One of the Boys

Chapter 5

Delaney

"Alright, ready for a new beginning?" I ask as I turn to look at Kason who was sitting in the driver's seat. We've got this. Everything is going to be fine Del." He smiles at me before we got out of the car and began to make our way into the Coca Cola Colosseum.

As we walked into the building, my mind began to get overwhelmed with all the thoughts I've been having since we touched down in Toronto last week. The trade was real, moving back to Toronto was real, playing for the Toronto Marlies is going to be real. And the one thought that always found its way to the front of my mind kept eating at me. What if my new teammates hate me?

"Del, take a deep breath alright?" Jason said taking my hand in his as I nodded. He must have noticed that I was shaking with nervousness about all of this. When we made it to the coach's office, Jace knocked on the door. "Come on in!" The voice said from behind the closed door as Jason turned the door handle.

"Aaah, you must be Jason Lee and of course Delaney Rose!" The coach smiled standing up from his seat behind the desk and coming around to greet us. "Yes sir, that would be us." I smile in reply taking his extended hand and shaking it with my own. "Pleasure to meet you both! I'm coach Mike Ross." He said.

After a few minutes of signing things and being run through how things work on this team, Mike lead us down to the team locker room after showing us around the building. "And here's where you will meet for practices and our home games." He said stopping in front of the closed door to the locker room. "Let me see if they're all ready in there before I bring you both in to meet the boys." Mike said propping the door open and entering the room. "Give me a minute." He said as Jason and I nod.

"Alright come in in and I'll i reprice the two of you to the team!" Coach mike said sticking his head out from behind the door.

Okay, this is it Delaney. Take a deep breath in and breath out. You've got this and you're going to make a good first impression. "Del, you coming?" Jace asked as I opened my eyes after giving myself a silent pep talk. "Yeah, I'm coming." I smile as my feet begin to lead me into the room filled with sweaty hockey players.

"Alright boys, listen up!" Mike shouts clapping his hands together to gain their attention. "These are your new teammates. This here is amazingly skilled Jason Lee." He announces placing a hand in Jason's shoulder as he smiles and waves. "Hey guys." He said. "And this here is the very talented Delaney Rose." Mike said as I awkwardly smiled and waved. "Hi" I said shyly looking around the room.

"Okay, I'm going back to my office to get some work done. If you two need anything, you can come see me in my office or feel free to text me." He said. "In the meantime, welcome to the team and enjoy getting to know these guys." Mike added. "Thanks coach." Jace and I said in unison before he left the room.

Once coach had left the locker room, some of the guys came over to the centre of the room to introduce themselves to Jason and I.

"Hey, it's nice to meet you guys! I'm Casey and these guys here are Jack who's our number one goalie and this is Riley, our top defence man." A tall guy who
Identified himself as Casey greeted before extending his hand to shake Jason's and my own.

"Nice to meet you man!" Jason smiles widely. "I'm Jason Lee." He adds. "Delaney, nice to meet you. I'm Riley!" A blond haired guy around my height smiled. "Hi, it's nice to meet you too." I smile in reply. "I'm a big fan of your game." He says as I look down to the ground before replying. "Oh, wow really? Thank you!" Which wing do you play on defence?" I ask even though I should sort of know the answer since I've played against these guys like two weeks ago. "Oh, I play right wing defence. In fact coach told me the other day that you're my new defence partner!" He replied. "That's awesome!" I smile.

"Here, let me introduce you to some of the other guys from the team." Riley says as I follow him towards some of the cubbies. "This here is Dylan Gray, he's one of our right wing defence men." He said as I smile and shake Dylan's hand. "Pleasure to meet ya!" He smiles. "And next to him we have Lucas Han, one of our left wingers." Riley says as I exchange greetings with Lucas.

Riley then lead me over towards his stall before introducing me to one more person. As I stood there quietly watching Riley talk to the guy sitting in the seat next to his own stall, I took in the features of this particular player. Don't ask me why but I was nervous and didn't know what else to do. "This guy right here our team captain and superstar centre man Christopher Santiago, but we like to call him Chris." Riley grins clapping a hand on his shoulder. I smile at Chris while he looked up at me and said "Hey" before falling silent again and going back to untie his skates. "Hi" I said shyly taking in his features and trying to get a good read on him.

So far everything was going well with my new team. They all seem to be chill with me being here but when I got to meeting Christopher, I felt like there's something about me being apart of this team now that made him feel uncomfortable.

******

Later after we had finished meeting our new teammates, Jason and I were on our way over to Mason's place. I will be living with my brother for now until I decide if I want to get a place of my own. Mason had told me not to worry about apartment hunting right away as he has plenty of room at his place for me. And with our hockey schedules, one of us will be there when the other is out of town so why not?

"So you think the team's okay with having a girl play with them now that they've met you?" Jason asked once he stopped the car in front of my brother's apartment building. "Yeah, after today, I think it's safe to say the negative thoughts I had about the trade are out the door." I reply.

"That's good, glad to hear it!" Jason smiles. "But I do have a feeling about Christopher Santiago. I don't think he's cool with me being apart of the team. I just got that vibe from him when I met him today." I say looking down at my hands that were sitting in my lap.

"Why do you say that?" Jason asked puzzled. "Well, when Riley introduced me to some of the other guys, they all seemed hyped about having me on the team and then when I got introduced to Chris, all he said was hey. And it felt like a very cold hey." I reply. "Maybe just give him some time to warm up and get to know you. He'll come around eventually." Jason said reassuringly.