Determination

JAMES’S POV
 
I looked at the Sidney who appeared to be either drunk out of his mind or sober. He was slurring but his eyes showed pure desperation and fear. “What did you do Crosby?” I snapped; I have a whole drunk hockey team to round up. I don’t really have time for Sid’s stupid story.
 
He looked deep into my eyes and said, “Okay. It was an accident. Please don’t tell on me.”
 
I sighed and settled in to listen. This might be a long anecdote.
 
Sidney said, “Well, I was getting a drink over there and there was this really hot girl carrying a whole bunch of drinks. So I wasn’t paying enough attention and I backed right into her! She dropped all the drinks and glass went everywhere. She fell over and got a long, deep cut down her cheek. I was trying to pick her up and when I grabbed her hand I didn’t anticipate it to be covered in the drinks, so she slipped out of my grasp and hit her head on the bar stool. She ran out before I could say anything; tell her it was an accident and that I was sorry and that I’d pay for all the drinks. But before she ran out she screamed, ‘Sidney Crosby assaulted me!’ so loud that the whole club must have heard. So a handful of people here think I hurt her, and a bunch of sober people outside are going to hear her and be able to tell that she’s sober. And there’s a gash in her cheek, James what am I supposed to do?”
 
MARCH’S POV
 
I woke up to an empty bed, and sun filtering in through the windows of the small but bright hotel room. I sat up and grabbed my laptop from the floor to see I had 3 missed Skype calls and 4 new emails.
 
I opened up my email first. There was one from Allie, two from Kim and one from James. The fact that they were all from people I knew bothered me, usually when I open my email they’re all from hockey related things or like Forever 21. I picked up my phone to see 6 new text messages. Something’s up. I looked through the text messages.
 
From: James
1:09 AM
March, don’t listen to them.
 
What?
 
From: Dad
7:35 AM
March, please be very careful and tell Mr. Shero
 
From: Allie
8:22 AM
Whoa March… that girl looks A LOT like you.
 
From: Allie
8:23 AM
No… That isn’t you…
 
From: Kim
 8:27 AM
What the heck March?
 
From: Allie
8:40 AM
What the heck is going on here?
 
I looked at them nervously. The view from James’s perspective was different from all the others. Don’t listen to them he says. He provided no other detail, just instructed me not to listen to them.
 
My cell phone rang and I picked it up. “Hello?” I greeted the other end groggily.
 
“Oh my God March are you okay?” That was Rachel.
 
“What are you even talking about? I woke up five minutes ago Rach.”
 
Rachel groaned and said to the people in the background, “She just woke up guys, she hasn’t heard about it yet. March, you need to-”
 
I heard a beep, someone else is calling me. “One sec Rachel, I have a waiting call. Hello?”
 
“March? March it’s James. What do you know?”
 
I scratched my head, “Nothing, I just woke up. Just tell me what’s true and what’s not true.”
 
James sighed, “You’ll have to ask Sidney to know for sure, but the way he told the story, it’s a misunderstanding. But Ray and Dan are going to blow a fuse when we get to the arena.”
 
“What are you even talking about James? It’s an off day.”
 
James sighed, “It was. It still is for most of the guys. But a few of us have to go to a meeting with Ray and Dan and probably some other figures of authority. I think its you, me, Sidney, Evgeni, Matt Cooke and Staalsy.”
 
I leaned my head against the wall, what could have possibly happened that warrants this sort of response from everyone? “Okay. I’m talking to my sister too. I’ll have her tell me what she thinks is going on because she’s the public eye, and then I’ll give you a call and you’ll tell me what you know.”
 
“Okay. It sounds a little crazy, and it is. But it made some significant news in the hockey world. Some people won’t know about it, like people who are obsessed with football or soccer or basketball or baseball and what not. But if you’re even the least bit of a hockey fan, you heard about this one.”
 
“Alright. I’ll call you soon Nealer.”
 
“Later, Wilson.” I hung up and went back to my sister.
 
JORDAN’S POV
 
“Wow.” I said, reading the news article over again. “Just wow. Geno, have you SEEN this bullshit?”
 
He came over to the computer and read over my shoulder.
 
Late last night celebrating a big win, some Pittsburgh Penguins hockey players, including their star player and captain, Sidney Crosby made their way to a bar in Los Angeles.
Coming out of the bar, sober waitress Lauren Schaffer had a long cut on her face and was soaked in spilled drinks. All we know for sure is she shouted, “Sidney Crosby just assaulted me!”
She followed up later with, “All I know is he backed into me when I was carrying 11 different drinks over to another group of people. I fell and so did the drinks. And he did help me up, sort of. He had my hand and then when he was half done picking me up he pushed me right back down and I hit the back of my head on a tall stool at the bar.”
Ray Shero, the Pittsburgh Penguins GM (general manager) hasn’t announced anything, except for the fact that there will be a press conference held when the team arrives back in Pittsburgh including Mr. Shero, Coach Dan Bylsma, Sidney Crosby himself, Jordan Staal, James Neal and even new addition to the team and the first woman to play in the National Hockey League, March Wilson.
So what do you think? Does this sound like Sidney Crosby to you?
Take our poll below!

 
Geno cursed under his breath in Russian ( I think)
 
I said, “So, when do you think we’re getting our invitation to the press conference.
 
Geno handed me his iPhone, which was ringing, and the name that came up was “Ray.” “Now.” Geno stated.
 
I said, “Don’t pick it up, I believe we need to go see how Mr. Crosby is. And how March is.”
 
Geno rolled his eyes, “She love him.”
 
I nodded, “I think Sid likes her more though. I don’t think March understands how much Sid cares about her. Or James. James likes her a lot too, he even asked her out that one time, were you there for that? And what about Marc Andre? Oh boy, this is just great isn’t it?”
 
Geno just laughed, “Figuring this out now?”
 
I punched him in the shoulder, “No, they’re all pretty obvious about it. But come on, we should go talk to Crosby.”
 
MARCH’S POV
 
I knocked on the door and Jordan opened it. “Well hello there. We figured you couldn’t stay away from this whole thing too long.” He greeted me.
 
Kris pulled me aside, “Are you going to ask about the car thing?”
 
I nodded, “Yeah. Do you think it could have been the girl who was ‘assaulted’?” I put my hands up and made air quotes around “assaulted.”
 
Kris shook his head, “No. But I don’t think that’s one of the bigger problems, is it?”
 
I said, “I guess you’re right. I’m just so curious. Is Sidney going to be in trouble?”
 
“Oh yeah. He’s going to be up to his eyeballs in trouble. More than he’s ever been in in his whole entire life. It might actually be sort of entertaining to see how he deals with all of it. Considering he didn’t actually hurt her on purpose he’ll probably be pretty pissed off I’d imagine.”
 
I nodded, “That’s for sure.”
 
Kris filled me in on the truth, he didn’t throw her to the ground or cut her. The glass from the drinks was what cut up her face, and her hands were wet because of all of the spilled drinks and she slipped from Sidney’s grasp because he didn’t expect her hand to be so wet. But since it was she fell again and hit her head but she didn’t know that because it was dark and loud and totally confusing.
 
I nodded when he was done. “Ohhh that makes sense. SO why will Sid the Kid be in so much trouble if he didn’t really do anything?”
 
Kris laughed dryly, “Because who’s going to believe him. It makes us look really bad. You, me, Beau, Evgeni, everyone. Ray, Dan and just everyone in this organization. We are going to look as bad as the Chicago Blackhawks did when Patrick Kane hit the taxi driver because of the change or something. And lucky for them that was in the offseason. It’s still early in the season for us and this situation. All people following hockey are going to find out about it. It just makes us look really bad.”
 
I nodded, and looked at Sidney when he emerged from the kitchen and said one thing,
 
“I’m really sorry everybody.”