Chapter 11

I woke up Friday morning in the same spoon position with Vicky as when we went to sleep. It was a great feeling to wake up with her in my arms each morning. I reluctantly let her go when I looked at the clock and saw it was already seven. I rushed through a quick wake up shower and went to grab some clothes.

"That's what I wanted to see Sweetie; looking real good there stud" Vicky said in a sexy voice.

"Thanks Honey" I replied with a smile.

She crawled down to the end of the bed and got up on her knees and pulled me down for a passionate kiss. Her hands wandered to caress my back and butt and then one hand came around and started playing with Big Mike.

"Ah Honey, that feels terrific but I'm afraid we don't have time for that this morning" I said disappointed.

"Are you sure Sweetie?" she asked as she started squeezing and working it up and down.

"Believe me Vicky, if l could stay I would" I answered with real regret.

"Well, your loss Michael" she said with an impish smile and backed away.

I groaned and looked at her feeling frustrated. I turned away to get dressed a little grumpily and shut a couple drawers a little harder than necessary.

I heard her come up behind me and she wrapped herself around me saying "Sorry Michael, that was cruel, and now you're mad and frustrated. I promised I wouldn't do that and now I just did it. I'll make it up to you tonight ok Sweetie?"

I turned around and hugged her back and replied "Ok Honey, sorry I got mad but you got me worked up pretty good there and then shut it off. I'm not a robot."

"It won't happen again Sweetie. Now, don't forget Becky might be here tonight or if not then tomorrow night for sure."

"Great, now I'll have two vixens to tease me!" I groaned.

"We won't tease you but we'll have to make sure you're ok for the game tomorrow. We can't wear out our stud before his first game!" she said with a smile. "Good luck with Miss. Peterson this afternoon, Michael."

"Ok, Vicky" I smiled and finished getting dressed. I grabbed an apple and my backpack and, after giving Vicky a kiss and arranging to see her after practice this evening, left for the rink. I quickly went in and got changed and went right out onto the ice for the warm-up stretches and skate. I was still feeling a bit frustrated when we started shooting and I took it out on a few pucks and the goalie, cranking some extra hard shots high up in the corners. It felt good to take it out on something but all too soon we were called together by the coaches.

Fred spoke up so we could all hear "Tomorrow's game against the University of North Dakota might be an exhibition game but believe me they will be gunning to show us up from the get go. They are a very fast, puck possession team that will have us running around like chickens with their heads cut off if we don't play a disciplined game from the outset. We will have our forwards cheat in a bit to help with defensive coverage. That will leave their defence open for point shots, but hopefully they didn't pick up another budding Al McGinnis going out for intramural hockey."

The team laughed as Fred looked over at me grinning and John punched me in the arm. Fred continued with "So let's work on some defensive sets to counteract their speed." The coaches picked some of the faster skaters to be the scout team while the first line and first pair of defencemen set up the defence. Frank had the scout team carry the puck in and use their speed to have the slower defence chasing them. They got the puck in deep and were cycling the puck between them while skating in opposite directions. It really got the defence chasing the forwards.

Fred was on the ice and started shouting at two of the defensive forwards to collapse toward the net to help out. They would eliminate some of the skating lanes so the cycle would not work. Frank told his offensive players to pass the puck back to the point for an open shot. Fred told his last forward that he would have to rush out to try and block the shot or at least hurry it.

All of the lines practiced the set defence against the cycle and as long as the lone forward got a bit of pressure on the point shot it worked pretty well. We took a break and I sat with John on the bench.

"Hey Mike, sorry about the whole Larry thing yesterday" he apologized. "I need to think more before I speak. Larry's really not a bad guy, and I've been his friend for three years now, but he really screwed up with being around Jones that one time."

"It's ok John, but it might be better just to leave him out of the equation when it comes to us meeting the girls for good while" I suggested.

"That's already been discussed and agreed upon" John stated.

"Amanda seemed pretty upset with you yesterday" I remarked.

"Yeah, Amanda is very ambitious and she takes my hockey career very seriously" he said. "She thinks I have what it takes to make it to the pros and gets upset when something doesn't go right. She can be a real bitch when she wants to be, but the benefits outweigh the negatives with her most of the time."

"I see. Do you think you can make it in the pros?" I asked him.

"Not a chance. But I'm not going to tell her that. She'd be gone in a heartbeat if she knew that. Shit, she would be all over you if Vicky weren't around!" he snorted.

"Then why do you put up with her?" I wondered.

"The benefits are mighty good Mike" he said with a smile. "Don't get me wrong, she can be quite a nice girlfriend most of the time but she comes from a poor family and is driven to succeed. She worked her ass off to get here and is wicked smart too. She's out of my league and I know it; but I really don't know if she has deep romantic feelings for me or not."

"Vicky picked up on some of that as well. She's warned me to be real careful around girls that are out to get ahead" I said.

"Yeah, you had better be" John warned. "There are hockey groupies at every game, especially the road games where Vicky won't be around. If you want to be faithful to her you had better stay away from the bars and parties or you will end up in someone else's bed with regrets in the morning if not something worse!"

"Geez, now another thing to worry about!" I moaned. "Well, I can't get into bars or drink here for another three years so I should be able to avoid most of them for a while."

"Listen, just stick with me and I'll look after you until you get used to things" John offered. "I got caught up in all that crap the first year and it almost got me kicked off the team."

"Ok, thanks John. How did you change?" I asked.

"Amanda got me settled down and on the straight and narrow. Vicky will do the same for you. If you always think about what Vicky would want you to do before you do something, you probably won't screw up too badly. You lucked out getting that one let me tell you! And you got her before you started playing hockey so you know she's into you and not a gold digger."

"Yeah, she's great. There's no topping her that's for sure" I agreed.

The coaches called us back on to the ice and we went over some offensive plays to counter the type of defences that North Dakota used last year. Then we played some five on five scrimmage and called it a practice. I hurriedly changed and got to my computer lab with a few minutes to spare. It was a big room with hundreds of computers so I looked for anyone I recognized to see what to do next. One of the teaching assistants told us to grab a computer and sit down and wait for everyone to show up.

"Welcome to EECS 280 computer lab for first year programming students" he said. "I'm going to hand out your username and passwords on a piece of paper so come up when I call your name."

After we had all retrieved our username and passwords he told us to log into the system using them. He then explained how to use the Pascal program editor to type in the program. Then he explained the compiler that checks the program and returns errors or a compiled program. Finally, he showed us how to execute a program using the compiled program and any data if necessary.

He explained some of the most common errors were syntax errors, like forgetting to put a semi colon at the end of a line, or a closing bracket etc. Then he explained how to format the program properly so it could be easily debugged. Indenting and lining up the start and end of each sub-routine would make it easier to see if we missed an end statement for example.

He told us to go ahead and start the assignment. I quickly asked if we could download the completed program from a memory stick but he said no, not here due to virus protection issues. He did say you could do things from a remote login and would explain that later. I thanked him and quickly typed my program into the program editor. I sent it to the compiler after checking it out myself first. The compiler showed me an error at an 'if' statement. I looked at the program back in the program editor and found I had forgotten a closing bracket in my haste. I recompiled it and this time it went through with no errors. I made up a dummy set of data in a text file and executed the compiled program. It looked for my data file and then did the simple calculations of averaging and finding the mean of the data and printing out the results to the printer. I printed out the program, the compiled code, the data file and then went and got them all from the printer. I looked them over and it looked good. I showed it to the TA and he said it looked ok. He suggested trying out the program with a different set of data and he told me which data file to link the program to when I re-executed the program.

I did what he suggested and saw that the program didn't work properly. He was standing nearby and smiled when he saw me looking up at him. He then gave me the best advice that anyone would ever give me to solve problems.

"Look, it's easy to show a program works with normal data" he said. "What you have to always ask yourself is what can cause my program to fail. For example, what happens when you add a bunch of negative numbers and get a negative total? Your program will do the average and mean calculations and get a negative number as the result. Can your program handle it? If not, you have to put in extra code to account for that potential happening. Another example is what happens when there is no data? Does your calculation then force the computer to divide by zero, thereby causing an error? The data in the file I asked you to run is just one example of several potential issues you have to take into account."

"Wow, I never thought of half of that stuff. Thanks" I said to him.

"No problem, it's the hardest thing to get through to first year students" he replied. "You have to make sure that your program will run in all types of cases, not just the normal ones. If you're good, you will end up always looking for reasons why something should fail, rather than why it should work. It is a very good problem solving technique in the real world. Eliminate all the ways a solution can fail instead of listing all the ways it succeeds."

"It sounds like you end up being a pessimist" I said after thinking about it for a minute.

"It can start to sound that way if you do it all the time" he agreed. "You just have to put it in ways that people can get the point without you sounding all doom and gloom. For example, instead of saying something won't work in this case or it fails if this happens, you might say we have to have plans if this happens and guard against this occurrence."

"That will take some time to get used to that's for sure" I replied. "Listen, while I've got you here, I might have to miss this lab due to travel commitments with the hockey team. I hope I can do this from a remote login on my laptop if I have to. Secondly, is there another way I can get help other than at this time?"

"You can do all of the same things except printing remotely, so you have to put your results into a file rather than to the printer" he stated. "I will show everyone how to that before we're done today. As to the second question, I will give you my card and we can work something out for me to help you out if you need it at other times in the week. So what hockey team are you on?"

"I'm on the Wolverine men's hockey team here at the U" I replied.

"Wow, and you're taking Comp Sci? That's ambitious!" he remarked.

"Yeah, tell me about it. I came on a scholarship for Computer Science and wound out playing hockey as well!" I said.

"Well good luck and let me know if I can help. I know you will be very busy so I can bend the rules a little bit if you can't get something done if you are out of town" he offered.

"I appreciate the offer, but I'll try to get things done on time if I can" I replied.

"Good" he said as he walked off to help someone else out.

I went back to the program editor and added a few if statements to take care of different situations that would cause errors. I reran the compiler and then executed using first my data file and then the TA's. They both ran fine so I reprinted them out and sat back in relief. The girl to my right seemed frustrated so I looked at her screen and saw a couple of syntax errors. I wasn't sure if I should offer to help but I saw she was getting really annoyed.

"Hi, I'm Mike. You look a bit frustrated there, maybe I can help?" I offered.

She looked over with a frown and was going to say something mean I think, when she stopped herself and stared at me for a second. Then she sighed and said "I can't seem to find out why this damn thing won't compile".

"Would you like me to look at it? Sometimes it takes an uninvolved eye to catch something right in front of you" I said.

She moved her chair over and I moved mine closer to hers. I looked on the screen and I scrolled down through the program.

"Ok, I see a few syntax errors to start with" I said. I started back at the top and showed her a missing semi colon and then a couple of missing end brackets. She put those back in and re-tried compiling it. It didn't work again but it hung up at a different place.

"Shit, not again" she spat out.

"No problem, let's look at it again" I said.

I looked for any other errors but couldn't find any. I printed out the program, quickly grabbed it and looked at the whole thing. I started lining up each program statement with its end statement and found she was missing one. I pointed it out to her and she put one in where it was needed.

She compiled it and it finally worked. She executed it with her data file and she saw her results she expected.

"Thanks — uh Mike was it?" she said. "I don't like asking for help but this crap gets me so frustrated with these stupid errors."

"No problem, I'm happy to help" I replied. "You have to try his file on your program and you're going to have to put in some more if statements to catch some obscure data that might be run with the program."

I told her the file to use and she saw the results and groaned. I told her not to worry, I would help her out. I explained how to put statements in to catch if there was no data, negative data, etc. She put them all in herself and then re-compiled and then ran it again. It worked and she got a big smile and thanked me profusely.

"Thanks for all your help Mike, I couldn't have done it without you!" she said happily.

"You're welcome, I'm happy to help" I replied with a return smile.

She went and got all of her print-outs while I watched her. She was a cute petite girl with short brown hair and eyes covered by a pair of glasses. She was well proportioned with a tight well rounded butt in tight jeans and nice breasts for her size. She smiled at me when she saw me looking at her as she walked back.

"All done, now I can get out of here and head home a little early" she said.

"You might want to wait until the TA tells us how to remote access so we don't have to come down here to do this" I suggested.

"Yeah I guess. But then I won't have you to help me Mike" she said with a smile.

"Well, the TA will still be here every week, or we can talk during class if you need help" I replied.

Just then the TA got everyone's attention and went over the data file and how to solve the new issues. Then he went over the procedure to remote log in. Finally he told to hand in our assignments at the start of next class and we could leave at any time.

The girl beside me quickly packed up her stuff and got ready to leave.

"Mike thanks for your help today. Have a good weekend and I'll see you in class on Tuesday ok?" she said.

I stood up and said "Have a good weekend too; um sorry I don't know your name".

"Sorry, it's Stephanie Merks, Mike" she said.

"Have a good weekend Stephanie Merks" I said.

She smiled and walked out the room. I watched her cute butt as she sauntered out. I went and got the TA's name and number in case I needed his help at other times and headed out myself. After having lunch at the nearest cafeteria, I read ahead in my Logic and Algebra textbook until it was time to go and see Miss. Peterson, Vicky's councillor. I walked over to her building and found her office on the second floor. I was a few minutes early but knocked anyway. I heard a voice say to come in so I opened the door and walked in.

The office was a typical professor's office with walls lined with bookcases filled with various hard cover and paperback books as well as various pictures, mementos and diplomas. There was an old oak teachers' desk along the back wall with a fairly young woman sitting in a beat up leather arm chair.

"Miss. Peterson, I presume?" I asked with a grin, thinking that wasn't there a movie line like that?"

"Yes, and you would be Vicky's Mr. Stewart I believe?" she responded in a no nonsense tone.

"Yes Ma'am, I am Michael Stewart" I replied.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me Mr. Stewart" she said. "Please have a seat and we can begin in a minute. I just need to finish up with this report."

"No problem, take your time" I answered.

I sat quietly looking around at some of the diplomas and degrees and figured she was probably in her late twenties if you went by the graduation dates on them. She was obviously a very smart cookie. I turned to watch her as she was writing her report. Miss. Peterson was dressed in a white blouse with one button open at her neck, which unfortunately didn't show anything when she bent over to write. She wore her blond hair pulled back into a braid, it along with her glasses, made her look like a school librarian. It looked like she deliberately took pains to make herself less attractive for some reason. She was slim and looked fit and probably would be quite beautiful if she wanted to be. Her face was very pretty without makeup and her blue eyes were hidden somewhat by the glasses.

She finished her report and got up to put away the file in the back filing cabinet. I saw she was wearing some tight dress pants which showed an incredible body that was hidden by the desk. I quickly looked away as she turned back so she wouldn't catch me staring. Miss. Peterson walked up to me and put out her hand and said officially "Mr. Stewart, I am Dr. Rachel Peterson; it is nice to meet the man that Miss. Waters has been raving about for the last week."

"Nice to meet you too Dr. Peterson" I replied as I stood up and shook her hand. "Vicky has good things to say about you. Thank you for helping her out through her terrible experiences last year. I think you have done a fantastic job getting Vicky back into the wonderful woman she is."

"Thank you for that compliment Michael" she said in surprise as she looked up at me. "Vicky told me you were tall and handsome and I see she wasn't exaggerating on either account. Please sit down and tell me a little about yourself, if you don't mind?"

I sat down, while watching her walk around the desk and sit in the armchair. She was just a bit shorter than Vicky but didn't give up anything in the looks department. The good Doctor sat amazingly straight and looked intently at me after turning on a recorder. I looked at the recorder for a second and then back at her.

"Oh, sorry, Michael, this is just to make sure I will remember everything later. The recordings are naturally strictly patient-doctor confidential and would never be played for someone else" she said.

"I was unaware that I was a patient of yours, Doctor" I said.

She looked at me for a second and smiled. "Vicky told me you were intelligent, and obviously with a Computer Science scholarship I shouldn't have doubted that, but most young men would not have picked up on that point. I was going to include the recording it in Vicky's patient file but we can shut it off if you do not wish it to be."

I thought about it for a minute and decided I was uncomfortable with anyone having a recording about my life so I asked her not to record the session. She shut off the recorder and said to go ahead with my story. I gave her the Cole's version of my life in Northern Ontario, ending with the trip down to the University. She listened intently but did not write anything down. After a few seconds she asked "Vicky tells me you just turned 18, is that correct?"

"Yes, just before my Dad had his accident" I replied.

"And who has helped you cope with that tragedy Michael?" she asked.

"No one, I handled the funeral arrangements and have been dealing with the lawyer, and now an accountant too" I answered.

"And emotionally, who has been there for you? Any relative's close by?" she pressed.

"No Ma'am. Like I said, I handled it myself. My parents were my only relatives that I know of" I stated.

She sat there looking at me for a bit and then shook her head and then went on with her questions.

"Ok, let's go over your relationship with Vicky" she began. "You met her about two weeks ago at the apartment right?"

"That's correct" I replied.

"And it progressed to eating dinner each night and then quickly into a sexual relationship in less than a week. Is that also correct?" she asked.

"Well, we haven't had intercourse yet but we have obviously had some physical contact and some uh oral stimulation as well" I said while turning red.

She smiled at either my description or my embarrassment, or most probably both, and said "Don't worry; we don't have to go into detail Michael. In my job here I have heard it all, mostly from girls in much more graphic detail and frankness. It is quite surprising how girls change from shy innocent girls into bold woman soon after coming to University, but that is not the subject of our conversation. Vicky has told me in a bit more detail about the physical side of your relationship. I have misgivings about how quickly the two of you have progressed in that part of your relationship, especially with what happened to Vicky last year. I realize that you are two young adults with normal corresponding sex drives, but I am surprised that Vicky feels so comfortable with you so quickly."

I didn't know what to say to that so I just sat there comfortably and looked at her. The silence went on for a bit but unlike most people I didn't mind prolonged gaps in conversations. I'm sure it was a trick of the trade to make people talk to fill up the awkward silences and reveal more than they want or need to.

She finally said "So, why do you think that is Michael?"

"Vicky is in charge of how fast this relationship goes on the physical side of things" I replied. "I'm not very experienced with girls so she takes the lead. Why does she feel comfortable with me? I don't have the answer but I'm happy she does. I try to treat her well and don't push her into anything."

"Yes, she has told me the same thing" she said. "It is rare for a young male to be so laid back in a relationship."

Again she waited for a response but since she didn't ask a question I just smiled.

She smiled and then said "So Vicky told me of her blanking out incident because of you rum ... accident, a couple of days ago. What do you think about it?"

"I don't know enough to figure out what happened. I gather that the guy last year did that on purpose to her so I assume she flashed back to that earlier incident and somehow her system shut her down" I reasoned. "I did what I could to help her through it but we were hoping you could help with it."

"I think you did very well in dealing with the incident Michael" she complimented. "You got her cleaned up, kept her safe and secure and convinced her to come and see me. Other than trying to make sure to exercise a bit more control, which will come with more experience, I think there is no reason to worry too much."

"Will she have more of these episodes?" I asked.

"She has had several anxiety attacks after the incident last year" Dr. Peterson said. "They have slowly diminished in frequency and intensity. Now that she is trying to start a new relationship, there will times that she will experience some of the feelings, actions and situations that could trigger another episode again. You will have to continue to support her, help her through the panic attack or blanking out episode and then have her come and see me."

"That goes without saying Doctor" I assured her.

"Well, a lot of boys or young men wouldn't want to deal with a girl or young woman that had these issues Michael, so it is not just a given that you would want to deal with them" she replied.

"Vicky is more than worth the effort Doctor" I stated.

"Oh, I agree Michael, Vicky is one of the most beautiful young women that I have had the pleasure to know" she said.

"Well that too, but I was talking more about how intelligent, kind and sweet she is, while at the same time, she is the most determined, self confident and toughest woman that I have ever witnessed" I retorted.

"I am glad to see the attraction is more than just physical" she said dryly.

"Well, she is one of the three most beautiful women that I have ever seen" I replied with a grin.

"Oh, and the others?" she asked.

"Obviously her sister Becky is one" I said with a straight face.

Dr. Peterson laughed out loud. "Yes, she said that you had met her last weekend. I hear they have nefarious plans for you Michael. Do you think you can keep up with both of the Waters sisters?"

"No, I don't really, but what other choice do I have?" I replied. "I would have to be an idiot not to attempt the impossible. I'm sure I'll screw up something pretty quick but nothing ventured, nothing gained."

"Good answer. I would doubt your sanity or your heterosexuality if you did not" she said with a smile.

I laughed and said "Speaking of that, Vicky and I have cooled things until I met with you, on your request I gather. Now that we have met, what are your feelings on that side of things?"

"Hmmm, Getting a little frustrated Michael?" she teased.

"Well, a little, but I asked because Becky will be here on the weekend, and that girl is a ticking time bomb of suppressed urges that probably will explode very soon" I answered.

"Ah, I see, and Vicky will be drawn into the blast radius so to speak?" she asked.

"Both physically and mentally, with them being twins and all" I answered.

"Well, that would be interesting to see; from a scientific study point a view" she hastened to add in embarrassment as I cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, I'm sure it will be Doctor" I said dryly. "So, do you have any objections to re-starting the physical side of our relationship?"

"After meeting with you, I am confident that you have her best interests at heart and would not hurt her like that other person" she replied. "I think you can continue your physical relationship Michael. I would stress caution on how fast you go but knowing young love and how Vicky feels about you, I think you are in for a pleasant weekend. Ask Vicky to come see me on Monday and I'll see how she is."

"And get the scoop on the twin thing for your study" I remarked. "For purely scientific research reasons I'm sure."

She blushed and just said "Yes."

"Well that is good news to hear, Doctor. The ladies will be happy to hear that. Can I have Vicky call you to confirm your answer this evening?"

"Sure Michael, she has my number" she agreed. "Now, I think we are done for today. I might have Vicky ask you to come see me if she has any more episodes. Would that be acceptable?"

"It would be my pleasure Doctor. Thanks again for all of your help" I said.

We stood up and she walked gracefully around the desk and offered her hand. I took it and gave it a shake while looking into her eyes. I smiled and turned away to leave the office. Just before I opened the door she asked "You never told me who the third beautiful woman was Mr. Stewart?"

I turned around with a smile "Why yourself Doctor. I'm not sure why you hide it behind the librarian look with no makeup and prim hairstyle. Maybe so you don't intimidate your patients so they don't feel inadequate, or so you are taken more seriously, but you are without a doubt almost as attractive as the twins. Have a good weekend Doctor Peterson."