Life Around The World

Game Day

I woke up at 5:30 the next morning and had a shower before getting dressed in some jeans and my maple leafs hoodie. I quietly went downstairs and into the kitchen to make myself a morning smoothie before our busy day. "Morning Maddie, you're up early this morning"Auston said walking into the kitchen and placing himself at the island. "Yeah but you out of all people should know my routine on game days"I placed the strawberries into the blender before adding bananas. He grinned and rolled his eyes playfully before responding. "Fair enough, I guess after growing up in a hockey family, having game day routines always stick."I laughed and put the lid on the blender before pressing start to blend the fruits. "Did you want some? It's the Gem's game day favourite breakfast smoothie."I asked Auston turning the power button off and pouring myself a glass of chocolate strawberry and banana smoothie. "Oh my god, it's not even your game day and you still make the Gem's game day smoothie?"He laughed at me. "Auston that doesn't answer my question, did you want a glass?"I asked again before he nodded, and I poured him a glass before I slid it across the island.

"I guess you never break our game day routine from when we were growing up."He said as I took a sip from my breakfast smoothie. "Nope and I'm sure you haven't broken it either. Cause I know for a fact that you still have pre game naps and dinner with the team."I replied as he laughed and shook his head. "Hey how did you know that?"He asked brining his glass up from the island counter and to his mouth. "Auston, I've known you ever since I was four and over the years, you and my brothers would always take over the living room for your pre game naps."I replied as memories from my childhood took over my thoughts. "Morning mom, morning Auston."James said walking into the room wearing his new jersey we gave him for his birthday. "Morning buddy." He sat down beside Auston and I poured him a glass of smoothie. "Do you know if your dad is up yet?"I asked as he took a sip of his drink. "Yeah, he's getting ready and then he'll be down."He replied.

After our drive into Toronto, we had arrived at the rink and followed Auston into the building, going through players' entrance. "Alright I've got to go get ready for practice, so I'll meet you guys after?"Auston said walking towards the dressing room. The boys and I made our way over to the stands and walked all the way down to the bottom sitting down by the bench as we waited for the practice to start. "Hey mom can you take a picture of me?"James asked handing me his phone before standing near the glass. I snapped a couple of pictures as the boys started filing out onto the ice. Just as I had snapped one last one of him by at the glass with centre ice behind him, Auston and Mitch came up behind James on the other side of the glass. I took a couple photos of all three boys smiling and then a couple more as Mitch and Auston made faces in the background. "Alright J, here you go bud."I said.

"Hey mom, I'm sending you the pictures so you can send them to Auston."James said air dropping the photos to me as I nodded in agreement. Once practice was over, we sat down on the couches and waited for Auston in the family and friends lounge. "Yeah they're over here." I heard Auston say to one of his teammates."Hey, there she is!"I turned my head to see Mitch standing next to Auston. I stood up and went over to give him a hug. "It's great to see you again kid."Mitch said giving me a hug. "Good to see you too Mitchie."I replied as he looked behind me and shook Hunter's hand and looked at James with a confused look. "Who's this?"He asked as James introduced himself. "I'm James."Mitch looked at me "Is this your Kid Maddie?"I nodded a yes before he compared James's features to my own and Hunter's. "He looks a lot like you."He said.

After Auston and Mitch showed us around the rink we ended up down at the tunnel by the dressing room. "Alright you ready to meet the rest of the team Jay?" I asked as his eyes lit up in excitement. "Just a heads up, the boys can get a little weird sometimes."Mitch said as he opened the door and we walked into the dressing room. The guys all turned their heads and came to a dead silence once they noticed there were visitors in the room. "Is that who I think it is?" Marleau said standing up and coming towards us. "Believe it or not, it's me!"I said as Patrick smiled and gave me a hug. Auston introduced James to the rest of the team and showed his around the dressing room as I caught up with some of the guys who haven't seen me in a while.