Jimmy
Kelly was so busy that I hardly got to talk to her, much less be alone with her. The only time we had alone together was our mornings in the gym. Who knew how long that might last, since a few of the guys had found out I was working out and made noises about joining in. So far, they all preferred to sleep in. I never mentioned Kelly was there too, since I knew that would bring a crowd. Every night Steve-O told us he was closer to getting into her pants, but I didn’t believe it. Kelly wasn’t like that. The more I got to know her, the more I realized how innocent she was. I felt like she was younger than me in some ways.
If the boys knew how good she looked when she worked out, they would have been there in two seconds. Kelly concentrated fully at the gym, and I liked to watch her. She pushed so hard, and she had increased the weight she was lifting in the short time we were together. Girls seemed to sweat differently from guys; she was all shiny and glowing instead of stinky and gross. I had given Kelly some tips about form and technique, and you didn’t need to tell her anything twice. She was interested in my routine, so I took her through it. She spotted me if I needed it, and it was doubly motivating to have her there encouraging me. She never wore any makeup in the gym, yet she still looked cute. I was starting to wonder if my ideal of the perfect ladylike blonde would be as much fun to hang out with. Kelly never made me feel awkward.
I had finished a set of cable pulls when I noticed Kelly had stopped doing her chest presses. I walked over, and she was fast asleep on the bench. I looked down at her.
Her eyelashes were long, her skin was perfect, and her lips were full and flushed with colour. I imagined what it would be like to kiss her, and I was tempted to lean down and try. But you couldn’t kiss someone when they were unconscious.
“Kelly?”
She woke up with a start and apologized. “Sorry, I… um, have I been asleep long?”
“No, maybe a couple of minutes. Are you okay?”
“I’m so tired.” Even her voice was flat.
“Is the camp too tough for you?”
“Not the hockey part, it’s at night. The girls in one cabin settle down, and I have to go to the other. Then the first cabin gets going again and I have to go back. Back and forth. I’m not getting enough sleep.”
I knew I couldn’t function without a full night’s sleep. “Why don’t you talk to Burt?”
“It’s okay. It’s only for a couple of weeks. I can handle it.” Now that I looked closely I could see the dark smudges under her eyes. Poor Kelly was working day and night, no wonder some of her spark was missing.
“You know, you don’t have to do it all yourself,” I told her.
Something about those words was familiar. It was what my mom used to say to me when I was a kid. If I was captain of the team, I had to lead and do the most, and if we lost I took it to heart. I would be unhappy and want to punish myself. The other kids would go off and have forgotten the game within minutes, but I would think about how plays had gone and what I could do better the next time. Kelly was like that; I saw her make mistakes in the gym or on the ice, but I never saw her make the same mistakes over and over. It was like she too could replay the game in her head and figure out what had gone wrong and how to fix it.
She watched me intently when I was on the ice, and I figured she was trying to understand exactly what I was doing and what made me good. I kind of hoped she was looking because she liked me. Now here she was, all tired out from trying to do too much. I could do something about that.
“Why don’t you take a little nap?” I suggested.
“I can’t. There’s no place. The girls are in and out of the cabin all day. And anyway, I have to work.”
“You could take a nap during the video session today,” I pointed out. “You can go to my room. No kids and none of the guys are there in the daytime.”
“I can’t sleep in your room, that’s too weird.”
I insisted. That afternoon, before the video session, I pulled Kelly out and took her up to my room.
“I don’t know, Jimmy. This isn’t right. I should be working.”
“Lie down,” I told her. Too tired to argue, she lay down on my bed, and I put a blanket over her.
Her head popped up. “Promise you’ll wake me up in 20 minutes, I have to supervise the free time.”
“I will, now go to sleep.”
I had imagined her in my bed before, but not like this. She was asleep before I closed the door.
Steve was on his way to the room as I made my way down to the office.
“Hey, can you hold up going into our room for half an hour?” I asked.
“Why?”
“Kelly’s taking a nap in there.”
“Y’know Jimbo, it works better if you get into bed with the girl. That’s why it’s called sleeping together.”
“Whatever. She’s really tired, and she has to share a cabin with twelve little girls.”
“You’re Mr. Nice Guy, aren’t you? You know where they always finish. Maybe I’ll pop in there and keep her company.”
“Don’t,” I told him. Only one word, but he could tell I meant it. Steve-O turned around and came down the hall with me.
“So, what’s going on with you and Kelly?”
“Nothing. We’re just friends.”
“With benefits?”
“No.” As much as I fantasized.
“Yeah, she keeps blowing me off too. A hockey player, eh. Maybe she’s a lesbo.”
“I don’t think so.” I was sure that Kelly was interested in guys.
“I’m beginning to wonder if she is hot, or she’s looking good because she’s the only female in a ten-kilometer radius,” he speculated.
That was so like Steve-O. He couldn’t get anywhere with Kelly, so now he was going to start putting her down. But maybe then he would leave her alone. Kelly hadn’t said anything after the first day, but I could tell by her body language when he and Riley hung around her that she wasn’t comfortable.
Steve-O was a good guy to hang out with for hockey or drinking. But since his knee injury, he seemed bitter and less easygoing. At one time I had looked up to him; now I saw him more and more as a guy whose big dream might be passing him by and he didn’t have a Plan B.
“Whatever, Steve-O.”
He laughed. “Never thought I’d see the day when I’d get sniped by Freshy. But you haven’t sealed the deal yet, have you?”
“It’s not like that,” I told him.
“She’s in your bed, man. She wants you.” He laughed, but it was a nasty laugh.
“Screw you.” I walked away.
“Telling it like it is, buddy,” he called after me, still laughing.
I watched to make sure he didn’t go back to our room and then carried on to the office. Burt wasn’t there, but Trudy was, and she was probably the better person to talk to. I explained the situation with Kelly, how hard she was working and how exhausted she was.
Trudy made some tsking-noises and reached for her old Rolodex. “I told Burt he needed at least two girls here, but he isn’t totally sold on girl hockey players yet. Originally, we had Deirdre Tough, but she got called up by Team Canada, so we got Kelly instead.”
She looked over her glasses at me. “She’s a nice girl, isn’t she? And she works hard. But is it disruptive having a girl here?”
“No, it’s great.” That sounded wrong, so I added something obvious about how so many girls were playing nowadays.
Trudy found the number she was looking for. “Yes, it’s a new world of hockey. But now we have to worry about hormones too. We don’t want any hanky-panky going on.”
I turned red as she continued. “Some of these girls are fourteen, but they act like they’re eighteen. Well, we’ve done everything we could, short of having a girls-only week. If we get more girls enrolled next year, maybe we can do that.”
I quickly realized she was talking about the campers and not the staff. “So, about Kelly?”
“Yes, don’t worry, Jimmy. I have someone in mind who can help us out. Not a hockey player, but good with kids.”
Twenty minutes were up, so I went back to my room. Once again, I couldn’t help but stare at Kelly as she slept. She looked so sweet and vulnerable. The more I saw her, the more beautiful she looked. I was an idiot for telling her not to be interested in me. I wished I could take everything back. Why had I been clinging to some ridiculous fantasy of what a girlfriend should look like? I leaned down to wake her up, and she stirred a little.
“Oh Jimmy,” she said. Was she talking to me? I looked down, but her eyes were still closed.
“Hey, Kelly.” I poked her shoulder.
“Oh God, Jimmy…”
“Uh Kelly?”
“Yes, do it.”
Her eyes flew open. “Oh shit,” she said and sat up.
“Kelly, did you—uh, what were you saying?”
She raked her fingers through her hair. Throwing off the blanket, she jumped out of bed and put on her shoes. All the time she was talking so fast I couldn’t get a word in edgewise. “Gosh, um, thanks so much for letting me take a nap here. Man, I feel so much better now. But anyway, now I have to go and supervise the girls’ free time. I will see you later.”
She raced out of the room, crashing into X-man’s bed and then the doorjamb. Then she disappeared.
That was weird.