Chapter Text
“Mom why are boys so mean?” T puts her backpack down on the pristine floor after what feels like the longest day of school.
“Is it Jason again?” her mother inquires.
“Yeah.” T’s eyes land to the floor as she starts to squidge the invisible spider under her feet, “He’s always pulling on my pigtails and teasing my nose.”
“Some boys were just born dumb,” her mom replies as she pulls her into a hug, making T laugh.
Her mother smiles and kisses her nose and says, “I made you, and I made you perfect just the way you are, my little Tutu. Jason clearly needs glasses if he can’t see you the way everybody else does.”
Yeah, she couldn’t argue with that logic. T pulls her mother in tighter. “I love you.”
“I love you more.”
And just as Jason broke her day earlier on, her mother had instantly fixed it; like she always does. She would probably need a million hands if she wanted to count out the number of times her mother made her feel better.
“Oh. I almost forgot, here’s your slip,” her mother grabs the paper from the white marble table, handing it to her.
“Do I really have to go? It’s ice hockey.” T groans as she tries to pull her best puppy dog eyes.
“It’s compulsory.”
“But can’t I just pull a sick day? I’m starting to feel like a fever’s coming on already. Look,” she pulls her mother’s hand to her forehead.
Her mother laughs, shaking her hand off. “We’re Canadian, we love ice hockey. You’ll love it once you try it, Tutu.”
“But it’s not like they’re teaching us how to play! They’re just making us watch Mom!”
“I’m sure Mr. Baker has something planned,” her mom replies in a soothing tone.
“He’s a dinosaur Mom! He’s ancient, I swear he’ll probably sleep throughout the entire game.”
“I’m sure it won’t be so bad. I’ll pick you up myself after it’s over, and we’ll have ice cream afterwards,” her mother promises.
“Fine,” T harrumphs as she snatches the paper from her mother’s hand.
~
Ice hockey, was still ice hockey. It was rough and the stadium was freezing. It lacked the finesse and elegance that ballet had offered her. She couldn’t believe that it was Canada’s national sport with all the pushing and shoving, weren’t Canadians supposed to be nice and friendly at all times?
Within a second of thinking that, a face smudged itself on the glass wall in front of her, causing her to jerk back as Jason hooted and hollered beside her. It was just a cosmic joke at this point; what had she done to make the Gods punish her this bad? Was it because she accidentally tripped that old lady? Because I swear it was a very unfortunate accident! She wasn’t looking, I wasn’t looking. My feet, her feet. BOOM. Flat on her face. OUCH.
“They won! They won!” Jason jumped off his seat as he grabbed T’s arm, causing her to lurch up out of her seat. Seriously. This was the worst day of her life.
From what she could tell, the red team won by one point against the blue team. Apparently, the last goal was scored in the final ten seconds of the match. “This is the most exciting game I’ve ever seen!” Jason exclaimed. Big whoops, she thought.
An entire ballet recital captivated her from start to finish; with the intricate details of body movements, capturing the small nuances of the music. It was graceful, elegant and had a magical way of enrapturing her mind. This however was not ballet. Ice hockey was bold, brash, loud and lacked any finesse, it was no wonder to her that Jason wanted to be a professional ice hockey player when he grew up. She could totally see him fit right in.
Just as she thought that all ice hockey players were like Jason, a man knocked on the glass wall in front of her, causing her to look up. He was holding an ice puck and was smiling at her. Maybe this day wouldn’t be so bad she thought, as she reached up to catch the puck. But again, as luck would have it, Jason- who was half a foot taller than her- grabbed it first. Of course, out of anyone else, it had to be him. It had to be him, who clearly stole the one thing that she thought was the best thing to happen at the game.
Sullen, she goes back to her seat. The man must have noticed, because he knocked again on the glass barrier, holding another puck. She jumped out of her seat and leaped as high as she could, finally grabbing it. She smiles to the man and vowed to herself that she would marry someone like him someday. Someone who was kind, patient and whose smile was as bright as the sun. Moir, was the name etched on his red jersey. And just like that, the hockey game wasn’t so bad.
~
“Look Mom!” T puts out her hand out, holding the puck. “It’s lighter than what I thought it would be.”
“See, I knew you would have a good time.” Her mother smiles while rubbing her head.
“It wasn’t because of the ice hockey, it was because of him,” T points to the man in the number 14 jersey as she puts the puck in her pocket.
“The referee?” her mother looking confused.
“No. No, the one next to him!” she beams out.
Grabbing her mother’s arm, she says “I want to go and meet him.”
Before her mother could grab her, T was already running across the sheet of ice.
“Stop!” her mother yells out.
It did not register to T that this was a bad idea until she tried to stop running.
“Woah, there!” he catches her shoulders as she starts to skid across the ice. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine,” T pants out. She was sure that she was looking flustered. It was not the way she envisioned meeting him would look like. At least on her part.
“I’m sorry about my daughter!” her mom chirps out while waddling across the ice to them. “She just gets so excited sometimes.”
“That’s okay,” he says to her mom. “I always want to meet young fans,” he smiles to T. “So, what’s your name?” he kneels down to meet her eye level.
“Tutu.”
“Tutu?”
“I’m a ballerina and my name starts with T,” she explains. “Everyone calls me Tutu or T for short,” she smiles.
“I like it,” he grins. “Nice to meet you Tutu. I’m Scott,” he holds out his hand.
“You’re my favorite player,” T says as she shakes Scott’s hand. He was really the only ice hockey player that she knew of, but it didn’t mean any less, as he was still her favorite.
“Thank you. You’re my favorite fan,” Scott winks at her. She could swear that her heart skipped a beat.
“If you want you can come and cheer me on for my ballet recital next week.”
“Talulah!” her mother scolds her. “You can’t just go around asking strangers to go to your ballet recital.”
“But he’s not a stranger Mom, he’s Scott.” she gestures to him as Scott sheepishly smiles to her mom. ”And besides he just told me that I’m his favorite fan!” Talulah reasons with her mother.
Scott laughs. It’s a nervous one, she notes.
“I’m really sorry about my daughter, she gets carried away easily,” her mom explains.
“It’s alright,” Scott stands up and puts a hand on her mom’s shoulder, “my niece has a ballet recital next week too, it’s probably the same one.”
“The one on Oak Street?” Talulah interjects as she can see her mother slightly blush.
“Yup. The same one,” he smiles. “I’ll be sure to cheer you and my niece on next week,” he boops her nose. It would have annoyed her if it was anybody else (especially with his cold finger), but he was Scott and he just promised to be there and cheer her on, so she lets it go and just thanks him.
“You really don’t have to,” her mother says. Talulah can tell that she’s embarrassed by the way she’s caressing her arm.
“It’ll be a pleasure to cheer my favorite fan on,” Scott grins. “I’ll see Tutu and you-” he points to her mom.
“Tessa,” Talulah says.
“Ah. Talulah and Tessa.” Scott smiles.” I’ll see you both next week and I’ll cheer you on as loudly as I can,” he hugs Talulah. (She notes that he gives warm hugs and smells of pine)
“Thank you so much. You’re too nice,” her mother remarks at Scott as he releases Talulah.
“I’ll be sure to look out for you in the crowds,” Talulah tells him as she grabs hold of her mother’s hand.
“I would be delighted to see you dance,” he says. “It’ll be a way to pay back the support you’ve given me throughout the game.”
Talulah and her mother both blush. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that she wasn’t really interested in ice hockey until after the game. And she was certainly sure that her mother didn’t want to tell him that she was only there to pick her up.
See you then and nice to meet you, was their only reply as they waddled back to the stands, grasping each other’s hand as they slipped an inch with every tiny step they took.
“He’s cute,” her mother whispered to her, making Talulah giggle. If she didn’t know any better, she would say that her mom had a little crush on Scott.
Talulah notices Jason as they grab on to the boards. Wide-eyed with his mouth hanging open, staring at her. She sticks her tongue out at him.
“So, you still up for ice cream?” her mother asks.
“Yup,” she pops out the ‘p’ while feeling the puck in her pocket. This may be the best day of her life so far.