Chapter Text
July 4th, 2005 - Ottawa
Shane wakes to his alarm and reaches over to quiet it. Today was his first day of hockey camp, and Shane is excited to play. Shane had, of course, been practicing on his own since the season had been over, but he was genuinely excited to go to camp this year.
It wasn’t his first time, and the other kids there weren’t usually quite on his level. This year he had been accepted into the Game Changers camp and he couldn’t wait to be taught by some of the best hockey players.
He gets out of his bed and goes through his morning routine. As excited as he is, he’s also nervous, so his routine helps him calm down before heading downstairs. Shane hears the calming noises of his parents making breakfast before he gets there and smiles, when Shane reaches the kitchen he sits at the table.
His mom looks over at him and smiles “Good morning. Are you packed?” She asks before looking back to the coffee she was pouring into two mugs.
“Yes mom.” Shane said as he nodded, they both knew Shane had been ready for a while. Shane had started making a list as soon as he found out he had been accepted so he could make sure he had everything he needed. A moment later his dad brought over the food, reaching over to put a plate down in front of Shane. His dad set two other plates down on the other side of the table and sat across from Shane.
“Thanks dad” Shane said, enjoying the smell of mornings in the Hollander house as his mother brought over two cups of coffee, one for her and one for his dad and sat down too. Shane ate quickly, not wanting to be late and make a bad impression. When Shane was finished he went up to his room and could hear his parents talking as he brought down his bags.
His mom stood up to help Shane get his things into their car and asked again “Are you sure you’re ready?” She looked over at his bags and Shane knew she wasn’t asking if he had all of his gear. The Game Changers camp would be taught by mostly NHL players or coaches. If he did well in front of them that would be good. If he did well in front of the scouts at the end of the camp, that would be how he starts to make a name for himself. Shane blinks back to the present, he nods at his mom and smiles, he’s worried too. He would be fine.
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The drive was short as the camp was being held in Ottawa this year, which Shane was grateful for because that meant that he could go home on the weekends and wouldn’t have to share a hotel room with a bunch of kids he didn’t know or drive all the way home from camp.
One of the perks of going to a nicer camp was that he’d only have to share a room with one other kid, he wouldn’t be stuffed in a room with lots of other kids. Shane hopes that whoever he shares with isn’t super messy or loud, he wants to be able to focus on hockey, not a bad roommate.
They are some of the first people to get there and Shane’s parents help him unpack his bags from the car. They check him in and wait as other kids start to arrive with their families. Shane wonders who his roommate would be as he looks around at the other kids arriving. Shane follows his parents around as his parents, mostly his mom, talks to other parents about the camp. Shane is polite but is more excited to get on the ice or to his room where he could finish the book on hockey history he had started over the last week.
Eventually the people at the sign in desk stand up and start calling for the kids to group up by age, Shane hugs his parents before he gives them a quick smile and waves as he joins the gathering group of kids his age. They go on a quick orientation of the camp, seeing the ice rinks and lockers, the cafeteria, a small game room where campers could hang out during free time, and last they are shown a small library that is mostly covered in cobwebs. Most of the kids there look done by the time they reach the library, excited to see their rooms, but Shane tucks this little area away into his mind as a spot he can go for some quiet.
Finally they are shown to the dorms where all the kids would be staying and the tour guided read off names, in seemingly random pairs, of who will be sharing a room with who, some kids seem excited about who they are sharing with and others just accept the keycard and grab their things before walking towards the dorms.
When they reach Shane’s name the man pauses and mumbles something to the guy next to him. He doesn’t read off another name and as confused as Shane is when he walks us to grab his keycard the man reading the list shrugs and says “ Sorry kid, your roommate is not here yet.” He hands Shane the keycard and Shane heads towards his dorm.
Shane finds his room quickly, after riding up an elevator to the third floor and finding the 24th room, it feels weird coming here by himself, he can hear the other boys settling into their rooms as he walks down the hall and into his room. All by himself.
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Shane goes through the rest of his morning settling into his dorm and ignoring the laughter and talking he hears from the other rooms, he doesn’t mind being alone but he doesn’t know why he is the only one without a roommate. He started picking at the skin around his nails as he put things away, unsure what to do about the roommate situation.
Everybody goes to the cafeteria for lunch, it’s loud in the cafeteria, kids are talking to their roommates or friends but Shane sits alone. The food tastes fine, Shane eats quickly and heads towards one of the ice rinks for their first practice. Shane gets his gear on and makes sure the tape on his stick is perfect before heading out onto the ice.
The practice goes well, it still feels almost easy for Shane to play against the other kids, the sound of skates against ice soothing and the stick feels at home in his hands. Shane showers and changes out of his gear with the other kids before heading back towards the game room with the rest of the kids before dinner.
The kids are loud and some of the kids must not have showered because the room was starting to smell. He feels overwhelmed. Shane is just about to get up and leave when he hears his name being called. Shane looks over towards the door and sees the tour guide from orientation. He is walking with a boy who seems around Shane’s age with curly blond hair and striking blue eyes.
The man stops for a second, looking around the room before finding Shane and heading towards him, the boy follows while looking around at the other kids but making no effort to join them. Shane really hopes he hasn’t already done something on his first day to get him kicked out but when the man reaches Shane he instead says “This is your roommate, he’s already had a quick tour of most of the grounds but you’ll have to show him to your dorms”
Shane looks between the two of them and nods at the tour guide, feeling a bit relieved. The tour guide, apparently done with his job, accepts the nod and walks away. Shane looks at the boy for a second before remembering his manners and holding out his hand “I’m Shane Hollander.”
The other boy looks at him before saying “Ilya Rozanov.” Ilya has a heavy accent that Shane thinks might be Russian but he’d have to ask. Ilya reaches out and shakes Shane’s hand before looking around, Ilya’s bags are at his feet now and Shane says quickly “Do you have your keycard? If not that's fine, I have mine obviously but you are going to need yours eventually so if you don’t we can go get it now.” he rambles a bit before looking back at Ilya.
Ilya looks a bit confused and he shakes his head “English is new, slow” Ilya’s lips curl up into a small smile as Shane feels his face flush a bit from embarrassment.
Shane nods and takes a deep breath “Okay, Do you have your keycard?” Shane reaches into his pocket and pulls his keycard out, Ilya nods and pulls one out from his pocket too “Da.” Shane nods and grabs one of Ilya’s bags off the floor.
Ilya follows him towards the dorms “You already had the tour for the rest of the camp right?” Ilya nods again. When they reach the dorm Shane opens the door and walks over to set Ilya’s bag on the other bed in the room before turning around and saying “This is it” Shane feels nervous Shane walks back over to his bed and is glad he brought his own sheets as he sits down, the mattress wasn’t very soft.
Ilya sets his stuff down on his bed and starts to unpack “Where are you from?” He asks and Ilya takes a second before looking over at him and saying “Russia, Moscow” Shane nods and grabs his book off the bedside table and decides to get some reading done, he wasn’t going back to the loud kids in the game room anyway.
Shane hears a snort and when he looks over to Ilya the boy is looking at his book “You read hockey book at hockey camp?”
Shane can feel his face heat up and he nods “It’s an interesting book!”
Ilya has an amused smirk on his face and says something in Russian “Посмотрим, как ты сыграешь”