Chances Taken

-Maggie-
This is it, I sat in front of my stall in-between Mike and Tyler, this was our Winter Classics, an outdoors game against the Washington Capitals. I was excited for this, being my first one because when Mike and I were traded to the Penguins, we came after the game. Coach came in and told us to head out onto the ice for warm ups. We were playing in Heinz Field, the same field that the Pittsburgh Steelers play on; the grass was gone and transformed into a field of ice.

The stadium was filled with fans; I smiled as I walked onto the foam covered floors and headed for the ice. I didn’t have my helmet on, but I did have a Penguins blue beanie with pompoms hanging down the sides. It was cold outside it seemed to be colder than being inside the Consol.

We warmed up, it was definitely different, the ice felt different, very choppy, I didn’t really like it. Sidney came over towards me, noticing my face, “I don’t like it,” I whined and Sidney chuckled.

“You’ll get used to it,” he said and I sighed, “Just focus on skating on it, I know this is your first Classics. You ever do pond hockey?”

“Sid,” I looked at him seriously, “What state am I from, honey?”

“Right, Texas, I guess not,” he laughed and I smirked and patted his shoulder, “Guess you wouldn’t have then.”

“Nope,” I said and looked over towards Mike to see that judging by his face, he didn’t like the feel of the ice either, ‘...Just get used to it now, before the game starts…’

After warm up we headed back to the locker room, which was the Steelers locker room, so it was different. The layout wasn’t circular like ours; it had rows of lockers, so when Coach wanted to give us a speech that he usually did before the game and then announce the first line, we all had to huddle together in one row. I was standing behind the sitting Sidney and Geno and leaning an arm on each of their shoulders.

When it was time to head out onto the ice, I smiled at the fact that I was on first line with Sidney. I’ve played it before, but not as much as I’d like. We skated around a little bit before the opening started. I circled around Marc, teasing him a little; he ended up yelling at me because I was making him dizzy, which made me laugh.

They sang the national anthem, Sidney, Kunitz, myself, Mike and Kris stood facing the American flag and listened to the anthem. I was ready to get this game started by the end of the song. Sidney won the face off and the game started. Kunitz had the puck and was skating towards the Capitals’ net, he passed it to me and I passed it to Mike when I saw Ovechkin coming at me. He went to check me into the boards, I saw him coming and I moved forward fast and heard him slam into the boards, missing me.

By the end of the first period, the score was zero, neither team had scored. However, both teams had spent plenty of time in the penalty box; this game was definitely a physical one.

During the second period, Geno managed to score a goal with Kris and ever Marc assisting, our goalie was happy about that. Seconds after the first goal of the game, the Capitals stole the puck off of Jordan and were heading towards March. I kicked off of the ice to go faster, though finding that I couldn’t go as fast as on the other ice because of its choppiness. Paul Martin tried to cut off Brooks Laich from shooting at Marc, Paul got the puck, but Laich didn’t stop fast enough, he tried to, even collided his stick with my skate, making me fall. We both slid towards the net, Laich rammed right into March and I became a puck and hit the back of the net, making it come off its pegs.

“Ow,” I muttered as I pushed myself off of the ice and crawled out of the net.

“You all right?” Jordan asked as he came up next to me and Max on the other side.

“Fine,” I said as I stood up, took my glove off and rubbed my cheek because I thought I felt it be cut when I went down.

“No blood,” Max said and I nodded my head and put my glove back on and turned to Marc, skating over towards him and bending down.

“You all right, Flower?”

“Give me a second, the world needs to stop spinning,” he said and I giggled and helped him up. The trainer came over and asked if Marc was all right, he was, so the trainer left, “What’s it like to be a puck?”

“Fuck you,” I smirked and Marc chuckled and moved out of the way so the refs could put the net back on its pegs.

Laich went to the box for goalkeeper interference, I was a little mad that he wasn’t called for his tripping against me, but oh well, Penguins were on a powerplay.

Minutes ticked by, I was on and off the ice for the second period, the score was one to two, Capitals. There were five minutes left in the second period. Coach called for Sidney, Geno, myself, Kris and Mike to go onto the ice.

I had the puck and was heading towards the Capitals net, I shoot the puck, but he pushed it away and the puck was picked up by Mike Green. I groaned and followed after him, we made it to the middle of the ice when the refs blew the whistle and we both stopped and looked confused as to why there was a call. I turned around and saw that Sidney was on the ice looking like he was in pain. I skated over towards him and bent down.

“You all right?”

“He came out of nowhere,” Sidney said and pushed himself up, the look on his face and the fact that he held onto the wall and my arm, told me that he got his head hit.

“He get your head?”

“Yeah?” Sidney said as he looked down to try and catch his breath.

The ref came over and sat he was hit, I saw David Steckel come over and apologize, he didn’t see him. I couldn’t even look at the jumbotron to see the recap of the hit because there was no jumbotron. I sighed and pushed myself next to Sidney and helped him over towards the bench, he wasn’t going to finish this period until we knew that he was all right. I watched him walk away from the ice; he had a little limp to him and was helped by the trainers.

By the end of the period, the score remained at one to two, Capitals. We were back in the locker room and I checked on Sidney to see that he was going to be well enough to play the third period.

By the end of the game, the score was one to three, Capitals. They managed to score against Marc again in the third period. We were all sad that we lost the game as we headed back to the locker room. I changed out of my gear and went into the showers; however, when we headed for the showers, we all stopped. This wasn’t set up like ours, these were all opened and I had to remember that there were no girls in football.

“Well,” Marc said as he came up next to me, “We have an issue.”

“No we don’t,” Jordan said as he stepped forward and started get undressed.

“Yeah, I’ll just wait until ya’ll are finished,” I said and then turned around and headed out of the shower room, hearing Jordan whine and say that I was no fun.

I sighed and plopped down in front of my locker. I heard the door to the locker room open and smiled when I saw Emma walk in, her eyes closed and her hand over her eyes, “Is it safe?”

“Come on, Em,” I laughed and she opened her eyes and moved her hand to see that I was the only one in the room.

“Where is everyone?”

“It’s an opened shower setting, so I’m waiting until they’re all finished,” I said and she nodded her head and walked over, sitting down next to me, “So how was it, how many pictures did you get?”

“A lot, and it was awesome,” she said and then placed her camera in front of us, “My first job and it’s for a Winter Classic. I’m sorry you didn’t win.”

“Eh, we’ll get them next time,” I said and she nodded her head and started to show me all of the pictures, “They’re awesome, Em, I’m sure Mario will love them.”

“Thanks, I hope- Whoa,” Emma’s eyes were wide and I turned my head to see that Mike walked out of the shower room with a towel around his waist.

He looked at us and flashed a smile, “Forgot my shit,” he said and then headed back into the shower room.

“Em, I’ve seen my brother like that- Oooooooh you like Mike!” I said excitedly and smiled brightly at her.

“What?! No! I mean- No! He’s like a brother, we’ve known each other- NO!”

“Uh huh, naw you don’t like him at all,” I laughed and Emma’s face got really read.

“Shut up, you can’t tell him!” she said quickly and quietly and I laughed harder.

“I knew it!”

“Maggie!”

“All right, all right, I won’t tell him!” I groaned and looked at her, “How long?”

“I don’t know, these feelings came when you and Mike said that you were leaving, that week, Mike and I spent time together because he hurt his shoulder and- Um, the feelings, they uh, they just came,” she said and I smiled and bumped my shoulder into hers.

“It’ll be all right,” I said and she looked at me, “You should tell him.”

“What?! No!”

“You should, you never know, he might feel the same way,” I smiled, knowing for a fact that he did, knowing that my brother had a thing for my best friend for a while now but was too afraid to do anything about it, “Em, we all live in the same city again, do something!”