Ice Might Be Nice

A few days later I came home to find Lyss sitting on the couch. She shouldn’t be home already. I set my bag down and went over. “Hey.”

She turned and I saw the traces of tears on her cheeks. That wasn’t a good thing. I sat down and opened my arms. She leaned into them and let a fresh set of tears flow. After a few minutes she was able to sit back up and tell me what happened. “I got downsized. They said while I was great, they didn’t have room for everyone they had. I was the only one they let go.”

I saw red. She’d worked hard to get into that program and now they were letting her go? And she was the only one… that’s just wrong. “You’ll find something even better I know it.” I said, being the supportive sister I was. “Why don’t you come to work with me tomorrow, relax this weekend and start fresh on Monday.” Yeah I probably should clear it first but I didn’t think they’d have a problem with Lyss coming with me.

She sniffled a little bit and then looked at me. “You’re sure I won’t be in the way? I don’t want to get you fired too.” I looked at her and smiled.

Dialing the offices at the Training Center I wasn’t at all surprised to find Jim still there. “Jim, I’m putting you on speaker.” I said as I did so.

“Ok why are you calling? Something happen to you that I need to know about?” He sounded worried, made my heart warm to hear it.

“No, no I’m fine. It’s more my sister that needs a pick me up right now. Got downsized today. I was hoping it wouldn’t be a problem to bring her with me tomorrow.” I waited with baited breath to hear him make his decision.

It look him a little bit, and I heard some typing as well. Just when I was starting to get worried he came back. “No it shouldn’t be a problem. But please dress differently so I can tell you two apart.” We laughed at that.

“That shouldn’t be a problem, I’ll make sure she doesn’t gear up like she would for a game and we should be good. After all I _know_ what I’m wearing.” Lyss grinned at me even though her cheeks were wet.

“Sounds good. See you tomorrow.” He hung up and left me with the job of cheering up my sister and making tomorrow a good day.

We spent the rest of the day looking online for closer salons and making plans for Saturday night. I found out that Newsies was playing at the Nederlander Theatre and that The Lion King was at the Minskoff little of over 4 blocks away. I’d been planning on a day of musicals before the season began and _this Saturday would be the day. I went out a little bit later and grabbed the tickets for the two of us. I also hit Whole Foods for some goodies.

The next morning I got up at my normal time and then worked on kicking Lyss out of bed. “I can’t be late Lyss!”

A few minutes later she came out into the kitchen half awake. She groaned a little bit and moved to the Keurig coffee machine that had been a gift from our mom. While her morning pick me up brewed, she went to get dressed. “No Pens Gear!” I yelled at her back. She waved a hand at me in acknowledgement. 25 minutes later we were in the car on our way to the Training Facility.

45 minutes later we were pulling into the lot. This was Lyss’ first trip here so she was gawking as we went through to where we could safely dump our stuff. I introduced her to the guys that were here and gave her a tour of the facility.

The team came slowly trickling in as usual. Training Camp started next week so most of the guys were here now. A few of them called out to me as we walked through. They sounded a bit surprised to see someone following me but none of them stopped us as we went to the medical room.

Practice went well as usual. There was nothing really for me to do so we watched the guys work. They weren’t the Pens, but watching them did help pick my sister up. That’s what mattered to me.

After practice was over we went back into my territory. Sauer was waiting for his check up from Jim. “Hi Mike.” I said as we came in.

“Whoa, twins.” He pointed between us. “Wait I’m not seeing things am I?” He was rubbing his eyes a bit while we broke out laughing.

“You aren’t seeing things, this is my sister Lyss. This is Mike, I’m sure Jim will be around soon enough to double-check you.” He nodded as Lyss tried not to laugh.

One by one those who needed or wanted attention came in and got introduced to Lyss. When Hank came in to get his wrist looked at again, he looked back and forth between us for a little bit. He was just grinning. Marc came in shortly after and stopped short when he saw us.

“Look Staalsy, twins!” Hank’s face was lit up. I just rolled my eyes and shook my head. It was pretty common knowledge that Hank had a twin brother. I just continue to check his wrist, looked like he’d tweaked it but it was nothing too serious.

“Yeah I knew King, remember Krys babysat me while I was out of it a few days ago. We talked a lot. In fact she faced down my entire family single handedly, including my mom.” Yeah he was kind of proud about that, I laughed a little.

When all was said and done it was time for the scut work, laundry and all that. We didn’t have any stick boys right now so I asked Lyss to vacuum the locker room and such for me. She did that while I helped out in the other areas. Soon enough we were done with the work and could go home. Getting out to our car we found Hank waiting for us. “Something wrong Hank?” I asked, as we got close.

“No, not really. Well yes but no.” He looked at the ground and then back at us. “Why didn’t we know you had a twin sister?” He was leaning against his car as he asked.

I sighed. “Hank there’s a lot you guys don’t know about me yet. I’m new and I know you guys want to be able to trust me. I thought that my skills were more important first. Lyss had a bad day and needed a pick me up so here she is. I’ll be lucky if our parents and brothers _don’t_ come for a visit too.”

He nodded in understanding. “That makes sense. How bad of a day has she had?”

Lyss snorted, they guys had treated her no better or worse than they did me so she’d lost the fan-girling attitude she’d had before they got there. “I got fired yesterday. I’m gonna look for a new job starting Monday. Unless _you_ know of anyone who needs a good cosmetologist?”

He cocked his head and held up a finger. He reached into his car and got his phone. “Callie, do you know of anywhere that needs a good cosmetologist? Well Krys has a twin sister who is one and got fired. Oh really, I didn’t know that. Yeah I’ll let them know for sure. No I’ll be home soon, ok. Jag älskar dig. (I love you.)” He hung up the phone and dug out a card from his dashboard. “My wife loves this salon and they treat us very well. Let them know that Callie and Hank sent you.” He handed Lyss a card with Kiwa salon on the front and his signature on the back. “See you tomorrow Krys.” He got back in his car and drove off.

I pulled Lyss back into the Training Center so we could borrow the computer to Google where this place was in relation to our place. It turned out it wasn’t far from the house at all, under a half a mile. I turned the computer off and she tugged me out to the car. “If we hurry I _might_ be able to talk to someone today.”

After another 45 minute drive, we got back to our parking lot then the house. Lyss dove into her room and changed into more interview clothes. I did her a favor and triple checked her resume, it was as up to date as we could make it. She came back into the living room ready as she could be. She took a deep breath, accepted the packet of resumes and walked out the door.

While she was gone I cleaned up the living room. When that was done I tried watching TV. That worked up to a point, but I found myself tapping my feet and fingers like a mad woman. Not even the Cake Boss could hold my attention for too long.

At 7 pm, long after I had been expecting her, Lyss came back home. She came in singing to herself. “Well?” I asked coming around the couch and looking at her.

The smile on her face was great to see. “I got the job!” I didn’t remember to tell them about Hank until after they told me, which they just laughed at. I got asked to stay and demonstrate my skills, that’s what took so long.”

I reached out and grabbed her into a hug. “That’s great! Hank’ll be thrilled too I’m sure.” Then it hit me. “Wait we were gonna take the weekend and then worry about it on Monday.”

My sneaky sister had a grin on her face. “I remembered _that_. I told them I couldn’t start until Monday, which they were fine with. I’ll have to start as a junior stylist until I learn all the techniques they use but when I showed them that I knew curly hair and updos they were thrilled. Said that they would be able to expand their business for proms and weddings as that’s what is mostly asked for.” She kicked off her shoes and did a little dance of joy. After she did that she, with a grin on her face, spoke up again. “Fuck you Parlor! I’m good and _wanted_ by a salon that’s _much_ better.”

I laughed aloud. “Come on. Let’s be horrible to ourselves and hit McHell for a celebration.” It wasn’t something we did a lot, as we were both used to eating well due to being athletes, me for soccer and she for swimming.

She laughed. “Let me change and we’ll go!” She ran for her room and I waited while she dove into comfortable clothes. We raced down to the lobby in separate cars. I won. Then, giggling like crazy, we headed the half block to McDonald’s. We got it all to go and when we got back to the house we set it all on the coffee table and pigged out.

At the end of the evening we were both feeling good. The guys knew me a little bit better and knew about my best friend. My sister had lost a bad job and found one that was much better for her. She told me all about the job and what she would be doing, it sounded like she’d have a lot of fun working there. It was a good day.