Goalie Interference (NHL Scorpions) (25 page)

He found out by eleven the next morning that he couldn’t have been more wrong. The principal called him with true concern in her voice. Her tone worried Vlad immensely.

“Mr. Bejsiuk, I’m so sorry to have to call like this.”

“What happened? Is Crystal okay?” Vlad was already grabbing his keys off the table. Zoe was with a client, so he quickly scribbled her a note saying he was going out for a little bit.

“There was an incident in the girls’ bathroom. Some girls found Crystal in there crying. When she told them that she missed her mother, they made fun of her. Then she told them that her mother died, and they began pushing her around and calling her names. I’m very sorry about this. I can assure you, the girls will be dealt with.”

“I’m on my way. Is she safe?” Vlad would talk to the parents of these girls himself.

“I have her here in my office with me, Mr. Bejsiuk. I assure you, we will deal with this. I do not condone this kind of behavior.”

Vlad got to the school in record time. When he saw Crystal sitting in a chair looking just like she did the day she was dropped off at his place, his heart wept for her. “Crystal.”

She wouldn’t look at him. She shuffled her feet and kept her head down.

Her feet were wrapped around the metal legs of the blue plastic chair. She wrapped them and unwrapped them. He recognized that feeling of nervous energy—moving just for the sake of having something to focus on. He did something similar when he was in therapy to avoid thinking about the pain.

He slowly kneeled before her and tilted her head up. “Crystal? Are you okay, sweetheart?”

“Yes.” She pulled her head out of his grasp and looked down at her feet again, trying valiantly not to cry.

“Come on, I’ll take you home.”

“Okay.”

On the way out, the three girls who had cornered Crystal were sitting in plastic chairs much like those in the principal’s office. Vlad wanted to be involved in all steps the school took to punish the girls. “Well, girls, I’ll be talking to each of your parents.”

“So what? We don’t—oh my God.” The girl who was speaking poked the girl on her right. “You play for the Scorpions. My dad’s a huge fan. We didn’t know!”

The girl on her right gasped aloud. “We’re sorry, Crystal. We didn’t know he was your father.”

Crystal, whose chin was nearly glued to her chest, mumbled, “Okay.”

Vlad was incensed. “It is
not
okay. None of this is okay. Come on, Crystal.” He couldn’t remember ever being so mad before in his entire life.

Crystal didn’t say a word on the way home, even when Vlad asked her a question. “Honey, you have to talk to me. I want to help you. Those girls, they’re not nice, but it has nothing to do with you. I think sometimes people are so sad in their own lives the only way to make themselves feel better is to hurt other people. It’s not right for them to do that, but they do.”

He needed her to understand that she didn’t do anything wrong.
She
wasn’t the problem,
they
were. “You’re a great person, Crystal. You make people smile and feel good. I know it’s hard starting out like this, but it’ll get better. You’ll meet nice girls and make good friends.”

She still didn’t say a word. He couldn’t blame her.
He
even thought the shit he was saying sounded lame. Who cared what he said? He wasn’t the one who would have to go back to school with those nasty girls.

When they got home, Crystal went straight to her room and wouldn’t come out again. Zoe couldn’t even get her out. “Crystal? We’ll leave you alone for a while, sweetie, but you have to come out for dinner later.”

Back in the kitchen, Zoe started chopping up peppers. “What are you going to do, Vlad?”

“The school is going to arrange meetings with me and the other parents. Then when I meet them, I’m going to tell them to
control their fucking children
!” He slammed down the pan he was holding, making Zoe jump.

“Jesus, Vlad. You scared the shit out of me.”

He didn’t even hear her he was so caught up in his anger. He shook the pan in her direction as he spoke. “I can’t believe what children are capable of these days. Where are the parents? Is it possible that they don’t know what their kids are doing to other kids? I would think
I
would know, wouldn’t you? But I’ve been a parent for all of a week.” He slammed the pan down on the counter again and grabbed a fistful of his hair. “This sucks. After all she’s been through, she shouldn’t have to deal with this too.”

Zoe walked over and put her arms around him. “We’ll get through it. If it’s okay with you, I’ll talk to a friend who I went to school with. She majored in child psychology; maybe she can give us some pointers on how to deal with this.”

“I’d appreciate that, but can I be on the phone, too? I’d like to hear what she has to say firsthand.”

“She actually lives in Orange County. I’ll call her and see if we can meet while Crystal’s at school. Is that okay?”

“Yes, thank you. Let’s get dinner done so we can tag team Crystal and see if we can get her to talk to us.” Zoe finished making the salad, while Vlad stirred the spaghetti. He was pouring the spaghetti into the strainer when they heard a loud crash coming from Crystal’s room.

The door was just opening as they got to her room and Crystal stepped out. “What was that?” Vlad tried to look past her, but Crystal pulled the door shut.

“Nothing.”

“It wasn’t nothing, Crystal.” He pushed her aside and opened her door. When the scene met his eyes, he had to grab the doorjamb for support. Her room was trashed. The television he had just bought her lay on the floor in pieces. Her beautiful canopy bed was ripped so that it hung down from the frame and there were red spots on it. “Is that blood, Crystal?”

She didn’t answer him. She folded her arms, pushed past Zoe and locked herself in the bathroom, momentarily forgetting that there were two doors into the bathroom. “Crystal, let me see you. Where are you cut?” Vlad took her arms and straightened them out. He saw a cut on the palm of her hand.

“It’s fine. I cut myself on a sharp edge of my ruler. Just leave me alone.”

“No. I won’t leave you alone. Why did you trash your room? You loved that bed.”

“I don’t know. I was mad.”

Vlad thought that was rather obvious. “I get that part, but why trash your room? Did that make you feel better?”

Zoe placed her hand on Vlad’s arm. “Vlad.”

He shook it off and started rummaging through the medicine cabinet for a bandage. “I’ll fix your hand.”

“No. It’s fine.” Crystal was in her stubborn mode.

“It’s not fine. Give me your hand. Now.” To his surprise, she obediently put her hand out and allowed him to bandage it. “Go clean up your room and then come out for dinner.”

“Fine.”

When she left, Vlad sat down on the tub and looked up at Zoe. “What happened to that sweet, lost little girl? Who the hell was that?”

“She’s still that sweet, lost little girl; she’s just more lost than sweet tonight.”

Somehow they got through dinner and got Crystal’s room set to rights. Vlad didn’t see a very restful night’s sleep ahead of him, and he had a morning meeting with Jody to discuss his position as an assistant coach.

The next day was, thankfully, uneventful. There were no problems at school. Crystal was still quiet and withdrawn. When she got home, she made her way to her bedroom, shutting the door with not much more than a ‘hello.’

Zoe let her go. Her friend, Julie, couldn’t meet with them until the following week. Zoe gave her some background on Crystal, and Julie assured her that she’d think it over and talk to some of her colleagues to determine what they could do to help Crystal adjust.

Zoe looked up at the faint knock on the door. “Zoe?”

“Hi, Crystal. How are you feeling today?”

“Okay. I just wanted to tell you that I don’t want any dinner tonight. My stomach kind of hurts.”

Not eating could be a sign of depression, or her stomach might just be uneasy from the previous day. She’d let it go and see what happened in the coming days. “Okay. Did you call Emmy back? She’s called twice now.”

“No. I will, but I’m going to go do my homework now.”

“Do you need any help?”

“No.” Then she was gone.

Vlad got home as Zoe was putting dinner on the table. “How is Crystal today?”

“She says her stomach hurts, and she doesn’t want dinner. She’s in her room, supposedly doing her homework. Emmy’s called twice, and Crystal hasn’t called her back. So I don’t really know the answer to that.”

“Okay. I’m going to go look in on her.” He kissed Zoe, but when he went to pull away, she grabbed him and kissed him harder.

“I miss this.”

“Oh, God. Me too, moya lyubov, me too.” Vlad reluctantly pulled away from her. “Keep that thought for tonight. No more putting me off.”

“You got it.”

Vlad knocked on Crystal’s door and pushed it open. She looked at him and tugged on her sleeves. That seemed to be a nervous habit she’d picked up over the last twenty-four hours. “Hi. How was your day today? Did anyone give you any trouble?”

“No. The kids all left me alone today. All of them.” She was sitting on the bed with her legs crossed, staring at the flowers on the comforter.

Vlad sat down next to her, and she flinched. He frowned and cocked his head. “Come here, sweetheart.” He pulled her into his side, and he felt her stiffen up. “I’m sorry you had another crappy day. It’s going to get better, I promise. Are there any girls there that you think are nice? Maybe they’re just too shy to approach you.”

“Yeah, that’s probably it.” She continued to stare at the comforter and tugged more on her sleeves. “Thanks. I have some more homework to do.”

Vlad rubbed her back and started to question her some more, but thought better of it. “Okay, I’ll leave you to it. Are you sure you don’t want any dinner? I think Zoe made sloppy joes.”

He thought he had her for a second … “No thanks.”

The rest of the week was more of the same, with the exception of Vlad starting to work in his new coaching role. He was taking it easy. His hip was fine with everyday living, but skating was a whole other picture.

“You better take it easy, man. No one expects you to be in top form yet. Don’t mess up your hip.” Jody was just starting the after-school practice.

“Don’t worry about me. Believe it or not, I’ll baby this thing. I don’t want to undo any of the healing. It feels a little weird, but it’s okay so far.” Vlad couldn’t see very many butterfly plays in his future, but he could live with that.

The kids came out and met Vlad for the first time. There were quite a few starry-eyed gazes in his direction, especially from the girls’ team.

“Okay, can I have my goalies down at this end? And some defensemen?” Vlad skated to the far net.

“Forwards and the rest of the defensemen down here with me.” Jody split up the defensemen and headed down to his end of the rink to work on stick skills.

Vlad pointed to a girl of about fourteen. “Let’s see what you’ve got. I’m going five hole. I want to see how your butterfly is. Ready?” Before she said yes, Vlad let one fly.

The puck sailed easily right through her legs. Vlad grinned at her. “What’s your name?”