AAOOOSC! Exposed!

The door to Kale’s apartment opens up, letting in a streak of light from the porch light into the dark room. Kale’s silhouette is seen closing the door, which cuts out the only light and plunges the room into darkness yet again.

“Uh, where’s the light—?”

RING RING RING RING RING!

Thumping and clanging are heard as Kale struggles to place his keys and wallet on the foyer table and fumbles for the light switch.

The room is flooded in much-needed light, displaying the white-coloured walls and the wooden foyer table to the left. Standing next to it, Kale hastily pulls out his ringing phone from his jeans pockets and peers at its lit-up screen.

“Oh, it’s Jake Dog!” He presses the green button and places the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

“KALE!” Jake barks into the phone a bit too loudly.

Kale’s eyes fly open at the ear-piercing yell, causing him to pull the phone away from his ear and lose grip of it. He nabs at the jumping phone as Jake continues screaming from it: “OH MY GOODNESS, KALE!!!”

“Whoa whoa, whoa—” Kale gets a hold of his runaway phone and places it back from his ear. “—what, what, what what’s wrong, Jake Dog?”

“Brett!” Jake is heard shouting from the other end quieter. “Where is he?”

Kale begins to step deeper into the room with wary eyes. “Um, you always know where Brett is…”

“He’s-he’s not picking up, he’s not replying to my texts, I can’t track him when he’s over a thousand miles away from me…” The goalie lets out a whimper.

“Well, you’re closer to him by a thousand miles,” he remarks as he enters the kitchen. “How am I supposed to know where he is if you don’t even know.” He opens the refrigerator and peers inside it. “Did you see his matchup?” He leans over to reach the bottom drawer with his free hand.

“Yeah…”

“And?”

“He disappeared.”

Kale instantly perks his head up with confusion. “What? How did he disappear?”

“Well, John shot him with his gun and-and he went POOF! He disappeared! Even the NHL doesn’t know where he’s at!”

Kale peers back into the drawer to stick his hand in it. “Huh, that’s strange…” He pulls out a bagged sandwich from it. “So nothing?” He pushes the drawer closed.

“Nothing,” Jake squeaks out.

Kale straightens up. “I’m sorry, Jake Dog.” He closes the refrigerator's door. “He’ll come around soon, I know it.”

“I hope. Or else I’m gonna track him down.” He adds in with a growl, “If the team lets me.”

“Hopefully, tomorrow he’ll call you,” Kale says as he steps over to the island. “Sleep well, it’s late over there.”

“Aw...okay… Good night, Kale Chips.”

Kale lets out a sigh of sympathy. “‘Night, Jake Dog.” He then moves the phone to his sight and presses the red button.

He knits his eyebrows in suspension at the screen as he puts his phone to sleep. “How could Brett disappear like that?” He places it on the island next to him, unwraps his sandwich, and takes a bite of it. “That’s so weird…,” he muffles while chewing. He then flicks his eyes down to the dark screen. “I gotta look into it—”

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep!

His phone lights with a notification of a video call from Nolan.

“Oh, it’s Pat!” Kale grabs a napkin from the napkin dispenser nearby, quickly wipes his right hand, and accepts the call.

He props his phone on the napkin dispenser to get a good angle on himself and see his friend.

Nolan is staring at him from the other end with no emotion as usual.

Kale gives him a wave with a big grin. “Hey, Pat!”

Nolan simply gives him a wave.

“So—” Kale leans closer to the screen with his arms against the island’s top. “—how are you doing?”

Nolan shrugs.

Kale narrows his eyes at him, suspicious about his new form of communication. “Um, can you talk?”

Nolan shakes his head.

Suddenly, Carter materializes behind Nolan and nudges his shoulder. “Come on, Pat, tell him what happened.” He glances at the screen.

Kale knits his eyebrows at him. “What happened?”

A smile of thrill grows on Carter’s face as he gazes at Kale. “Puberty hit him like a bulldozing truck.”

Nolan shifts himself to look at the goalie from behind his shoulder. “No, it was Stamkos.”

Kale instantly freezes. His eyes grow wide. His mouth drops.

Nolan’s voice is extremely deep, guttural, and gruff. It rolls in the back of his throat. It has no emotion. It is not his usual voice.

“Pat...,” Kale murmurs in complete shock. “...your voice...is so deep…”

Nolan faces the screen with mocking raised eyebrows. “Really? I didn’t know that. Thanks for pointing that out for me.”

“No, wait—” He waves his hands in the air for a split second. “—HOW did this happen?”

“I told you, it was stupid Stamkos.”

Carter speaks up: “Pat here got fried.” He places his hand on his shoulder. “Badly.”

Nolan cranes his head up behind him to look at his other friend. “In my defence, he struck first blindly. It was a dirty move he did on me.”

Kale stares at the two blankly. “So Stamkos fried you...and as a result, your voice turned deep.”

Nolan shrugs. “I guess.”

Incredulous confusion engulfs Kale’s facial expression. “How does that work? Your voice doesn’t go deep when you get electrocuted.”

Nolan glares at him. “Well, how else do you explain this?”

Kale lets out a heavy sigh. “This is so weird…” He stares down at his once-bitten sandwich.

“Thanks,” he hears Nolan tell him flatly.

Kale peers back at the screen. “So I take it that’s why you didn’t want to talk.”

“And the light bulb turned on,” he mumbles perfectly with his low tone.

Carter dips his head down to take a look at his friend. “Hey, look at the bright side here, Pat: Now you’re more manly.”

Nolan peers up at him with furrowed eyebrows. “What, I wasn’t manly before?”

Carter lifts his hand from his shoulder to point to his closest cheek. “Well, you have your cheeks like blush.”

Nolan promptly stands up and begins to storm toward the screen’s left frame.

“What?” Carter swings his head left to watch him.

Nolan exits the screen’s frame.

Carter stares offscreen with a gawk. “Pat…! Pat!”

Kale clears his throat. “Carts, one thing about Pat.”

Carter whirls his head to face the screen. Bewilderment is on his face.

“Never EVER mention—even the slightest— to him about his rosy cheeks,” he tells him. “It pisses him off.”

Carter’s face drops into guilty realization. “Oh… Okay…” He shifts his eyes. “Thanks for the late warning…”

Notes