Chapter 30

Monday morning I was still in a good mood from the wonderful weekend with Vicky and Becky. I got up with a renewed purpose and was soon on the way to the arena, early for practice but wanting to get some additional shooting and skating in.

I was out on the ice quickly and did a full skating warm-up including some rushes from our blueline to the far net with the puck. I skated full out going in and full out going backwards on the way out. I finally got tired so I just did some practice shooting on Patrick until the rest of the team started trickling out from the dressing room.

John skated up to where I was shooting with a big smile.

"So, did you have a good weekend?" he asked.

"Yes I did, and you?" I replied.

"Why yes I did Mike, thanks for asking," he said with a grin. "You certainly looked cozy with both of the twins Saturday night."

"It was great to see them again," I said, deliberately missing his point. "That was some limo wasn't it?"

"Yeah it was, that was the first time for me in one of those big ones," he replied. "So tell me, are both of the twins your girlfriends?"

"John, Vicky is my girlfriend, don't even speculate about that or the media would have a field day," I told him. "I have enough enemies on this team that someone will shoot off his mouth if he heard that as a rumour."

"Sorry Mike, I wasn't thinking," he replied. "I envy you if it is true, but no one will ever hear it from me."

"There's going to be enough speculation in the media as it is, so please make sure Amanda doesn't talk to anyone about it either please," I said. "I'm sure she talks to Vicky more than I do, so she knows the crap that would rain down if the media finds someone to talk about it."

"I'll remind her and won't speak of it again Mike," John assured me.

"Thanks man, I'm nervous about having to be in the public eye as it is," I told him.

Fred gathered us around soon after and talked about our next opponents, the Miami University Redhawks of Oxford Ohio. He explained that they were a nationally ranked hockey team that will contend for the National Championship along with Boston University, Notre Dame and a few others, hopefully with us as one of them. They played a similar game as ours so it would be an offensively minded physical game against them.

Practice was primarily special teams and a scrimmage for the most part, with a bit of extra practice for the defence to carry up the puck from our end. All of the suspended players were back for practice this week, but were put on the scout team. Don and John spelled each other off as my partner as John's ankle was still tender. Frank let me know that I would be handling more of the puck carrying duties, partly because of John's ankle and partly because they thought I was good at it.

They finally let us go and I quickly got showered and changed before rushing up to the main campus for logic class. I sat down beside Steph a few minutes early so we could talk.

"Hey Steph, have a good weekend?" I asked.

"Yeah, I did, we had fun Saturday night and it was nice to wake up to Ryan beside me, rather than to my screaming siblings!" she said with a smile.

"Look, no blush!" I said with a grin.

"Stop it, you big lummox," she said, hitting me on the arm. "What about you, did you have a good time with your ladies?"

"Vicky and I had a very nice evening," I said.

Steph looked at me as if I was an idiot and then said "Amanda, Jessica and I know about you and the twins silly boy. Who do you think is supposed to watch over you while they are away?"

"What are you talking about?" I played dumb.

She sighed impatiently, pulled out her phone and scrolled through some emails until she found the one she wanted. She opened it up and showed it to me.

'We had a great time last night making up with our Sweetie' it said, and it was from Vicky and Becky, copied to Jessica and Amanda.

"Oh, I'm surprised they let it out, what with all the potential media problems that could happen," I said.

"Oh, the three of us all swore never to tell a soul, even our boyfriends don't know," Steph assured me.

"Well John suspects and I'm sure Brent and Ryan must as well, they're no dummies," I told her.

"Don't worry, we'll keep them under control, if they want to be spending the night with us ever again!" she said with an oddly fierce look on her face.

"Wow, remind me never to cross you, you tiger," I said.

"Sorry, I had to remind him yesterday to keep his mouth shut when he came out and said something about it," she told me. "He got the point pretty quickly when I kicked him out of my bed, and then, when I reminded him of the size difference between you and him, he dropped the subject post haste."

I laughed and then thanked her for her fierce protection of our privacy.

"Hey, you saved me from failing this class and helped with the other one, I owe you just for that," she said. "But then you brought me into your group and the girls became my good friends as well; how could I ever let anything happen to you guys?"

"Well, we like you too and will be there for you anytime you need us ok?" I said with a smile.

"I know you will, you're here for me already, ya big lummox," she said with a grin. "Enough of the fricking hallmark after school special moment, tell me if you sent them off with their Michael fix."

"They seemed to be well satisfied and in a good mood when I left them last night," I said with a grin.

"Good, they deserve it after the month they had, and so did you," she replied. "I certainly didn't want Lisa to be your next option. She's nice enough but we didn't need her in the loop before they could get back here to take care of you."

"Oh, you five were talking the entire time, weren't you?" I asked.

"Of course, just a couple days after they left, the twins knew they made a mistake, and the three of us knew you wouldn't be getting over them any time soon, or so we thought until Lisa wormed her way in," she said. "We let them know about her as soon as we knew."

"The three of you don't have to tell them everything I do Missy!" I said with a growl.

"You don't scare me Mikey, and we girls have to stick together," she said haughtily.

The professor came in with a stack of marked midterms under his arm that he plopped on the table.

"Morning everyone, I hope you had a good weekend, because unfortunately, I'm going to ruin the start of your week for most of you," he said. "Please come up when I call your name and then when you all have your test, we will go over it question by question to show you where you went wrong. The first five people I call can leave right away as they have shown that they know the material quite well."

"Mr. Stewart, Miss Merks, Mr. Tsin, Miss A. Wong and Mr. Meadows, grab your books and come on down, you're the next contestants on get out of class free day," he said.

Steph and I looked at each other and smiled as we quickly packed up our stuff, grabbed our coats and walked down to the professor.

"Mr. Stewart, another fine paper, you continue to surprise us with your fine academic work on top of your fine athletic prowess on the ice," he said. "Congratulations and have a fine morning."

"Thank you sir, it's nice to see the hard work pay off," I said, accepting the paper from him.

"Miss Merks, your lack of confidence after the exam was not warranted," he told her. "I have the feeling that studying with Mr. Stewart has helped you do so well in this class, but that's a good a way of learning as any other. Congratulations as well, and enjoy the free period. By the way, all five of you won't have an assignment this week as the rest of the class will be doing a review assignment on the previous material."

We thanked him and left the class quickly under the stares of our less fortunate brethren. We stopped outside and compared scores.

"So what did you get Steph?" I asked.

She looked down and said in shock "I got a ninety two, holy shit! What did you get?"

I looked at it and then told her "I got a ninety eight Steph, sorry."

"Don't be sorry silly, that's fantastic!" she said with a grin. "So what did you really get on the first one?"

"Ninety seven or ninety eight, I can't remember," I told her with a sheepish grin.

"You're a silly boy, you know that?" she asked. "I could never be jealous of you Mikey! You're the reason I'm still in this class. Now I owe you my first two kids; poor Ryan might never get to be a daddy if you keep this up!"

"You don't owe me a thing Steph, you did this one on your own," I told her. "Ok, let's go and celebrate with some breakfast."

We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in the cafeteria and then chatted a bit about school and how things were going. It was a nice relaxing time to spend with a friend, without having to worry about schoolwork. Our free period came to an end so we packed up and left for our next classes. I told her I would see her in an hour and watched as she waltzed out of the cafeteria, looking over her shoulder with a grin to see me looking at her. I headed out to creative writing class, shaking my head. The professor asked us how we doing with our novellas and if there was any issues. No one seemed to have any so she continued with her lecture.

After class, I met up with Steph, Jessica and Lisa in the cafeteria, going through the line for some food beforehand.

"Hello ladies, how was your weekend?"

"I had a good time with Brent, especially Saturday night after the twins dropped us off in the limo," Jessica said.

"Ryan and I also had a great time after they dropped us too," Steph said.

"How was your weekend Lisa?" I asked her.

"Doesn't sound like it was anywhere as good as you and your friends had," she said sadly. "I gather you got back together with Vicky?"

"Yes I did. I'm sorry Lisa, I know that's not what you wanted to hear," I said.

"I expected it, she and her sister are very beautiful and they had first dibs," she said. "Well, I'm sure they don't want me hanging around so I'll leave you be."

"Ok Lisa, I hope you find another guy who deserves you better than I do," I said, standing up and giving her a hug. "Take care of yourself ok?"

"Ok Michael, and thanks for being honest with me from the start," she said before she walked away.

"Well, that's the end of that mess," Jessica said. "Now don't you invite any other girls to lunch or anywhere else Mister or you'll be in big trouble."

"Yes Ma'am," I replied with a salute. "Thanks for the back-up you two."

"The girls wanted to make sure you took care of the situation today," she replied. "We'll let them know it's done."

We finished our lunch and chatted a bit before splitting up for our last class of the day. I got my algebra midterm back and was relieved to see a ninety five on the front page. I was glad that I was keeping up my marks despite playing a lot of hockey. I made my way back to the cafeteria after algebra but Steph must have gone home as we didn't have an assignment yet. I worked on my new algebra assignment and left the creative writing weekly one until I got home. Soon it was time to walk back to the arena for afternoon practice.

Practice went by quickly as we were worked hard. Luckily with the extra guys back we could rotate in and out for a break more often. John and I partnered more as his ankle held up, but Don did get a lot of reps as well.

After practice I had supper at the cafeteria and then went home and finished the algebra and the creative writing weekly assignments. I then edited the entire novella, finding all the spelling mistakes and then changing some things around in the chapters that Cynthia hadn't edited yet. I turned on the Monday night football game while I was doing that and, when I was done, sent the girls an email telling them how much I enjoyed the weekend. I fell asleep watching the game and woke up an hour later when the TV got loud at the end of the game. I shut it off and hit the sack for the night.

Tuesday was notable only because Steph and I received our Computer programming midterms back. Morning practice was more of the same and I was able get to class on time afterwards. The professor came in as I was sitting down so I could only say hi to Steph before he started handing out the exams. We went alphabetically so Steph got hers before me. She went down to get it and he had a few words for her. She smiled back, thanked him and ran back up to her seat.

She grinned at me and said "Ninety three," to my raised eyebrow.

"Fantastic Miss Smarty pants!" I responded. "I think we will be calling you Miss Genius from now on."

"I guess it's better than Miss Average," she replied with a giggle.

I was called a couple minutes later and went down to collect it.

"Mr. Stewart, I'm disappointed in your mark on this one," the professor said with a frown.

"Oh? I thought I did pretty well," I responded. "I'll have to see what I did wrong."

"Yes, I wrote this exam to make sure you didn't get a second perfect mark, and you still got one," he said in disgust. "I'm obviously not making these things hard enough. Well, I guess congratulations are in order, so good work."

He handed me my exam and broke out in a grin and said, "You should have seen your face when I said that!"

"You got me good there Professor," I smiled as I shook his hand and went up.

"So, how did you do?" Steph asked.

"As good as last time," I replied, showing her the test.

"Damn it Mikey! I was hoping to beat you at something!" she swore as she punched me. "Are you telling me you are perfect so far in this class?"

"Yep, I figure I should be as it's my major, and they gave me a scholarship specifically to do well in it," I replied. "To tell you the truth, not much has been new to me yet so it's pretty easy to do well."

"I hate you," she said as she crossed her arms under her breasts and pouted in her seat.

Her breasts were pushed up a bit and she was showing some nice cleavage that I admired for a bit.

"I see what you're staring at Mr. Genius and you can just stop ogling my assets," she said, not looking at me.

"Well, if you're going to show them to me so blatantly, of course I'm going to look," I replied. "You do have wonderful assets by the way."

"Hmmm, thanks I guess, but my new status as Miss Genius, precludes you from treating me like a bimbo so keep your eyes forward," she stated haughtily.

"Does that mean I can't stare at your glorious butt anymore either?" I said in despair.

"Yes, I'm off the market," she answered.

"But, I'm Mr. Genius; I should get a free pass!" I objected. "I think it should be sans clothes as well, tell you the truth."

She burst out laughing and hit me in the arm before saying, "You would like that wouldn't you? Just wait until the twins hear about this!"

"Be sure to mention how much you've been flaunting yourself around me," I said dryly. "They might like to know about that too!"

"Who do you think told me to do it silly!" she admitted. "I'm to keep your eyes from wandering to other girls."

"Well then, you better wear some more revealing clothes then," I said with a deadpan look.

"To school?" she asked in shock. "You're dreaming Mikey."

"Ok then, you can wear them to the apartment then," I said with a grin.

"You wouldn't be able to keep your hands off me buster!" she replied

"Ok, just send me the pictures then," I said, just as the professor started his lecture.

The class was on a new topic so we paid attention and at the end wrote down the assignment for the week.

"Ok, you have workouts and practices until two thirty right?" she asked.

"That is correct Miss Genius," I replied.

"Ok, let's get together at two thirty in the arena cafeteria and work on this assignment, alright?" she asked.

"Sounds good, I'll see you then," I responded.

We split up and I watched her cute butt as she walked away. She turned and gave me the evil eye for a second before grinning and walking away. I laughed and then turned away to head to the arena.

After a good work-out and then lunch, I joined my fellow rookies on the ice. Frank and Sam ran us ragged with skating and stick handling drills for the first half hour and then concentrated on passing drills for the next half hour. A scrimmage finished it up and, after showering, I got dressed and met Steph in the cafeteria.

"Hey there Miss G, how's it going," I asked.

"Eh? Could you at least finish it once and a while, you Canuck?" she said in disgust.

"You know we don't say that much anymore?" I informed her. "It was big before I was born."

"Too bad, it's expected from all of you so just go along with it will you?" she said. "Ok, let's get busy; you don't have too much time."

"Yes Mother," I replied as I turned on my laptop.

We made significant progress on the program before I had to pack up.

"Ok, you better head back to campus before it gets dark and it begins to snow," I suggested.

She shivered and packed up without an argument.

"Ok, I'll see you in the morning Miss G," I said.

"Alright Mikey, have a good practice," she replied as we split apart at the doors.

I of course watched her until she was out of sight until I heard John laughing behind me.

"You've got the hottest babe in the country flying back and forth from New York with her twin sister in tow, and you're still staring at Steph's ass," he said, shaking his head.

"Have you looked at her ass lately, it is most excellent," I responded.

"Oh I agree, I just keep my staring a little less obvious," he said dryly.

"She likes me looking at her, she would be upset if I didn't," I replied. "The twins know all about it, I did it to them too when they were around. What can I say, I enjoy looking at women."

"Don't we all," John agreed.

We got changed and headed out to the ice to stretch and warm up. The coaches had us practicing break-outs out of our zone, both passing and just the defence carrying the puck up the ice. Then we practiced our offensive zone plays, practicing passing the puck around in close corners. The scout team was very aggressive, trying to prove they belonged in the starting line-up. For the last half hour we split into two teams and played a full period scrimmage. John's ankle was doing well so we were kept as partners for the entire practice.

After showering, I had supper at the cafeteria again and then headed home. I made sure my algebra and creative writing assignments were done and then worked on the programming assignment. I finished it up and got it tested before printing it out. I ended the day reading ahead in my textbooks and doing some end of chapter problems. I checked my email and found one from the twins.

They went to a photo shoot on Monday for Cosmopolitan and would be on the cover in the January or February. Today they filmed a commercial for a shampoo company that, if approved, would air during the Super Bowl. They were certainly taking off I thought.

They wanted to have a web conference with me on Thursday at two thirty and said I could do it with my laptop from school if I downloaded the proper software from the link they provided. It should be only for an hour so I wouldn't miss any practice. Amy, Claudia and two people from the agency would be online with us so I was to behave myself.

I replied back to them, letting them know I was ok with the time and hoped they were well. I told them I loved them and then sent it off. I downloaded the web conferencing software and made sure it worked before shutting the laptop down and heading to bed.

Wednesday was a repeat of Monday as usual, without the midterm results. I worked with Steph in the afternoon to make sure her program was working and then went to practice. I met Cynthia for supper at the arena cafeteria and she went over the entire novella again. We corrected the simple mistakes and then she took it home to do a final edit before emailing it back to me. I drove her home and went back to the apartment. I had everything done for the week, homework wise, so I did some laundry and cleaned up the apartment, doing the dishes and actually dusting and vacuuming the place. I then played some games on the computer before falling asleep before eleven.

Thursday I was hyped up, knowing I would be seeing and talking to the twins this afternoon. I was at the arena practicing my shooting a half hour before anyone else arrived. During practice I skated at bit faster, shot a bit harder and hit everything in sight.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were expecting the twins back tonight!" John joked with a laugh.

"Actually, I'm having a web conference this afternoon with them, to talk about going public as their boyfriend," I admitted.

"You always play better when you are going to see them," he stated.

"They certainly motivate me," I agreed.

I headed off to class and met up with Steph.

"You're not wearing that for the web conference are you?" she asked, looking at my jeans and tee shirt.

"I was planning on it," I said. "Why, should I have dressed up a bit?"

"Yes, you're dealing with fashion people Michael," she said in exasperation. "They are always dressed up in case someone is going to take their picture. Vicky told me to get you dressed, so we will head back to your apartment at lunch time. Meet me outside the arena after your workout and we will rush back there. You're going to have to start wearing better clothes once you go public, you will have people taking your picture any time of day."

I sighed and agreed to meet her. The professor continued with his new topic from last class and we were kept busy writing notes. After class, we split up after promising to meet in an hour. I put in a hard work-out, increasing the weight again while keeping the high number of reps. I had a quick shower and headed outside.

Steph was waiting so we got into my car for the ride back. We entered my apartment and I led her to my bedroom and opened my closet, glad that I had cleaned up last night. She looked through my clothes and picked out a shirt Vicky had bought for me a while ago. Then she picked out some dress slacks and shoes and then went to my dresser and found a pair of dress socks and handed them to me.

"Ok, put those on and we'll see how you look," she commanded, before heading out to the kitchen.

I quickly got into the clothes she picked out, put my old clothes and my shoes in a bag and then went out to have her inspect me. She got up from the chair in the kitchen and came over. She picked off a couple pieces of lint, straightened out my collar and kept a hand on my arm as she looked up at me.

"Wow, you look great Michael, if I do say so myself," she said with a wistful smile.

"Thanks Stephanie," I said. "So I pass muster?"

"Yep, you are going to impress the ladies for sure," she said.

"Good, now it's time to get back to school," I replied. "I'll drop you off at the main campus, though I'd like it if you were with me for the conference at two thirty."

"I'm glad you want me there, so do the twins," she informed me with a grin.

"Really? That's good," I said.

"Ok, let's get going," she directed me, grabbing my hand and leading the way to the door.

I locked the door after exiting my apartment and we headed upstairs. I unlocked the doors with the remote and opened the passenger side door for her. After shutting it after her, I got in the driver's side and we quickly drove to the main campus.

"I'm going to see if I can get a private room for the conference, but I'll meet you outside the cafeteria at twenty after ok?" I asked her.

"Sounds good, Mikey," she replied.

I pulled into the parking lot near her next class and let her out before heading to the arena. I got changed and headed out to the ice and found Frank.

"Hey Frank, how's it going?" I asked.

"Good Mike, and you?" he replied.

"Pretty good thanks," I said. "Is there a room I can use somewhere to do a web conference with the twins at two thirty? I can use the cafeteria but I would like something a bit more private if you have it."

"Sure, I'll get you the key after practice," he said. "Head out a bit early if you need to. Everything all right with you guys?"

"Sure is now," I replied. "Thanks Frank."

I skated away and joined the guys shooting on Bob and Josh before they called us together and started our drills. We practiced special teams play and then some defensive coverage before having a scrimmage. I left early to have a shower and get dressed in my good clothes before hunting up Frank.

"Looking sharp Mike, it must be important," he said. "Here is the key to the upstairs conference room. You should be able to hook up to the big screen with your laptop if you want to."

"Thanks Frank," I told him. "I'll make sure to lock it up and return the key next practice."

"Alright, good luck, and say hi to Vicky for me," he said.

"I will," I replied and rushed to the cafeteria to find Steph.

She was there waiting and she had changed into a dark skirt and jacket combo with a white blouse underneath which looked both professional and sexy.

"Damn, you look very businesslike, yet gorgeous at the same time," I told her, looking her up and down.

"Thank you kind sir," she replied, looking pleased at my compliment and did a little twirl for me.

"Damn woman, that skirt makes you look so hot," I admitted without thinking.

"Michael Stewart, you're not supposed to say that about me," she said blushing while looking around warily, "especially when we're in public Mikey."

"Sorry, but you know how much I like looking at you in just jeans, now you look even sexier," I said with a grin.

"Thanks, Mikey, but we're both taken so let's use our inner voice for those thoughts," she reminded me.

"Fine, but I'm still going to look at you. Alright, I got the key to the conference room upstairs so let's go and set up quickly," I said.

I led the way and we found the room down a hallway. I opened it up with Frank's key and then locked the door behind us. I moved to the table and pulled out my laptop, connecting it to the projector and then powering them both up. The projector showed everything that was on my screen up on the big screen so that was nice. I started up the software after connecting to the wireless network and waited until it was up and running.

"Ok, we're ready at this end once I send the signal to connect to the conference," I told her. "The only camera I have is in the laptop so you will have to sit beside me for them to see you. Anything we need to discuss before we connect? We have a few minutes if you want."

"Come here and let me straighten you up first," she said. "I have my instructions from the twins."

She grabbed a brush out of her bag and fixed my hair and then straightened out my collar and smoothed out the wrinkles. She tucked in my shirt more and made sure it was tight to my body in front. After looking at my pleats in my pants and brushing off some lint, she pronounced me passable. I was getting turned on by her attention and her hands on me as I watched her work and stared down her blouse. She noticed the bulge growing and blushed as she looked at it for a second before looking up at me.

"Sorry, your hands felt good and the view was spectacular again," I said.

"Mikey, I'm going to be helping you with your clothes and appearance from now on," she told me. "Are you going to be able to handle that maturely?"

"Who decided that?" I asked.

"The twins asked me to help out a bit" she replied. "So, can you stand me being close to you in private situations when you may be less than fully dressed?"

"Steph, contrarily to popular opinion, I am just a normal eighteen year old guy, who still gets excited when a beautiful woman is close and especially when she touches me. I guess the question is whether you can handle it?"

"I can be professional about it," she said and took a deep breath. "Ok, here are your instructions from Vicky. Be friendly but professional, keep out the personal stuff from the meeting, it could be recorded. No 'I love you' or any sexy talk, and for God's sake, don't try to make any jokes Michael."

"Is that from them or from you?" I asked.

"Both, you really need help in that department and we don't have that kind of time," she said with a smirk.

"Ok, wiseass, I'm connecting now," I said, clicking on the link.

Half a minute later, having put in the appropriate password, we were let into the conference. Our screen was broken into four, with the twins and Amy in the top left, another woman in the top right, which I assumed was their agent Claudia, a guy and a woman in the bottom left, presumably the agency reps, and Steph and I in the bottom right. Amy was a pretty redhead with glasses, wearing a nice green business suit and she had a friendly smile for us. Claudia was an older woman, probably at least thirty, but still pretty and also dressed in a nice blouse and jacket. The twins were in matching white blouses that made them look so elegant.