One Goal

PART EIGHT: BIRTHDAY GIFTS

Once we were all done eating, we headed back towards the ice to hang out and dance for a while. By now, everyone was ready to get rowdy and dance away the pizza to make room for the cake and ice cream we would have later. I was going to dance with my friends mostly, but I quickly found out that they were already busy with other people on the dance floor, which consisted of a few giant rugs laid across the ice so we wouldn’t slip and slide. A few of the players had suggested that we just keep skating, but my friends and I agreed that we’d be more comfortable with taking our skates off. None of us were good enough at skating to dance while doing it anyways, and I know we wanted to dance our asses off. I did, at least.

I asked if Kara and Shantelle wanted to head out onto the ice with me, and they agreed right away. However, once we were out there, Jonathan Toews came up to Kara and stole her from us.

“Hey, would you want to dance with me?” he asked her with a smile. She looked back at us as if she was asking for confirmation.

“Go ahead! We’ll find you again later,” I told her.

“Okay, sure!” she told Tazer, and they were gone. It was just Shantelle and I now, but not for long. Shawzy was back to flirt some more. He had just been talking to Shantelle earlier, and apparently he was really interested in her, because he wouldn’t give up.

“Hey, you mind if I dance over here?” Shaw asked, practically booty bumping Shantelle.

“We don’t mind,” I answered for her. Patrick decided to join us and when the beat was right, he did his famous Kaner Shuffle.

“What is that Kaner, your mating call?” Shaw joked. “It’s like the only dance you ever do!”

“Don’t be jealous that I have a dance and you don’t, Shawzy,” Patrick answered.

“Sounds like you just got burned!” Shantelle commented, rubbing it all in Andrew’s face. He just laughed it off and kept dancing. Before too long, our small little group grew and Crawford, Sharp, Seabrook, Keith, and Saad had joined us, along with some more of my friends.

I had one of those, “it’s my birthday and I’ll do what I want to” attitudes and I wasn’t shy at all about dancing. I let loose, probably more than anyone else did. I stayed close to Kaner most of the time and I heard a couple remarks from some Hawks players about it, including Shaw.

“Damn, get it Kaner!” he yelled, and I saw Kara and the captain look over at us and laugh. Apparently they couldn’t resist, and they joined the group. Pretty much everyone was out on the ice in one big blob of dance moves.

After a while, I needed a bathroom break. I actually hadn’t intended it on being one of those group girl trips to the bathroom to talk and touch up hair and makeup, but it turned into one when Kara and Shantelle tagged along.

“Can you believe that we’ve all been dancing with our favorite Chicago Blackhawks for the past half hour?” Shantelle squealed, clearly giddy with excitement at the fact that Shaw was practically begging for her attention. I wondered why they didn’t just kiss already, or run off to Vegas and get married, or whatever.

“Can you believe how incredibly happy Patrick Kane has been for the past half hour? And I mean that in more way than one, by the way,” Kara said, winking at me. She had to turn everything sexual. I don’t know why I didn’t always see it coming by now.

“Oh shut up Kara!” was all I could think of to say.

“Hey, I’m just saying! He’s not the only one that’s happy. Have you seen Shantelle lately?” Kara added.

“Go home Kara, you’re drunk!” Shantelle answered.

“Well, I’m not drunk since there doesn’t seem to be any alcohol anywhere, but it wouldn’t matter if I was, it’s clear to see that you guys are in love!” Kara laughed.

“Well, maybe we’re not in love yet, but he did ask me out, so.”

“WHAT?!” Kara and I yelled the same thing at the same time. If anyone was out in the hall, they had to be wondering what the hell was going on.

“Yeah. He asked me when we were dancing. It wasn’t anything special, it was just one of those, ‘Hey, you wanna go out sometime?’ kind of things, but oh who am I kidding Andrew Shaw fricken asked me out!” Shantelle explained. Good for her! I was happy for her.

“That’s awesome!” I told her, and we began fixing our hair and everything else that had fallen out of place while dancing.

(PATRICK’S P.O.V.)

“Having fun there, Kaner?” Shaw asked me when our dance partners left.

“No, I hate it when the girl I’m crazy about dances on me,” I answered sarcastically.

“Hey, you got the present out of the locker room earlier, right? I think we’re gonna give that to her when she gets back.” Johnny said.

“Yeah, I got it,” I answered.

“There’s cake, right?” Shaw asked. Of course, he mainly cared about the food even though we had just eaten not that long ago.

“Yes, there’s cake. And I hate to break it to you, but you have to share,” Sharpy said, joining the conversation. Most of us exited the “dance floor” at that point and we found seats. Alecia and Destiny’s mom brought all the presents out, as well as the cake and some ice cream. The cake looked amazing, as if a professional had done it, but when I asked who made it, I found out that Destiny’s mom did. Apparently she had taken cake decorating classes and they had definitely paid off. The cake was decked out in black, red, and white, and it looked like one of our jerseys. The whole team was amazed by it, and we all made sure to be vocal about it.

Everything was pretty much set up by the time Destiny and her friends got back, and they were a little surprised at the fact that everything was all ready.

“Oh my gosh, did you make this, Mom?” she asked, and her mom nodded. She hugged her in thanks.

“Well, I guess we better sing so we can have some cake!” her mom announced. Destiny rolled her eyes, and I laughed. Oh, the dreaded singing of Happy Birthday. Nobody ever knew what to do when they were being sung to, and I understood the awkwardness she felt. We all sang anyways, though. We were all so miserable sounding and off key that at least she was able to laugh. She looked at me right before she blew out her candles. Why, I didn’t know. I hoped that she was wishing for a date with me or something so her wish could come true.

“Alright, who wants cake?” Des’s mom asked, and of course Shawzer immediately jumped up. The rest of us followed and the perfect cake was cut up and plopped onto plates for us with ice cream. We all soon found out that it tasted just as good as it looked. It was red velvet on the inside.

When we were done eating, we all demanded that Destiny should open her presents, so she did. She got a TON of stuff. More than I had expected, honestly. Her friends had gone all out, apparently. She got money, gift cards, clothes, even a big basket full of all the Starbucks coffee products anyone could imagine. I guess she was a pretty big fan of coffee. Right when she had finished with what she thought was her last present, I took the present from the team out of my back pocket and passed it to Tazer, trying to be as subtle as possible. It seemed to work, and Destiny started to get up and move. Before she could get away, though, Tazer went up to her and stopped her.

“Hey, where are you going? You still have one present left,” he told her.

“What do you mean?” she asked, scanning the area for any bags, boxes, or cards she might have missed.

“Well, the rest of the team and I have one more thing for you,” he explained, pulling our gift out from behind his back. “We’d like to give you five tickets to our game tomorrow.” The captain handed the tickets to her, and I couldn’t help but smile at her shocked, yet excited facial expression.