Time For Change (Mitch Marner X OC)

A development

It has been a couple of months since the Bruins game. You are in a good mood despite the fact that the last two games have been losses. In that time you have grown extremely close to Mitch and the other members of your team. There is one problem.

"I cannot believe this," Your dad angrily remarks as he thrusts the sports page of the newspaper onto the kitchen table. It has the headline 'rising star Jaylyn Paris caught holding hands with Mitch Marner!' The darn paparazzi always has to go and ruin everything.

"Dad I told you about Mitch and I. It was bound to happen," You respond. You quickly get yourself some cereal for breakfast. It makes you smile because you were expecting this to happen sooner.

"And anyway I'd rather focus on helping you coach the juniors," You try to change the topic. You are glad that you have a free week. You will have to remember to talk to Mitch about the media.

"I told them that a NHL player was coming and I got them to guess and one of the girls thought it would be you," You can tell that your dad is a little proud of his junior squad. You quickly finish your cereal. You race up the stairs to grab your stick, skates and helmet. You are already wearing your jersey. It still feels a little odd that you are wearing it and you are not going to the Scotiabank arena.

"Are you ready to go Jay?" Your dad calls out.

"Yup I'm coming now," You respond as you race back down the stairs. You are going to have fun with the kids. You get the feeling that they might be too energetic for you. You will find out. Fifteen minutes later you and your dad have made it to the rink. You spot some kids who are in intense discussion about whether or not you are Jaylyn Paris. It is amazing how most fans have just accepted you as part of the team. You quickly get your skates on.

"That is definitely Jaylyn Paris," The kid is insistent.

"No it's not," The other retorts.

"We should ask her," The kid that thinks it is you responds.

"No you should ask her," He pushes the other kid towards you.

"Hey James save the shoving for the game," Your dad remarks. Five minutes later all of the kids have arrived and are ready for the training. Your dad gathers the kids to give them their warm ups.

"Before I delegate the warm ups I would like to introduce a special guest. She plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's Jaylyn Paris," Your father announces. You can tell that he is proud of the fact that you are on an NHL team.

"I told you James," The kid that knew it was you exclaims. Two minutes later your dad has assigned all of the warm ups. You are helping some of the new kids with stick handling. You quickly catch the puck with your stick.

"Thank you Jaylyn," The girl responds.

"Don't worry about it," You reply. You quickly show her where she went wrong.

"Jess your problem is you are making your wrist movements too big," The girl nods. She tries the warm up again. Jess does a little better with your advice. The fact that they are listening to you is good. After thirty minutes of drills your dad has divided the group into two teams.

"Jay, would you be able to umpire for me?" Your dad asks as he passes you a whistle and a puck.

"I will see what I can do," you respond. It will be fun. You head towards the two centres. You place the puck between them. They are just as quick as you. After another thirty minutes of play the game has come to an end and you are impressed that the game was relatively clean. You are working on getting your skates off but you are soon interrupted.

"Thank you for coaching us Jaylyn," one of the girls remarks as she takes the free spot next to you.

"Don't worry about it Mia," You respond. Seven minutes later you are back in your room thinking about how the juniors went. Your thoughts are interrupted by your message tone. It's Mitch. You are worried because he only sent a vague message. You grab some stuff and head to Mitch's place. You timidly knock on the door because you are scared of what you are going to find. He opens the door and he lets you in.

"Mitch please can you tell me what's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong except the paparazzi," he responds as he holds up the newspaper.

"So what do you want to do about it?" You ask as you both sit down on the couch. You find yourself wrapping your arm around Mitch's shoulder.

"We should make it official," Mitch comes up with an answer almost immediately. You can tell that he has had time to think about it. It has been a few days since you and Mitch made the fact that you are dating official and you are getting ready for the next game. You are getting ready to head to Florida.

"Hey love birds," Auston remarks as you and Mitch join him by the bus.

"Save the teasing for Ilya," You respond. You get the feeling that you are not going to hear the end of it any time soon. The others soon gather. You are surprised that there isn't more chatter about you and Mitch. Twenty minutes later you have made it to the airport and you can feel Mitch's hand wrap around yours. At least being with Mitch makes travel less boring. Ten minutes later you have all boarded the plane.

"Mitch if you don't mind I am going to have a nap," You remark as you lay your head on Mitch's shoulder.

"I don't mind," He responds. You soon fall asleep. At least you know the safety stuff off by heart. After a restful two hours and a half you are gently awoken by Mitch. You carefully rub the lingering tiredness from your eyes. You try your best to avoid hitting Mitch whilst stretching but you are unsuccessful.

"Sorry Mitch," You remark.

"It's ok. You didn't do any damage," He responds. You can feel the glances that Auston and Ilya are sending your way. At least you have grown to those kinds of looks. After an hour of traveling and another hour of relaxing in your hotel room your thoughts are interrupted by some yelling. The others must be playing a mini sticks game. You timidly step out of your room to find that you are correct.

"Watch out Jay," William calls out as he sends the ball flying towards you. You only just manage to get out of the way. The ball lands just by Mitch. What you see next is the most spectacular piece of goofing round. Morgan manages to snatch the ball off Mitch but Mitch kicks it over Frederick's body. You wish normal hockey could be played like this.

"Hey Jay you should join us," Auston remarks as he offers you a spare stick.

"I will on the condition that I can play against Mitch and I can leave after this face off," You feel like being competitive with him.

"That's fine I was going to say you're on my team and you're taking the face off then," Auston clarifies. Perfect. You get ready for the face off. The battle between you and Mitch has a playful intensity to it. You let out a playful squeal as you manage to get the ball to Auston. After some playful back and forth you have the opportunity to score. You try your best but Jack has found the perfect position to defend the goal. The ball bounces off his back. Ten minutes later the game has come to a close. It was a fun bit of goofing around you have decided that you need to relax a little more before tomorrow's game.