Unknown Beginning

Part 3

In the following weeks Kenny had given Riley a rundown of their teammates including their names, year, position, and personality. Riley was doing her best to remember but it was a lot of information and at this point she would be happy just to remember faces and names. On top of that, Riley's soccer team was doing really well and was headed to the play-offs. Kenny, being the great friend she was, went to every home game she could to cheer on Riley who usually played the entire game without any substitutions. After their most recent home game victory, Kenny found Riley, congratulated her on the win and said "Even though you're missing pre-season stuff you're probably going to be in the best shape out of everyone".

Riley laughed "Yeah well I definitely run and sprint a lot playing outside midfield but I still need to do some hockey specific training."

"From the sounds of it you're better than everyone without training so I think you'll be fine" Kenny reassured her.

Riley gave her a playful push "I'm not the good! Your coach must have looked in to some other player by mistake!"

"Sure ok, superstar" Kenny teased as they headed back to their dorm.

The only downside to Kenny being Riley's insight into the hockey team was that Kenny wasn't close friends with any of her teammates and her shy, sweet nature meant she didn't hear any of the unrest that may have been brewing about Riley joining the team. Which meant that Riley was wholly unprepared when she got on the ice with her new team for the first time. Coach V had wanted to start getting everyone familiar with each other on this ice and this was the first time Riley met most of the team as she had been missing the conditioning and 'dry' (off the ice) practices due to her soccer commitments.

When Coach V brought the team together before practice to introduce the new teammates, Riley and six first-years, most of her teammates seemed to avoid looking at her. Kenny was fairly oblivious to this but Riley's suspicions were confirmed when she got bare minimum interactions the rest of practice.

Riley didn't say much after practice until Kenny threw an arm over her shoulder as they walked to their dorm and asked "You ok bud?"

Riley nodded slowly "Yeah, just thinking about how this season is going to go with everyone avoiding me."

"They'll warm up to you" Kenny reassured "They just don't know you yet and are probably intimidated."

"Or they are annoyed that I came in last minutes as a sophomore without even trying out and will mess up their team" Riley corrected.

"Maybe" Kenny conceded, "but I think you'll win them over. Plus positions and lines haven't even been decided yet so there's nothing for them to be upset about".

"Yet." Riley brooded, knowing there was a very good chance she'd be starting and potentially taking over an established player's position.

Always the optimist, Kenny replied "Hey don't think like that. Plus you have your soccer finals coming up, you gotta focus on winning that first."

"Yeah ok" Riley muttered half-heartedly as she linked her arm into Kenny's for the remainder of the walk.