| "...I think Jim Hensen said it best when he said, 'Anybody got any aspirin, I think I'm getting a cold..." Brielle sat in her office after the game, spinning around in her chair and listening to the Denis Leary CD she had borrowed off of Toby. The team had won, and they had earned it. After Colby fought Bonvie, the team picked itself up immediately and Petersen, Endicott and Beech scored three goals within five minutes, ultimately winning them the game. She had given her usual "Job Well Done" Speech to the team, avoiding contact with Colby's eyes, and had retreated to her office while the boys got showered and dressed for the Rookie Party. She was in no mood to deal with any members of the press, she would let Glenn handle it for now. Eventually, she knew she would have to do a few interviews, probably the next day. Asking her what it was like to be the only girl on the team, how Colby's fight made her feel, how she was dealing with moving to Pennsylvania from California... But not tonight. She was more than halfway done with the CD when there was a knock on her door. She asked who it was before opening it. "It's Toby," he said in his Canadian accent. "Toby, tell me something, why do you talk with an accent when you're from Minnesota?" Brielle asked, opening the door for him. "Close to the Canadian border," he said, leaning on Brielle's desk while she shut the door and turned to face him. "And besides, you hang out with Darcy so often, you're bound to pick one up sooner or later," he said, smiling, referring to his teammate Darcy Robinson, who was born in Kamloops, British Columbia. Brielle laughed. "You have a point." "How come you don't have one? I thought you were from Ontario," Toby commented. "I was born there, yeah," she replied, leaning on the desk next to Toby. "Lived there until I was nine, moved to Montreal and played in a pee-wee league for them when I was eleven..." She paused, a distant look stretching across her face. She quickly regained her composure. "But I've lived in California for the past eight years with my brother, since I was about seventeen. I went with him when he got signed to the Ducks. I lost my accent a long time ago." Toby nodded. "I see. But I didn't come in here to talk about your lack of a Canadian accent," Toby said, crossing his arms in front of his chest and smiled. "Oh?" Brielle asked. "Then what did you come in here to talk about?" "Army." Brielle cast her eyes downward. "What about him?" she asked, turning away from Toby and beginning to rearrange the pictures of her brother and parents that she had sitting on her desk. "Ellie, stop that," Toby said, grabbing her hand. "What are you gonna do about him? There's no need to skirt around the issue, he wants you and he'd being more than obvious about it." "How the hell should I know?" Brielle snapped, yanking her hand away from Toby and taking a seat behind her desk. "Look Toby, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Until then... Good game tonight, I'll see you at the party later," she said, hinting for Toby to leave. "Fine," he said, walking through the door. Before closing it, he stuck his head in and said, "But you do realize that if you come to the Rookie Party later, you'll be standing in front of a bridge, and you're gonna have to figure out if you want to cross it or not." ~*~*~ "Excuse me, Brielle?" Brielle winced. She was about to go home, she had thought that all the reporters and members of the press had left. She had been sitting in her office for over an hour after Toby had left. She turned around, and asked the girl, "Can I help you with something?" "Actually you can, I'm the Media Relations for the Penguins, my name is Calista Morgan," she said, extending her hand for Brielle to shake. "Nice to meet you," Brielle said. "If it's okay with you, could you comment on the game tonight?" Calista asked, pulling a mini-tape recorder from her pocket. Brielle hesitated, not wanting to answer any questions tonight. She was late for the party as it was, and she wasn't in the mood for an interview. "Please... This is for the next issue of Hockey Time, my deadline is tomorrow morning." Feeling sorry for the girl, Brielle agreed. "Thank you so much, all I need is a short statement about the game," she said hitting record on the tape recorder. "The game was great, I think we played extremely well. Toby, Shane and Kris did great jobs, their goals tonight really helped us. Hopefully we'll get back to first place within a few weeks, we're not that far away. The team's skills have dramatically imporoved, and I'm extremely proud of them. Except for Meloche, I think his speed needs working on since he's a wing, but we can fix that easily in practice. Other than that, we did amazingly well tonight." Calista smiled. "Thanks so much, this is exactly what I need." "No problem," Brielle said, turning to go. She thought for a second about being the only girl at Brews Brothers that night and turned back to Calista. "Um, Calista, this might sound really weird, but are you doing anything tonight?" "Actually, I was gonna go to the Rookie Party at Brews Brothers, I'm dating Shane, and I'm supposed to be meeting him there," she said, her face lighting up when she mentioned Shane. Brielle smiled. "Great, then I won't be the only girl there," she laughed. "I just have to go home and change quick, I should be there in about a half hour or so," she said, walking to her car with Calista. "Yeah, I'll meet you there," Calista said. "I'm sick of being the only girl at these events, and Shane insists I go to them. This'll be a nice change of pace." "That it will," Brielle said, opening her car door. |
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