the crowd of the philadelphia flyers fanbase jumped up and screamed loudly, my teammates jumping on me as i jumped up against the boards, fans pounding on the glass as the rest of my team jumped over the boards, throwing their helmets up in the air, skating over quickly to hug me and it just seemed so sur-

no, no, no! we can't start there, we have to start in the beginning to when this ALL started, june 25th of 2015, nhl entry draft in sunrise, florida.

Now, everyone knows about connor mcdavid getting drafted first by the toronto maple leafs, and etc, but you didn't hear about me cause seriously, who wants to hear about a female getting drafted into the nhl, and that is why literally no one heard about it, but yes, i was the flyers first round pick, while getting drafted 22nd in the first round isn't bad, it isn't the best, do i think i could have been drafted first? yes. yes i do. am i happy for connor mcdavid? i guess? i don't know, i feel like i HAVE to be happy for him even though i'm really not, but like, that's life.

my full name is aspen scarlett solovyova, i was born in yekaterinburg, russia, it's east of the ural mountains, but like you know where that is. I played for lokomotiv yaroslavl before moving to kitchener, canada after being given and accepting an offer to play with the kitchener rangers. when i played my rookie season with the rangers, i actually saw sidney crosby at one of the games! like, i'm not even kidding but i was a rookie so i didn't get to say hi.

so, i played with the rangers for a good 3 years, a few of the best years of my life, then i fell in love, yeahhhhh, the one thing i told myself i wasn't allowed to do and i went ahead and did it anyway.

god, that was hard not to do, it was hard not to fall for the first round, travis konecny

now, it may not sound all that bad, but trust me, it is. who would date someone playing in the same league as you and playing on different teams is literally like 10 times harder than it has to be.

we never actually like had a normal conversation, just like a few chirps against each other here and there but that was it.

but ya know, this is my story. and trust me, it gets really really good.

PRESENT TIME

"sweetie, don't be nervous." her father, alexander, said, putting his hand on top of hers and aspen shook her head, "i'm not nervous, just slightly paranoid." aspen sighed, running her hands over her face, and she could hear her mother sigh slightly.

"mom, whats wrong?" aspen asked her worriedly, hoping something wasn't actually wrong, and her mother looked down at aspen's feet, "you seriously couldn't have worn heels? even sandals would have been fine." her mother scolded aspen, shaking her head, this action from her mother caused her to groan quietly, "mom, we went over this a million times, this isn't oscars or some shit." aspen said, rolling her eyes.

"aspen! watch your language!" her mother quietly scolded her, "what?! you're gonna be hearing cursing like literally all night.'' aspen shrugged

''you're not gonna get drafted first, dumbass.'' her brother, michail, smirked at her and she rolled her eyes, sticking her tongue out at him, and he reciprocated the action, aspen flipped him the middle finger before her mother hit her on the back of the head with her purse.

''i did not spend 18 years raising you two to act like monkeys, understand?'' her mother said, her voice harsh and michail and aspen nodded in sync and their mother let out a huff and she nodded.

''looks like the draft is about to start!" her father exclaimed excitedly and she rolled her eyes slightly, not excited for this at all really.

it had been endless torture and nervousness, she hadn't been drafted yet nor probably even given a second look, then the head coach of the flyers, walked up to the podium.

"with our first round draft pick and 22nd overall pick, we would like to select, from the kitchener rangers, aspen solovyova." he said, and her eye's widened and her brother, who was proudly wearing his new york rangers jersey, stood up and hugged her immediately, she was shocked but she made her way down to the stage, a smile slowly growing on her face, as she took the jersey from him, slipping it over her head and standing in front of the crowd with some of the flyers organization workers and coaching crew, she stood in the middle, a nervous smile on her face as she walked back to her seat after the pictures.

"damn, my son is a ranger and my daughter is a flyer.'' their father muttered to himself, causing her to laugh quietly.

after the draft, everyone was in the lobby talking to each other and aspen was talking to her brother, walking when she bumped into someone, obviously they were another drafted player, because only drafted players were wearing jerseys.

"oh my god, i'm so sorry." a canadian accent said frantically as he grabbed her hand, carefully helping her back to her feet, "i'm so sorry, um, i'm travis konecny.'' the canadian voice said nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.

aspen smiled and held her hand out, ''i'm aspen solovyova.'' aspen smiled, holding her hand out for him to shake and he nervously shook it.

''you're russian, i'm assuming?'' sean asked her and she proudly nodded, ''and i'm assuming your canadian, by the accent.'' aspen said with a laugh as he nodded with a smile.

''uh, i hope i get to see you around some time, even on the ice.'' he said with a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of his neck, his hands clammy.

aspen nodded and smiled, ''i'm your teammate, dummy.'' aspen smiled playfully and waving before walking away with her brother.

''don't date him,'' he said, ''for that fact, don't date any nhler's at all. they will use you and then throw you away.'' michail said, his tone harsh and serious as aspen put her hands up in defense.

"jeez, i never said i was actually gonna date the kid, he's cute but i never said i was gonna date him!" aspen exclaimed, shaking her head at her brother and how protective he was being all of a sudden.

"just, listen to me now and you won't get hurt in the future.'' he said and she nodded hesitantly, not really wanting to listen to her brother but she knew she had to because he was just trying to keep her safe from any heart break in her future, painful heart break to say the least.

''you fly out to philly tomorrow and i fly out to new york tomorrow so i guess this is our last, 'sister and brotherly time', as mom likes to call it.'' michail said, using air quotes and rolling his eyes and aspen nodded.

''unless you call us checking each other into the boards hella hard, 'sister and brotherly' time, then yeah, this is our last time.'' aspen shrugged, she didn't really care though because as much as she loved her brother, their mother constantly made them spend time together and it could get really annoying, really quickly.

the next day, it would be hard for michail and aspen, aspen heading to philly and michail heading to new york and their parents heading back home to moscow.

''you kiddos are going to make history and put new york and philly on the map as two of the best places that have hockey teams, go be hockey players.'' their dad said before hugging them and they nodded.

aspen turned to michail and took a deep breath, ''See you in the pre-season, i guess?'' aspen said, her sentence sounding more like a question.

michail nodded and pulled his sister in for a hug, ''may the best sibling win.'' he whispered and her face turned into a shocked expression as he pulled away, her eyebrows knitted together, ''you're technically a rival now, and i can't let you in my way.'' michail said.

aspen looked at him in shock, ''so, you're seriously going to hate me, your own sister, because i am going to be playing against you!?'' aspen asked him, a mix of emotions lacing her voice, anger, sadness, disgust, confusion were just to name a few of how she was feeling.

''fine. may the best solovyova win." aspen said and nodded her head, turning around and walking away from her family.

the flight from florida to philly didn't seem that long despite it being a 2 hour and 45 minute flight, philly was definitely a beautiful city. she was told claude giroux and sean courtier would be picking her up from the airport.

soon, she spotted claude and sean, quickly jogging over to them, "uh, hi, i'm aspen solovyova, the flyers rookie.'' she said with a smile as claude and sean shook her hand quickly.

''i'm claude giroux and this is sean courtier, we play for the flames as well, and i think an enforcer like you will be great for our team.'' claude said with a smile and sean nodded.

''Our team practices start next month, so you'll be expected to be there.'' sean smiled slightly and aspen nodded.

''we just have to pick up, travis konecny, and then we will take you to you guys to my place until you can find your own places.'' claude said.

''travis konecny?'' aspen asked, her voice filled with slight worry.

''yeah,'' claude shrugged, ''whats wrong with that?'' he asked in pure confusion because he didn't know why that was a bad thing.

''shit.'' aspen muttered to herself

sean looked over at claude, his eyebrows knitted together and claude just shrugged.

they walked out to claude's car and drove to the spot where they would be picking travis up and he put his luggage into the trunk and got into the back seat, next to aspen and looking over at her, ''oh, uh, hi?'' travis said nervously.

''hey, guess we are seeing each other sooner than we thought.'' aspen said, faking a smile and nervously laughing.

travis nodded and the whole time he had his attention down on his phone, ''is that your girlfriend?'' aspen asked, seeing a photo of him and a brunette on his phone.

"oh her? uh, we used to be a thing but not anymore, i guess she's just not my type?'' travis said, shrugging his shoulders.

''what? beautiful, skinny, models aren't your type? wow, i'm sorta shocked.'' aspen said, laughing and shaking her head.

''and what do you mean by that?'' he asked her, furrowing his eyebrows together in confusion.

''most hockey players love girls like that, not girls that don't have personalities of a cardboard box.'' aspen smirked with a shrug and travis playfully acted offended.

''fine. i'm going to have you fall in love with me by the end of the season. deal?'' he asked with a smirk, holding his hand out for her to shake.

aspen looked down at his hand and nodded, ''it's a deal, konecny.''