Chapter 1

After many days of tabulation, the Pittsburgh Penguins have finally managed to obtain a second Staal brother. Eric Staal, who was brought over for the sole purpose of playing on the same line as his brother, Jordan, was just traded from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for the 1st and 3rd round picks of the 2011 NHL draft, along with Penguin forward, Jay McKee. The two Staal brothers playing together are expected to make great offensive opportunities for the Penguins, perhaps even more so then the Sedin twins of Vancouver. There were some doubts early on in the 2010 season for Eric Staal, after just divorcing his wife. But, surprisingly, there were no signs whatsoever of falter in the forward’s play. If anything, this little incident has made him better. Last season, he reached a career-high number of goals, assists, penalty minutes and points over-all, making him a huge threat in the league. Now that the Pittsburgh Penguins have attained him there are strong speculations that they might go on to win their second Stanley Cup victory in three years, after being beaten to it last year by the Chicago Blackhawks and former teammate Marian Hossa. The Blackhawks won their first Stanley Cup in 49 years against Philedelphia last season…

I put down the newspaper, shocked beyond words. I didn’t think; I just grabbed my keys off the kitchen counter and ran to my truck. The door of my Chevy made a horrible creaking sound as I opened it, and I just laughed to myself. Jordan kept trying to convince me to let him buy me a new car, but I wouldn’t have it. I loved my old navy truck. I’d had it since I was 16, and had inherited it from my father, who’d had it since the early 70’s. He’d been a mechanic, and he’d taught me how to fix it up, and I’d been trying my best for six years since I’d gotten it to keep it in ship-shape. It may look bad on the outside and only go up to 60 m/h on the inside, but I loved it.

I jumped in and waited patiently for a few minutes while the car started up. I then sped down the well-known neighborhood as fast as I could until I reached the new CONSOL Energy Center. I quickly sprinted towards the back entrance of the arena.

“Hey, Jimmy,” I said to the big, well-built security guard standing in front of the door.
“In a rush, Liv?” he laughed, stepping aside. I smiled at him but didn’t respond, already through the door. I made my way towards the weight-room, knowing they wouldn’t be on the ice yet; this was only the first day of camp. I barged through the door, not bothering to knock. As soon as I entered the room, my nose was filled with the smell of sweat. It might sound rather weird, but I didn’t mind the smell that much. It was the smell of hockey, and I had grown up around it. Before I could look around, I was engulfed in a huge bear hug. I didn’t even have to ask who it was.

“Max!” I yelled happily, hugging him back. Maxime Talbot pulled away and looked me in the face, smiling widely.
“I missed you, Livy.” he said.
“I missed you too, Maxy.” I responded, and hugged him again. “I haven’t seen you since…” I pondered for a moment.
“End-of-year party, remember? At Sid’s new place.” He finished for me.
“Right, right. I’m gonna really miss that hobo beard of yours. So how were your holidays? Meet any new girls?” I asked him, wiggling my eyebrows up and down, grinning.
“Oh, yeah…tons. None were that significant though, I don’t think I can remember any of their names.” I gave him a disapproving look. He laughed at me at said, “Kidding!” before picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder.
“Is this ever gonna get old?” I asked him, groaning. He laughed again and put me down, wiping sweat from his brow.
“I better get back to um…” he pointed at a strange looking machine in the corner of the room. “…yeah. But you’ll come out with us tonight, right?” he asked hopefully, giving me puppy-dog eyes. I pretended to think about this for a minute.
“Well, how could I resist that? You have to drive with me, though.” He grimaced as I said that.
“I’m taking that to mean you still haven’t gotten rid of that pile of junk you call a ride.” I shook my head no, smiling. “I have a rep to keep up, you know,” he yelled at me from over his shoulder as he made his way over to the other side of the room. “What’ll the media think if they see me riding around in that…thing? I could get front-paged!” He gasped dramatically, and I laughed at his exaggerations. Just then, I heard someone say my name. I turned around, face to face with a gorgeous boy with beautiful brown eyes.

“You forget about me?” Kris Letang said, a fake hurt plastered on his face. I grinned once again and threw my arms around him.
“How could I ever forget you?” I said.
“How’ve you been?” He asked me slowly. I chuckled at his shyness. We had known each other for, what? Three years? And still he had trouble getting out a sentence without feeling self-conscious. I knew it wouldn’t last, though. Once we had a chance to catch up, he would be back to the old Kris in no time.
“I’ve been great. Except I missed you guys like hell. Why’d you all have to go on freaking holidays and leave me here to my lonesome?” He laughed at me.
“We all missed you too, Liv. We worked our asses off all season though, so I think we deserved a little break.” He winked at me.
“Yeah, I guess…” I responded, faking stubbornness. We laughed for a bit, then he said, “Well, I can see when it comes to talking to you, I’m gonna have to wait in line.” He told me, and then kissed me on the cheek and disappeared behind a huge weight machine. I stood there, confused for a moment, before I felt huge hands covering my eyes.

“Guess who?” a thick accented voice said. When he spoke, it sounded as if he had peanut butter stuck to the roof of his mouth. I smiled to myself, realizing how much I truly missed every single one of these guys.
“Hmmm…let me guess. Is it…a cute Russian?”
“Mmhmm…” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice. I was amazed at how easily amused he was.
“Okay…Geno?” I asked as I turned around, and saw him grinning from ear to ear.
“How you know?” he asked me as he pulled me into my third hug in the last five minutes. I laughed.
“How was Russia? How’s the girlfriend?” I grimaced at my last question. We all despised Geno’s taste in female companions, and his latest one just took the cake. He grinned at me, though.
“Russia good, and,” he paused, “there no more girlfriend.” I raised my eyebrow at him, so he continued. “She only like me for my money. You tell me, but I no listen. You right. I sorry.” He told me sincerely, putting his big hand on my shoulder. My heart melted.
“You don’t have to be sorry, Geno. It’s okay.” I answered, pulling him into another hug. As you might have already guessed, I’m a really big hug person.

“I miss your hug,” Geno murmured. If it was possible, my heart melted even more. There was just something about this guy that made me want to squeeze him until he burst. He was the kind of person that made you want to say “awwww” every time he spoke. We stayed like that for a bit longer, before he had to return to his training, like the two before him. Once he left, I remembered my original purpose for coming here. I looked around the room, but I couldn’t see Jordan anywhere. I said hello to all the other guys and asked them if they had seen him, but none of them knew where he was. I left the room, wondering what could have become of my best friend. As I turned the corner, I crashed into a brick wall. Or, at least that’s what it felt like. As I backed up a couple of paces, I saw that it was the chest of a very big hockey player.

“Oh…sorry about that,” Eric Staal said sheepishly, looking down at me. I was about to answer when I heard footsteps running up behind him.
“Geez, Eric, if you want me to show you around you’re gonna have to slow down a bit and wait for me,” Jordan yelped as he skidded to a stop next to his older brother. He took a minute to catch his breath before he finally realized Eric wasn’t looking at him. He followed his gaze to me. His eyes widened in surprise.
“Liv!” he yelled, and picked me up and twirled me around in a hug. I giggled and yelled back, “Jordy!” He quickly set me down and looked at me sternly in the face.
“What did I tell you about calling me Jordy?” he asked me seriously, before erupting into a fit of giggles, and hugging me again. “It’s so awesome to see you! I missed you soooooo much!”
“I missed you too! I can’t believe you left me alone for so long,” I pouted.
“Hey, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do,” he answered, smiling. Then we heard someone clearing their throat loudly behind us. Jordan’s face turned a bright pink color. He turned me around to face Eric, and said, “Liv, this is my older brother, Eric, he just got traded here from-”
“Carolina, yeah, I know who he is.” I interrupted and extended my hand. “It’s nice to meet you. Jordan’s told me a lot about you. Although it must have slipped his mind to tell me you were coming here, because the first I hear of it is in the paper this morning. Wow, they had to give away the 1st and 3rd round picks, and Jay just to get you? You must be some pretty hot stuff, Eric Staal.” Jordan blushed again, and this time Eric did too. He chuckled lightly and released my hand. I noticed he had a strong, firm handshake. I hated it when guys’ handshakes were all floppy, you know? I mean, way to be manly! Jeez. Just then I noticed both Jordan and Eric looking at me intently. I cleared my throat, and racked my brain for something to say.

“So, uh, Eric…are you the oldest of the bunch?”
“Yeah,” he answered, “It’s kind of my job to keep these little kiddies in line.” He added as he ruffled Jordan’s hair. Jordan squirmed out of his reach and punched him in the shoulder.
“Yeah, sure, whatever.” He mumbled, and then winked at me. Eric looked between him and me inquisitively, one eyebrow raised.
“Jordan, you didn’t tell me you were dating again,” he said, still looking at me. Jordan’s eyes widened in panic and his face once again turned ten shades of red, but I just chuckled.
“We’re not dating. We’re just really close. Trust me, people ask us that all the time.” I answered calmly. I was pleasantly surprised to see a look of relief pass over Eric’s face, but I swear I saw something happen with Jordan as well. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was definitely something between uneasiness and…desire. Well. That was strange. But Jordan then shook his head quickly and turned to his brother.

“Well, we’re gonna have to get going if you wanna see the whole place before we gotta leave.” Eric nodded and turned to me, smiling.
“Are you coming out with us tonight?” he asked hopefully.
“Yeah, definitely,” I answered.
“Good, it’ll be nice to have someone to talk to once little brother here goes off to flirt with the ladies,” He joked, patting Jordan on the shoulder. Jordan smacked his hand away, and began walking past me, muttering to himself. Eric stood in front of me for a few seconds, before I heard Jordan calling him from down the hall. He gave me a sideways grin, and said,
“I’ll see you later then, Liv,” I nodded, and he made his way past me to where Jordan was waiting for him. As he walked past me, his arm brushed mine. This could be interesting.