Big Changes

009:

Chapter Nine
Three days had passed since the upset loss to the Detroit Red Wings and I was already back in Florida, just having arrived this morning. It was hard to watch the guys clean out their lockers, signaling the end of the season, it was even harder saying goodbye, knowing that I was going to be leaving these tired and depressed hockey players. I was grateful that it was only for two months, happy to be seeing them in August.

When I got home to Florida, the whole two months were spent shopping for dorm supplies, getting everything I would need for school, books, clothes, decorations for my new home. Hanging out with friends took up a big portion of my summer though, I wasn’t going to see them for a while and I was going to miss them.

About a month before I was supposed to leave, I found out where I was going to be staying. I was assigned an on-campus with four bedrooms with study areas in the rooms, a full kitchen and living room, two bathrooms. A week later I was excited to see that Mary, the girl that I had met at Orientation, was going to be my roommate, her along with two others. Mary and I started to text each other and agreed that we would share the one half of the apartment, because when you went online and looked at the floor plan; you would enter into the kitchen and then the living room, if you looked to your left there was a doorway were two of the four bedrooms were and a bathroom, to the right, it just mirrored the left.

It was the day before my parents and I drove up to Pittsburgh, a sixteen hour drive and we were going to attempt to do it in one day. My parents and I were going to be driving up in separate cars, and then my parents were going to spend three days helping me move into my new home and then drive back to Florida.

During the summer, I kept in contact with most of the guys, but Sidney and I spoke just about every day. He was having an all right time being home, his dad was on his ass for losing the Cup, I felt so bad for him.

Right now I was laying in be getting ready to fall asleep when my phone went off, I grabbed the phone and saw that Mary was texting me telling me that it was almost time to see each other again. I giggled and replied to her text with a smiley face and then placed the phone back on the nightstand. I rolled over in my bed and took a deep breath, ready to go to sleep again, but this time, someone was calling me. I sighed and then grabbed my phone and saw that Sidney was calling me. I don’t know what it was, but when I saw his name appear on my screen, I got a little flutter in my stomach.

“Hello,” I answered, trying not to sound as tired as I really was.

“Oh, did I wake you?” Sidney asked and I smiled.

“No, I’m all right, I was still awake,” I said and rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling.

“Sounds like just barely,” Sidney said and I giggled, “You headin’ North tomorrow?”

“Yes sir, I will see you soon!” I smiled and Sidney chuckled at my happiness.

“Well I’m going to go, I just want to say ‘hi’,” he said and I smiled.

“I’ll be there for your birthday Sidney Crosby,” I said and Sidney groaned, “Oh no, I don’t want to hear that!”

“I don’t like my birthday!”

“Well this year you will!” I said and Sidney snorted, “You’re turning the big ‘2-1’!”

“When do you turn twenty one?”

“November,” I answered, “And unlike you, I love my birthday.”

“Well, we’ll plan a big party for you Mckayla Dupuis,” Sidney said and I snorted.

“I’d like to see you try,” I laughed and Sidney chuckled, “Well I’m going to hit the bed, I’ll text you tomorrow when I reach Pittsburgh.”

“All right, see you soon!”

“Same,” I said and then hung up the phone and smiled towards the ceiling.

-Sidney-
“Yo, Sid, what are you all smiley about?” Kris asked as we went out to dinner with some of the guys after practice.

I was looking down at my phone, just receiving the text from Mckayla that she was close to Pittsburgh, they were some restaurant for dinner, about four hours away.

“Sid?” Jordan asked and I looked up.

“Mckayla’s almost here,” I said and Pascal looked at me.

“How far away is she?” he asked.

“She’s about four hours away,” I said and Pascal nodded his head.

“So, she’ll get here around nine-thirty?” Kris asked and I nodded my head, “When will we see her?”

“Classes don’t start until next week, she’ll probably need a few days to get situated, but probably this weekend we’ll see her,” Pascal said and I smiled while looking down at my phone and replying to her text.

-Mckayla-
“Hey!” Mary yelled happily and ran over towards me, hugging me tight, “I missed you!”

I laughed and pulled away, nodding my head, “I missed you too! Oh this is so exciting!”

“I know right!”

“Have you met the other two girls?” I asked and Mary shook her head ‘no’.

“I’m sure they’ll be here soon,” she said and I nodded my head, “Well come on! Come see your room!”

I was excited that we all shared an apartment, but we all got our own room. Mary showed me to her room and I walked into the plain small bedroom, saw the Full-size bed, the closet and the little study area. I smiled brightly and walked into the room, “I can’t wait to start decorating it!”

“I know right! When did you get here?”

“I got here last night, we stayed at the hotel down the street,” I answered and Mary nodded her head, “What about you?”

“Two days ago, your parents still here?” she asked and I nodded my head, “Mine too, maybe we can all have dinner together.”

“Maybe,” I smiled and then decided that I was going to help my parents with bringing my things up to the room.

After half the day had past and my things were all in the apartment, my parents said goodbye to me and then left to head back to their apartment, leaving me to unpack and get my room situated. As I was hanging my clothes in my closet, my phone went off and I saw that Sidney was calling me, I smiled and then answered the phone, I grabbed my Bluetooth, stuck it into my ear and started to talk to Sidney.

“Hey Sid!”

“Hey, how’s it going?” he asked as I was adding my clothes to my closet.

“Good, just unpacking, what about you?”

“Just got home from working out, the guys are wondering when they’re going to see you,” Sidney said and I smiled.

“This weekend, do you have practice?”

“Yeah, ten, you coming?”

“Yeah! I’ll be there, can I bring a friend?” I asked and Sidney chuckled.

“Sure, I’ll let the security guard know that you’re coming,” he said and I smiled.

“Awesome, Mary will be happy to hear that-“

“What about Mary?” I heard and turned my head to see Mary sticking her head into the room, “Who are you talking too?”

“Sidney, you wanna go to practice on Saturday?” I asked her and her eyes widened and she nodded her head like a crazy person.

“Of course!” she said and I laughed.

“Mary’s in, Sid,” I said and heard Sidney chuckle.

“I figured that it was going to be a ‘yes’,” Sidney said and I smiled, “I know Duper is excited to see his niece.”

“I’m sure it’s more than just Uncle P that’s excited to see me,” I said and then saw Mary walk into my room and sit on my bed.

“Yeah, Tanger and Staalsy miss you too, and Tablo of course-“ he said and I looked towards the ground a little twig in my heart when he didn’t mention that he missed me.

“Well I miss them too, I’ll see them in a few days, I need to get my books, find my classes, shit like that.”

“Of course, we’ll see you on Saturday,” Sidney said and I smiled little.

“All right, see you Saturday,” I said and then hung up the phone and looked back towards Mary.

“Wonder when the other two are going to show up,” Mary said and I nodded my head and sat next to her on the bed.

“Hope they’re nice,” I said and Mary laughed and nodded her head.

Mary and I spent the next hour and half decorating my room with an NHL poster, a Supernatural poster (my favorite TV show), pictures of friends and family, I had a few pictures of the guys and I together, the one with Sidney was my favorite. I had a zebra comforter on my bed with black and white pillows. My dresser was at the end of the bed with my brand new 32” flat screen on the end.

“I love your room,” Mary said and I laughed and shrugged my shoulders.

We heard our door to the apartment opened and heard someone yell ‘hello’. Mary and I looked at each other and then stood up and walked out of my room, heading towards the living room to see a tall blonde girl rolling a suitcase behind her.

“Hi!” she said a little too happily and Mary and I looked at each other, “I’m Kasey!”

“Mary.”

“Mckayla.”

“Cool, so nice to meet you!” she said and there was something about her that was just off.

“Nice to meet you too,” I said and then saw two guys walking in carrying a lot of stuff.

“Which way is my room?” she asked and Mary pointed towards that direction, “Thanks! Come on guys! Oh, this is my Dad and brother.”

That had so much stuff that I barely saw their faces, I hoped that they didn’t hurt themselves, ‘…This is going to be interesting…’