Fire & Ice

one

One thing I have learned in my 18 years on this planet is you should never take anything for granted, because eventually, everything will fall apart. Well almost everything. One constant thing that has always been there for me is hockey. It's one of the few things that hasn't disappeared.

"McKenna, where is your dorm room? We have been walking around forever." My mom said behind me as I tried to figure out how to read the map of the dorm building.

"It should be right down the hall." I said and picked up my hockey bag again.

"If it's not, I'm going to find an RA McKenna." Mom threated as we past two more rooms.

"I told you I would find it and I just did!" I said and looked at the light walnut colored door in front of me. Just off to the side are the numbers 217 in bronze and I fished the electronic key card out of my pocket I got when checked in outside the dorm building.

"Finally" Mom said and I placed the key card in front of the electronic lock and green lights appeared.

I pushed the door open and saw the room was empty. I guess my roommate isn't here yet, which is great for me so I can pick which bedroom I want. I walked into the room and dropped my hockey bag on the floor just past the entrance. Mom wasn't that far behind me as I walked off to find the bedrooms. Since I committed to University of Wisconsin late, I missed out dorming in the woman's ice hockey house. So instead of staying in a regular dorm room I got put up in a suite. The suite has two individual bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room area with a full kitchen. It's really like a two bedroom apartment.

Each bedroom is on opposite sides of the apartment. I went to check out one of them while mom went to look at the other one and then we switched. After checking out both rooms they were basically the same. One of them was closer to the bathroom then the other so I went with the room farther away from the bathroom. With the decision made mom and I started to move my stuff into my room for my first year of college. It didn't take us long to haul everything out of her car as I didn't have much to bring in the first place.

Mom helped me start to unpack my stuff and we loaded up my closet. Once that was full we moved on to the dresser I have. In about an hour everything I had was moved into my room. I was just starting to put pictures of mom and I up on the corkboard above my desk when I heard the door to the room open.

"How do you think your roommate will be?" Mom asked as I stuck the picture I was holding up with a tack.

"I just hoping nice." I said and stood from the desk chair.

I opened my bedroom door and saw my roommates parents walking into the room holding boxes of things. Both of her parents look like typical parents. Because of my late commit, not only did I miss out on living in the hockey house, I didn't get the chance to match with a roommate. I was literally just stuck with someone at random and we didn't have a chance to talk beforehand.

Just when I was going to make my presence known a girl walked into the room. The first thing I noticed was that she was blonde. The second thing I noticed she was walking with a cane; well it was more like limping. When I brought my eyes up I noticed that her eyes were already on me, watching my every move. Shit, not the best first impression.

"Hey, I'm McKenna Bertinelli your new roommate." I offered and pushed myself off the doorframe and walked over to her with my hand out. The girl watched my hand and then brought her eyes back up to mine.

"Cassandra Allegretti, nice to meet you McKenna." Cassandra. She offered me a little smile as she shook my hand. Another thing I noticed was how soft her hands are. Compared to my palms that were covered in callouses from lifting weights in the gym and my constant stick work.