Chapter 466: Tangers XLIII—Picking on Me
Could celebrity couple Tom Cruise and
Penelope Cruz be no more? Insider sources say that the couple has indeed
separated and has been cool with each other for more than a month now. Although
reps for both of the actors deny reports of a split Penelope was conspicuously
absent for the premiere of Cruise’s movie….
I had to smile about that.
Reading the newspaper often didn’t go well with my breakfast because of trade rumors and tragic
things in the world today, but seeing as I knew first hand the truth about this
Hollywood tidbit I couldn’t help but feel just a little bit smug. It’s not
everyday that a kid from
Although I
hadn’t had a phone call from Penelope in days, I didn’t worry. I had her
number, and I knew I could call her whenever I wanted but shouldn’t I just let
her wait a little? I didn’t want to show her that I was a desperate clinging
groupie! Besides, she had to be busy right now, filming an action movie in
Since I felt so good, I went to the skate that morning even though it was optional. Things went really well there, and I felt so good about the game we’d play that night. The only thing bothering me, on my chest, was wanting to show everyone the newspaper clipping and bragging! But why bother everyone on a game day?
Later that day at the arena however, things seemed just a little bit different. First thing I noticed was both Joe and Chris Drury with dark faces. Joe had a tight chin and solemn eyes, the kind of face he got when he really had things on his mind and Chris looked more sulky than usual. I mean really, his lips were all puckered and his bottom jaw was pushed out and he looked like he’d take the head off anyone who surprised him. Of course that meant that I just had to get in there.
“Hi Chris, looking down, what’s wrong?” I asked brightly and I kind of glanced at Joe, maybe it’d cheer Joey up a little if he knew that a pup like me went out of his way to show his concern for other teammates.
Chris wrinkled his nose and squinted at me, he gave me that look that I was really used to by now, a look that told me I was annoying and pointless, just like the whole world. “Nothing’s wrong, Alex, why do you ask?”
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “You look sour.”
Chris rolled his eyes.
“When isn’t he sour, Tangs?” Dan Hinote said with a huge grin.
I smiled back. “Hey you’re right,” and then I looked at Drury, “Sorry Chris, shouldn’t have bothered you.”
Chris sorta sneered with one corner of his mouth, and his eyes just bored through my head, “I’m not in the mood to play around, Alex, okay?”
I saw Joe kinda glance over, looking straight at Chris. So that probably meant Chris was the bad guy. “Sorry,” I shrugged, “I’m not playing I just worried about you.”
Chris didn’t answer, he just blew out with a sort of pucker and crossed his fingers together and began to wiggle them. I wondered what he had on his mind. I mean Dan was right, Chris usually looked really sulky but with a posture like that something must have happened since this morning and right now. Probably girl troubles, ah I would be having my own soon enough, I couldn’t wait.
“So Alex read the latest edition of ‘Current Faces’?” Hinote asked.
I looked at Danny, stared at his blue hair really, and tried to bring that magazine to mind. “No I didn’t why?”
Dan held up his hand, “Just a second.” He leaned over into his duffel bag and then produced the flimsy tabloid magazine. He licked his fingers and then flipped through the pages until he found the right one. “Oh here we go,” he cleared his throat and sat up straight, “Angelina Jolie and Penelope Cruz, stars of the upcoming action thriller, ‘Necessary Dangers’, are pictured here dining with two unidentified blue haired male acquaintances, one of which had a brief altercation with an angry ex of Angelina’s actor…”
Danny didn’t even get to finish reading the blurb when Derek Morris reached over and snatched the magazine from his hands. “Hey!” He grinned, “That is you two, and Alex I recognize your big head, so you guys weren’t lying after all!”
“Lying!” Danny exclaimed and I echoed him.
“Lying!” I crossed my arms. “Why would we be lying.”
Morris shrugged. “I don’t know, you guys have been spending so much time with each other I just figured maybe you were ashamed of some new deeper feelings that had developed and you guys were trying to hide any evidence of them.”
Most of the guys laughed and Dan and I exchanged irritated glances. “Yeah right!” Dan scoffed and I nodded in agreement.
The paper got passed around before I even got my hands on it and my heart sighed with happiness and I knew I would have to call Penelope tonight. Ah what a memory! There we were, blue hair and all, our backs to the camera and Penelope’s beautiful dark eyes smiling and everything!
“Well that’s going on the board,” Mike Keane said as he took the magazine from me and ripped the picture off the page. “Screw Power Play formation we don’t need that!” He plucked a sketch of a game plan right off the board and tacked up the picture onto it. “Now that’s something to grin at, you’re doing us proud boys, getting prime celebrity ass!”
“Oof don’t be talking about her ass!” I snipped, last thing Penelope needed was Keaner thinking about her like that. Ew! “And Danny’s engaged he didn’t do anything with Angelina.”
Dan blushed and I frowned. He didn’t right?
“Isn’t it just great that they’re on a first name basis with these girls?” Scott Parker said holding his hands out. “I mean doesn’t it make the rest of us feel like total losers?”
“Hey I’m not a loser!” Chris Drury snapped.
Parker waved his hand dismissively, “You’re a loser Chris just like the rest of us. Well except for Joe, he’s got,” and Scott bared his teeth and leered, “Debbie.”
“Woah,” Joe barked, and his eyes were narrow and really angry. “Don’t you be thinking about my wife.”
Parker grimaced. “So everyone’s touchy about their women right now. Okay.”
“Looks to me like everyone’s just touchy,” Hinote said.
I didn’t add anymore to the conversation, instead I got up and left the locker room, heading for the massage room. I wanted to schedule myself in for something right after the game before everyone else hogged all the therapists. I knew Patty, if he felt like it he’d use like two at a time and Joey wasn’t any better. I found Katrina in there, she sat leaned over the table writing something on a piece of paper. “Hey Katrina!”
She looked up at me and held up a finger for me to wait; she then finished her note and folded it. “Hey Tiger, you’re the only one I can trust here aren’t ya?” She smiled one of her weird smiles, I can’t quite describe it only as something, only like her lips made a smile but it didn’t feel warm or friendly.
“Sure?” I said. “Hey Katrina I wanted to schedule something for…”
“Yeah yeah,” Katrina said and she came towards me, “Look if you take this little tiny note to good ole Papa, without reading it, I’ll schedule you in first after the game is that a deal Boy Scout?”
“Of course!” I exclaimed and I grabbed the note, “It’s safe
with me!” As much as my curiosity burned for me to read the note as I left the
locker room and headed towards the general manager’s office, I didn’t. Katrina
was right about one thing and that was my honor! A deal is a deal and I
wouldn’t be peeking at that note. But what could she be writing to
Ah who cared it just meant I was getting a free massage.
“…don’t care if it puts fans in danger, I want that glass to be real, and it I want it to be breakable. The fans love a good bang; it gives them something to talk about.”
I frowned. The glass did break here at least once or twice a month a ton more than in other arenas, and I always found myself worrying about the fans involved in those incidents. And here was proof that Papa Lacroix actually had the building designed that way on purpose, even after the whole thing that happened here with the Red Wings game? “Oof Papa!” I rebuked.
Lacroix’s eyes widened, he looked at me, “Look I have to go, Okay? Just get the order right this time.” He hung up the phone and smiled. “Alex, my boy!”
I crossed my arms. “Don’t try to sweet talk me! People can get hurt on that glass! And you just want to have fun with it?”
I sniffed. I did feel kinda cold and bored, and he was Papa. “How about a hug?”
“Good,” I replied. “Oh and here’s a note from Katrina, she didn’t say what it was about none of my business.” I handed it to him and Lacroix took it rather swiftly.
“Hey and more than a hug,” he said looking at the paper in his big hands. “I owe you a favor Alex okay?”
Now that capped off my day! I really liked collecting these favors!