*September 21st, 2032, 4:30am*
The sound of heavy breathing filled the air. The room, which was once cool, was now hot due to the body heat. They turned all the lights off with the exception of the one in the middle to see if that would help- it didn't. They've been going at it for 90 minutes now, 30 minutes more than they said they would. Enough was enough.
"Alright," Quentin Michaelchuk said, grabbing a firm hold of his punching bag to stop it, "that's enough."
He walked over to his friend Lucas Kane, who was busy bench pressing. Quentin helped him grab a hold of his weights and put them up, then Lucas sat up and wiped the sweat off of his forehead.
"Some spotter you are," Lucas mumbled, before reaching down to his Gatorade bottle, "Instead of making sure I don't fuck up, you go off and hit the punching bag..." He paused, to take a sip of his blue Gatorade, "I could have possibly died."
"And I would have helped you parents with the funeral arrangements," Quentin responded, wiping the sweat away from his face with a towel. Lucas rolled his eyes, before taking another sip of his blue Gatorade. "Come on, we've already been working out since 3, we should be heading back."
"'Aight," Lucas said, getting up and stretching out his limbs, then he grabbed his gym bag, before following Quentin out of the warehouse.
When Lucas was 13, he left the city of Chicago, and America all together, to go play Junior Hockey with the Toronto Ravens, the team he played with until he was 18 and got drafted by the Blackhawks, the same team that drafted his dad and his Uncle Jonathan. When he came back to Chicago for the Christmas holidays, his dad surprised him with this warehouse- he had found it, then transformed it into a private gym. Lucas and his dad used to spend hours out here working out whenever Lucas was at home with him. Eventually, Lucas even brought the Brooks Triplets- James, Carlos and Logan- back here when they began training for their wrestling careers, and he also occasionally brings his little brother Eli out here. Now, he brings out his former Toronto Ravens teammate, also a current prospect of the Chicago Blackhawks, and his best friend, Quentin. With both of them trying to make the final lineup for the season, they've spent any freetime they had here- free time includes sleeping hours.
"What time do we have morning skate again?" Lucas asked, as he hopped in the passengers seat of Quentin's SUV.
"I think we gotta be there by 10am," Quentin replied, while starting his car, and hitting the Chicago streets, which were being lit up by the city lights.
"Great, i can probably get four hours of sleep before the skate, then get a couple more hours before the game," Lucas said, rubbing his eyes.
"Good, we can't have you falling asleep on the ice," Quentin joked, "It's the last game of the pre-season, and they've already sent a lot of rookies back to Rockford, yet we're still here. It's our last chance to make a good first impression and earn those spots on the lineup, and I'm not gonna be wearing the Indian Head sweatshirt unless you're wearing it with me," Lucas smiled at this, "Though, in a tragic event in which you get sent back to Rockford and I don't, I'll live." And with that, Lucas's smile quickly changed into a frown.
"Way to ruin a good moment, Q," Lucas said, rolling his eyes.
"Come on, You'd do the same thing in my situation, wouldn't you?" Quentin asked, causing Lucas to bow his head. "See! You totally would!"
"I've been playing on the same line as you since I was 13, and here we are 7 years later, trying to make it into the NHL together," Lucas reflected. "It would just feel weird not being able to drive to games with you, not working out with you...."
"Yeah, I've known you since your awkward stage...braces, being the shortest guy on the team..." Quentin reflected, making a terrified face.
"You're one to talk about awkward stages...." Lucas countered.
"Hey, I NEVER had an awkward stage," Quentin defended.
"You didn't hit puberty until our third season out there," Lucas chuckled, "You had the highest, most squeakiest voice on the team...hilarious."
"Mother nature was a bitch to me," Quentin grumbled, causing Lucas to raise an eyebrow.
"I don't think Mother Nature has a role in deciding when you become a man," Lucas said, "It's called mother nature...which means it deals with nature...as in the outdoors."
"Then why do girls always blame mother nature when it's their time of the month?" Quentin Asked.
"I don't know, they're hormonal and they need something to blame?" Lucas thought. "Zoey doesn't really get hormonal though, it's mostly her complaining about her cramps and how she wants to go to some buffet for dinner."
"Man, that is exactly why I don't have a girlfriend, they're too much man, they get you whipped," Quentin said.
"There is a whole list of reasons why you don't have a girlfriend," Lucas counted, causing Quentin to roll his eyes, as he pulled over outside of a loft.
"You are so lucky we're at your place now, or else I would have left your ass to hitchhike," Quentin told him, "Now get the hell out of my car, white boy." Lucas let out a chuckle, before reaching into the back to grab his gym bag.
"I'll see you in the morning," He said, as he got out of the car.
"Call me if you need a ride, hitchhiker," Quentin yelled after him, before driving away.
Lucas entered the building, before heading up to the loft he shared with his girlfriend of one year, Zoey. Lucas and Zoey have literally known each other since they were babies- they parents were friends, and their dads were both wrestling in the WWE, so it was easy for them to become friends, and after 19 years, they became more than friends, and they've been together ever since.
He jingled the keys out of his pocket, then unlocked the door and headed inside, only to find Zoey wide awake and up watching tv.
"Zoe?" He asked, confused at what he was seeing. Zoey turned around and saw him, then smiled.
"Hey babe!" She smiled and waved, patting the empty couch cushion next to her.
"What are you doing up this early?" Lucas asked, setting his gym bag down and walking over.
"I could ask you the same thing," Zoey said, a smirk on her face, and that's when it clicked in for Lucas, "I've been up ever since Q stopped by."
"We were
that loud?" Lucas asked.
"You're over-working yourself," Zoey said, "You have a morning skate in a couple hours, then a whole game..."
"I'll be fine," Lucas said.
"You're working out way too hard and that could have a bad effect on some of your muscles and lead to an injury," Zoey said, concerned. "I know you want this, Luke, but you're trying
way too hard."
"Zoe," Lucas said, resting both of his hands on her shoulders, "I'm only amping up my workout schedule during the preseason, and tonight, it'll be over. I swear, once I get news on whether or not I'm staying here in Chicago or going back to Rockford, I'll go back to my regular schedule. I'm gonna be fine, babe." Zoey looked down at the ground, then back up at Lucas.
"You better not be heading back to Rockford, I hated having you hours away from me last year, and I'm not doing it again," She said, "No way I can live in this loft all alone again."
"Don't worry, you won't," Lucas said reassuringly, before planting a kiss on Zoey's lips. "Now, I have a morning skate in a few hours, so I'm gonna grab some sleep before then, AND you have a lecture at Northwestern tomorrow, so you should join me."
"Not until tomorrow afternoon," Zoey reminded him. "I can't believe I don't have to head to Class until One!"
***
"I can't believe it's 7am and I'm up getting ready for High School," Eli Lloyd grumbled, as he took a seat at his kitchen table, taking a sip of orange juice waiting for his mom to finish his toast.
"I don't even have anything to do today, but I'm still up at 7am too helping you and your sister get ready for school," His mom mumbled, rolling her eyes.
"In Junior High, I didn't have to wake up until 7:45 to start getting ready, now, I have to be at High School at 7:45," Eli sighed. His mom sighed too, walking over and placing his toast in front of him, before placing her hands on his shoulders.
"High School Sucks," She began.
"Thanks for the reassurance, mother," Eli mumbled, rolling his eyes.
"Let me finish," She said sternly, "High School Sucks, Spend it with people who don't."
"Mason," Eli smirked.
"Oh, speaking of him, " His mom began, "Your Aunt Sarah wants him to carpool with you, you're sister, Kendall and Logan."
"What?" Eli asked, "You want me to drive to school with Bianca and Logan?"
"And Kendall and Mason," His mom reminded.
"But Bianca and Logan?" He asked again, "Can't you just drive me?"
"Are You kidding me?" His mom asked, "After you two leave, I'm heading straight back to sleep."
"Come on..." Eli sighed, causing his mom to sigh as well.
"Bianca and Logan aren't that bad," She reminded him.
"They can't keep their hands off of each other," Eli mumble, causing his mom to raise her eyebrow.
"They what?" She asked. Eli put down his toast, and turned around to look at her.
"Logan kept her out past curfew the entire summer, what do you think they were doing that caused them to be late?" Eli asked her. His mom closed her eyes and clenched her teeth in frustration.
"I am going to kill that girl," She grumbled.
"We're about to go to High-School, I'm sure you'd be doing her a favor If you did that," Eli said, before getting up and putting his plate in the dishwasher. His mom sighed.
"It can wait until after Lucas's game tonight," She said, shaking her head, before their doorbell rang. "That's probably Mason."
"I'll grab it," Eli said, running his left hand through his dark hair, while also heading over to the front door to open it, revealing his best friend- Mason Sharp. The two bumped fist, before Eli invited Mason in.
"Nah, there's a car already out there, I'm guessing Bianca's boyfriend and sister?" Mason explained.
"Mom, Logan and Kendall are here," Eli shouted over to his mom. She just nodded, before turning her head toward the staircase.
"BIANCA, LOGAN AND KENDALL ARE HERE, GET DOWN HERE, NOW," She yelled upstairs. A moment later, Bianca appeared, causing Mason's eyes to pop out, Eli to groan and turn his head, and left her mom shocked.
"Whatever," Bianca said, walking over and grabbing her toast to eat in the car.
"Um, have you looked in the mirror, young lady?" Her mom asked, crossing her arms.
"Obviously, I couldn't have done my makeup without it," Bianca said as if it were obvious.
"Obviously, You didn't because if you did, you would have seen what you looked like," Her mom countered.
"You look hot," Mason said, causing Eli to gag, as well as Bianca.
"Shut up, you 12 year old perv," She responded, a look of disgust on her face.
"I'm 14," Mason grunted out.
"And yet your balls still have yet to drop," Bianca said.
"BIANCA!" Her mom shouted, causing Bianca to turn around and look at her, then she smirked seeing how mad she was making her. Her mom closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before continuing, "There is absolutely no way you're leaving the house looking like that."
"Watch Me," Bianca said, before taking a bite of her toast, then walking out of the house, pushing Eli and Mason out of the way. She left her mom absolutely baffled by her attitude, and it was visible. Before he and Mason left, Eli turned to look at her.
"Dad has RAW tonight, then he'll be back tomorrow morning," He reminded her, before walking out the door. Bianca had already sat in the passenger seat next, so Eli and Mason hopped in the back, Eli choosing to sit in the middle, right between Mason and Kendall, Logan's little sister. Eli buckled his seat belt, then noticed Kendall was looking out the window. He was confused at first, until he saw that Logan and Bianca were busy in the front seat making out. He gagged, then turned to Kendall.
"They make you uncomfortable, too?" He asked her. Kendall turned around a looked at him.
"My best friend and older brother making out?" She said, before sighing. "Absolutely."
"You aren't the only one," Mason chimed in, crossing his arms. Finally, Bianca And Logan broke the kiss, and Bianca leaned over to turn on the radio to B96, then put on her seat belt.
"Well then," Logan began,putting his hands on the steering wheel, "Capone High School, watch out, because the coolest Seniors and coolest Freshmen are on their way to grace everyone with their presence."
***
"Alright, SOOOOOOOOOOOOO," Bianca said, bringing out the 'o', "According to our schedules, Me and Kendall have basically every class together since we're both taking basically all AP classes," She said, then paused to smile at Kendall, who returned one back, though it wasn't too sincere, "BUT, Logan, we have lunch, P.E, Study Hall AND Ceramics together!"
"It sucks my grades aren't good enough for AP classes like you two," Logan sighed.
"Who's fault is that..." Kendall silently mumbled to herself.
"Don't worry, only one more year of this school, then you're done," Bianca reassured him, also placing a kiss on his visible neck, causing him to smile. Then, the bell rang, getting a sigh out of Bianca. "I'll see you 4th Period for P.E."
"Can't wait," Logan smiled, before the two kissed, and Logan headed off in a separate direction toward his class, leaving Bianca and Kendall.
"Well then," Kendall said, to break the silence. Bianca brought her schedule up to her face to look at it, then back at Kendall.
"Well, Kenny," She said, referring to Kendall by her nickname, "Looks like we have Pre-Calc first period."
"What?" Kendall groaned, "Seriously?"
"I know, we should have Logan stop us off at Starbucks first if we're gonna make it through that class first thing in the morning," Bianca rolled her eyes.
"This should be fun," Kendall sighed, before she and Bianca headed upstairs to their pre-calc room.
"Alright!" Mason shouted excitedly, looking at his and Eli's schedule, "We have our study hall first period, also known as nap time."
"Say what you want, but I'm just going to do my homework in-"
"Oh My Gosh, Eli, is that you!?"
Eli stopped his sentence when he heard that voice- the voice of a girl from Junior High. Most of the girls in Junior High has a crush on him, and made him know it. Sadly for them, Eli had no interest, but he's not good letting people down, so It's not like he can just go up to them and tell them he doesn't like them and to leave him alone.
"Damnit.." Eli mumbled, before he started to run away.
"WAIT, OUR STUDY HALL'S UPSTAIRS, THOUGH," Mason shouted after him, but Eli ignored him and kept running. He didn't know where to run to, but he wanted to avoid those girls at all costs.
Eli ended up running into the fine arts wing all the way at the other side of the school, but he still had girls following him, so once he got into the fine arts wing, he ran down the hall and into the first class he saw, then slammed the door behind him. He peered out the small window in the door, and saw the girls go right past the room, causing him to let out a relived sigh. Then, he turned around, and froze when he saw a girl standing there with a cello in hand.
"Oh...I'm sorry," He said to her.
"Um, It's fine," She said, setting her bow down on her stand, so she could tuck a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear as well as adjust her glasses. That's when Eli noticed it.
This girl was absolutely beautiful.
Eli smiled, before walking closer. "You play cello?"
"I have since I was little," She admitted, "I'm playing for the Orchestra and the Wind Ensemble this year."
"Wow, impressive, so you're an upperclassman?" He asked her.
"Nope, I'm a Freshman," She said, only making Eli shocked, yet impressed.
"That's a class full of Juniors and Seniors," He said.
"Yeah...I'm the only Freshman," She shrugged,"I have a Study Hall this period, but I talked with the teacher, and since there's no music classes going on First Period, they're allowing me to spend it here practicing."
"That's awesome," Eli said, a whole smile planted on his face. "I play guitar, but I'm also learning bells and Marimba for the Percussion Ensemble."
"You play string and percussion?" The girl asked, also looking impressed. "You don't look like the Musician type."
"There's a type?" Eli asked.
"No, but there's a type of people who are popular, and you look like one of those people," She responded.
"I'm also a Wrestler," Eli explained, "But Guitar's my life, and I'd rather be doing that than wrestling, but it makes my dad happy, since he wrestlers." That caused the girls mouth to drop.
"My dad AND my mom used to wrestle!" She said.
"My Mom used to wrestle too!" Eli said, "WWE?"
"Of course!" She smiled.
"Wow, Incredible," Eli smiled.
"Here we are with two athletic parents, yet we chose the music lifestyle," She said.
"You don't choose the music lifestyle, the music lifestyle chooses you," Eli said, causing the girl to chuckle.
"Um, I have to get back to my cello, but you said you were In the Percussion Ensemble, right?" She asked.
"Yeah, they didn't have any classes I could play Guitar in, so I just chose that since I can kind of play Marimba," Eli explained.
"Well, the Orchestra class I'm in is the same period as Percussion Ensemble, 7th...hopefully I'll see you around here around then," She said, giving a warm smile that Eli returned.
"Yeah, you will," Eli said.
The girl turned and picked up her bow, then sat back down and turned a page of her sheet music and grabbed her Cello. Eli smiled as he watched, then he turned around to walk out, but something stopped him.
"Oh!" He said, turning around right before the girl was about to start playing. "My name's Eli, by the way. Eli Lloyd." The girl smiled again.
"My name's Leia, by the way. Leia Kiley."
***
"There is absolutely no way I'm passing Earth Space Science," Mason confessed, as he and Eli walked to their 3rd Period class- Humanities 1.
"I'm not going their until 8th period, but if you think that's hard, wait until you get to Ms. Whatever her name is' Spanish Class," Eli huffed.
"My mom took Spanish and said it was stupid, so I'm taking French 1 instead," Mason smirked.
"Lucky," Eli huffed again, before the two entered the Humanities Classroom.
When the two entered the class, it was full of mostly preps.
"Alright, look at all the hot girls," Mason whispered to Eli, a smirk on his face.
Eli looked around, but then he saw one girl, and instantly forgot about everyone else in the room.
He saw Leia Kiley.
She was sitting by herself, over in the corner of the room, busy in thought drawing or writing or something in a notebook. Eli smiled, before making his way over to her. Mason was confused, but followed him nonetheless.
"Looks like we'll be seeing each other before 7th period, huh?" Eli said, taking the seat next to Leia, ignoring that Mason took the seat next to him. Leia's head rose from her notebook, and she cracked a smile.
"Looks like we will," She said back, as the two smiled right at each other. Mason felt uncomfortable, so to break the tension, he loudly cleared his throat, catching Eli's attention.
"OH!" He said, "Leia, this is Mason, my best friend, and Mason, this Leia, I met her first period, and she's pretty awesome and smart."
"You think I'm smart?" Leia asked, shocked.
"Of course I do," Eli smiled, causing Leia to smile again as well. The bell rang again, preventing them from saying anything else.
"Hello, Freshman! Welcome to Humanities 1. I'm Mrs. Saunders, and I'll be your teacher throughout the year," Mrs. Saunders began. "The thing about this class is, that in every story we read, i can guarantee, someone will die." She paused, as the people in the class snickered, and she shook her head, "Tragic, I know. SPEAKING of Tragic, if you look at the course syllabus on your desks, our first unit is picking up where you left off in Junior High- William Shakespeare." The class all grunted and complained, but she shushed them.
"Trust me, I'm not a big fan of his work, he's rather creepy," She confessed, "But for our Shakespeare unit, we'll be learning more about his life, as well as reading and acting out scenes from his most famous play, Romeo and Juliet, the story of two star-crossed lovers who came from two families who absolutely hated each other. OH! Actually, if you give me a moment, I can run outside and grab you your books for it!"
When Mrs. Saunders left, Mason turned to Eli to say something, but stopped when he noticed Eli was already focused on Leia. Mason turned his head back, then sighed.
"This class is gonna be fun...."
*5:45pm, Zoey and Lucas' Loft*
"Hey, Zoe, Can you-"
"I'm On it."
Zoey put down the tv remote, and walked over to the kitchen, where Lucas was busy attempting- and failing- to tie his tie. Zoey sighed, as she came over to help him.
"You know," She began, "You're 20, shouldn't you know how to tie a tie? Especially if you're going to be in the NHL?"
"I'll learn later, you know, when I don't have a game in two hours," Lucas said.
"Whoa, someone's snarky," Zoey said, finishing up his.
"Am not....just nervous," Lucas said. Zoey planted a kiss on his lips.
"You'll do great, okay?" Zoey reassured him.
Lucas was about to respond, but then their was a knock on the door. Lucas sighed, then walked over to look through the peephole, then he opened it, revealing Quentin, who was also in a suit and tie.
"You ready?" Quentin asked.
"Ready as I'll ever be," Lucas replied.
"Come on," Quentin said, growing a smile on his face, "Let's go earn our spots in the NHL."