New Beginings

“I am not unpacking another damn box!” Hailey yelled and stomped down the hallway. Our apartment door was open and I was carrying boxes up. We still weren’t fully unpacked and neither of my roommates would unpack. Luc was watching tv and Hailey was whining like usual. We lived in the apartment for 5 days and the only things we had unpacked were movies and clothes. Our garbage was all takeout boxes and empty Starbucks coffee cups.
“Stop fucking whining and unpack a fringing box!” I yelled and walked down the hallway. I made it two steps out of the elevator before I was knocked to the ground. The box of pictures fell to the ground and some fell out. I laid on the ground in shock, and then sat up. In front of me were James Neal and Sidney Crosby from the day before. I glared at them as they burst out laughing.
“It’s not funny.” I said and smiled to try and hold in a laugh. I gathered the thrown pictures and Sidney kneeled down to help.
“You were a very feisty kitten.” He said and handed me the last picture. I looked at it, then back at him. It was the picture of me at a Halloween party. I was 16 and pissed off. The picture was of me in an overly too-short skirt and too-low top. I was bent over and flicking the camera off with both of my hands.
“Thanks.” I said and blushed. He smirked and took the box from my hands.
“Where to?” He asked. I rolled my eyes and pointed down the hallway. We walked down and to the door. I went to take the box from him and our hands blushed against one another. For some weird reason, butterflies went off in my stomach. I almost dropped the box in alarm, but Sidney grabbed the bottom and stared at me skeptically.
“You are sure a klutz for being a soccer player.” He said and flashed me a smile. I laughed and shook my head.
“I know.” I replied. “Thank you for carrying the box and picking up the picture.” I said and he nodded. I walked into the apartment and left him standing in the doorway as I walked into the apartment. He must of walked away, because when I turned around he was gone and I breathed a sigh of relief. Luc looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
“Why are your cheeks pink and you look like you just saw a ghost?” She asked with curiosity laced in every word. I shrugged and carried the box to my room. Since I was the one paying for the apartment and the one with a busy soccer schedule, I got to pick my room. Our apartment was a four bedroom, three bath mini-house. It was nice and newly furnished.
My room was the master bedroom at the end of the hall. It has a walk in closet and connecting bathroom. I shoved the box under the bed and looked around. All of my clothes were in the closet, sitting in marked boxes. I had my bedding and books in another box and all my make-up and hair shit sitting on the bathroom counter. Everything had a box and I was in no mood to unpack it. Instead of putting my clothes away, I laid on my bed and tried to fall asleep. My eyes were halfway closed before my phone blasted from the floor.
“Fucking hell.” I muttered and picked up the phone without looking at called i.d. “Hello?” I asked in a groggy voice.
“Hi, is this Danielle Rossi?” A man’s voice filled the line.
“Yes, who is this?” I asked and rolled onto my back. I set my feet on the headboard of my bed and drew circles in the wall with my big toe.
“This is Mike Collins. I am in charge of the media relations of Pittsburgh Sports.” He said in a confident voice.
“Hello Mike. How can I help you?” I asked. He sounded like a dick, but I had to be nice.
“There is a captain meeting tomorrow for Pittsburgh captains. We have the captians of all the prominent Pittsburgh sports team coming. I need you to be there.” He said and I could tell he was smirking. I rolled my eyes and looked at my calendar on the side of my bed.
“What time?” I asked and fought a sigh.
“5. It will only take an hour, and then you can socialize with the other players.” He said and I took a deep breathe.
“Okay, I’ll see you there.” I said in a fake happy voice and said a quick goodbye. I groaned the second I hit the end button and slammed my arm down on the bed. The last thing I wanted to do was go to a stupid meeting and meet stuck up rich football and baseball players. I hated people like that and had to bite my tongue from snapping at them.
“Everything okay?” Hailey asked and stopped at the door of my room. I groaned and rolled over.
“I have a stupid meeting tomorrow for the team.” I said and pouted to her. She shook her head and laughed. I flicked her off and she stuck her tongue out at me.
“Good luck.” She yelled and walked to her room, across the hall from mine. I groaned and grabbed a pillow from a box on the floor and covered my head with it.

Sidney’s POV.

I walked into the locker room to find all of the guys under 30 with their eyes glue to a laptop in the middle of the room. The older guys were talking on the far side of the room and paused to say hello when I stepped in. I waved back and walked to the center of the room to see what the guys were so preoccupied with. Last time they were like this was in Edmonton last fall. On Max Talbot’s laptop, they were watching the Victoria’s Secret fashion show in between periods. I didn’t watch it, instead I made fun of the guys and took slap shots at them.
When I walked over this time, they were fighting over who was going to type and the only thing opened was Google. They finally agreed on Jordan typing and he quickly typed in the search bar. I was too far back to see what they typed. More fighting occurred and Dustin Jeffery got control of the computer as he clicked on an article.
“Okay it says here she was one of the youngest players on team America and scored the medal winning goal in double overtime. She went to North Carolina University for two years before dropping out for disclosed reason. After contemplating an early retirement, her sister convinced her to keep playing and she joined a team in Spain.” Dustin said before getting shoved out of the way.
“We don’t care about her career. We want to know about her. Type in Danielle Rossi soccer personality.” Deryk Engelland said. Jordan nodded in agreement and typed in what he suggested. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. They had no right to go into her personal life and I didn’t want to invade her privacy. I know people probably search about my personal life all the time, but we shouldn’t do it to her if she will be in our rink.
“Sid! Did you see anything interesting when ever you knocked her over today?” Dustin yelled and I stared at him.
“No.” I replied and walked over to my locker. The guys just looked at me, then went back to their creeping.
“Okay! In this article, it says she hates coaches that yell and sometimes will yell right back. She is feisty and blunt and never listens when she is given a direct order. Her name for past coaches is ‘The Problem’. One coach says that she was one of the best players to pass through his team, but was the hardest to coach.” Jordan read with pauses as he found different sentences with in the article. Everyone groaned and Tyler Kennedy took control. They didn’t want her personality like that, they wanted her personal life.
“Just go on Wikipedia.” I said and they all looked at me.
“Wikipedia?” Tyler said in an unsure voice. I nodded.
“You obviously want to know about her personal life so go on wikipedia.” I explained and Tyler nodded. He quickly went to the website and scrolled down to the personal life section. He read it for a few moments then opened his mouth to speak.
“Okay, she was born in Philadelphia and has a twin sister Lucelle. They also have a younger brother Milo. Her mom is from Zimbabwe, Africa and her father is from Jamaica, which explains her dark skin. She was in a car accident when she was 16 and almost had to stop playing. That is all there is on her personal life.” Tyler read and pushed the computer towards Kris Letang. “Here Kris, you haven’t been really loud in this search party. You search something.”
Kris looked at him like he was crazy, then looked at me for help. I put my hands up and shook my head. I wasn’t going to help them. Kris pushed the computer back towards Tyler and they went back to creeping. They would say random stuff they found about her, but nothing to bad came up. Most of the guys branched out and started to play knee hockey on the floor and the older guys were making fun of them the whole time.
“Whoa!” Jordan yelled and the guys stopped playing in mid stride. Dustin fell flat on his face from freezing and Deryk smacked him with his stick.
“What?” Kris asked.
“Okay Danni was arrested last summer.” Jordan said with wide eyes.
“For what?” Dustin yelled from the floor.
“It says here she was caught for a DUI, then underage drinking, then resisting arrest and a j-walking charge. ” He said in confusions. Some of the guys started laughing at the last charge. I mean who gets arrested for j-walking? Before any of them could make more comments, coach walked in.
“Hey boys, no practice today. They are doing a dry-run for the Nitro field. You guys are welcome to stick around and use it, but you also can go home. I’m sorry for bringing you guys in. Captains, you guys have a meeting tomorrow night with Mike Collins. It’s at 5 don’t be late.” He said and walked out of the room. I groaned in sync with Jordan and Geno. We hated that meeting more than anything else. The guy was a douche first off and all he talked about was being good in the media. I think it was more geared towards the football team, but he says the same stuff every year.
“Sid! I’m not wearing a tux this year. Collins can suck it. I’m wearing jeans.” Jordan yelled and stood up. I nodded in agreement.

Danni’s POV.

Two hours before the meeting, Luc and Hailey dragged me into Luc’s room and threw me on the bed. They already had three outfits picked out and the curling irons were on full heat. I groaned automatically and hid my face in a pillow. If there was anything that I hated the most, it was dressing up and doing make-up. A little mascara and eyeliner is good, but not a ton of make-up that takes up more than 10 minutes. Luc and Hailey never listen though. They always insist on dressing me up and sending me off to a party. Sadly this meeting was no different. The first outfit was a deep red cocktail dress that I could already tell was too short. Luc and I are identical twins, but I am bigger. I have at least an inch over her and all my clothes are one size bigger.
The second outfit was a pair of black leggings and a long blue shirt, dress thing. I hated it. Luc nodded and pulled it off the door. I stuck my tongue out at her and tried to kick it away with my foot.
“Come on Danni. Just pick a damn outfit.” Hailey said and pointed her curling iron at me.
“I will. Give me the pair of black skinny jeans and that black jacket, blazer thing. Under it, I’ll wear that purple ruffle shirt you guys designed. For the shoes, I will wear those black heels you wore last week.” I said to Hailey and she immediately smiled. Luc rushed around to find the outfit and threw the three choices to the ground.
“I don’t know why you didn’t get into fashion.” Hailey said and brushed my hair. Luc came in a few minutes layer and laid the outfit out. I quickly put it on and they threw me in a chair to do my make-up. Between the coughing from the blush, or the pain from the tweezers on my eyebrows, I relaxed and thought about anything but the room I was in. I usually imagine myself back in Germany.
In the last two minutes of the double overtime against Japan. Before I could get to the last seconds of the game, I wasn’t there anymore. No, instead I was in the hallway of my apartment building next to him. Him being Sidney. He took up so much of my mind that I was scared. I only met him twice and the first time he looked at me like I was crazy. In the hallway the day before, I acted so weird. Guys never give me butterflies. Guys never make me blush. I’m the one that does that to them. I’m always in control when it comes to guys, and Sidney already has power over me.
“Danni!” Luc yelled and shook me from my thoughts. I looked around and then in the mirror. All they did was lightly curl my long brown hair and apply a little make up. It was subtle but enough for people to look. I thanked them each with a hug and left the building. There was traffic and 35 minutes later I arrived at Collins’ office downtown. They were already expecting me and I was led up to the 18th floor by a large security guard. He led me to large double door and motioned me to go in. I gave him my thanks and walked in. When the doors opened, all eyes were on me. I stepped in and looked around. There were no more than 10 guys sitting in chairs. The room was set up like a college lecture room. There was lined chairs connected to the floor and the front row was taken up by what I though to be baseball players. The second row was football and the third was hockey.
“Danni! What are you doing here?” Jordan asked.
“Here to finish my assassination job. What else?” I teased and walked over to them. All eyes were now transfixed and me and everyone was confused.
“Seriously?” Sidney asked and I sat next to him.
“No, I’m a captain of a Pittsburgh sports team. Why wouldn’t I be here?” I asked and leaned back. No one was in front of me, so I propped my feet up on the chair and lounged back. Most of the guys turned around, but a few sets were still laid on me. Everyone set into there own conversations and Jordan started talking to Evgeni Malkin.
“So Geno, You ever get arrested?” Jordan asked and looked at the big Russian. Sidney started laughing and I looked at them like they were crazy.
“No, but I warned for J-walking.” He replied in choppy English. Sidney burst out laughing this time and I stared at Jordan.
“You googled me, huh?” I asked. Jordan nodded inbetween his fits of laugher. Sidney tried to hold his laughing in, but they all failed miserably.
“Do people even get arrested for j-walking anymore?” Sidney asked. I shook my head and smirked.
“No, I just pissed a police officer off a lot and he arrested me.” I replied. Before Jordan could make another joke, a man in a dark blur suit walked in.
“Hello everyone, welcome to our yearly meeting.” He said and smirked.