dogdaysareover: Thanks, glad you liked Riley's interaction with the guys. There will be lots more to come.

NellieBly413672: I'm glad you liked the interaction between Riley and the guys and how I wrote their different opinions. Thanks for the review!

LTJM: Thanks so much for the review! Glad you liked it.

A/N: Well, I'm back from Europe and I had a blast! As promised, here's the next chapter. The character, Emma, that's introduced at the end of the chapter will become a bigger part of the story in upcoming chapters. Anyway, please read and review!

Chapter 3: Getting to Know You

The morning after Riley's fun night meeting the guys, she woke up early again to go to the rink. Although it was early, she was actually late waking up, so she had to get ready fast. She didn't want to see the side of Herb the guys saw if she was late or something.

When Riley arrived at the rink, Herb went right upstairs while Riley headed toward the ice. Nearing the locker room, she noticed a few guys walking in that she remembered meeting the previous night. Although Riley was still learning names, she knew they were from Minnesota. There were too many names to remember all at once.

"Hey guys," she said, walking up behind them.

"Hey Riley," the guy who Riley thought she remembered as Bah, answered. "How are you this morning?"

"Pretty good," she answered.

"I'm surprised you're not feeling last night," Bah commented, thinking she had quite a bit to drink. "I guess you're not a light weight. Well anyway, see you after practice," he said with a shrug, then walked into the locker room with his friends. Bah knew a lot of the guys had opinions one way or another about Riley, but he didn't feel he knew her well enough to form an opinion. Either way, he didn't want to ignore her. She was helping with the team, and whether he liked her or not, he still felt he had to treat her amiably.

If you only knew, Riley thought about Bah's previous comment. She was just glad her plan to not let the guys notice her lack of drinking worked.

In the middle of practice when the guys were doing suicides, which Riley noticed they had already renamed "Herbies," Herb called her down to join him on the ice.

"I could use your help on the ice. There are skates in the locker room that should fit you. Riley's face lit up at the thought of helping on the ice, and practically sprinted to the locker room to get the skates. She returned minutes later, ready to go. Riley hadn't skated in a while, and she just hoped she wasn't too rusty.

"Riley, put these cones on the ice," Herb told her, handing her orange parking cones. "Just stagger them around wherever."

Wherever? She thought, but didn't argue. What Herb said went. Riley took the cones and started putting them around the ice, guessing it was for some kind of drill. Herb was explaining something to the guys while Riley was putting the cones out.

The guys started the drill, and Riley got really confused watching them. She had no idea what they were doing. At times, she almost thought the guys didn't have much of a clue either.

After they were done skating around the cones, sort of chasing each other, Herb had Riley pick the cones up, while he explained to the team what was going to happen next. Riley was a little upset that Herb only wanted her on the ice to move cones around. This isn't what I signed up for, she thought. Well, at least I'm on skates. I'll give the guys something to talk about.

With that thought, Riley picked up the last of the cones and did a twirl. When she saw two of the guys she didn't know yet looking over at her, she continued with her stunts and tried more.

Riley grabbed a stick from the bench and started moving a puck around the ice. She pulled off a few moves, trying to impress the growing number of people watching her now. Riley noticed at least six pairs of eyes on her, instead of paying attention to Herb. Now for my next move. This will be interesting. One time, she was at a Blackhawks game and saw a player skate with the puck, stop it, then jump over it and pull it from behind to keep skating with it. She never tried it, but she knew it would look really cool, and she figured it couldn't be that hard.

It was a lot harder than Riley thought though, instead of jumping over the puck, she ended up stepping on the puck and tripping. She couldn't catch herself, and fell flat on the ice.

The guys that had been watching her snickered, and now everyone's eyes were on her because the fall was loud.

Even worse, she pissed off Herb. "Riley – bench. NOW!"

Riley picked herself up off the ice, along with the stick and puck. As she skated to the bench, Herb made another comment.

"If you're not mature enough to handle being on the ice without disrupting my practice, you won't be on the ice at all."

"I fell," Riley said, with a slight attitude.

"Because you were fooling around," Herb stated sternly.

How did he know? Riley thought to herself.

"I have eyes in the back of my head," Herb said, almost as if he had heard her.

Riley sulked on the bench for the rest of practice. What am I, five? Riley wondered. Not only did I make a fool out of myself, but I proceeded to get embarrassed and yelled at by my uncle. As if falling wasn't bad enough.

As soon as practice was over, Herb called Riley to his office, and Riley knew he was going to talk to her more about what happened earlier. She reluctantly followed him, not really caring what he had to say. It's not like I would do it again, even without Herb calling me out in front of 26 guys, it was embarrassing enough falling.

Locker room after practice...

"So, what do you think of Riley?" Mac asked Bah.

"Other than being a show-off?" Bah joked, then continued, "She's definitely got a mouth on her. Now I know what OC meant when he said 'attitude problem'."

"Yeah," Mac said in agreement. "But I think all teens are mouthy."

"To their parents," Bah said. "I never talked back to anyone else in my family. And I would never think of giving attitude to people I didn't know, unless they really deserved it."

"Are you guys talking about Riley?" Silky asked, joining in their conversation.

"Yeah."

"Isn't she hot?" Silky asked.

"That's what I was thinking," agreed Mac.

"Hey, I saw her first," argued Silky.

"Whatever. Whoever can ask her out first is ahead."

"Not in my book," said Silky. "You asking her out, and her saying yes, won't stop me."

"Guys, Riley is seventeen," Bah reminded them.

"And she's not hot," added Buzz, who had been listening.

"No, she's not," added Bah. "Maybe sort of pretty, for a seventeen year old kid, but not hot."

"That's the reason she's so hot," commented Silky, like it was obvious and needed no further explanation.

"What? That she's not hot?" asked Buzz, confused.

"No, that she's a kid," he said. Then he added, "Think about it. Anyone of us guys that tells her she's hot, is bound to get some. After all, she's young and naive."

"Yeah, Riley wouldn't know the difference. Guys like us, telling her she's hot… she won't be able to resist," said Mac, smiling. Then he continued. "But, for the record, I do think she's hot."

"Yeah, you would," said Buzz. "I mean, who is it that hasn't got laid in over a year? Right now, you'd think a wooly mammoth has potential."

"Sure, make jokes. But I have been laid in the last year. I don't remember her name, but I do remember it was good."

"Obviously only for you. Cause I don't think she called back, did she?" Broten called out, laughing. The other guys nearby joined in laughing while Mac playfully pushed Broten back into the lockers.

Interrupting the guys from their conversation about Riley was Rizzo. "Hey guys. We have five minutes before we need to be upstairs for the meeting," he said, reminding them of the post practice team meeting.

"Thanks mom," Silky said, sarcastically, as he went back to his locker to grab his shirt.

The guys went to their hour long meeting, which was uneventful and boring as usual. Coach Patrick promised the meetings would get better when they began games and were able to watch game films. None of the guys really believed him though. Meetings were meetings and the definition of meetings was boring.

While the guys were walking back to the locker room afterward, Mac noticed a familiar looking red head on the treadmill in the weight room. He stopped at the window to watch for a minute. She was wearing a tight fitting blue racer back work out shirt with really short grey shorts.

"Whatcha looking at buddy?" Buzz asked walking up behind Mac. He followed Mac's eyes over to Riley. "Oooohh," Buzz said, in an understanding.

"You want that piece of ass?" Silky said, also noticing what Mac was looking at. "Good luck." Silky paused for a minute, then continued saying, "I don't think you have a chance." Before Mac could respond, Silky walked away toward the locker room to grab his stuff.

Mac was pissed at Silky when he got back to the locker room. He was also still trying to get someone else to admit Riley was hot, so he started a survey of everyone in the locker room.

"Hey Jimmy. Do you think Riley's hot?"

"No," he responded flatly.

"Rizzo, do you?"

"She's seventeen."

"So, the question was – do you think she's hot?"

"It's illegal," Rizzo said, as if Mac needed a reminder.

"I'm not asking if you want to sleep with her. Thinking she's hot is not illegal!"

"Well, she's not hot."

"Come on, she has red hair!" Mac said. "One of you Irish guys needs to think she's hot."

"I'm not Irish, I'm Italian," Rizzo exasperated.

"Whatever. You're from Boston, it's all the same," Mac said and shrugged. Rizzo rolled his eyes. "What about you, OC?" Mac continued, even though he knew OC wouldn't want to talk to him. Although surprisingly, OC did answer.

"I hate red heads almost as much as I hate Minnesotans," he said, making a bunch of the guys laugh. Mac was trying to determine if OC was serious, but decided he was being sarcastic. Mac turned to another group of guys to ask them about Riley.

"Why do you hate Riley so much, OC?" Rizzo asked. It wasn't that Rizzo liked her, because he didn't. Rizzo thought she was annoying, but he at least tried to be nice to the kid. The truth was he felt a little sorry for her. He didn't know details because Jimmy wouldn't tell him, but he did know that she didn't want to be in Minnesota.

"I never said I hated her. I said I hated red heads."

"Same difference," Rizzo said, rolling his eyes slightly. "But what did she do to you?"

"She came to help with the team."

"I don't think she had a choice, OC. I heard her mom made her move here. And she has to do something with her time."

"Well, she'll have school soon, won't she?" asked Silky.

"No, she's getting her GED or something, and then waiting a year for college. I don't think she wanted to change high schools," Jimmy explained.

"And she made that decision? Isn't that what parents are for?" OC asked.

"I think her mom feels sorry for her, so she can do pretty much whatever she wants," said Jimmy, shrugging, though he was just guessing. Herb told Jimmy that Riley's dad died recently, and although Jimmy's father never let him get away with murder after his mom died, every parent was different. Maybe Riley's mom let her do whatever she wanted now. When Herb told Jimmy about Riley's dad, he wasn't even sure if it was any of his business, but figured he was told because the two were in the same boat, both having lost a parent.

"Good. Now when I get some action from that little innocent red head, she won't get in trouble," said Silky.

"I don't think the girl's as innocent as we think."

"Why's that, OC?"

"Apparently, she gets around. She told me she's pretty experienced."

"Yeah right. I don't believe that for a second," said Silky. "Experienced my ass. I can tell she's shy underneath her little act. Shy girls aren't experienced."

"Was everything you told her last night a lie?" asked Bah, remembering some of the things Silky said to Riley.

"Yeah," Silky said. "Obviously," he snorted. "I don't think she's attractive-hot," Silky said, as if there were multiple versions of being hot.

"Should we invite her out again tonight?" wondered Rizzo. "We should be nice to her."

"No," said OC.

"Yes," said Silky at the same time.

Riley was walking to Herb's office after her workout when Rizzo stopped her.

"Hey Riley. Do you want to hang out with us again tonight? A bunch of the guys are coming to my room later on. I'm going to make some spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, and we'll probably play some cards or something after." Rizzo only asked because he thought that Riley might change once everyone got t know her. He thought that maybe she was only annoying because he didn't really know her that well.

"I'd love to come, but I have no way of getting there," Riley said, almost knowing Rizzo would have someone pick her up.

"I'm sure one of the guys would be happy to come get you," Rizzo said, though knowing it definitely wouldn't be OC. And he wanted to avoid asking Silky too, though it seemed he would be more than willing.

"Good. I don't think they'll mind if it means I'll be there," Riley said, thrilled to get an invite again.

"Someone will come over around five," Rizzo said, ignoring Riley's previous statement because he knew some guys would mind her coming after all.

"Okay, see you then."

Herb was on the phone when Riley went into his office. She sat down in the chair in front of his desk and waited for him to finish. A few seconds later, he hung up.

"Hi Riley. How is everything going?"

"Good," Riley said, wondering if he was going to mention anything else about the incident earlier at practice. When Riley went to see him immediately after practice, he actually didn't say much, and Riley was surprised. She figured he say more now, but maybe she was wrong.

"Do you like the guys?"

"Most of them. There are a few that I don't know that well yet. Tonight I'm going to Rizzo's room for dinner and to hang out." When Herb didn't say anything, she added in an unsure tone, "If that's okay."

"Sure, it's okay. I don't know what your mom will think, but I think it'll be good for you to hang out with the guys. Get to know 'em."

"Yeah. It's nice getting to know people here. Even though they're older than me, it doesn't feel like there's a big difference."

"Good, I'm glad you're fitting in. Luckily there is an age difference though. Otherwise, I'd have to worry about my players focusing on the wrong things. And I'd have to lecture you on the consequences of fraternizing with my players."

A drawn out "Yeah," was all that Riley said. Was I the only one who didn't think five years was too much of a difference? Riley would date some of the guys on the team in a heartbeat if given the opportunity. They were all so cute, and for some, incredibly hot was a better way to describe them. Even just looking at some of them made Riley feel electric sparks. It was thrilling, but at the same time, a little scary. No guy had ever turned her on that much before, but now there were a handful of guys that turned her on. Even OC turned her on in a weird way. He was so hot – but unfortunately he was such a cocky, egotistical jerk that she would never consider anything with him.

Riley wished she could talk to Jenna about the guys. She had no one to tell. There was a time, before her dad died, that Riley would actually talk to her mom, but not anymore. Riley remembered how she used to tell her mom almost everything about boys. Her crushes, her first experience in playing spin the bottle… but not now. If she told her mom anything about what she felt now, she knew her mom would say that Riley wasn't really "turned on" and what she was feeling was only the result of the "raging teenage hormones" and that it was only because there were "so many attractive guys all at once". Riley knew none of that was true though. She knew these guys were different because she felt differently around them.

After the guys were finished for the day, they started heading back to the dorms at the U. Rizzo needed to stop at the store first to pick up more sauce though. He usually liked making homemade sauce, but that was usually hard to do with the time constraints of the team schedule.

"Rizzo, wait up," Bah said, stopping him in the parking lot. "I have a slight problem."

"What is it?" Rizzo wondered, not knowing what a problem of Bah could possibly mean for him.

"It's my best friend Emma's birthday today. I forgot that I invited her and her friends over for a party tonight. Can we do the pasta night tomorrow instead?"

"Sure, if you really want my pasta I guess we could wait until tomorrow," Rizzo said, pretending to be really flattered that Bah wanted his pasta. Rizzo knew that Bah didn't really care about the pasta though, and that there was another reason for him bringing up the postponing of the dinner, but Rizzo wanted to tease him.

"Well, the thing is… I promised her a big party. And we'll need the common room-slash-lounge area for the food and everything."

"No problem," Rizzo said. "Do you need anything at the store? I'm going there anyway."

"Uh, yeah. Mind if I go with you?"

"No, not at all."

"Thanks, Rizzo," Bah said. "I can't believe I almost forgot. Emma would have killed me."

Rizzo just laughed, but Bah was half serious. She was bipolar. Well, not really, but Bah teased her and said she was all of the time. On one hand, Emma had quite a temper. She was stubborn, assertive, never hesitated speaking exactly what was on her mind, and never took crap from anyone. One the other hand, Emma could also be an emotional train wreck at times. Bah never knew if something was going to make her angry or make her unhappy.

Usually Emma saved her headstrong self for people she felt really confident around, and her weaker, unsure self for people she was uncomfortable around. She was usually stubborn and assertive around Bah. He knew that was part of the reason they were best friends. She was assertive, while he was submissive in comparison. Emma was almost high strung, where as Bah was relaxed and laid-back. The one thing Bah didn't understand was that Emma could sometimes hide her emotions even around him. Luckily, Bah could usually read Emma like an open book though, and knew what her reaction would be if he forgot her birthday.