Chapter 28

Last night's sleep was terrible. I had tossed and turned over Mr. Peterson's attempt to bribe me. It really pissed me off yesterday that someone thought so low of me to do that. I had finally fallen asleep but dreamt of Lisa, Vicky and Becky all night, with one of the three catching me with the other one or both. I even had a dream that the three of them got together and I caught them. Maybe that was more of a fantasy, but all in all, it was a pretty restless sleep.

And adding to that crappy sleep was the fact that I didn't know what to do about Lisa this morning. She was pushing herself into my life pretty hard and I still wasn't sure how much I wanted her in it. Sure she was beautiful and seemed to want me, which in any eighteen year old guy's mind should be enough to go along with anything she wanted, but I still held hope out for the twins to come back. If they did and found out I had replaced them in two weeks, they would drop me like a hot potato.

I went to the arena and got dressed for practice. After our normal warm-ups Fred gave his normal start of the week speech.

"We had a good weekend gentlemen, especially Saturday night" he started. "Let's keep it up when we go to Alaska this week. We fly out Thursday and it's an all day flight, so we don't have much time to prepare this week. The University of Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks are not to be taken lightly. They have a very good program and always give a visiting team a fight. We need to work on keeping up our intensity as they always bring a high energy game."

We had an intense practice and I wasn't the only one worn out when they let us go. I slowly dragged myself into the shower and then got a move on to get to class. Plopping down beside Steph, I sighed as I could finally relax.

"Rough weekend Mikey?" she asked with a grin.

"Intense practice this morning, but also a busy weekend as usual," I explained. "How was yours?"

"Pretty good, spent some time with the family and with Ryan as well," she replied.

"Good to hear it," I said. "Hey, do you mind if a girl comes for lunch today?"

"Who's this girl?" she asked with a questioning look.

"Someone I met at the hockey games," I told her. "She seems to like me but I want to get to know her before rushing into things."

I told her a little about the various times we had met and what happened both Saturday and Sunday. We had to stop the conversation to hand in our assignment. The professor did a review of what would be on next Monday's second midterm and then continued on with new stuff. Steph and I walked out of the classroom after he was done and had given out the new assignment.

"Tough week ahead Mike, don't lose focus over a girl now," Steph cautioned.

"Tell me about it," I agreed. "I'm gone from Thursday to Sunday so I have to get all my assignments done before hand if I can, so I can study on the trip. She will be just there for lunch and I'll let her know about how busy we will be."

"Alright, I'll see you at noon," she said before walking away.

I watched her until she turned the corner and then went to creative writing. After handing in my assignment, I sat through more tips on writing. I wrote down the new assignment and headed to the cafeteria, still not sure how I felt about Lisa.

Lisa was waiting for me just inside the doors and she had worried smile on her face as she saw me come in. She had on a snug pair of jeans and a tight blouse that showed off her figure without looking trampy.

"Hi Mike, I hope you don't mind me having lunch with you after what my father pulled," she said. "I swear I didn't know he was going to do that so soon, I would have warned you so you were better prepared for it. I'm so sorry that he insulted you like that."

She looked like she was getting upset as she looked up at me. She was very beautiful, even with a sad look on her face. I caved in a bit as I looked down into her big blue eyes.

"Ok Lisa, you can have lunch with me and Steph, but we're keeping this strictly platonic for a while longer" I told her. "We need to get to know each other better and the next couple of weeks are killers for me, with the Alaska trip, assignments and midterms."

Her face broke out in a big smile and she closed in to hug me. I stepped back and she stopped and gave me a sheepish grin.

"Sorry, I almost got carried away Mike," she said, putting her arms down. "Rule one, no hugs or kisses for at least two weeks."

"Ok, let's get some food and go find Steph," I said, leading her to the cafeteria.

I grabbed two trays and led her around the room, putting drinks and food on as she pointed out things. I paid for us both and led her to the table where Steph sat waiting.

"Hey Steph, this is Lisa Peterson, Lisa this is Stephanie Merks," I said as I sat down across from her.

Hi Lisa, glad you could join us for lunch," Steph said with a smile. "Mikey didn't tell me you were so beautiful. I should have guessed; he's always surrounded by beautiful women."

"Well, I guess you have both beauty and brains then, because he raved about how smart you were, but forgot to mention how gorgeous you were," Lisa replied with a grin.

"Please, next to you and the twins, let alone Jessica and Amanda, I'm the short ugly stepsister," Steph replied with a frown.

"Hey, you know that's not true; you're the short evil stepsister, not the ugly one," I spoke up with a grin. "I'm sure Ryan appreciates your gorgeous body just fine."

Steph blushed and Lisa picked up on it.

"Oh, is Ryan your boyfriend? You're blushing like a new bride," Lisa said. "How long have you been going out and how far have you gone?"

"We've been official now about a week and been seeing each other for a few weeks now," Steph replied.

"And?" Lisa pushed with a grin.

"Things are going along fine," she said with a blush and a quick glance at me.

Lisa saw the look at me and smiled before saying, "We'll have to talk when Mr. Big Ears isn't around."

Lisa turned to me and asked, "So, who are all these other women Stephanie is talking about?"

"I told you about my girlfriend Vicky and her sister Becky already," I said. "Jessica was her chemistry lab partner, so we don't see her anymore, now that Vicky has left school. Amanda is John Reilly's girlfriend; John is my defence partner."

"So have you made any guy friends since you've been here?" Lisa asked.

"I know most of the guys on the team, so you could say some of them are friends," I answered. "But I haven't made any friends other than them, just a few acquaintances so far. It's harder living in an apartment and with my schedule. How about you?"

"I've made a couple in my classes and in the dorm," she said. "My roommate is a real social butterfly, so I meet a lot of girls."

That got Steph and her talking about the dorms and who they knew. They were quickly chatting about who they both knew and some of the parties they had heard about. I finished my lunch quickly and started working on the logic assignment while they chatted. I had it a third finished when they stopped talking and the silence made me look up.

"I thought we were supposed to be getting to know each other better, not Steph and me," Lisa said with bemused look.

"To know Steph is to know me, right princess?" I said with a grin.

"Don't get me in involved in your impoliteness," she rebutted. "You bring a guest to lunch and ignore her that's your fault, not mine."

"Sorry, you two seemed to be getting along, I thought it would be a good thing," I said. "I need to use every waking minute the next couple of weeks to stay ahead of everything. And now it's time to go to our next classes."

"How convenient for you," Lisa said as Steph nodded her agreement.

"Well Ladies, I would love to stay and chat but I must go," I said, standing up. "I will see you in an hour and a half, right back here Steph. Lisa, if you want to come back then we can all study together. If not, we can meet tomorrow at the arena cafeteria for supper after six if you want."

She opened her mouth, probably to protest our dining arrangements, but wisely held her tongue and nodded. I said goodbye and left them there and went to algebra class.

Algebra was also a review class for next Wednesday's second midterm. I handed in the assignment after writing down the new one and left for the cafeteria. Steph was waiting at our usual table when I got there.

"So, that girl has got it bad for you Mikey," she said with a grin. "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing, I swear," I said. "She's the one coming on to me. I don't know what she sees in me."

She shook her head and replied, "Mike, you are a catch for any woman. You were cute enough when you first got here, but now that you have put on some muscles, you're a hunk. Put your smarts on top of that and you're down right irresistible."

"Yah right," I said. "I'm nothing special Steph and never have been."

"You probably were a nice guy all along, but it takes a woman to know how special you are, not a teenage girl who thinks about how others will see it. Now, even those girls would be after you with that body," she insisted.

"Whatever, now what do I do about Lisa?" I asked.

"I don't know, she seems pleasant enough, but she is obsessed with you," she remarked. "I need more time with her to see if it's a crush or a fatal attraction thing."

"Yeah, I want to just get to know her and figure what she's all about before we go any further," I agreed. "Ok, enough about her, let's get busy."

We worked on the logic assignment until I finished mine and I started on my algebra one while she completed her logic one. All too soon it was time for practice. I told her I would see her in the morning and walked to the arena.

Practice was intense again, with Fred trying to get us to maintain what we had accomplished on Saturday night. I drove home exhausted after having some supper at the cafeteria. When I got home I finished off my algebra assignment and worked on my creative writing assignment. After that I pulled out my novella and wrote a couple of chapters while watching the Monday night football game. I lasted until half time and then fell asleep after brushing my teeth.

Tuesday was busy as usual, with three hockey practices, programming class and a work-out. Steph and I met at two thirty and worked on our new programming assignment in the arena cafeteria and got a lot accomplished. After practice, I met Lisa outside of the cafeteria. She was dressed up in a nice skirt and blouse outfit and had her hair fixed as well.

"You look very nice tonight Lisa," I said as I approached her with a smile.

"Well, I thought I would dress nicely for our first dinner together as acquaintances," she said with a grin. "This is kind of new to me, to be the pursuer rather than the pursued. I don't know what you like or how you want me to act or dress."

"Lisa, just be yourself, I want you to be comfortable enough that we can hang out and just talk to each other," I told her. "Let's go get some food and we can sit down and talk about all sorts of stuff."

So that is what we did. We had a nice fried chicken meal, with mashed potatoes and gravy and we sat there for two hours, talking about each of our childhoods. Once she stopped trying so hard, she became natural, telling me stories of her life growing up with rich parents. She had travelled the world, taking educational vacations to various countries in the world each summer, and then working the rest of the summer at one of her dad's many companies. She told me all about what she had learned from each company and how it was starting to make sense when she merged in her work experience with the education she was getting now. Lisa turned out to be very smart when she finally let that part of herself out, and stopped trying to win me over.

"Wow, its eight o'clock already," I said, looking up at the clock. "Time flies when you're having fun. I must say this is the best time I've spent with you yet Lisa. I like the real you, it compliments your beauty and makes you into a wonderful brilliant gorgeous woman that any man would like to get to know better."

She blushed and then smiled before saying, "You're so easy to talk to; guys don't want to listen to a girl going on about her life. I did notice I was doing most of the talking tonight. Next time, you talk while I get to sit and listen buster."

"Ok, but it will have to be later next week," I told her. "I have three midterms Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Maybe we can meet for dinner Thursday night?"

"It's a date," she said, before realizing what she said. "I meant that in a platonic way."

I laughed and said "Relax, I knew what you meant. Now let me drive you back to the dorm; I don't want you out alone in the dark."

"Thank you kind sir," she replied.

I grabbed the trays after slinging my backpack over my shoulder, and then walked to the door with her. We dumped the trays and walked to the lobby where I helped her with her coat before we left the arena. I opened her door and shut it behind her before walking around to mine. We made the quick trip to the main campus and I pulled into a parking lot near her dorm. I got out, ignoring her protests, and walked her to her door.

"Lisa Peterson, I had a wonderful time getting to know you a bit better," I said with a smile.

"I enjoyed our non-date as well Michael Stewart," she giggled. "I will see you for lunch with Steph tomorrow if that's still ok?"

"Sure, but expect me to work," I replied.

"Alright, but you have to talk to us a bit Mikey," she said grinning.

"Hello, how are you is a bit," I said. "Ok, you have a good night; I have a few hours of work and studying to do."

"Sorry to hear that, and sorry to keep you out so late," she said with a frown.

"I wouldn't have missed it for the world," I replied. "See you tomorrow."

I opened the door for her and waited until she was in the elevator before walking away. She waved when she saw me and I waved back and then turned back to the car. I drove home and got to work, finishing my computer assignment and then writing more on my novella. I wanted to make sure I had enough for Cynthia to review tomorrow night. I finished another chapter and then hit the hay around eleven thirty.

Wednesday morning brought a cold front into the region and I was shivering when I got out of bed. I got dressed in the warmest stuff I had, a Michigan sweatshirt and jeans, and made a note to myself to get a warmer winter jacket before the trip tomorrow. I drove to the arena and got dressed for practice.

Fred, Frank and Sam worked us hard again and I could see a few guys looking exhausted as we finally left the ice. A couple of them looked really worn out, even after a shower. I left the arena and walked up to the main campus, feeling tired but not too bad. I sat down beside Steph just as the professor came in.

"Hey Princess," I said. "How's it going?"

"Eh!" she added with a giggle. "It's going ok, how was your dinner with Lisa?"

"Quite pleasant once she loosened up and acted normal," I told her. "She's very smart and it shows when she's not trying to be something else. I like her when she's real."

"So she's someone you would like to be with?" she asked.

"Too soon to tell yet," I replied. "I like her intelligence and her base personality when we were by ourselves. I need to see her a few more times around others to see if she changes. So far, we don't have much in common either."

The professor started his lecture then so we left it at that. We split up as usual after class and I headed to creative writing. The professor had a teaching assistant helping her carry in our short stories.

"Good morning everyone," she started, when the TA left the class. "As you can see, I have your short stories with me to hand back to you. Overall, they were fairly well done, with several excellent stories and some that need extensive help. Those that did not use a third party editor, and probably got a lower mark, should see either the teaching assistants or myself during office hours to go over your story."

She started calling up students alphabetically and had a couple things to say to each student. Finally she called me up.

"Mr. Stewart, this was an excellent short story, on top of a flawless editing job, the topic was a brilliant choice and it was presented in a most excellent manner," she told me. "If you weren't so adept at playing hockey or computer programming, I would try to convince you to continue writing. You have what it takes to be a good one."

"Thank you professor, I certainly put the effort into it, but I had an excellent editor as well," I replied.

"Yes, Cynthia is a very good writer, and she certainly helped to polish your work," she agreed. "The story is one of the best I've read in a few years; very good work Mr. Stewart."

"Thank you very much professor," I responded and took the story from her.

I looked down and saw a ninety five on the front cover, with an 'excellent writing' written below. I sat down and slipped it into my book and waited while she finished up handing out the stories. She then continued with her lecture until the hour was up. I walked back to the cafeteria and met Lisa waiting by the doorway.

"Good morning Lisa, you are looking wonderful this morning," I said.

She had on a pretty blouse and skirt combo that was very chic and made her look older than her years.

Thank you kind sir, you look in a good mood," she replied with a smile.

"I just got my short story back and got a good grade on it, so yes I am in a good mood," I agreed. "Come along and we shall celebrate with an extra helping of dessert."

"You certainly know how to treat a lady," she said with a laugh.

"I do, don't I?" I replied with a smirk.

I let her go first and we went around the cafeteria grabbing food. I put three chocolate desserts onto my tray and paid for both of us. We found Steph and sat down across from her.

"Hey Steph, our wild partier here is celebrating hard today," Lisa said with a grin. "Try not to get too wiped out."

"Oh, and what are we celebrating?" she asked.

"He got a good mark on his short story," Lisa informed her.

"Good for you Mikey, you worked hard for that one," Steph congratulated me. "So, party at your apartment tonight with your favourite lunch mates?"

Lisa laughed and then said, "Oh, it's much better than that!"

"Oh, he's going to do a strip tease for us when we get there?" Steph asked with a wicked grin on her face.

"Ok, that would be better," Lisa admitted. "I better tell you so you're not so disappointed later. We all get chocolate desserts for lunch."

"Nope, not good enough, I want to see some skin Mister!" Steph demanded.

"Skin, we want skin!" Lisa chanted.

I passed out the desserts and said "Sorry ladies, chocolate is all you're getting from me."

We ate our food and chatted over our desserts. Lisa said it was my turn to talk so I told the girls about growing up in Northern Ontario, the snow, the cold and playing on the annual ice rink my dad and I built in the back yard. They asked about girls and I told them about being a shy geeky beanpole who couldn't talk to a girl to save my life.

"So why is it that all of your friends down here are women?" Lisa asked.

"Just lucky I guess," I shrugged. "I didn't have many guy friends up there either."

Thankfully for me, the time ran out quicker than the inquisitors wanted it too, so I escaped without too much bloodshed. I left them still chatting away as I walked to algebra class. The professor there started new material so we were busy writing down everything he was saying. The class finally ended and I met Steph back at the cafeteria. We worked on finishing up our assignments for next week and then started studying for our second midterm in logic.

"It's time for practice Mikey," Steph prompted me. "I'll see you in the morning right?"

"Yep, we don't leave until the afternoon," I told her. "Have a good night ok?"

"You too," she replied.

I packed up and left her there studying while I hoofed it over to the arena. I was surprised not to see a path being worn in the concrete sidewalks between the two buildings with the amount of time I spent walking back and forth. I entered the arena and headed to the locker room to get dressed. A few of the guys were there early as well and we shot the shit as we got our equipment on.

Our goalie Mark came in looking like crap. He didn't bother putting on his equipment on but just sat at his locker looking miserable. John asked what was wrong.

"I've got the flu real bad," he replied. "I'm going back to bed as soon as I talk to the coaches."

John and I looked at each other and frowned. Bob, our back-up goalie, definitely just wasn't up to the task. This could be a real bad weekend if Mark couldn't play. Our emergency back-up goalie, Josh Miller, was a rookie that usually didn't travel with us but it looked like he would be the back-up at least for the Friday night game. Joshua was getting suited up, so he must have been warned beforehand.

Out on the ice, the coaches left us have a longer shooting practice against both goalies at either end of the ice. I shot at both goalies, moving to the other end to shoot against the rookie Josh after taking a bunch of shots against Bob. I was impressed with how Josh stopped a few of my harder shots where Bob had some trouble with a couple of them.

Fred called us all together and started off saying, "As you might know already, we have a flu issue with Mark. Bob will be our starter on Friday unless Mark is better and Josh will be coming as the back-up. So, we are going to play a more defensive game to give our goalie some extra help. We're going to keep an extra forward back and just play an opportunistic offence, reacting to their mistakes."

They had us practicing the new scheme with the centre coming back deeper to the front of the net to help the defence. He would also go to the corners first, allowing the defence to concentrate on the people in front. We rotated every defence pair with every line and practiced against the scout team offence. It took us over an hour and a half to get it down so that was all we had time to do. I got changed and left for my tutoring session.

Cynthia was waiting for me outside the cafeteria.

"Hey Cynthia, how are you?" I asked.

"Pretty good, and you?" she responded.

"Not bad, a bit tired," I told her. "Let's get something to eat and then you can look over what I've done so far."

I led her into the cafeteria and we grabbed some food on both of our trays before paying and finding a seat in the back row for privacy. After eating, Cynthia read the chapters I had finished while I watched and had a second helping of spaghetti. She was marking them up with a red pen, circling texts and drawing arrows to where they should go or replacing a word with another. It was a bit disheartening to see how much she wanted to change. When she was finally done she looked up at me and saw my expression.

"Mike, it's not that bad," she said laughing at the sight of my hound dog expression. "It's actually quite good. These changes just make it that much better."

"Well, it certainly looks like a disaster," I said, staring at all the corrections. "I'm glad I'm not in this class for a career, I'd be starving for sure."

"You would do just fine, you just need practice at it, that's all," she reassured me. "Every beginning writer goes through this phase. So, make these corrections and then continue on with the next chapters. I figure we could meet in about a week?"

"I think we'll have to make it after next weekend," I told her. "I have three midterms next week plus a couple of games, so I won't be doing much next week. I'll do a fair bit on this week's trip though, so maybe I can email you what I do?"

"Sounds good and we can just meet for a minute for you to sign my tutoring slip for the time I take to edit it," she suggested.

We exchanged email addresses and then I dropped her off at her dorm before heading to the nearest shopping mall. I found a leather store and bought a nice warm leather jacket and then headed home. I made all the corrections Cynthia had advised and then saved the new file on my laptop. I checked my email while I was online and found one from Vicky. In it she let me know they were back in New York as of last night and finally had a day to rest and take care of some things with their condo and other personal things. Tomorrow they had another photo shoot for Vanity Fair and then more fashion shows on Friday and the weekend.

She let me know about their LA trip, shooting a Revlon commercial as well as another magazine spread. They had gone to a couple of parties to get some exposure and met a few celebrities, with more than a few pick-up attempts by both men and women. They had to plead having a boyfriend to get out of making a couple of them angry. Their publicist thought it would have been good for their careers to go out with a Hollywood hunk and even had some pictures snapped when they were with a couple of them. Vicky warned me that I would probably see them popping up in tabloid magazines or on the entertainment shows but I was not to believe them or get upset. They were both too busy to get involved with anyone and more importantly, not over me yet. She attached a couple of pictures from their fashion shows and photo shoots so I could see how they looked.

They looked even more gorgeous than I remembered and was happy to hear they were not over me yet. I was glad that I had cooled it with Lisa and could be honest with them on how I felt about her and them. I wrote them a reply, congratulating them on their success and told them how I still felt about them and suggested we could still be more than just friends, even if they were too busy to see me often. I gave them a run down on school and hockey and also let them know all about Lisa, stressing that I was keeping it platonic, especially after what her dad had pulled. I signed off giving them my love and letting them know I was always here for them.

It felt good to think about them again and hoped they would take me up on my offer to stay together. I relaxed for the rest of the evening by watching a hockey game before falling asleep with the TV on, dreaming of the twins.

I woke up in a great mood Thursday morning, thinking about the twins. I got ready to go and packed my suitcase and my book bag with my all my study material and my laptop. I left them in my car while I went in and got changed for our practice and got out on the ice early. I did my usual skating warm-up after stretching and then got Patrick out to shoot on. After shooting from the blueline for a bit, I did some breakaways on him, skating in hard and wristing shots at the slots when I got close. Finally my teammates got on the ice and John helped me get Patrick off the net and put away.

"Have you heard the news?" John asked.

"Nope," I answered.

"Steve and Daniel both have the flu and probably won't be available for Friday's game," he told me.

"Shit, that's bad, real bad," I responded to the bad news. "We're in deep trouble without those guys and Mark too."

"Tell me about it," he agreed. "It's going to be a disaster."

Fred broke the news to the rest of the team and the coaches juggled the lines again. We practiced our modified defence with the new lines and John and I moved to first defence pair. The practice didn't go well as the new lines didn't mesh well. I left for class after learning we were heading out at one o'clock from the arena.

I sat beside Steph as the professor started a new chapter. When the lecture was done I wished her a good weekend and left for the arena. I did a full work-out with even more reps at the same high weight and then had a shower and dressed in my good casual clothes I had brought along. I went to the cafeteria and had a big meal and then studied for a while before heading out to the parking lot to get my suitcase and the rest of my books. I slid the suitcase into the luggage compartment below the bus and then found a seat in the bus.

Slowly the bus filled up with players, coaches, the training staff and tutors. We were short four players so most of the rest of the rookies came along for this trip, except the ones still on suspension. Our original second pair of defence, Mat and Ralph, was back on from their suspension, and due to players missing from the flu, was going to be the second pair of defence, while Albert would team up with the rookie speedster Don Farr to make up the third pair.

We finally got on the road to the airport and arrived about an hour later, pulling into the charter area. We went through security and got on board, where I scooped out an emergency door aisle seat again. We had a bigger plane as we were going across the country to Seattle, stopping for fuel and then flying north to Fairbanks Alaska. Once we were in the air I pulled out my Logic's notes and textbook and started studying for the test on Monday. Pam, the head of the tutoring brigade, came around and asked if I needed any help with anything.