Jump Then Fall: Chapter 6

The arena was really cold when we walked in, but nothing I wasn't used to. Nina handed me a pass to wear around my neck so that I was allowed to go into the box seating. I put mine on and she put hers on too. We were escorted by an usher to one of the boxes and Nina knocked on the door. The door was answered by a tall man with dark hair who looked to be in his early fourties. He smiled and greeted Nina with a kiss on the cheek and told her and me to come inside.
He closed the door behind us and Nina walked up to a woman with short dirty blonde hair. They both hugged and started talking wildly about something I couldn't understand. The man who had answered the door, and I assumed to be Mario, came over to me and introduced himself.
"Hello, you must be Nina's protégé, I'm Mario", he said while shaking my hand.
"Hi, yes I'm Kat very nice to meet you", I smiled back politley.
He introduced me to the woman Nina had been talking to as Nathalie, his wife.
"Ohh, I'm sorry I didn't introduce you!" Nina said to me apolegeticly, "I was just so excited to see Nathalie, it's been a while."
I smiled and told her it was okay and sat down on a couch across from the glass so I could watch the game. I had missed the announcements of who the players were because we had arrived shortly after the game had started and the Penguins were already winning 1-0. The team they were playing was in white, black, and red. The Penguins were wearing black. Nina sat down next to me and I turned to her and asked her who they were playing.
"That would be the New Jersey Devils" she said.
I turned back to the glass and continued watching the game, I didn't really know what was going on. I had never understood hockey, or payed attention long enough to try. They just kept going back and forth with the puck but nobody ever did anything with it. I kept seeing a lot of people getting slammed into the sides of the glass, which looked awfully painful.
"Nina?", I asked her, "Are they allowed to do that? Slam each other into the glass like that? Shouldn't they be kicked out or something?"
Her, Mario, and Nathalie laughed at me. I felt like an idiot.
"Ohh no", she said chuckling, "It's all a part of the game".
After feeling stupid about asking that I just sat there and sulked for the rest of the game. Eventually in the third period someone from the Devils scored. Everyone in our box gave out an aggravated sigh. The time eventually ran out and overtime was started.
"What a way to start off the year, already an overtime game.", Mario said.
The Devils ended up winning and I could feel the unhappiness in the air. I sat there akwardly as I waited for Nina to say that we were leaving or something. Instead Mario was the one who spoke.
"Well, they may not be in the happiest mood, but would you like to go and meet the players?"
"Sure, that sounds great!", Nina answered for us.
I got up and followed them downstairs and down a long hallway until we got to a door which was labeled "Pittsburgh Penguins locker room". Mario said he would go inside real fast and make sure everyone was decent before we went in. While we were waiting I started to think about the fact that I had not seen Sidney at all during the game. I looked around into the stands real fast but there were aso many people I would never be able to tell if it was him. I sighed as Mario came out and told us it was safe to come in.
I walked in behind Nina to a big room with long wooden benches. Above the benches were small little cubbies with each player's last name labeled on it. Most of the players were sitting down, taking off their padding. I couldn't help but noiced how incredibly good looking they all were. They didn't seem to be like the hockey boys I knew back in my sunny Florida. Mario introduced us to a bunch of players all of whom I smiled at and shook their hands.
"Where's Sid?", Mario asked after we were done meeting all of the players.
"I think he went in the back for a second", a player that Mario had introduced as Jordan Staal said, "I'll go get him."
Jordan walked away for a moment and then reappeared with someone that I instantly recognized.
"This is Sidney Crosby", Mario said, "The capitain of our team. Sid this is Nina and Kat."
Sidney smiled and shook hands with Nina. Then he looked at me and I was struck with his smouldering caramel gaze.
"Hi", he said with a mischevious smile, "I'm Sidney."
"Ohh I know who you are." I relpied.
And I stuck out my hand to shake his.