AAOOOSC! United

"Ah-ha, I'm Finally Able To Use That Phrase!"

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
July 10, 2017
Morning

The next day, the members are wearing their uniforms for the society, which are black with red and white designs. They are now having breakfast, yet it is not as lively as last night's dinner. Everyone is silently eating their cereal, throwing awkward glances at the usual loud member.

Reid has wide eyes and a line as his mouth on his bowl. He then robotically grabs a box of Oh My's and pours most of the box into his empty bowl.

The circular, small grains pour out from his bowl, clattering onto the smooth surface of his bowl and hopping onto the table.

Next to him, Kale is eyeing him with concern with a spoonful of cereal up to his mouth. "Uh, Duker, what's up?"

"Yeah," Emily pipes in, appearing on his other side with a cordial smile. "I wanna hear another pun!"

Reid promptly slams the cereal box on the table with his attention on the table. "I had a bad dream."

Silence takes over the table for a moment with everyone's eyes on Reid.

Emily rotates her wrist, signalling Reid to continue talking. "But..."

Reid flicks his eyes at her with fear. "It's not a pun."

From the end of the table, Sidney stops stirring his cereal. "So if it's not a pun, then it actually happened!" He hugs Bubby, who is now on his lap. "What's your bad dream about? It must've been scarrryyy..."

Reid has a worried look at him. "It was." He turns to the others. "I had a dream that the AHL was gone."

John has knitted eyebrows at him. "That's not exorbitantly grim." He takes a spoonful of granola cereal.

Reid whirls to him with mad eyes and slams his palms on the table. "It is! I'm gonna play in the AHL! And if there's no AHL, then-then—"

"There's the ECHL," Jonathan points out, pointing his spoon at him.

He spins to the goalie in a frenzy. "No, the ECHL was gone too! All the NHL affiliates you can think of!" He throws his hands in the air, looking up at them. "All of them! GONE!"

He then slowly lowers his hands and head with a dejected expression. "And I had nowhere to go..." His head is now dipped. "...so there went my career."

"Not even the NHL aspired for you?" Kailer asks with a concerned expression, holding onto his spoon in his bowl.

Reid shakes his head with closed eyes. "Not in my dream, no."

Kale pats his shoulder with a slight smile. "At least it was just a dream."

He turns to him with his eyes filled with worried. "But-but what if it's more than just a dream? What if it turns out to be REAL?"

Brett eyes him with a cocked eyebrow from next to Kale. "How can it be real? Dreams don't really turn out to be real..." His voice fades off as he takes in a spoonful of colourful cereal.

Still standing next to Reid, Emily gasps, clutching onto her hair with wide eyes. "McDavid!" She drops her hands, gazing at the others. "What if McDavid DOES take over the minor professional leagues?"

Sidney taps the side of his bowl with his spoon; he has a frown with inquiring eyes. "Why would he wanna do that?"

"Why would he want to take over the CHL?" Kale questions with a gawk at the temporal master.

"—AND NCAA?" Jake pipes in, throwing an index finger up.

"—And the NWHL and CWHL?" Katie finishes off with crossed arms.