Jocelyn sat on the couch reading the newspaper when Brooklyn came walking through the front door. “How was your night last night?” Jocelyn smirked as she sat the paper down next to her.

“I’m in pain,” Brooklyn cried dramatically, dropping down next to her sister on the couch.

Jocelyn looked at her out of the corner of her eye. “Was Max that rough last night?” she asked jokingly, unable to hide the smile on her face, finding her own joke funny.

“Ha ha,” Brooklyn said sarcastically, narrowing her eyes at Jocelyn.. “I fell last night and slammed my arm into the table,” she told her holding up her arm that had a long bruise on it.

“Ooh,” Jocelyn said, reaching out and running her finger along it lightly, causing Brooklyn to jerk it away, apparently in pain.. “Are you okay?” she asked, concerned.

“Like I said, I’m in pain, but other than that I’m fine,” Brooklyn shrugged her shoulders, forgetting all about playing up the pain.

“Well, if you wouldn’t drink so much, maybe you wouldn’t have fallen over,” Jocelyn told her as she walked into the bathroom to get some aspirin for Brooklyn, knowing her sister would need it. Last night had been pretty rough for Brooklyn, and she tended to have pretty bad hangovers after nights like that. “Here, take this,” she ordered as she gave her two pills.

“Thanks,” Brooklyn said, smiling at her. “And, I wasn’t planning on getting that drunk. It just kind of happened. But, anyways, how was your night with Sid?” she asked, changing subjects. She really didn’t need to get into details about the night before.

“Good,” Jocelyn admitted, nodding her head, but not giving away any details of what had happened.

“How good?” Brooklyn questioned, raising an eyebrow at her, wondering whether Jocelyn and Sid had gotten to know each other better than friends.

“Don’t ask it like that,” Jocelyn laughed. “We talked about me working for the Steelers, and then you and Max left, leaving me with no ride home, so he brought me back here.”

“No kiss, no nothing?” she asked, not concerned that she and Max had left her sister stranded at the party.

“Nope,” Jocelyn said shaking her head. “I did tell him that he’d be asking Max for my number, though.”

“And what was his response to that?” Brooklyn inquired.

“He didn’t say anything. He just shook his head,” Jocelyn replied, remembering last night. “And then I got out of the car and came in here. So see, you really have nothing to worry about. He didn’t put the moves on me and we didn’t have hot sex last night, unlike some people,” she eyed her sister.
Brooklyn reached over, hitting Jocelyn in the arm. “Shut up, you don’t know that!”

Jocelyn couldn’t help but laugh at that statement. “And you’re not even denying it!” she pointed out. Brooklyn shrugged her shoulders, a smile on her face.

***

Two days later, Pittsburgh was once again on the losing end of a game against the New Jersey Devils. With one minute left to go in the third period, the Penguins were down 4-2. As the buzzer rang, the team went directly into the locker room ready to hear it from their coach.

But, before the coach could talk, Sid had something to say. “Do you guys want to lose?” Sid screamed while most of the guys rolled their eyes at him, sick of hearing him say the same thing after every game that they lost. “Do you want to set a new NHL record for the most losses because we’re getting awfully close right now?” he questioned.

“Hey, we know we lost. In case you forgot, you’re not the only one out on the ice. We were out there. We played the game right alongside you,” Craig told him, getting frustrated that the captain always made it seem like none of the other guys were out there on the ice with him. Sid wasn’t a one man show, though sometimes he thought he was, and his teammates were getting sick of him acting like that.

“Yeah, well you’re not the one getting blamed for the losses. None of you are,” he pointed out, while the others groaned. Sure, Sid may have been the most popular Penguin, but that didn’t mean that the others didn’t get the blame, too. If one of them had a bad game and let a few shots in the net, they were sure to get blamed, not just Sid. “The blame gets put on me, your captain.”

A bunch of the players opened their mouth to argue that point, but before anyone could say anything else, Coach came up behind Sid, putting a hand on his shoulder, and told him, “Go talk to the press. They’re all waiting on you.”

As soon as Sid left the room, the guys turned to look at Max. “I thought you were going to get him a girl,” Jordan told him.

“I tried,” Max told them. “I had Jocelyn all ready to go, but Sid refuses to go out with anyone during the season. I thought maybe if they became friends, it would help, but obviously it didn’t.”

“No, it didn’t,” Matt said. “And we need to do something quick because I’m about ready to hit him.”Max wanted to laugh, but he saw the look on Matt’s face and knew he was being honest. Max couldn’t blame him, either. There were times that Max wanted to hit him as well.

“Maybe he just needs a good beat down,” Kris said jokingly.

“He needs something because I’m getting sick of his shit,” Tyler said. “Seriously, he needs to get a girl or get laid or something.”

“I can try again, but Sid’s not going for it. Jocelyn’s like perfect, and he refuses to go out with her,” Max told them.

“Well, send her over my way,” Kris joked. “She’s hot.”

“Yeah, I don’t think Brooklyn would go for that. Or Jocelyn for that matter,” Max told him.

“Whatever,” Kris scoffed.

After he got out of Melon Arena, Max decided to go over to the girls’ apartment and try to see if he could come up with a plan for Jocelyn. He knew Brooklyn was still against the idea of her sister dating Sid, but Max truly thought it was a good idea. And, while Sid could be a jerk sometimes to the team, he knew he’d never act that way to anyone he was dating, so there was really no fear for Jocelyn.

“Hey, sorry for the loss,” Brooklyn said opening the door and giving Max a kiss immediately.

“Yeah, is Jocelyn home?” he asked, looking around Brooklyn into the apartment for her sister.

“You’d rather see my sister than me?” Brooklyn questioned, raising an eyebrow at him. “Should I leave, too?” she added jokingly.

“I need to talk to her about Sid,” Max explained.

“Fine,” Brooklyn sighed before going back to Jocelyn’s room and telling her that Max wanted to talk to her. She didn’t even fight it this time, knowing Max was going to talk to Jocelyn one way or another. There was really no reason to stand in the way of that right now.

“Hey, Max, what’s up?” Jocelyn asked as she walked into the living room where Max sat on the couch. “Besides losing the game today?”

“You really know how to kick a guy when he’s down, don’t you?” Max asked, looking at her with a frown.

Jocelyn simply shrugged. “I guess you can call it a gift,” she said with a smile. “Anyways, why did you need to talk to me?”

“I need you to convince Sid to go out with you on a date,” Max said, getting straight to the point. He needed this done, and he needed it done now, and he wasn’t going to waste time trying to word it nicely for Jocelyn.

“What?” Brooklyn and Jocelyn said at the same time.

“I thought you said that Sid refuses to date during the season,” Jocelyn said, confused. “So, how exactly am I supposed to get him to go out with me?”

“I don’t know,” Max admitted. “But Sid’s still acting the same way since we keep losing.”

“Wouldn’t a better solution just be for you all to stop losing?” Jocelyn asked seriously.

Max glared at her while Brooklyn laughed. “She does have a point,” Brooklyn told him.

“Please, Jocelyn. It’s not just me begging, it’s all of the guys. They’re all getting frustrated with him at this point, and soon it’s just going to be a huge divide amongst the team,” Max told her, ignoring her comment. “Please?”

“Sorry, Max, but I’m not going to try to force a guy into dating me. I’m not that desperate. At least not yet,” she defended her decision.

“Jocelyn…”

“No, Max,” Jocelyn told him in a matter-of-fact tone, shaking her head for emphasis.

Max turned to look at Brooklyn. “Hey, you know I’ve been against this whole plan from the beginning,” she told him before he even said anything to her. “I’m siding with Jocelyn,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Ha!” Jocelyn said sticking her tongue out at him. “The solution’s easy, though. Just win a game!” she added with a laugh while Max glared at her once again, not amused by her joke.