A week went by and signaled the start of December. I noticed that dad was happy. Even though it suddenly seemed like we were living in the North Pole, with biting winds that brought snow and ice and blanketed the whole town in the white stuff, and even though I was back at playing hockey with the Bears, my dad still seemed to be pleased as punch with life.

I was not used to that and it weirded me out.

Finally one night while making some arepas for dinner, I decided that I would confront him. I was elbow deep into kneading the dough when dad took the bull by the horns all by himself. He strutted into the kitchen with a shit eating grin and threw an envelop on the counter before sitting across from me.

In my characteristically tactful tone when it came to dealing with him, I asked him, "Are you getting laid or something?"

He jumped in his seat and his eyes opened wide like saucers. "Carlota! Where have you learned that language?"

"May I remind you I'll be 18 soon?" I told him as I tried to get rid of the lumps in the dough with my fingers. "I know all about the flowers and the bees, and you have the look of a bee who has met a flower."

Dad frowned but let it go. "No. It's even better than that. I've had a breakthrough."

"Oh yeah?" I asked as I popped a ball of dough into my mouth. I chewed it as I asked, "Let's hear it, then."

The smile made a comeback and it made me lift my eyebrows.

"I've contacted the board of directors of Bernal Oil with a new proposal." He made a pause to also snag a little ball of dough and pop it into his mouth. "I suggested we go from Bernal Oil to Bernal Energies."

"I don't get it," I said as I grabbed a bigger ball and slapped it around until it became a thin disc. Then I let it slide into the piping hot oil in the sauce pan. The sizzling sound filled the kitchen.

"Basically, this would be a means for expanding the company from a focus on only oil, to other energy sources. For example, renewable energies." Since he saw that I still didn't compute, he went on. "This is what I've been trying to negotiate with the union in Silver Grove. The oil business is on the decline in the area, but wind is getting stronger. I want to form a partnership with some wind companies to expand the company in that direction, and the first beneficiaries would be in the town of Silver Grove."

I gasped. The next arepa I'd been molding in my hand fell back in the bowl with the rest of the dough.

"That sounds amazing," I exclaimed. "That would solve everything, wouldn't it?"

He nodded. "Provided the board approves. And I think they will. This proposal would pave the road for an expansion in the company. It would completely save it from the doubling direction it's in right now."

I blinked back the sudden prickling in my eyes and took a couple of swallows before I said something I'd never told my dad before. "Good job, dad."

This time his entire face lit up.

"Thank you, Carlota. This is what I came here to do and, well, there have been some snags, but the local union finally got on board with the proposal." He folded his arms on the counter and leaned forward. "Once this is approved, we can go back to Orlando."

That caught me in the act of sliding another two arepas into the oil. I turned back to my dad with a frown. He was so happy. He was fulfilling his promise, months earlier, that we'd go back home.

Home.

I missed my brother and our house. I missed going to the gym and giving Paco trouble in training. I missed riding the Hogwarts Express back and forth for hours, and drinking frozen butter beer until I got a brain freeze. And yet...

I didn't find myself leaping at the news of going back. I moved around the arepas and smiled, because suddenly they reminded me of pucks. And I thought of skating on a frozen lake instead of frozen butter beer. Of playing around with my friends on an ice rink, instead of shadow boxing by myself. Of Dean's little smirk that deepend the dimple in his chin, instead of sitting by myself in my dorm room at Trinity.

"So, I want you to celebrate with your friends, who have been very nice to you," dad said, jarring me from my thoughts. He pushed the envelop closer to me. "I bought you guys a few tickets to a pro game in Calgary this weekend. Just to thank them for taking care of you."

My jaw dropped.

"Dad, you didn't have to-"

"Go have some fun, Carlota, before you have to say goodbye to all of them."

Those words stayed with me the rest of the week.

As I gave the guys their tickets and was met with hollers and friendly bumps, I kept thinking that dad was right. This was all going to come to an end, sooner rather than later. I hadn't even wanted to come here and yet I'd never been happier.

On Saturday afternoon I found myself crammed in the back of Pace's dad's truck between Hunter and Lena Lee. Pace was driving with Dean guiding him in the passenger's seat. Brian hadn't been able to join because it was his grandma's 98th birthday and that took precedence over everything. He did ask us to bring him a giant foam finger back, though.

Hunter and Pace were deep in conversation about expectations for the game. It was against two rival teams, and the odds were high that there would be a fight on ice. Or off the ice, in the bleachers. Either way it would be entertaining.

Lena Lee had shocked us all by accepting Brian's ticket when she heard us talk about the fact that he wouldn't join last night at the diner. She later had taken me aside and slapped me upside the head. Something that everybody seemed to be enjoying a lot lately.

"What the hell was that for?" I'd asked her, rubbing at the sore spot and looking at her like I was a baby and she'd just stolen my candy.

"You must be daft if you think I'll pass up a golden opportunity like this one," she said while folding her arms.

"I don't understand," I admitted. Also something I seemed to be doing a lot lately.

"You and Dean, you dork!"

I leaped at her and put my hand on her mouth, looking around to see if anybody, especially the guys, had heard her outburst. I was starting to get an idea where this was going and I half regretted having told her what had happened between Dean and I in the shower stall. The other half of me was giddy with excitement. I didn't have anybody else I could confide this with, and after telling Lena Lee she was dead sure that I had a solid chance with him. It both terrified me and turned my insides into butterflies.

She pulled my hand away and wiggled her eyebrows. "Let me help you. I have a plan."

I'd got reassurances from her that it wasn't anything too out there, and so I gave her Brian's ticket.

We were all bouncing on our feet by the time we made it to the stadium. Even Dean was unable to hide how excited he was as we filed in line before the security check.

"Who wants hot dogs?" Hunter asked. "Or a burger. Maybe some nachos."

"You guys have fun with your nachos, I'm going to go get a beer," Pace said. We all looked at him and he laughed. "Did you forget I'm 18?"

"Show off," Hunter muttered.

Lena Lee pushed her glasses up as she turned to me. "Honey, what would you like to eat?"

I choked. This caught the attention of all the boys. But it was hard to keep up the act when I had suddenly become her honey.

"I, um," I said, unable to put a coherent sentence together.

Dean spoke up with his deep, gravely voice. "We'll give you a few more minutes to decide." He jerked his head at the other guys. "Let's go."

The three of them moved toward the nearest line of a food stall and Lena Lee linked her arm with mine. She had an awfully big smile on her face.

"He is sooo jealous."

"Stop it," I hissed. "He's not. He was just being helpful."

She shrugged. "No one who is being helpful frowns so much." She shook my arm. "C'mon, Charlie. He couldn't stop looking at you on the entire way here. Even right now he's glancing back to see what we're doing."

"What-" I made as if to turn but she caught my chin and forced me to look at her. I narrowed my eyes. "What are you planning, Lena Lee?"

"You just have to trust me, honey."

Each of us got food and drinks, non alcoholic except for Elder Pace. Lena Lee and I were fortunate to count on three big, burly guys to clear the way for us and we found our seats with relatively little effort. She expertly navigated us so that the seating order was Pace, followed by Dean, me, Lena Lee and Hunter. I'd figured that part of her plan all along had been for me to be as close as possible to Dean, and I was secretly very pleased with the way things were going so far. I bent down to put my water bottle under my seat and when I sat back again, my arm brushed Dean's. Neither of us moved, and our arms remained touching for the entire fifteen minutes while we watched the teams warm up on the ice.

Dad had got us pretty good seats, smack in the middle. We could see the entire arena with no effort, and the combination of feeling Dean's warmth next to me and the thrill in the air had my blood pumping extra hard. We stood up for the national anthem and when the game finally started all five of us were screaming for the home team.

I felt Lena Lee tug at me somewhere around the middle of the first period and I leaned toward her.

"Okay, I'm going to get started with the plan now. Are you ready?"

I whipped a look at her. "Absolutely not. You haven't even told me what the deal is."

I said this a bit too loud and it garnered us a few glances. As I apologized to the annoyed strangers, I didn't realize I had already fallen for Lena Lee's trap.

"That's exactly the problem, Charlie," she said very loudly as she folded her arms. "It's not that I don't tell you things, it's that you don't pay attention."

I opened and closed my mouth. I looked around. Our friends made no effort at pretending to give us privacy. All of them were hooked to what was going on.

Except I hadn't a clue what exactly was going on.

"Lena Lee, I-"

"No." She lifted one palm. "Let's just watch the game."

I was happy to do just that. For the remainder of the first period I sat ramrod stiff. I was afraid to ask her what the hell she was doing one more time, lest I triggered another incomprehensible episode like that. The local team scored then and we all got on our feet to celebrate. The normalcy ended again once we sat down for the last couple of minutes in the period, and the tension set itself on our shoulders again.

The intermission began with the kiss cam and Lena Lee sighed loudly.

"So, if the cam focuses on us, are you going to reject me again?" she asked.

"What?" That was my very clever answer. "Have you lost your marbles?"

Lena Lee gave me a hurt look and sniffed. "You should be bending over backwards trying to make up for what you did, instead of acting like you're all innocent. The truth is that you keep rejecting my advances, and I'm done wondering if you have someone else, or if it's just that you don't like me enough."

"I- I," I said as I lifted my hands up.

She wiped at the corner of her eye. "It's almost like you're with me just because, and not because you like me."

"Um, guys?" Hunter's voice cut in then, and I welcomed it with relief. We all turned to look at him and he pointed up. "We're on the kiss cam."

All five of us looked up and found the frame square on me, Lena Lee and half of Hunter.

Oh shit. I was going to have to kiss her. Again.

Lena Lee said, "This must be a sign that we have to break up, then."

As she turned and grabbed Hunter's face and smacked a kiss so outrageous and deep on him that it had the whole arena cheering as though the home boys had just scored, and as my jaw dropped so hard that I looked like I was in a cartoon, everything finally clicked into place.

So this had been the big plan all along.

She orchestrated a breakup in front of everybody and made sure to include some clues as to the fact that I was not as into her as I should.

Her good intentions were going to be the death of me.

Hunter smiled like a besotted loon on the kiss cam to the roar of a cheering full house, while next to him, Lena Lee turned to me and said, "We're over."

I wanted to both kiss her — not in the mouth — and throttle her. I settled for shooting up my seat and squeezing past Dean and Pace on my way out. I needed some air so that I wouldn't cause a bigger scene than she had, and I needed it now.

What I hadn't realized was that the noise all around me hid the steps of someone following behind me.