Banksie// Adam Banks

Chapter 5

We had just gotten off the plane and were making our way through the airport. I had been dragging my bag closely behind me, it was so close that it was hitting my ankles. I had such a tight grip on the handle. I was so focused on staying behind the team so I wouldn't get lost in this place. The airport was absolutely gigantic.

We had made or way out of the airport and were walking to a big tour bus outside. We all climbed in and took our seats. I took a seat in between Julie and Ken Wu. I was closest to them out of the whole team. I had gotten to know the others but didn't talk to them much outside of team stuff. 

I took out my headphones and put on some lyrical music, I searched through my bag and grabbed a book I had started reading on the plane. It's about a cheesy love story, but I enjoyed it so far. Before I knew it I had fallen asleep, I woke up to Julie gently shaking me to tell me we had gotten to the hotel we were staying at  while we were in California. 

My eyes were still a little blurry from sleeping but I could see the shape of a super big building. It must've been at least 40 stories tall, okay I might've over-exaggerated a little but still, it was huge.

"Whoa," I heard Ken say. That's exactly what I had been thinking, "this place is ginormous!" it was so fancy too. I don't know how they managed to get a bunch of kids into a place this nice. I wasn't complaining though.

I grabbed my bag off the bus floor while shoving my headphones and book into it. We all got off the bus and stood in front of the building admiring it. What was there not to admire. It was a beautiful building. 

"Okay team. Here is where you will be staying. All of the rooms have phones for calling room service or to get a hold of any of us." coach said while clapping his hands together.

"Where are you staying?" Jesse said in a disrespectful tone. If I had learned anything about any of the players here so far. It was that Jesse had one heck of a mouth, and it wasn't always saying good things.

"Thanks for asking, Jesse. If you really need to know I have a place not far from here," he said. He put his hands in his pockets. "I wanted you guys to have time to yourselves. Without adults around telling you what to do. If you do anything bad though, it's on you." he chuckled. The original team was well known for playing pranks. 

We walked into the lobby and took a second to look around. The ceiling was this beautiful glass design. It was so colorful, there was a gold line separating the glass pieces. There were fancy couches and chairs in a circle in front of a huge T.V.. 

We walked up to the front desk and coach did some talking. Moments later he started handing out keys. We had the whole 3rd floor to ourselves! We each had a roommate, I was paired with Julie, we had room 331. Ken said he had room 333, and he hadn't figured out who his roommate was yet.

We walked over to the big elevator and rode up to the 3rd floor. The elevator had this weird classical music playing, but it couldn't be heard well over all the talking. The elevator made a little jump when it stopped. 

We walked out and scattered to look for our rooms, Julie, Ken, and I went to the left. We read the room numbers out loud together. "328..329..330..331!" I announced. Ken's room right across the hall from ours. We unlocked our rooms at the same time and walked in. 

Our room was huge. It had a kitchen, a big bathroom, two beds, and a couch with a T.V. on the wall in front of it. I placed my bag on one of the beds and sat down. Julie placed her stuff on the other bed and grabbed the T.V. remote, turning it on to some old cartoon channel I guess.

"We can't just sit here and watch T.V. Julie," I said, with a slight laugh. She turned to me. "We have to go do something funnnnn" 

"Like what?" she said, laughing. she turned the T.V. off and set the remote down next to her.

"I don't know! But there has to be a ton of stuff to do here! Let's just explore or something!" I said while throwing a pillow at her, hitting her straight in the face.

"Pfft, what was that for," she said fixing her hair. "and I guess there's gonna be a lot of things to take up time here."

"Yea, let's go!" I said grabbing her arm. Dragging her out of the room and across the hall. I knocked on Ken's door. "Open!" he said. I opened the door and marched in with Julie. 

I didn't take the time to notice who Ken's roommate was. I threw Julie on the bed with Ken's bag on it and sat down next to her. Ken was on the couch, I saw him on the way in. I didn't even think about Ken's roommate till we saw him. It was Adam, he was sitting on his bed reading a book. I don't know him well but I didn't think he was the type to read.

"Oh, hey sorry we sorta forgot about the roommates thing." I said, an embarrassed laugh escaped my mouth. 

"What? Oh, yea completely fine! I don't mind." He laughed while scratching the back of his neck. 

"Soooooo Ken, we're going to go exploring, an you're coming with us." Julie said, she didn't just say it though, she stated it. It was a fact.

"Pft, okay, whatever you say there Jules." he responded rolling his eyes. He has a real act around adults, but when Ken's around other people, he can become a nightmare. Not in a bad way!! He's not one of THOSE attitude change kids though, he isn't a toxic person and wouldn't hurt a fly.

I turned back to Adam, "You can come if you want, I guess." He turned towards Ken. Ken nodded as if saying he could come. Adam looked back at me.

"Okay, but we have to be back before practice." he said putting his book down. I glanced at the cover, something about fault and stars. I don't think I've ever heard of it but maybe I'll read it sometime. 

"Okayyyy, well, we only have like 4 hours left before we even have to think about getting ready for practice. So let's go now!" Julie said. She was a fan of using time wisely I had figured out. 

We walked out of the room and made our way to the elevator, Adam pressed the down button. A few seconds passed before the elevator dinged and the doors opened. The four of us stepped inside, Julie pressed the lobby button. It was quiet as the elevator went down. I guess it was kind of awkward with Banks there, none of us had talked to him much this entire time. I couldn't stop thinking about his eyes. I know it sounds weird but they're gorgeous. 

*****

We had just walked out of probably the 50th store Julie had dragged us into. I checked my watch, 4:36, oh crap our practice was at 5:00! 

"Guys we have to go, we have practice in less then a half hour." I stated.

"Oh shoot! Why didn't my alarm go off! I had one set!" Julie said. 

"Doesn't matter we have to go!" I gave Julie a quick push to get her going. I don't think Adam heard us though, I don't understand how, we were right next to him. I grabbed his arm and dragged him until we caught up with Julie.

"haha sorry I didn't hear you guys." Adam laughed. I gave him a confused look.

"Wait how did you not hear us?" Ken questioned with a laugh.

"Selective hearing?" I chuckled. We walked into the hotel lobby and headed up to our rooms. I quickly grabbed my hockey bag and waited in the hallway for the others. Once we were all in the hallway we sprinted to the elevator and out of the hotel. The practice rink was only a 3 minute walk from the hotel so we got there quickly. We walked into the locker room and went to our assigned lockers. Mine, Ken's, and Julie's lockers were right next to each other and Adams was only two away from mine.

We walked into the clean rink. Our first game was in two days so it was good we were having practice today. I think we all need to get warmed up for the next few weeks. Coach had cones and multiple markers on the ice. He gave us each a spot on the rink and practice began.