As I looked around the buildings surrounding me I was in awe of how tall they were. I mean you’re looking at Ms. Small-Town-USA here. Cities were for visiting before, never for living in. How had I somehow managed to get a job here and end up working with a sports team again? Maybe it would be best if I gave a little bit of an explanation since you clearly have no clue what city, what sports team and why I’m ranting at this point.

I’m from a little whole in the wall town in the middle of Kentucky. Yes all of the backwoods type things happen there, we tailgate, have bon fires, hunt and fish, and we all know each other. I left the city after graduating high school; I managed eight years away from the small place I call home. Now I’m currently staring down downtown Pittsburgh. I just graduated from Law School a few weeks ago and got an offer I just couldn’t refuse with the Pittsburgh Penguins. I am now the Penguins new community relation’s person.

That should be enough information to get you by for now. Back to the story now, I’m standing outside of the arena looking at it in awe. The building is huge. I see a couple of players walking in through the door number I was directed to. I’m thankful for deciding on the most casual business outfit I had because most of the players over looked me and assumed I had been here before. I slipped through the door right behind them with out any notice.

I followed the directions I had previously been given to get to the offices in the building. As I walked into the office of my director I smiled, this was what I was used to. Normal people, they didn’t want anything extra from you and vice versa. “Hi sir.” I mumbled to make my attention known.

“Oh, glad to see you found it okay Ms. O’Neil.”

“What am I in for today?” I questioned knowing he wanted me to get straight to work because of the message I was left on my voicemail.

He shuffled around his desk and moved some papers and finally looked up at me. “Actually we need you to meet the players because they are who you will be working with on a more personal basis than us here in the office.” He smiled and finally looked up at me.

I looked down at the short summer dress I had worn and then realized I had on a pair of simple flats and my plastic rimmed glasses my hair had been curled from a friend getting bored and wanting to experiment. My friend had just finished beauty school and had a wedding coming up in a week and needed a test dummy. She found me and tried out her style on me. I hope it didn't make me look bad becaue i hadn't looked in a mirror since yesterday morning.

“Well can we just get that over with then? I’m ready to meet them if you are.” I told him as I stood up and straightened my shoulders.

“Let me make a call to Blysma and tell him to keep them in the locker room and dressed.” I started to head out of his office as to calm myself down since I felt my nerves kick up and fight me tooth and nail. Jeff walked into my office, nodded his head and headed back out the doorway. He began to walk at a brisk pace and didn’t stop to see if I was following him but rather assumed that I would be following him to meet the boys.

As we walked the halls I began to get confused. The halls were so confusing, one would lead into one hallway and another would bring you out at another entrance. I sure hope I don’t get lost in here otherwise I’m going to be lost for days. We finally got to a set of double doors with the Penguins logo on the door and too much noise bursting from inside. Looks like we found the team.

Jeff pushed the doors open and stopped, “Look you’re to stay at practice get to know the guys on and off the ice. Dan said they have a quick second to say hi and then they are to take you to the film room to get to know you better because you all will become best friends since you’re their liaison to the community.”

I was feeling even more nervous now because he told me that. I couldn’t possibly sit in a room full of men who were going to judge me the minute they saw me as well as making snide comments. I slowly edged further into the room and all of the chatter stopped. I looked from one side of the room to the other and back again trying to match faces to their pictures from the roster since I had to do research on them. I had never watched an NHL game until yesterday; my family was all football all the time.

Nobody had spoken up to make an introduction, which, in turn made me grow a pair and speak first. “Hi y’all. I’m Kelly; I’ll be working with all of y’all this season. I’m your new liaison to the community. I guess I should let ya get to the ice and practice. I’ve been told I’ll get a more formal introduction after in the film room.” I removed myself from the room and found the stands and picked a seat higher up as to not draw attention to myself.

As i watched practice i noticed that they all knew how to work with each other and push each other, which made me laugh because it was how a family worked and a team was a family. I was glad to hear a double whistle after two hours, which meant I could try and find my way to the film room and wait for them there.

I slipped my glasses off and finally found the film room. I sat at the front and waited for all of the players. I saw the whole team come up in mass in less than fifteen minutes after practice ended. I guess they were guys and didn’t take as long as girls did to get ready after they were done. I wasn’t sure how to go about this meeting, do I simply ask their names what they’re interested in or do I go more in depth.

“Why’d you take the job?” a voice from the back asked me.

“Well I love sports, unlike all of y’all I cant go professional. Although the biggest reason is because I love seeing the smile on someone’s face at the work I did but receiving no credit once so ever. I like knowing I helped but they don’t know it. This is the perfect opportunity for both.”

“Where are you from? That is not a Canadian accent like we are used to” A heavily French accent hollered.

“I’m from a small town in Kentucky. We have no hockey team, no baseball team, no football team just college basketball. I guess southern accents are a rarity here,” I mumbled under my breath.

The guys looked at each other waiting for other questions to be asked. “Why should we respect you?”

I began to laugh hysterically, bent over my lap with my hands over my mouth. Then suddenly stopped they all looked at me shocked. “Why should I respect you? So far,” I stood up and started walking through the group of guys to keep my nerves calm, “none of you have looked me in the eyes, taken off your hat or even given me the time of day." I was raised where men took their hats off the minute they walked through the door, that you never questioned respect you always treated someone like they were your mother until otherwise known. "Sure I look like some girl who would have never ever played a sport in her life. I played four years at Alabama we won the softball world series. Don’t think I don’t know the life of an athlete because I do." I sounded harsh but knew that they needed to understand where i was coming from because I was the oddity in a mans world.

“You all think the world revolves around you now that you’ve made a name for yourself. You forget about those people who helped you get here. You know those friends who would go skate on the ice with you even after all your other friends had left, the ones who watched every single one of you junior league games. How about your mothers, huh? They took you to and from practice, made sure you had enough food to eat every day, washed your clothes and made sure you had your homework done. You think those people don’t matter anymore cause you’re making a ton of money.

“Honestly I didn’t take the job because my name would now be associated with the Pittsburgh Penguins association. I took this job because I figured I could really change some kids life through your charities. I also never once asked how much I get paid, what my benefits are or anything. I took this job blind moved over 600 miles away and you want to ask why I deserve your respect.” I stopped talking to see all of them looking at me with wide eyes. I felt mad for getting angry with them but it was the same thing i got every where i went.

“Thank you.” A tall guy glanced up at me, he didn’t stop at a thank you “We forget that once we were those little nobodies skating around and that someone thought we could be a somebody. It’s hard to remember that not everyone is out for our wallets or other reasons.”

As he finished talking another guy spoke up from the back. I couldn’t tell whom he was, “We forget that first impressions last a while. When people get sent in for a job and tear the team apart we don’t want to risk tear us apart.”

I looked at all of them and chuckled a little. I glanced at every single one of them, “maybe this should be a good time for one of my southern lessons. Don’t ever judge a gun by the rust in the barrel” I saw the quizzical looks given to me and laughed, “Don’t judge a book by its cover?” the room erupted in ah’s and I knew my point had come across. "Sorry for judging you all as well"

I moved back to my planner and knew I had to have one on ones but that would just simply take too much time today and I knew they had routines and didn’t want to be here with me all day. “Alright I need to get to know all of you on a more personal basis, but I don’t think you all want to be doing that today. As you file out of the room there is a calendar with times and dates. Pick a time and a date and meet in my office to have a nice little chat and get to know me better.”

The room quickly emptied as everyone was leaving but one guy stayed and I wasn’t sure as to why. “Can I just have our meeting now?” I looked the guy over and nodded my head. Grabbing my journal I opened it to a blank page and sat down.

“Thanks.” He mumbled as he sat down.

“So Mr.—” I trailed off because I still could barely remember their last names.

“Oh, Sidney. Sidney Crosby. I guess I should apologize. As much as I’m about not judging people because I was judged as a kid and I still am every day I forget that it is so much harder to have a job in the men’s sports world if you are a woman.”

I laughed a little and had to stop writing his name down. “I’m sorry could you please quit giving me the reporter bull shit answer.”

His head snapped up quickly and his eyes got bigger than I thought humanly possible. He started to explain but couldn’t recover quick enough which made me laugh harder. “How did you know,” he questioned me.

“I’m technically a lawyer I’m trained to spot the bull shit people try to say. Plus I know when guys are trying to save face, grew up with three brothers.” I shrugged my shoulders at him and laughed because he thought he was so slick. These guys act like they’re the first one to keep their personal lives personal.

“Sorry I don’t know how to not be in interview mode when someone asks me questions.” He honestly replied

“Well the best thing I can tell you is to quit it and just act like I’m a family member’s girlfriend and I’m asking the questions that way.” I saw the idea go through his head. I remembered reading about this Crosby guy. He was a nervous wreck when it came to girls and he was often referred to as ‘the kid’. I felt I knew him like the back of my hand and he hadn’t even told me about himself.

“Look I know you wanted to be Mr. Capitan and get this done first and tell them how it goes. Honestly you’re wasting not only my time but yours right now. I’ve got to go get the charity schedule for the season figured out and it has to be completed by tonight. It’s awfully hard to get done. E-mail me with a time and date that works for you and we can continue this.” I told him with a grimace.

I stood and walked out of the room his eyes following my leaving form. I was thankful to be around guys all the time at home it taught me how to handle the male gender. I was thinking about how I wasn’t just their community relation’s representative any more I had taken on the title of becoming their etiquette teacher.

Notes

As for this story. There are no real pairings yet and i'm not sure if Kelly will even end up with anyone. tell me what you think about it.
-S