Saturday, April 26, 2008

Chapter 3 - Some Kind of Wonderful

“Sidney!” Taylor called excitedly running to her brother.

“Heya brat.” He replied with an easy grin. “Sorry I’m late, I just didn’t feel like signing autographs today and Mom and Dad are having dinner with the Dawson’s, so it’s just you and me tonight.”

“Can we have McDonalds?” Taylor replied.

Meanwhile, I was standing there gaping. I mean, yeah, I’d seen him the night before in the park and all, but I honestly thought that that was as close to him as I was ever going to get. I mean, even seeing him in the park was probably closer then I ever thought I would get to the phenom. Yet here he was, talking to the seemingly lonely little girl that I’d tried to encourage to play.

“Sure why not?” Sidney said with that smile. “Just don’t tell Mom. We seriously ate whatever she left in the fridge, cool?”

“Yep.” Taylor replied with a happy smile that wasn’t unlike Sidney’s. “I think she left macaroni and tuna casserole.”

“Oh yuck.” Sidney said with a grimace. “Mickey D’s it is brat.”

“Hi Sidney….” Erin appeared suddenly and nearly wound herself towards him. If she could have wound herself around him, she probably would have.

“Hi Erin.” He replied. “How are you?” He asked.

“I’m not too bad and yourself?” Erin replied with a sensual smile. I could have laughed. The girl seriously had it bad for him.

He shrugged and smiled. “Not bad thanks.” He clearly didn’t care about her one way or another however. Unless he was extremely casual about it, but all appearances showed that he didn’t really care about her one way or the other.

Taylor didn’t look very happy while this exchange was going on. She reached up and tugged on her brother’s arm. “Sidney I want you to meet Darryl.” She said urgently, as if I was going to up and walk away.

“Whose Darryl?” He asked, looking around somewhat confused since Erin, Taylor and I were the only people in the room at the moment.

Erin smirked at me. “She’s Darryl.” She told him pointing at me.

“Hi.” I said, finding my voice. “I’m Darryl Koryluk.” I told him offering him my hand to shake. “Taylor took my dance class this afternoon.”

“She hung out with me this morning too.” Taylor added. “When the girls from school were only being nice to me because you’re my brother. She didn’t know I was your sister.” She added, almost as an afterthought.

Sidney smiled as he shook my hand tightly. “I know you.” He said. “You were running in the park last night.”

There was something of an awkward silence. He had a strong grip in his handshake. It was impressive. I’d totally lost my ability to speak though, because I was totally star struck. Yes, I am aware that he is only a 17-year-old hockey phenom, but still, he was probably the most famous 17-year-old in the country. He continued. “So I guess you’re not much of a hockey fan then if you didn’t know that Taylor Crosby was my little sister.”

That helped me find my voice. I shrugged. “Actually I am a hockey fan.” I said. “In fact, I am a fan of the game and of some of the players. That doesn’t mean I know who their families are.” I paused. “Plus Taylor never told me her last name, and I wasn’t about to go run to look through the paper work.”

“Not a fan of mine then?” He asked me teasingly, his eyebrows raised.

“You’re good, but then you already know that.” I said rolling my eyes. “So don’t fish for compliments. Didn’t your mother ever tell you that it’s not becoming?”

Sidney grinned. “Darryl’s an interesting name for a girl.” He said, ignoring me. “So did your parents want a boy?”

I shrugged. “My Mom was pretty high on morphine when she named me.” I explained. “72 hours of labour will do that to a woman.” I told him. “But she named me after Darryl Sittler, and I’m going to assume that you know who he is. I do not know WHY she did this, but she did. As for my little brother, my Mom seemed to develop a fetish with hockey when she was pregnant… my little brother’s first name is Wayne, and I’ll let you guess who she decided to name him after.”

Sidney grinned. “I think I can hazard a guess.” He said.

“You’d better be able to….” Erin tittered. “I mean, like everyone says that you could be as good as he is, if not better.”

Sidney gave her an odd look. “No one is ever going to be as dominant as Gretzky. I just want to get the chance to play.”

“Well it sounds like the NHL and the PA are going to agree on a deal soon.” I said with a shrug. “So you should be playing in the fall.”

Sidney looked at me carefully. “You were running the park last night.” He said, as it dawned on him that he had in fact seen me before today.

I shrugged. “I run in the park almost every night.” I said.

“And by yourself too.” He pointed out.

“Well yeah.” I said shrugging. I wasn’t used to people worrying about me like that. I mean, I ran alone in Winnipeg all the time. Our neighborhood wasn’t the best, but no one ever messed with me. “I just moved here from Winnipeg and I don’t really know anyone yet. It’s kind of hard to have a running partner when you don’t know anyone.”

“I suppose.” He said, still looking concerned. “It really isn’t safe for someone as young as you are to run by yourself though. I’m surprised your parents aren’t more careful.”

I burst out laughing. “Honey that’s sweet and all, but I’m nearly 23.” I told him. “Well I’ll be 23 in December. I’m going to be teaching in the fall at …..”

To my surprise, Sidney actually blushed. “Oh, I’m sorry.” He said quickly. “I didn’t know that… I mean you look so young and I just assumed….”

I was about to chuckle when Erin tittered. “Oh Sidney, its not your fault sweetie. I mean, for starters HER name is Darryl and she dresses like she’s 15.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Erin in case you weren’t informed, I’m teaching cheerleading and dance.” I told her. “Which requires a certain amount of freedom in my clothing. What do you think I should teach jazz in? A power suit?”

Sidney chuckled. “That would be hilarious though.” He pointed out. “I mean, it would be like playing hockey in our suits.”

“Only women’s power suits are typically much more constricting.” I pointed out. “I mean, what’s a power suit without a short tight skirt?” I laughed at the thought and so did Sidney.

Erin however raised her eyebrows. “And I suppose you own several?” She said.

I rolled my eyes at Erin in Taylor’s direction, and she giggled. “Of course I do. What kind of young teacher would I be if I didn’t own at least three short skirts?”

Sidney laughed. “When I was in Grade 9 I had a Social Studies teacher who was like, 22 or something like that, and I swore, she intentionally wore short skirts on days when she was teaching something really boring.”

I burst out laughing. “I teach Social Studies.” I told him. “And English, and during my internship, my faculty advisor happened to be visiting the school on the day of 3 very dull lessons. He was an old fashioned guy so I wore a skirt. I was the trainer for the football team and one of my boys comes in and goes ‘Looking fine Miss K.’ and then at the end of the day thanks me not for the lesson, but for the short skirt. From then on it was a joke that I always wore a short skirt on days when I taught boring lessons.” I realized I was kind of blabbering and I blushed.

Sidney chuckled at my story, much to Erin’s obvious annoyance. “Don’t you like, have planning to do or something?” She said, her eyes flashing as he clearly wanted to get me out of the way.

I shrugged. “Taylor was a big help.” I told Sidney. “She helped me put everything away while we were waiting.”

I guess that Erin felt as though she had to chime in. “Your little sister is such a doll Sidney.” She gushed. “I look forward to spending a lot of time with her this summer.”

Sidney ruffled her hair. “She’s a good kid for a brat.” He teased her. “But you guys all probably have stuff that you need to do, so we should probably get going huh Tay?”

Taylor glanced at Erin warily. “Yep.” She said, smiling at me. “See you tomorrow Darryl.”

I grinned and waved at them. “See you Taylor. Nice meeting you Sidney.”

“You too.” He said with a small smile. “See you soon.” He added as a bit of an after thought.

“Hey, Sidney before you go….” Erin said, as she grabbed his arm.

“What?” He asked, removing her hand.

“Natalie is having a party on Friday night.” She said. “You should totally come.”

“I’ll think about it. But Taylor and I really need to go. You guys probably have work to do anyway.” He told Erin gently. “See you later Darryl.” He said pointedly.

“See you.” I said with a smile and a wave.

They headed out the door together, Taylor tucking her hand in her brothers as they did. I watched them go with a smile. Taylor was adorable, and Sidney seemed like a nice kid. Erin, however, did not appreciate the fact that I was only appreciating him for being a nice kid. She seemed to think there was more to it then that. I mean I’d taught kids a year older then he was during my internship.

“Don’t even think about it Darryl.” She said, drawing my name out until it was three syllables long instead of two. “I have wanted him for longer then you’ve even known about him.”

“You’ve got it all wrong Erin.” I said with a shrug as I headed off towards the staff room, where I really hope to find everyone else in there. “I’m far, far too old for the phenom. You can have him.”

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