Oh Captain, My Captain

Chapter Two
"Thanks for giving me a chance, Coach," I said and then shook his hand and looked at the team.

Three weeks had gone by and all of my stuff was packed up and shipped out. Two weeks ago I had flown out to Pittsburgh to meet my new Coach and to find a home close to the arena, because they wanted to place me in a small apartment, and I needed a space for Sarabi.

At this moment, I was standing in front of the security section at the airport saying goodbye to my Coach and the team. I hugged each and every one of them and smiled towards them. Dustin walked forward with a wrapped box about the size of a shoebox.

"Don't open it, until you're on the plane," he said and I nodded my head and gave him one last hug.

"Good Luck, Alex!" the guys said and I waved towards them as I entered the LAX security check point and left my boys.

I went through the check point I gave one last wave towards the team and then headed towards my gate.

I listened to Dustin and didn’t open the box until I was on the plane. I sat in first class and carefully opened the box to be pleasantly surprised by letters, letters from every player on the team telling me how much they were going to miss me and how we were a family. I smiled and cried a little as I read each and every single letter during my trip. I found at the bottom of the box to be a bunch of pictures that were taken during my two years with them. I smiled and laughed a little as I looked at each picture, I needed to remember to write a letter to them when I get settled into my new home.

After ten hours of traveling I was finally in Pittsburgh and was tired. A man was waiting for me because he was going to drive me to the hotel that I had to stay at, because I needed to buy furniture for my new home. I had to find an airport official, because I needed to get my dog, who flew with me. Once I had Sarabi and saw that she was all right, I went to get my luggage and then we found the man, and headed towards the pet friendly hotel.

By the time I had gotten to the hotel it was almost ten o'clock at night, and I had serious jet lag. My car and personal items had been shipped out yesterday and were going to travel across the country; I was told it would be in Pittsburgh in about four or five days. So tomorrow I would have to rent a car, and survive without my personal things for now.

I managed to finally fall asleep around midnight, only to have to wake up around nine in the morning because I needed to go to the rental company, and had a lunch meeting with my new Coach around noon. Before I left I had walked Sarabi outside and cleaned up after her, I fed her and gave her fresh water.

Calling for a taxi, I headed back up to the airport and rented a Chevy Equinox for the week. I had time before my meeting, so I drove over towards my new home and smiled when I saw it. It was a cute little three bedroom house that was in a nice neighborhood, and had a fenced in backyard and a two car garage attached to the house.

I walked into the house and saw that there was a little area to place your jackets and shoes, and a door that led out into the garage, a small closet. There was a small stairwell that led you to the first floor, but as you turn, there was another door. I opened it and walked in to see some stairs going down. I walked down and was brought to the first bedroom. It had a full bathroom, a long closet, and enough room for a queen size bed, a chest, and nightstand. After I finished looking at the room, I went back up the stairs and found my way into the kitchen where there was a large walk-in pantry, refrigerator, stove, sink, dish washer. There was an open window and an extended table that led into the other open living room, and on the other side of that table there was room four bar chairs. I would need to get some furniture for the living room, there was a half bath and a space where the washer and dryer would go, and stairs that led to upstairs, doors that led to the private backyard. Next to the living room looked to be an empty room for an office, I would probably take the door of the hinges and put a doggie door in there and make this the dogs room. There was a hallway next to that room and then two glass double doors that looked to be a game room. I left that room and then headed outside and saw that there was a big enough yard for Sarabi, and even another dog; which I was thinking about getting. I saw the in ground pool, that was fenced in, which was good, I wouldn't want the dogs to go out and jump in and not be able to jump out.
I would have to hire someone to fence in an area for the dogs, Sarabi was a well trained Great Dane, and I knew that she could take care of herself, but I wanted to get a guard dog, because Sarabi just a gentle giant and would want a robber to pet her. My four boys weren’t here to help out if something were to happen.

After looking around downstairs, I walked up the stairs and into the three bedrooms, two bathrooms floor. The master bedroom had its own bathroom and the two bedrooms would share a bathroom, and I found out that there was a room where the washer and dryer was. Each bedroom had their own walk-in closet and had plenty of room for a queen sized bed, chest and nightstand. I would most likely hire someone to decorate the place, because I had no time for it, and even if I did, I wouldn't want to anyways.

Before I knew it, it was time to leave to head to the restaurant that I was going to meet the Captain of my team and the Coach again. I was to meet them at the Sonoma Grille, never heard of it, and had no clue where it was, so I knew I had to leave early enough, because I was most likely to get lost. Which I did.

"Glad you could make it, Alex," Dan Bylsma, my new Coach, said as he stood up and shook my hand, "Did you find the place all right?"

I tried to say yes, but lying was never my best talent, "Not really," I said and laughed nervously.

"Well that's all right, you'll learn to find everything after a month or two here. I don't know if you've ever met, but this is your Captain, Sidney Crosby," Coach said and I looked to the man standing next to him and smiled.

"No, but it's nice to meet the 'Golden boy'," I said and Sidney smiled.

"From what I hear, I have some competition," he said and looked down at my Championship ring on my finger, "Congratulations."

"Thanks," I said and then we all sat down. However, I was quite surprised to see Sidney pull out my chair and then push me in, "Thank you," I said and he nodded his head and then sat down next to Coach.

They were dressed in a nice suit and tie, and I was dressed in a nice dark green blouse and a black pencil skirt, with some golden flats to match my gold necklace and bracelets.

We sat in a not so casual Italian restaurant and I looked at the menu. When the waiter came over to take our order, I just ordered a Caesar salad and water, while the boys ordered some kind of steak and a beer.

"So, Alex, have you found a house?" Coach asked and I nodded my head and took a sip of my drink.
"Yes, I found one about twenty minutes from the arena."

"That's good, that's good," he said and then looked towards Sidney, "Alex couldn't stay in one of the apartments, because she has a dog."

"Oh, that makes sense, what kind of dog?" Sidney asked.

"A Great Dane," I said and he eyes widened.

"That's not a dog, that's a horse!" he said and I laughed.

"She's my baby, I don't know what I would do without her," I said and Sidney nodded his head.
Coach's cell phone rang and he sighed, "It's the wife, would you excuse me, I need to take this."
I nodded my head and he got up and left. I looked at my phone and saw that I had a few text messages.

"So how do you like Pittsburgh so far?"

I looked up towards Sidney and smiled, "It's all right, to me it's just like any Pennsylvania that I've seen," I said and he looked confused, "I was born in Pennsylvania and lived her for the first twenty years of my life."

"Oh really, what part?"

"Hanover Township, it's right next to Wilkes-Barre."

"Wilkes-Barre, it's that where the other Penguins play?"

"Yeah, I use to go to see the games a lot."

"Oh cool, so what made you get into hockey?"

"Uh, actually after watching the movie 'Miracle' I knew that's what I wanted to do with my life."

"Oh really, how old were you then?"

"About seven years old. My mom already had me signed up for ice skating and ballet, but kind of snuck out of those and signed myself up for the peewee hockey team," I said and Sidney laughed.

"You're Mom must have not been happy about that?"

"No, no she wasn't," I said and the shook my head. I looked at Sidney and saw him take a sip of his beer, "So how are you doing? I heard about your concussion," the look on his face when I asked that kind of said it all to me, "Sorry, I know it's a touchy subject, I've personally never had to go through that, but some of my old teammates had to."

"No, it's all right. It's hard, you know. I have to come back little by little."

"Is that why you didn't go home?"

"Yeah, I wanted to stay back and practice. The Doc says that I might not even be ready for opening night, but I want to prove them wrong."

"Well I know it's rough, but, if you need help, I'm here," I said and he smiled towards me.

"Well thank you, I appreciate it."

"It's no problem, we are teammates now after all," I said and then smiled towards Sidney, and he smiled back.

"Well, I'm glad that's over with," I looked back and saw Coach walking back and sitting back in his seat across from me.

"Everything all right?" Sidney asked.

"Yeah, the kid just drew on the wall with a crayon," he said and I laughed a little, remembering that I use to do that as a child, "She's freaking out because she can't get it off the wall."

"Tell her to try vinegar," I said and they both looked at me, "I use to draw on the wall too, and my dad would have to use vinegar to get it off the wall."

"Oh, it must be a kid thing, because I did too," Sidney said and I laughed, "But I don't remember having to use vinegar. Mom just made me sit there and clean it until it was gone."
"Oh brother," Coach said and Sidney and I laughed.

By the time that dinner was over and we had ran out of topics to talk about, I looked at my phone and saw that we had been at the restaurant for about three hours. Coach ended up paying the bill, and then we decided to part ways from there.