Staal [A Jordan Staal Story] Thirty-Three

September started and Jordan and Miriya went back to Pittsburgh. The tenth came and Miriya back into the bedroom and set a tray down on the nightstand.
She kissed Jordan and his eyes slowly opened. “Good morning baby, happy birthday.”
“Thank you,” Miriya handed him his breakfast. “You made me breakfast?”
“For your special day.”


A week later training camp started and Miriya hung out with Steigy, Errey and Bourquey.
“Come on boys, work hard,” Miriya yelled from the bench. “So who`s the new kid, number six?”
“Canadian, defenseman, pretty sure his first name’s James,” Bourquey said.
“Think he`ll make the team?” Steigy asked.
“He looks like he could. But we got a lot of training camp left,” Bob said. “You know Miriya he keeps looking over here.”
“Yea I did notice, I`ll have to straighten him out later today.”
When the scrimmage was over everyone went to the locker room to shower.
Jordan tapped Miriya on the shoulder, spun her around, and kissed her, “How was your first day?”
“Good, pretty easy too, all I had to do was sit and watch you guys work.”
“Well baby I`m gonna shower, then we can go do something.”
“Ok, I need to talk to one of the new kids.”
Jordan kissed her then went to the showers. Miriya went to find number six. She finally found him in the visitor’s locker room.
“Hey number six,” He turned to face her. “You`re a rookie right?”
“Yeah, James McGuire from Winnipeg Manitoba.”
“Miriya Staal, first year announcer. You`re doing good out there, but if you`re gonna make the team you have to understand one thing.” She showed him her wedding ring. “I`m taken and if you mess with me you`ll have the entire team to deal with.”
“There`s no way old enough to be an announcer or be married. Who are you married to?”
“There you are baby I`ve been looking for you,” Jordan said and put his arms around her waist from behind.
“Jordan this is James McGuire, rookie defenseman. James this is my husband seventh year center Jordan Staal.”
“Nice to meet Mr. Staal.”
“Well good luck in the rest of camp and welcome to Pittsburgh,” Miriya said as James walked to the showers.
“What was that all about?” Jordan asked before kissing her.
“Oh he was checking me out during warm-ups so I figured I better set him straight. I told him that if he makes the team he has to understand that I`m yours and that if he messes with me he`ll have to answer to the entire team.”
“Oh you could take him,” he said with a laugh.


A few days later all of those who were left in training camp took a trip to West Pointe After a two hour scavenger hunt/hike it was time for one last exercise.
“Ok cadets, you fight until you are forced to stop. Whether that be because you are in too much pain to continue or you run out of ammo. Good luck troops, move out.”
Click, click, click…paintballs whizzed by but Miriya dodged and ducked to avoid being hit. Someone did hit her from behind though; she went to lean against a nearby tree. Someone from the other side walked passed.
“You ok?” James asked. “Let me help you.” He went to help her up and as soon as she was on her feet she pulled the trigger and a paintball went right to his stomach.
“Damn, I`m sorry I was just trying to help.”
“No I didn’t mean it like that, I`m sorry I was going to do that to anyone from the other side.”
Training camp and the pre-season ended, it was finally time for the start of the season. The arena was ready, the team was ready, and the fans were ready. The morning skate went smoothly, the starting line up was posted in the locker room and everyone went to do their pre-game routine.
“You nervous?” Jordan asked Miriya when he woke up from his pre-game nap.
“Nope, it`s not my first time announcing, I mean I know I`m not an intern anymore, but I`m ready.”
Once everyone was at the arena it was time for Miriya to start her announcer duties. She walked into the locker room with Jordan, said hi to the team and ran into Bourquey.
“Hey Staalsy, you wanna do an interview before the game?”
“Sure, who am I gonna talk to?”
“McGuire.”
“Yeah I guess I`ll do it, when?”
“Fifteen minutes.”
Fifteen minutes later Miriya had a microphone in her hand and was standing next to James.
“I`m here with Penguins’ rookie defenseman James McGuire. James this is your first National Hockey League can you tell me what you`re feeling?”
“I`m nervous, excited, happy, mostly nervous though. I think that every guy is before their first game especially in front of the home crowd.”
“You grew up in Canada, how does it feel to be playing against a Canadian team in your first game as a Penguin?”
“I grew up in Winnipeg, the closet team was Calgary. I grew up cheering for the Flames and it`s a dream come true to be playing against them at all. But playing them in my first NHL game makes it that much better.”
“Thanks James, good luck tonight.”
“Thanks.”
The camera went off, James went to his locker and Miriya went to see Jordan.
“Good luck tonight baby,” Jordan said and kissed her.
“You too, that goes for all of you, kick some Flames ass.”
“No problem Staalsy,” the team said.
Miriya got one more kiss from Jordan and headed up to the commentator’s box. At about six forty-five she made sure that she had all her game notes, that her chair was the way she wanted it, and that`s when she started to get nervous.
“Staalsy you ready?” Bourquey asked as they put their headsets on.
“As ready as I`ll ever be, I`m doing the opening to the pre-game right?”
“Yep.”
“We`re on in five,” Ray Walker said from the other side of the room.
That five minutes went quickly and it was time for the pre-game show.
“Good evening everyone and welcome to Consol Energy Center where tonight your Pittsburgh Penguins open their season against the Calgary Flames.”
The opener went well, the Guins won, and Miriya announced for the first time with just one other announcer. The season went on and went well, throughout the season they had amazing wins and very few losses. All of the lines worked well together. The road trips were fun for both the team and Miriya. She was happy that she got to go on all the road trips. The goalies were amazing and barely ever allowed a rebound. The centers were winning face-offs, the goal scorers were scoring, the passers were making beautiful passes, and the defensemen were keeping the puck in the offensive zone as much as humanly possible. Sid, Geno, Flower and Jordan made the All-Star team again and the East won.
In late February everyone met at the arena at seven am for a road trip. Once everyone was on the bus they started off towards Buffalo and stopped after about an hour to stretch. Michelle and Sid stayed on while everyone else got food and stretched their legs. Back on the bus Sid started tickling Michelle and she tickled back. After about two minutes they were both laughing so hard that they both fell off the seat. They were stuck between their seat and the one in front of them. At this point everyone was getting back on the bus.
“Head count,” Colby said as Therrien started counting to make sure that everyone was on the bus.
Somehow out of nowhere Michelle’s shoe flew across the bus and hit Miriya in the back of the head. Everyone looked to the back of the bus and Miriya threw the shoe back.
“Colby go see what’s going on back there, and find out where that shoe came from.”
Colby walked to the back of the bus and saw Michelle and Sid kissing on the floor. “Coach they`re having sex!”
“No we`re not,” Michelle said.
“Shh,” Sid said and kissed her.
“Sid, coach we`re not. But we are stuck.”
Somehow after a few minutes they managed to get out from between the seats and were greeted by Colby, Jordan, Miriya, Geno, Cassie, and Therrien.
“First you do it in my living room while playing twister and now on the bus,” Jordan said with a laugh.
“What about a twister board?” Geno asked.
“Nothing,” Michelle said. “We did not do it at Jordan`s on the twister board, we fell amd made out for a few minutes. And today we were having a tickle fight, fell and got stuck. That`s all it was I swear.”
“Alright but you guys are sitting in the front of the bus for the rest of the trip,” Therrien said.
The rest of the team watched as they took the walk of doom to the front of the bus.