Chapter Nine

She rolled out of bed and got ready as usual, this would be the last time she had to do this. Pulling her hat onto her head and her bag over her shoulder she made her way to the bus stop. As usual the bus was crowded and Nikki stood at the front of the bus as she did everyday. When the bell rang sending students to class all that the seniors could talk about was how this was their last day of hell; the last class high school class they would have to attend, the last high school exam they would have to endure.

Nikki's last exam was Bio II, she felt like neither teacher had taught her anything, that all of the learning in this class was student based. The tests had been written by the same company that wrote the text books but the tests were awkwardly worded and therefore difficult to pass. For this exam however everyone felt prepared, the teacher had told them every question that would be on the exam.

Sitting down next to her good friend Shelby one last time Nikki smiled, that is until she was told to stop talking and the exam was passed around the room. "You have one hour, you may begin."

Twenty-five minutes passed and Nikki put her pencil down, satisfied with her answers she turned the test in to her teacher and sat back down. Taking a notebook from her bag she began to doodle, mostly writing Kris' name. When the bell finally rang all of the seniors ran to the auditorium for graduation rehearsal. Rehearsal dragged on until finally they were set free. Before they were permitted to leave however everyone had to stop at the guidance counselor to make sure that he had the correct school for them. "RMU," Nikki said when it was her turn; the school she had worked so hard to get in to.

AS she waited for her friends to make it through the line she made her final decision, she would go to the luncheon. Food was food, she wasn't paying for it and she had plenty of time to kill before the game that night. The only problem was that after eating and spending some time with friends she didn't feel like waiting for a bus and no one would give her a ride to her bus stop back at school so she had to walk twenty blocks alone.

While walking through the not so great part of town Nikki pulled out her phone and began to text Kris, something he hadn't done a lot of that day. 'Tiens,' she wrote unable to think of anything important to say.

'Tiens, ca va?'

'Comme ci, comme ca, et tu?'

'Bien. =]'

This conversation was going no where and fast so Nikki began to tell him about her day and soon she had made it to her bus stop. They continued to text all day, Nikki saying how much she missed Canada but never saying that she missed Kris until he let it slip first. 'I miss you Nicolette.'

'I miss you too Kristopher, but I get to see you in less than two weeks. =]'

Kris sat at home in Montreal and smiled when he read this. Maybe there was some hope, Luc was always trying to convince him to ask her out but what was the point he was almost positive that she would say no. They were such great friends and he didn't want to risk screwing that up.

That night Nikki sat down to watch game five of the Stanley Cup Finals with Kris. Well they were both watching the game while texting each other. When the final buzzer rang and the scoreboard read Ducks six, Senators two Nikki was quite excited. The Ducks had just won the Stanley Cup. While watching the post game festivities as she did every year Nikki continued to talk to Kris, they had talked non-stop all day. 'I'm so glad someone finally beat those guys. =]'

'Yeah, what are you doing tomorrow since you don't have school?'

'No idea, look how happy those guys are.' She couldn't help but smile as all of the Ducks skated around the ice with wide smiles on their faces, some had even shed a few tears of joy.

'I'm going to lift that someday,' Kris said. As he wrote this he thought of how great it would be to win the ultimate prize, to lift Lord Stanley's Cup. Before he could even come close though he had to make the NHL, something he hoped that he could do this coming season.

Nikki also admired the Cup, it was so beautiful. It had been fifteen years since the Penguins last won it and although she had watched it she was only two at the time so she didn't remember it. She wanted so badly for her team to win it again, to see her team's captain Sidney Crosby hoist it over his head.

It had been a long day so at around midnight when Nikki was struggling to keep her eyes open she told Kris goodnight. They had talked for over ten hours and hadn't run out of things to talk about. 'Why is he so perfect?' Nikki asked herself as she flopped into bed. She ran her finger over him in the picture she kept by her bed, a copy of the one she kept in her wallet. She found herself asking this question quite frequently, mostly of herself and when she needed cheering up she pulled the original picture from her wallet. That normally brought a smile to her face no matter what the situation was. "I love you Kristopher."

While her thoughts of being with him back in Canada turned to dreams Kris' thoughts were much of the same. He had his copy of the picture in a frame on his night stand. After sending a final text that said goodnight he stared at his phone background for a while, it was also Nikki's picture. He had really fallen for her since their first meeting back in October. Was it love though?

He found himself thinking about her all of the time. Every time he talked to Luc, which wasn't as often as during the season when they lived together, but they still texted, Nikki was brought into conversation. Luc still talked to her, no where near as much as Kris did, but they had remained friends. Nikki wouldn't tell Luc anything about her feelings for Kris and Kris made Luc swear that he wouldn't tell Nikki how much Kris liked her.

***

Nikki mostly sat around the house for the next few days, she had a babysitting job lined up for the summer before she headed off to college but that didn't start for a few weeks.

Graduation quickly approached and she couldn't have been more excited to never have to deal with that school again. It had been a long four years and when Saturday the ninth came Nikki began to get showered and dressed up around ten o'clock. She decided to let her hair air dry and ran some mousse through it so that it wouldn't frizz. Leaving her hair down she pulled her new dress from the closet and slipped it over her head. Adjusting it so that it didn't bunch she then fixed her hair.

Cassie took a picture to send to Kris just to get his opinion. The dress was a dark shade of blue, sleeveless and knee length. It was the perfect dress for her, showing just enough cleavage to draw attention but it also covered her enough so that the rest was left to the imagination. This was what drew Kris' attention when the picture arrived on his phone. That along with her smile left him breathless. He sat down on the couch to catch his breath and this only proved further that he had it bad for this girl. 'You look absolutely amazing,' he though, however that's not what he texted back. 'You look excited =].' He typed before pressing send. If only he could be there and see her in person, he missed her; after all it had been over five months since he had seen her. The next week could not go by fast enough; he couldn’t wait until she was back in Canada with him.

Back in Pittsburgh once the ceremony started it only lasted an hour and Nikki was finally done with CAPA, for good.