It was about 2 in the morning, everyone would be headed to San Jose for the Western home game. No one liked early flights but they had to deal with it.

Their flight was at 3:30 am, and it would take about 7 hours and 20 minutes to take a non-stop flight from Philadelphia to San Jose.

Everyone had packed their bags before last night's game so they just had to wake up and get ready and drive to the airport.

The Eastern team decided to just meet up at the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose  International Airport. The Western team had flown out about 2 hours ago, at midnight.

*a few hours later, around 10:50 AM*

Cosette stepped off the airplane and headed to the baggage claim, then after that she would be meeting up with her close teammates, which they would then head to the hotel.

Once she grabbed her bags, she searched the crowd for her friends. She smiled once she saw her closest friend and fellow centerman, Natasha. She jogged over, her bags and sticks in hand. "Hey Tasha." Cosette smiled as she set her bags down.

"Hey Rentz!" Tasha smiled, "You ready for our game against loverboy?" Tasha teased her.

Cosette's smile turned into a serious expression, "He has a name, and it isn't loverboy, his name is Noah." Cosette said, sounding more angry than she meant to.

"Jeez Cosette, she was just joking." Cassie said, slightly trying to laugh, knowing she shouldn't talk back to her.

"Whatever." Cosette snarled, she grabbed her bags and sticks, walking towards the car rental offices.

She quickly signed the necessary paperwork and grabbed the keys, walking out to the lot of cars before finding the black Jeep she rented. "Ok, I'll see you guys before the game, right?" She asked, trying to sound calm.

"Yup, like always." Alexei nodded, as did Emersen, Natasha, and Cassie.

She nodded and threw her bags in the trunk and laid her sticks across the back seat.

Emersen walked up to Cosette, "You alright captain?" She asked her, knowing something was wrong with her captain.

"Uhm, yeah, I'm fine." Cosette said, forcing a smile. She couldn't tell anyone she was meeting Noah at the beach! Everyone would non-stop tease her!

"Ok, I just wanted to make sure." Emersen said, smiling softly at her as she turned around and walked away.

Cosette shook it off and walked to the other side of the car, opening the door and getting into the car, closing the door and starting it up.

She quickly then started to drive towards the hotel she would be staying at, Hotel De Anza.

She hesitantly picked up her phone, took the slip of paper out of her jacket pocket and dialed the number written on the slip of paper.

She brought the phone up to her ear and anxiously waited for him to pick up.

"Hey, this is Naoh's phone, but its Lakyn Smith. He asked me to answer any calls. Who is this?" She asked and Cosette was slightly frozen.

"Uh, its Rentz, I need to talk to Noah." Cosette said, trying to sound strictly professional.

She could hear Lakyn scoff on the other end of the phone, "And why are you calling him?!" Lakyn asked her.

Cosette sighed, "Its strictly professional and you have no authority to know, Smith." Cosette snarled, she could feel the heat rising in her cheeks.

"Well, Noah just came back, so you're lucky I don't tell him you're in love with him." Lakyn said, quickly and quietly before she handed the phone to Noah.

"Its Cosette." Lakyn said to Noah as she handed him his phone.

"Hey Cosette, what's up?" He asked her as he walked away from his teammates.

Meanwhile, Lakyn was standing with Calista. "I'm telling you, him and her gotta thing going in behind closed doors. I mean, why else would she call him?" Lakyn said.

"I don't know, maybe she found his number and needed something? I don't know, just don't assume things." Calista said.

"Yeah sure, whatever." Lakyn said, rolling her eyes.

Then, in the hotel, Emersen, Alexei, Natasha, and Cassie were all waiting in the hotel lobby. "Where is she? She should be here by now." Natasha said, as she checked the time on her phone.

"Yeah, usually she would have been the first one here, she also left before us which means obviously she had a head start, and there wasn't any traffic or shit." Alexei said.

"Maybe we should call her?" Emersen suggested as she pulled her phone out.

"Yeah, try that." Natasha said. Emersen nodded and dialed her number, but it went straight to her voicemail.

"Its busy, went straight to voicemail. Obviously she is on the phone with someone." Emersen sighed as she slipped her phone back into her jacket pocket.

"Who would she be on the phone with?!" Cassie asked, everyone shrugging their shoulders.

"Maybe Noah Dalton. I think the two gotta thing behind closed doors." Alexei said, shrugging his shoulders.

"I doubt that! She would never talk to one of them, let alone catch feelings for one of them!" Emersen said, defending her captain.

"She's right, she would never talk to a Western. Not in a million years." Natasha said, agreeing with Emersen's statement.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. We just shouldn't bring it up around her." Alexei said, and everyone nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, Lakyn was a few feet behind Noah, trying to listen to his conversation with Cosette.

"Why would she call him?!" Lakyn whisper yelled.

"I don't know!? Do I look like I would know?!" Calista whisper yelled at her.

"Why are we whispering?!" Kristian whispered as he walked over to the two girls.

"Noah is on the phone with Cosette." Lakyn grumbled, rolling her eyes.

"Don't let it get to your head, Lake, we don't need that." Calista said.

"Yeah, you're right." Lakyn sighed.

*time skip to the beach*

Noah was waiting on the beach, he had a bad feeling that she wouldn't show up, cause seriously, if you think about it, Cosette would never ever talk to a Western, let alone, meet one in private.

But, despite his bad feeling, she did show up. Noah smiled to himself as he saw her slowly walking towards him.

"So, you actually decided to come, huh?" Noah laughed slightly.

Cosette laughed slightly as well, "I didn't want to make a bad impression."

"You already did that, yesterday." Noah mumbled.

Cosette gasped and playfully smacked his arm, "I did not!" Cosette exclaimed.

"I'm joking, I'm joking, jeez." Noah chuckled, and Cosette's face turned bright red.

"Eh, who knew I could make Rentz blush?" AJ smirked as he taunted her.

"Shut up." Cosette mumbled, her gaze quickly going down to her feet.

"So, why did you want to meet me here, anyway?" Cosette asked him, as she looked back up at him.

"Um, well, its hard to explain." Noah said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Cosette cocked her head at him, furrowing her eyebrows together, "What do you mean, hard to explain?" Cosette asked him again.

Noah looked at her, taking a few steps closer. Cosette was frozen as she looked up at him. The closer Noah got, the more tense Cosette was. She could feel his lips hovering over hers, his hot breath on her lips. Just as the both of them started to lean in, Noah's phone started ringing.

Cosette quickly backed up, "I-I should probably get going, I'll see you out there." Cosette stuttered as she quickly walked away from him.

Noah sighed, declining the call and putting his phone into his pocket.

*time skip to the game*

It was 2nd period, 13:49 seconds on the clock.

The score was 4-2 Western. Cosette was getting frustrated, not with the team but with herself. She hadn't scored yet, nor had she had any assists yet, and she was in the penalty box twice already, once for tripping and once for interference.

She could already tell this wasn't her game.

On the other hand, the Western team was on fire. Noah had 2 goals, and 1 assist, Calista had the other one goal with Kristian on the assist, and Kristian had the other goal with Lakyn on the assist.

Cosette and Natasha were both getting quite nasty on the ice, both of them losing their patience.

"You go after Smith, I got Dalton." Natasha smirked at Cosette, Cosette smirked back and when Lakyn had possession of the puck, she checked her hard into the boards, Cosette quickly regained possession of the puck, passing it to Natasha before Kristian slammed her into the boards.

Noah was on Natasha's tail, so Cosette quickly got up, skating as fast as she could, Natasha made the backhand pass to Cosette but Noah intercepted the pass. Cosette quickly poke checked the puck away.

Lakyn was now on Cosette's tail, but instead of Lakyn poke checking the puck, she tripped Cosette.

Cosette stood up quickly and looked at Lakyn, "You really wanna trip me?!" Cosette yelled over the cheering crowd.

"It would do something for that face of yours!" Lakyn yelled back.

"C'mon Smith, drop the gloves!" Cosette yelled.

She could see a flash of fear in Lakyn's eyes, Cosette was known for her fights and her dominance in the fights.

Lakyn quickly dropped her gloves and the two circled each other before locking up.

"I warned you." Cosette snarled as she threw a few punches at Lakyn, Lakyn responding with a few punches back at her.

But instead of Cosette being able to respond with more punches, she could feel a pair of arms wrap around her waist and pull her away from Lakyn.

She tried to get out of their grip but she soon realized who it was, and she slightly relaxed.

"Don't fight her, she isn't worth it." Noah whispered to Cosette, she slightly nodded and her heavy breathing slowly turned back into normal breaths.

Noah set her down and Cosette turned around to face him. He just slightly smiled at her, nodding his head.

"Captain! You good?!" Cassie yelled out.

Cosette smiled and nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine." Cosette said, showing a real smile for the first time in years as she headed off to the penalty box.

Everyone on the Western and Eastern team was shocked for multiple reasons. Seeing her smile for the first time in years, seeing Noah Dalton pick her up and calm her down, or to see Lakyn Smith and Cosette Rentz go at it on the ice.

Tomorrow started the Eastern Road Trip, so the Western team wouldn't be playing in any of their home rinks for a while, and both teams could tell this would be an interesting, fun, drama filled season, but it would still end with which team would be the champs.

(A/N: ok, so I feel like this chapter went a little bit downhill but overall I think it went really well! Let me know what you think about this chapter!)