Aspiring

The Annual Blackhawks Convention

When the day rolled around, Piper grabbed all of her items and left her hotel room. She made it to the Boston Blackhawks' opponent's guest hotel where the Convention was, which was a Marriott Hotel. She parked in a spot, gathered her stuff and headed into the hotel. She checked in and got her official pass and then walked into the lobby, looking around at the set up.

Piper sighed when she saw the giant banner welcoming them into the building. She closed her eyes and shook her head, unable to erase the grin that was slowly starting to creep across her lips. When she reopened them, all she saw was a massive sea of red, black and white. Looking over to her left, she let the massive smile creep on her lips as she clapped her hands together, looking like a kid who had stumbled upon Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. She was at home here.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the sixth annual Blackhawks convention!" The loud voice announced its presence as she walked into the convention center, swarmed by eager fans there to get their hockey fix.

Even if the season ended a month ago and would be right back in their lives a short time from now in October. She couldn't understand why people were so upset when the sport ended only to have it come right back as if it hadn't missed a beat.

She laughed to herself at the way she would get so heated and so animated over her beloved Blackhawks. It wasn't enough that she had dreamed she had taken the entire team out for pancakes after they reached the finals. And still wasn't enough that she had once – a long time ago - gotten to hang out with them before their parade and got her picture snapped with the Stanley Cup. (She had sent Jess the picture and titled it, "I'm cheating on you with Stanley tonight, sorry crazy lady..." and it made her laugh harder than she had in quite some time.)

She had to be here, to get some rare memorabilia, see the team again – see Jeremy, touch the Cup again...she was such a geek for this stuff, it made Jessica look relatively ordinary. And well, Jessica loved hockey like Piper...but not as much. Piper was standing there in her Jeremy Sagan jersey and jeans, looking around at the exhibits.

Yes, compared to her friend, she was the poster girl for normalcy while she, Piper herself, was dressed head to toe in Blackhawks gear, including the signed jersey from one of her favorite players. (Yes, she'd managed to get Jeremy's signature without even knowing it...she'd been with Jessica. But she didn't remember it at all.)

"So, what do I wanna do first?" she asked herself, that lopsided grin of hers having not left her lips once. She couldn't remember a time when she had been this happy for something.

It had been that long.

With hockey and the Blackhawks, she was just...happy.

"Hmmm," she thought. "Maybe I can go find Jeremy!" She stared out at the crowd in front of them and all around them. "Yes, I should find Jeremy Sagan and meet him."

She started off, following the others around. She looked at the exhibits, spotting Jonathan Getzlaf's station and also spotting Brampton Benn's. None of the players were out yet. But people were already lining up at the stations. She headed in the direction of one of the memorabilia booths instead.

Before she knew it, she was lost amongst the countless waves of Blackhawks fans all here to get their fix with the reigning powerhouse champions of hockey. And soon they'd be a Dynasty in the NHL and have the Cup and win a ton of finals...just like the Chicago Blackhawks before them had once done.

So there she was, wandering around the Marriott Hotel, having no clue as to what to do with herself. Needless to say, her friends and family weren't pleased with her lack of support.

"Signed collectible pucks here! Come get your signed collectable puck!" someone cried out.

Figuring that this was as good a place as any to start out with, Piper walked on over to the souvenir stand and began to check out its contents. There sure were a lot of pucks there, but for the life of her, she couldn't make out one name scribbled across them, only the numbers that they wore on their jerseys. Hockey players had signed them...but gee did it seem like the players all had unreadable signatures... But these had no numbers.

"Excuse me, sir? Who signed this one?" she asked the vendor, pointing to one that had the most recent logo for the finals on it. It didn't even look like a signature; to her, it was more along the lines of chicken scratch, but she wasn't about to say that out loud. Not with so many people surrounding her.

"Ah, that one my fair lady, was signed by Jeremy Sagan himself, star centerman of the team and one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet," the man replied with gusto and a smile. "He signed about a hundred of these babies the day after they won the game against the Backstabber a few days ago."

"Wait, Jeremy...Segsy...signed this?" she asked a little shyly. A blush crept into her cheek. Her fangirl crush on the player sure was beginning to shine through here. When the man nodded, she breathed a sigh of relief, so she felt the need to ask another question. "He's here right?"

Again the man nodded, his smile never wavering. "Yup, one of the many. He really cares a lot about the fans. You know he and the team ran into quite a bit of drama last season. But they all came back days later totally fine. They're tough sons of guns, those hockey players."

"How much for it?" she asked. She would love to have this if she didn't already. When the man told her how much, her eyes bugged out a little bit. "Two hundred? Did he sign it with his blood?" She got a laugh out of the man.

"I originally charged a hundred a pop but they went so quickly, I raised the price a little. You know how it is in this kind of business," the man mused. Despite not really understanding what he meant, Piper nodded her head anyway. "This is actually the last one I've got."

Her ears pricked up upon hearing that. Looking over her tiny shoulder, she saw another man eyeing the same item she was, kind of like how someone would stalk another person. She had to act fast. "Sold! I'll take it!" she exclaimed right before the other guy could even open his mouth. A smile that was a mile wide spread across her lips as she took out her credit card and gave it to the man to swipe.

"Here you go little lady, the last one. Adding it to your collection?"

Sweeping her hair out of her face as she placed the puck into her bag, she shook her head, still smiling, this time as she held it in her hand. She was gonna give it to Jeremy to sign later. "No. It's for my boyfriend. He loves the Hawks. A lot." And he is a Hawk! It's Jeremy! Jeremy Sagan, the precious, pretty forward.

"Oh...okay."

She spent the next two hours wandering around the ridiculously spacious hotel, checking out the various booths, getting more merchandise for herself (she even bought herself a cute little Blackhawk themed hair bow for herself) and taking some pictures with the various fans who chatted with her.

She hadn't seen Jeremy since she'd arrived, but she figured that would be the case; he was probably seeing some of the guys from the team, touching the Cup again, and just generally enjoying himself like she knew he would. For all she knew, he was in the middle of a pancake-eating contest with some of the guys from the team. It wouldn't have surprised her.

Truth be told, she was enjoying herself and getting more eager by the minute. The fans were dedicated, personable and very, very friendly. They were also incredibly passionate about their Blackhawks just like she was about Jeremy and now, just a little bit, she was starting to see why hockey fans had such a deep-rooted connection to the sport and their team. It was an eye opener for her, she admitted to herself.

As the day continued on and night arrived, Piper found she couldn't wait for the ceremony. She desperately wanted to see Jeremy. Unfortunately she couldn't see him yet. She had no idea where he was. But she'd find him! She had to find him!