Chapter 3

It's okay in the day I'm staying busy
Tied up enough so I don't have to wonder where is he
Got so sick of crying
So just lately
When I catch myself I do a 180
I stay up clean the house
At least I'm not drinking
Run around just so I don't have to think about thinking
That silent sense of content
That everyone gets
Just disappears soon as the sun sets

Wake Up Alone – Amy Winehouse

Ch. 3

The end of July and the month of August flew by.  Before I knew it, the team was arriving for their first day of camp at Glen Falls, ready to begin the new season.  It was now that I would be able to start the ball rolling on all my plans.  I was overly excited and crazy nervous as I stood in front of the guys.  Some of them looked thrilled to be here, others looked annoyed that they were sent down from the big club and then you had the ones that could barely sit still because they had ADHD or something.

“My name is Hanna Richards.  I am the new media director here for the club, so if you played here last year, you are going to see a lot of changes and hopefully you will see them as positive.  I have a ton of ideas for getting you guys more accessible to the public.  Fans like feeling connected to their teams and one of those ways is to know about their prospects.  Last year some of you did some one-on-one interviews but they seemed to have fallen by the way side.  This year, I’d like post a new interview each week of the season.  I or one of the interns will also be traveling along with you guys on some of your road-trips to catch behind the scenes footage and basically put a weekly “show,” for lack of better terms together for the fans to access on the web.  The internet is a great tool to get this team out there.  Another new thing this season is that you guys will be in charge of the music that gets played in the arena.  So what I’m asking for is your playlists.  If one of your teammates only listens to country, then that is what you will hear the whole game you are out on the ice.  So I’d really appreciate it if you put a couple minutes of your time into the list and think about your teammates who might or might not be appreciative of what you play.  I will be posting a calendar that will have your scheduled game night, so please get me your list within a week of your scheduled date so that I can put a warm-up mix together and what-not.”  I paused and quickly surveyed the room to see if I could get some sort of vibe and when I did I noticed a couple of the guys nodding and smiling at each other and then back up at me.  I took it as a good sign and finished up the speech that was making me seem like a professor or mother hen to guys that were roughly my age.  This thought suddenly made me feel slightly insecure and worried if my hair looked alright.  Get a grip Hanna, who gives a shit?!  “Um, if you guys have any ideas or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with me.  My office is always open,” I finished my long winded introduction with a nervous smile and nodded my head towards Bob Brooks, the President, knowing he had a few more words to say to the guys before he broke the meeting.

Well, that went well.  I was humming a happy tune as I walked to my office or what I called my office. I immediately slipped off my dress heals and flipped on my IHome, flipped to a pop-playlist and cranked up the volume.  It was actually a little closet that was most likely an equipment room at one time and quite possibly still is.  A couple times over the last few months I walked in and found an errant tool box or a bag of stinky towels that needed to be laundered.  This morning I was surprised to find 2 gear bags.  They looked to be the same bags that players carried around, but I didn’t do much snooping because I didn’t have much time to worry about them.

I went to work on some paper work while shamelessly singing along to Carrie Underwood’s Undo It.  It was nice being on the other side of the arena where no one really bothered you…

“Excuse me,” a male voice said from the doorway, behind me.  My mouth was still open from singing one of the “undo it’s” in the song when I spun around in my chair to find a tall, fresh faced, brown eyed boy in an orange Flyer’s shirt and black gym shorts.  He was smiling curiously at me when another guy in practically the same outfit stopped next to him.  They had like facial features, but one was definitely younger than the other.

…okay, so cross out that part where I said that no one really bothered me here.

“Can I help you?” I asked, sounding obviously flustered.  I immediately began smoothing out my hair and tugged down the hem of my skirt as I abruptly stood up.  I’m not quite sure why I stood up, but I think it might have had something to do with the fact that I was now practically cornered in an office by two well built hockey players.

The first one’s smile got bigger as he took a step in and picked up one of the equipment bags that I had forgotten about.  “Just picking up our gear,” he said happily.  “Hope you don’t mind, but JP and I often hide our stuff in here, especially at the beginning of the year because we don’t want people messing with it in the locker room.  The rookies think they have something to prove in the prank department, so we didn’t give them a chance this year.  This was Bob’s office last season and he never cared…I guess we should have asked your first though,” he finished up as JP also took a step into my office.

“Oh, um, no, that’s fine…you can leave your stuff in here when you want.  I leave the door open, so you won’t have to worry about it being locked…”

“We already have a key,” JP winked at me as he held up his set of keys, jingling them a bit.

“Handy,” I laughed nervously.

“I’m Mike Testwuide, by the way,” the younger looking of the two suddenly blurted out as he reached over my desk to shake my hand.  He seemed to be about my age and it was easy to see he was well built like the majority of all hockey players I had come in contact with over the years.   I graciously shook it and then shook JP’s when he also offered his hand.  Turned out the boys were brothers and it was actually their 2^nd year playing in Glen Falls.  Before I knew it, they were both sitting in my closet office on folding chairs they had found in the hallway, talking with me about anything and everything.

“Nealer!” Coach Bylsma yelled out at practice.  You’re next up for mustache boy!”  A couple hoots and hollers came from the mob of hockey players that were either waiting to attempt their shoot-out attempt against Flower or had already gone against him.  He was in rare form, chirping everyone that came forward.

“Eees, Neeeeeaaalller! What ya got for me this season, ya fucker!” he called out in his thick French accent.

Instead of saying anything, I kept my head down, passed the puck between my skates a couple times, spun around and went top shelf over Flower’s blocker pad, garnering a string of curses from him and loud cheers from the rest of the boys and the large crowd that had gathered for our last pre-season practice.  I still found it strange to have such an enthusiastic turn-out for our practices; Dallas has die-hard fans, but this was a whole different situation.  The city of Pittsburgh bled for the Penguins and Steelers and I have to say it was nice playing for a town that supported the team.  However, when you’re popular in town, the puck-bunnies are 100 times worse.  Today there were about 4 signs with my name on them.  One read, “Hey Nealer, I’d be okay if you’d nail me!”  Pretty girl, but yeah, HUGE turnoff in my book.  Of course the guys ripped me mercifully throughout practice about it.

“Hey Crosby!  Looks like you have some competition in the bunny department!” Jordan laughed as he flipped the puck up at me.

“Aww, just shut it Staalsy, you’re jealous that Nealer has more game than you!” Sid chirped back.

“He might have better looks, but I’m fairly sure I got the better game…” Jordan laughed, not so subtly reminding me how I ended up totally blowing off this hot blonde at Diesel last night.

I was standing at the crowded bar when she bumped into me, spilling some of her drink on my shirt.  She was as tall as me, had impossibly long legs and beautiful long blonde hair that cascaded down over her almost bare shoulders.  The lights accentuated her curves that seemed to be in all the right places underneath her shimmery spaghetti-strapped top.  Everything about her screamed exact opposite of Hanna which is what made me revert back to my shy stupidity.

“Oh, I’m soo sorry!” she apologized enthusiastically, grabbing a napkin off the bar and pressing it to the front of my shirt.  Her touch burned, as if she was the devil himself.  Before I knew it, she had me pulled out onto the dance floor, giving me some excuse to pay me back for the alcohol abuse I witnessed.  She moved smoothly and I felt like a stripper poll.  By the end of the 2^nd song her tongue was running up along my neck and towards my ear.  She was turning me on but I suddenly felt the need for space.  Sure, I had a few one-night stands, but tonight was not going to end like that.  “Your place or mine, she suddenly whispered into my ear.”

“Neither,” I said shortly, finally getting enough courage to walk away and back over to the rest of the guys.

“Dude, she was hot and you just left her standing there!  How the fuck do you do that?!” TK cried.

“Not my type,” I mumbled before taking a swig of my beer.

“New season, new start,” Letang said quietly next to me with a raised eyebrow.  It wasn’t a question, it wasn’t a dare, it was just his way of reminding me that I was moving on to another part of my life and that I needed to take a couple more chances in life.

“I really think you have a lot of great ideas planned,” JP said sincerely.  “The guys were already talking about what they would put on their playlists when the meeting broke.”

“Yeah, I hear Rowe saying he wanted all TV show theme songs played one night…” Mike laughed.

“That’s actually an awesome idea!” I exclaimed, not even thinking that some of the guys might get totally silly, which I was sure the fans would love.

“Excuse me?  Is there anything else you guys would like?” the young waitress broke in, only looking at JP and Mike while totally ignoring me.  It seems that the Testwuide brothers were well known at the hamburger joint across the street from the arena.  The boys insisted I go out to eat with them after we sat and talked to almost dinner time.

I spoke up and asked for a chocolate milkshake, forcing her to look at me, which garnered me a snot-ass glare from the lovely waitress.  As soon as she walked away, Mike had something to say.  “That’s Tammy.  She thinks she has claim on all the guys of the team.”

“I guess I should just come here by myself next time,” I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

“Hell no.  Actually, that brings me to my next question.  Everyone in the front office seems a little too old to hang out with, except for Dave, the equipment guy.  So who have you been hanging out with?” JP asked.

“Um…no one really I guess.  Dave has a girlfriend that he is constantly on the phone with and seems to be integrated into the community, so it’s just me,” I said, realizing instantly that I must sound totally pathetic.

“Where are you living?” Mike instantly asked.

“At the Ramada Inn,” I pointed out the window to the building just a block away from where we were eating.

“Ouch, Leights stayed there last year and it was a little… well, definitely not a place to live for long term…” Mike noted.

“Well, I didn’t really have time to look for an apartment and it’s convenient.  I guess I really should start looking for something though,” I said thoughtfully.

Nothing more was really said on the matter because soon my milkshake came and we began a conversation on where to buy the best ice cream in the world.

“Do you always leave people standing out on the dance floors?” a semi-familiar voice spoke up while I walked by a table in a downtown coffee shop.

I stopped and looked down, seeing the familiar blonde from Diesel a couple weeks ago.  “Oh, hey,” I said, realizing things could possibly get really awkward.

“I have an empty seat if you’re interested in having some company while you drink your coffee,” she smiled.  “I promise not to invade your personal space this time…” she laughed lightly.  Today she was wearing a Pitt sweatshirt and jeans with her hair tied back in a messy pony-tail.  The only make-up she had on was some light eyeliner and a hint of mascara, making her actually prettier than she was at the club.

“Um, sure,” I said hesitantly as I pulled out the chair across from her and sat down.  “I don’t think you told me your name the other night,” I began.

“Shelly.  Shelly Trainer,” she smiled, reaching across the table to shake my hand.  “And you look familiar, but I’m not quite sure from where…”

I could tell she was being sincere but I still couldn’t help but laugh a little because I found it slightly odd she didn’t know who I was for the simple fact that most of the women who threw themselves at me knew exactly who I was.  “I’m James Neal,” I said simply, not really feeling the need to elaborate.

“Nice to meet you.  Do you go to college here in the city?”

“No, I just work here...you?”

“I’m a senior nursing major at Pitt,” she happily informed me.  “Um, I want to apologize for the other night.  I actually am not normally like that,” she suddenly began.  “This is probably going to sound pathetic, but I did it on a dare.  You see I broke up with my first love at the end of the last semester and my girlfriends think I need to move on...” she paused, blushed profusely and covered her face with her hand.

“Something wrong?” I asked, finding it slightly odd with the way she was acting.

“I’m not supposed to be telling you about my tragic love life.  That’s one of the rules my friends said I had to stick to!” she laughed lightly while shaking her head.

“Rules?”

“You aren’t supposed to talk about your exes to strangers or possible boys you wouldn’t mind going on a date with,” she recited the sentence like it straight out of a book.

“Hmm, now that is interesting advice,” I chuckled.  “I should talk to this friend of yours because I’m kind of in the same boat it seems,” I heard myself admit to this complete stranger.  Before either of us could say anything my cell phone beeped with a text message from Max.

“I see you chatting it up with a lady! I knew you had game!”

I felt the heat instantly rise up my neck and into my face as I began frantically looking around the small coffee shop.

“Um, are you looking for them?” Shelly giggled as she pointed out the window to Max, Jordan and TK making faces and dancing around like fools.  The way TK crossed his eyes, made him look like some sort of drunk pig.  It was horrendous and everyone in the shop was looking.

“Shit.  Yes, look, I’m sorry but I have to go…” I grumbled as I gathered up my coffee and money off the table.

“Maybe I’ll see you around,” she said, sounding hopeful.  Something made me stop, pull out my cell phone and get her number.  She gave it to me easily and we said our goodbyes.

A/N: here are some pictures of the new boys that you were introduced to in this Chapter... I did some of the research for ya'll. :o) Enjoy!

Mike Testwuide

JP Testwuide


Center: Ben Holstrom Left: Mike Testwuide Right: Andrew Rowe