One thing I have learned in my 18 years on this planet is that you should never take anything for granted, because eventually, everything will fall apart. Well almost everything. One constant thing that has always been there for me is hockey. It's one of the few things that hasn't disappeared or disappointed.
"McKenna, where is your dorm room? We have been walking around forever." My mom said from behind me as I tried to figure out how to read the map of the dorm building.
"It should be right down the hall." I said and picked up my hockey bag again.
"If it's not, I'm going to find an RA." Mom threated as we walked past two more rooms.
"I told you I would find it and I just did!" I said and looked at the light walnut colored door in front of me. Just off to the side are the numbers 317 in bronze and I fished out my new school ID card that doubled as my room key from my pocket as I juggled my heavy hockey bag in my hand.
"Finally" Mom said as I placed the key card in front of the electronic lock and green lights appeared.
I pushed the door open and saw the room was dark and empty. I guess my roommate isn't here yet, which is great for me so I get first pick at what bedroom I want. I walked into the room and dropped my hockey bag on the floor just past the entrance. Mom wasn't that far behind me as I walked off to find the bedrooms. Since I committed to University of Wisconsin late, I missed out on dorming in the woman's ice hockey house. So instead of staying in a regular dorm room I got put up in a suite in one of the newer buildings as a compromise. The suite has two individual bedrooms, one shared bathroom, a living room area with a connected full kitchen. It's really like a two-bedroom apartment.
Each bedroom is on opposite sides of the dorm. I went to check out one of them while mom went to look at the other one and then we switched. After checking out both rooms, they were basically the same. One of them was closer to the bathroom then the other so I went with the room further away from the bathroom. With the decision made, mom and I started to move my stuff into my room for my first year of college. It didn't take us long to haul everything out of her car as I didn't bring much in the first place.
Mom helped me start to unpack my stuff and we loaded up my closet. Once that was full, we moved on to the dresser I have. In about an hour, everything I had was moved into my room. I was just starting to put pictures of mom and I up on the corkboard above my desk when I heard the door to the room open.
"How do you think your roommate will be?" Mom asked as I stuck the picture I was holding up with a tack.
"I'm just hoping she's nice." I said and stood from the desk chair.
I opened my bedroom door and saw two people who I'm assuming are my roommates parents walk into the room each of them holding boxes. Both of her parents looked like your typical parents. Because of my late commit, not only did I miss out on living in the hockey house, I didn't get the chance to match with a roommate before hand, we were just stuck together at random for committing late to study here.
Just when I was going to make my presence known a girl walked into the room. The first thing I noticed was that she is tall and blonde. The second thing I noticed is that she is walking with a cane; well it was more like limping. When I brought my eyes up I noticed that her eyes were already on me, watching my every move. Shit, not the best first impression.
"Hey, I'm McKenna Bertinelli your new roommate." I offered and pushed myself off the doorframe and walked over to her with my hand out. The girl watched my hand and then brought her eyes back up to mine.
"Cassandra Allegretti, nice to meet you McKenna." Cassandra. She offered me a little smile as she shook my hand. Another thing I noticed was how soft her hands are. Compared to mine, all my stick work has left my palms covered in callouses.
"Damn Cassie, I hope your roommate isn't a slob, already leaving there giant bag in the middle of the hallway." Another voice caught our attention and our hands dropped to follow it. My eyes landed on a hulking young guy in a Wisconsin Hockey sweatshirt staring down at my hockey bag I left in the entry way of our room.
"My bad, my mom and I went right into unpacking my stuff and I forgot to come back out and grab my hockey bag." I said and moved pass Cassandra to grab my bag and hauling it up onto my shoulder.
"Don't listen to anything my older brother says. He's been a crab since I said I wanted to dorm. Chad, please be nice." Cassandra said and watched me drop my hockey bag just inside my new bedroom door.
"You play for the woman's team?" He asked sizing me up after he lowered the box he was carrying to get a look at my face.
"I do, forward, what about you?" I asked eyeing his sweatshirt.
"Defense, led the team in hits last season." Chad said and puffed his chest out some more.
"Chad, go help mom and dad with the boxes." Cassandra said, her voice firm, pushing on her older brothers shoulder towards her new room where her parents disappeared too.
Just as Chad was going to walk towards her room, Cassandra's parents walked out of the other bedroom, pulling all of our focuses to them. My mom came up behind me and put her hand on my shoulder before leaning in and whispering in my ear that she heard everything with Chad. I had to hold in a snicker when she said that Chad needs to pull the stick from his ass. I turned to hide my laugh and moved out of the way so my mom could get out of the room.
"It's nice to meet you guys, I'm Felicia, McKenna's mom." My mom said and walked closer to Cassandra's parents.
"It's nice to meet you Felicia, I'm Willa and this is my husband Marshall, we are Cassie's parents." Willa said.
Our parents got to know each other for a few minutes as I moved over to check out the kitchen. I didn't want to hover around as I got the chance to move into the room in peace. As I checked out the place, I noticed that we would need silverware as all the cabinets are empty. I sighed and thought about how much I had left in savings. Hopefully Cassandra and I can split the cost on some things because I can't afford to get everything myself.
As I checked out the kitchen, my eyes found Cassandra. She just walked back out of her room to break up our parents getting to know each other as she wanted some help with her room. I thought that now would be a good time to get out of the room to give her some space to move her stuff in.
"Hey mom, how about we go check out Travis' room in the men's teams hockey house?" I said.
"That sounds like a good idea. Are you guys staying for the night?" My mom asked as she grabbed her purse she left by the front door.
"We actually live about an hour away so we'll be back again tomorrow with the last of Cassie's things." Marshall said.
"Sounds good, we'll see you guys later then." I said and walked out the door with mom right behind me.
"Well she seems nice, her family is." Mom said and I looped my arm through hers.
"You're not wrong, time will tell though. But let's go find Travi, he has been blowing up my phone for the last half hour." I said and started to read through all the messages my best friend Travis has been sending me.
It took me a minute to get the address of the hockey house from him and saw it was not far from the ice rink. The only good thing about my dorm is it that it's the closest dorm building to the ice rink.
"How do you think you're going to do this year?" Mom asked as we started getting close to the hockey house.
"I don't know, this is a new team, a whole new system and coaches to learn and I'm playing on an all-girls team for the first time ever. There is going to be a learning curve I'm going to have to figure out." I said and checked the house number Travis sent me.
"Well, I think you are going to do amazing." Mom said and kissed my temple.
"Thanks for the optimism. The house is right here." I said and pulled my mom along up the walk way to the large house.
The door to the house was propped open and so we just walked right in. A lot of activity was happening just inside the door. A few guys were talking with their parents and there are a ton of boxes everywhere but none of them were Travis. Just as I was about to text him, I heard his voice.
"Mac Truck!" I looked up from my phone and found Travis sliding down the banister and jumping into my arms.
"Hey Travi!" I said and hugged him tight.
"Did you find your dorm okay? It's such a bummer about not getting a room in your hockey house." Travis asked as he pulled away.
"After searching for it for almost 20 minutes while lugging all her crap around, we finally found it." Mom said from behind me.
"Mama B! It's so nice to see you." Travis said and hugged my mom.
"You too Travis, where are your parents?" Mom asked when she pulled away from my best friend.
"They are up in my room making my bed. I told them to let me do it but mom wouldn't let me. It's on the second floor, the fourth room on the right." Travis said.
My mom followed Travis' directions and made her way up the stairs as I looked around the house. It was pretty big with a lot of rooms on the first floor, I can only imagine how many bedrooms are on the second and third.
"The girls house isn't far from here; you should check it out before you head back to the dorm." Travis said and pulled me into the living room.
"I might. Dude, it's going to be so weird not playing with guys." I said looking around the room sizing up all of the guys who play for the team.
"I know, we are both in for a rude awaking come game time." Travis said and took in the room with me.
Compared to me, Travis is small for a hockey player heigh wise, but he is buff. With skates on I'm almost six foot. Looking around at some of the other guys on the team, Travis is definitely one of the shortest guys on the team. It's a good thing he makes up for it with his speed. In high school Travis was the fastest skater on the rink. He always used his speed to his advantage, always the best when it came to breakaway chances.
"We are going to be hosting a get together for both teams tomorrow night for everyone to get to know each other. You need to come." Travis said.
"Let me know the details and I'll be there." I said and watched my mom come down the stairs with Travis' parents.
"There's our only daughter!" Travis' mom Dawn said and came down the stairs and hugged me.
"Hey Momma." I said and held the woman for a minute before looking at Travis' dad.
"Did you settle in alright?" Malcom asked and pulled me into a side hug.
"We did, almost completely unpacked." I said.
"Good." Malcom answered.
My mom and I hung out with Travis for a few more minutes before we left them to finish unpacking. Back in Boston, Travis and I grew up on the same block a few houses away from each other. When my world slowly started to fall apart, Travis's house and his family became my safe haven. I owe a lot to him and his family for keeping me safe and sane. His mom Dawn is like a second mom to me, always making sure I was fed and had the newest hockey gear she was getting for Travis. Malcolm was always a man of few words, but he has these kind and warm brown eyes that make you melt whenever he looks at you and makes you feel seen.
When I started playing hockey is when we really grew close. A lot of the guys didn't want me on the team and pushed our coach's not to play me. Travis was always in my corner, supporting me, speaking up about the other guys on the team who would try and get me benched, pushing me to be better and I'm the hockey player I am today because of that. As we grew up and coaches started to notice me and my natural ability, they started to play me more and I slowly earned the respect from my male teammates. But even though I started to earn their respect, I had to work twice as hard to be able to handle playing at the speed and the level of physicality the guys do.
Mom and I walked a little bit down the road and I stopped in front of the women's hockey house. The house was just as big as the men's house but looked a bit newer then theirs but the front door was closed.
"Do you want to go inside?" Mom asked by my side looking at the house in question.
"I probably should but I have a team meeting tomorrow so I'll just come back then." I said and turned away from the house. I didn't want her to see the nerves I was getting from just standing outside the house.
My mom didn't add anything else but wrapped her arm around my elbow as we walked back to the parking lot to get the last few things I had in the car. It was just two boxes, one of shoes and the other winter clothes along with my hockey sticks. Mom took the sticks and left me with the boxes.
As least now we know where to go so I didn't have to struggle with the boxes for so long. When we got back to my dorm room I could hear Cassandra and her family moving her in still. Mom got the door this time and held it open for me to walk in with the boxes. Cassandra was directing her brother where to move some boxes as we walked in. My eye found hers for a second and I offered her a smile before dropping the boxes in my room.
It didn't take long to unload the rest of my stuff. Once I was done putting my shoes away I folded up the last box and stuck it under my bed before turning around and finding my mom. She was standing by the foot end of my bed and started unfolding my pride flag and held it up.
"You know I wouldn't let you leave this at home. Where should we put it?" She asked and gave it a little shake to get out some of the wrinkles after it's been folded. I felt my eyes start to water as I got up and grabbed the other end and just held onto the flag for a minute.
"We can hang it up in the middle of my desk and bed. Here is a tack." I said and handed my mom a tack. She climbed up on my bed and I stood on my desk chair. It took us a minute to get it level but we finally got it.
I put my desk chair back and mom hopped off my bed. She stood next to me and put her arm around my shoulder and pulled me into her.
"After the last couple of years we had, I didn't know if today would have been possible." Mom said as I wrapped my arm around her waist. I could hear her voice start to crack and I knew we were both barely holding it together, staring at the flag that really started everything. "I really am so proud of you McKenna. You worked so hard to get here and I can't wait to see how well you do on this team. I know you are going to be amazing. I also wanted to give you something." Mom said and pulled something out of her purse.
"I have been saving the child support money your father has been paying and cashed out the college savings account I have been building for you. It's not as much as I wanted to give you but hopefully you will be able to get a job around here to help if you need more. It's a little more than seven thousand dollars." Mom said and handed me a thick envelope. I opened the flap and saw all the cash.
"Mom I can't, you need this money for the house and food." I said and tried to push the money back in her hands.
"I won't take it back McKenna, it's yours." Mom said and folded her hands over mine forcing me to take the money.
I was speechless so I just pulled my mom into a bone crushing hug. I hid my face in her neck and tried to keep it together. Finally I pulled away from mom and we just sat together on my bed for a few moments. After we collected ourselves, mom and I headed back out to open a new bank account here so I could deposit the money. Once it was all set up and I had a new debit card for the account, mom and I went to have dinner at a diner not far from my dorm.
When we were done with dinner we went back to my dorm room for the night. As we got back Cassandra was leaving with her parents saying that she moved in all they brought today and would be back tomorrow afternoon to finish up. For us it, was a win-win. Mom didn't book a room to stay in for the night so she will just crash here before she starts the 17-hour drive back to Boston.
As we got settled for the night I noticed that Cassandra brought a TV with her and hooked it up in the living area. I signed into Netflix, thank you Travis, and put on a movie. Mom joined me not long after and we relaxed for a little before I insisted on her talking my bed for the night. After a little back and forth and me basically pushing her into the room, she finally accepted it. She needed a good night sleep before the start of the long drive.
Sleeping on the couch for the night wasn't horrible but I definitely don't want to do it again any time soon. The next morning I was up around 9am and went right into the bathroom to shower. Mom was up when I got out and we switched places. Once we were done and dressed the door opened to the dorm and Cassandra walked in followed by her parents. They had a few smaller boxes and me and mom got out of their way. Mom said her goodbyes to them and we left the dorm to get breakfast together. We ended up going to the same diner we went to last night. They had pretty great food and I will most definitely be coming here again during the semester.
After we finished breakfast mom dropped me off back at the dorm building and put the car into park. I didn't want to get out because I knew once I did, I won't see her in person again until we play Boston College at the end of November.
"You know you need to get out of the car right?" Mom asked and I looked over to her. Her eyes are red and it looks like she is going to cry.
"I know, I just don't want to." I said trying to push through the wobble in my throat.
"McKenna, we've made it all the way here, moved you in, there is no way I'm taking you back home with me now. It's time you put yourself first and if I have to drag you out of this car by your hair, I will do it." Mom said as her eyes started to water.
"I know you would." I said with a chuckle and wiped away a tear that fell from my eye.
Mom unlocked the doors and stepped out of the car. I followed her action and met her in front of the hood and let her pull me into a tight hug. I savored every second of it and almost didn't let go when she started to pull away.
"You are going to go back up to your room and get to know your roommate. I will call you when I stop for the night and I will see you for your game against Boston." Mom said and gave my shoulders a squeeze.
"I love you mom." I said and gave her a smile.
"I love you too McKenna, I'll see you soon." Mom said and got back into her car.
I stood on the sidewalk for a while and watched as mom started to make the trip back home. When the car was out of sight, I walked back up to my dorm. Cassandra and her parents were in the middle of hanging fairy lights in the living room while I ducked into my bedroom. Mom was right, I've made it this far, it's finally time to start putting myself first.
A/N: so here is the first chapter of my new work. I still don't have much mapped out yet as in overall plot and but i do have an idea of where i want to take this story. It will probably end up being around 30 chapters but then again i said that about All is Found and that ended up being double that.
Right now updates will come every Sunday and there will be no double updates right now as i don't have much prewritten. But if you show this chapter a lot of love i will update this Sunday.
Hope you enjoy and i love to hear what you guys have to say so drop some comments on what you think is going to happen.