Growing Up Staal

My name is Samantha Kershaw. I never thought I'd really fall for him. I mean seriously, out of all the goofy hockey players in my life in Thunder Bay and in the states I just had to fall for Marc Staal.
Maybe I should start at the beginning. You see I was the next door neighbor of the Staal’s and trust me the Staal house can get crazy because of all four boys. Most of the time I was over at their house hanging out, because my dad was away on business trips a lot. So I practically grew up as a “adopted Staal sibling”, which Mama Staal didn’t mind because she always wanted a girl around. The boys even acted like overprotective brothers when someone was mean to me.
Anyway, how me falling for Marc started one summer afternoon when we were 17, we were headed to the lake by my house and taking in the sun. I remember there was a point when the sun was lightly warming all the bare skin on my body that was showing. Since Marc and I were sitting on the dock with our feet in the water I could feel the little waves that were being created by Marc kicking his feet back and forth a little.
“God I love days like this.”
I smiled as I glanced at Marc through my sunglasses.
“Even though you’ll burn. Redheads…”
I shook my head and laughed. I could feel Marc glaring at me from behind his own sunglasses.
“Look who’s talking. You’re a redhead too.”
We both had a little laugh and kicked our feet in the water.
“I may be a redhead, but sometimes I wish I was a hot blonde supermodel.”
I thought about what I said and it really did sound appealing to me. I always loved getting pictures of myself, so why not make some money doing it.
“Well you already have the supermodel look. Just dye your hair blonde and bam there you go. You’d be a super hot blonde supermodel.”
I laughed and playfully shoved Marc, apparently my shove was hard enough to knock him into the water which made me uncontrollabley giggle at his shocked face.
“You little bitch!”
Marc said this laughing and had a evil look on his face. The next thing I knew he grabbed my feet and pulled me into the water with him. When I got back to the surface of the water I noticed that Marc was really close to me. What happened next was probably the best/most embarrassing moment of that summer. As Marc’s and my lips met for the first time it felt as if someone had made a electric surge go through my body.
From a short distance away we heard, “Yeah Marc! Get some!”
We separated so quickly at the sound of the voice, because we both knew that it was Marc’s brother Eric. I felt myself reden, but when I looked at Marc he was the same way.
“Anyway, Marc dad needs your help but I guess you’re a little busy.”
Eric was grinning from ear to ear, which made me really uncomfortable. I looked over at Marc again who looked beyond pissed at his brother.
“Shut the hell up Eric.”
Marc was obviously fed up with Eric at this point.
“It’s okay Marc. Go help your dad. I gotta get home soon anyway.”
I said this while I pulled myself out of the water. I slipped on my flip-flops then waved good-bye to Marc and Eric, who looked like they were going to fight once I was gone. As I headed towards my house the butterflies in my stomach went crazy every time Marc crossed my mind. And that’s only the beginning of the story of me falling for Marc. It didn’t even end when we were far apart, far from home and hardly saw each other.

Notes