Quiet vs. Loud

Questions

Riker's POV

After I told Rayne that I had something to ask her tonight, I ran out and got in the van.  Usually I sit with Rocky, but he was already sitting in the back of the van with Ratliff, so I climbed in beside Ryland.  Ross was in the passenger seat and Dad was driving.  I turned and looked at Rocky. "What's up man?" You usually sit here so we can plan our strategy and also so we can pick on Ross.  Are you worried about something?" I said the last part with a slight grin, and that grin grew bigger when I saw Rocky's face go pale.  "No, everything's fine.  I just sat back here since I was one of the first ones to get to the van."  "OK" I told him and then I turned around and started talking to Ross.

Once we got to the hockey arena, we unloaded all our equipment and went inside.  Dad had reserved one of the smaller practice rinks since it was just the 6 of us, so we went to our assigned rink.  When we got there, we all put on our skates and pads, grabbed our sticks and helmets and hit the ice.  We spent a few minutes just skating around and taking practice shots.  After a few minutes, I called everyone over to the bench.  "We need to go ahead and decide on teams so we can get this started.  If no one objects, I say that Dad and I are team captains since we are the oldest ones here."  Everyone agreed so then Dad and I picked our teams.  Dad picked Ratliff and I chose Ryland.  That left Ross and Rocky.  Normally, I have Rocky on my team, but I wanted to watch him squirm.  "I choose Ross." I said and looked at Rocky waiting to see what he would do.  As I expected, he looked shocked and a little scared.  Ross was the goalie for our team and Ratliff was the goalie was his team's goalie.  The game itself was hilarious.  Every time I skated anywhere near Rocky, he either stumbled and fell or, if he had the puck, he would just kinda stop and I would be able to steal the puck.  I knew Dad and Ratliff were getting upset with him for playing so bad, but I thought it was funny.  That's what he gets for interrupting me and my hopefully soon-to-be girlfriend.

After a few games, which my team won all of, we decided to call it quits.  We packed all of our equipment, then we decided to head home.  On the way, we stopped and grabbed some lunch.  I wanted to text Rayne, but I didn't want to interrupt her girls' day.  Besides, I wanted to plan something special for tonight when I talked to Rayne.  When we all had our food, we sat down and started eating, but I just picked at my food.  "What's going on today Riker?" Dad asked as he watched my just play with my food.  "I just have a lot on my mind." I told him.  " I want to ask Rayne to be my girlfriend, and I want it to be really special when I ask her, but I can figure out how I want to ask her.  Any of you guys have any ideas?" I looked at all the guys.  We all just looked at each other for a few minutes, then Dad spoke up.  " If you really want it to be special, you should try to include something that she is interested in.  What kinds of things does she like?"  "Well," I answered "she like dogs, baseball, sand sculpting and, of course, sign language."  "Hey, I have an idea" Ratliff suddenly said.  "You could write out what you want to say on a wooden board, then cut that into a puzzle.  When she puts it together, she will have the question."  "That's cool" Rocky said, "but I have a way to expand on that.  You could write it out with pictures of the hand signs for each letter.  That way, you use something that she loves.  We could get pictures of the hand signs and print them out and glue them to the board, then cut it into puzzle pieces."  "I think that's a great idea." I told Rocky.  "Were you this creative when you asked Alexa to be your girlfriend?  "No, I just asked her after one of our first dates." he said. 

"When I asked Savannah out, I used balloons." Ryland said.  "I had a whole bunch of balloons, and in some of them I put confetti, and in others, I put notes about things I love about Savannah.  Then, in the largest balloon, I had another balloon inside of it that had the question on it.  By the time she got to that balloon, she had confetti all over her room, but she also had a stack of notes telling her what I loved about her."