Love is Blindness

Chapter 23; The Birthday Bandit

The week seemed to have moved slowly. Probably because I had only one thing to look forward to and that was today, my birthday.

Unfortunately, the Western Conference lost 8-3. That put everybody's hopes down a bit but not a lot.

On Monday, Jon returned home from Sweden and participated in the practice and game that evening. We haven't talked since I left the museum on Sunday. He keeps looking at me, but I avoid any kind of contact with him.

The rest of the week was pretty much the same; practice, game, practice, home, practice, game...

But I did notice that my dad was spending more time in the locker room than usual. He would talk to a few of the guys, maybe give a speech to the entire team, then he would disappear for a while and suddenly reappear, say goodnight to me, and go home. I had no idea what he was up to but I just tried to ignore it.

I got out of bed and walked over to my door and opened it. I almost had a heart attack when Beka, Sam, Juliana, Lindsay, and Lauren all came at me, threw confetti all over me, and snapped a birthday cone on my head. I was also being blinded by someone taking loads of pictures.

"Happy birthday!" they all shouted.

I stumbled back a bit, rubbed my eyes, and brushed some of the confetti out of my hair.

"Ugh . . . Thanks guys. That was quite . . . Something," I said, laughing along with the girls.

"Hurry up and get dressed so you can eat your breakfast and get to the Joe! We can't wait to see what the boys have in store for you!" Sam screeched, pushing me into my closet and turning the light on.

"You guys made me breakfast?" I asked.

"Well... No. We were in a hurry to get over here so we stopped and got you breakfast at Big Boys..." Lauren said.

"Wow, I haven't had Big Boys in a while. Couple years to be correct," I stated, laughing.

"GET DRESSED!" they all shouted

"Alright we'll meet you in the parking lot! You are NOT to go inside without us! We don't wanna miss a single thing!" Sam shouted from her car.

"Whatever!" I shouted back, rolling my eyes as I stepped into my BMW.

I couldn't help but be excited on my drive to the Joe. I was really looking forward to my shaving creme in the face, whenever that might be. I laughed to myself, remembering my expression last year when he got me.

Last year, mine was similar to the one that happened to Dan Cleary a couple years back. I was with my dad when he was being interviewed by Trevor. I kept looking at Trevor. He had this look in his eyes like he was going to burst out laughing. I didn't know what it was about so I turned my attention back to my dad.

Not even a minute later, I heard the camera man take in a sharp breath and next thing I knew my face was covered in shaving creme. Everyone, Trev, my dad, the camera man, Drapes, and the entire locker room, began laughing. I was laughing the hardest as I wiped some of the creme out of my eyes.

That was sure fun, but I remember Drapes telling me last year that this was going to be a big one since I was turning 20 and it was a Leap Year.

I pulled into the player parking lot. The sound of the pouring rain finally ceased and it went quiet.

As I pulled into my regular spot, I saw the other girls all chatting by Beka's car.

Once I walked up to them, they all began dragging me inside to the locker room.

They slid the doors open and pushed me inside. There was no one here. All their stuff was in the stalls and some of their equipment was lying on the floor in front of the huge fan, drying the sweat off them, but no one was there. No Babs, no reporters, nothing.