Unknown Beginning

Part 11

In the morning while Kenny slept, Riley asked The Other Kelsey to stay nearby so she could go get Kenny food from the dining hall since she didn't know how long Kenny would sleep or how hungover she would be. Finally around 11am, Kenny woke to find Riley sitting at Kenny's desk doing homework. Hearing Kenny stir, Riley turned and said "Morning sleepyhead. When you're ready, there's water, gatorade, and cranberry juice waiting for you here" as she indicated the drinks next to her on the desk. Kenny groaned quietly as she rolled to her side and pulled the covers over her head.

"How're you feeling?" Riley asked

"Like death" came Kenny's muffled response, still under the blankets.

"I bet. You did some excellent puking last night and slept like the dead so I can only imagine"

Kenny poked her head out while the covers were now pulled tight around her head, framing her face "Can we not talk about puke please?"

"Right. You got it." Riley replied cheerfully. "How's your stomach?"

Kenny contemplated that before answering "Not bad but I haven't moved yet so..."

Riley draped an arm across the back of her chair then rested her chin on her forearm and suggested "Maybe you can try sitting up then? You can still stay in a blanket burrito."

" 'Try' being the key word" Kenny grimaced.

"I believe in you" Riley replied faithfully as she watched Kenny struggle into an upright position while keeping the blankets wrapped around her. Riley stood and held out the gatorade and water while she asked "So? How's your body feeling?"

Kenny took the gatorade "Meh. Not as bad as I expected. Definitely have a headache and feel run down and my stomach isn't perfect but I'm actually kind of hungry".

Riley grinned "Look at you being the little trooper. Well drink some gatorade first and then we can choose what you want to eat from the wide selection I have stolen for you" as she gestured through the bedroom doorway to the counter that was covered in food.

"Dang Riles, did you leave any food at the dining hall for other people?"

Riley scoffed "Why would I do that? You are the priority here".

Kenny shook her head, still smiling and said "Alright, what are my options?"

__

By Sunday night Kenny was feeling much better and had even gotten some homework done due to Riley's diligent studies rubbing off on her. "Think you'll be back to normal for practice tomorrow?" Riley inquired when she closed her books for the night.

"Ugh I don't even want to think about that" Kenny grumbled as she curled into a ball on Riley's bed.

"Well let's both get to bed early and we can start fresh tomorrow." Riley suggested, relocating all the books and binders from the bed.

"Deal" Kenny replied, yawning as she scooted over, making room for Riley to lay next to her.

__

Classes and practice dragged on Monday. It seemed most people were recovering from the Halloween weekend. Tuesday was a little better but passed much the same. Wednesday's practice however went less smoothly. James had still been avoiding Riley but they hadn't been put in the situation to interact much the previous two practices. Yet on Wednesday they had been paired together repeatedly for a passing drill and Riley could tell James was setting her up to fail every time. This meant Riley was already annoyed when they began their scrimmage.

Maybe if James and Riley hadn't been playing against each other things would have turned out differently but that wasn't the case. Any chance James got, she was hitting Riley with her body or stick, even almost tripping Riley a few times. Riley diligently continued playing with her typical, rough, yet respectful style until she finally broke after a particularly hard hit form James followed by "Should have stayed at Harvard, princess." when Riley didn't even have the puck. Riley took her revenge when James skated to a corner with the puck. Riley aggressively checked James into the boards then pinned her there until a teammate easily took the puck since Riley was only focused on James. When James struggled to turn away from the boards to face Riley, Riley brought her stick up as she held it horizontally, in a crosscheck position with both hands, and pressed it across James' chest and used it to pin her back into the boards. Glaring up at James, who stood two inches taller than Riley at 5'7" without skates, Riley spat "Don't dish it if you can't take it, princess" sneering the last word.

James' cage was mere inches from Riley's as she fought against Riley's stick and body weight to free herself. Yet James didn't reply and instead just glowered down at Riley angrily. Riley opened her mouth to provoke James further when she felt her teammates pull her off James as Coach V and Coach Hawk, an assistant coach, moved in between Riley and James. Kenny and two girls were working to push/pull Riley further away from James, across the ice. "Get off me" Riley snarled, pulling her body free as she skated roughly in a pacing motion, still glaring at James.

"Riley!" Coach V shouted "Locker room! Now!"

"Fuck this" Riley muttered as she turned to skate off the ice. Kenny made to follow her until Coach V yelled "Kelsey Kennedy, you stay here". Kenny stopped in her tracks as she watched Riley storm off the ice without looking back.

Riley couldn't think straight. She didn't care what happened now. She didn't look at her team before she swung the door to the locker room open. With her gloves still on, she punched a locker. Then another. Before pacing a few times, still wearing her skates.

Riley was tired of all the bullshit. The first few weeks had been bad enough with the whole team hating her but at least most of them were either neutral or borderline nice to her now. Why was James still treating her like this? James was one of the captains, shouldn't she be setting an example? 'I'm not putting up with this anymore' Riley thought as she removed her equipment. Not knowing if Coach V was coming or not, Riley changed into gym clothes and went to the gym to run off her fury with sprints on the treadmill.