Dreaming Out Loud // Jonathan Toews, Chris Kreider, Nathan MacKinnon

New York, New York

New York, New York, September 13, 2019

"Evangeline Hale, can I call you Eva?" The daytime talk show host, Cyndi Jackson, smiles goofily at the brunette woman on the other couch.

Evangeline Hale grins at the talk show host and nods for the camera.

"Yes you may, Cyndi,," she laughs.

"Great! I am glad we moved past formalities," Cyndi feigns a sigh in relief.

Applause fills the studio as Evangeline beams at one of the camera angled in front of her. She bites her lips and glances at the talk show host.

"So you have two sisters, right?" Cyndi asks as soon as the audience applause died down.

Smiling pleasantly, Evangeline turns back to the host and makes a sound of affirmative.

"Yes, I have two younger sisters, Cat and Jack," Evangeline answers.

She can see the picture of the three women reflected on the screen behind her. A small, genuine smile emerges when her eyes fall upon the smiling faces of the three Hale siblings. She loves her sisters very much, but it seems like the three have been too distant after being apart for so long. It has been a while since they sat down together and smiled so widely in conversation.

"And I believe one of them had recently gotten engaged, am I right?" Cyndi brings up.

Smiling, Evangeline nods profusely.

"Yeah, Jack recently called to tell me the news. I'm so excited for her! Her and her fiancé have been together for quite a while and they are perfect for each other!"

Cyndi clasps her hands together and leans forward in excitement.

"That's wonderful! And your sister, Jack's fiancé is someone we know, isn't he?" Cyndi asks rhetorically.

The image of the three sisters behind them changed into a picture of Jacqueline and her hockey player boyfriend. Evangeline recalls seeing the picture surface around the internet quite frequently for the last couple of years. It is probably one of the only pictures of them unveiled for the public to see. Both are private people – one an athlete and the other a missing persons detective. It is rare for them to share information to people. Evangeline had to get Jack's permission to talk about this on live television.

"Sure, if you are a Chicago hockey fan. She is going to marry their captain."

"Jonathan Toews?" Cyndi asks excitedly.

"Yeah," she chuckles.

Cyndi leans back into her sofa chair.

"Now speaking of hockey, you will be at the New York Rangers's first preseason game of the season right after this show, are you excited?"

Evangeline bites her lips, trying to contain her excitement. Since she was young, she had been a huge New York Rangers fan. Their father inherited his love for the team from his father and naturally, he foisted his love for the hockey club upon his three daughters when he raised them.

"Hell yeah! I will be singing the national anthem before the game," the crowd cheers excitedly at her declaration.

In fact, Evangeline will have to rush out of the studio as soon as she gets off stage. Her album just dropped today and her agent thought it would be nice to promote her album by agreeing to many requests to have her appearance. Eva had been promoting her new album endlessly, appearing on numerous talk shows and attending many different events. Her schedule is so stacked that she is literally departing from one place to another in a flicker of a second.

"You have been a diehard Rangers fan since you were a girl?" Cyndi asks.

"Yeah, my family and I grew up in the city. And as everyone knows, I am and will always support them no matter where I am!"

Evangeline never fails to share her life events to social media, including her unwavering support for the hockey team. Occasionally she would sport a team jersey and gush about their victories and achievements. Eva had been living in Florida for the majority of her music career, and recently she decided to move back to her home city during this album cycle.

"Everyone tune in to the Rangers game at noon to watch this lovely songbird sing the national anthem, and to watch the game too!" Cyndi turns to the camera with a forefinger out, "and please go buy Eva Hale's new album New Beginnings], in stores now!"

Evangeline smiles gratuitously as her new album cover appeared on the screen. She watches as Cyndi announces to the viewers of what is to come after this commercial break. After Cyndi wraps up, she gets up from her chair and walks over to her. Eva stands up from her sofa chair and shakes the host's hand.

"Eva Hale, thank you for taking time out of your day to be here this morning! Your new song Look at the Stars absolutely slaps and we're all jamming out to it!" Cyndi beams at her.

Eva thanks her as her crew appears on the stage to usher her out of the studio. As she is being led off the studio, Cyndi's backstage crew greets her and congratulates her for her successful album release. She did not even have time to return the comments as her agent appears with her security detail to get her to the next location. She can see a limo waiting for her just outside the back entrance of the studio.

The security detail around her blocks her from the aggressive paparazzi trying to get a shot of her entering the limo. Once she gets inside the limo, the door slams shut behind her. The limo driver waits until Lisa, her agent, is inside to drive away from Cyndi Jackson's studio. While the limo makes its way towards Madison Square Garden, Lisa turns to Eva with a huge smile.

"That was great, Eva! Now, you get to go into MSG and take some pictures with the Ranger players for the press and to promote the album. Then you go sing the national anthem; stay for the game- front row, and when you leave, we'll make it dramatic, we'll make sure there's a commotion around it."

Eva nods in comprehension as the limo pulls up in the back entrance of Madison Square Garden. A bunch of buff men dressed in black opens the limo door while the crowd of paparazzi gathers to snap a picture of her. Evangeline is certain that Lisa staged this whole thing so that everyone knows and has photographic evidence that she will be at the game. Lisa wants as much hype around Evangeline as possible, and the only way is for everyone to know her entrance and exits.

In an instant, she is let inside the halls leading towards the player's locker room. As much as she hates to admit it, she is quite excited and nervous to meet these people. She is a big hockey fan and this team has always been her team. These players are on her television screen all the time, and while she is the idol of many out there, they are her idols.

Eva looks down at her outfit and scowls. She is still wearing the same silver glittery dress on stage with Cyndi. She cannot come out to sing on the ice in the same number. Lisa might have handled it, but she is worried. Things have been hectic and sometimes little details like clothing might have been overlooked. Eva specifically requested to walk out in a Rangers jersey. The songstress and agent debated on the name behind the jersey Eva will wear out to the ice today. The two eventually agreed to keep it neutral and have her wear a standard jersey with no name or number in the back.

"You-you..."

Evangeline turns away from her silver dress and looks up at the source of the voice. Her eyes widens slightly as she tells herself to keep her cool. She bites her lips and gives him a shy wave instead.

"Eva Hale," he quickly extends his hand out for her to take.

Evangeline does not take time to accept his outstretched hand. She tries not to look too excited as they shake hands. Lisa can sense it from where she is standing and she has to refrain from rolling her eyes at the singer.

"Hi, you're Kreider, number 20," she almost covers her mouth at how embarrassing she is being. Eva all of a sudden became the girl in sweatpants, yelling at the television in her living room. She forgets for a second that she is Eva Hale, internationally renowned pop star.

Chris Kreider smiles coyly as he releases her hand. While they stand awkwardly with nothing else to talk about, Eva uses this time to examine him. He is dressed sharply in his game suit, and she sure loves her men in suits every once in a while. His scruff is just so endearing to her that she wants more than anything to run her hand down his face. Evangeline tries to snap out of it and curses herself for being so weird. Unfortunately for her, he is just too damn attractive for her to act normal.

Evangeline has to repeatedly remind herself that she is Eva Hale, internationally famous pop-rock singer, not this little fangirl she is making herself out to be.

"Hey Kreids, where the hell have you been man? I've been... oh my god, you're Eva Hale and you-you're here!" Another man dressed in a good suit appears beside Kreider, wide-eyed and dazed.

The singer grins widely at the man in recognition.

"Mika Zibanejad, number 93... wow." Eva can feel Lisa glaring at her from her left side.

Eva is not acting professional at all. She is acting like a little girl meeting her all time idols for the first time. Eva can only imagine what would happen if her dad was with her.

"I wonder what will happen if you meet Henrik Lundqvist," she can hear Lisa mumble to herself.

Ignoring her agent's comment, she turns her attention on the two hockey players. Zibanejad seems to be even more star struck than she is right now, and that is saying a lot. His dark eyes are still dilated in disbelief. Evangeline has no idea why he would recognize her or be dazed to see her.

"Dude, you okay there?" Kreider nudges the star forward..

Zibanejad turns to his friend.

"Eva Hale knows who I am, I don't think I'll ever be okay, bro."

Evangeline smiles, pushing her side bangs away from her eyes. She cannot believe she just met two star forwards from her favorite team and to think that she will meet the rest of them has sent her into a different type of excitement.

"We have to get going, Eva, there's some personnel I want you to meet before you talk with the rest of the team. I'll see you gentlemen later!" Lisa places her hand on the singer's forearms as a gesture to get moving.

Eva smiles sheepishly at the men and starts to walk around them. The second she turns away from them, she feels a hand on her other forearm. She stops moving immediately and turns back to the source of the contact. Zibanejad smiles sheepishly at her as he scratches at the back of his dark, long hair.

"Hi, um, can I have your number, and maybe we can hang out sometime?" He asks nervously..

The songstress smiles at how cute he is when he is nervous. Judging by the amused look on Kreider's face, he finds this nervousness to be a topic of conversation in the locker room.

"Meeks, just because she knows your name does not mean she wants to go out with you," Kreider scoffs and then turns to Evangeline, "as you can tell, he is a big fan of yours."

Laughing lightly, Eva extends a hand out for Mika's phone and waits for him to drop his device into her palm. She quickly enters her number into his phone before handing it back to him. With that, Lisa nudges her away from the two hockey forwards. Their departure leaves the two hockey players alone.

They look at each other, each with a smile of their own. Kreider is still tauntingly staring at his friend and Zibanejad seems to be more confident than before.

"My friend, this is why you always shoot your shot."