Miracle On Ice One Shots

Rivals (Mark Johnson- #10)

He loathed her. Absolutely and inexplicably loathed her.

Cassandra Peterson. Captain of the Minnesota Gophers. All- American. Academic all- conference. Annoyingly perfect in everything she does. Even the thought of her in all of her amazingly perfect ways made his blood boil.

They had grown up playing each other in hockey leagues- she was always the only girl on the men's team, and she was also one of the best. He was born and raised in Madison, she was born and raised in Milwaukee. His mom was best friends with her mom. They had grown up with each other, but instead of a fondness for each other festering, their competitive natures had driven them to be rivals since they were 6. She was good- she could out skate pretty much everyone.

Now, standing on the ice, laughing with her teammates after the Gophers won yet another game in the play offs, he was annoyed to find that she was actually quite pretty. Her long, blonde hair was still wet from her shower, and her gold and maroon duffel bag was slung carelessly over her shoulder. She was in a pair of black sweatpants, Nike Blazers, and a maroon U of M t shirt. She had a few tattoos scattered across her forearms, which he was surprised to see- there aren't a ton of people with tattoos, although he's been seeing more and more. That added to her allure- that annoying allure that made him want to scream and kiss her at the same time.

All in all- she was immensely attractive.

This was the girl that he had been competing against for years. The girl that ripped medal after medal from his hands, and was constantly looking to show him up. What was wrong with him?

Frustrated with himself, he turned around and found some of his teammates. They were all laughing about something, but his head wasn't completely there. He glanced over at the girl again, and her eyes flickered to him. Her brown eyes immediately narrowed as soon as they met his blue ones, and all thoughts of her attractiveness faded into the familiar loathing that he had come to associate with her.

They played the Gophers in a few days- and he wasn't going to let her steal yet another title from him.

****

Cassie was pissed. Why couldn't the damn Badger just keep his annoyingly cute smirk to himself?

She skated around, warming up her legs and trying to get into the right mindset for the playoff game, but Johnson kept looking at her with that stupid smirk he's been giving her for the last 15 years.

Someone passed her a puck, and she took off, making a move around the defender before putting the puck in the net. She looked across the rink to see Johnson's smirk shift into one of annoyance. Smiling in satisfaction, she skated to the back of the line. She loved pissing him off- she loved getting under his skin.

Once warm ups were over, the team skated over to the bench where Brooks waited. She skated up next to Robbie McClanahan, the boy in turn giving her a sideways smirk. He knew exactly what was going through her head as she kept glancing over at the opposing bench.

Robbie knew that his captain and his competitor were madly in love. He could see that just in the way her face would shift from one of immense annoyance into one with a bit of longing as soon as Johnson's name was brought up. No one else noticed it- he doubted that the blonde even noticed she did it herself. But, he knew his friend. And he knew it was only a matter of time before they both realized that this hatred and rivalry they had was actually just a massive coverup for the feelings they both had for each other.

All in all, Robbie found the whole situation quite funny. Johnson was actually a friend of Rob's as well, and he often caught Johnson looking at Cassie, and in a way that no rivals should look at each other. Rob felt embarrassed when he catches him- the intense longing and affection that Magic tries to hide with a scowl was something Rob thought Cassie and only Cassie should see. He felt like he was constantly intruding on something. Yeah, Rob was willing to put money on the fact that Johnson was also absolutely and completely in love with Cassie Peterson. They were both just too damn blind to see it- a fact that frustrated the young man to no end.