Who Wouldn't Want To Be Me

When Jordan and Torrie dropped us off I was in mortal pain; the Tylenol having worn off about fifteen minutes before we left. To top it all off the ride home was extremely awkward; Torrie was less than impressed with Jordan, and so refused to speak to him, and he didn’t want to start anything in front of us so he was nearly silent. That had been going on since dinner, and while Amy, Marc and the guys tried to keep the conversation flowing around the table it wasn’t hard to miss that there was trouble brewing for the two of them.
“Thanks for the ride Gronk,” I said, slowly getting out of his car. Every time I bent even just the littlest bit there was shooting pain in my side.
“No problem. Make sure you get that checked out, okay?” he asked, and I nodded.
“For sure. See you at practice on Tuesday,” I said, and shut the door. He pulled away a moment later, leaving Becka and I to walk up to our apartment.
“What exactly happened to you?” she asked, helping me pull my shirt over my head when we were in my room.
“I told you; Max has a bug up his ass about me and checked me into the boards a few times,” I answered, turning around as I pulled my sports bra on and then pulled the tenser bandage off, before slipping a large T-shirt over my head.
“Jesus Christ, now you’re probably going to be out until the regular season starts,” she sighed, and I nodded. I’d wanted to punch Max when I’d come to that same conclusion. Not because he was being an ass, but because he was going to put a damper on my first, legitimate pro season.
“I know,” my voice had a growl to it, just thinking about it making me angry.
“Well, take some more Tylenol, try to get some sleep… you should call your Mom; she’ll know what to do with your ribs. I still don’t know how you’re gonna pull this off,” she sighed, and I raised an eyebrow at her, I was doing just fine. Nobody so much as suspected I was a girl on the team.
“What do you mean?”
“Well if you get hurt the team doctor’s going to want to check you out, and he’ll know you’re not a guy,” she said.
“Then I just won’t get hurt,” I shrugged. I’d been good at avoiding the big checks and playing safe without sacrificing my game, I could handle it.
“Easier said than done Cam,” she reminded me.
“I know, but I’ll worry about that when it happens, okay?” Becka nodded, and after having taken some Tylenol and getting a hot water bottle to lay comfortably at my side I drifted off into a fitful sleep.

“Well, this is it Bates; first game,” Jordan grinned at me from his seat in front of his locker. My knees were shaking, I’d puked before I left the house to come here, and I was sure at any moment my stomach was going to empty itself again. I’d just started really hardcore practicing with the guys again two days ago thanks to my bruised ribs. My conditioning had been fine, I’d kept up with that, but Coach had kept me out of any contact until earlier today.
“Yeah,” my voice was wavering and shaky as I replied, and that tipped the guys off as to how I was feeling.
“Don’t be nervous Bates; just play like you did in practice and you’ll do great; besides all that, we’re playing the Oilers,” Brooks said with a grin, getting a mangled chuckle out of me.
“I know, but still… this is it, you know?”
“You’ll do great,” Geno assured me, patting me once on top of the head as he walked past.
“You’re gonna haul ass out there Cam,” Jordan seconded. I looked back down at my feet, glad all of my equipment kept the guys from seeing me shake. I had even struggled to tape my stick properly; my fingers had fumbled with everything and I had just struggled.
“Don’t worry Cam; he’s watching, and he’s cheering for you right now. You’re gonna go out there and show them just how damn good you are, and then you’re gonna kick their asses right to the last second of the game, all right?” Steve said, sitting beside me for a moment and putting an arm around my shoulder. I nodded, able to calm down slightly after talking to him. I pulled the dog tag necklace out from under my shirt; the one that dad had given to me my very first hockey game.
“He gave me this when I was four; right before my first game he told me it would be my lucky charm,” I explained when I saw Steve looking at it.
“And this game’s no different,” he smiled, patting my back before standing up when Dan walked in. I put the tag back under my equipment as I stood up, and saw Gronk eye it momentarily. After the game I would tell him, because I really didn’t need to relive all of that right now. After a quick pep-talk and Dan informing us that Sid, Neal and Dupuis were going to be the starting line we headed out to the arena to warm up. Becka had came; as soon as I’d got out I saw her sitting with Torrie and Amy across from our bench, and nodded when she waved at me. There was a lot of people looking at their programs and pointing out players, and while it was difficult I tried to ignore all of it as we ran through a few light drills to get our muscles loosened up.
When it was our shift, just two minutes into the game, I felt like I was too scared to move; like I’d been super-glued to the bench.
“Jesus,” TK rolled his eyes, giving me a shove. I was up and over the boards, hardly getting my feet underneath me before we had to chase Nugent-Hopkins and Eberle.
“You got ‘em Bates,” Gronk hollered, coming up quickly behind me. I was faster than him, I just lacked the size and power that he had. Just as Nugent-Hopkins was about to shoot I got there and managed to push the puck just far enough that his shot went far to the right, basically onto Tanger’s stick.
“Whoa, what the—” was his confused reaction as he went to turn around, but I was already following the play back down the ice the way I’d come. Jordan got a great opportunity, but couldn’t bury the puck, so when we sat down we were red in the face from the exertion of hard skating back and forth.
“Good cut in there Bates,” he said between loud breaths, tapping my shin with his stick.
“Good shot Gronk; it should have went in,” I answered, and he shrugged.
“My aim was a little off; I’ll get him next time,” he promised, and I nodded.
“Bates! I want you and Staal on now!” Dan called, startling us. We never did this; usually if any line was going to play again right away it was Sid’s.
“Okay,” we hopped over the boards, well, Jordan stepped over them and I hopped, and then we saw he was sending us out there with Geno. The Oilers had come out stronger than we’d expected and we were almost struggling to get the puck out of our end.
“They’re gonna know we’re having trouble; since Dan sent out big guns in one mixed shift,” Gronk mumbled to himself as he skated past me to take Geno’s other wing.
It seemed to work like magic; Geno tangled up Hall for the face off and I nabbed the puck out of the throng, looking for Jordan as I headed towards the far boards and to their end. Once I crossed the line I fired it over to him, and a beauty one-timer was buried in the back of the net in seconds.
“Nice play! Shit I couldn’t have been set up any better had I planned it,” he grinned, tapping my helmet as we skated to the bench and then over to Marc.
“First pro point kiddo; how’s it feel?” Marc asked, making my grin grow impossibly bigger.
“Pretty damn good,” I called back, and heard him laugh. We lined up again, this time Geno cleanly winning the faceoff, and as I heard Brooks yell I didn’t even have to look back completely; I stuck my stick out slightly to my left and felt it connect before crossing the blue line. The entire play had followed Brooks slightly down our ice while I’d stayed up high; Jordan was only about five feet closer to our end than I was, but he had a man on him at all times, seeing as he’d just scored a big goal. I was all by myself, and to be honest it wasn’t too terribly hard to deke out Dubnyk and score. It was insanely loud in the CONSOL Center and then it hit me that I’d scored a goal in the NHL.
“HOLY SHIT!” I hollered, before I was dog piled by Jordan, Geno, Brooks and Tanger, the volume incredible in the packed arena as every one of our fans in the CONSOL Center cheered for me.
“The Penguins second goal scored by number ninety-three! Your own CAMERON BATES!” the announcer repeated, the replay of my deke on the jumbo-tron as everyone cheered again. We skated past the bench, and I couldn’t wipe the stupid grin off of my face.
“Good job kiddo,” Steve smiled, grabbing my arm for a moment and it felt like my dad was somehow talking to me through him; making me smile even wider. Steve noticed this and nodded, winking before letting me go; we would be out for another forty seconds or a minute or so before trying to switch off.
It was tight; they were pushing hard to get the puck in our zone but somehow Jordan managed to flip it into their end from half, letting us get to the bench and get some rest.
“First goal in your second shift, nice work,” Sid grinned, and I felt like I was on a high from all of the encouragement and compliments from the guys. I couldn’t believe it; I just couldn’t. I saw Becka waving viciously from across the rink and lifted my hand in a small wave so she knew I hadn’t missed her – and grinned when she gave me a thumbs up before winking over-dramatically and blowing a kiss my way. Not that we didn’t goof around like that sometimes, but with her still pretending to be my girlfriend and me pretending to be a guy that made it weird.
The rest of the game continued to get more fun and more fast-paced; my goal held up our 2 – 0 lead until the last few minutes of the third period, when Jordan scooped a shot in behind Dubnyk and I managed to scrape in an assist on it. Edmonton then pulled their goalie, and with only seconds left Eberle pushed one just past the goal line to give them a point. Winning the game was out of the question, but it had accomplished what they wanted; we didn’t shut them out.
We waited just inside the tunnel for the three stars of the game, and heard them call out Eberle as the third star, and Jordan as the second. With two goals and an assist he deserved it, and I scooted over to make room for Marc, who’d made something like twenty four or twenty five saves for an almost shut out.
“What the ‘ell are you doing?” he asked, as I pushed myself against the wall. I blinked stupidly at him, not knowing what he was talking about.
“They just called your name Bates!” Sid informed me, and while I was slack-jawed in disbelief they were all pushing me forward. With a last little shove from Jordan I was visible to the fans and heard the cheers and screams erupt, and felt incredible. I skated my little circle, and saw a little girl, about five or six with her face pressed to the glass; her game program all but squished in her hand from holding on so tightly for the whole game. Jordan had hopped his stick up and over the glass, given it to some other kid and I knew she was getting my hockey stick. I looked up, and realized I’d make an idiot of myself trying to get the stick over the glass, so instead pointed to her. Her eyes widened in shock and her dad stood behind her, warily. I pointed to my hockey stick, and then to her before skating back to the entrance of the tunnel; they made their way over, and the other fans were nice enough to let her through and up to the bars so I could give her my hockey stick.
“Thank you! I’m gonna be in the NHL someday!” she told me, and I nodded.
“You sure will; now you have a hockey stick to practice with when you get older,” I nodded, and she shook her head.
“No? Why not?”
“Because this one’s gonna go on my bedroom wall!” she declared, making several people laugh before I waved goodbye to the crowd in general and made my way back down the tunnel.
“Aww, that was cute,” TK teased me, before giving me a pat on the back. “Those kids love it, you probably just made her day,” he added, and I shrugged.
“That would have made my day back then,” I agreed.
“So what? Trying to score brownie points with the ladies? They’re all gonna swarm you after that whole ‘cutesy’ act,” Letestu smirked, but I shook my head.
“No, that wasn’t the point,” I argued, but soon all the guys were teasing me so I just shrugged it off.
“Fantastic game tonight guys; you really stepped it up and pulled it together when I needed you to,” Dan said, and everybody gave a cheer.
“Oh, by the way Bates, this is yours,” Dan grinned, and I hardly caught the puck he lobbed to me. Somebody had taped it, and I began to beam when I saw it was my first NHL goal puck. I’d always dreamed of having one of those.
“PICTURE!” Gronk declared, pulling out his cell phone. I grinned, holding it up so that you could clearly read “1st NHL GOAL” scratched onto it with a sharpie.
“Thanks,”
“Well thanks for putting in a fantastic effort; it’s not that often you have a three point game,” I was reminded, and nodded. I sat down at my stall then, and took off my jersey and pads, ready to go and stretch out.
“Ready for press? They’re gonna swarm you kiddo,” Steve said as he walked over to sit down beside me. My eyes widened as I stared at him. I had no clue what to even expect, I’d forgotten all about that; sure, I mean, Sid, Geno, Staalsy, Steve and some of the guys might do interviews, but I’d been sure I wouldn’t be included in that.
“Wha—” I didn’t even get to finish my question as a swarm of reporters came into the locker room, and just as Steve predicted there was immediately about four reporters in my face, with recorders, and microphones and even a video camera.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa; easy there guys; don’t scare him off on the first game,” Jordan playfully stepped in, sitting down on my other side. I was immediately glad for his support along with Steve’s, who wasn’t going anywhere either.
“So Cameron Bates, how do you feel after your first NHL game?” they seemed to take turns asking questions now, so maybe I could keep up and handle a few.
“Fantastic; I mean, it’s been my dream to play in the NHL, and to get the opportunity with such a talented and great group of guys is really indescribable,” I answered.
“What about recording three points in your first professional game?”
“I still don’t think it’s sunk in yet; you may have to ask me that after watching Sportscentre tomorrow morning,” I chuckled, making Jordan, Steve and the reporters laugh. Dan was watching from the other side of the room with a fatherly gaze; and I immediately knew that if I couldn’t handle the reporters or they got too pushy he’d step in and save me if Jordan and Steve couldn’t.
“So do you think you’ll be staying on the roster for the entirety of the season?”
“I don’t know; I honestly can’t tell you that. Obviously I’m going to keep working hard and hopefully earn a spot here in Pittsburgh, but I guess time will answer that question for you,” I shrugged, and Steve gave me an encouraging smile.
“What do you think the team could have improved upon tonight’s game?”
“I don’t know, I mean, we got shots off, we had a fairly strong defense in our zone, the only thing I could think of would be that we struggled a little bit for the first few minutes with getting the puck out of our zone, but we fixed it. I think we had a strong game, and we have all season to keep figuring it out. For the first game of the season I think we meshed really well and played a strong over-all game,” I answered, and Jordan nodded.
“So what’s it like, playing your first game and jumping up to the third line alongside a star player like Jordan Staal? Not a lot of guys get to jump up from the fourth line without injuries taking place,”
“It’s an amazing opportunity obviously; this entire organization has a lot of skill and talent, and to be able to play at this level and fit in with these guys is great. It makes me work harder, to keep trying and working to be at the same level to help elevate their play the way they are helping to elevate mine. I’m so lucky to have been given this chance, because I know there’s a lot of guys who’d kill to be in this position,”
“So Jordan, what’s your take on having the off-the-radar rookie on your line? Suddenly this kid goes from being invisible to being a fantastic NHL player and what appears to be a soon to be integral part of the Penguins,”
“I think it’s great; I mean, at practice we meshed and we read each other and the ice well and in similar ways, and our playing styles seem to just compliment each other, so it’s been a great chance to get to play with Cam and find a winger who seems to just know how you play,”
“So explain what you mean by this,”
“Well you saw how we played out there tonight,” Jordan said, and the reporters nodded, “It’s been like that since the first time we played on a line together at training camp; it’s like we just know where each other is and how to play to compliment each other. It’s pretty cool.”
“So Cameron, why didn’t we see you in any pre-season games?”
“Had a bit of an injury; nothing serious, but we wanted to make sure that it didn’t get aggravated before the season started so I didn’t play,” I answered and they nodded.
“Was it an injury gained in practice?”
“Uh, no, it wasn’t. It was just something that happened, but it’s fine now, so there’s nothing to worry about,” I repeated, and they nodded, appearing to be satisfied with my answer.
“Thanks so much for your time; congratulations again on the great game,”
“Thanks,” I nodded, and they moved on, spending time on a few other guys, mainly Sid and Geno, before leaving the locker room. Once they had gone the room’s earlier easy-going and excited atmosphere returned at full strength.
“So, I know you’re excited; celebrate but take it easy, all right? Practice is on Wednesday,” Dan reminded us before saying goodnight and heading out.
“Better come out with us Bates,” TK teased me and I shrugged.
“I don’t know, Becka might have something cooked up already,”
“Grow a pair man!” Lovejoy hollered, making everybody chuckle at my expense. I was used to this; apparently all the guys thought I was too much of a pushover.
“Just saying; she’s been as nervous for this game as I have,”
“She can come too; there’s nothing against you having a couple celebratory drinks with the team after having a fucking FANTASTIC first game! I mean shit, I’d love to have scored three points in my first game,” Brooks intervened.
“Me too,” Geno nodded, and I raised an eyebrow. It was more than likely he had pulled something like that his first game.
“Only had two!” he told me as if he’d read my mind. I shook my head and laughed, Geno could always make anybody crack a grin. Not a lot of people knew just how funny Geno really was, as he could be really quiet around people, or when he felt his English wasn’t good enough.
About five minutes later Amy, Torrie and Becka barged into the room, and Becka flung herself at me to give me a hug and then kissed my cheek.
“Great game Cam! Oh my God you hauled some ass out there!” she shrieked, still obviously ecstatic over the turn out of the game.
“Thanks Becks, was it fun to watch?” I asked, and she nodded, nearly bouncing up and down with excitement.
“My first real NHL game AND I get to see you play! Couldn’t get any better!” she insisted, and I felt her good mood was contagious as the grin on my face grew even larger.
“So Becka, you gonna come and celebrate with us?” Matt asked, and she nodded.
“Of course! We have to celebrate Cam’s first game, first goal and first assist!” she rolled her eyes like doing anything else would be out of the question. Soon all of the guys were hooting and hollering and then they began to strip to head for the showers.
“All right; we’re heading out,” Amy announced, hauling Torrie and Becka with her. Becka grabbed my hand, pulling me with her.
“I wanna talk with him! You guys can all go and wash; I can smell you from here,” She told Jordan who made a face at her before taking a sniff of himself and then realizing he really did stink.
“Okay, okay, if you must,” he smirked at her, obviously thinking we were going to go sneak off to make out somewhere or something to that effect. Once in the hallway both Amy and Torrie gave me a hug to congratulate me, before heading up to where the other WAG’s were, while Becka stayed with me just down and around the hallway from the locker room.
“Thanks for saving me there Becks,” I sighed, not having been able to think of an excuse to leave the room while the guys showered and got dressed.
“I knew you needed a way out, although I’m pretty sure Jordan thinks I was stealing you away for a quickie,” she giggled, rolling her eyes. We shared a look before bursting out into laughter, and I almost couldn’t make myself stop laughing. We sat and chatted for almost a half an hour, and when we heard heavy footsteps coming down the hallway Becka moved so that her face was beside mine and we wrapped our arms around each other.
“Oh, sorry guys,” we pulled apart, Becka trying to hide a grin as we’d pretended to look like we’d been kissing. TK, Sid, Matt, Neal, Jordan, Geno and a few of the other guys were in tow, and I felt my face turning a little red.
“Sorry,” I looked over at Becka who was totally playing it up. She really needs to take up acting.
“Don’t be babe; I’ll see you later, so get your butt into the shower,” she said with a wink as she trailed her hand down my arm, something I had actually seen do with her past boyfriends.
“All right, I’m on it,” I grinned, playing along goofily, and the guys just shook their head.
“Too damn cute for their own good; it won’t last,” I heard TK tell them, and tried to hold in some more laughter. If only he knew that there wasn’t anything to start with he’d probably kill himself laughing.