Chapter Fourteen-Changing Times

Kelsey quickly skated the twenty laps that Coach Orion had instructed the team to complete as warm up. The vigorous exercise was doing an excellent job of keeping her mind off of things now that school was back in session. It was now the 28th of November, and so many things were happening in Kelsey's life.

After a week of constant arguing, her father and Marion had agreed that the marriage just wasn't working out. After consulting their lawyers, the divorce was on its way to court. Though Marion had been demanding many things prior to the papers being drawn up, both parties agreed to an amicable split that allowed them to keep what belonged to each individual. Kelsey was quite shocked that Marion could be so mature, but she wasn't at all sad to see her go. Her father was much happier without the headache of dealing with his uncaring second wife, and he had a renewed vigor to go back to work.

Along with the improved happiness in the Paris household, also came the addition of the settlement from the accident that had injured Caleb. To keep the news of the senator's son's drunk driving from the media, they had quickly agreed to pay for Caleb's hospital bills, but also gave him a large settlement to keep quiet about the incident. The insurance company reimbursed Caleb for the car, and as soon as he was cleared to return to driving and work, he went out and bought a brand new, black 2006 Audi A8L. Though Caleb had never been one to boast of his wealth, he had changed his mind about how he spent his money. As a self-made millionaire, he had always walked a line between having nice things and living frugally. After his near death experience, though, he had decided that what good was it to have a few million dollars in the bank if you weren't going to spend some of it?

Of course, most of Eden Hall was now buzzing about Kelsey's newly revealed wealth. As she had predicted, many people decided to deem her worthy of their presence once they knew her father was rich. However, her father was right, and none of the Ducks had changed their opinion of her. She knew who her real friends were, and she was more than happy to tell the people who only saw her for her money where exactly they could go.

After the practice was over, Kelsey followed the rest of her team members into the locker room. While the guys waited out in the main locker room, the three girls went to take their showers. Though slightly miffed that they had ditched her, Connie understood the whole situation when they had talked about it the Monday after the party. They were all back on good terms, something that Kelsey was grateful for. With new people cropping up daily, it helped to have her real friends be there for her.

"Where are my clothes?" Julie angrily asked as the other two turned the water from their shower stalls off.

All three had walked into the shower room with their towels, shower accessories, and clean clothing.

Kelsey looked dismally down as she noticed that her jeans, underwear, and sweater were missing as well. The pile of dirty undergarments, shorts, and tank top was also missing. After wrapping the towel around her, she looked around the other stalls as her fellow females came out with their towels wrapped around them.

"They even stole our practice clothes!" Connie nearly shrieked.

"I'm going to kill them." Julie said through gritted teeth.

"At least they left the towels. I'm going out there." Kelsey stated as she walked towards the door.

"…and, this one says 34C." Averman gleefully read, as Kelsey opened the door.

She quickly, but silently, closed the door and walked back to her female friends.

"Well, the clowns are definitely in on it." she informed the fuming girls.

"Pigs."

"They disgust me."

"They must think we'll come out there like this." Julie hissed. "I'm not even giving them the pleasure."

The three silently thought of ways to get their things back and to punish the boys. Before any of them could formulate a solid plan, there was a soft tapping on the exit door of the locker room. Since the door could only be opened from inside of the locker room, it meant they would have to risk being seen in order to see who was outside of the door.

Kelsey volunteered to open it as Connie and Julie followed. The three were very surprised to see three clean looking t-shirts shoved through the space that Kelsey had created in the doorway. This was followed by several pairs of workout shorts, and what looked to be stolen sports bras from the cheerleaders' locker room.

"Do I even want to know?" Kelsey asked as she used her right foot to move the clothes out of the doorway.

"Hey, they're clean." she could hear Fulton say defensively. "We got them from the laundry room."

The laundry room was actually a portion of the laboratory for the home economics courses offered at Eden Hall. The teacher and students used the school uniforms to practice doing laundry, as well as to save the school the fees for dry cleaning hundreds of uniforms. While many of the students were from the upper class of Minneapolis, there were several students who were from the middle class or on scholarship that opted to take the course to teach them household skills. Plus, it was an easy A, so that was an incentive for a lot of her peers to take the class.

"And, what incentive do you have to help us?" Julie questioned as she opened the door fully after they had managed to change into the clothes.

Luckily, the exit door opened out into a deserted hallway; well, mostly deserted since Fulton, Kenny, and Portman were nervously standing outside of it.

"Because I don't want to get my ass kicked when you sock it to those morons." Portman offered casually, as he leaned against the wall.

"To be fair, the three of us were speaking with Coach Orion about a new defensive play." Kenny added as he looked down at his feet.

"Who all is in on this?" Julie demanded.

"The usual, I'm sure." Connie said as she closed the door behind them.

"Averman, Goldberg, Guy, and Luis."

"Figures." Julie mumbled under her breath.

Connie looked really hurt when she heard Guy's name.

"And the others?" Kelsey inquired, crossing her arms.

"No clue. I just know they were for sure in there when we were in the office with coach." Fulton answered hesitantly. "Banks probably ran off to the dorms after practice. He hates showering with the rest of the team."

"I can't imagine why." Julie said as she wrinkled her nose. "You smell so delightful."

"Well, as much as I love standing here in the hallway," Kelsey smiled, "I think we should go back into the locker room and see if those morons have decided to take their showers."

Five minutes later, they were standing in the deserted locker room, noting that the guys had left their clothes out in the locker area.

"Are you guys seriously this stupid?" Julie asked as the girls gathered up all of the clean clothes from the benches.

"Hey, we can change in front of each other. We're dudes." Fulton defended. "It would only be weird if chicks were changing in here."

Kelsey suppressed a laugh as she heard the distinct sound of water starting to run. "Let's give them a taste of their own medicine."

"I'm game." Julie said as she picked up a few empty gym bags. "We can just leave them their towels, and take everything else. I guess the uniforms have already been taken to the laundry?"

"Yeah, it was Charlie and Dwayne's turn to take them to the laundry room." Kenny answered as the girls feverishly made quick work of stealing the clean clothing.

"Good." Kelsey uttered as she tossed the boys' shoes into another bag for good measure.

"Let's go into the shower room and get the other stuff." Connie whispered as she opened the door.

Less than five minutes later, they were all standing outside of the locker room, the stolen items stuffed into three gym bags. After enlisting the help of Fulton and Portman to carry them, the group quickly made their way back to the dormitories, specifically to the dorm room that the Bash Brothers shared. Though Fulton had opted to live off of campus at the beginning of the year, he had decided to move back in when his mother's latest boyfriend had moved into their place. The dorm room was technically his, anyway, due to it being guaranteed in the scholarship, but like all of the students of Eden Hall Academy, he could live at home if it was not more than a twenty minute drive from the school.

"It is too cold for this crap." Julie said as she turned the thermostat on the heater up.

The horribly cold wind did not feel very good, especially when all they had on were thin t-shirts and shorts. Kelsey and Connie were standing close together in front of the warm heater, furiously rubbing their hands together.

"They should be grateful I'm not going to kick their asses." Kelsey said a few minutes later, when she regained feeling in her hands.

She went to one of the twin beds and grabbed her blue gym bag, which contained the clothing that belonged to herself, Julie, and Connie. Since they didn't want to risk staying around in the locker room for too long, they had only put their sneakers on before coming to the dormitory building. She unzipped it and took out her clean clothes, along with the other two girls'.

"The bathroom is just down the hall." Fulton said as he opened the door.

Ten minutes later, the females of the group came back into the sweltering room, fully dressed in their casual clothes. Kelsey placed the neatly folded clothes that they had all been wearing onto one of the beds and went to the window.

"Anyone want to get some food?"

"I have a huge physics test to study for." Kenny said. "If I didn't, I would definitely go."

"Oh, crap, I almost forgot about that!" Julie exclaimed. "Study buddies?"

Kenny nodded, and the two left to go to their dorm rooms to get what they needed for their study session.

"I'm game." Connie said as she pulled her hair back into a messy ponytail. "I have nothing going on."

Kelsey grabbed her gym bag and looked at their male companions. "Want to join us? It's my treat."

"I still need to take a shower." Fulton mumbled.

"That's fine." Kelsey said. "Connie and I will just wait in my car. And, you can come, if you want." She directed at Portman casually.

After notifying the front desk that she was leaving, Kelsey and Connie started across the front lawn of the school to get to her car. The two had been discussing the upcoming Winter Formal, when they noticed some towel-clad teenagers coming out of the main school building. Trying to keep a straight face, the pair continued to her car, coming into brief contact with the boys.

"What happened?" Connie feigned innocence.

"Someone took our clothes!" Guy said angrily.

Kelsey bit her lip to keep from laughing. "Who on earth would do such a thing?"

"I don't know, but I bet it was Russ or somebody." Goldberg accused as the four young men left to get to their dorms.

Kelsey and Connie nearly ran to last few feet to the parking lot, and burst out laughing as they got into the BMW.

"I can't believe they haven't realized it was us."

"They probably think we got the other guys to do it."

Ten minutes later, the clean and decent smelling Bash Brothers joined them.

"Did you tell them we stole their clothes?" Fulton accused as the duo piled into the backseat.

"Why would we do that?" Kelsey questioned as she put the car into reverse and pulled out of the spot.

"Yeah, you helped us, for once." Connie quipped as Kelsey began driving out of the parking lot and towards downtown Minneapolis. "Goldberg said he thought Russ did it."

"Well, they saw us in the lobby and accused us of it."Fulton said as he rolled his eyes.

"I think I cleared things up when I threatened to turn them into pretzels." Portman said offhandedly.

"Must you two always be so violent?" Connie asked as the school building faded in the distance.

"No, but what good would it do if we were nice?" Portman retorted.

"Chill, dude." Fulton said before looking at Connie. "You know they would act worse if we didn't act tough."

"True." Connie remarked as she turned back to the front. "I guess keeping half the team scared of you helps keep other people scared of playing us."

They sat in silence for the rest of the short ride. Traffic was not nearly as bad as it had been during the summer, so they arrived in the heart of downtown within twenty minutes. After locking the car up, Kelsey followed the others into the busy pizza shop. Since it had the best pizza in Minneapolis, it was expected that it would be busy at seven o'clock in the evening.

"So, what should we get?" Kelsey asked as they stared at the menus fifteen minutes later.

She was sitting in the red booth with Connie to her left, Fulton in front of Connie, and Portman in directly in front of her. She was not entirely sure as to why this was the seating arrangement, but she wasn't going to complain. Connie did not know as much as Julie did about the situation, but she had picked up on the palpable tension between the blond and muscular bad boy. After the near screaming match the pair had gotten into the previous week, when Portman had innocently checked Kelsey to keep her from scoring a goal during practice, Connie was certain there was a lot more going on besides Kelsey's original excuse of him being a bully on the ice.

"Whatever you want, babe. You're the one who's payin'." Portman uttered from behind his menu.

Kelsey could nearly feel her blood boiling. She knew that 'babe' was his term for just about every girl on the planet, but she did not appreciate being called that. Especially after the emotional debacle that he had put her in since September, Kelsey did not want to be called anything other than her name.

Instead of kicking him and screaming, Kelsey gritted her teeth. "I guess we could get a deep dish with pepperoni, mushrooms, and-"

"Bacon!" Connie and Fulton both exclaimed together.

After sheepish grins on their parts, and quizzical looks from both Kelsey and Portman, the blond agreed, "And, bacon. Pitcher of Pepsi?"

"Make it two." came the gruff reply from in front of her.

"Be back in a few." she said as she went up to the counter to place the order for their table.

"Thanks for dinner, Kelsey." Fulton said two hours later as he got out of the warm car and into the frigid November night.

"Yes, thank you so much." Connie agreed happily. "I haven't had this much fun in months."

After shutting their doors, the duo met in front of the car and waved. They quickly walked together towards the dormitories, Connie with her coat wrapped tightly around her.

"Thanks." Portman said as the pair disappeared off in the dark.

"It was fun." Kelsey allowed, wishing he would just hurry and close the door as he got out.

Instead, he came over to her side of the car, motioning for her to get out. With a sigh, she unbuckled her seatbelt and calmly got out of the car. Though they had been polite during the dinner, the tension between them could be picked up by their companions. Connie and Fulton had kept the conversation flowing for most of the evening, telling stories from their childhood, long before the Goodwill Games. Though Kelsey and Portman had talked about their childhoods in Chicago, it was mostly just cordial remembering, not very intimate like the other two.

"Look, Dean." She started as she closed the door behind her.

"Coach is going to can us if we don't start getting along."

Kelsey blinked. She was expecting something else, entirely, and this had come from left field. "What?"

"The first game, remember?"

Kelsey groaned. Of course she remembered the first game of the season, nearly two weeks ago. After nearly getting slammed face first into the ice, Portman and Fulton had gone after the member of the opposition that had tried to do Kelsey in. Never mind that he was about to be sent to the penalty box; the Bash Brothers were in the mood to exact some revenge on the young man. After the game, Kelsey had apologized to the duo, since she felt that her nervousness about her first game had gotten the best of her. The guy hadn't checked her very hard; she had mostly tripped over her own skates. When Portman had told her she needed to get her head straight, they ended up getting into an argument, which caused everyone who had already left the locker room to come back in.

"And, after last week, he's convinced we can't play nice."

Kelsey heaved a sigh. "I can play nice. You just have a way with pushing my buttons."

"No, you just need to chill and quit PMS-ing."

"I'm not PMS-ing." she hissed, resisting the urge to raise her voice.

Yes, Kelsey would admit that her previous sadness had been replaced by anger. She normally kept it under the surface, at least until she got home, but he just had a way of riling her. If he wasn't getting on her nerves at practice, he was talking about his transgressions with that girl. Most days, it took all Kelsey had in her to not smash a tray over his head and storm out of the cafeteria. And, while practice had a habit of alleviating her anger in the past, it was more of a source of her anger these days.

"Well, I am not losing my scholarship because of you."

"Fine, I'll quit the team."

She turned around and grabbed the handle of her car door, futilely trying to keep her composure and not burst into tears. She wrenched the door open, but felt it stop.

"I did not say that, Kelsey. What is going on with you?"

"Nothing, let me go." she said, choking back a sob.

How was she supposed to explain to him that she had stupidly allowed herself to harbor feelings for him? She had thought she was over it before the Halloween party fiasco, but she wasn't. Instead, she would spend most of her evenings dwelling on the fact that she had screwed it all up by acting like a child that day after he had kissed her at the hospital. Sure, a relationship would have never worked out, but she had totally ruined whatever chance at a friendship she had by effectively making him feel like an idiot.

"It's about that night, right?" he sighed as she bit her bottom lip. "Kels, it's fine. Seriously, I was mad, but you were right."

"About what?" she stared at her sneakers, hoping a hole would swallow her up.

"We are just friends. You're a cool chick, but you're like a kid sister. And, we should just forget about it all and start getting along."

"Ok." she whispered, blinking back a few tears. "I want to be friends. I'm sorry for being such a brat."

"Don't worry about it." he shrugged. "I was pretty stupid, too."

She pulled the sleeve of her sweater over her hand and wiped back the tears. "So, we're ok?"

"Yeah, we're good. So, I'll see ya tomorrow. Curfew is pretty soon."

She nodded, before getting back into the warm car. She composed herself enough to drive back to her place, but no sooner had she stormed up to her room and slammed the door, the tears started. It was always the same, she thought bitterly after the tears finally subsided. Guys liked her as a friend, but something always held them back from thinking about her in a different light.

Maybe it was time she stopped hiding behind the walls she had put up and act like the person she always wanted to be.