ADITL - Martinez's first New Year [in the Americas]

[SleepyPlayz 75]

"...5, 4, 3, 2, 1, happy new year!" The room erupted, cheers from all members of the Clarke Talent Agency as well as most of these talents' friends and family who were in a large cafeteria. There were people squished together, but those people were mostly close friends or family, hell, a mix of both I'd say. Having people that close seemed really nice. Sam's friends were here, and so were mine, but my family wasn't able to come. Something about health issues with Lily or something, and a dog's health is important. I don't blame them, I just wish they were here. At least we weren't anywhere fancy. I grabbed the few of my friends who were actually able to make it and had a chat with them.

"Hey, you three. I'm glad you were able to make it. I know life hasn't been the easiest for either of you three, and I'm glad you've been able to be flown out here. With the time zone difference, I feel like we'll be partying until the sun comes up. What do we want to do?"
Max looked up, a smile on his face. "Do you want to go to somewhere else to see the stars or something?" Of course he would suggest that. Max was a foreign guy from Colorado and said he saw stars a lot there and that inspired him to want to study them, I don't know. I never understood astrology, he was more of a star lover than I was. I just liked sports.
The group looked amongst each other. We were so zoned out---well, in---on the thinking about it that we didn't realize people slowly filing out. No one else seemed to have any ideas, so I spoke up.

"I think stargazing sounds kinda fun, kinda intimate but still fun." Everyone nodded, now... we needed an after party sort of thing, I guess. Something that we could do... I see people going to malls all the times in movies, but what about eating out? I grinned as I realized something about going to a mall. "So, would you want to go to Spencer's tomorrow? We could get you a cute top Angel." I looked at the guy. For some reason, when we were 12 or 13, he wore a crop top instead of one of the shirts he'd wear on a regular basis. Of course, it was probably just a mistake, but no one ever said anything about it unless it was to tease the poor guy. The other two people in the group chuckled as he went red with embarrassment. "Hey, it was one time! Are you seriously going to tease me about that until the end of time?" I nodded enthusiastically. "But of course, my dear friend." But, seriously now, were they any good at ice hockey? Maybe we could play a game or two instead of stargazing... or after. I heard there's a gym near the agency that has an ice hockey rink somewhere near it that people can play on, we'd just need Sam's permission. I got up and looked around, gazing at the empty cafeteria.
"...hm... how long have we been standing here?" Angel asked. Lorenzo looked around, trying to find a clock.

"Maybe 15 seconds for us, so like 70 minutes?" I joked. The place wasn't closed down or anything, I'm sure we could just get to our hotel rooms if we needed to. "It seems like we've been here for about 90 minutes actually," Lorenzo said, spotting an analog clock that he could read pretty easily, "we should hurry out of here." I agreed, and led the group out since I was their host technically. The cafeteria doors swung open and we walked out, just four teenagers making their way back to their hotel which they shared with October Moore, Zoe Clarke, Sam Clarke,... a lot of way older people actually. Wait, how did four teenagers walking into a hotel look? Would they believe it if I told them I was already booked? No way to find out than without letting them know I guess...
"We agree that we're scrapping stargazing and scrapping in an ice hockey rink instead tomorrow, right?"
"No fair you professional. We're field hockey pros."
"Then you'll be naturals."
"Maybe in an amateur league sure! Against you, who's played against way better?"
"1v3, if you can beat me even once, I'll give you 250 each and a flight back home in first class." I offered. Silence, they forgot I had money now. Maybe they just forgot I was being paid to play hockey since I'm in the minors and a minor after all. They nodded, seeming intrigued by the offer.

"Fine, but if you bend the rules in any way to your advantage, I'm going to beat down on you Agustin!" Lorenzo yelled. "Fuck yeah, fine by me!" It was going to be a fun day tomorrow...

 

[Tomorrow, 10:08 AM]

 

Ugh... sleep... very sleepy... I guess I really did stay up waay too late. This is what I get, isn't it? I looked at my phone that was laying right beside me. 82% charged, how fun... wait, 82%? I jump out of bed. It was... plugged in? When the hell did this get plugged in? Who was next to me even? All of the guys were gone, probably to get breakfast while I slept in. Fuck, was it Max? I got a ding on my phone and a message from Angel. "u left ur phone on 10% lol" Well... that answered that at least. I wonder when they plugged it in. We stayed up until around 4 AM, or I did at least. I was the first to go to sleep and them being used to our old timezone, stayed up a bit later but it didn't seem like they actually fell asleep. Maybe it's just the anxiety raging, but I really hope nothing happened. I don't want them to go through my phone. Oh, wait, right!

"angel where tf are you???"

"isang restaurant sa 45 st" (A restaurant on 45[th] street)

"midnight diner"

Oh, okay. I sighed, putting on a coat. It was cold outside, being around 42 degrees F where we were in Charlotte. I took out my headphones and put them on. A quiet walk would be better than hearing the hustle and bustle of a big city. I walked downstairs, hands in pockets. I checked my phone for a Midnight Diner. Why was it so cold outside? And  Midnight was so far away... oh well, a walk couldn't hurt. So I walked, occasionally stopping for a quick direction check on my phone before continuing. I eventually made it, heavy metal blasting in my ears. I turned off the music and walked inside, looking for my friends. "You assholes! You seriously just left me to sleep like some princess?" I said as I walked up to them, a wide smile on my face. I saw next to Lorenzo in the booth that they were seated at. "Hey, I guess the princess needs his sleep." Angel replied. Of course it was him to reply out of the group, the fucker. Silly or snarky, we didn't really care. He was fun to be around.

 

#-#

 

A little while later, after eating, we'd grabbed some stuff from the hotel room and walked towards the ice rink that I'd heard about. We were all set up. We didn't have a lot of gear so I let them use mine, exception being no helmets. We weren't going to fight that hard. We were technically here illegally, but... who cares about the technicalities? We decided to play a quick two games. "Alright, you all know hockey's rules and you know the condition. Actually, I'll lower it; if you're able to score 5 points total against me, you'll get the reward." They all agreed to it, so off we went.

 

While not exactly periods, we did generally stop around after about two minutes for breaks, so it could be said that we had two minute periods. Game 1, I scored 5 points on all of them in 2 periods, period 3 I decided to just play pure defense and it worked out for the most part. I blocked 9/10 of their shots while scoring 5/22 shots, most of those shots were just me doing something fancy that I didn't unlock the skill to do. Game 2 was a different story though... period 1 started normally, I scored way more than I needed to with 7 shots and 4 going in, but they somehow managed to score 2 times in 9 shots. Oh no... and period 2, despite me scoring more with 7 shots going in out of 15, they made 1 more shot out of 20 shots. To be fair, their efficiency was getting worse, but... one period was left, and I was tired. They were getting really tired too by the looks of it. Well, nothing like a quick rest to recuperate. I stretched, relaxing myself as I got ready to not let these random people who I've never met win. That's how I thought of this match. I got prepared to beat them on defense, but life seemed to have other plans as Angel rushed past me. He was surprisingly good at this despite having never played on ice. Maybe it really was the field hockey knowledge. He was the best at it in school. Lorenzo was better at being a goalie and Max wasn't athletic at all. He stopped the puck and himself in his tracks as I passed him. He raised his stick as I got ready to dive, though still trying my hardest to move forward. I wasn't going to let him score on me, I was a second-rate professional playing in a minor league! Not some pushover! As he lowered his stick, I dived. The puck looked like it was going to be way off though. Oh wait, I just realized, it was a pass to Lorenzo, who shot as soon as he got the puck. It went in. Their first shot of the period, and they won the bet that I put on them. Well... I guess it was kind of obvious. Oh well, I was fine paying for most of their stuff anyways. I sighed and got up off the ice, dusting myself off despite not needing to. Well, that was a good game, wasn't it?

"Good game, nice move Angel, you now get a free trip back."

 

#-#

 

[And because this is getting a bit long,]

I pulled up my phone after we got dressed in our normal attires. How much did I say I owed them? 250 and a flight? Sure. I walked over to the ATM outside and withdrew 250. I had more than enough to pay for their flights too. I gave them the money. "A bet's a bet. I'll pay for your flights at the hotel."

"Finally, home. Good riddance to America, but I would come back again, mostly to support you. Good game Agustin."
"Hell yeah it was, that was fun! Though I may have broken one of my personal records with goals scored in a scrimmage match." I joked.

 

[SleepyPlayz 75]

I think this is over 1500 words?

 

I might do future claims so...

 

1/5

 

1/19

2/2

 

I'm doing it like that because I like the idea of writing stuff weekly at least! But this is a lot of words!

[SleepyPlayz 75]

Claiming for 2-2!