:

“I remember when we came here to Papa Crosby’s for the first time together,” Sidney starts off. “It was just Jonathan, Nathan, Patrick, and Antti…” His voice fades as he remembers the fallen Master of the GHP. “Oh, Antti.”

“Antti?” Ryan makes a confused look. “Who’s that?”

“He’s the former Master for the GHP,” Jonathan replies. “He lost his powers and can’t be in the society anymore.”

Carter dips his head in remorse.

“Oh…” Ryan has a sadden look. “I’m sorry.”

Then they have a moment of silence for such a great Master.

“With that said…” Sidney turns to Patrick. “You’re now the master of the GHP, Patrick!”

Patrick’s eyes widen. “I am? Again?”

Toews chuckles. “Yup, again! Congrats!” He pats his back as a way of congratulations.
Everyone else starts applauding for Patrick informal promotion to Master of the GHP.

“Thank you, thank you!” Beau’s voice is heard among the clapping.

Everyone in the table stops applauding and finds Beau bowing more times than needed right behind Patrick.

“Beau…,” Sidney says. “What are you doing?”

Beau freezes himself as he is bent over. He raises his eyebrows then straightens himself up. “Oh! I’m bowing because you guys were clapping!”

“We were clapping because of Kane, not because of you,” Jonathan points out.

“Aw. I thought you guys were clapping because of my courage to eat two whole pizzas!”

Everyone groans in disgust, except for Nick.

“I had five pizzas once,” Nick informs him.

Brandon slaps his forehead with his eyes squeezed shut.

Before Beau could say anything, Olli steps up next to him.

“Hey, Olli!” Sidney greets with a wave.

“Hi, Sid,” Olli replies back to him shyly. He then peers down at Autumn and John. “How’s the cat doing?”

John growls with fury written all over his furry face.

“He’s doing marvellous.” Autumn smiles as she pets his head.

John’s growling gets louder as his ears pull back.

Olli chuckles then reaches over to pet his head. “Hope you’re having fun, kitty cat,” he tells him in a taunting manner.

Before John could react, Olli retracts his hand and turns to Beau. “Let’s go back to our table.”

“Wait, but I want to tell them about Spikey, my--”

“They don’t need to hear about that.” Olli then abruptly grabs Beau’s wrist and drags back across the room.

Papa Crosby then arrives back at the table with armfuls of pizzas. “Pizzas are here!” He places each pizza in front of its orderer. Once he is done, he says, “Buon appetito,” and sashays off.

All the hockey players then begin to dig into their pizzas. Well, except for Brandon, who just resorts to poking at the goat cheese pizza Joseph kindly gave him, which is really rare.

Toews swallows a bite of his cheese pizza and lays his eyes on Sidney. “After this, are you still on for that rematch of our game?”

Sidney lifts his eyes to Toews with half of a pizza slice stuck in his mouth. He tears the pizza off, chews, and swallows. “That’s right!” He points to Toews with a determined look. “You’re on.”



The End.

Notes