Junior Reporter

First Day On The Job

“Mama, mama, wake up!” small fingers poked at my back while I tried to sleep.

I mumbled into my pillow before waking up fully. “I’m up baby girl. I’m up.”

“It’s my first day of work mama!” My four year old daughter Haley exclaimed. She had been recently picked for a ‘job’ as the Chicago Blackhawks Junior Reporter. Something I didn’t want her doing, but she was so excited when we were approached that I couldn’t tell her no.

I let out a forced laugh. “Yes it is. But that isn’t until a little bit later when they have practice. So let’s go make some breakfast.”

Haley jumped off the bed and ran back into her room. “Hales, the kitchen is the other way.”

She emerged from her bedroom with a Blackhawks jersey that the Coach had given her when we met. I watched her run into the kitchen, my heart dropping when I saw the name on the back: KANE 88.

“Are you coming mama?”

“I’m coming baby.”

I convinced her to take off her jersey while we were cooking just so I didn’t have to see his name.

After breakfast I cleaned the kitchen quickly before pouring another cup of coffee. I looked at the time on the stove and sighed. It was time to start getting ready for the Blackhawks practice.

“Hales, let’s go get ready.”

Her eyes grew wide with excitement before she ran into her room. By the time I got in there she had three outfits on her bed. “Which one mama?”

I looked at them all, none of them really matched, but she tried. I picked up a red sweater and a black pair of pants for her. “How about this? It’s the Hawks colors and it’s perfect. Wear your shiny black flats, okay? Mama has to go get ready.”

“Okay mama.”

I went to my room quickly and started getting ready. I wasn’t sure what to wear. I knew I had to look presentable, even though it would be my daughter that would be on camera.

My phone started ringing and I groaned when I saw who it was. My best friend, God love her, was more excited about this than I was. “Hello Amy.”

“Don’t sound so excited to talk to me.”

“I’m getting ready.”

“I figured that. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I mean this will be the first time that you’ll be seeing P-“

“Yeah. I know. I doubt he’ll even remember me, so it’s okay.”

Amy sighed. “It’s not okay Jo. It’s fucking horrible.”

“I don’t want to talk about it. I’ll talk to you after, okay? I have to finish or we’ll be late.” I hung up before she could even respond.

After finishing getting ready I walked out into the living room where Haley was already waiting for me. I laughed when I saw she had her gloves on the wrong hands, and her shoes on the wrong feet. “Hales, let mama fix you.”

The drive to the practice rink was much shorter than I was hoping it would be. I was hoping for time to prepare to see Patrick. I hadn’t seen him in almost four years. And now I was taking my, or should I say our daughter to his practice to interview his teammates.

As soon as we walked in a woman from the PR Department, Joan, greeted us, and quickly whisked us away to the locker room where the guys were waiting to meet the new “reporter”.

Walking into the room was unnerving. I scanned the room quickly for Patrick, but thankfully, didn’t see him.

I was informed that we wouldn’t be filming anything today. This was just a chance for Haley to get comfortable around the guys. Which apparently she didn’t need. After Joan introduced Haley she immediately went over to Patrick Sharp and sat next to him.

I let myself relax after a few minutes without seeing Patrick. I assumed he had gone home already.

Haley was making her rounds introducing herself to all the guys, needles to say they got a kick out of her. I watched from the other side of the locker room with a smile on my face.

I panicked a little bit when Haley went to talk to Jonathan Toews. He looked up at me with a confused look on his face. Shit. Shit. Shit. He knew it was me. I decided I wasn’t going to hang out in the locker room anymore, I turned around to head into the hall, but ran into someone’s chest.

When I looked up my jaw dropped. “Patrick.”

“Jolene? W-what are you doing here?”

Before I could answer Haley started calling me. “Mama! Mamma! Jon gave me my own stick! Look! He cut it for me!”

“Mama?” Patrick asked.

“Haley, come here.” She walked over to me slowly, eyeing Patrick cautiously. “This is my daughter, Haley. She’s uh-”

“I’m the junior reporter!” She said proudly.

Patrick laughed and kneeled down so he was eye level with Haley. “I’m Patrick. It’s nice to meet you, Haley.” He stuck his hand out for her to shake, she looked up at me before shaking it.

“Look, Jon gave me a stick. He said I can skate with him.”

“Really? Well I think you would have better luck skating with me.”

“Stealing my new friend already Peeks?” Jon asked when he walked over. He smiled at me before extending his hand to me. “Hi, I’m Jo- JOLENE?”

I laughed nervously. “Hi Jon.”

“Mama, you know him already?”

“Mama?” Jon asked wide eyed.

“Yep. Mama. Haley’s my daughter.”

A few minutes of awkward silence passed before I cleared my throat. “Hales, we should go. I’m sure the guys want to get home.”

She groaned. “But Mama, Jon said I could skate with him.”

“Yeah, Mom, I said she could skate with me. And I’m sure Pat would love to stick around too.”

“Sweetie, your skates are at home.”

“Nu uh! They’re in the trunk!”

I sighed, figuring I wasn’t going to win this argument. “Okay. Just for an hour. Come on, let’s go get your skates.”

“We’ll keep an eye on her.” Patrick finally spoke up.

I nodded before leaving the locker room. I took my time getting to my car trying to think of a way out of this. “Fuck.” I mumbled to myself before grabbing Haley’s skates out of the trunk.

When I got back into the locker room Patrick was on his knees a few feet away from Haley and Jon, who was helping her shoot balls of tape towards Patrick. He let one go by and Haley and Jon both celebrated.

“MAMA! Did you see that? I scored a goal!”

“I saw it baby. Now let’s get your skates on.”

Haley let me put her skates on quickly before she basically ran out of the room with Jon and Patrick.

“What the hell have I just gotten myself into?” I mumbled to myself before following them out.
♠ ♠ ♠
New Story.

If you've been waiting for an update on Welcome To The Family, i'm so sorry. I just can't get back into that story. But i'm working on it.

Junior Reporter will be a short story. Probably only six or seven chapters, but it's pretty much done, so I'm posting it.