Walking into a new job on first day of can be so exciting yet so nerve racking. I never in a million years thought that I would be here, it was very surreal to me that I had made it. I don’t mean in a player standpoint, but I was an employee of a national league, I would have called you crazy if you told me this is where I would end up after my injury. This was something I had dreamed of since they told me I couldn’t play anymore. Being a female in any male dominated profession made it that much harder to make a name for yourself, but here I was defying the odds.


My heels made a distinctive click on the hard floors as I walked to the elevator that would take me up to the HR office so I could finish signing my paperwork. The security guard smiled at me as I flashed him my badge that I was proudly supporting around my neck. The butterflies in my stomach wouldn’t settle and I was worried I would get lost in this massive arena.


I knocked on the office door only to hear a muffled ‘come in’ in response. I swung the door open to see a lady sitting at a desk. I smile at her as she handed me the packet of papers and a pen. When I finished filling them out and handed them back to her, she told me that Steve wanted to give me a tour. She gave me a couple quick directions and went back to whatever she was working on before I had come in.


Upon reaching Steve’s office the door was open and I could see him sitting in a leather chair by a small coffee table. As I stepped in, I noticed he was not alone, on the couch sitting opposite of him was a rather tall dark-haired man. I recognized him from the research about the team I had done as Captain Vincent Lecavalier, he looked up at me and smiled before standing.

“Oh I am sorry I didn’t mean to interrupt.” I say but he shook his head and motioned for me to come in.


“Not to worry Rylee. We were just discussing the upcoming season. I would like to introduce you to Vinny; he is the captain. Vinny this is Rylee; she is our new Assistant PT” Steve introduced us.

“Nice to finally meet the girl that Steve has talked a lot about. He says he’s only ever seen players talk about hockey with as much passion as you.” Vinny said.


I blushed a deep rose color before looking up at them. “I have always been around it, whether it was playing it myself, helping out another player, or working on injuries and therapies. It is something that I have been passionate about since the first time I saw a game.”


“I can see what he means. Just the way you talk about it you can tell how much its affected you. Suits you” He stated.

“Thank you.” I reply smiling even more.


“Well shall we introduce you to the rest of the team?” Steve asked.


They rise, and we all walk out into the hallway and to another set of elevators. Steve swipes his pass and it takes us down to the hallway outside the locker rooms.


“I hope you brought a change of clothes.” Steve stated.


“I did.” I confirmed.


“Good you can go into the visitors’ locker room to change then meet us in the main locker room.” He said.


I walked to a door down the hall from the one that the two disappeared into. As I walked into the room a faint smell hit my nose. It was a mix of smelly equipment and cleaning supplies. It was oddly comforting; it was a smell I always associated with feeling at home. I quickly changed and walked back up the hall to the door I had seen Vinny and Steve enter.


I knocked before waiting for an answer. The door swung open revealing a guy about 6 feet tall and had a head of curly brown hair. He had yet to put on a shirt, revealing a slew of tattoos up the left side of his torso as well as one on his arm.


“May I help you?” He asked with a confused look on his face.


“That must be Rylee. Let her in.” I heard Vinny shout to the unknown man standing in the door.


He stood back revealing more of the locker room and more of the team. I entered slowly making some of the players look up at me as I stood there awkwardly.

“Guys let me have your attention.” Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up at Steve and me. Having the sudden attention of the entire team on us made me extremely nervous.

What if they think I’m a joke? What if they don’t see me as someone capable enough? What if they just see me a girl? Questions ran through my head. These were the worst-case scenarios of course, but still held some weight from past experiences.

“This is Rylee. You all will be seeing her a lot over the next season. She is the new Assistant Physical Therapist. She will be working with you to make sure that your training isn’t taking a turn for the worse. Make sure you see her at least twice a week. She will help stretch muscles and maintain them over the season. Put her to good use.” Steve concluded. “Oh, and try not to scare her too much.”

There was a chuckle from around the room as I blushed again. Most of the guys went back to what they were doing. However, two of them made their way over to me.


“Hey Rylee, I am Marty St. Louis. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He said extending his hand. I gladly accepted before turning to the other player. He looked vaguely familiar.

“Steven Stamkos.” He introduced himself. “I think we saw each other after your interview. You were doing a dance as I was coming off the elevator with Victor.”

The heat in my cheeks rose extremely high at the recall of being caught doing that.


“I thought I recognized you.” I laughed.


“Don’t worry about it. Victor and I were the only ones that saw it.” He reassured me as he walked away.

I walked into the weight room doing some light stretching as I waited for the rest of the team to get to dressed so we could get started. Today I would just be watching them to pinpoint old injuries and make sure that the way they were training wasn’t going to cause new ones. I knew that this was going to be odd, the whole starting over thing. After moving around so much you would think it would get easier, however it just seems to get harder the more you do it.

Notes

Here is the next chapter! Glad to see so many people reading! Please leave some feedback!

Josephine