oh adeline

for the love of maple syrup.

<>sunnys pov<>

"hi adeline, im dan. ill be your supervisor here at our headquarters." a man said, as he greeted my parents & i in the NHL toronto headquarters.

"hi." i said, shaking his hand.

"hi mom & dad." he said.

"hi im gabby." my mom said.

"ryan." my dad said, shaking his hand.

"are you ready, adeline?"

"um, can you call me sunny? thats what ive gone by my whole life." i asked.

"oh absolutely!"

we followed him as he gave us a tour of the building.

"over here is your office." he said.

"i get my own office?" i asked.

"well no, you'll share it but when youre here this is where you will do your school work. this is crystal & holly." he said.

i walked into the office was was greeted by two girls.

"hi!" one of them said.

"howdy, im adeline but you can call me sunny." i said, shaking their hands.

"im holly."

"and im crystal!" the other said.

"holly & crystal will be with you this whole time, and you'll even live with holly."

"what?" i asked.

"we haven't discussed everything." my mom said to dan.

"okay, why dont we head to the conference room and go over everything."

"yeah." i said, my heart pounding.

the 6 of us walked to a conference room.

there was stacks of papers on the long table.

"mom, what would you like to go over first?"

"i think she needs to know about school work & where she will be staying."

i got so much information, to much information, in the span of 40 minutes.

ill learn in the road & have to be passing with at least a C plus. ill have video calls with my teachers in texas every 6 weeks as well as record presentations or live presentations. ill still graduate with my friends im texas ill just ne touring north america.

16 teams have agreed to my clas so far with the hope that all 32 agree.

"so by signing this paper, im officially the youngest employee of the nhl?" i asked.

i could hear my dad sigh.

crystal & holly laughed, along with some others in the room.

"yes, for the 2024-25 season." dan chuckled.

"17 and living crazy!"

i signed my name.

"okay so we know you go by sunny but we need your legal name on the paper, so holly can you print another one so we can actually do this?" dan said.

"i cant put sunny?" i asked.

"honey, legal name."

"its about as legal as they come momma." i said.

my dad sighed and put his head down, "are you sure you're up for this crystal?"

"shes going to be a blast to work with!"

holly came back with another paper and placed it in front of me.

i held the pen.

hovering over the paper.

i've signed my signature as sunny lexington for years.

in fact, i dont think ive ever signed anything as adeline lexington.

i scribbled what i think adeline would look like.

"ill still go by sunny, right?" i asked.

"yes." dan answered. "anymore questions?"

"can i get some pancakes after this?" i asked.

my parents looked disappointed but ended up laughing.

"sunny."

"i need food before i lose my mind." i said. "pancakes & maple syrup."

"how about you gusy go eat and then at 2 come back for a meeting?" dan said.

"thank you!" i sang.

-

i walked into the board room, that had about 15 other people in it, including garry bettman himself.

"sunny!" he greeted.

"hi mr bettman." i said shaking his hand. "its great to meet you!"

"oh sunny weve been looking forward to meeting you!" he said back.

he met my parents and we took a seat.

i think i met every nhl employee that day so when we got to go to shopping at the nhl store, just me, my parents, crystal & holly, & gerry, i was worn out.

im ready for bed.

we fly home in the morning and will get home in time for dinner and then i have school monday.

but i only have 2 weeks of school before im back in canada and touring north america.