the next day, it was the first practice with the flyers. aspen had been up all night, not able to even get a minute of sleep because she couldnt stop thinking about the deal with travis.

was it really worth it? break her promise to her brother and lose his trust or lose a deal she made with konecny. it would be smarter to not break her promise to her brother, but she wasn't going to back out of a deal she had literally just made the night before, so her brother would either have to suck it up and deal with it or she'd have to hide it from him.

it was around 5:30 am, and their practice was in an hour so she decided to get up and go into the guest bathroom to take a shower quickly even though there wasnt any point to that, considering she would just get sweaty at practice and have to shower again, but she preferred to shower because it made her feel clean before practice.

she knew today would be an interview day, and since she didn't want to go against the rules, and she didn't want to be differenced from the guys, she luckily had a suit she could wear to the rink. She put her suit on and put her hair into two french braids, heading downstairs to be met with travis and claude.

"wow, someone makes suits look good." travis snorted and claude hit him in the shoulder, "what he meant to say was, you look good in a suit." claude said, a nervous smile on his face as aspen slowly nodded.

the two boys were also in their suits, ready for practice, "the press is gonna want to interview you two, so be ready." claude said as the three of them headed out to his car, claude getting into the driver's seat and travis getting into the back seat.

"only a kind gentleman would let a lady sit up front." travis smirked at aspen and she rolled her eyes, getting into the front passengers seat.

claude drove them to the virtual flyers health skate zone, that was where the flyers practiced. the entire car ride was quiet, except for the cars outside and the low hum of the engine of claude's car.

"we're here." claude said as he pulled into the parking lot, and getting out of his car, travis and aspen following his lead, as they walked towards the arena.

"this is literally everything I've ever wanted." aspen whispered to herself with a smile, and travis looked down at her, a smile on his face.

"well, you're here now, so let's take advantage of that." claude smiled as he led them into the arena, everyone nodding and waving at claude, he returned each nod and wave with a smile.

"okay, this here, this is our locker room, and aspen, you're changing in here with us so get used to it." claude said, pointing at a door that said, 'philadelphia flyers'.

"okay, that's fine, I don't care." aspen shrugged, soon claude finished showing them around and lead them back to the locker room.

"well, welcome to the flyers." claude smiled as he opened the locker room door and aspen and travis stepped in, a look of awe covering their faces.

"Damn, this is absolutely amazing." travis whispered with a smile as he looked around at the locker room, but this one was nothing compared to wells fargo center locker rooms.

aspen smiled as she walked over to her assigned locker which was in between jakub voracek and travis, "looks like you're stuck with me." travis said, smiling at her, making her laugh slightly, already feeling welcomed to the team.

she playfully rolled her eyes and smiled back at him, "thats okay." aspen laughed, playfully nudging his shoulder with hers

"ahh, so you two are the new rookies?" wayne simmonds asked as he walked into the locker room (remember! this is not the current roster and that this takes place in 2015! as the story goes on, it will eventually lead up to 2020, time skips occurring!).

aspen smiled, "i'm aspen solovyova, and this is travis konecny." aspen smiled as she introduced herself and travis.

travis smiled and stuck his hand out, shaking wayne's hand respectfully.

"you two are in for a long season." wayne said, causing aspen and travis to look at each other in confusion.

they all got ready for practice, aspen looked down at the jersey in her hands, number 27, with the last name, solovyova, on the back in bold uppercase letters, she truly couldn't believe this was where she was right now.

she slipped her jersey on and grabbed her helmet, putting it on and headed out with travis and jakub, "okay, aspen, i think coach wants you to work with shayne and luke schenn on defense." jakub said and aspen nodded, skating over to them.

they worked on some defense techniques before running defense drills.

"i want each one of you to go and lets see if aspen can stop you." coach said and aspen's eyes widened in nervousness.

she swallowed the lump in her throat as claude was at center ice, stick handling the puck and skating down into the offensive zone and aspen hopped over the boards, quickly skating up next to claude and poke checking the puck away.

"damn, she's a natural." wayne muttered to shayne and he nodded.

claude smiled and patted her helmet, and that caused aspen to smile, feeling like maybe she actually could make it work on this team.

she went through almost everyone, until one last person was left, travis konecny.

"okay, travis, dont do something stupid." aspen muttered to herself as travis skated to center ice, and started skating with the puck, and aspen skated backwards, next to him.

"Nice to see you here, how convenient?" aspen chirped as she did a quick stick lift and passed the puck back to the goalie.

"damn, asp, i'm impressed." travis smiled, also patting her helmet.

"oh? is asp my new nickname?" aspen asked him, a smirk on her face.

"and what if it is?" travis shrugged, also responding with the same smirk causing aspen to laugh and skate to the bench.

soon, coach let them be done for the day and they headed back into the locker room, "we're impressed, solovyova, we didn't expect that from a rookie." michael raffl said.

aspen smiled, she was slightly shocked he didn't say they were impressed because she was a girl, no, they were impressed because she was a rookie, and thats the right reason to be impressed.

"i can't slow down, i'm a lone red rover." aspen shrugged and laughed as she unlaced her skates, setting her helmet next to her on the bench.

"you'll want that for preseason, our first pre-season game, we face the penguins, crosby and malkin should be fun, especially with fleury in net." claude said and the team nodded.

she was excited for her first game, and it didn't matter who they were playing, they could play the san jose sharks, and she'd still be ecstatic just to play, she just wanted to get out on the ice as an nhler, not as a player in the ohl, but as a player in the nhl, as the first female since manon rheaume to be in the nhl.

"don't he nervous about tomorrow, you're gonna do great, you were one of the best defenseman in the ohl for a reason." jakub said quietly to her and she nodded, a slight smile on her face.

"hey asp?" travis asked her, tapping her shoulder lightly with his knuckles.

"yeah, konecny?" aspen asked him, turning around to face him, wondering as to what he could possibly want from her now.

"we're on starting together." travis said with a toothy grin, and aspen had a grin growing on her face.

"thats fucking brilliant, i'm surprised to even be on starting." aspen said with a nervous chuckle as she took her jersey off, slipping it over her head and she quickly finished changing and back into her suit, reporters waiting outside for the new rookies of the flyers.

when aspen stepped into the hallway, she was bombarded with mics and reporters, and they stepped back slightly, giving her room before asking her questions.

"whats it like being the second female in the nhl, and the first on the flyers?" one reporter asked aspen.

aspen smiled nervously and started to speak, "its definitely crazy, i didnt think I'd be in this position 5 years ago, let alone a year ago." aspen answered truthfully.

it was a long 20 minutes until finally all the reporters were satisfied with what she had given them and they left to go talk to raffl.

"damn, those reporters know how to annoy someone." travis laughed, walking up to her as he fixed the sleeve of his suit.

"you're telling me, they don't know how to mind their own god damn business." aspen said, shaking her head.

"they really don't, but hey, its their jobs, to get all the good stuff and write their boring articles that no one reads." travis shrugged causing aspen to laugh at what he said.

"lets just go back to claude's place and watch a movie or something." aspen suggested and travis nodded in agreement.

"you guys ready?" claude asked as he walked up behind them, as he had just come from his interview with the reporters.

travis and aspen nodded, and they grabbed their bags and hockey sticks before walking out to claude's car, tossing their stuff into the trunk and then getting into their respected seats.

claude drove them home and they left their bags and sticks in the car, considering they would need them tomorrow for a pre-season game.

claude, travis, and aspen got out of the car and claude fumbled with his keys as he finally found the right one, unlocking his door and the three of them heading inside.

"i'm gonna get changed." aspen said, pointing upstairs.

"ditto on that." travis said, and claude nodded.

the two of them headed upstairs and changed into some more comfortable clothes before heading back downstairs.

"hey guys, i have to go to the store, so i'm leaving you two here, dont do anything while i'm gone." claude scolded them playfully and they nodded with smiles.

"raid the fridge?" travis suggested excitedly as claude had finally left the apartment.

"oh, we are so totally raiding his entire kitchen!" aspen exclaimed excitedly, as she hopped off his couch and jogged into his sort of messy kitchen.

"dude! does claude not pay his bills?" aspen exclaimed as she looked through a pile of bills and paperwork on his kitchen table.

travis came over and took one of the bills from her and looked at it, "well, this is an old bill from like a year ago so he might pay them online?" travis suggested as he shrugged.

"i don't know, but i don't want him getting evicted from this apartment." aspen exclaimed.

travis shook his head at her, "i'm sure he's paying then online. claude seems like a very responsible person."

aspen looked at him, raising an eyebrow, "he's a ginger, how responsible can he be?" aspen asked sarcastically.

"thats true." travis said, nodding his head from side to side as he shrugged his shoulders.

"anyway, lets move onto the fridge." aspen said, tossing the pile of paperwork back onto the kitchen table and opening up the fridge.

"holy shit!" aspen exclaimed and travis looked over her, an excited smile on his face.

"its like a gold mine in here!" aspen exclaimed excitedly as she grabbed a container of vanilla icing, and looked through multiple drawers before finding a spoon, and opening up the container, eating a big spoonful of the icing.

"oh my god." aspen sighed out, causing travis to laugh.

"you're too much, solovyova." travis said, shaking his head.

"don't judge me, konecny." aspen said, narrowing her eyes at him as she plopped a dollop on his nose.

"what the hell?" travis yelled playfully as he grabbed the container of spray whipped cream, spraying her with it.

"oh, it's so on." aspen smirked, grabbing the can of spray cheese and spraying him with it.

claude was gone for a good two hours and by the end of aspen and travis's little food fight, his kitchen was a mess.

"giroux is gonna kill us." aspen said, letting out a nervous sigh.

"eh, it's not that bad, we just have to clean really quickly." travis said, as he started to get a wet rag and started wiping down the cabinets.

within 30 minutes, the kitchen looked clean again and as they heard the door open, they ran to the couch and threw themselves on it.

"So, what did you two do while I was gone?" claude asked them.

"nothing!" aspen and travis yelled out at the same time.

"you sure?" claude asked, a smirk tugging at his lips since he wasn't stupid enough to know that wasn't true. 

"yes claude, i swear to god we didn't do anything!" aspen exclaimed, her voice going a pitch higher than before, as she put her hands up in defense.

he chuckled, shaking his head as he put away what he had bought at the store.