Break the Ice

For the third time, my family sat there in the stands waiting for a name to be called. But luckily we didn’t have to wait for long. He was picked second overall, just like our eldest brother.

“On behalf of the Pittsburgh Penguins organization, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome to our organization from Peterborough, Jordan Staal.”

As soon as the words had left Penguins’ General Manager, Ray Shero’s, mouth, our entire family stood up. Mom and dad managed to grab Jordan first, before each of our three brothers gave him quick hugs.

I was last, but managed to stand on my tip-toes and wrap my arms around his neck in a tight embrace, “Congrats Jordy!”He gave me a beaming smile before ending our embrace and heading onto the stage to accept his jersey.

We all sat back down and I nudged Jared, who was sitting beside me, with my elbow, “Couple more years and you’ll be up there, kiddo.”
“We can dream,” he chuckled.
“At least we have a few more years before sitting through this snooze-fest again.” Eric piped in.

It was true. As much as we loved supporting each other, the draft was obviously nothing compared to a game. But then again it was the biggest days in their lives, and I honestly believed it always would be, although I can guarantee they’d never admit it after their wedding day or birth of their first child.

Jared and I spent the majority of the next hour muttering stupid comments and jokes under our breathes to each other, until our mom noticed and her glare instantly made us stop and sit up a little straighter. Our parents were great, but with five kids, things could get out of hand easily so they had mastered ways to keep us under control.

Once the formalities of the draft had finished up, our family met back up with Jordan. We had some pictures taken as a family and mingled with a few other families we knew that were attending.

There was a buzz that Jordan had been drafted by Pittsburgh in particular. Although the Penguins had been having lackluster seasons as of late, the team had so much potential, even in spite of the great Mario Lemieux retiring. Not only did they have some great talent in Evgeni Malkin, Colby Armstrong and Marc-Andre Fleury, they also had Sid the Kid - the infamous Sidney Crosby. Although I was excited for Jordan to be part such an optimistic looking team, I had to laugh a little bit at the irony. Of all places, we could both end up it would be in Pittsburgh. After applying to various colleges in both Canada and the USA, I had chosen to attend University of Pittsburgh, starting this fall. I guess it was meant to be. After being so close in age, somehow being born in the same calendar year, we had spent every year together whether it be in school or any other clubs or teams we were involved in. I guess it was always a false hope that I would escape my overprotective brothers and somehow make a name for myself. With them around I’d always just be the Staal sister.



Somehow the summer managed to fly by. It wasn’t quite what you’d hope your summer after senior year would be, but it was one to remember. There were plenty of parties, girls nights and stupid memories made with my brothers, after the long days of work.

After much chaos and a big adjustment from the small Northern community of Thunder Bay, I had moved to Pittsburgh. While I had settled in during mid-August, it was nearing mid-September and I was still waiting for my roommate to join me. You’d think It was strange that a month into the school year my roommate was still MIA, but no, of course I couldn’t have a normal roommate for my freshman year. Somehow my parents had managed to convince me to bypass living in the college dorms, and in an apartment with Jordan instead - as if I didn’t see enough of that boy over the past eighteen years of my life. But Mama Staal knows best, so eventually the two of us ended up agreeing to live together in a downtown Pittsburgh apartment. The Penguins family started early, with our parents quickly becoming friends with other players’ and draftees’ parents. Apparently this building was home for many of the younger players on the team, and being so close to both Mellon arena and Pitt, it only made sense to call it home.

The building was reasonably new, but still had a classic feel to it, being in the heart of the city. The door opened up to an open living space with a patio door leading to a balcony. The kitchen was set over to the right and had an island overlooking the living room. The two bedrooms and bathroom were down a hall to the left. When our family had made the trip down to help me move in, Jordan and I had quickly sorted out rooms. Luckily it wasn’t hard to decide, as I fell in love with the brightly windowed option to the right and Jordan, being a typical teenage boy, couldn’t care less, siding on the darker room further down the hall.

The past month was great. My classes were as interesting as general education classes could be, and I had managed to make some good friends. As much as I complained about having Jordan make his way to the Steel City soon, I was actually excited to finally have another person in the apartment. While the unit was by no means huge, it was too large for one person. Especially an eighteen year old girl living in a big city by herself for the first time. So as much as I hated myself for thinking it, I was looking forward to seeing Jordan. Hell, I was smiling to myself as I drove to the airport to pick him up.

While I was close with all of my brothers, Jordan and I always failed to see eye-to-eye on just about everything. I think you could peg most of it on how close we were in age and since we spent nearly every hour of the day in close proximity growing up. I’m convinced our mom spent half of her time splitting us up as kids and to be honest, not much had changed as we aged. But as much as we fought, we were still close and I knew he’d always be there whenever I needed him. He just might razz me about it after the fact. Or somehow use it later to bribe me into doing something for him.

Conveniently, he was walking through the doors just as I pulled up. After throwing his stuff into the backseat, he made his way to the front of the car.

“Hey Jord,” I smiled as he climbed into the passenger seat, as gracefully as a 6’ some-odd hockey player could.
“Hey squirt,” he chuckled. The boys always made joked at the expense of my height - somehow I managed to be just over five feet while my brothers all towered over me. “Hope you haven’t wrecked the new place yet,” he laughed, roughing up my hair as I tried to ignore him, pulling out of the spot.
“Oh, don’t you worry, I trashed it the first day you left. And don’t ask what’s happened in your bed,” I sent a quick wink his way.
“I swear to God Nic, you better not have stepped foot into my room,” he challenged.
I laughed, dropping my façade, “I wouldn’t willingly step foot in your room if you paid me. You haven’t even lived in it yet and I think it already smells. But actually, the place is pretty well untouched. We have to finish setting up the living room and all that; I didn’t bother because I knew you’d change it all when you got here anyways.”
“At least you know that much.”
“Fuck off Jord,” I shot back.
He quickly pulled out his phone, glancing at the lockscreen. “Under five minutes! Looks like Marc won $5,” Jordan boomed, quickly typing out a message on his phone. I just shot him a confused look, “They we’re betting on how long it would be before you curse me out. Marc said under five minutes, and for some reason Eric thought you’d last ten.”
“The fact that our brothers felt the need to bet on that already lets me know that this year is going to be a disaster.”



A soft knock sounded. It must’ve come from our front door.

“Jord, were you expecting anyone?” I called from the depths of my room, working away on an English assignment I had due next week. After we had gotten in from the airport, Jordan was off to unpack and I decided to try and be productive. I figured I probably only had a short time before he, surely, would drag me along to explore the city.
I heard him laugh, “I don’t know how anyone would even know our address besides mom. And somehow we managed to leave her behind in T-Bay.” It was true. Although she was a little distraught when Eric and Marc left, I think this hit her the hardest; having two of her kids move out within a month.

I continued working as Jordan headed past my room and towards the door to see what was going on. It was probably some delivery that one of us had completely forgotten about. We were still getting some things in for our apartment.

“Jordan, right?” I heard a strangely familiar voice ask. Jordan must have nodded because the voice continued, “Sidney Crosby. Welcome to the Burg!”

I froze. Sidney freaking Crosby was in our apartment?! Any Canadian kid, hell any hockey fan, would be starstruck. And I was no exception. As you could expect, my family was hockey. All the time. And I’d watched Sidney play so many times on TV, whether it was on Hockey Night in Canada or representing Canada at the World Juniors. My thoughts managed to distract me long enough to not hear the footsteps or voices nearing my room, until two bodies stood on my doorway.

“Hey Nic, I think there’s someone here you’d like to meet.” Jordan smirked, standing in my doorway, with none other than Sidney Crosby himself.
I tried to keep myself calm, and appear relatively sane, as I crossed the room to stand in front of the two.

“Nicole Staal,” I smiled, stretching out my hand, “Nice to meet you, Sidney.”
“I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around as much as I’ll see this one,” He motioned to Jord, “So welcome to the family,” He laughed, avoiding my outstretched hand and hugging me instead.
I froze as Jordan, who I could see past Sidney’s shoulder, tried to keep his laughter silent. I rolled my eyes at my brother before loosening up and hugging Sidney back. “I’m sure you will be,” I laughed. “I can’t seem to escape this one,” I nodded at Jordan as the two of us separated, “So I’m sure it’ll be the same for the rest of you all.”
Sidney let out a chuckle before asking, “I heard you just got into town, but a bunch of us are getting together over at Max’s, Maxime Talbot’s, place tonight if you two up for it!”
Jordan and I shared a quickly glance before readily agreeing. Jordan had met the other draftees at rookie camp, but hadn’t had a chance to meet many other players as training camp wasn’t set to start until later this week.



“Jordan, hurry the fuck up!” I called from my spot on the couch. As always, Jordan was taking longer than me. Being in the same grade throughout school and having mutual friends, we always ended up going to the same parties. Thunder Bay was only so big. And that lead me to learning that Jordan always took a ridiculously long time to get ready before going out, which is something I never understood.
“Gimme a sec,” He called back from down the hall.
“Jordan I’ve given you an extra ten minutes. We’re already running late – nice first impression, eh?” With that, he made his way into the living room, hair spiked at the front, wearing a pair of nice jeans and an old fitted t-shirt. “How the fuck do you even take so long to get ready? I touched up my make-up and did my hair in the time it took you to look like that?” I motioned at him.
“Shut the fuck up Nic or I’ll leave you at home,” he shot back, with the sass that was always present in our relationship.
I just laughed as we both made out way to the front entrance to pull on our shoes, “Such an empty threat when we’re taking my car and I still have the keys. Try a little harder next time,” I laughed, smacking his arm as we headed out the door.

Jordan ended up bring the one to drive us over to Max’s place. Sidney had jotted down some directions when he left us the address, and luckily I managed to decode his rough cursive and get us to our destination. Jordan parked on the street and the two of us made our way into the house. Jordan was quickly scooped away by one of the boys from rookie camp, and I stood there lost for a second, not knowing anyone in this house full of professional hockey players. Typical Jordy looking out for himself.

Luckily I was saved as Sidney looked up from his conversation, over at the couches, and noticed me near the doorway. He quickly excused himself as he crossed the room in a few large strides.

“Hey Nicole,” He shot me a smile, “Where’s Jordan?”
“Ran off with some kid he must’ve met at rookie camp,” I laughed, “He’s always terrible for being that friend at parties who just happens to go missing every time.”
Sidney smiling, nodding along knowingly, probably picturing a few friends who did the same. “Why don’t you come and hang out with me and a few the guys? I promise we don’t bite!”
“That would be great,” I graciously thanked the boy as he led the way to where he came from.

Sidney and I took a place on the loveseat, while three other bodies occupied the couch. It was graced with some of the young guns on the team; Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury and the host himself, Maxime Talbot.

The conversation started with pleasantries and small talk, when my commitment to Pitt came up.

A look of confusion graced Max’s face, before his lightly accented voice spoke, “Wait, but if you’re starting at Pitt wouldn’t that mean you’re the same age as Jordan?” Hockey players may not necessarily be the smartest people around, but they definitely knew their facts. And draft age was one of those things.
“Sadly, we are” I laughed, “That bugger was born really early and we happened to be born in the same year. He just had his birthday last week, but mine was in January.”
“How many brother? Three?” Evgeni asked.
“Four. Two older and two younger.”
“You middle child,” Evgeni pointed out in his rough English, coated with a tgick Russian accent.
“Yep, somehow managed to get stuck right in the middle of the four headaches,” He chuckled in response.
“So anything else we should know about the great Nicole Staal?” Marc-Andre asked, showing off his brilliant white smile.
“Honestly, I feel like there’s not much to say that you couldn’t find on Wikipedia or something,” The group laughed, “My brothers becoming NHL players ruined any sense of privacy we really had. I’m sure you guys can relate.” They nodded in agreement. “But I am a big fan,” I admitted, grinning at the French goalie as he turned pink.
“Hey there, stop being such a suck-up,” Sidney laughed.
I glanced over to him, sitting to my left, “If it helps, I’m a Sidney Crosby fan too,” He shrugged off-handily as the group laughed.
As conversation bounced over to the boys’ off-seasons, I excused myself to get a drink.

I started my walk over towards the kitchen when I turned around, feeling a hand on my shoulder.

“Hope you don’t mind if I tag along,” Sidney chuckled, letting his hand drop.
“Of course not!” I admitted, “Thank you so much for everything Sidney. You’ve been so welcoming and I know hanging out with your teammates sister probably isn’t the first thing you want to be doing after not seeing your friends for the past couple months.”
He just waved his hand, “It’s no big deal. I know what it’s like coming in new. And I feel like with wearing the A, it’s my job to make sure no one is feeling out of place. Sisters included.” Sidney shot me a smile.
“And I guess that’s why the press just love to eat you up? Killer hockey player and nice guy? I’m sure they don’t hear much of that nowaday” I nudged his side before starting to pour us drinks.
“It’s an honour really. Just playing on an NHL team is incredible, but to wear the A and hear all the positive things the press has been saying it’s crazy. Really, I just want to see this team succeed.”
“I’ll give you another try to make it sound like you aren’t talking to the press.” I challenged, finishing pouring the drinks.
He let out a short laugh, one of those genuine sounds of surprise and embarrassment. “I’m sorry Nicole, bad habit I guess.” He paused for a minute, formulating his thoughts before continuing, “It’s good, it really is, but there’s just a lot of pressure, especially with the press eating it up, making me sound like a publicity stunt.” His eyes dropped to the floor.
“Looks like you’re doing what you need to out on the ice and off it Sidney, and that’s all anyone could ask.” Deciding that this wasn’t something he probably wanted to talk about to someone who was practically a complete stranger, I quickly changed the topic, “Come on Kid, it’s still the off-season, take a minute or two to relax,” I smiled and he mirrored my grin as we grabbed our drinks and walked back over to the group of boys, reclaiming our seats.

The five of us sat talking for quite some time. Each of us were nursing our drinks, feeling a slight buzz but nothing crazy. The boys seemed to be too involved in catching up to focus on getting drunk, and I obviously wanted to be put together enough to make a good first impression in front of these boys that I’d surely be spending much of the next year with.

After sometime, the mysteriously disappearing blond finally reappeared. Jordan came up to the group of us on the couch, but before sitting down to my right, leaned down, and under his breath mused, “Sidney seems to have taken quite a liking to you,”
I just rolled my eyes, “I think that’s called being a nice guy. You should try it once in a while,” I muttered back. “Get your head out of the gutter.”
He just ruffled up my hair, causing me to groan as the boys around us noticed and laughed in response.

Someone tell me again how I ended up 1000 miles from home stuck with, arguably, my least favourite brother? Hockey Gods, help me.