Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
July 9, 2017
Night

"Yesterday, I swallowed food colouring," Reid states.

The GHP members are sitting around the main table at the same spots. Yet this time, they are munching on cheese and pepperoni pizzas for their dinner.

All the members perk up from their cheesy goodness and turn to the one who spoke with different degrees of bewilderment.

"I’m okay, but it feels like I dyed inside."

Jake lets out a horrified gasp, leaning forward to look at Reid. "Are you okay?!"

Jonathan proceeds to smack his forehead.

Kale has his eyes lifted up as he processes the pun. "'Died…' 'Dyed…'" His eyes light up in realization. "Ohhh!" He gazes at his former teammate. "I get it!"

"Clever pun there, Duke," Kailer exclaims from across the table, next to John.

John nods his head with a slight frown. "I at no time cogitated about that."

Sidney has a massive smile at Reid. "I liked that!" He raises Bubby Jr. with his free hand. "Bubby Jr. thinks it’s funny too!"

Jake gawks at all of the chuckling members in horror. "Guys, he said he DIED!!!"

Brett places a calming hand on his shoulder. "Jake Dog, it’s 'dyed' with a 'y,' not an 'i.' Besides, how could he have died and still be here?" He holds his hands out toward the jokester.

The goalie stays still as he rethinks of the joke. "Dyed…’ Oh— ‘Died...’ Ohh— ‘Dyed…’ OHHH!!!" He nods his head vigorously. "So you didn’t die!" He turns to Reid. "That’s good, it didn’t seem like you died."

"Don’t worry, Jake Dog, everyone’s alive here." Brett pats his back.

A bright smile appears on Jake’s face. "Oh, goodie!" He then tears a slice of pepperoni pizza from the box and stuffs it whole in his mouth.

John stares at his eating style in appalled shock.

Kailer nods his head with pursed lips and a slightly disgusted expression at John. "That’s precisely how I feel."

John turns to him. "Is he invariably characteristic of that?"

"Yes." He eyes the goalie, who is now stuffing two pizzas in his mouth at once. "Never has modified, never will modify."

John raises his eyebrows as he dips his head away from the sight. "Good grief."

"Good grief is correct." Kailer takes a small bite from his cheese pizza with his plastic fork.

Reid swallows the last bit of his crust and holds his dusty hands by his face. "Okay," he starts, "what’s the difference between a piano, tuna fish, and a tube of glue?"

The members halt their eating and turn their attention to him again.

"You can tune a piano, but you can’t piano a tuna!" Reid sing-songs with a kooky smile.

They all proceed to gawk at him and his nonsense.

"But what about the tube of glue?" Kailer asks with disappointment. "You referred to a tub of glue."

Reid throws his index finger at him. "I knew you’d get stuck on that!" He flashes him a mighty big grin.

Next to him, Kale begins cracking up, leaning back while clapping his hands together.

Kailer holds his head by his hand with a glare at the table. "Next time, Tavares, PLEASE, restrain me from engaging in Duke’s nonsensical puns."

John nods his head while daintily cutting his a piece of pizza with a fork and a knife. "I will effectuate that bid, Yamamoto." He then drops his utensils and pushes him a glass bottle of original almondade. "Imbibe a dram of this beverage. It’s revitalizing."

Kailer straightens up and peers at the bottle. "'Almondade.' Interesting." He unscrews the lid and takes a sip of it. His eyes light up at the sweet, cold, refreshing flavours. "Fascinating! This beverage is revitalizing!" He continuous drinking it.

From across the table, Jake has his eyes on the bottle with a working nose. "I smell something sweet! Can I have it?"

Kailer lifts the bottle from his face and eyes the goalie. "No. Tavares bestowed it to exclusively me."

Brett pushes Jake a tall bottle of water closer to him. "You have this, Jake Dog."

Jake whirls back to face his water bottle. He gasps. "That’s right!" He unscrews it and chugs it down in one gulp.

From the end of the table, Sidney lifts Bubby Jr. out toward Reid. "Do you have a pun about gorillas? Bubby Jr. wants to hear one."

Jonathan shakes his head at Reid. "No, don’t do it."

Reid narrows his eyes at the stuffed animal as he scratches below his chin in deep thought. "Hmmm…let me see here—"

"Gentlemen!" Tommy is heard shouting out from the entrance.

All of the dining members halt their eating and conversing and turn to face the direction of Tommy’s voice.

Tommy is seen sauntering up to them in a hurried manner. He halts next to Jake, who is sitting on the edge of the table. "I have news, good and bad, however you’ll take it: Connor, Auston, and Carter have attacked again."

Sidney gawks at him with Bubby Jr. back on the table. "What? Where? They didn’t attack us!"

The NHL founder shakes his head. "They attacked the GWHP headquarters. And with that, three new power players have joined your group." He turns to his left, spotting the new member approaching them.

The men crane their heads to spot the new members approaching them.

Katie halts next to Tommy, gazing at each of them. "Hello, gentlemen."

Emily bounds into view with adrenaline. "I hope you have room for three more people!" She halts, raising her hands excitedly in the air.

Dru stops next to Emily with crossed arms. "We did get attacked by those guys and heard you guys went through the same. It’d be great to work together to stop 'em."

All the men stare at the women, lost for words. Then the silence is broken.

"Wanna hear a joke?" Reid asks innocently with a gaping smile.

Emily gasps while clapping her hands. "I LOVE jokes!" She disappears, instantly reappearing next to Jake with a plate holding a slice cheese pizza now in front of her. "Tell me, tell me, tell me!"

"Okay…" Reid rubs his hands as he lifts his eyes up. "…let me see here…"

Dru grabs a slice of pepperoni pizza and sits next to Emily. She begins eating it without a plate.

Katie makes her way around the table and sits next to Kailer. She grabs a clean paper plate and selects a cheese pizza.

She turns to the men on her right side. "Where do you acquire the pliable implements?"

John’s eyebrows shoot up. "Mmm!" He swallows. "Here you are." He hands her a plastic packet of plastic eating utensils.

Katie gives him a sweet smile. "Thank you." She begins to unwrap them.

"Okay!" Reid claps his hands together once. "Can February March?"

Everyone reverts their attention at him with confused expressions.

Reid lifts an index finger in the air. "Nooo…but April May!"

Kale proceeds to place his forehead down on his interlaced fingers as he chortles.

Jonathan shakes his head with an unamused expression. "These puns are getting worse by the minute."

Reid whirls to him, jabbing his index finger at him. "But German puns are the WURST!"

With that, Kale bursts into laughter, throwing his head backward and slamming his back against the backrest of his chair.

Down the row, Emily does the same with a loud laugh, slamming her fists multiple times on the table.

Next to her, Dru has squinted eyes at Reid, stifling her laugh to a pursed smile.

"I think I got it," Jake whispers to Brett with a big smile.

Brett pats his back. "Don’t take 'em seriously."

"What a risible gentleman," Katie comments, nodding to Reid with a smile.

John nods his head. "Yes, assuredly. He has been engendering witticisms ever since we commenced repast."

"Some of them are in point of fact jocular," Kailer points out.

"Not a gorilla joke, but it was good!" Sidney exclaims, patting Bubby Jr.’s head.

Tommy is wearing a large grin on his face. "Oh, Reid, you and your puns!" He walks over to him and pats his head.

Reid smiles up at him with raised eyebrows.

He then gazes back at the others as they begin to calm down. "I’m glad you guys are all getting along with each other. And we do need some laughter in life, especially in these times.

"With that, I’ll let you men and women be to bond with each other. You know how to contact me. Goodnight, everyone!" With a wave, he then turns around and saunters toward the tunnel, away from the main table.

"Bye, Gorman!" everyone else shouts back with different pitches and waves.

They then return back to their heart-lighted dinner filled with puns and laughter.

Notes