Oh Captain, My Captain

Chapter Nine
"That was good, Alex. You were a little slow at first, but good for your first practice," Coach said and I nodded my head.

He was right, I was slow. I wasn't able to get much sleep last night because I was up with Sidney, but once I got about three cups of coffee, I was fine.

It was about noon and practice was over, Coach had gone home, but I decided that I was going to stay a little bit longer, because I love that feeling that I got when I was on the ice.
I took a puck and skated towards the middle of the ice and shot it into the goal. I heard clapping and turned my head to see Sidney leaning against the boards wearing only a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as I skated over towards him.

"I wanted to see what you were capable of."

"I wasn't that great today, I was tired."

"Yeah, that was my fault," Sidney said and I laughed.

"Yeah, but I didn't tell Coach that."

"Good, he would probably have my ass for it," Sidney confessed and I shook my head, "How long have you been here?"

"Since eight."

"You hungry?"

"Starving," I said and he smirked.

"You wanna get something to eat?"

"Actually I have some food at home that I wanted to cook up; you're welcomed to come over."

"All right," he said and then I walked off of the ice and he followed.

I headed back towards the locker room and then just as I was about to change I saw Sidney just standing there. I turned around to look at him and then saw his eyes widen and he ran out of the room. I laughed and shook my head and turned back around to change.

'...He didn't have to leave; he just had to turn around...' I thought as I hopped into the shower and did my business.

-Sidney-
'...That was a close one. We're gunna have to figure out what to do about that...' I thought as I sat on the ground outside of the locker room and waited for Alex.

"Sidney? What are you doing here?"

I looked up and saw Coach walking towards me. I stood up and looked at him, "Oh, I just wanted to see how Alex was during practice."

"Oh, but why were you on the ground?"

"Oh, she's in the locker room showering and changing," I said and the Coach nodded his head.

"Yeah, at the arena it'll be different, she'll have an area of her own to shower and change," he said and I nodded my head.

"But will it be that way when we're away?" I asked and Coach looked like he was thinking about it.

"I don't know, guess I'll have to make some calls," he said and I nodded my head and then watched as he walked away.

I sighed and then leaned against the wall and slid down until I was sitting on the ground. I checked my watch and even thought she was in there for ten minutes, it still felt like forever, '...Typical girl...'
After a half hour went by, Alex walked out of the locker room and practically tripped over me.

"I'm so sorry! Are you all right?!" she said and I laughed a little and stood up.

"It's okay, I'm all right," I said and then saw that she had her hair up in a high pony tail, she had a tight white tank top on, and black shorts with jogging sneakers on. I took a gulp because she looked cute, and it would be bad if I let something happen between us, "You ready to go?"

"Yeah, do you remember the way?" she asked and I nodded my head and the two of us walked out of the rink and headed towards our cars.

-Alex-
I was standing in my kitchen shredding some Parmesan cheese feeling Sidney stare at me.

"So where did you learn to cook?" he asked as he took a beer out of the fridge.

"My grandmother taught me. Lord knows my Mother never step foot into a kitchen with the intention to cook," I said and Sidney laughed a little and then hopped up onto the counter.

"You make her sound like the devil."

"No, she's just the devil's wife," I joked and then the two of us laughed. I started to slice an eggplant and started my indoor grill.

"Wow, smells good already," he said and I smiled, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Um, in the pantry I have loaf of French bread; can you get it out for me?" I asked and Sidney nodded his head and walked over towards the pantry.

"Holy cow, there's a lot of stuff in here!" he said and I laughed.

"I love food, so I keep a lot of food in the house."

"But you're so tiny!" he said and I looked at him surprised he said that.

"I might be tiny, but I can still kick ass on the ice!" I said and he smirked and walked over towards me, "Besides, do you know how much I work out and how many calories I burn a day. I need to eat a lot of healthy food to keep up my strength."

"At least you eat healthy," he said.

"Until you put any amount of ice cream in front of me, then that stuff is gone!" I said and he laughed.

"I'm a big chip person," he confessed.

Once the indoor grill was ready, I placed the eggplant slices onto the grill and grilled them. I placed the shredded cheese onto of the eggplants and Sidney sliced the bread for our eggplant parmesan sandwiches.

"Can you grab some plates out of the cabinet for me?" I asked as I pointed towards the cabinet.

"Sure," he said and then grabbed the plates and placed them next to me.

I took the pieces of bread and placed them on the grill to get some nice grill marks on them. After about a minute I took them off and placed them neatly on the plate and then grabbed a spatula and grabbed the cheesy eggplants and placed two on each pieces of bread.

"Lunch is served!" I said and then handed Sidney the plates and he placed them on the extended part of the table and sat down in a chair.

"Looks good!" he cooed and I smiled and then walked over towards the pantry and grabbed a bag of chips.

"Hey what kind of chips do you like?!" I asked from the pantry.

"Sour Cream and Onion!" he called and I smiled.

"Perfect, that's the kind I have!" I said and then pulled out a Middleswarth bag of chips, "When it comes to chips, these are my favorites! You can't find them anywhere except the North East."

"Really?"

"Yeah, when I was in L.A. I had them specially delivered because I love them so much."

"They're that good?"

"They're amazing!" I said and then placed the bag in front of Sidney and walked around him to sit in the chair next to him.

Sidney opened the bag and tried a chip and his face lit up, "These are so good!"

"I know right!" I said and then tried a bite of the sandwich.

"This is really good!"

I looked over and saw that Sidney was trying the sandwich, "I was kind of nervous at first because I never had eggplant before, but this is really good."

"Thank you!" I said and then took another bite.

"You're really good at this."

"Well, I did take a few cooking classes in college when I had a few extra credits to use up and if I didn't make it into the NHL then I was probably going to become a chef," I said and he nodded his head.

"Well, you're really good at this, so my compliments to the chef!" he teased and I laughed.