The Girl Next Door Chapter 4

“Katie?” her mom questioned through her bedroom door. “Here’s your Pirates shirt, it’s washed.”
“Thanks Mom,” Kate said, opening the door.
“No problem,” her mom replied, talking over Sportscenter, which Kate had the TV on in her room. Talking about Sportscenter, Sarah said, “Think they’ll ever stop talking about Sidney?”
“Probably not,” Kate said with a laugh. “It seems like that’s all anyone on TV talks about anymore.”
“That’s for sure,” Sarah said. “I’m going to go finish getting ready. We’ll leave when Sidney gets here.”
“Okay mom,” Kate said.
Kate closed the door, and changed her clothes. She put on her Pirates shirt, a Zach Duke one, who was a good rookie pitcher for the Pirates, and jean capris. She put the final touches on her makeup (she never wore a lot, she wasn’t a big fan of it, but she was pretty without it), grabbed her purse and sandals, turned off the TV, and went downstairs to watch TV with her brother until they were ready to go.
At about 11:50, the doorbell rang.
“Sorry I’m early,” Sidney apologized, when Kate opened the door.
“Not a problem,” Kate said, smiling, and motioning for him to come inside.
“Hey Sid,” Neal said, “what’s up?”
“Not much,” Sidney replied, following Neal and Kate into the family room. “I’m excited for the game though, I used to play.””Really?” Kate asked.
“Ya, but it was insane,” Sidney said. “I was heading from the field to the rink all the time, so I had to choose.”
“Good thing you chose hockey,” Kate said.
“Definitely,” Neal said, and then shouted up to his parents: “Hey Mom, Dad, you guys almost ready?”
“We’ll be down in a minute,” Tom yelled back.
“Wanna just watch TV til they get down here?” Kate asked.
“Sure,” Sidney said, “what are you guys watching?”
“Oh, just the end of Ferris Bueller,” Neal said.
“Sounds good,” Sidney said, sitting down on the couch next to Kate.
They watched television for a few minutes until their parents were ready.
“Sidney!” Tom said loudly. “How are you?”
“Good, thanks,” he replied.
“Hi Sidney! Everybody ready?” Sarah said.
“I think so,” Kate said, and then added an exaggerated, “Let’s go watch the Pirates lose!”
Everybody laughed, and headed out the front door, and headed out to the car.
“Is it okay if we just take the BMW?” Tom asked everyone. “It’s a lot easier to park down there, even if we are a little cramped.”
“Fine with me,” Kate and Neal said together.
“Sidney?” Sarah asked. “Okay with you?”
“Sure,” he said.
So, Tom unlocked the doors, and everybody got into the car. Kate sat in the middle of the back seat, with Sidney and Neal on either side of her. When Sidney sat down next to her, he accidentally brushed her arm, and she got goosebumps. She smiled, looked at Sidney, and then put her seatbelt on.
*****
When they were almost at PNC Park, Sarah got the tickets out of her purse, and handed them out to everybody.
“Do I owe you money for the ticket?” Sidney asked, starting to reach for his back pocket, where his wallet was.
“Oh, no dear,” Sarah said. “Our treat.”
“Thanks so much,” he replied back.
“Okay, everybody,” Tom said, pulling the car up to the curb. “Hop on out. I’ll meet you guys up there.”
He stopped the car, and they opened the doors, and got out of the car quickly. Sidney looked around, and put on his Reebok hat, hoping maybe no one would notice him with it on.
“You realize people are still gonna notice you with that on, right?” Kate asked him, a smile on her face.
“Actually, it helps sometimes,” Sidney said, smiling back.
“Well, let’s get inside before many people notice you, Sid,” Neal said, walking towards the door where they went in.
They walked up to the door, and handed the person there their tickets. He scanned them, and gave them back to them. When he handed Sidney back his ticket, he took a double-take, and Kate, who was standing behind Sidney in line, noticed this.
“Thanks!” she said when the man handed her ticket back to her, and gently pushed Sidney ahead of her, so the man couldn’t say anything.
“What?” Sidney said.
“I’ll tell you in a second,” Kate whispered in his ear, waiting until the ticket man was out of earshot.
“The ticket guy totally noticed you,” Kate said. “I just had to get you out of his sight before he could shout anything.”
“Thanks,” Sidney said, giving her a big grateful smile. “The last thing I want is a scene, especially around here.”
“No problem,” she said back.
“Hey you guys!” Neal yelled back to them. They had fallen behind Neal and Sarah quite a bit. “The elevator’s here!”
“We’re coming!” Sidney said.
They jogged to the elevator, and hopped on right before it was about to start closing. The four of them just rode up with the elevator attendant and talked. When they reached the suite level, they got off the elevator and took a right. They showed their tickets to the next ticket man, and he allowed them to go to their box.
“Wow,” Sidney said, when they got into the open-air box. “Great seats!”
“We get them through Tom’s work,” Sarah stated. “We get every fourth game, plus a few in between.”
“It’s fun to watch from up here,” Kate said. “And next year, we have it for the All-Star game and Home Run Derby, which is gonna be amazing.”
They all grabbed drinks from the counter, and glasses of ice. They took their seats, and watched the rest of warm-ups, during which Tom came up.
“You kids wanna go get some food?” Tom asked. “We’re not getting anything up here except for chips and pop.”
“Sure,” Kate said. “Anyone else wanna come with?”
“I’ll come,” Neal said.
“Me too,” Sidney said.
“Here,” Tom said, handing Kate money.
“You guys want anything?” Neal said.
“A hot dog,” Tom and Sarah said at the same time, at which time everybody started laughing.
“You guys have been together too long,” Kate said. “We’ll be back.”
They left the box, and went to the elevator, where they went down until they got to a lower level, where a lot of the food was.
“Hey you guys,” Sidney said to Kate and Neal after they got off the elevator. “I’m getting you guys the food.”
“Oh, Sid,” Kate said, “you don’t need to! My dad gave us money.”
“You guys brought me here and paid for my ticket,” he said. “I want to pay for it.”
“Oh, okay, thanks!” Kate said. “But you really don’t have to.”
“Ya, Sid, you don’t have to,” Neal said.
“Well, I am,” he said, laughing a little bit. “My treat.”
They walked up to the food stand and ordered their food. When the girl handed them their food, she looked straight at Sidney, and her jaw dropped.
“Hey!” she said. “Aren’t you Sid…”
“Run!” Neal yelled, grabbing the rest of the food, and turning towards the elevators.
They got to the elevators quickly since they were moving pretty fast. One was waiting there, and they hopped in and pushed the button to go back upstairs. They all looked at each other, and just started laughing. They laughed the whole way back to their box, and Tom questioned them when they got back.
“What’s so funny?” he asked, jokingly, with a smile on his face.
“Well,” Kate started after she was done laughing. “The hot dog girl recognized Sid. She started to ask who he was, when Neal yelled for us to run, which we did.”
“Oh, my,” Tom said, smiling. “Can I have my food and change?”
Kate handed her dad both, and Tom questioned why all his money was there.
“Um, I paid for lunch, Tom,” Sidney said.
“Sid, you didn’t need to do that,” he said.
“You guys brought me here,” Sidney said. “It’s my treat.”
“Well, thanks Sid,” Tom said. “The game’s about to start!”
They watched the first inning, and the Hansons were telling Sidney about the Pirates.
At one point during the third inning, both Kate and Sidney reached into the chip bowl at the same time, Sidney’s hand covering Kate’s.
“Oops, sorry,” Kate said, yanking her hand out of the bowl.
They smiled at each other shyly for a couple of seconds. Kate waited for Sidney to grab his chips so she could get some.
*****
The rest of the game went by quickly. The Pirates actually beat the Cincinnati Reds 5-3, so it was a lot of fun. They took their time leaving the game, and went out to show Sidney more of the stadium after a lot of people had left. They went out to their car and went back home, all of them talking about the Penguins, since they had asked Sidney about his rookie orientation camp, which was about to start. When they got back, they asked Sidney if he wanted to stay for dinner, but he said he had to get back to the Lemieux’s for dinner. He told them all thank you, and he gave Kate and Neal his cell number. He told them he wouldn’t be able to hang out much early in the week, since he had camp and was babysitting with Kate on Wednesday night, but he’d hang out later in the week. He said thanks again, and then walked home. Later that night, Kate went out for a run, talked to her friends online, and went to bed a little early, since she was tired, and had work again early the next day. She just couldn’t understand why she couldn’t get Sidney out of her head.