Chapter 319: Tangers XXVIII—Snickers and Smirks

…..and then they passed the picture all over the team bus! I mean, I know Joe would never have dreamed about doing anything that mean to me, this had to be all Keaner’s idea. Humph! Can you imagine? Since the Captain had the picture Danny and I had to keep our mouths shut as he passed it around.

ARGH! All of the guys laughed about it and told Danny and me that we were pinch-ably cute and Keaner kept calling us kittens in a basket. Not even puppies! I knew that no good could have come from Keaner and Danny sharing the room with us, and again, all Keane’s fault cause he was the one who played that stupid joke on Parker. We could have had a nice uneventful night but NOOO Dan and I had to wake up taped together and humiliated.

You’ll understand if I cross my arms and pout a little longer at the memory.

Joe left Keaner to unbind us and then we left the hotel for the Nashville airport. On the plane, things were serious because news of Parker’s indiscretion the night before had circulated. Scott, for his part apologized and then Joe got together with a couple of other veterans and the coach to discuss Scott’s punishment. I felt bad for him; I mean he looked so forlorn sitting by himself awaiting his fate. Ooo it angered me since Keaner was an old dog veteran he wouldn’t have to face much punishment. After all, the young guys on the team were supposed to accept whatever pranks and hazing the veterans deemed necessary.

Our plane landed in Tampa Bay and our worries quickly left us as we stepped out of the airport and into the tropical, sunny skies of Florida. I closed my eyes and tilted my head up to the blue above and soaked it in. Roadtrips where I had to pack sunscreen always put a grin on my face.

“Ah yes,” Patty breathed, “I think I will golf here.”

Florida is a funny place because when you look around all you see is really old people and then really beautiful young people. Sometimes I wonder where all the middle aged people are. Patty told me once its cause middle aged people are at that stage where they don’t want to be caught in Speedo’s and thongs on the beaches like the young people, and the old folks just like staring at them.

As we gathered into the team bus, the word spread that Joe had called a team meeting in the practice facility tonight. Hartley had even called ahead and booked it for the night to accommodate. That worried me. Was this about the Nashville game disaster? What else could it be about?

I tried not to think about it at lunchtime where I enjoyed a nice steak and fruit soup. Heehee, yes you heard that right, fruit soup. Basically it’s like a fruit smoothie in a bowl but so yummy it doesn’t matter if you have a spoon or straw. I guess it’s the hotel specialty or something. Danny and Drury also had lunch with me.

“Hey isn’t that girl over there, is she famous or something?” Drury asked between bites of steak.

I peered over to where Drury pointed and I did recognize the girl. But from where? She had to be around twelve years old but I couldn’t place her from a movie or anything. “I don’t know, she looks familiar.”

“Sure,” Danny said. “Yeah, I know her, she’s that figure skater… eh… she’s got that From Russia with Love name… eh…. God I can’t remember it.”

“And the other girls too,” Drury said. “I know them.”

I squinted at the other girls with the girl we recognized, all four of them were eating fruit soup, sipping it daintily and talking and laughing. One of the girls I really recognized, she had a cute smile and waved her arms a lot as she talked. “Hey that’s Michelle Kwan,” I blurted. “Those girls are all figure skaters.”

“Must be a show in town,” Drury said and we all turned our attentions back to our food.

So later we went to the practice facility for the team meeting but we didn’t have to bring any of our gear we were told. At the most, we would do some exercise but no drills or skating. My heart clung to my throat. What could be going on? I tried to think of anything that might be my fault, but I couldn’t. I hadn’t done anything wrong lately.

Joe and the Coach stood in the center of the large exercise room, I noticed a few massage tables against the wall, and Katrina sat on one with a bored look on her face as she filed her nails. As we filed into the room, we sat on the floor like kids in gym class.

“Alright, I now know all the details of this thing that happened last night,” Coach Hartley said, and he had that serious look on his face that said he wouldn’t be Mr. Nice Coach today. “I want to tell Scottie right now in front of everyone, that this was an embarrassment to the team and he is lucky that there will be no police or newspaper press on this. Eh?”

Parker grimaced but he also nodded. One thing about Parker, he didn’t shrink from his responsibilities, especially if he felt like he let the team down. “Yeah Coach.” He cleared his throat. “Eh, I want to apologize, is that okay?”

Coach Hartley nodded.

“I want to apologize to the team,” Parker said, standing up and looking at all of us. “I shouldn’t have done that, it was dangerous, it was stupid and embarrassing.” Then Parker half-grinned, “And I want to apologize to Danny and Keaner for scaring the holy living shit outta them, that’s all.” Parker sat down amongst snickers and smirks.

“That you did, my lad, that you did,” Keane said gamely.

More snickers and smirks.

“Alright that’s enough apologies,” Hartley said with a roll of his eyes. “Now Joey and I have been talking… eh… and we decided that it would be wrong to let this go unpunished within the organization eh? So I let Joey make this decision but I want the team to know that I support it. So Joey, I will sit back now and let you talk.”

I swallowed. A team punishment? I had only heard of these things before, I mean on the NHL level. I had never witnessed one before because no one on the team had ever done anything worthy of that level of punishment. I mean only Drury has ever been insolent enough to get close to getting one. I wanted to go home and go to bed. Just looking at how pale Scottie had become really hurt my tummy.

Joe cleared his throat. “Right,” he said, “Yeah… thanks coach, Scottie…um… I just want you to know that this is something I thought long and hard on and… and it doesn’t mean we don’t respect you as an individual but it has to be done. This was your temper, this was your mistake… so… so it wouldn’t be good to protest or blame anyone else you understand?”

Scottie paled even more and his eyes seemed even bluer. “I understand,” he said in a gruff, quavering voice. “I won’t make a fuss.”

My mind flashed with horrible images worthy of the most melodramatic dark dank torture dungeon there ever was. All of this would have to be done to Scottie? Would I have to help? I knew if they asked me to I wouldn’t be able to and would therefore have to suffer the same fate as Parker. Would I have to watch? I knew I would have to watch and that wasn’t much better a prospect because I knew I would refuse to watch.

“Good,” Joe nodded and then I saw a twinkle in his eye. A twinkle? Joe happy about the impending torture of a teammate? Noo! This couldn’t be! He half grinned and then he looked across the room at Katrina and nodded to her with a larger smile and she waved back at him with her fingers. Now what was this? And what was Katrina doing in here anyway during a private team meeting? “Scottie!”

Parker sat up straight. “Yeah?”

“As your punishment I have decided that you will give massages to every single one of your teammates, and not complain. And I mean full body, invigorating therapeutic massages and every time someone says you aren’t performing up to standard or that you just weren’t satisfactory, then that will only add one more lap to the twenty you’re going to have to skate this rink naked.”

Scott’s eyes widened. “What?!”

The rest of us, stunned, sat quietly without even a murmur.

“Do I have to repeat it for you?” Joe said calmly. Again, he glanced over at Katrina. I frowned at her, I smelled something fishy.

“No… no I guess not,” Scott said quietly. “But Captain, I don’t know how to give a massage, not even to my girlfriends.”

Still, not a one of us said a word.

Joe tilted his chin down and looked at Parker. “Well that’s why I asked Katrina to be here today, she can give you some pointers, I’m not completely unjust, and you can thank me now.”

Parker gulped.

“I said THANK ME!”

“Thank you Captain!” Parker gasped.

“That’s better.”

“Heh but Captain I thought girls weren’t supposed to be around when we did like team discipline,” Blake pointed out and a few of the other guys murmured in agreement.

“This isn’t a time for sexual politics,” Joe snapped, “And I can always think of new punishments okay?”

Blake closed his mouth and his eyes widened.

I looked at Katrina and loosened my collar that meant Parker had to give me a massage how weird!

“I’m sorry Miss Volanges,” Joe said to Katrina, “The guys will refrain right now from anymore sexist comments.”

Katrina grinned and shook her head. “You boys are silly,” she said.

Indeed we are, I thought to myself. Indeed we are.