The Rookie

“You got everything kiddo?” My dad asked as he slammed the trunk of my car closed.

I nodded and before I knew it I was giving him a tearful, goodbye hug. He kissed the top of my forehead before whipping a tear from the corner of his eye.

“Call me when you get there!” He yelled as I climbed into the driver side of the car.

I rolled down the window to both reassure that I would call after I was settled in and say bye once last time. I didn’t even want to look in the rearview mirror as I drove down the street. If I had, I probably would have flipped the car back around and unloaded all my stuff. Being a daddy’s girl had it’s perk, but this certainly was not one of them.

I was headed off to Phoenix, but not to stay. I had a flight to catch to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; my soon to be new home. I had just graduated from college with a degree in Business Management with an emphasis is Sports Management. It had taken a lot of hard work, but I had managed to snag the dream job of any hockey junkie; working with an actual NHL team.

Even though I was a die hard Flyer’s fan, it was hard to pass up the opportunity of a lifetime. I had to swallow my pride and burn my Flyer’s memorabilia because starting Monday morning I was officially employed by the Pittsburgh Penguins. The reality of it all had still not fully sunk in.

It was a good thing that the drive from my hometown to Phoenix was a solid three hours. It gave me a lot of time to think and calm my nerves. I had gone to school in Tucson and that was about as big of a town that I had ever lived in. I, myself, was from a large farm town. Both of these places did not measure up to the big city of Pittsburgh. I was going to be a small town girl trying to navigate my way around the city of steel. That was almost as nerve wracking as thinking about my job itself!

I was going to be working in the “community relations” part of the Penguin’s franchise. That meant that I would have to help organize public events for players to attend and make sure they kept themselves out of trouble with the press. It wasn’t exactly what I had intended on doing. I wanted to be involved in more of the managerial type stuff, but the organization had ensured me that I would work my way to one of those positions in do time.

I was really nervous about being around the Penguin’s players themselves though. I had grown up playing hockey. Arizona wasn’t really big on the sport, so finding all girls teams was hard; especially because I didn’t live in a bigger town. I had played on boys’ teams from elementary school and throughout high school. The guys had become my adopted group of brothers and I knew how to hold my own. My older brothers were both chasing their own NHL dreams up in Canada right now and I had met my fair share of hockey douche bags in my day. I probably had more of an upper hand than any other girl walking into the position, but I still was nervous. These were professional athletes and they didn’t exactly lack in the looks department either.

Crosby, Malkin, Letang, and who could forget about rookie Beau Bennett? I was the lucky girl that was going to get to be around these players almost 24/7. Although I knew everything would have to remain professional, I could already see myself getting tongue-tied talking to the guys. It would be nice to have a little eye candy during the day, but it could go no further then just looking.

The whole way to Phoenix and through the airport so many thoughts were just running through my head! By the time I was seated on the plane I was mentally drained. I was ready to throw in some headphones, take some sleeping medication, find a comfortable position, and drift off to sleep. Next stop, Pittsburgh.

**Monday Morning**

“Where to mam?” The taxi driver asked me.

“Uhm, the Consol Energy Center? I believe the address it---“

The taxi driver began to laugh. I was just getting use to this whole cab thing and his reaction was not doing my self-esteem any favors. Besides the couple of times I had been to Chicago and Detroit for hockey trips, that was the extent of my city experience. Even then, we had either rented a car or had walked pretty much everywhere.

“Sorry miss.” He finally ceased his laughter. “You must not be from here if you’re wanting to give me the address to the Consol. Everyone knows where that it. Well, all the locals.”

At that I kind of had to laugh. I guess it was pretty obvious that I didn’t belong here.

“Nope, I’m from Arizona. I just got a job with the Penguins. I’ve only been in town for about a day and a half. Still getting the feel of things.”

“Arizona?! Girl you are a long way from home!” The cab driver, whom shortly after introduced himself as Sal, exclaimed.

The ten-minute drive to the arena wasn’t nearly enough to tell him my life story. As he pulled to the front of the building, he took a card from the top of his dash, and handed it to me.

“I usually stay around this arena during the weekdays. You ever need a ride again, you give ol’ Mr. Sal a call? Ya hear?”

Graciously, I took the card from him with a smile on my face. Maybe making friends here wouldn’t be that hard after all? Heck, Sal was already offering to be my chauffer and we’d only known each other for fifteen minutes.

“Thanks Sal! I get off at five, I’m sure I’ll need you then!” I said as I waved goodbye and shut the door.

The butterflies that had been in my stomach since I had left my house in Arizona had faded in that short drive, but now as I stood looking up at the gigantic building they were back in full force. Taking a deep breath, I took the first step towards the new chapter in my life.