Begin Again

The First Encounter

*this is all fake, I don't really know the real names of everyone and all that stuff so I'm just making it up as I go! I hope you enjoy:)*

Oh shit! Why am I so nervous? I shouldn't be this nervous.

Dad walks to the front door, turning back to smile at mom and I before taking a deep breath and opening the door. The GM, his wife and daughter enter our new home. His daughter looks to be my age, which is nice. Maybe she'll turn out to be my first friend here.

Dad introduces us to Dave Brown, the GM. I learn that his wife's name is Linda, and the daughter's name is Lilly.

"Hey, I'm Kayella. You can call me Kay if ya want though." I say smiling at Lilly, nervous she won't like me.

"Lilly." She says. "It's nice to finally meet a girl that's my age. There's only the boys, and that's not the best when you wanna go get a mani and pedi." She says laughing. And I join in, knowing that we'll get along really well.

I'm about to ask her a question when the door bell rings again, this time my mom answers it. About 20 people flood into our home, all the families of the players, and two of the assistant coaches. 23 people and I have yet to be introduced to a single player.

The doorbell rings once again and another 20-or-so people enter my home. Yet again, no players to be seen.

Jay McKee, an assistant coach, sees my puzzled face, as he walks up and states; "All the boys are at McDavid's. They had a huge bonding sleepover kind of party thingy last night, so they'll all be showing up together." I nod and smile, thanking him for the bit of information.I do my rounds, introducing myself and offering to get beverages and snacks. About 20 minutes later the doorbell rings once again. As I begin to open the door I hear dad ask me to get it.

"Yep, I've got it don't worry!" I almost yell, so he can hear me over the crowd. As I turn back to the door I see more than 20 teenage boys staring at me. It's kind of overwhelming.

"Hey. I'm Connor." A tall and muscular boy with dirty blonde hair and brown-ish eyes says. "Uh, we're the Otters." He finishes, looking shy. And I smile.

"Yeah we're the team, and this guy" the tall boy with dark brown hair and chocolate coloured eyes says, grabbing onto Connor's shoulders "is our fearless captain. And I'm Dylan, it's nice to meet you." He says sticking out his hand for me to shake it.

I do, while replying, "I Kayella, but you can call me Kay. Uh, I'm your new coach's daughter." I say awkwardly laughing.

They all gasp looking at me up and down. I feel uncomfortable so I usher them through the house to the backyard.

"So we've got a pool and a hot tub, and my dad should be putting some food on the grill soon." I say. "Actually, I should probably go find him. He'll wanna meet his new team."

As I start to walk off looking for my dad I can feel eyes looking at me, following my every move through the crowd of people. "My god this is going to be another long ass season," I think to myself.

"Hey, the boys are here. And everyone's getting hungry, I think we should start up the BBQ." I say to my dad. As we start walking back towards the boys I begin to explain, "So the captain, his name is Con.." But before I can finish my dad jumps in.

"Connor McDavid. Yes Pook, I know. He's supposed to be the next Gretzky, hun. He will be the number one pick at the draft in 2015. He's a once in a life time player Kay, and your dad gets to coach him." He says trying to keep his excitement under control. I look at him and he catches my stare...we fist bump.

"Hey, you must be Coach. I'm Connor, it's an honour to meet you sir. We've heard amazing things, and we can't wait to work our asses off for you this season." Connor says, looking almost as excited as I know my dad feels.

"Well it's nice to meet you boys too. I'm also excited to work my ass off this season. I think we can achieve great things, but I'll leave this talk for when the training begins. For now I want you boys to have a good time tonight. Kay please make sure these boys let loose a little." He says throwing his attention towards me.

"I will dad, promise." I saw with a small smile.

"Thanks hun. Okay I'll go get this BBQ started." He says walking toward the shining metallic grill.

"So you really are the coach's daughter eh?" Connor asks.

"Ya, 'course. Why would I lie 'bout that?" I ask but he knows it's rhetorical. "Alright Canadian boy, you wanna go swimming?" I ask thinking back to the 'eh' he added to the end of his sentence.

"How'd you know.." He begins but I cut him off.

"I lived there my whole life. You can tell a true Canadian by whether they say 'eh' or not." I say, as all the boys begin to laugh.

"Okay, " I continue "let's go swimming."