Oh Captain, My Captain

Chapter Ninety Seven
“So it’s time for the auction for charity,” Coach said as we all sat in the locker room.
“When is it?” Geno asked and Coach looked at him.
“Two weeks,” he answered and we nodded our heads, I was already informed about this from Mario, but the guys still didn’t know, “You remember the rules?”
“Yeah,” most of them said but I sighed, I didn’t, so they had to explain it to me.
“So basically, you’re going to be selling our bodies off?” I asked with a smirk on my face.
“Pretty much,” Max said and I sighed.
“There’s another announcement,” Coach said and we looked at him, “Crosby, Talbot, Conners, Fleury, Malkin, Letang, Neal, Sutter, and Bennett, be at Brashear High School at nine o’clock tomorrow morning.”
“What?” we asked and Coach looked at us.
“You’re going to be talking about health, fitness, answering questions, signing some autographs, stuff like that,” Coach said and we nodded our heads, “Don’t forget.”

-Sidney-
“I think he forgot,” Alex said as we leaned against the Tahoe in the high school parking lot.
“Try calling him again,” Marc said and Alex sighed and nodded her head.
“Voicemail,” she said and I shook my head.
Everyone was here, except for Max.
“There he is,” Kris said and we looked to see that he was pulling into the parking lot.
“All right, let’s go,” I said as we walked towards the high schools entrance.
The school’s Principal met us at the door and then walked us to the auditorium where we saw that there were nine chairs on the stage. We stood on the side of the stage and watched as teachers started to usher the students into the audience.
“Been a long time since I was in a high school,” Alex said and I smirked and looked out with her.
“All lot of people out there,” I said and she nodded her head.
“Guys,” I heard and Alex and I turned around to see that there was a guy that wanted to clip a mini microphone onto our jerseys.
I smirked when I looked at us to see that we all wore our away jerseys and we all had jeans on, it was like we planned to match or something. The Principal said that he would announce us on stage and then we would be able to start our presentation about fitness and then answer questions about whatever these kids had in mind.
We all stood next to each other and Alex’s elbow was on my shoulder and I looked to see that Geno was dangling his arms from her shoulders and his head was propped on top of hers. I smirked at Alex’s face when she felt him and then shook it off.
The Principal one by one announced us onto the stage, myself first, the Alex, Max, Geno, Kris, Marc, Beau, James and then Brandon. We sat in our seats and then smiled when we heard the kids screaming.
“All right Penguins, take it away,” the Principal said and I nodded my head.

-Alex-
I knew no one really wanted to hear about how we got to our physical shape. Everything that the boys were saying was going through one ear and out the other, all they cared about was asking us some serious and some stupid questions.
“All right now, we have this board that will pop up with questions from the students. This is the only time that you’re allowed to have your cell phones out, but text your questions for the players to this number,” the Principal stated and I looked at the board.
“That’s pretty cool,” I said and the guys nodded their heads.
“And please keep it appropriate,” the Principal added and I smirked, “All right, first question, for Alex Conners, how does it feel to be the only woman in the NHL?”
I smirked and gripped my mic, it was a question that I’ve gotten a lot and right now, it feels like I rehearse it, “Well, it feels amazing; I grew up in this sport and couldn’t picture my life without it. I have the pleasure of working with a great bunch of guys and happy to say that I fulfilled my life goal.”
“We love you too, Alex,” Max teased and then patted my shoulder and I smirked and shook my head while the guys and some of the kids laughed.
“All right, Kris Letang, what is you favorite color?”
“Blue,” Kris answered quickly and I smirked at the random question.
“Evgeni Malkin, will you speak something in Russian?” the Principal read from the board and I laughed and then leaned over towards Max and placed the mic to my mouth.
“I told you that they like the accent,” I teased and he smirked and then spoke a sentence in Russian and we heard some of the girls like sigh, which only made me laugh.
“Beau Bennett, how does it feel to be recently drafted to the NHL?”
‘…A lot of hockey fans here?...’ I thought as I picked up on how some of the kids were asking serious questions.
More questions came, one girl had asked Sidney be her date for prom, and I smiled towards him, and watched as he struggled to polity decline.
“Max Talbot, you look hot with your new haircut, by why the change?” the Principal read and I threw my head back and laughed and heard the others laugh too.
“Well thanks for that, whoever you are,” Max started and laughed a little, “I don’t know, just needed a change.”
The Principal started to talk about someone trying on a sports jacket and then walking down a runway. I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I laughed because he looked funny doing it.
“Oh boy, Max Talbot, would you walk the runway to show off your new haircut,” the Principal read and I looked onto the board to see that the question was really on the board.
“Boy that’s a real knee slapper!” I laughed and Sidney chuckled while Max smirked and lightly shoved my shoulder.
“How do you walk down a runway?” Max asked as he stood up and walked to the other side of the stage and started to walk down the runway, swaying his hips and stopping midway to pop his hip to the side and look at the audience.
I was laughing so hard that tears started to fall from my eyes. I was shaking my head and I felt Geno shoving my shoulder. I looked over towards him and the guys were looking at me and laughing. I gave them thumbs up, telling them that I was ok, and then shook my head.
“Is this it?” Max asked as he turned his back towards the audience and stuck his butt out.
“That’s definitely it, sweetie,” I said and he smirked and then turned around and waved to the kids.
“That was wonderful,” the principal stated as Max sat back down next to me and I bumped my shoulders with his.
“I think I sold it,” he whispered into my ear and I laughed and nodded my head.
“You definitely sold something,” I muttered and he smirked.
After we finished up some questions, we sat at the edge of the stage and started to sign autographs for the students that would like some. I smiled as the girls and guys came up supporting their Penguins shirts, hats, backpacks, and posters.
“Um, Ms. Conners,” I heard and looked up from signing a shirt to see a little boy, probably looking to be thirteen.
“Call me Alex, sweetie,” I said and then laughed a little when his face grew a little red. I looked up to see that he was one of the last students to come up, so I bent down, because he was unusually small for a boy of his age, “What’s up, cutie?”
“Um, my big sister is a big fan of yours, she’s been fallowing you since you started playing for Tennessee,” he explained and I was a little surprised that I’ve had a fan for that long, “She wanted to be here and was really excited to know that you were coming to school today-“
“What’s wrong with her, sweetie? Is she sick?”
“She’s sick with the flu,” he said sadly and I frowned.
‘…Poor thing…’ I thought as I sighed and looked up towards Sidney, “Sid, you got a piece of paper?”
“Yeah,” he said and then handed me a copy of what kind of health things that he talked about before. I ripped a piece off and then wrote down the number for Mario’s office.
I handed the piece of paper to the little boy and smiled towards him, “What’s your name, sweetie?”
“Ian O’Ryan,” he said and I smiled towards him.
“Well, Ian O’Ryan, give this to your parents and have them give me a call,” I said and Ian smiled brightly towards me, “We’ll set something up when you’re sister gets better.”
“Really?” he asked excitedly and I smiled and nodded my head, “Awesome! She turns sixteen in two weeks; I know she’ll love meeting you! You’re the reason she decided that she wanted to try out for the football team.”
“Did she make it?”
“Number one running back in the state!” he cheered and I laughed and smiled brightly.
“Good for her! I know if you put your mind to it, you can do anything!” I said and he smiled and nodded his head.
“Come on, Mr. O’Ryan,” I heard and looked to see that a teacher was waiting for him.
“I better get going!” he said and I nodded my head, “Thanks so much! You’re gunna make Hannah so happy.”
“You’re welcomed, and maybe you should keep this a secret, make it a surprise for your sister,” I said and he nodded his head, “You’re a good little brother.”
“I try,” he said and then I gave him a quick hug and he ran off towards his teacher.
“What was that about?” Sidney asked as I stood up.
“Just showing off my awesomeness,” I laughed and he shook his head.
“Oh yeah, Alex, you’re awesomeness is too much to handle!” Max said and the guys and I laughed.
“You guys are weird!”