𝘩𝘰𝘵-𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 @ Jack Hughes x OC

episode 1

           Being a journalist for the NHL had its perks. It meant traveling, constant adventure, paid vacations, and so many incredible memories and friends. Lana Beckers knew that to be true, and thanked her lucky stars every day for getting to where she is. She graduated high school at 16, being that her parents were Canadian oil investors and she was committed to her school work and sport. Lana won herself a full athletic scholarship to the University of Michigan to competitively ice skate and she was up and out of college in only 3 years with her accelerated Honors program. She worked in marketing with the Umich Men's Ice Hockey team and won 3 National Figure Skating Championships. She represented Canada in 3 World Championships, medaling in Bronze, then Silver, and capped off her international tournament tour with a Gold Medal. If you told her something once, she'd remember it forever, and she loved to read. She craved knowledge and wrote so easily that 4 pages took barely a half hour. Being that her best friends in college were all hockey players, earning an offer to join and NHL team as the Lead Journalist and Social Media Admin was tough, but worth the rigorous interviewing process. Many underestimated her because of her age, and others preferred to hire men in her position. It was all worth it though, because earning her first paid position with the New Jersey Devils as Lead Journalist and Social Media Admin made everything all worth it. She hung up her skates, hugged her parents, and flew off to Newark to begin her new chapter.

            Lana's first couple weeks on the job were an absolute dream. She wrote articles on the players and their performances, and a few of her more personal pieces went viral on Twitter, gaining her a massive following at a rapid pace. She was overwhelmed but ecstatic. On this particular day, she was able to sleep in late. The boys were coming off a 4 game West Coast road trip, and they were incredibly jetlagged. They all returned to their Jersey City apartments, Lana doing the same, and slept all through the day. At 4pm her alarm rang off and startled her awake. The boys had a night practice today and an afternoon one tomorrow, then a game against the Sabres. The NHL life was a blur, but certainly worth it.

 ••••••••••••••••

           Lana threw her covers to the side and swung her legs over the edge of the creaky bed. She stood and drew her curtains open, revealing an incredibly high up view of the Jersey City skyline. Living on floor 13 of a massive apartment complex was fun but partly terrifying whenever Lana thought about it too much. She shuddered, twitched her head and quickly drew the curtain back completely shut before snapping her light on with a click. "Yup," she said to herself, "still hate heights,"

            Lana showered and blew out her dark curly hair before applying some light makeup over her tan skin. She pulled on black loose fitting suit pants that fanned out slightly at the bottom before topping it with a slim belt and a white sweater top. It hugged her body comfortably and complimented her skin tone with great contrast. She collected a few of her necessities: Elf Lip Oil, her media lanyard pass, some cash, and a portable phone charger into a mini black bag before pulling it onto her shoulder. She picked up her phone before texting her best coworker and friend in the entire world, Isabella.

bella girl- pick you up in ten babes!!

lana- I'll meet u out front the complex

bella girl- yesss kk I'm leaving my house now

lana- drive safe gf!! we got a ton of work to do tonight!!

bella girl hearted your message

           She shut her door with a click, pushed to make sure it was locked, and then made her way to the elevator where a familiar face greeted her with a large bag thrown across his back.

           "Nico! How you doing??" He pushed the button to call the elevator.

           "I'm good," his accent was thick but smooth, "I see you made it back okay after the flight?"

           She nodded, "Yup I was tired but I just wanted to thank you again for helping take some of my stuff back to my room."

           "You don't gotta thank me, I got you. Plus I know you hate planes,"

            Nico was the only person who knew of her excruciating fear of heights, and that came from the moment when he stumbled upon her broken down in tears outside of the women's rest room before her first ever road trip with the team. He had helped her then, and still helps her now. Being the captain of the team came with many responsibilities. Lana felt bad for being one of them, but Nico was so kind and caring it was pretty hard to reject his offers of assistance. Nico and his friends have check-in dinners occasionally, where they invite Lana and Isabella over to check in on them and ask how they're adjusting to the traveling life. Living in the same apartment complex makes it incredibly easy for spontaneous plans like that to happen, he just shoots a text to their group chat and the girls have a nice night in with warm pasta and dressed up salads. Nico cooked like it was second nature. Every movement in the kitchen was calculated, precise, and professional, seemingly like everything else in his life. His mature boldness came shown through his dishes. The girls looked forward to their nights in with Nico, and it made him happy to know that he was helping people adjust to the new way of life. 

           "Yeah I do hate planes, more than anything. I hate them even more than overtime losses," Lana replied, giggling slightly. Nico's eyes widened slightly.

           "Watch it," he jokingly warned, "How's Bell?" He asked, his cheeks turning a deeper shade of pink.

           "She's actually driving me today, she'll be there for some stats that she has to run for her next report. She's good though, why?" 

           "Oh that's good, no reason. Just wanted to make sure she's like, still good you know?" 

           "Yeah I gotcha, I'm sure she'd be down for a pasta night whenever you're free though, I can have her text you," Lana suggested. The bell to the elevator rung a high pitched squeal, and the doors slid open with a smooth whoosh. The pair walked in.

           "Yeah, that'd be great. Have her text me when you can," Nico replied.

          Although Lana was decently oblivious when it came to romance, the budding tension between Bella and Nico had grown so significantly that Lana felt as though she was intruding on something personal every time she swung by Nico's apartment to grab a bowl of pasta. It also helped that Bella spent her spare time ranting to Lana about how awesome it was to have Nico as her "friend". Lana was oblivious, but not stupid. Her brunette friend was head over heels for the captain of the Devils, and it was blatantly obvious to everyone but Nico. But alas, Lana promised herself that she wouldn't get involved.

••••••••••••••••

            The ride to Prudential center was always long and busy even though it was only supposed to be 15 minutes, it always ended up being closer to 40 because of the loud rush of Newark traffic. Bella didn't speak much, and deep purple eye bags framed her strong green eyes. She sighed repeatedly, pausing constantly in the Newark traffic.

           "You know the worst part about this entire job is the traveling part," Bella said finally, fiddling with her fuzzy pink steering wheel cover. Lana hummed In agreement.

           "You know for the travel we have met some pretty cool people... like your future husband,"

           "Lana," she sent her a warning glare, "I will push you into oncoming traffic,"

••••••••••••••••

𝘏𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦!

-Author