Chapter 1: An Introduction

My whole teenage life, I've never been a social person. I'd have one or two friend's that would leave me in a couple of months. As a kid, I was only seen as the son of the hall of fame NHL player Cole Higgins. In elementary school, I was always the fastest and the smartest I had what felt like to be a million friends. It was like I was in first place in the race of life, but as the years went on, people became smarter, got more friends, and people started to hate me for no reason. Eventually, I folded under the pressure, I faded into the middle of the crowd, and I just gave up on everything. I would show up to school less and less in 7th grade, and this continued into high school until I eventually graduated. The only way I graduated was by going on independent study for months. For about 6 years, all I've done is just put my whole life into working out, online school, and playing hockey. This signing is my last-ditch effort to not be a complete failure. It's funny to me I honestly deserve more in life, but it throws this at me.

"I guess it's time for me to sign my first NHL contract." I say to myself while rubbing my eyes.

"Kennedy, you better get going, it's 5 pm, and your meeting is in thirty minutes." My mom tells me as she comes into my room. Alright time to get this interview done. It should be easy; it's just to see if I'll be signing my entry level contract for the NHL. Why wouldn't they sign me? I went first overall. I'm considered a franchise level talent. They should be pleading for me to sign with them.

"Alright, see you when I sign with the team." I say as I get up from my bed. I put my suit on and begin to head out.

"Bye Kennedy, good luck." My mom tells me.

"Love you mom and thanks" I tell her. Good luck? I don't need your good luck; I'm the best hockey player of this generation. They should feel honored that I am even signing with them.

I walk to the door and open it. I am greeted with a cloudy day with no sun to be seen. My mood has instantly improved. I don't know what it is, but I just hate the sun. It plagues my mood instantly. I walk to my car which is parked outside my house. I get in and drive to the rink for my interview. I arrive at 5:20 pm.

"I can probably just head in now for the meeting." I reassure myself. I walk into the rink and go up to the receptionist.

"Excuse me ma'am, I have a meeting in about ten minutes. May I go in early?" I asked the receptionist. Is that a bad thing to ask? Well, I mean it should be fine because I do have the fact that I went first overall backing me up.

"My apologies, sir. You are scheduled for 5:30, so you have to wait till 5:30." The receptionist responds. Did I do something wrong? Is she mad at me right now? Should I apologize? No, no, she must not know who I am. If she did, she would let me in instantly. Right?

"How dare you! Do you know who I am?" I question the woman.

"I don't know, or care who you are. You could be Connor Mcdavid or Gretzky, and I would still tell you to wait." The lady responds so adamantly.

"What if I was Mario Lemieux." I tell her jokingly.

"Uh let me check .... Um unfortunately it's still a no. What a surprise." She says sarcastically. Welp looks like making a joke didn't help.

"So seriously you're not gonna let me in?" I ask her a little agitated. Why doesn't she just let me in damn. I just want to go in a bit early.

"Sorry sir, I suggest you just give up on getting in early." The lady suggests. Alright I give up, she isn't budging on this. I shouldn't have asked in the first place, it wasn't worth the anxiety.

"Alright, thank you for your consideration…" I retort in a clearly sarcastic tone. I take a seat in the lobby. About five to 10 minutes later I'm told I can head into the GM's office. I'm nervous, I need to make a good impression.

"Here goes nothing." I whisper to myself. I knock on the door. Did I knock too loudly, maybe too aggressively? Did I mess something up already? Ya know I just need to be confident in myself no more anxiety. I'm the shit I got this.

"Come in please!" The GM shouts from inside. You got this shit Kennedy, don't let anyone know you're nervous, don't show weakness. I walk into the room with as much confidence as I can muster. Gotta act like the world revolves around me. I can't let anyone know I have a weakness.

"Nice to see you again, Mr. Yzerman." I greet Yzerman. As I sit down I give him a firm handshake.

"Likewise Kennedy." Yzerman tells me.

"So shall we get straight back to business?" I ask Yzerman in the most formal professional voice I can muster. Is that the wrong thing to say in this situation?

"Relax a bit kid, we've already agreed on your AAV for this contract. One thing I've realized about you is when you get nervous you become more firm and a bit stuck up. You need to calm down if you want to be as successful as you can." Yzerman informs me. Stuck up? I'm not stuck up, I'm just a bit confident. At least I try to seem like it…

"Alright, thank you I'm more calm now." I inform Yzerman after I take a deep breath. It's crazy he was able to tell I was nervous without hesitation. Is it that obvious? If so, I need to hide it more.

"I'm glad, so all you have to do is just sign here." Yzerman instructs me. I'm actually gonna sign a contract for 925k salary for 3 years and it has bonuses that make it well over Four million dollars a year.

"Alright cool." I say trying my best not to sound too excited because I am overwhelmed with positive emotions and anxiety right now. I take my pen and sign my first NHL contract. It's an indescribable feeling, everything I've been working on for my entire life now means something.

"Well congrats kid, you're a pro hockey player now." Yzerman congratulates me as he gives me a firm handshake. It still hasn't truly set in. I've made the "show," I'm not a failure in life.

"Hey this is probably a weird question, but I brought my gear with me today. Can I go for a skate?" I ask Yzerman. Please please please say yes.

"Yeah sure, actually a couple of the other guys have an ice time today too, so if you want to skate with them you can." Yzerman answers me. Yes, my first time skating as a Detroit Red Wing. I'm getting the jitters from being so excited.

"Thank you very much, have a great day." I say to Yzerman. I give him a hand shake and leave. I have to go get my gear now so I can hop on the ice. I break out into a full sprint to get out to my car just, so I don't waste a second. I unlock my car and raise the trunk of my bmw convertible, and take my gear out. I close my trunk and run back into the rink. I run down a corridor not knowing where I'm going, but hoping I'll find where I need to go. I take a right and see the grand prize I've been looking for it's the locker room.

"I made it." I whisper to myself with euphoria. I wonder if they have my name plate up already? I'm nervous, but I open the door and take a step into the locker room. I immediately start looking around for a stall for me to use. Every stall I look at seems to have a name plate above it. Eventually I get to Dylan Larkin's name plate and look to the stall to the right of it and there is my name plate right above the stall. It's my name plate that means this is my stall. My face hurts from smiling so much, I bet I look creepy just smiling at a random stall in a locker room, but I don't care. I'm gonna enjoy this moment.

"Hey kid you good?" Says a voice that seems familiar. I look over to where the voice is coming from and it's Dylan Larkin in the flesh, IN THE FLESH. HE'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, HE'S REALLY HERE.

"Hey Larkin, can you do something for me?" I ask Dylan Larkin.

"Yeah sure what you need?" He responds.

"Can you punch me or something because I don't believe this is real?" I ask him. I am dumbfounded. I need to return to earth.

"I promise it's real Kennedy and not a dream." Larkin informs me. HE KNOWS ME!!!

"You know my name?!?!" I question Larkin. WHY DOES HE KNOW MY NAME??????

"Well I mean you did go first overall did you forget?" Larkin asks me in a very questioning tone. Oh yeah that did happen.

"I'm gonna be honest I forgot all about that." I tell Dylan Larkin. Well looks like I'm back on earth and back to my senses.

"Welp kid I just wanted to come and say hi, but I have to go now see ya." Dylan Larkin gives me a farewell. Well that just happened, at least I'm back to my senses. I get all my gear on and head out to the ice, and see Tyler Bertuzzi.

"Hey Bertuzzi!" I scream to get his attention. Hope he doesn't think I'm coming off strong.

"Oh you're Kennedy aren't you bud?" He questions me after I skate up to him.

"Yup I sure am." I tell him with all my pride.

"You gonna show me what you got or what?" Tyler questions me. Yeah I'll show you what I got. I'll send you through a loop because I'm so good.

"Hell yea I will. How about a 1 on 1 drill with you on defense?" I propose my idea to Bertuzzi. I can establish some respect for myself if I do good enough against him.

"Sure, let's run it just one rep." He tells me. Alright well I've got one crack at it.

"Yeah sure I'm down with that." I give him my answer. I put the puck at center ice.

"You ready kid?" Bertuzzi asks me. Hell yeah I'm ready.

"Yeah let's run it!" I exclaim. I take the puck and start skating towards Bertuzzi. He comes up to challenge me just below the blue line. I try to toe drag and get around him, but before I can pull the move off he just level's me with a check.

"Welp nice try kid, I've skated enough for today so I'm gonna get off so enjoy yourself." He tells me as he skates off and goes into the locker room. He made me look like a damn fool, but at least I know something I can work on.

"Damn it he just caught me off guard… yeah off guard." I whisper to myself. 

Well I should probably practice my skating, I'll start off easy with a warm up lap. "Time for a warm up." I say to myself as I start my warm up lap. After my warm up lap I set up some obstacles for stick handling. About halfway into my practice Tyler Bertuzzi walks out of the locker room and waves me over to the doorway. I skate my way over to see what he needs.

"Yeah what's up Tyler?" I ask him.

"Hey kid I got a deal for you that I think you might agree too." Tyler informs me. A deal? What kinda deal could he be talking about?

"What is the deal?" I ask Tyler.

"The deal is, if you can score 3 goals in the first game of the season I won't let anyone know about me embarrassing you out there, and you'll gain my respect kid." Bertuzzi proposes the deal to me. Oh I can easily do that no doubt. Looks like nobody's gonna hear about my mess up.

"Yeah I'll take that deal for sure, it was in my plans to best Matthews anyways. So scoring more than 3 was the plan." I inform Bertuzzi.

Three months later

It's five minutes before my first ever NHL regular season game starts. I have a bet I have to win. 3 goals, a hattrick simple right? I'm one of the best players to ever touch the ice.

"Hey, Higs you good? You've been silent since we finished warm ups." Bertuzzi questions me after tapping on my shoulder to get my attention.

"Yeah I'm fine I'm just excited." I tell Bertuzzi in the most confident voice I can muster.

"Well I'm glad for a second I thought you were so scared and pissed down your leg." Bertuzzi jokes. I'm so nervous that it doesn't seem outlandish.

"Alright boys it's game time! It's our season opener. Let's go and impress everyone!" Dylan Larkin stands up and exclaims. Wow I guess it's time for my dream to come true finally.

Everyone stands up and heads out to the ice through the tunnel. This moment feels so surreal. The combination of hearing the fans chanting, booing, and yelling my name fills me with adrenaline.

I skate out to center ice and get ready to take the first faceoff of my NHL career. The ref blows the whistle and everyone gets into position for the faceoff. The ref skates over to drop the puck and says "I want a clean game boys". The ref drops the puck.

I win the draw back to the defense. The defenseman skates the puck up the right hand side of the ice and chips the puck in once he gets pressured at the blue line. I chase the puck into the corner and it looks like I'm about to beat the other team's defender to the puck, but I lose my edge and go hard and fast into the boards and I black out.

After only a second I wake up and hear. "Are you okay?" From an unfamiliar voice. I look towards the direction in which the voice was projected from and see a woman with brown eyes, red hair that reminds me of fire. She is wearing a dress that looks to be made of silk and has a necklace that sparkles with every beam of light.

"Where am I?" I question the woman. All of a sudden I hear what I believe to be some sort of chanting. The kind of chanting that happens at football games. As I get accustomed to the sound I hear a click that makes the room go silent. Where is my hockey gear? Why am I wearing baggy jeans and my old Mom Jeans shirt?

"Weeeell it's kind of hard to explain, but essentially you're in the final rest stop before heaven." The woman goes into detail. Final rest stop? What does she mean by that?

"Final rest stop? What is that supposed to mean? And what happened to my hockey gear?" I ask, trying to dig the answer out of the woman.

"Like I said, it's too complicated. It's something like you died blah blah blah and now you have to make a choice or whatever." The woman says in a very bored tone. She must've changed my clothes. And choices? what kind of choices? And wait. I AM FUCKING DEAD!!!! HOW IN THE WORLD DID I DIE?

"I am dead?" I ask the woman with a very concerned voice that also sounds terrified. She better have a goddamn good answer to this or I'm gonna lose it.

"Yeah you're dead, I already said that. Get with the program. Anyways can we get this whole thing over with, so I can get back to my soccer game?" She asks in an annoyed tone as if I'm the one who is the problem.

"What is your problem? Aren't you like an angel or something you're supposed to be nice and help me?" I grill her with questions.

The woman rolls her eyes and with a groan reluctantly answers my question. "Listen kid, I am not an 'angel or something.' I am the goddess who's supposed to pass you to the afterlife, or send you to a new world to live a new life." The goddess informs me with sass.

 A new life? A new world? I am so confused wasn't I just playing hockey? This is like a dream. My sense of touch is a little numb, but other than that this feels like real life.

 The more I observe the goddess I start to see a recurring theme. Time is that theme. She wears a watch, and her necklace is a pendant that is a clock like a pocket watch. She also has a hair pin of the symbol of Saturn.

 "Goddess… some goddess you're acting like right now." I retort in protest.

 The goddess's face is flushed with visible rage. I must've hit a nerve with that one, but that goes to show how unqualified she is to be goddess. You have to be able to control yourself if you wanna be a holy being. I think I might be a better fit for the job honestly. I can do almost everything there is. I doubt it would be that hard to be a holy being.

 "Listen kid I want you to shut the FUCK up, and get the hell out of here!" The goddess screams in the most agitated tone.

 With a blink I am somewhere else that is completely new to me. It's a beautiful view of a city with so many lights in its skyline you'd think you are looking at a labyrinth of lights. I am on top of a hill that is coated in green grass with colorful flowers for variety . I should probably figure out where the hell I am. As soon as I stand up I hear a voice to my left ask. "Who are you?" 

I look towards where the voice is coming from and see one of the most attractive girls I have ever seen in my life. She has silver hair that was icy like an iceberg that reaches the middle of her back. She was about 4 inches shorter than me, so about 5'6. She is wearing an outfit that consisted of a black shirt with denim jeans, and a white cardigan. I don't know if it's her beauty or just the circumstance of the background lighting of the city that illuminates an aura around her. All I know is that she is a rocket for lack of a better term.

"Don't you think it's a bit rude to ask someone's name without introducing yourself?" I question the girl.

 "Alright then 'Mr. Hotshot' my name is Stella, now you have to tell me your name." The girl informs me. Did she really just call me "Mr. Hotshot", that chick must have something against me already. But why, what did I do wrong?

Right before I respond to the girl a huge realization floods my brain, I can reinvent myself in this world. No one knows me here, I'm a blank slate. She doesn't know me, I may have made a bad impression that doesn't mean all hope is lost.

"I'm Kennedy, sorry if I came off rude earlier." I inform Stella as I stand up and reach my hand out for a handshake. I hope that was the right thing to do, and I hope I came off confident enough. I don't want her to see me as the person I used to be.

"Kennedy…" Stella states as she lunges at me. She pushes me down onto the green grass. The impact of hitting the ground makes my back pop. Stella uses her knee to pin my left arm to the ground, and her left arm to pin my right arm to the ground. She uses her right hand and pulls out a knife that looks way different to your normal run of the mill knife. The Knife blade is the color black and has multiple buttons on the handle. The blade also looks denser than a normal knife.

"What the hell did I do!" I yell hoping for an answer that makes sense.

"Don't play that shit with me 'Kennedy', only a fool would go by the name Kennedy in this day and age!" Stella exclaims as she adds more pressure to my arms.

This day and age? Why is Kennedy a taboo name? What the hell is this world that I'm in? The way she is reacting you would think I did something absolutely horrific.

"Why is the name Kennedy so bad?" I question Stella while still trying to stay together.

"Now I know you are for sure lying!" Stella exclaims. "Everyone knows that Kennedy is the leader of the enemy regime, and for someone to call themselves that it means you must be a follower!" Stella proclaims with such emotion it's almost tangible.

The enemy regime? Who's the enemy?

"I'm being completely honest, I have no clue what you mean!" I exclaim trying to explain to Stella. "I have a good reason to not be knowledgeable about this topic I promise, just give me a chance to explain." I try to convince Stella.

"It'd better be a damn good explanation or you'll pay for it." Stella explains as she puts the knife sideways to my lower neck and adds pressure.

"Listen to me when I say this, but I am from the past…" I reveal to Stella. She'll never believe me at all. I sound like I'm spewing out total bullshit.

"Oh yeah that makes total sense. Why didn't I think of that?" Stella asks herself like she had an epiphany.

"Really?" I ask in utter disbelief that she believed me so quickly. She believed me that quickly? What in the hell is going on?

"NO I DON'T BELIEVE YOU OBVIOUSLY!" She yells in my face in a fit of anger. Now it makes sense, she was just fucking with me. How am I supposed to prove this claim?

"I'm telling the truth, you have to believe me!!!" I exclaim trying to pull her onto my side.

"Sure you dirty Kennedy sympathizer!!!" Stella exclaims as she picks her knife which is glowing blue now, and drives it down towards my jugular. She's gonna kill me. It's gonna happen, there isn't anything I can do about it.

Right as the knife is about to make contact the knife stops as if it hit a wall. The knife flies out Stella's hand and red smoke starts to spread around us. After only a few seconds we are in what looks to be a box of red smoke. Out of nowhere almost like a PA system I hear. "Stop this nonsense at once I demand you!!!" A familiar voice exclaims. That voice could only be one person, one being, one bitch, and it's that damn goddess.

"Kennedy I am about to save your ass so be a little less harsh on me." The goddess informs me. Save my ass? I needed divine intervention to save me I'm glad I got it.

"Thank you so much Goddess." I thank her.

"Stella Larson, this man here is Kennedy Higgins and he is not a follower of Kennedy or a part of your enemies regime. I the goddess of time sent Kennedy here in a fit of rage, therefore I didn't think of where he was going. Unfortunately he was sent to a reality unfit for him, but as divine law goes I am not allowed to take him back." The goddess informs Stella who is dumbfounded at this point.

"So you weren't lying to me?" Stella questions me with a puzzled and dazed look on her face. SHE REALLY DID SAVE MY ASS.

"I didn't lie about one thing at all." I tell Stella with a smile. Well at least I have one person who will believe me now. I look over to the goddess and she looks to be conjuring something.

"I now officially grant you Kennedy the necessities for this world. This includes the magical and powerful AE and as an added bonus you're now a citizen and in the system's of the country we reside in at this very moment." The goddess explains to both of us. Wow she really did just save me from a lot of terrible experiences. Maybe she isn't as bad as I thought.

"Thank you goddess." I thank her for all her trouble.

"You're Welcome Kennedy." The goddess tells me as she snaps her fingers and disappears.