I was already awake, just lying in my bed when my mother came into my room. She noticed that my face looked worried and said “What’s wrong, you look like a wreck”. “I guess, I’m just nervous about the rest of the day” I responded. My day had finally come, the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. I was finally eligible to be drafted into the National Hockey League. I had been projected to be drafted in the first round, but it would have to be hard, with North American players such as Steven Stamkos and Luke Schenn in there and European superstars such as Nikita Filatov and Ivan Shertok to boot. The Tampa Bay Lightning have the best chance of taking the 1st overall pick after coming in last place last year.
I had decided to walk around town before heading back home to head to the draft. I had decided to meet my buddy Nick Barry over at the mall. As I walking past stores, I saw a group of people crowding 1 person. As I walked up to the group, my curious face turned into a grin as I saw Nick gloating about being in the Entry Draft. “Yea, of course I’ll be picked first” said Nick. Then that stupid person that’s always in the crowd yells out “Isn’t Jason Skyland going to be picked first overall?” Nick then burst out of the crowd in a rage, yelling that I’ve got nothing on in. He then ran straight into me, knocking him down, but I only stumbled around.
“Hey, what’s your prob-, oh, sorry about that Jason” Nick said as he started to get up from the ground. “So what do you want to do?” I asked. “Maybe hang out at Vanessa’s house, her parents are on a trip to the Bahamas and I’ve been the only one really visiting her, she’d love to see you again” Nick responded. Vanessa was Nick’s girlfriend for 3 years. They both had the same personality, cocky on the outside if you don’t know them, but if you do, he’s one of the nicest guys you can know. Nick had come down from Buffalo, New York, his hometown, after the season ended. Luckily we were both on the same team mid-way through the season, when I was traded to the Oshawa Generals. As we arrived at Vanessa’s house, she seemed to be in a pretty down mood. We both asked what was wrong, she only responded as to saying that she’d miss us when we were drafted. We tried to spend as much time as we could with her. It was lucky enough that she was going to attend the draft. My parents, Nick, Vanessa and my girlfriend Jessica, we had been together for a good 5 years. So we had decided to carpool in my father’s pickup truck. We sat down in our seats and waited to see who would pick first. I clenched my fist when I looked over to Ivan Shertok. I always knew that guy was such a jerk. As I had my girlfriend on my right, my mother on my left, my best friend behind me and my father in front of me along with my grandparents, I’m fully prepared to see what happens.

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