The Fear Is Paralyzing

Kris walked into the locker room, hearing everybody laugh, but not knowing what it was about, having not heard the joke. He went over to his locker, grabbing his pants that were sitting in there, ready for him to put on, and he started getting changed. “Do you think she here tonight?” he heard Malkin say, and he turned his attention towards him, trying to follow the conversation he was having with Crosby and Jordan.
 
“If she is, she’ll probably cheer for the other team,” Jordan said with a laugh.
 
“Who are you talking about?” Kris asked them. Maybe one of them was dating a new girl who was planning on coming that evening. A lot of times, one of the guys would date girls that had no clue about hockey, and the other guys tended to make fun of him for it.
 
“Our new owner,” Sidney informed him, and Kris suddenly didn’t want to be a part of their conversation any longer. He knew they were going to expect him to joke along with them, but in all honesty, he didn’t want to. Sure, Quinn knew nothing about hockey, but after spending the day with her, he realized that she really did want to learn. She hadn’t asked to be given the team, instead she had been thrown into the situation blindly, and that wasn’t her fault. But, he wasn’t about to say all of those things to his teammates, they would eat him alive.
 
“She should not be in charge of a hockey team. A hockey trophy wife? Yeah, maybe. But, not the owner,” Jordan joked.
 
“I don’t know, maybe we’re not giving her a chance,” Kris said as he pulled on his Under Armour shirt. When he pulled his head through, he saw that all three of his teammates were staring at him with weird expressions on their faces. “What?” he questioned.
 
“Dude! You were at that meeting with us! She doesn’t belong here,” Jordan said.
 
“I hate to agree with this guy, but he’s right. How can you own a team and know nothing about hockey. I mean, even the simplest stuff she doesn’t know. Go score points? C’mon! Everyone knows in hockey you score goals!” Sidney argued. “She just doesn’t fit in here.”
 
Kris simply nodded his head, not knowing what to say and not wanting to get into an argument with his teammates when he knew they had a point. She didn’t fit in, at least not yet. She knew nothing about hockey, and it was hard to own a team and make decisions on their behalf when you don’t even know the sport.
 
He continued to listen to them make fun of her, and he only hoped that Quinn wouldn’t say anything else that would fuel the fire. Hopefully some of the things he had taught her about the game earlier that day had stuck with her and she would be okay, at least for the time being.
 
***
 
Quinn made her way up the stairs, trying to find her suite. She hadn’t been up there, and she had no idea how big it was going to be or who it was going to be near. All she had was the number and the arena employees’ help in guiding her.
 
“Aunt Quinn, are we almost there?” Riley spoke up from behind her, and Quinn turned around, picking the little girl up, carrying her up the rest of the stairs.
 
“Here we are,” Quinn announced when she saw the correct suite. She set Riley down, and she ran in, going all the way to the front, standing on her tiptoes trying to look over the barrier at the ice, but having trouble doing so on her own. Noah went over and picked his daughter up, helping her out.
 
“I see you made it,” she heard a familiar voice say, and she looked over into the suite next to them to see Mario standing there with a smile on his face. “Is this your family?” he asked. He didn’t really know too much about Quinn’s personal life. She had never thought it was necessary to bring any of them up. In fact, the only one she had talked to Mario about had been Noah, and that was simply because he had been with her when he had met him the day before.
 
Quinn looked back at the three of them that were in her suite. “Well, you already know Noah. This is his wife Claire, and his daughter Riley,” Quinn introduced them, as Claire reached over to shake his hand.
 
“Mario Lemieux,” he introduced himself.
 
“Marion?” Riley asked from next to her mother since Noah had set her down a few moments ago.
 
“Mario,” he corrected her with a smile on his face.
 
“I’m Riley!” she spoke proudly, causing her parents to smile at her, along with Quinn. She loved the little girl, and she never ceased to amaze her that she was always able to make her smile, even when she was a nervous wreck like she was right now.
 
“Nice to meet you, Riley,” Mario told her.
 
“You too, Mr. Mario!” Riley said, going back over to her dad, asking him to pick her up so she could look out at the ice again.
 
Meanwhile, Mario was introducing Quinn to his wife and four children. For that little bit of time, Quinn had forgotten about everything, including the reason she was there. But, as soon as she heard cheering and turned her attention to the ice to see the guys coming out there for their pre-game skate, reality came crashing down once again, and she remembered that she was the owner.
 
It was a weird feeling for her. She wasn’t nervous for the game or the team like most owners were, but instead she was nervous about making a fool of herself in some way today. “Look Aunt Quinn!” Riley yelled out, and Quinn looked over to her niece, who was pointing at the main scoreboard. Her eyes followed Riley’s finger, going wide when she saw herself being shown.
 
“Oh my God,” she muttered, wishing she was anywhere else right now. She heard Mario chuckle, and she turned to look at him. “What is this?” she asked.
 
“They’re just introducing you to everyone,” Mario explained. “No one really knows anything about you or even knows what you look like. I think we owe it to the fans that they know who the new owner is,” he told her. “Don’t worry, the camera is already off of you,” he said, pointing to the scoreboard, which was now showing the players on the ice. He observed Quinn, who was relieved that she was no longer on the camera. “You don’t like media, do you?” he asked her.
 
“Media?” she asked. “I don’t know anything about media. But cameras? No, I don’t like them. I don’t like when people take pictures of me or anything like that.”
 
“You’re going to have to learn to be okay with it,” Mario said, and a look of pure terror appeared on her face. “Quinn, you’re the new owner. You’re going to have to face the media some. No, not a lot, but when something major happens, they’re going to come to you looking for answers.”
 
“I guess that’s just another aspect I’ll have to get used to,” she muttered, going over to Noah, Claire, and Riley and sitting down, waiting for the game to start. Her mind was racing. Mario was talking like she was the one that everyone was going to have to answer to. And, maybe that was partially true, considering she was the new owner. Maybe being a silent owner would be better, not only for her but for the whole team. Or maybe she should just give up the team altogether. She still wasn’t sure, and those thoughts were still going through her mind when the lights dimmed for the team introduction.
 
She paid special attention to the introductions, wanting to learn who the players were on the team. She listened as they announced each starting player, and it was easy to figure out who the fan favorites were by the loudness of the applause for each person, not to mention whose jersey everyone below her was wearing. She had seen a lot of Crosby and Malkin jerseys, and she assumed they were the two best players out there, though she really didn’t know. She had thought about Googling the team to learn some things about them, but between having to meet her mother and Garrett and meeting Kris to learn about the sport itself, she hadn’t had time. Though, she was contemplating doing it on her phone right now. But instead, she decided to pay attention to the game instead.
 
She had learned the basics from Kris, but nothing could have prepared her to watch it live. The game was so fast-paced, something Kris had left out, and she was confused about when players were able to come out of the penalty box, something they hadn’t covered during their lesson. She was unable to follow the puck on the ice, and this led to her being frustrated. She had hoped she would just pick the game up immediately, but it became apparent quickly that that wasn’t going to be the case. She felt she knew as much now as she did this morning before her lesson.
 
While Mario was screaming out at the players, Quinn sat there completely lost. Even Riley seemed to be into it more than she was, though she was probably just taking after Mario, yelling at the players. But, she seemed more educated on the sport than Quinn did at this point. By the second intermission, Quinn was more than ready to leave, though she knew she couldn’t do this. She didn’t know how many games there were in the season, but she knew it was more than she wanted, and she didn’t know how much more she could take at this point.
 
Noah had gone with Riley to walk around the arena, something to keep her occupied while there were no players out on the ice, leaving Claire and Quinn alone. “You don’t look like you’re having fun,” Claire observed, leaning over towards Quinn.
 
“Am I that obvious about it?” Quinn said with a small laugh.
 
“What’s wrong?” Claire asked.
 
Quinn sighed. “I know nothing about this game. Nothing. And, I can’t get into it when I don’t understand it. How am I supposed to be the owner when I don’t understand a damn thing?” she said, getting flustered. “Maybe I should just give the team to Dean,” she muttered.
 
Claire’s eyes widened. “Do you hear yourself, Quinn? You want to give the team to Dean? I know you’re having a hard time, and I know this was all put on you with no warning, but you need to just get settled in. You’re doing just fine,” Claire told her.
 
Quinn opened her mouth to argue, but Noah and Riley came back at that moment, and she didn’t want to say anything in front of Riley. So she just nodded her head and sat back in her chair waiting on the third period to be over so she could get out of there. However, Mario dropped another bomb on her near the end of the final period, telling her that he usually went down to the locker room after home games, something that he and Mitchell both had always done. Quinn knew she should do the same thing, even though what she really wanted to do was go home, crawl into bed, and sulk.
 
Instead, she found herself following Mario down the tunnel to the home locker room. She had said her goodbyes to Noah, Claire, and Riley, allowing them to go home and get Riley to bed. So, now she was on her own once again. Mario went in first to make sure the men were all decent before telling Quinn to come inside, too. She could hear different players making jokes about her, and she immediately regretted coming down there.
 
She bit the inside of her lip as Mario went over to congratulate the boys on their win, and she simply followed behind him like a lost puppy. “We scored some points for you,” Matt Cooke joked with her, something she didn’t find funny at all. She wished they would just forget all about that, but she knew that was never going to happen. She moved past him, and she heard him ask the player next to him, “What do you think it’s going to take to get her to leave and get a real owner? One that actually knows we score goals?”
 
He had thought he had said it quiet enough that she and Mario wouldn’t hear, but he was wrong. Quinn was going to let it go, but she noticed Mario turned to look behind him at Matt, giving him some sort of look that instantly made Matt go silent.
 
They continued to move on to the rest of the players, and when they got to Kris, he gave her a half-smile, which she returned, but she didn’t say anything to him except a simple “congratulations,” the same thing she had said to every other player.
 
She followed Mario out of the locker room, as he met his family to leave, and she just stood there for a moment, trying to get her bearings so she could figure out where she parked. As she was still trying to figure out where exactly in the arena she was, Kris walked out of the locker room. “Hey,” he smiled at her.
 
“Hey,” she replied in a similar fashion.
 
“So, how was the game?” he asked her.
 
“Confusing,” she answered honestly. “I was so lost, even after your lesson today. Which I don’t know if I ever thanked you for. So if I didn’t, thank you for taking the time to try to teach me,” she told him. “But I think it was a big waste of your time.”

“Hey,” he said, and she looked up at him, wondering what he was going to say. “No one learned this game in a day, not any of the guys in there, not me. And, you can’t either. But, you will learn it. I promise. How about I text you later and we can go over some more stuff?” he suggested. They had exchanged numbers at the coffee shop since Kris had made the comment about how he would have called her to tell her he was going to be late if he had had her number.
 
Quinn smiled at him, surprised he was still going to waste his time with her, but she was still so grateful for him. “Yeah,” she nodded her head. “I could use some more lessons.”
 
“Okay,” he told her with a smile. “I’ll see you later, have a good night,” he said, walking in the opposite direction.
 
“Hey Kris!” Quinn called out, and he turned around. “Can I ask you another question?”
 
“Sure.”
 
“How do I get out of here and to my car?” she asked, a hint of desperation in her voice.
 
He let out a light laugh before motioning for her to come to him. “Follow me, I’ll get you out of here.”