New Kid in Town

Josie, Leo and Mia got off the bus as it stopped outside their apartment building. She waved goodbye to her friends and headed upstairs to her apartment when she noticed Jordan and Jared hanging outside drinking beer. "Damn, you guys are big", she muttered.

"Kid, we get that a lot. And sweet uniform, but you're not legal yet", teased Jordan as he took a sip of his Emu Bitter.

"No shit, dude. And I'm not kid, my name is Josie Brady", she retorted.

"You must be the kid Sasha and Nicky mentioned. I'm Jordan Staal and this is my brother Jared", he said.

"Hey, you the other hockey guys? Nicky and Sasha are cool dudes, if you want, Dallas can comp tickets for the Heat games. It's the last week of the season and they clinched the division, my dad and Ian are the best pitchers on the team", she boasted.

"Awesome, kid. And you got quite the mouth on you", teased Jared.

"It's an Irish thing, Dallas' teammates are worse. And I'm honest", she replied with a shrug.

"Don't you have homework or something?", asked Jordan.

"Nah, it's the first week of school, Dallas is at the park and they got a game tonight against the Adelaide Bite, but he's not pitching and then they get on a flight to Sydney, they play against Sydney and Melbourne. Can I crash with you guys?", she asked.

"What? Kid, doesn't someone live with you?"", asked Jordan warily.

"No, Dallas' girlfriend lives in Freemantle and Miss Peggy is back in California. I normally stay with Leo or Mia, but you guys sound cooler", she said.

"All right, it's not like we're going to score with chicks anyway. But kid, we are not going to spend every night here. We intend to go to bars and hook up with chicks, Aussie chicks are seriously hot", laughed Jordan.

"As long as I don't drink, I've helped my godfather Trevor get chicks. So what are you guys doing?", she asked.

"Do you know any decent places around here?", asked Jared.

Half an hour later, the trio were at the Brass Monkey in downtown Perth sitting at a table watching an Australian football game on one of the big screen TV's. It was an enormous sports bar of the sort found in many American shopping malls, TV screens on the walls and hung over the bar showing everything from football to surfing to golf, rugby, cricket and a few screens showing the Heat game against the Bite. Australian flags hung from the ceiling along with jerseys and banners of local sports teams while a waitress in an Aussie flag t-shirt and Daisy Dukes came over to the table with menus.

Josie giggled when she saw Jordan openly checking out the waitress. "Bro, not in front of the kid", teased Jared.

"Jare, she's hot. I told you Aussie chicks are hot. What do you recommend here, Josie?", asked Jordan.

"Dallas usually gets the Emu Bitter or Emu Red, they call that Red Emu or flightless bird here. He also likes Coopers and Ian's from Queensland, he likes XXXX which is really strong. Jurate doesn't drink beer, she likes wine. That's Dallas' girlfriend", she replied.

"Awesome. And the food looks good too, I haven't had a good Shepherd's Pie in ages", said Jared.

"That's really good, Miss Peggy makes it really good. That's Dallas' grandma and my great-grandma", she explained.

"Okay, is your dad pitching?", asked Jordan as he glanced up at the TV showing the Heat game.

"No, Ian's pitching tonight", she replied. The tall, skinny pitcher with the black Heat cap perched on his brown faux-hawk and the red #15 on the back peered in to get a sign from the catcher, getting up from his slight crouch and checking on the runner at first before throwing a fastball low and away from the stretch. The batter got a piece of the ball and fouled it off to the side as Ian got a new ball from the umpire, this time throwing a fastball with a bit off as the batter hit into an inning-ending double play, a big cheer coming from the fans both in the stands and at the bar.

"Looks like we ought to root for the Heat then", said Jordan dryly.

"You better, fans here are pretty hardcore. And you guys better play good for the Thunder, Dallas and I used to go to Sharks games at the Shark Tank", said Josie.

"Awesome, it was always great to play the Sharks in the Bay Area. Who was your favorite player?", asked Jordan.

"Thornton and Marleau are cool and Niemi's a terrific goalie. But I really like Murray, he signed my jersey", she said proudly.

"Awesome, so you like defensemen? I'm a center and he's a wing, our brother Marc is a defenseman but he's married", laughed Jordan.

"And that's illegal too, bro", Jared retorted as Jordan flipped him off.

"I'm nowhere near dating yet, Dallas says he's going to get the shotgun out", said Josie.

"Anyways, maybe we can ask your dad if there's anything good on the road", said Jared as the waitress set down their drinks.

"Dallas and Ian know a lot of places, Ian says the best place is either Darwin or Tasmania. Darwin is like a jungle city and Tasmania was a penal colony, he says there's a lot of bars there", said Josie.

"I know there's a team in Tasmania, the Devils. We ought to start a Tumblr or a Flickr account, we should take lots of pictures to show Mom and Dad", said Jared thoughtfully.

"Great idea, bro. There's got to be some badass stuff in Australia to photograph", Jordan exclaimed.

"You can ask Katia about that, she's super-smart. She travels with the team as a road manager, she knows all these languages and all. And she's forty and Marco will kick your ass", she said, laughing at the looks on their faces.

"Very funny, kid but I'm not into cougars. What languages she speak?", asked Jordan as he took a large swallow of beer.

"She speaks Russian, Finnish, Estonian, Swedish, French, Spanish and Italian. Leo knows Spanish and Italian, Katia also translates manuscripts, she just finished this big Russian one", said Josie with wide eyes.

"Shit, I feel like a goddamn retard next to that", muttered Jordan.

"What part of Canada are you from, you don't have an accent", said Josie.

"We're from Thunder Bay, Ontario, most people there don't have the heavy accent. Sid's got an accent because he's from some butthole town in Nova Scotia and so do Tanger and Flower, but they're French", laughed Jordan.

"Who's that?", she asked.

"That's Kris Letang and Marc-Andre Fleury, they're French guys from Quebec. When they speak French I can't understand a damn word, all I know is oui, merde, non and baise", he joked.

"That's not useful and you'll get your ass kicked", remarked Josie.

"What does that mean?", asked Jared.

"That's just yes, no, shit and fuck. That's it", replied Josie.

"You are one cool kid, Josie", teased Jared as the waitress came over with their food.