Who Wouldn't Want To Be Me

“GO CAM GO!” Marc excitedly hollered as I came barreling down the ice towards them. Our team had decided that I would take part of the fastest skater competition, and Grabner was giving me a run for my money.

I flew past the bench, before I stopped taking strides and began to glide across the ice, losing most of my speed before I’d went halfway around the rink again. As I made my way back to my team they were all grinning and giving me high fives.

“Haha! Look at that; you beat him by a good three seconds,” Marc told me, and I laughed as much as I could despite being totally out of breath.

“Good,” I managed, reaching for a water bottle, only to have it all spray in my face.

“Oh God!” Giroux laughed, and as soon as I realized what had happened I began to crack up too. Somebody had mentioned something about one of the water bottles not having the lid on right, and of course that would be the one I grabbed.

“Tough luck there dude,” Stamkos smirked, and I shook my head like a dog, covering my teammates in water as well.

“Hey!” Toews complained, our whole bench and most of the people in the stands laughing too.
“Team effort right?” I grinned, before taking a careful sip out of the water bottle. Ryan quietly smiled; and I grinned, seeing he hadn’t even gotten the tiniest bit wet from my antics.

“Nuge?” I asked, and as he looked up flicked water off my fingers at him.

“Hey!”

“Like I said, team effort right?” I grinned back, and finally the kid cracked a big grin and laughed. He’d been a little quiet; which we knew was because he was shy and a legitimate rookie – only 18 – whereas I was at least closer to the rest of the team’s age. We’d been constantly on his case about being so quiet – I mean, we were all just people right? And yeah, I’d been a little star-struck here and there too, but now at least he was joining in with us.

“Right,” he agreed as I sat down next to him.

“Hey, you won,” he elbowed me, and as I looked up to the jumbo-tron saw he was right.
“Awe yeah!” I stood up and did a fist-pump, getting some laughs from everybody. That was the whole point of the weekend; to goof off and have fun, so I was going to enjoy every moment of it.

“So you excited for the game tomorrow?” I asked and he nodded.

“Yeah, I’m pumped. I can’t believe they picked me first year playing, you know?” he asked.

“I hear you, I know exactly what you mean” I chuckled, and he grinned, realizing that I was a rookie also.

“Sorry; I forgot. You just get used to hearing people’s names all over SportsCentre and stuff and you forget they haven’t been doing this forever,” he shrugged.

“No different with you; your name’s everywhere,” I argued back, and he shyly shrugged.

“But I’m ‘the new kid’, you’re the one who’s making a killing of the season. You’re hands-down gonna win the Calder,” he said.

“I couldn’t win the Calder if I wasn’t a rookie, just like you,” I reminded him. “Don’t count yourself out just yet; I mean, I’ve got two years on you remember. That’ll count for something.”

“Thanks Cam,” he grinned, and we went back to watching the rest of the skills competition go by. By the end of the night we had determined that Team Chara had won, which had all of us cheering, and even doing a small victory lap, which amused the fans. I looked up to the box and saw the remainder of the Staal family, and felt the smile on my face falter slightly. That is until Jared waved at me with an idiotic grin on his face and gave me two huge thumbs up, which made me laugh. He was quite the guy, and we’d become pretty close, especially now that he knew.

“Good job!” Jared pulled me into a hug as soon as I’d left the locker room – a good twenty minutes after everybody else had, and saw the entire Staal family and Becka waiting for me.

“Thanks,” I grinned, and waved at Ryan as he walked past, his parents in tow.

“So, we ready to go get some food?” Marc asked, and Lindsay nodded.

“Can we have pizza? I’m really craving some pizza,” she said, and Parker giggled, excited at the prospect before running over to me and wrapping his arms around my leg, staring up at me until I picked him up.

“Pizza!” he crowed, making me smile.

“I think pizza sounds good too,” I agreed. The general consensus of the group was for pizza, and if it hadn’t been I know Marc would have went and got Lindsay pizza from wherever he could; he was so anxious about taking care of her and the baby he’d do just about anything. It was sweet, how careful he was with her and how much he obviously loved her.

“Parker don’t you want to go with daddy?” I asked, and the little blonde let out an exaggerated sigh before letting me put him down and walking to his dad. He held up his arms for his dad to pick him up, his head still hung as he looked at the floor. Jordan and Jared chuckled, and Eric eagerly picked up his son, who looked a little less than pleased.

“Cheer up bud,” he teased, and soon Parker had a grin on his face again.

“It’s so adorable how good you are with him Cam,” Tanya said, making me blush a little bit.

“Just got lucky,” I shrugged, but she shook her head.

“No, you’re good with kids. Levi’s pretty picky and he likes you too,” she insisted, making me feel a little uncomfortable. Becka wrapped her arm around me and gave me a quick squeeze of a hug as we hung back from the group a little walking towards the cars.

“It’s okay Cam,” she whispered, and I nodded, letting out a long breath as I did so. We went towards our car, and I turned to see Jared sheepishly standing behind us.

“Can I ride with you guys?” he asked, and laughing we both nodded.

“You can take shotgun Jared; I’m gonna try and get some sleep,” Becka said, and without a word he got in the front seat.

“So… what’s up?” I asked, and he shrugged.

“Nothing; I just wanted to ride with you guys,” he replied. I raised an eyebrow, and soon that Staal grin was back on his face as he blushed slightly.

“Well okay, none of the guys believed me that I know you and that we’re really good friends,” he admitted, and I laughed.

“Here,” I said, and he leaned in so I could take a picture on my cell phone. The team was trying to get as many of the players on Twitter and stuff as possible, to help with the PR and stuff. I thought it was cool that I could just talk to the fans, and although I wasn’t really good at using the site or app or whatever I managed.

“There, just tweeted about chilling with you; that should do it,” I grinned, and he did a fist pump before pulling me into a hug. After we let go I started the car, letting it run for a few minutes to warm up.

“You’re the best!”

“I know,” I agreed, making him laugh some more as we pulled out of the parking lot behind his parents’ vehicle. About two minutes later his phone was going off like crazy, and I chuckled to myself as he read and responded to his friends’ text messages, that same Staal grin on his face the whole time.

“Ha, I told them I wasn’t lying,” he rolled his eyes, and I shrugged.

“It’s not even like it’s far fetched; your brother and I play on the same team and everything, so it’s not like it’s crazy for us to be friends,”

He nodded, and then shrugged. “They’re probably just all jealous; I’m pretty sure you’re Brett’s favorite player too.”

“That is still so weird to hear,” I told him, and he looked a little surprised.

“Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, it’s really, really cool, but it’s still so weird to think that people look up to me as a player, you know? I’ve spent my whole life not being as good and trying to catch up that this is just a shock to the system, almost,” I explained, and after a few moments he nodded.

“I get what you mean. It would be kind of weird I guess,” he allowed, and soon enough we pulled in to the hotel parking lot.

As it was before the hotel room that everyone was gathered in was loud and crowded, but in a cozy way as we squished in. Becka’s phone went off, and a few seconds later her cheeks were pink and she looked like she wanted to ask something.