AAOOOSC! #10

Chapter 13: "Your Cat's Staring At Me."

During around the same time in Pittsburgh, the Penguins are suiting up for practice in the locker room. It is Beau's day to supply the locker room music, so in honour of Olli due to his disappearance, he decided to put in Olli's favourite Finnish playlist.

As the foreign music blared out from the speakers from up high, everyone is immediately reminded of Olli.

"Hey...," Brandon Sutter begins to say, pausing strapping his elbow pads, "...that sounds like Olli's music...!

Kris attempts to hold back his tears while sitting in his stall. "OLLI!" He then buries his face in his hands with a sob.

Spikey, who is perched in Beau's stall, widens his eyes at his depressed defenseman partner. I am Olli! Then to get away from the sadness everyone is feeling for him, Spikey sprints out of the locker room, through the tunnel, and into the arena.

He halts at the edge of the ground, right next to the foot of Coach Johnston.

Johnston peers down at the cat with his hands on his hips. "Oh, wow, you're the first one here!" He raises his eyebrows. "You got here faster than the captain! Maybe you should be captain."

Then as if on cue, Bubby whizzes randomly in the air from the tunnel. The two follow the flying stuffed gorilla with their eyes, spotting it soar over the glass. With a downward arch, he slid onto the ice and bounced against the boards on the other side. The ice-girls, who are on the ice, shovelling the left over snow, had to skate out of the airborne over-sized stuffed animal's way.

Once Bubby stopped his momentum, the ice girls proceeded their shovelling, including shovelling Bubby himself away.

"Sutsy!" Sidney's voice booms from the tunnel. "Don't you know that it's RUDE to throw?" Sidney himself storms into view and skids to a stop as he sees Bubby's predicament. "BUBBY! NOOOOOO!!!" He stampedes onto the ice and rushes toward Bubby, to the rescue.

The ice girls spot the captain of the Penguins racing toward them; they immediately stop, lovestruck.

"OMG, it's the captain!"

"He's coming this way!"

"Do I look good?"

"Is my hair fine?"

Sidney harshly brakes next to the shovel that has Bubby and swipes his stuffed gorilla off the ice. "Bubby's mine!" He squeezes the stuffed animal against his chest and speedily skates away from the ice girls.

The ice girls first gape at the captain, then exchange glances with each other. "Well, uh..."

"That's the captain?"

"Huh."

They go back to shovelling off the excess ice.

Sidney storms back into the locker room with Bubby in his possession. "Don't throw Bubby!" he shouts at Brandon, shooting him daggers with his eyes as he nears his stall.

"Yeah, don't throw out our mascot like that!" Chris adds on with a serious look to Brandon.

Brandon shoots them both an odd look with furrowed eyebrows. "We already have a mascot!"

"Yeah," Fleury jumps in from the corner of the room, "it's Iceburgh!" He points to Iceburgh, the Penguins' official mascot, who is next to him with his arms crossed while bobbing his head. "You tell 'em, Iceburgh!" He encourages the mascot; Iceburgh nods his head.

"I have mascot," Evgeni informs everyone with his deep voice.

Everyone turns to him with curious looks.