Don't Make Me Spell It Out For You

“Come on Roselyn! You coming?” my cousin, Kris Versteeg, poked his head around the corner of my hallway. My very empty hallway.

I tore my eyes away from my now empty apartment and sighed. “Kris. I don’t think I want to leave.”

He came up to me, all smiles, ruffling my hair. “You’re only saying that because you’re nervous.”

“Yeah, moving to Chicago does that to a girl.”

“You moved here and were perfectly fine,” he argued.

“I knew people before I moved here Kris,” I said, annoyance seeping into my voice.

“You know people in Chicago too! Like I don’t know, me!” he waved his arms, as if trying to get my attention.

“You’re going to be gone, with all your hockey playing and stuff.”

He rolled his eyes and tugged me out of the house. “Say goodbye to Toronto Roselyn.”

He drove us to the airport where we got onto a plan, him rambling on about his amazing teammates.

“Oh, Laddie is picking us up by the way,” he said on the plane.

“What?” I was startled. “I get to meet them?”

He looked at me as if I was crazy. “Well of course Rose. You’re living with me, and I just so happen to be living with Laddie. And well the guys love coming over so yeah.”

“I’m living with you?!” I stared at him.

“I didn’t tell you that part?” he looked confused and thoughtful as he racked his brain for the memory of telling me.

“Uh no. You just said you had living arrangements for me.”

He waved me off. “I do have living arrangements for you.”

“Yeah, with you and your teammate!” Oh my God. I’d be rooming with my cousin and his teammate? What if he didn’t like me? Or worse. . . he hated me. . .

“Is that a problem?” he asked, turning his puppy dog blue eyes on me. “It’s just that I missed you so much Rose and I haven’t seen you in forever. And I mean me and Laddie have more than enough money to pay for the mortgage. That way you can save your money to go to Italy like you’ve always wanted,” he wiggled his eyebrows. “How long have you had that dream Rose? At least since you were five was when I remember you going off about Italy. And how you were going to get married in Italy.”

“I’m not going to win against you anyway, so obviously I am staying with you and your teammate. What is his name again?”

“Laddie! Or well his actual name is Andrew Ladd. Everyone calls him Laddie though.”

I nodded, leaning back for an hour of sleep while Kris babbled on. Great. I was going to become a Blackhawks Bitch.

~~~~~

Both Kris and I waited patiently in the O’Hare airport for this mysterious Laddie to show up. Or well, I was waiting patiently while Kris bounded around wondering where his friend was.

“Uh excuse me?” someone tapped me on the shoulder.

I turned around and my eyes widened in surprise. I was met with the most beautiful grey eyes I had ever seen, on the most beautiful man I had ever seen. I stared at him. “Yeah?” I asked, waiting for him to go on.

“He with you?” he nodded at Kris.

I sighed. “Yes sir. Look, if he’s done anything stupid we are leaving soon. He’s just a spaz sometimes and he can’t help it. I think he has a bit of ADD in him. I’ll get him to a doctor and maybe he can prescribe some meds to calm him down.”

The man only laughed. “Girl, I’ve been trying to get him tested for ADD for months now.” He stuck out his hand. “Andrew Ladd. And you must be Roselyn Versteeg. Steeger hasn’t shut up about you since he convinced you to move down here. Welcome to Chicago.”

I smiled. So this was Andrew Ladd. “Yeah. Kris!” I called and he spotted Ladd and grinned.

“Laddie! This is Roselyn, my most favorite cousin ever and Rose this is Laddie. Not my most favorite teammate, but he’s okay.”

Ladd rolled his eyes. “And you’re just a walk in the park to deal with.”

“Hell yeah.”

“Come on kiddies. We’re late for practice. I don’t want Q taking off our heads again for being late,” Ladd led us out to his car.

“Practice?” I asked, sitting in the backseat, spreading out my legs.

“Which means you get to meet the team first then get a tour of your new home. Lucky ducky you,” Ladd smiled at me in the rearview mirror.

“I have a feeling I should be a bit worried.”

“She’s a smart one, your cousin,” Ladd joked.

~~~~~

I sat quietly behind the glass, trying not to get noticed. I was always a little shy when it came to new people and I kind of wanted them to like me. After all, I would be living with Andrew and Kris and according to them, I would be seeing a lot of the guys.

“Who are you?” someone tapped on the glass like I was a fish.

I raised an eyebrow. “Your new pet fish apparently.”

He smirked and stopped tapping. “I’m Adam Burish. Who are you now?”

“Roselyn Versteeg. I’m Kris’s cousin.”

His eyes widened and he snapped his fingers. “I know all about you! Steeger has been talking nonstop about you for weeks now. Hey guys! I found the mysterious Roselyn!”

Oh shit.

A couple of guys skated over and I could feel my cheeks burning up. I had no idea what to do and Andrew or Kris weren’t around to bail me out.

“Okay, so here are some of the guys. We got Patrick Sharp and Patrick Kane over there. Johnny Toews is the one scowling behind Kaner. Niklas Hjalmarsson, Brent Seabrook, and Duncan Keith are yapping away over there. Antti Niemi is our goalie of many words. Tomas Kopecky and Marian Hossa are the Slovaks of the team over there. So welcome!”

I sat shell shocked. I had no idea what to say.

They stared at me blankly.

Oh my God. What was I supposed to say?! Ack! I could feel my cheeks burning even brighter.

“Rose!” Kris called and I let go of a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. He skated right up to me. “No need to be shy. They’re pretty friendly people.”

“Except for Tazer,” Andrew slung his arm over the guy’s shoulder. “He hates dogs, kids, and old people.”

“I do not,” Toews growled. “I hate idiots like you.”

“You love us and you know it,” Andrew said back like that was it. His word was final. “So

Roselyn, cat got your tongue?”

My face grew warmer but not because I embarrassed or shy. I was getting frustrated. “Why don’t you try being thrown into a new city with a bunch of strange people who tap on the glass like you’re a fish and then ask me if cat has my tongue?”

“We’ve all been traded or thrown into a new city,” he challenged me lazily, leaning on his stick.

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah but you all have been in hockey since you were in pre school. You know the guys in the league. You’ve played against them and all that crap. This is just plain awkward.”

“Do you play?” Burish asked suddenly, interrupting our argument.

“What?” I asked.

“I want to know if you play hockey,” Burish shrugged.

Kris and I exchanged looks and he shrugged. The puck was on my half of the ice on this one apparently.

“Kinda.”

Kris let a quick smile cross his face.

“Come on out and practice with us!”

My eyes shifted to Toews, who held the C on his jersey. “You’re the Captain it seems.”

He thought it over, assessing the situation. “Yeah, sure. You have skates?”

I nodded, thinking back to the pair I packed that was lying in my suitcase. “Yeah. Let me go lace up and I’ll be back.”

KRIS VERSTEEG’S POV

“Well she’s an interesting character,” Seabrook said, skating around playing with a puck.

“Nothing like you though Steeger.”

I shrugged. “I guess?”

“What he means is that you’re a spazball and she’s shy and quiet,” Keith explained.

“Quiet and shy?!” Ladd laughed. “She just went off on me.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “She’s always been a little shy when it comes to meeting new people.”

“I’m new! She isn’t shy around me!” Ladd pointed out.

“You annoyed her?” I guessed.

I couldn’t exactly speak for my cousin’s actions. I thought it was weird too that she went off on Ladd. I don’t think she understood why either.

“So, she plays hockey?” Kaner asked, looking at his stick.

I shrugged. “I haven’t seen her play in a few years.”

“What position?” Sharp asked.

“She could technically play anything.”

Toews looked doubtful. Maybe it was because she looked so tiny and fragile that everyone was doubting us. They would soon see.

ROSELYN’S POV

I returned into the United Center dressed in sweat pants, a sweatshirt, and my skates.

“Okay, so what do you want me to do?” I asked, hand on my hip.

Everyone turned to their captain to who rolled his eyes. “I didn’t ask her to lace up. I just said she could. Burish, Sharp, and Ladd can figure out what to do. I’m taking back seat to this all for today.”

Everyone’s gaze turned to Burish. “We can do a pick up game I guess. What position do you play?”

“How about we dole out teammates first then we’ll see what’s left for me to be, okay?” I tried.

Burish shrugged. “Sure. Nemo, go that way. Take Seabsy with you. Keith?”

“I’m out man. I want to see this.”

“Okay, then Hjalmy get to the other side. Take Sharpie, Kaner, and Kopy with you. Which means Laddie, Hossa and me will go to that side. Tazer and Steeger–”

“No way,” they both said, joining Keith on the player bench.

“So, Rose you’re over there with Sharpie.”

I skated over to my team. “So what am I?”

“Well we have everything but a goaltender, but I mean–” Sharp said.

“Sweet. I’ll do it,” I shrugged.

The four guys stared at me and my cheeks lit up again. I stared at my skates wondering if this was a bad idea.

“Okay,” Kaner said slowly. “You sure?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Nemo! We need your goalie gear!” Kopecky skated and returned with it and I quickly put it on.

“You ready over there?” Burish shouted.

I skated back into the net, taking the stick that was offered and hit both poles of the goal. I did a few quick stretches and hit the poles again like I always did. Habits died hard. I nodded my head, signaling I was ready.

KRIS VERSTEEG’S POV

“So?” Tazer and Duncs looked over at me. “She’s playing net minder,” Duncs said calmly.

“Is this going to end well?”

“I don’t want to have to take her to the hospital,” Tazer said, getting a bit fidgety.

“It is going to end well for one team and Tazer, she won’t be going to the hospital. Trust me on this one.”

“And how do you know?” the captain threw back at me.

“You’ll see.”

We turned to watch as Duncs dropped the puck. He skated back and we watched as Kopy and Laddie fought for it, Kopy winning it and sending it down the boards to Kaner.
Kaner managed to dodge Burish’s check and send it back to Kopy, who threw it to Sharp down the left wing boards. Unfortunately he was checked and Hossa received the puck, flying down the center, Laddie winging him on his right. It was a two on one against Hjalmarsson and Hossa slid it to Ladd just as Hjalmarsson went down, taking Hossa down too.

Rose waited as Ladd brought back his stick and WHAM! He let it go and we barely saw the puck as it flew towards her. I heard Tazer swear at Ladd but I stayed calm.

Her hand reeled back from the force of the puck in her glove. She dropped it, and hit it with her stick, sending it down to Kopy who took a shot at Nemo. No such luck on him either.
I was getting Tazer and Dunc’s stares burned into my practice jersey so I turned to them.

“She’s been playing ever since she was little. Her favorite position was always goaltender. She still plays, as far as I know.”

“So this game is going nowhere,” Duncs said.

I shook my head. “Nope.”

Finally, they made it to a shootout. Kopy managed one against Nemo and then it was all down to Laddie.

“Come on Laddie!” Roselyn teased him. “Give me your best shot.”

He was drenched in sweat, but he still held a smirk. “I didn’t think you’d be this good honestly. Maybe you could be our back up goalie.”

She laughed. “Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“Get ready babe. I won’t go easy on you.”

“I wouldn’t want you to.”

He flew down from the blue line and faked it five times and I knew he was going to get it. Rose was going right and he ended up going left.

Then something miraculous happened. She pushed off the left pole with her skate, and managed to glove the puck less than three inches from the goal line.

“Holy shit,” Dunc swore.

“That’s game,” Tazer called, skating back onto the ice.

Ladd helped Rose up and they stood together as both teams made their ways over to them. Ladd said something to her and she smiled taking the congrats from both teams. Kopy even hit her mask like he does to Nemo. Nemo came up to her and they stared at each other for a moment before he did the same thing as Kopecky.

“Nervous huh?” Sharp said from next to me. “She fits in perfectly. Baby Versteeg is going to do well here.”

I smiled. She already had a nickname. “I know. What a fun rest of the season this is going to be,” I said, glad that it was only early December.