Determination

“AND THIS,” James yelled, leading me downstairs, “IS THE PENGUINS ROOM!”
 
The walls here painted back and gold, with actually worn uniforms hanging in glass cases. I stood there in awe, seeing there was a painted mural of all the guys who live here; the picture was them on the ice. Jordan Staal, James Neal, Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Marc Andre Fleury they were all donning their uniforms standing on the ice in a full arena of screaming fans. I gasped, “This is amazing!”
 
James smiled, “Glad you like it. You’re going to be painted in soon too, and we’re going to put the sweater you wear tomorrow up in the glass cases. We sent Duper out to get a new glass case for you.
 
I smiled, “No, don’t. It would totally ruin this.”
 
I looked over the rest of the room, a pool table, one of those hockey table things, a huge TV and a big black couch with game controllers strewn about. There were pillars in the middle, separating the TV area from the pool table and hockey table. “Wow you guys really did this up!”
 
James replied, “I know right? I was amazed when I came here too.”
 
He was giving me a grand tour of the house, and this was the bottom floor of the house.
 
We played a few games of pool, in which I got beat all three times. And I got beat bad. “I’ll get you next time Nealer!”
 
He snorted and replied, “I’m too good! No one beats me at pool! Not even Duper, and he beats everyone. But so do I, which means he is not Super Duper, and I am the Real Deal James Neal!”
 
“Wait, what?” We bath cracked up. “Hey, do you smell that?”
 
James sniffed the air, “No, what?”
 
I looked at him skeptically and just said, “We should go upstairs.” I ran up the stairs and threw the door open, the door that leads to the kitchen.
 
I laughed at the scene that was quickly unfolding.

Jordan had a pan of something, smelled like burnt eggs. Something on the stove had gone up in flames, and he was whacking the fire with a huge dish towel, while Kris was getting a bucket of water from the sink, and Marc Andre Fleury was blowing on the flames that were getting more enormous by the second.
 
Once James was at my side he said, “Usually, I’m the one who starts this kind of thing.”
 
I laughed again and yelled, “Calm down Jordan! Flowers, blowing on it is only going to make it bigger, okay? Kris, do you have a-”
 
Sidney interrupted me when he walked into the room, “A fire extinguisher?” He suggested, a gleam in his dark hazel eyes. He had the big red fire extinguisher in his arms, and yelled, “Stand back everyone! I have to extinguish the fire!”
 
Sidney must have broken the stupid thing, because when he pulled the pin and squeezed the lever, nothing came out.
 
“Sidney you idiot! You are going to burn down our house!” Flower joked.
 
Sidney glared at him, and threw it on the floor, and that’s when all the stuff exploded out of it. I screamed and felt someone run into me and cover my head and face with their arms, as all the stuff blew into the room, and I heard the door bell ring, and someone let themselves in.
 
A few minutes later, the person holding me let go of me, and I found that it was Marc Andre. His brown eyes looked into mine and he asked me, “Are you okay March?”
 
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ve just never seen that happen before.” I said.
 
He smiled, revealing his big white teeth. Some of these guys have unbelievable teeth for NHL hockey stars.
 
Sidney laughed, “Oops! Sorry guys! There’s a little dent in the floor!” He smiled and looked directly at me, and I smiled back.
 
Marc Andre snapped, “Way to go Sid! Now we have to call someone in to take the floor out and fix it!” He stormed out of the room and up the stairs, leaving us all in a quiet, awkward moment of silence that Marc Andre had created. We heard a door slam upstairs.
 
Sidney pressed his lips together in a hard line. “I don’t think we have to rip the floor out, it’ll be fine!” He tried to sound reassuring, but hurt was seeping into his voice, and I could see sadness in his eyes.
 
I looked beside him to the giant who had let himself in. “What happen?”
 
He started straight at me, his eyes full of hatred and accusation.
 
“Just a small fire, we’re all fine.” I answered him. He was staring right at me anyway.
 
He ran a hand through his hair and muttered something in Russian that I didn’t catch.
 
Jordan asked, “Okay, since my breakfast for dinner idea is, well, a total failure, and because I’m just a total failure in the kitchen, but anyway why don’t we just have March make us some food?”
 
“Haha. Very funny. How does dinner in Pittsburgh sound to you all? I haven’t eaten at a restaurant here yet!”
 
Kris shook his head, “Nah, I ate out earlier today.”
 
Sidney stuck his tongue out. “Ew, I know Claire was in town but stop being so sexual!”
 
Kris’s cheeks turned a deep shade of red when he remembered what he had said. “That’s not what I meant!” He whined. “I meant I had lunch in the Burgh earlier today with Claire. Jordy, didn’t you go with some of the others too? Plus March, you have your first game in the National Hockey League tomorrow so we shouldn’t stay out late. Or even risk it.
 
I nodded, “You’re right. Take out?”
 
Sidney said, “Sounds good to me!” Everyone else soon agreed, and we ordered from a local Chinese place.
 
After I placed my order, I walked upstairs and knocked on Marc Andre’s bedroom door. “Marc Andre, please open this door.” I said, sounding a bit like my own mother.
 
I didn’t hear a response so I repeated myself, “Marc Andre!”
 
He said, “No, I’m good.”
 
I softened my voice, “Please Marc Andre, I need to talk to you.”
 
“Is Sidney there with you?”
 
“No, why would he be?”
 
“Prove it.”
 
I yelled, “Hey Sidney can you check and see if I left the TV on in the game room?”
 
We both heard him yell from downstairs, “Alright! I don’t think you did though.”
 
“Proof enough?” I asked Marc Andre through the door with a soft laugh.
 
He opened the door and motioned me in, shutting the door behind him. He plopped back down on his bed, and he had taken off the hat I’ve grown accustomed to him wearing backwards. He ran his hands through his back hair, his eyes distressed.
 
“What’s wrong?” I asked, sitting down on the bed next to him, rubbing his back.
 
He closed his eyes and said “I don’t know where I messed up my friendship with Sidney. We were friends on Tuesday!”
 
I nodded, “Yeah, you two need to make up. We can’t have the captain of the team and the best goalie in the NHL fighting, can we?”
 
He nodded, and opened his big, soft, gentle brown eyes for me to see again. “I wonder if we’ll ever be friends again?” He said wistfully.
 
“I’m sure you will, but one of you needs to be the bigger man and go make up.”
 
Marc Andre nodded, and leaned up against the wall. I switched my position so I was beside him again. “Look, I don’t think it’s something that will be resolved,” He searched for a word, and finally said, “I don’t think that this is something that can be resolved so easily.”
 
I knew he was keeping me in the dark about something, “Alright, but you both have to make an effort to be nice to each other, alright?”
 
He nodded and grumbled something I didn’t catch. “Deal?” I asked.
 
He grumbled something and I said, “Speak up, would you?”
 
“Deeeaaaal,” He groaned exaggeratedly.
 
I smiled and messed up his hair with my hands. “Good. I ordered Chinese food, Jordy is probably still ordering, so if you want dinner you should probably go now.”
 
He nodded, “Okay. Tell Staalsy to wait for me?”
 
I replied, “Sure! See you downstairs.”
 
I left the room, not closing his door on the way out, even though I knew he wanted me too.
 
Sidney met me at the bottom of the stairs, “You didn’t leave the TV on downstairs,” He said, sounding confused.
 
I said, without offering an explanation for my strange request, “Good then!”
 
He gave me a strange look, “How’s Flowers?”
 
I shrugged, “I think he’ll be alright. I think He thinks you hate him.”
 
Sidney looked at the floor. “I feel bad for saying what I said to him the other day, about that awful Devils game. Playoffs too. I know it’s a sore spot for him, and the rest of the team too. I should have kept it to myself. Do you think he’ll forgive me for it?”
 
I replied, “Yeah, he’ll come around. But you’re right, you should have kept that one to yourself. You should apologize and I think he’ll accept it.”
 
Sidney nodded, “And the only,” His eyes grew wide and he bit his lip, as if he had said too much, even though he had said nothing at all.
 
It was my turn to be confused, “Wait, what? And the only what?”
 
He gulped and shook his head, “Never mind. I ordered Marc Andre a sushi thing. He likes it, if I remember right. What did you order?”
 
“Chicken Lo Mein.” I used to share a medium size chicken Lo Mein platter with James. “What did you get?”
 
“I got some spicy sushi rolls.” Sidney answered.
 
We went downstairs to join the others, and it looked like they had a heated game of pool going on. “James, your turn.” Kris said solemnly.
 
I smiled and watches James step up to the plate, his facial expression was dead serious, and I couldn’t help but chuckle as he took his turn, knocking a red pool ball into the hole near Jordan.
 
“Wanna play?” Kris asked after James took his turn. “James is on my team, and Staalsy is a loner over there.”
 
Sidney encouraged me to go be on Jordan’s team, and when I got up to join his everyone clapped and cheered for me, leaving my face a deep shade of pink. “You guys,” I mumbled, and James was the only one who heard me.
 
He said, “The guys that you love to DEATH!”
 
I smiled at him, “Yes James. I love you to DEATH.” I exaggerated the word death, just like he did.
 
I took my turn, and put the 8 ball in a pocket in the board, the last ball left on the table.
 
“TEAM JARCH WINS!” James shouted.
 
“Did you just call me Jarch?” I asked him, raising an eyebrow.
 
“Well yeah March. Jordan, March, put them together and you CLEARLY get Jarch!”
 
I rolled my eyes and replied, “And team Krames loses!”
 
Kris and James laughed at their team nickname. Kris said, “And then there’s the losers who aren’t playing,” He thought for a second, “Um, Maridney!”
 
We all laughed and I commented, “You forgot the Andre part of Flower’s name! So if you actually include that, I get LOSER.” It was the stupidest joke I’ve ever made in my whole life.
 
That smart ass Sidney said, “Actually, I get Marandney!”
 
We all cracked up, “We are such retards!” I said to Jordan, and he nodded in agreement. “Does the media ever see the retard side of us?”
 
They all nodded, “Sort of.” Sidney said.
 
“Hey, wasn’t Evgeni here?” Jordan asked.
 
Kris replied, “Oh yeah. We should probably find out what happened to him.”
 
“Who does he live with?” I asked.
 
Kris said, “Pascal Dupuis, Tanner Glass, Brooks Orpik, and Cookie.”
 
“Aren’t all of those guys married though? Why would he want to live with a bunch of married couples?” I asked, in all honesty I just don’t understand it.
 
All the guys were quiet for a long time, and pretty much all of them stared at the ground. Sidney was the first to speak, “Weeeeellll,” He dragged out the word and didn’t look up at me. “Just promise not to ttell Evgeni we told you this, as much as you might like to.”
 
I nodded, “Okay! Why does he live with them?”
 
James said, “He was almost married. We all thought he was going to pop the question to his long term girl friend, but he never did.”
 
Jordan continued the story, “And they had the best relationship for a while, and then they went through this huge phase. It was awful, they broke up and despised each other for like EVER. It was crazy.”
 
Kris said quietly, “They broke up, she wasn’t treating Geno right. Evgeni went through this terrible period, every day he was either extremely sad, or angry at EVERYONE. And then he got back together with her.” He spit the words out bitterly.
 
Sidney started again, “We all thought it would be better if she came back, they could get married and have a great life together. And when she came back, it was okay for a few days. Everything was going great.”
 
Jordan added, “And then she started treating him like shit again. It was awful. He was trying to stick with her, and then the season ended. They went back to Russia together.”
 
“And when they came back,” James said quietly.
 
Sidney finished, “They were a MESS. They broke up for the last time, and Evgeni became a mess again. He had an awful half of the season. We didn’t even make the playoffs. It was so messed up that he stuck with her the whole time. She was a conceited bitch. She was a rich snob. She had been married and was going through a messy divorce in Russia with some billionare. Evgeni stayed with her for like EVER. He should have dropped her right after he met her. Even he knew she was awful. Sh hasn’t been back, but if she does come back, I’m scared he’ll take her back in a heart beat, and that would be awful for him, and us too. They were serious, like REALLY serious though. They might have feen able to have a good life together, they were pretty perfect for each other.But it was CRAZY. It was like that for years. So he was staying with married couples because they were, well, pretty much a married couple.”
 
I was quiet, and suddenly felt so bad for Evgeni. He was just damaged, how could they not see it, the girl must be back. My heart broke for poor Evgeni Malkin. 

"Oh." Was all I could say.

I should probably apologize to Malkin, and it was almost as if Sidney could read my mind because he freaked out for a second and said, "Wait! But you absolutely CAN NOT tell Evgeni you know. You can't even drop hints to him!" Sidney's brown eyes were open wide, and Jordan, James and Kris all looked at me too, exteremly nervous I would tell Evgeni something I'm not supposed to know.

I nodded, "Yeah. You're right."
****************************************
New Message: Allie Trimm
hey march! first nhl game 2morrow!

I smiled and texted back.
hey allie! Im scared!

New Message: Allie Trimm
y? Itz gunna be awesome! Id be there, but i got class. :/ lucky bitch skipping all this school to chill with nhl players.

New Messgae: March Wilson
sorta. They r friends really. Hows college?

New Message: Allie Trimm
okayish. I miss u, dont have any best friends here. No1 as cool as you. Im sorta friends with a girl named Dani tho. Shes a pens fan

New Message: March Wilson
You deserve to have fun! Hows the weather. Freezing in the burgh

New Message: Allie Trimm
Its Southern Cali, what do u expect? Gtg, dinner.

New Message: March Wilson
Later allie

I ended the conversation. I miss Allie. Suddenly, my laptop strted buzzing, a skype call from my family.

I clicked on it, and Kim's face popped up on the screen. "Hey girl!"

She screamed, "GUYS! I GOT IT TO WORK!"

David and James both appeared on the screen. "Hey boys! How's it going?"

"We could ask you the same question, March!"

I smiled, "I'm alright. How's school Kim? Did you get Mr. Coleman for math?"

She made a face. "Yeah. You're right he's SO mean!"

I smiled and nodded, "Yeah he sucks."

"Do you have any NHL players there?" David asked, and I saw James nudge his shoulder. I smiled, I knew he wanted to meet some professional hockey players as much as his brother does.

I nodded, "Wanna meet some Pittsburgh Penguins?"

All three of my siblings nodded in excitement. "Alright, Alright, they're all downstairs, so I'll go down there."

I carried the laptop into the hall, and Marc Andre called me from his room. I smiled at my brothers and sister, "One sec." I raised my voice, "Uh I'm a little busy, but what's up?"

He emerged from his room, and looke at me, so many questions in his eyes. "What do you have going on there?" He said in his French accent.

I gave him a smile. "I'm just talking to my siblings, Kim, James and David."

Marc Andre smiled and grabbed the laptop from me, and looked into the camera, the looks on my siblings faces were priceless. "Hey guys. March loves you guys and that's all she talks about."

I heard James laugh and say, "Are you seriously Marc Andre Fleury?"

Marc Andre laughed, "The one and only. How are you guys?"

"RACHEL! IT'S MARC ANDRE FLEURY!" Screeched David and I smiled as Rachel exploded onto the screen.

Marc Andre joked around with my kid siblings for a while, before David yawned and we heard my mom yell that it's time to get some sleep.

"Let's introduce him to the others really quickly!" Marc Andre gave me back the laptop and ran downstairs.

"Who else is there?" James asked, and I smiled.

"We have some more people downstairs."

I walked down the stairs and set the laptop down on the kitchen counter. Sidney was walking around in the background, not noticing I had sat down. I put a finger to my lips for my siblings to see. Sidney waltzed in and out of the camera for a while, before James broke the silence an started laughing.

Sid turned around and Kim screeched again. Sidney laughed, "Skyping March?" He sat down next to me and I gave him a smile.

I nodded. "Sidney, these are my siblings. Kim, James and David." I pointed to each on the screen as I said their names. "And you already know, but this is one of my BEST FRIENDS Sidney Crosby."

Kim's jaw pretty much hit the floor, "Hey Sidney Crosby!" Her voice was high pitched and squeaky. "Are you really best friends with my sister?"

Sidney nodded, "Totally. I love her! She's awesome!"

"Ooo Sid and March are daaaating!" James (my brother) sang.

As if on cue, James walked into the shot (yeah, James Neal this time). "Alright James Wilson, this is my friend, James Neal. James Neal, this is my little brother James Wilson, and Kim and David."

James waved,'"Hey guys! Uh March, have you seen Krissy?"

"I'm pretty sure Kris went with his girlfriend, Claire. Did Evgeni leave?"

"Evgeni Malkin?" David asked and i nodded.

James Neal nodded too. "Oh okay. I was looking for him, I wanna beat him in pool so badly! Can I play you after? And yeah, Geno left after we finished our Chinese food."

"I'm going to sleep once i'm done here Jamsey. It's my first NHL game tomorrow. And you were wrong, the game is at 4:30 PM."

James nodded, "Oh alright."

Jordan came into the kitchen, and I introduced him to my siblings, and Marc Andre came back too.

"Alright guys, I'll see you tomorrow!"

Kim looked confused, "What do you mean, you'll see us tomorrow?"

"You're coming to Pittsburgh tomorrow. For the game?" My stomach fell.

Kim called Dad over, and I intoduced him to the hockey players I live with. "Um Dad, you guys are coming tomorrow, right?"

He bit his bottom lip, "Um, no actually. Sorry March. A huge mandatory meeting in Florida came up for tomorrow, and I'm taking the family. I love you and I'll be watching the whole game!"

I faked a smile, "Oh okay. Have fun in Florida! I have to go, Dad. See you, whenever."

He nodded, "Alright. Good luck March."

"Thanks Dad." My voice broke and he signed off.

I collapsed into Sidney's shoulder, "They're not coming tomorrow Sidney."

He rubbed my back, "Prove 'em wrong. Prove that you're better off without them."

I wiped a tear off my face.
***************************************
i was so nervous, I lay awake in bed for at least an hour before some one opened the door.

"Hey. You alright March?" Sidney.

In the dark I made out his silhouette comig towards my bed.

"I'll be okay."

I felt his warm hand move a section of hair away from my face.

I closed my eyes, "God March, you're freezing." He brought himself under the covers with me. He's so WARM and I couldn't help but snuggle into him. "Nervous for tomorrow?"

I nodded, "Hell yeah. Are you?"

"Not really. Been doing this a while, you know?"

I nodded, "Yeah."

We were both quiet, and I could feel myself startin to warm up next to his warm body. He kissed my brunette curls and wrapped an arm around me, and I felt my eyes drooping.

"Sidney?"

"Yeah March?"

There were so many things I wanted to say, so many things I could say. I wanted to thank him, but there are too many things to thank him for. I looked into his brown eyes. There's no ine more gorgeous on this team than Sidney Crosby. I smiled at him, and he gave me a small beautiful smile in return that made my stomach explode into butterflies. Damn, I must be really tired. It's getting to my head. "Thanks for everything."

He smiled again, making my heart melt. "Oh please, it's nothing." He wrapped an arm over my body and I smiled inwardly. "Ready to sleep March?"

I nodded, and I was asleep within minutes.