Goalie Interference (NHL Scorpions) (28 page)

Game night went better than expected. Crystal loved the junk food—mild wings, pizza, and onion rings. She also seemed to be interested in hockey. She especially seemed to be interested in the goal tending. They weren’t sure, though, if it was because she knew Cage was in goal or if it could be because she and Vlad were both goalies, although in different sports.

“So, Crystal. I got us a suite for the game on Sunday. A couple of friends of mine will be there, too. They have a daughter your age that will be going. What do you think?”

Crystal tugged on her sleeves as she stuttered, “Do—do I know her?” Crystal was obviously frightened by the idea.

“No, sweetie. She doesn’t go to Whitman.”

She shrugged her shoulders as if she didn’t have a care in the world. “Okay, whatever.”

When Crystal turned around again, Vlad shook his head. “Great.”

Vlad gave Crystal a Scorpions jacket that he had bought her the day before to wear to the game. It was the first time he’d seen her really smile in days. “Cool.”

“Well, let’s go.” It was going to be strange for Vlad to watch the game from a suite. He didn’t tell any of the guys, except Jody, that he was going to be there. He wanted to see how he felt being there the first time.

Tracey, her husband, James, and their daughter, Vicki, met them at the entrance. “Hi, Vlad. You look like you’re walking well.”

“Yes, thanks to you, ice queen.” They made introductions all around and headed up to their suite.

“Wow,” James said. “This is quite a setup.” They were just right of center ice.

“Can’t say I wouldn’t rather be on the ice, but it is nice up here. I’ve sat here once or twice before when I was injured. Help yourself to anything. It’s all open bar and all the food you want.”

“Sweet. Thanks a lot, man. This is a real treat. I have to warn you, though; Tracey is a real big Leafs fan. She gets pretty vicious when she watches hockey.”

“Yeah, well, I’m used to her. She gets pretty vicious if you don’t do your exercises to her liking too.”

“Only because I care.” Tracey grabbed James’s arm and headed over to the bar to get a drink.

Vicki was standing next to Crystal trying to get her to talk. “I guess you watch a lot of hockey, huh?”

Crystal was quiet, but she answered her, “I just saw my first game last night.”

“Huh? But your dad played for the Scorpions.”

Crystal immediately got into her defensive stance with her shoulders back and her chin up, expecting the worst. “I didn’t know I had a father until last month. My mom died, and I was sent to live with him.” She sounded so angry, Vlad thought Vicki would go right back over to her parents. He was somewhat surprised that Tracey didn’t explain the situation to her.

Vicki surprised them both. She put her little hand on Crystal’s shoulder and spoke with sincerity. “Oh wow. That’s so sad. I’m sorry your mom died, Crystal.”

Crystal cocked her head, looking at Vicki in wonder. “Thanks.”

“Well, we watch hockey all the time. I can help you learn it if you want.”

Crystal let out a shy smile. “Okay.”

“Which seats can we sit in, Mr. Bejsiuk? I can show Crystal some stuff while they’re warming up.”

“We have the whole suite. There are only a couple of other people coming. You girls can sit wherever you want. And get some food and sodas.”

Vlad turned to Zoe after the girls had run off toward the food bar before heading down to the first row seats in the suite. “Am I wrong to feel hopeful? Vicki seems really nice. Crystal sure could use a nice friend right now.”

“Well, if you’re wrong then so am I. They do seem to fit well together. We’ll see how the night goes.”

By the end of the first period, Crystal was the most animated she had been since starting school. She and Vicki whispered and giggled together like they were old friends. It was as if Crystal was two different people. She really got into the game when Cage got into a fight. Yes, Cage, the goalie.

“Christ, I can’t believe this kid.” Vlad was horrified. Goalies didn’t fight. Well, most goalies didn’t fight.

Cage had been doing a great job in the net. With ten minutes left to go in the second period, he had already stopped twenty-eight shots. He’d only let one in, and it had taken a bad bounce off the boards then deflected off one of his own defensemen into the goal. It would have happened to anyone.

Toronto decided to keep things up-tempo by playing their bruiser more minutes than normal. It was obvious they wanted to stir up some shit.

“Why is Ash out there? There’s no reason for him to be on that line now. They’re up a goal.” Zoe looked at Vlad, waiting for his answer.

Miles Ashford was a middleweight enforcer. He tended to play more minutes than a true enforcer, but make no mistake, when this guy was on the ice, you watched your back.

“Not sure. Maybe they’re just trying to keep our guys guessing.” Vlad pointed to the ice. “Rush is still on the bench.”

Carl Rush was the Scorpions’ enforcer. He came to the team after Jody retired. He didn’t see a lot of ice time, but he did his job well. Seeing him sitting on the bench after the Leafs sent Ash out told Vlad that the coach wanted to keep things quiet.

“Oh, here we go.” Vlad was watching Ash during the faceoff. He was pushing up against Marcoux hard enough that he had to scramble to keep upright. Ash had about forty pounds or so on him.

Marcoux shoved back a little, and the ref gave them a warning look as he bent over the centers, ready to drop the puck. As soon as he did, the puck came toward Marcoux, and Ash flattened him into the ice with a cross check right in the middle of his back. He went down hard and painfully, but the ref didn’t call a penalty.

Marcoux was ready to go after that, but Ash skated away.

During the same play, the Scorpions were down by their own net, helping Cage defend the goal when Ash pushed their captain into Cage. Lambert fell hard, knocking the net off its moorings, and Cage went bat shit crazy.

He threw off his helmet and gloves and tore after Ash, who was already halfway to center ice. Shouting at him, he didn’t give Ash a chance to answer. He simply skated up to him, ripped off his helmet, and grabbed his jersey.

Ash started wailing on Cage so quickly that Cage wasn’t even able to get a good grip on Ash’s jersey. Cage lost his balance and went down in a heap, taking two hard punches to the head and only delivering one.

“He was lucky,” Vlad said. “Ash would’ve creamed him. What the hell is he doing fighting anyway?”

Crystal spoke up on his behalf. “He was just trying to defend his teammates, Dad. I think he did great.”

“Of course you do.”
God help me.

During the second intermission, Tracey gave Vlad the information for Vicki’s school. “James is going to talk to the principal for you. He’s an architect, and his firm works on the school. He knows a lot of the board members.”

“That’s really great, Tracey. Thank you. I appreciate it.”

“Sure.” She looked over at the girls, who were talking quietly, their heads bent close together. “Looks like they’re going to be friends.”

“I hope so. Crystal could use a friend.”

“So could Vicki. She has one best friend, who is also a very nice girl, but that’s about it. She was bullied, too, at her last school, and that’s why I moved her.”

“Really? You didn’t tell me that.”

“I wanted you to meet her first. I didn’t want you to have any ideas in your head about her. If you look at her closely, you’ll see that she has a very crooked jaw. It’s more noticeable when she talks. That’s all the mean kids needed to see. It didn’t get as bad as Crystal’s did, but I wasn’t leaving her in that school.”

The girls went into the restroom, but Vicki came flying out a minute later with Crystal yelling at her from inside to come back.

“Mom! Come in here.”

Tracey went running into the restroom, with Zoe right on her heels.

Crystal stood there glaring at Vicki. “I told you not to tell!”

Vickie started crying. “I had to, Crystal. I know what you’re doing.”

“You don’t know anything!”

Two fat tears rolled down Vicki’s face. “Yes, I do, because I did it, too.” She turned around and looked at her mother. “She’s cutting herself.”

Zoe gasped and went over to Crystal, grabbing her arms. “Where? What? Oh, Crystal. Why?” Zoe was just barely holding back her own tears. How did children get to a point where they had no other outlet than to physically hurt themselves?

“Zoe? Is everything okay?” Vlad called from outside.

Crystal looked at Zoe, silently pleading with her.

“No, Crystal, not this time.”

She called out to Vlad. “No, it’s not. Please come in here.”

“What’s going on?” He looked from Zoe to Crystal.

“Show him.”

Crystal bowed her head and pulled her sleeves up. There were small cuts all up and down her arms. There were some dots, too, that looked like they could have been made with a thumbtack.

“What happened?” Vlad looked completely baffled.

“She did it to herself, honey.” Zoe explained briefly about cutting.

Vlad’s eyes glistened as he looked from Zoe back down at his daughter. “I’m so sorry, Crystal. God, I don’t know what I’m doing with you. I can’t believe I let you hurt yourself—that I didn’t even know about it. I don’t deserve to have you.”

Tracey and Vicki left them alone.

Vlad’s words broke through to Crystal. Her face was ashen, like she’d been scared witless. “Yes, you do, Daddy. I swear I’ll never do it again. Please don’t make me leave. Please. I promise I’ll be better. Please don’t leave me.” She flung herself at him, crying so hard he was afraid she was going to hyperventilate.

“Shhh. Oh, sweetheart. I didn’t mean I was going to let you go.” He continued to whisper to her and rub her back until she calmed herself. “I’ll never let you go, Crystal. Never.”

Zoe gently rubbed Crystal’s head. “Sweetie, tell us why you’re cutting yourself. We need to know so that we can help you.”

“I don’t really know. I just know that I feel a little better when I do. I can’t control anything. I couldn’t make my mom live, and I couldn’t make the kids at school like me.” She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Zoe thought she understood what Crystal was feeling. She had been reading about bullying, and some of her research explained how sometimes kids felt more in control when they cut themselves because
they
decided when and where to cut.
They
decided how long to let the cut bleed. They felt temporary relief from their pain.

“Honey, you should never hurt yourself. We don’t ever want you to be hurt. When you’re feeling like that, hopeless and out of control, come talk to us, and we’ll see if we can figure something else out together. Do you think you can do that?”

“Yes. I haven’t cut myself today at all.”

Vlad closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. “You’ve been doing this every day?”

She looked down and nodded her head. “Mostly after I get home from school.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about school anymore. I’m going to enroll you in the private school that Vicki attends.”

That news didn’t excite her. “Okay.”

“I thought you’d want to get out of Whitman.”

“I do, but now Vicki knows, and she’ll tell everyone.”

“No, I won’t.” Vicki was standing at the door. She walked in and handed Crystal some tissues and a cup of water. “I won’t ever tell, Crystal. I promise. I want you to go to school with me. You, Marissa and me will be best friends forever. It’s a nice school and you’ll love Marissa. She’s a nice girl.”

They had missed most of the last period and decided to call it a night. Tracey pulled Vlad aside before they left.

“She’ll be okay, Vlad. Vicki will be a lot of help to her. I know you want to be the one to ‘cure’ her, but Vicki understands how she’s feeling better than we do. You’ll see. She’s going to be fine.”

“Thanks, Tracey. For everything.” Vlad reached around Tracey and shook her husband’s hand. “I’ll call the school on Monday.”