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HillsHaveHats · 07-08-2024, 07:38 PM

Louis Belanger opened the door in front of him. He expected a line of white taxis would be waiting for passengers when he stepped out, but there were none to be found. He had just been drafted by New England and was in a rush to get to the arena. He didn’t want to be late to his first summer workout with the group. Looking at the building from where he just exited, he saw the words Boston Logan International Airport on it. Minutes went by and finally, a taxi appeared and he was happy to finally get a spot on it, but suddenly…..

Oliver Cornwall shouldered his way past Louis, carrying his gear on his shoulders and finishing the last of the crisps from his flight across the Atlantic. After a typical delay due to rain and cloud over the British Isles, Cornwall’s flight had been half an hour late and had missed the cab he had arranged to grab him, so he dashed into the first taxi he saw, inadvertently scooping it from his future teammate’s hands.

Louis was astonished. He couldn’t believe it. This 6 foot 1 british man has just ruffled his way into his taxi. Louis opened the door and screamed ”What do you think you’re doing? I was here first, get out of there!” The driver looked at Louis with a strange face and said some gibberish words, lost in confusion at the sudden altercation.

Oliver turned to the source of the unexpected ruckus, the outrage on his face quickly shifting to a more confused surprise. “Wait a minute, aren’t you that almost-frenchman who was drafted with me? We’re going to the same place mate, relax. I know wingers need the limelight but I thought you’d be more polite about it. Canucks don’t know how to share space with your comrades huh?”

Louis was confused. ”Are you that defenceman they drafted out of Vancouver? ” He asked. ”Oliver something… Cnorwall? Was it? Or Gnorwall? Or something along those lines? ”

“You bloody well know my name mate, I’ve dominated against you in the J and we both know it’s going to be even more ugly this year. The only reason you were drafted ahead of me is that GMs don’t appreciate the other side of the puck, but I’m going to keep showing you and everyone else up until you take notice.” The Brit was obviously still sore from the tough WJC tournament, where the British Isles had faced, to put it mildly, a very humbling experience.

“You have some nerves coming up to me, stealing my taxi, assuming you're better than me because your team beat us twice this year. “ Exclaimed Louis. “There is only one way to settle this and it’s on the ice! Now move over so I can sit down!“ Louis then lightly pushes Oliver, takes a seat down and turns to the driver “Sir, we need to get to the Boston Garden arena. If you can get us there in 5 minutes, my friend here will give you a hundred bucks!“

Oliver gave Louis a sideways glance, knowing full well that the Quebecker made far more with his higher pick and league positions than he did on his rookie deal. But instead of raising a fuss, the Englishman kept a stiff upper lip, letting out only a grunt and under-his-breath comment that he’s just a tiny bit better than the real French betray his contempt for his companion.

The driver, excited by the prospect of making some good money, started driving. Making questionable decisions along the way, he was able to get the two new teammates in record time, only 4 minutes. In the taxi, it was another story. The air was tense, Louis and Oliver hadn’t talked since the driver had started the car. Arriving at the destination, both players got out of the car. They both knew they didn’t want to be the last player to arrive in the locker room so a race was on.

Oliver quickly realized that he had made a mistake entering the taxi first as he now had to wait for Louis to have his gear unloaded. So, he felt it best to revert to the time-honoured British tradition of the queue. Oliver waited patiently behind Louis and the cab driver, who lifted both of their gear bags out of the car. Once set down, Oliver politely thanked the driver for his service, tipped him, and immediately shifted Louis’ stick just out of his reach, grabbing Oliver’s own gear and taking off at as much of a sprint as one can do when carrying their gear.

Louis was mad. Not only had this British tooth merchant stolen his taxi but now had pushed his stick out of reach. Grabbing his stick, he started running towards Oliver. Unfortunately, Oliver beat him to the door and entered the arena. Louis couldn’t believe it, even though he was faster on the ice, he had lost this race and arrived last. Entering the meeting room, Louis was ashamed. Oliver was just sitting down and everyone else was looking at him. He knew he had messed up and you could see in the eyes of Luke the GM he was in trouble. He would get his revenge later.

Luckily for the rookies, Luke was in a hurry to get started on the agenda for the night before training camp. All the Wolfpack’s prospects were in the room, and management wanted to ensure that they were getting a good evaluation of where everyone is in their development. This was their first opportunity to see who these prospects were as people outside of an interview setting, so it is the first time you can see someone’s true selves. That’s not to say the rookies would get away with their indiscretion, Luke could tell that they did not like each other, and that was unacceptable for two players the team had expended top-ten draft capital on.

Luke started talking about the values of the organization and what it meant to be a wolf. After a while, management decided to do an exercise where the players were grouped in teams of two for a familiarization activity. The co-gm, JR, looked straight into the two rookies eyes and decided to pair them. “You have to be kidding me, I’m stuck with this guy again?“ thought Louis. He tried to act like he hadn’t heard what his new boss had just said and walked towards Troy who was right in front. But the left defenceman had a group of teammates around him laughing at all his jokes, so Louis decided to try to talk to Olaf Karsikko. Walking towards Olaf, Louis froze. He had just remembered Olaf was a legend, among the best goalies to ever play in the SHL. There were no chances he’d be willing to be paired with a rookie. His last two options were Outdoor Truck and Ivan Lacksamus. But then, Ivan took out a piece of cheddar out of his pocket and gave it to the Finn. It’s at this moment that Louis realized he was stuck, once again, with the British who’d so condescendingly called him Mate.

While Louis was making the rounds looking for an alternate, Oliver sat back and watched the young winger get more and more flustered until he became resigned to his fate and made his way back towards Oliver. “Well mate, are we ready to get into it now? It looks like we’ve got some ground to cover.” Without waiting for an answer, he turned and made his way to the gym, where he turned two exercise bikes to face each other enough to have a conversation, grabbing the nearest one and starting to bike. Oliver let out a small smile, thinking he had adeptly seized control of the conversation by choosing the ground.

Louis sighted and got on the bike facing Oliver. He started cycling and getting into the groove. On the other side, Oliver had a big smile on his face. Louis thought to himself “might as well get to know this guy”. Louis looked right at Oliver's face and asked “So Oliver, tell me about yourself. What do you like to do for fun?”

“Well, I’m usually going to be either out with some buddies, either in person or gaming online, or watching some sports when I’ve got downtime. I’m actually pretty lucky, growing up in Cambridge all we could get on the telly for the SHL was Wolfpack games. I grew up watching these colours so it’s pretty bloody cool that I’m gunna wear them out there one of these days. Not to mention that we’ve got the best logo in the league, it’s going to be incredible to live out this dream. How bout you Louis?”

”So you grew up as a fan of the Pack?” Replied Louis. ”I have to admit, that’s pretty cool to be able to play for your childhood team. You know, I’m a bit similar. The relationships I have on this earth are so important to me, hopefully I can make some great ones in this locker room.”

“Yeah lad, I used to gather with my rugby teammates and try to get them into the games, but I didn’t succeed as much as I’d have liked! I’ve gotta say, you lot are a nice change at least in that respect; it’s nice to be surrounded by fellow hockey appreciators! I agree about relationships, I’ve won a fair amount of times across my sports, and the most successful and fulfilling seasons have been with a tight group.” Oliver paused for a moment, thinking on what he’d most want to know about a teammate before you join battle together. “Who’s your biggest role model in the game?”

”That’s a good question. Last season, I joined the junior league and I have grown up so much since then. I have trouble naming one single person, but let me talk to you about each of my teammates … ” As Louis started talking about the players he had met throughout the junior league, the discussions between Louis and Olivier improved. They both spoke together while exercising for over an hour. As the time in duos was coming to an end, Louis looked at Olivier and said ”Well I have to say, you’re not too shabby Oliver. I wasn’t expecting to bond so well after our trip in the taxi earlier.”

“I may bear some degree of responsibility for that going south, I sometimes let things slip my mind when I’m under pressure and with my flight being late and training camp, I didn’t want to be late. Not to mention that before I was in the SMJHL, most of my experience with Wingers and Frenchmen hasn’t been the smoothest, most have been… divas, if you’ll excuse the term. So I guess there’s a chance that I was a little bit of a prick and judged you before you had your chance to show me who you are. I’ll do my best to be a little slower on the uptake and to honour the queue going forward, yeah?”

”I appreciate you saying that. There is no bad blood over here.” Replied Louis. ” I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did in the taxi and I value that you treated me so well even though I was kind of an a-hole. Listen, why don’t we go out after this? I’ve heard of this great burger place in Boston.”

“Sure buddy, let me earn my appetite on the bike here quickly and then we can get after some grub”.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Olivier and Louis then got in a taxi outside the arena and arrived at their destination. This place called Lola Burger was close to the Boston Waterfront. This time, the commute was relatively uneventful as the rookies collaborated this time rather than competing in a vehicle with plenty of room for them both. They continued their dialogue through the drive, with Louis learning of Oliver’s extreme distaste for tomato as they drove.

On their arrival at Lola’s they were immediately confronted with a menu that specifically stated that no alterations shall be made. Unfortunately for Oliver, tomato was added to every single burger. Despite his valiant effort at dissuading the poor staff member who repeatedly relayed to him that no alterations are allowed to menu items, Oliver glumly ordered the bacon cheese burger with tomato on it, and plunked down in his seat.

Oliver gingerly lifted the top bun of his burger, noticing that the staff must have decided to play a mean joke on him and tripled the tomato content of his burger. With his heart full of righteous fury, Oliver flipped the tomato off of his burger. Unfortunately, it landed on Louis’ hand, spattering his sleeve with the sauces that had covered the vegetable until its hasty departure from Oliver’s plate.

Louis could not believe it. ‘’Did this guy just throw a piece of tomato at me?’’ He wondered. ‘’I thought we were friends now, this will not be tolerated’’ Louis took the bottle of ketchup and squeezed its contents all over his palm. Just as he went to give a smack to Oliver, Troy showed up screaming ‘’SURPRISE’’. Unfortunately for him, he received the smack in his face which had been intended for the vexatious Tommy. Red as a tomato, Troy mistook the hit from Oliver. He grabbed the plate of food from the neighbors table and threw it in the direction of the British man.

The scene quickly devolved into chaos, most of the team had converged on the joint, and while the majority of the general public fled the unfortunate restaurant, the hockey players rained down chaos. Deconstructed burgers flew openly as Troy, Louis, Outdoor Truck, and Nathan teamed up against Oliver, Antoine, Ivan, and Pork. Players grabbed loose food trays, using them as shields with one hand while spraying condiments or hurling vegetables with the other.

The fight was in a stalemate. No team could get the upper hand. But then, to the surprise of the players, Luke arrived in the restaurant with a bag of cheese curds. This shifted the tide. At first, Luke would throw these at his players, but the cheese would disappear. He then realized that Ivan was eating all the pieces. The Thief of cheese had struck again, and as the players pelted each other with food, the food began to disintegrate until it was no longer in reasonable condition to be thrown. As the fighting died down, a new noise picked up as the Wolfpack cleaned up their mess, with chirps flying and laughs filling the void left by the impacting vegetables.

Truly, a new era was beginning in New England. With the rookies finally getting along, a veteran corps of players to show them how to be pros, and one of the best management groups the SHL has ever seen, the Wolfpack walked out of Lola’s and entered a new era.

Code:
2501 words, split 50/50 with @popol

***luke*** · 07-08-2024, 07:43 PM

excellent media! excited to have both of you (and shiny)

***HabsFanFromOntario*** · 07-08-2024, 09:45 PM

I spy nerds

HillsHaveHats · 07-08-2024, 09:50 PM

07-08-2024, 09:45 PMHabsFanFromOntario Wrote: I spy nerds

You're damned right my guy Cheers

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