When reaching my destination, I knocked at the door before entering, poking my head inside.
An older man was sitting at his desk, probably in his 70s or 80s, he perked his head up, "Yes come in, come in." He waved his hand, signaling for me to come inside.
I then walked inside, closing the door behind me, "Hello Mr. Rutherford, I'm Sydney, the intern applicant." Mr. Rutherford stood from his desk.
"Yes, hello, nice to meet you, Miss Reed," He held his hand out for me to shake, I politely, shook back. "Please have a seat." He then gestured to a chair behind me.
Glancing back at the chair, I fixed my skirt while sitting, "Thank you," Then I crossed my legs. "I hope you received my resume."
"Yes, I did, thank you for that," He held up my resume in the air before setting it down. "Of course you went to a fine art school and I've seen some of your pieces too, very impressive." He nodded, turning his computer screen towards me, showing me one of my pieces.
"Thank you, I'm flattered."
Mr. Rutherford turned the screen back facing him, "I do have a few questions for you," He folded his hands on my desk. "What made you come from Kendal to Pittsburgh so quickly? I mean it's a very sudden transition from one lifestyle to the next."
I thought and processed the question being asked to me, thinking honesty, "My best friend who is like a sister to me, also my roommate, she told me about this internship and since I'm a big fan I thought well why not. It'd be a great opportunity for me."
"And your friend is?" He trailed.
"Brianna," I nodded. "She works in photography."
Mr. Rutherford nodded, "Ah, I see, and are you willing to work hard?"
"Of course, sir. I don't mean to be blunt but I wasn't naive thinking what was going to be expected of me in this internship."
He chuckled for a moment, throwing his head down before picking it back up, "Just checking, but welcome to the Pens life, Miss Reed." He reaches his hand out to me to shake once again.
Smiling at his words, I reached out to shake his hand once again, "Thank you, Mr. Rutherford, thank you."
"Now you'll need to go downstairs and find Andy, he'll get you all your equipment and your ID badge so we can have you put into the system."
I stood from my chair nodding, "Again thank you." Before leaving, I slightly waved, walking out of the office.
When I closed the door, I let out a deep huff of relief before walking back the same way I came, with my hands on my hips. Then I squeaked slightly jumping in the air, pumping my fist before going down the stairs. I then made a fish face, blowing air out the tiny hole in my lips, smoothing out the sides of my hair.
"You are a badass bitch." I mumbled to myself, hanging on to the railing as I walked down the stairs.
The team was still on the ice, scrimmaging when I passed by the glass. Jake was slammed into the glass right in front of me while walking by. I never flinched, I guess maybe it was because I saw it coming.
Bri anxiously tapped her foot on the floor, awaiting my response, "Well? How'd it go?"
"I KILLED IT!" My voice sang, pumping my fist in front of me, aggressively biting my lip.
"Hell yeah!" Bri set her MacBook down on the lid of her suitcase before springing to her feet, coming to hug me.
The two of us wrapped each other in an embrace, bouncing up and down, "I am a badass bitch, my dude!" I grinned, the two of us broke apart composing ourselves. "Oh, and I need to go see a guy named Andy?" I hint of questioning in my voice with my eyebrow raised.
"Oh yeah, so you'll wanna take a right, and a left. Down that hallway there will be Stick Maintenance printed on two double doors, next to that is two more double doors with Photography and Video."
"Mmm-k, so a right and left, second double doors," I repeated back to myself walking away down through the tunnel again, taking the first right, then left, walking down the hallway.
I heard buzzing, like a table saw cutting wood, running and someone cutting a stick. When walking past, the doors were wide open and someone was cutting a stick. The doors, where Andy was supposed to be, were wide open and he was sitting in the somewhat dark room on his computer monitor.
Politely, I stopped, knocking on the door, making him snap up.
Andy got up and briskly walked over, "You must be Sydney," He held out his for me to shake, which was very brief. "Hi, yes, I'm Andy Saucier, hello, follow me please," His voice was stern but he spilled out his words rapidly. He stood over behind a camera on a stand in front of a golden yellow sheet. "Stand there please," He then pointed to the duck tape X on the ground which I stood on. "Watch the flash and look here." He then pointed to the flashing timer, then to the camera lens.
When the light started blinking rapidly, I put on my best smile before the camera snapped, capturing my picture. A printer near Andy's monitor started printing something out which made the two walk over.
Andy then turned his head around, "Behind the yellow please." He pointed to the ground near my feet which made me look down.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Slightly I stepped behind the yellow duck tape. Andy then pulled out a card with my photo, full name, and title, which was Intern of Photography and Graphic Design. He then dug around a deep drawer in his desk to pull out a few lanyards, one was a Penguins lanyard like Bri's and the rest had player's names and numbers.
"I'll take the Jake one, please," I said a bit quieter than usual, gesturing to the Jake Guentzel one, thinking of Bri.
Andy clipped my ID badge on to the lanyard before tossing it to me, "Don't lose your ID," He then started going through drawers in his desk, pulling out some papers, throwing them on top of his desk. Then he grabbed a big binder full of papers, also throwing that in the pile. My eyes went wide from how much stuff he was giving me. He rearranged everything, so the binder was on the bottom while the stacked papers on top, handing them to me, "Now the binder is all the instructions for all of your equipment you'll be receiving tomorrow, the papers are all equipment contract, your internship contract, health insurance, and the pink paper in need before you leave today so I can put you into the system for tomorrow so your ID works with the scanners," He rattled off, his voice still stern. "Welcome to the job," He smiled smugly as I almost dropped all of the papers, so I hugged them close to my chest with my ID around my neck. I just gave a small nervous smile back, "I need you to get familiarized with places and faces for your internship, but for now please join Brianna in the team locker room for her daily assignments."
Nodding my head slightly, I turned to the door on my heels, walking out with my papers and binder, hugging them to my chest.
I then started walking back the same way I came to go find Bri but neither she nor the team was to be found in the arena. Letting out a groan, I then walked back into the tunnel, going straight down until I starting hearing loud chatter, like a bunch of loud guys. I stopped dead in my tracks and turned my head to the left, starting down the nice hallway which I would assume would be part of the Penguins locker room. Nice carpet, wood cabinet showcases with memorabilia, jerseys, newspaper articles, pucks.
When I just had turned the corner of the hallway, my face slammed into something firm, scaring me and making me throw all my belongings in the air and stumble backward, almost falling over, when a pair of firm hands wrapped around my upper arms, preventing my fall. A thud could be heard, my binder hitting the floor.
Clicking my tongue in embarrassment and scrunching my face, "You could have at least watched where you were going, at least." I said with a mix of embarrassment and annoyance in my voice, bending down to grab all my belongings. My papers were somewhat scattered and my binder was half-open, laying on the floor.
"I'm sorey, I was in a rush and not paying attention." A male voice spoke out, worried.
"Sorey?" Raising my brow while still picking up my papers, then holding my binder and papers close to my chest, standing up, and pushing up my glasses on the bridge of my nose awkwardly with my arm, my eyes shifted to a pair of worried big light brown ones, chocolate-colored sweaty strands of hair clinging to his forehead, and his lips parted somewhat. After a few seconds, his eyes were slowly dialing to my face.
"Yea, it's my accent." He said, laughing mid-sentence, pinching his nose before scratching the bridge.
My face dropped slightly when I realized who I insulted, "Right, yeah, because your Canadian." I said slowly, puckering my lips out of embarrassment, my eyes started to wander his attire.
Penguins windbreaker with the logo on the right side, the number 87 in white embroidered on the sleeves. He was also wearing Adidas black sweatpants with the three classic stripes in black on the sides. He was also wearing bright yellow Crocs. The Crocs that nurses wear in the ER or the type of Crocs that those VSCO girls wore back when that trend was still alive. He also was wearing white tube socks with his striking yellow Crocs.
I nodded my head, raising my brows at Sidney Crosby in bright yellow Crocs before looking up at him, meeting his gaze, "Nice Crocs." I gestured to the bright yellow on his feet.
He laughed slightly, "Oh, thanks." He looked down, raising his feet and wiggling his toes in them, before looking up at me with a small toothy grin.
My heart began to skip beats at his smile, I found myself staring at him for a while before he cleared his throat, "I gotta-" He started.
"Yeah, I gotta go this way."
"I'll let you do that, I just forgot something." We were both rambling at the same time before staying the same distance away from each other, swapping spots in the hallway before walking off.
"Stupid, stupid, you damn idiot." I quietly scolded myself for embarrassing myself in front of Sidney Crosby. Captain Sidney Crosby. So I took my papers in one hand and my binder in the other, slamming my front of the binder into my forehead, making a big thud sound.
"Oww, damn it." I then proceeded to rub my head from the pain of the binder and me hitting myself so hard, still walking towards the chatter.
Bri was inside the Penguins locker room where all the guys were getting their pads off, the whole place stunk like crazy but it really didn't bother me all that much, she was talking with Evgeni Malkin and Jake Guentzel behind her camera, snapping pictures, while the two guys were getting changed out of their pads to let them air out. She was in all sorts of positions around the two snapping photos before she stood up straight and looked down at her camera, reviewing the pictures she just took.
She must have felt someone was walking up to her because I was probably halfway in the room when she turned to see me, "Hey, I see you got all your paperwork." She joked, gesturing to all the things in my hands.
"Ya but it's official now," Smirking, I showed Bri my ID badge. "I'm an intern."
"Oh my fucking God!" She whispered, snatching the lanyard on my neck, pulling me closer, almost choking me. "How come when I picked mine they didn't have this one?"
"I was gonna give it to you anyway," I laughed under my breath, letting her take my lanyard off my neck so we could exchange lanyards, I would take her old one. Bri kindly swapped lanyards with me before putting my new lanyard with my ID badge around my neck. "Ok but I do have to ask. Is Andy always so, so-" I stuttered, trying to find words.
"Serious?"
"Yeah," I spoke, it sounded like I was holding my breath in.
"He's always like that. He just's gotta warm up to ya." Bri nodded, then looking down at her camera to review her pictures.
"Well, Andy, told me to come down here and get familiarized with faces and places."
"You're in the right spot and ya found the right person too," Bri elongated her words before turning off her camera, letting it dangle down off her neck, putting her arm around my shoulder, she started leading me over to Geno and Jake who were standing and chatting with each other. "Geno! Jake!"
The two turned to hear their names being called. Jake ruffled his sweaty hair using his white towel with black and gold yellow stripes on it before wrapping it around his neck, "Hey Bri!" Jake beamed at the short brunette.
"Guys, I would like to introduce you to Sydney-"
"Oh, the sister, best friend, roommate, and coworker all rolled into one!" Geno finished.
"Yes! Yes!" I laughed, holding my hand out. "That's me," My wide shark smile painted my face. "It is an absolute pleasure meeting you two."
"No, please! The pleasure is all ours!" Jake shook my hand.
"Bri talks all about you." Geno shook my hand, then placed his one hand on his hip.
"Well, of course, she does!" I teased before we broke into a burst of laughter.
"I told you she wasn't a model," Jake said under his breath to Geno.
My brows raised at his words, "Huh?"
"Nothing, nothing." Jake stuttered.
"I think we should introduce you to the guys and show ya around!" Geno smiled, wrapping his long arm around my shoulder, leading me towards some of the guys who were chatting, while Jake and Bri were at our sides.
"Guys, this is the new intern, Sydney." Jake walked up to Kris Letang, Matt Murray, Tristan Jarry, and Zach Aston-Reese.
The guys all turned to give me bright wide smiles. Bri kindly took my belongings so I had free hands. They all said hello and shook my hand.
"Now," I started, clapping my hands together. "A little bird told me that this one," I pointed to Kris Letang. "Was a little fashionista."
He laughed, shooting his hands up, "Well guilty as charged."
"Well, you're just gonna have to give him one hell of a run for his money!" Zach commented which made us all burst into a laugh.
"Well, ya know I am!" I half screamed, while laughing.
Kris walked over to me, standing next to me before putting his arm on my head, like a headrest, "I think I'm gonna like Syd very much!"
Smiling, I playfully punched his sides like a punching bag as we all laughed, then he turned and bent his knees, holding up his fists, we playfully threw punches at each other while everyone around us laughed.
"Hey, where's Sid?" Geno threw his hands in the air, looking around the room.
Tristan pointed to me, "She's right here Geno."
"No, no, not intern model Syd, our Sid."
Smirking, I then turned my head to look at Jake, "Intern model, huh? Is that what you were mumbling about Jake?" Crossing my arms over my chest.
"He said he had to leave early." Jake shrugged.