Cosette shook it off and walked back towards the battles ropes. She was still a bit shaken up from what happened, falling on Noah, then the two of them getting lost in each others eyes, to then realizing exactly what happened. 

Noah himself had a small smirk on his face. He was slightly shocked at what happened but wouldn't let it show. No one had ever seen Cosette that flustered or embarrassed, so it was quite a shock for everyone. 

Noah found a black, thick, stretchy hair tie next to the bench press so he decided to just have some fun. He picked up the hair tie and stretched it around his fingers, he then was just pretending to fling it off his fingers before he actually did. 

His eyes widened as the hair tie flung off his fingers. It seemed like everything was in slow motion, one second the hair tie was around his fingers and the next it second it's hitting Cosette in the ass.

Cosette stopped what she was doing and turned around, noticing the black stretchy hair tie, laying on the floor. She picked it up and walked over towards Lakyn and Calista.

"Did one of you throw this at me?" Cosette asked, a slight tone of anger in her voice.

"No, I wouldn't do that!" Calista said, shaking her head and putting her hands up in defense.

"Lakyn, did you throw this at me?!" Cosette asked her, slightly raising her voice.

"No! I wouldn't waste a perfectly good hair tie by throwing it at you!" Lakyn argued, emphasizing in the word you.

"It was probably Noah or some random guy, why do you always blame us?!" Lakyn asked her, she was clearly frustrated that Cosette was always assuming it was them who were doing things to her!

"Whatever." Cosette said, rolling her eyes. She threw the hair tie in the trash can and walked over to Alexei, Cassie, Emersen, and Natasha.

"Captain, everything alright?" Cassie asked her, noticing what happened between Cosette and the two girls.

Cosette nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine, we gotta game to prepare for." Cosette said.

Meanwhile, Kristian walked over to Noah. "Dude, seriously, first she falls on you and now you're throwing hair ties at her ass, what's up with you two?" Kristian asked him, curious as to why Cosette and Noah always seemed sort of awkward with each other.

"It was clearly an accident. Do you think I would go after someone like her?! She probably only has two emotions, anger and her seriousness, thats it. Have you ever seen her laugh, or smile? Cause I haven't!" Noah said.

Kristian nodded, "Yeah, but seriously, I can see you two as a cou-" Kristian said before getting cut off by Lakyn.

"Hey boys." Lakyn smiled, dragging out the y.

"Hey Lakyn," said Kristian, a fake smile on his lips.

"Hey." Noah said, not wanting to look up at her.

Lakyn and Noah never really got along, despite them being teammates. Their whole problem started when Noah was granted the C and Lakyn was not, despite her being the alternative captain.

"So, we have the first game of the pre-season tonight, you boys looking forward to it?" Calista asked them.

Kristian nodded, "I'm excited, no matter if we win or lose." Kristian said. He was the more positive out of the team. He always tried to find the good in a bad situation.

"Its pre-season, Kristian, who cares? Our win and losses will only matter during the regular season and we are going to win, every time. Our record by the end of the season will be 82-0-0. And their's will be 0-0-82, cause seriously, we know we have a more dominant team. Take Rentz off the team and Glaskov out of net and they would be done for." Noah said, a smirk on his lips.

"Or mess with their heads, we all know they don't have very thick skulls. Hence why half of them were school dropouts." Lakyn snickered, and Calista playfully slapped her arm.

"Only one of them was a school dropout, and she dropped out for a good reason. She is extremely smart too!" Calista said, defending the enemy.

"Defending the enemy, I see?" Noah smirked, as he stood up from the benchpress.

"No, I'm just making a valid point." Calista argued with him, crossing her arms over her chest.

Lakyn nodded, "Very valid point indeed, Calista." Lakyn said, smiling at her.

"Well, she isn't wrong." Kristian said, nodding.

"What? You're all turning against me? Your captain!" Noah ranted, his face turning red.

"Looks like someone can't contain their anger!" Lakyn taunted him, a smirk on her face as she leaned closer to him.

"Shut up, Smith." Noah grumbled as he could feel the heat in his face decreasing.

"We have a game later and I'm not going to mess up because of you, got it?" Noah said, pointing at Lakyn.

She nodded and teasingly put her hands up in defense.

"C'mon, the game is in a few hours, let's go." Noah said, motioning for them to follow him.

It was official, the pre-season would be starting.

*time skip to a few hours later, about 35 minutes before the game*

"Ok guys, we have a sold out arena tonight, which means everyone is watching, which means no screw ups." Cosette said,

"Yes, captain." The whole team said in unison.

"Let's go out there and kick some Western ass." Cosette said, her infamous smirk playing on her lips.

She was slightly anxious about the game, but she knew she could easily pull off a win if she tried.

She walked out with the team and the crowd cheered. Tonight was their home game, their home stadiums varied every game. Tonight, they were playing in the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

The Western team had their first home game tomorrow night at the SAP Center in San Jose. Then, following the Western team's home game, was their Eastern road trip, where they would be playing at the Eastern's home rinks.

The arena was filled with black jerseys, the Eastern team's home jersey color was mainly black and a little bit of white, their away jersey being mainly white with black.

There was the occasional white jersey, the away jersey color for the Western team, and their home jersey color was navy blue.

Everyone was headed out for warm-ups before the game.

*about 30 minutes later, after warm-ups*

The National anthems were about to start. Carlie Tang stood at the zamboni entrance.

Cosette stood on the line, Emersen was on her right and Natasha was on her left.

Noah was standing on the line, behind Cosette, Lakyn on his right, Kristian on his left. Once the anthems were over, everyone got into position.

Cosette headed to center ice, facing off across from Noah Dalton.

She quickly glanced up at him, and then looked back at the ref's hand, waiting for him to drop the puck.

*time skip to after the game*
Cosette walked into the locker room, a smile on her face. "Nice win out there guys, play like that all season and we have the championship win, sealed." Cosette smirked.

In the other locker room, "Seriously, we lost 5-2, and you let Rentz get a hat-trick! We made a fool of ourselves, it didn't help Lakyn got a tripping penalty 5 minutes into the first!" Noah ranted. Everyone just listened to him, slightly scared to talk over him.

"If we play like this again, we won't even have a good chance at the championship." Lakyn agreed, standing up.

"She's right, Noah, which means we have to get dirtier and rougher out there!" Calista said, and Kristian nodded.

Everyone then got changed and the press was waiting for them. After their post game interviews, they all headed out.

Noah saw Cosette walking ahead of him, her bag and sticks in one hand, her phone in the other.

He jogged up to her and walked next to her, "Nice win out there, Rentzy." He smirked.

Cosette rolled her eyes, "Don't call me that, and thank you, I try." Cosette said, refusing to look over at him, her focus moving from her phone to ahead of her.

"Stop, why are you talking to me?" Cosette asked him, as she stopped walking and turned to face him.

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, "Can't I just talk to you? Like person to person?" He asked, as he set his bag and stick down.

"Uhm, yeah, I guess." Cosette said, she was slightly confused as to what was going on.

"You really did do amazing out there. I've never seen you play up close, and I wasn't let down. But why don't you try to loosen up a bit? You always seem so tense and mad at yourself, just try and lighten up and enjoy life." Noah said, Cosette could see a faint smile on his face. The city lights near by, and the lights posts in the parking lot were the only sources of light.

He brought his hand up to her face and tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear. Her hair was still damp from her shower she took in the locker room.

Cosette was frozen, slightly nervous as to what Noah was doing.

"Tomorrow, we play in San Jose, its my home game before our road trip, I want you to meet me by the beach, ok? Meet me around 4, alright?" Noah smiled at her, Cosette hesitantly nodded.

"Here's my number, in case you need me." Noah smiled as he handed her a folded up piece of paper, which contained his name and number.

"Ok, um, thanks." Cosette said quietly, for some reason, she felt like she had butterflies in her stomach.

She felt insecure and vulnerable around Noah, like if he said the right things and did the right things, he could somehow latch onto her heart, it felt like he was playing with her heart, but she already had her heart played with once and she wouldn't let that happen again.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Cosette said, a soft and genuine smile on her lips as she picked up her bag and sticks, walking towards her Jeep.

She had an early flight to San Jose in the morning, and she couldn't wait. She was curious as to why Noah was being so kind to her all of a sudden, she wanted and needed answers, but it felt good to feel like maybe someone actually wanted her love. All she knew was that, if she felt like he was playing with her, she wouldn't hesitate to break him.

(A/N: OK, but I'm seriously loving this! This is the longest chapter I've written yet! Expect longer chapters like this in the future!)