Two Rules

Chapter thirteen: Cornell Game

1 week later, Saturday September 18th

"Scarlett! Let's go we're gonna be late!"

I quickly throw my small bag over my shoulder and run downstairs to meet the girls.

"Sorry, I lost track of time" I breath out.

"It's the Cornell game, you know it's going to be crazy. We need to get there early" Chloe pushes everyone out of the house before locking it.

We had convinced the boys to let us use their house today to get ready for the game, since they would be at the rink the whole day. Four bathrooms gave us all extra space to spread out which is amazing compared to our shared dorm bathroom.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. Do I look okay?" I ask nervously.

Today was my first official game as Noah's girlfriend, and I was a little nervous. Since asking me out last weekend, and my dad finding out, we had no reason to hide it anymore. Surprisingly, Noah has absolutely no issue with PDA around campus; causing word to spread quickly that The Noah Hale had a girlfriend.

It was nice not having to hide it or sneak around, but with Noah's popularity comes some backlash. I've heard multiple girls whisper to their friends' things like "just wait until he dumps her. I give it a week" or "doesn't she know that it won't last? How pathetic." I was trying to brush them off, but it was hard, and I knew tonight was going to be even worse.

"Scarlett, stop freaking. You look absolutely gorgeous, especially in that jersey" Nat gestures to the away game jersey that Noah had asked me to wear tonight.

"Yeah, people won't be able to keep their eyes off you tonight" Bella assures.

"That's what I'm worried about" I say under my breath and start the walk with them towards the rink.

The arena is about a 20-minute walk from the house, but we get there about an hour early to get good seats.

Like normal, the team is allowed to be in the stands from 6-6:20 since tonight's game starts at 7 o'clock. When we walk in, we see Noah, Andrew, Seth, and Cameron all sitting in the front row of the student section with dozens of people surrounding them. As we approach them, Seth stands up to give us room to walk into the isle.

"We saw it was filling up, so we wanted to make sure you had good seats" Andrew explains as they all stand.

"That was sweet of you, thank you" I walk into Noah's open arms for a much-needed hug.

He kisses the top of my head and pulls back to look at me, "What's wrong?"

I let out a sigh, "just nervous I guess, there's a lot of people here that don't necessarily like us together"

"You know what I have to say to them?"

"Hmm?" I ask.

"Fuck them" he winks.

I genuinely laugh this time and lay my head back on his chest, "thank you, I needed that."

He lets go as the four of us take our seats and the boys lean against the boards in front of us.

I look around and notice dozens of girls with #3 jerseys on and HALE on the back of them. It's not uncommon for people to wear his jersey, it's sold in most campus shops and merch stores around town. It seems extra abundant today, or maybe I'm just looking for it more now.

It's clear to see the difference between those and mine, though, mine is much better quality as it's an actual hockey jersey not a store-bought copy. Anyone looking will be able to tell that Noah gave it to me. Which makes me want to smirk and shrink into the ground at the same time.