The Girl Next Door Chapter 6

Rachel,” she said into her cell phone the next day at work while she was on her break, “there’s this guy I like.””Really?” Rachel said, suddenly extremely enthused.
Rachel was Kate’s best friend who had moved to Austin, Texas, after seventh grade, because her father got a job in Dell’s executive offices. Rachel was also a huge hockey fan. Their families had had season tickets next to each other while they lived in Pittsburgh. They still talked all the time, and visited each other a few times a year, but because Rachel had been on vacation, this was the first time they had talked in almost two weeks.
“Who is it?” Rachel asked.
“You’re not gonna believe me when I say it,” Kate said.
“WHO is it?” Rachel asked again with urgency.
“Sidney Crosby,” Kate said, taking her voice down to a whisper.
“Seriously?” Rachel asked. “Have you met him, or is it just a crush? Cause, hell, every girl has a crush on him, I totally think he’s cute.”
“I know him,” Kate replied. “He moved in next door!”
“With the Lemieux’s?!?” she squealed. “Are you joking?”
“You know I never joke Rach,” Kate said. “He moved in on Friday, I’ve hung out with him a lot. I met him on Friday night, the Lemieuxs had us over for dinner so we could meet him. He came to the ball game with us on Sunday, and I baby-sat with him last night!”
“Whoa,” Rachel said. “Do you seriously like him?”
“Ya, I do,” Kate said, smiling. “He’s so sweet and nice, he’s funny, and totally hot. Like last night, when I saw him in his bedroom…”
“You what?!?!?” Rachel said.
“Um, Austin came with me to wake him up from his nap,” Kate said. “He’s been in rookie orientation camp all week, and he was tired, and Mario told us to go wake him up, so we did.”
“And?!?!” Rachel screamed.
“Damn, Rach,” Kate said, “you’re hurting my ear. Um, well, Austin opened the door, and Sid was on his bed, shirtless, but in sweatpants. And let me tell you, he was ripped, with a capital ‘R’.”
“You are so lucky!” Rachel said. “Do you think you have a chance?”
“That’s the thing,” Kate said, a little sad tone came into her voice, “I don’t know. I really like him, but it’s crazy!”
“Why?” Rachel asked.
“Because it’s SIDNEY CROSBY,” Kate replied. “He’s the ‘Next One.’ He’s amazing. Every girl wants him. It’s just crazy. It’s not the right time for him.”
“Go for it Katie,” Rachel said. “I’m serious. If you like him, just be yourself. And if it doesn’t work, you can’t say you didn’t try.”
“Okay,” Kate said, “I’ll see how it goes.”
“Good,” Rachel said. “Hey, I gotta go, I’m at the ranch.”
Rachel rode horses a lot, just for fun, and worked at the ranch sometimes as well.
“Okay. I’d better be going too,” Kate said, getting up from the sidewalk she was sitting on behind the ice arena.
“I’ve got a question for you, real quick,” Rachel said.
“Shoot,” Kate said.
“When I come up for the home opener,” she began, “can I meet Sidney?”
“Sure,” Kate said. “It’ll be pretty hectic, but I’m sure that can happen.”
“Great,” she said. “I’ll talk to you later!”
“Bye,” Kate said, heading back inside to finish up her shift.
*****
The rest of the summer went by quickly. Kate, Neal, and Sidney continued to get together and hang out. They hung out with some of the other rookies too, like Maxime Talbot, Colby Armstrong, and Michel Ouellet, over at Mario’s house. Two weeks after Kate baby-sat with Sidney, she started school again. She also had most of her college applications filled out, her top two choices being Minnesota and Pittsburgh, respectively.
The weekend after school started, Labor Day weekend, Neal’s girlfriend, Allison Roberts, came to stay with them for two weeks; until they both went back to school (Ohio States starts in late September). The two of them had met the summer before their freshman year of college at work (Allison had gone to Quaker Valley, the public school in Sewickley), and started dating. After their sophomore year, Allison’s parents moved to Philadelphia, but Allison still spent part of her summers in Pittsburgh with the Hansons.
Every year, on Labor Day weekend, the Hansons had friends over for a cookout. The Lemieuxs and Sidney came, as well as a couple of the other Penguins who were stuck in Pittsburgh for the long weekend off. All of them had a lot of fun, and they talked about training camp, which was going to start in a week and a half. Some of the practices were open to the public, and Kate was going to those, when she wasn’t in school, except for the first two afternoon open practices, which were on a Thursday and Friday. All she had in the afternoons was a Foods class, and it didn’t matter if she missed or not. Neal and Allison were going to camp Thursday through Saturday, and then leaving Saturday night to move into their houses at school. At camp, Sidney said his dad would be there first, then his mom and sister would come for the weekend, so Kate assumed she would meet them. After the cookout, the next week and a half flew by, and camp had started.