Toronto Love

1

Waking up on game days are hard. Your mind has to get set in a certain mind set before you take your feet out of the bed, stepping onto the ground.
For me, I usually just relax, eat a big breakfast, and practice if we have one.
Since it's a night game, we have practice at noon which consists of exercises on and off the ice, film, and we go over some plays and practice them on the ice. Sometimes, we just go out there and shoot around and run some drills before an afternoon game.

I wake up around 10am so my roommates who are also my teammates, go and get breakfast. Usually at the waffle house that's close to our apartment, but we were all feeling IHOP this morning.
I don't even get ready first since I'll just be sweaty after practice. I'll get ready after. All I do is put on a hoodie, adidas track pants, and my Gucci slides. Yes I have them. My brother got me a pair for Christmas a few months ago. I throw my hair up in a messy bun and brush my teeth. This all takes not even 10 minutes and we're out the door.

Pancakes, bacon, eggs, sausage, toast, and French toast is what I ordered. It's a game day breakfast we call it. On any other school day, when I have classes, I just grab a pop tart or when I don't have classes early, I have a bowl of cereal. That's about it, except for game days. Today's Friday but I don't have any classes. Even if I did, I would be excused for practice this afternoon.
It is hard being a college athlete, it takes a tough person to be one. From getting bad and good attention from people, you missing a lot of days because of away games, and having to do your school work on top of games and practices. Some nights, I don't even go to sleep because I'm so stressed about everything but I know I love the sport I play and love UMich so I push my self and do it.

"What time is it you guys?" my friend, Abby questions. I grab my phone to look at the time and also see I have a few messages from people.
"11:15." I inform her.
"Guys, we need to get going. We have to go back to the house because Sarah and I need to get our bags."
I read my messages from my dad. We pay the bill and head back to our off campus house.

Freshman year, I stayed in a dorm like every freshman should but this year, me and 3 other of my teammates are renting out a house a few blocks down from campus. Sure, we have our moments and fight like sisters but it's been awesome and I love having our own house. 2 more years in this place and we'll all be walking across the stage... hopefully.
I am in my second year of Athletic Training here at the University Of Michigan. Abby is also in that program while Sarah is in Nursing, and my other roommate- Paige is in business.

Of course, like always, were late to the noon practice. 12:24 pm was the time when we showed up. Since we let coach know, he wasn't very upset but this wasn't our first time we were late.
The first thing coach said to do was meet him out on the ice to do warmups and drills. I go into our locker room, finding my stall, and putting on all of my gear.
"Gosh." I bend over. "I hope I don't get sick. My stomach is killlingggg me" I say longing out the word 'killing'.
"Well maybe you shouldn't have ate that much." Abby snarls back at me.
I get up, "I'll meet you out there"
"Right behind ya" she says.

As I walk out, I don't pay attention to my surroundings because I was trying to fix my helmet strap which caused me to bump into something that felt like a person.
"Damn, girl, watch where you're going. And don't be late next time or I'll get you kicked off the team" I hear a mans voice say. It sounds familiar. I look up, confused.
"Oh my gosh!" I jump into the guys arms, legs wrapped around him. "Mitch! What are you doing here already? I thought you weren't coming til like 5:30." I was quite surprised to see him already and confused how he was already here.
He smiles big and gives me a big hug spinning me around. "I got you eh?" His Canadian comes out.
"Hell yes. I'm so happy. I can't believe it. But boy- you would never... never kick me off this team."
"Look, you're already late enough. Now go out there and practice your ass off. I'll introduce you to this douche afterwards" he jokes talking about Auston who was standing behind him in the distance letting us have our moment. I only met him a long time ago, during the draft and maybe once after that. In that moment, I wasn't paying attention to anything but Mitch but I think Mitch told him to video it. I seen him put the phone in his pocket after.

"Teagan. That's not who I think it is. What are you doing yelling his name then running into his arms like a scene from a movie?" Coach says walking down the hall to where I was.
"Yes sir that's Mitch Marner" I laugh.
Mitch comes up and shakes his hand. "It's nice to meet you coach. You got a great girl on your team."
"So great to meet you Mitch. Great player and is that Matthews back there? Wow you two are amazing. Love watching you both."
"Thank you" Mitch and Auston say in unison.
"Mitch and I knew each other since way back. Since I was 1 actually. Crazy eh."
"Here I thought Larky was your best friend. I guess you're cheating on him huh" coach says. I just roll my eyes and let them talk while I go out and practice.
I was so surprised that Mitch showed up already and their coach let them fly in a day early. Last night they said they landed.

Practice felt like it took forever. For some reason I wasn't on my game much and I was nervous that they were in the stands watching me.
Afterwards, I got went back to the locker room to take a shower and then it was time to watch film.
"You ready?" Mitch asks me.
"For what?"
"To go back to your place. Where else" he says sarcastically.
"I guess that's where we can go. Also since you haven't yet, I'm Teagan." I look over to Auston. We give each other a side hug and drive over to my house. The girls were staying to exercise and get something to eat before while I went back with the guys. A lot of my teammates were so surprised who they had seen in our arena today. I never really told them who my best friends are, who I know, or even who my dad was because of how people would act. Some would just be my friend because of them and I'm not like that. That's why I keep my group close and narrowed it down to a few good friends. Guy friends are always so much better anyway because there's no drama and so much other stuff that happens with girlfriends.

"Sorry to ruin your fun here but I need to take a nap before it's time to get ready to go. It's 2pm and I usually leave around 4:45. Auston sits on my love sac and watches Netflix while Mitch is in my bed taking a nap with me. I wake up from my roommate barging in my room.
"Sorry T! I didn't know you had two NHL players in your room. One in your bed. Holy crap" she yells. The rest of the house heard and they look in. I roll over, still half asleep.
"Shut the damn door Franky!" I yell at her. She laughs then finally turns around and leaves.
"Sorry" I say out loud for the guys to hear.
"It's alright" Auston confirms.
"It's good T. How come they don't know about us being here or that you know any NHL players? Don't they know who your dad is?" Mitch wonders.
"They should've have came in like that. And no. It'll stay that way unless they go and tell everyone. It's because of how she just acted. I don't want people to be like that. You're my best friend. I don't want people to say I'm just yours because of who you are no. You know that. They'll just be my friend because of my dad or who I know. You know I love the sport and I lived my whole life with people knowing me from my last name. I just want to be Teagan."

We talk for a little bit more about life, hockey and what's been going on with all of us and it was time for me to get out of bed. I straighten my hair and leave it down, and change into different clothes. I represent a white michigan hoodie. A blue 'M' on the front, with 'Larkin 19" on the back in yellow. I put on navy blue adidas soccer pants with 3 white stripes on the side of legs, and end my outfit off with white yeezys.

It was almost time to leave so before that, I ate my granola, yogurt parfait, drank a smoothie, and ate a sandwich from Subway.
I don't like to eat a lot before I go out to play, so that's usually my go to meal before.

When 4:45 came around, my roommates and the teammates who came over went our separate ways. I got in the rental car with Mitch and Auston and drove 5 minutes to the arena. It's not a car walk but I didn't want to carry my things.
Before the game, we just chill out around the locker room, listening to music, eating snacks, and working out a little bit to get our blood going.
We will be going out on the ice soon for warmups.