Sorry for the delay. I am possibly the worst co-writer in the world and that's the reason for why it took forever to finish my part. Kristine finished her part weeks ago, so it's all my fault. Sorry!

Hope you enjoy it!

/Cimmy & Kristine

Chapter Two

Connie Moreau applied make up to her face and explained her situation to roommate and good friend, Julie Gaffney.

Julie and Connie, the only two girls on the Ducks hockey team, shared a room by default. The team had been moved to the dorms after Coach Orion had decided it would be easier for them to be on campus all the time rather than have to rush back and forth between their homes and the school. That was a forty-five minutes commute for some of the Ducks. Julie, being from out of state, had a dorm already. She'd had another roommate who'd transferred out to another school, and Connie had moved in about a week later. Nobody had asked either of them anything about the kind of roommate they preferred, they had just been stuck together on the assumption that since they were the only two girls on the JV hockey team, they were also best friends. As far as both were concerned, it was lucky they liked each other.

"But Connie," Julie said as she tried to talk Connie out of this date next Friday for the third time, "He's Rick Riley. What could you possibly have in common?"

"Hockey," Connie answered simply, putting on some mascara. "You can't talk me out of this, Julie, stop trying." Julie sighed, and Connie continued, "Besides, it'll be good for me. It's been a while since I went out on a date with anyone who wasn't Guy."

"Have you ever gone out with someone who isn't Guy?" Julie asked.

"Well, no," Connie admitted. She hadn't ever gone out with anyone besides Guy. Not seriously anyway. Nobody else had ever asked her, seriously, and not been rejected. If he bothered her about it, Guy told him to back off. If he continued bothering her about it, Guy threw some punches. It was that simple. "But that doesn't mean this can't work out."

"If it was anybody else, I'd agree, but this is Rick Riley," Julie said again and sighed. "What did Guy have to say about it all, anyway?"

"He seemed okay with it, from what I could tell," Connie said. "He did look a little pale though…and he was in a hurry to get away from me not long after I told him. He'd said that he'd wanted to talk to me, but took off before even mentioning whatever it was he wanted to talk about."

"He's probably just worried that Rick Riley has got other motivations to ask you out other than that he really likes you," Julie said, sounding slightly nervous about the whole thing again.

"Actually, Julie, I tend to agree with you that Rick's got ulterior motives in asking me out. What, he goes from mortal enemy to wanting to get to know me better in a month? I mean, come on," Connie said.

Connie did have doubts about whether or not Rick's desire to "get to know the prettiest girl in the freshman class" as he put it, was genuine. It'd hardly been a month since the JV/Varsity showdown, and it didn't seem likely that Rick Riley, who'd given Connie and her friends such grief, would do a complete one eighty like that just because he thought she was pretty. She still looked the same way she had before the JV/Varsity showdown, what had changed?

"So why are you going out with him?" Julie asked, lying back on her bed and looking at the ceiling.

Connie hesitated for a moment. Why was she going out with him? "Because maybe he doesn't have ulterior motives. Maybe he is trying to be nice. Maybe he does like me," she said, and while it sounded convincing, she wasn't sure she fooled herself or Julie with her reply.

"You answered why he would go out with you, not the other way around," Julie said, sitting up on her bed again.

Connie was tired of being asked questions she couldn't answer. "I don't know why I'm going out with him," she said. "He's good looking, and he's a senior, and he's…he's not…"

"He's not Guy?" Julie finished the sentence she'd been reluctant to end herself.

"Well, yeah, there's that too," Connie said, biting her lower lip. "But that's not the only reason."

Connie had been struggling to get over Guy since the day they broke up. It was hard for her to lose him, and while there'd been a lot less yelling between the two of them and their relationship had healed since then, Connie was still reluctant to let Guy back into her life. They treated each other the same way they'd always had, but it was still different now. It was too hard for her to be "just friends" with him, and while she'd be open to giving it another shot as boyfriend and girlfriend, if they'd broken up during the first truly hard time they'd ever gone through, what chance did they really have together? And breaking up over and over again would just be difficult on them. It was just too hard for her. Connie would have rather just been in pain without Guy than cause both of them pain over and over. Guy seemed okay with their relationship right now, anyway. Why should she hold him back? The best way to go about it would be to get to the point where she was also okay with their relationship.

"I get the part about trying to get over Guy. We've been over that part of it a lot," Julie said, when Connie didn't elaborate. She continued, "It's just…it's Rick Riley. He's the same Varsity goon that tried to get us thrown out of school the first two months of this school year. How can he change so fast?"

"I don't know, Julie," Connie said. "But he did say he wanted to get to know me, so who knows? And besides, big Varsity goons aren't the end of the world. You've got one," Connie grinned, referring to Julie's relationship with Scooter.

"I don't have one," Julie said, shaking her head. "I've gone out with him a couple times, that's all."

"He adores you," Connie smiled, "Maybe you should go out with him more often."

"Yeah, yeah, maybe. I don't know," Julie sighed. "I'm suspicious of Scooter's motives too, to be honest."

"Why? He's certainly a kinder person than Rick ever was," Connie said.

"I don't know. I guess I just don't trust a lot of people," Julie shrugged. "But we're not talking about me right now. We did that last weekend. We're talking about you now."

"I have an idea," Connie said tiredly, "Let's talk about something else and go grab some food."

Julie let out a breath and said, "Sure, I'm hungry…but I still think going out with Rick Riley is a bad idea."

Julie jumped off her bed and walked out the door of their shared room, mumbling something about disasters waiting to happen.

Connie rolled her eyes but didn't say anything. Julie apologized for being so negative, but she said again that she just thought it was a bad idea. Connie didn't say it out loud, but no matter how she tried to convince Julie and herself otherwise, she thought Julie was probably right.

Scott had never been particularly close friends with Rick Riley. Had they not been on the same team, Scooter was quite sure they'd be rivals – even more so than they were now, that was. Their parents weren't fond of each other either, so the rivalry had always been there.

But it was one thing to greatly dislike a member of his team and another to betray someone's trust. Scooter valued being part of his team very much, and had never been anything but loyal to it. Even though some of the players on the team were flat-out morons, he still considered them, and himself, to be a unit. To be loyal to one's team was more important than any grudges.

He knew something was up, though. Riley's intentions were never as genuine as he tried to make them look. Ever since Scooter had started talking more with Julie, he'd also been cut off from the plotting and scheming against the Ducks. He could always tell when they'd been discussing the J/V team, as the other players fell completely silent each time he stepped into the room.

Scooter was well-aware how badly Riley wanted to get even with the Ducks. As much as he knew that, though, he was still at loss when it came to the Moreau situation. Riley hadn't ever mentioned this girl before he unexpectedly asked her out. Scooter thought it had to be part of a much larger plan of revenge, but Riley never hinted that it was anything more – the word would've gotten out about it by now if it was.

Scooter didn't have anything against Connie, or the Ducks, personally. The thing was that even if he knew Riley was out to destroy every Duck in sight, he couldn't do much about it. Riley's father was a powerful man, and part of the school's alumni. Scooter knew that his word alone wouldn't weigh much against Riley's, and as it were, the more internal conflicts they team had, the more disgrace they'd bring to it – something they really couldn't afford right now.

Yes, loyalty was a big thing for Scooter. He wasn't sure he was willing to betray the team he'd belonged to for so long, only to get back at Riley. Personal vendettas weren't things they had time for. They had to hold up the reputations of the team and the school - and so far, they'd done an awful job.

There was just that one thing, which seemed more important than everything else put together. What Julie Gaffney thought of him meant so much more.

And he knew that would become a problem soon.