Who Wouldn't Want To Be Me

"Hey Cameron, how did try outs go?" Uncle Rob asked as he came in the door about an hour later.

"Good, good; I think I'm holding my own out there; tried a couple of hits," I said, sitting up and feeling the stiffness in my ribs and left shoulder.

"Oh? Are you all right? How did that go?" he asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Okay, minus the part that the first guy I tried to hit was way, way bigger than me, so it didn't really work out. But everybody was really good about it and gave me advice and stuff," I told him before briefly recounting the main highlights of practice for him.

"That's great Cam! I knew you'd do awesome,"

"So, how was hanging out with your friends?" I asked, and go the total recount of his visit with Sam Barron and his wife.

"And if you do make the team, they are more than happy with you staying with them; they had a player stay with them last season too," he added at the end, to which I was a little uncomfortable about. I didn't want him to just ask, because it's kind of weird.

"But still… that's kind of…"

"No it's not; they've had a billet for the past three seasons, it'll be even better because they'll kind of know you; you won't be a total stranger to them," he insisted.

"Let's go grab something to eat, okay? Do you have practice tomorrow too?"

"Yeah, same time as today, and the scrimmage is open to the public," I answered on the way out to the car. Uncle Rob made me drive, seeing as if I made the team I'd need to learn how to get around by myself, and decided that we would go to Subway; it's healthy, fast, delicious AND has cookies, so it doesn't get much better than that.

"So would it be cool is Sam and Leah came with me to watch your scrimmage?" he asked, and I nodded.

"Yeah, of course it would be. Um… Uncle Rob, did you tell them…?" I asked, and he shook his head.

"No, I let them just assume that you're a boy; I don't know exactly how you've gotten away with it this far but I'll let you handle that however you choose to," he said, which I was kind of glad about. I wasn't sure if I was ready to tell them or if I could trust them to not say anything to anybody. It would depend how things went, I guess.

"Okay, thanks. We'll see how things go, I guess, if I even make the team," I nodded, and ignored my uncle as he rolled his eyes. How he just assumed that I could make any team I tried out for I had no idea.

The rest of the day was spent kind of touring around Wilkes-Barre and then renting a movie after supper to watch back at the hotel room; I wanted to go to sleep early and make sure I was well rested for practice tomorrow.

Nine o'clock saw about thirty five of us waiting on the ice; having already done laps, warmed up and stretched, and we were just waiting now on John and Alain to start practice.

"Guys!" We turned to see them coming down the steps, with two other men in tow. All of us became dead silent as slowly everybody recognized them; Dan Bylsma and Ray Shero.

"We have two very special guests here to watch practice; most of you should know who they are. Everybody this is Dan, and Ray, and they're going to be watching practice all morning, all right? So now let's get down to business,"

It was similar to yesterday; all the drills, the imitation breakaways and working different situations. By the time noon rolled around we were all getting a little tired, but we were too full of nervous energy at the Pittsburgh Penguins' coach and GM being here to ever admit it or show it.

"Whoa, Bates, don't even try it," Thompson cautioned me as I came up to him; he was trying to protect the puck from me, and he must've known I was sizing him up to try and check him.

"Fine then; this will work too," I grinned deking him out and stealing the puck from him to take off down the ice.

"Are you kidding me? And they're trying to make that little bugger hit?" he complained good-naturedly as he was in pursuit. I passed the puck at the last second across to Street who slammed in a beautiful one-timer. Needless to say we celebrated a little bit. It was weird to hear people cheering and laughing at some of the guys antics, and looking out the arena was probably about half-full of fans; all of them wearing Penguins swag of some kind.

At one o'clock the Coach called the scrimmage to an end, and instead of everybody filing out of the arena as per usual, they stuck around as many of the fans came up to the glass to try and take pictures and that sort of thing. A few of the more daring, younger kids even wandered away from their parents to try and came out onto the ice to meet some of the guys, like Brad and Simon, and one even came over to me.

"Hi! What's your name?" he asked, he couldn't be older than six or seven years old.

"I'm Cameron. What's your name?" I asked, and he grinned from ear to ear.

"Michael! Can my mom take a picture of you?" I nodded, skating alongside him as he made his way over to the entrance to the tunnel that led to the locker room. I stood and smiled for the picture with him, much to the little boy's delight. After about twenty minutes of this the fans all began to leave and then we could make our way to the locker room, so again I hung back to 'stretch out my knee' and cool down.

"Bates? Can I speak to you for a bit?" I turned in surprise before making my way over to John.

"Sure Coach; what's up?" I asked, and he grinned.

"You're doing a great job, I did some research, and I have no idea how you didn't make the Bears. I know physicality isn't really a huge part of your game, but I think we can easily work around that and help you improve without sacrificing the finesse you play with. What I wanted to talk to you about was Dan and Ray are really impressed with your performance during practice and scrimmage," I nodded, not trusting my voice as John was talking. I could feel my knees shaking with excitement at what he was saying.

"They both agreed that you're a very strong player for your age, and they may be interested in having you play up a bit during the season, and then we'll see depending on how you improve over the season," he continued.

"W-wow, seriously?" I asked, wishing I could pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming right now.

"Yeah, seriously. You're a fantastic hockey player,"

"Thank you, thank you so much," I couldn't believe this, it was amazing.

"So I think it's obvious that we want you on the team, if you're wanting to sign with us. Well, technically you're signing with Pittsburgh, because Ray and Dan do want to have the opportunity to call you up, and as much as I'd love to know you were only on my team I think you're too good to be a farm-league for life player,"

"That means the world to me, thank you so much," was all I could manage to say to him.

"Good. Well as soon as you get showered up come to my office and we'll talk contracts and everything; Dan, Alain and Ray will all be there, and we'll figure something out. And don't worry; you don't have to sign it right now, or today; we'll figure out some kind of agent agreement or find a lawyer or somebody to help work the deal out for you, okay?" again I could hardly manage to nod before he patted my shoulder and left the ice. I couldn't resist; once I heard the door close down the tunnel I let out a whoop and did a little victory lap before heading in to go and shower.

After that I texted Uncle Rob to give him a bit of a teaser of my good news before heading to the office. I was formally introduced to Dan and Ray, and while it was weird they were discussing my abilities and potential and at least to me it sounded like they thought I could be really good. I was on Cloud 9 the entire time.

"Actually, not to hurt your Pens John, I think we should bring you out for a few pre-season games, see if you click anywhere with our guys, then let you settle in here if you need some time," Ray suggested, and they all chuckled as I stared at them. There was no way in hell this was actually happening to me.

"Oh all right; if you must," John rolled his eyes, laughing along with them.

"So Bates? Sound good to you?"

"Sounds fantastic," I agreed, and they all smiled again.

"Well then, pack your bags; I want you in Pittsburgh next Friday for conditioning camp and practice. We'll keep working on the paperwork and contract negotiations, and by that time we'll have found you a good agent and a lawyer to help out," Ray grinned.

"Yes sir, thank you so much," I said, standing and shaking all of their hands.

"No problem. If you want to come in tomorrow Cam I'll help you go over some of the paperwork so you'll have a bit of an idea what to expect in the contract," John offered.

"That would be greatly appreciated, thanks Mr. Hynes," I nodded, unable to keep the grin off of my face.

"He'll really add to your Pens core," Alain chuckled, causing some confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"You'll have every girl in the state going nuts; Crosby, Staal, LeTang, Malkin and now Bates? They're gonna think we're running a model agency instead of a hockey team," he shook his head, cracking up with laughter. They all noticed my face turn bright red, and the laughter got worse.

"Now you're embarrassing the poor kid; leave him alone. I'm sure Flower and Staalsy will give him a hard enough time as it is," Dan told him, and moments later we said goodbye and I was on my way out of the arena.

Out of the arena soon to be a Pittsburgh Penguin. Wow.