Chapter 5 - How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Mark was gone the next day for a game in Quèbec City. I spent the day unpacking. I wasn’t really sure what to do with myself. It wasn’t like I had any friends in the place, apart from Mark. So I was a little surprised when the next day, after Mark and I had watched Team Canada win their semi-final game 7 to 2, when the team had a home game when Catrine showed up at the door. I starred. “Bonjour.” I said slowly. “Umm pourquoi, are tu ici?” I asked, blushing at my horrible French.

“Come.” She snapped. “Tu viens avec moi est mes amies au jeu.”

I was lounging around in sweats and a baseball cap. I didn’t even have make up on. “Give me a minute.” I replied quickly. “Vien.” I said, running to the basement to put on some make up.

“Vite.” She snapped, looking around and heading straight into Mark’s room.

“Hey I don’t know if you should….” I started. I shook my head. Why did I care if she went in Mark’s room? I’d let him deal with it. I quickly put on make up and headed out to the car where a few of Catrine’s friends were waiting.

She pointed. “Claire et Michelle.” She said, the she pointed at me. “Nicole.”

“Bonjour.” I said with a small wave, knowing that this was going to be a totally long night. I mean, Catrine didn’t speak English, so I highly doubted that any of her friends spoke English. Which meant that I was going to be gossiped about behind my back/right in my face the entire night.

“Hi.” Michelle said at the same time that Claire said. “Bonjour.”

I was silent, not knowing what else to say. Michelle, who was in the passenger’s seat, half turned so that she could look at me. “So Catrine says you’re from Alberta.” She said in heavily accented (but still understandable) English.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“So why are you here?” She asked slowly. “Mme. Paradis never said why you were coming, and everyone is DYING to know.”

I shrugged. “What does it matter?” I asked.

“Well there are tons of rumours.” She said. “Most of them involve you getting kicked out of school and your parents having no choice but to send you here.”

I snorted. “Not likely.” I said.

“Well…?” She asked.

I rolled my eyes. No matter what I said there would be rumours. “You really want to know?” I demanded, deciding that the truth may be stranger then fiction in this case, but at least it would get her off my ass for the night. “My little brother died in an accident when I was ten and my parents have been fucking anyone but each other ever since. A nosy English teacher finally convinced them that they needed to do something to get there act back together because it was “affecting” me. So there idea of not affecting me was to ship me to some small town in a part of the country where I don’t even fricking speak the language for the year. Because you know, that will help me be all well adjusted when I get back.”

“Your little brother died?” She asked, eyes widening.

“When I was ten.” I replied. “It destroyed my parents relationship.”

“Oh.” She said. She turned and said something to the other girls in French. I didn’t have a clue what she’d said, and I didn’t particularly care.

When we got to the rink I pulled her aside. “Why on earth did Catrine come and get me?” I asked. “And don’t give me that she wanted to be nice to the new girl crap. She doesn’t like me because Mark does.”

Michelle looked me up and down. I hadn’t bothered to change my clothes, despite the fact that Catrine had been dressed up. It was a hockey game. I didn’t care how I looked. “Because Mark told her point blank that you had better be here when the game was over.” She said.

“That’s what I thought.” I said folding my arms across my chest. “So who are they playing tonight?”

“Shawinigan.” Michelle said. “It should be a good game.”

Michelle was right. It was a really good game. It went into over time, but we still lost. I had watched the game mainly in silence as Michelle, Claire and Catrine gossiped and talked to friends, and essentially ignored me. I had a strong feeling that the only friends I was going to have here would be the guys on the team, and they wouldn’t be there all the time.

After the game I stood and followed the girls. None of them had anything to say to me and I really didn’t have much to say to them. We stood outside the dressing room, and we stood and waited and waited. Finally some of the guys walked out. Mark saw me and grinned, but he did his job as a boyfriend and hugged Catrine first. “Bonjour cheri. Merci pour avoir alle cherche Nickie.”

Catrine barely glanced at me before kissing him and saying something that I couldn’t hear. When they were done kissing she wrapped her arm possessively around Mark’s waist. Mark untangled himself from her hold and gave me a quick hug. “Bonjour doucette.” He said. “Feeling better?”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “You’re an ass.” I said. “So what do you do around this town for fun on a Saturday night?”

He laughed. “All ready to go again?”

“Tobin, I’m from Alberta honey, we’re always ready for a party.”

He laughed. “Well we play tomorrow night, so I think the plan is for some of us to go hang out at Darryl and Eric’s and watch some hockey… play some video games.”

“So long as I don’t have to go anywhere with them, I’m fine.” I said indicating Catrine and her friends.

“They aren’t that bad are they Nickie?” Mark asked, looking at Catrine fondly.

I glanced from one to the other. “You got laid last night.” I accused him, grinning.

“Shhhh.” He said quickly. “And I didn’t. I’ll tell you about it later.”

I laughed. “You are so bad.”

“I won’t tell if you won’t.” He replied with a grin.

“Marc!” Catrine snapped angrily. “Tu viens? Elle viens?”

“Oui cherie.” Mark said kissing her forehead. “On va te voir a Eric’s.”

“Elle vien avec toi?” Catrine asked, looking at me in disgust.

“Oui.” Mark said, looking a little uncomfortable.

“Si elle viens avec toi, je viens avec vous.”

I didn’t need to be able to speak French to be able to understand that. “You know, I’m a little tired Mark. I think I’ll just head home.”

“Come on doucette.” Mark said. “You don’t want to hang out with Mme. Paradis tonight anymore then I ever would."

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “Tante Amèlie isn’t that bad. For an old lady.”

Mark grabbed one of the guys coming out of the locker room. “Eric.”

“Yeah?” He asked.

“Can you take Nickie with you?” Mark asked. “She’s gonna come watch the replay of the semi-final with us.”

“Sure.” Eric replied. “Come on.” I followed, sighing with relief as we left Catrine and her friends behind. We got into the parking lot and I waited as Eric signed a few autographs. “So Mark said you were pretty sick on New Year’s Day.”

“Did he share that with the whole team or just a special few of you?” I grumbled sarcastically.

He laughed. “Well you were definitely fun. Mark totally had his hands full. Between you and Catrine bitching about you….”

“Oh really?” I asked intrigued.

“He didn’t tell you that part?” Eric asked, looking surprised.

“Nope. He told me that I announced that I think the phenom is hot.” I said with a shrug. “And that I was pretty tanked.”

Eric laughed. “Well Catrine was calling you nasty names in French with her friends pretty much all night. You’d been talking to Alex and you stood up and snapped at her.”

I wanted to bury my face in my hands. I wished Mark had told me this part of the story. But I couldn’t do that in front of Eric. So instead I asked. “And what did I tell her?”

“Well first you told Mark to translate for you.” He said, grinning at the memory. “And then you told Catrine that you may not speak French but that didn’t make you stupid and you could still shove your foot up her ass if she didn’t shut the fuck up.” Eric grinned at the memory. “That’s about the time we decided to move the party to my place, because you told Mark in no uncertain terms that you weren’t going to sit their and be insulted by his… what did you call her?”

I glanced at him, a wry smile on my face. “Don’t ask me.” I said shrugging. “I don’t even remember threatening to shove my foot up her ass.” Then I grinned. “But something tells me that tomorrow night I should wear boots.”

*

Eric decided pretty quickly that I was fun. Especially when I started doing body shots off, well anyone. The best part for me however, was when Michelle joined in. It meant that she’d decided that I wasn’t completely evil. Which was good. Because I didn’t want all the girls to think that I was an evil slut, I mean, I am going to be stuck here for who knows how long. And a girl can only hang out with guys who go home at the end of the hockey season for so long. (Especially since the hockey season like, you know ends).

Either way, I decided to sleep my hangover off completely. I mean, Tante Amèlie clearly was going to treat me much the same way she treated Mark… she’d only bother me if she needed me for something. So I was going to be able to have a LOT of fun. Which was great, because the fact that I actually had a ton of fun out there should really piss you off Ms. Kulak. And if it doesn’t, well it should. Because I spent nearly every weekend that I was in Rimouski pissed out of my tree.

Yeah. I was drunk more out there then I EVER was here. So much for your plan to reform me. Or whatever it was you thought exiling me to the other side of the country was going to do for me. Because Ms. Kulak, while Airdrie is a suburb, us ‘burb kids can go into the city on weekends to shop and hang out and do cool stuff. So while we drink and party, we don’t always do it every single weekend. In Rimouski, you watch or play hockey and you drink. Believe me when I tell you that I fit right in.

Either way, Sunday there was another game (which is another thing about small towns… hockey is life), and this time, Michelle showed up to pick me up. Alone. I learned pretty quickly that Claire and Catrine were pretty damn pissed at her for getting drunk with me the night before. I don’t really remember how this one went for the team at least. I personally had a great time. Michelle spent most of the game introducing me to everyone that I was going to go to school with in February when the second semester started. (Since I wouldn’t be starting at regular school until after I finished my correspondence to finish the first semester of Grade 11 – tons of fun that was too, by the way, sitting in front of a computer all day). So ready or not, by the end of my third full day in Rimouski, I had officially arrived.