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  Ashley continued to watch David who was playing pool with Alex but when she returned after going to the washroom, she saw that the teams had changed and it was now David and Jessica taking on two players from another school. She could see that Jessica was now in full flirt mode and couldn’t bear to watch any more.

  Ashley wandered down to the other end of the games room and watched several other students playing Texas hold’em poker. They weren’t allowed to play for real money and didn’t even have real chips, but they had raided the children’s crafts cupboard and were using Lego pieces as chips. Ashley didn’t really understand the game, but it was easy to see that one of the coaches was winning as he had so many Lego pieces in front of him that he’d started building some sort of a high-rise apartment building out of them. “So young, so much to learn,” the coach would say every time he won another hand.

  Ashley continued wandering around the games room. Some people were playing other games like Risk or Monopoly, but most of the students were just sitting around in groups talking. No one was talking about soccer.

  “Curfew in half an hour,” shouted one of the coaches from the other end of the room.

  Ashley scanned the room which had thinned out considerably, even before the coach’s announcement about the pending curfew. There were still a few people playing pool, but she didn’t see David or Jessica. She hadn’t seen them for a while.

  Ashley started to walk over to the Oak lodge with several of her teammates, who each headed into their rooms. Ashley’s room was at the end and her heart sank when she saw Jessica’s red hair bandana hanging over the door knob. She tip-toed towards the door and her heart sank even more when she heard the sounds coming from the room. Once again, she could feel tears start to well up in her eyes. She didn’t know what to do or where to go. She didn’t want to go to one of the other girl’s rooms because she didn’t want them to see her this way. She tip-toed away from the room and was wandering among the various lodges when she saw a couple of people coming out the back door of the main lodge. She didn’t know them, but they held the door open for her as she approached. When she got inside, she realized this was the back door exit of the games room, which was now deserted. She slumped down on a couch along the hallway just inside the door. She was trying not to cry, but failing. She lay down on the couch and continued to cry until she fell asleep.

  * * *

  “I gotta go,” David said. “It’s almost curfew.” David had been hanging out with several friends from the resort, people he had worked with at the lodge over the summer. It was good connecting with them again and finding out what everyone was up to. Most of them were in university now, although a few were still in high school, but all were pleased to have been called in to work on the weekend to pick up a few extra bucks.

  It was only a few minutes to curfew and David determined he’d have to take a shortcut and head out through the back door of the games room in order to make it to his room in the Birch lodge by the time the coach came around to check on them. As he headed down the hallway, he was surprised to see a girl lying on the couch. He was even more surprised to see that it was Ashley.

  “What are you doing out here?” David whispered as he knelt beside the couch and touched Ashley on the arm.

  She woke with a start and it took her a few seconds to figure out her surroundings. “I didn’t want to bother you and Jessica,” she said, not having the courage to look him in the eye. She also didn’t want him to see that she had been crying.

  “Me and Jessica?” David asked, looking confused. “What are you talking about?”

  “Jessica’s hooking up with someone in our room,” Ashley said. “I thought it was you.”

  “She’s not my type,” David said. “Come on, we’ve got to get you another room. If the coaches catch us out past curfew, there will be hell to pay.” David took her hand and helped her up off the couch. Ashley desperately tried to wipe the tears from her face with her other hand. She was sure she looked like a wreck.

  They headed back to the front desk and David asked the clerk if they could get another room for Ashley, offering only a weak explanation that she’d had a tiff with her assigned roommate. David read the name Malcolm on the clerk’s nametag, but he didn’t know him at all because he’d never worked with him.

  “I wish I could help you,” Malcolm said, “but we’re completely booked.”

  David stood there, trying to figure out what to do next. He noticed Bryan, one of the other clerks, gesturing with his eyes to meet him over by the brochure stand. Bryan worked the night shift and David had worked with him over the past summer. Bryan was usually coming off shift when David was starting his shift. Bryan picked up a stack of brochures and headed over to the brochure stand where he pretended to be restocking the various sections. When David came over, Bryan pulled a room key from between the brochures and slipped it to David.

  “You can probably use Pine-14,” he whispered to David. “We can’t rent it out because they’re replacing the tiles in the shower. The room is fine and the bathroom is OK too, but you won’t be able to use the shower. If you want, you can use the showers by the pool.”

  “Thanks,” David said. “I owe you one.”

  David headed back over to Ashley, took her hand and told her he would take her to another room explaining everything should be good except for the shower. They would have to be careful not to be seen as they were now well past curfew, but David knew the way to get there while staying off the main pathways. When they got to the room, David unlocked the door and noticed that the room was a bit cold, so he turned on the heat by adjusting the controls which were hidden behind the dresser.

  “The room should warm up in a few minutes,” David said.

  David went into the bathroom and saw a stack of tiles and grouting tools on the floor, so he pushed them back out of the way. He flushed the toilet and made sure everything except the shower was working. There were no towels in the bathroom but he knew they usually kept some extra towels in the closet and was pleased to see they were there.

  “Pretty much as advertised,” David said. “Are you going to be OK?” He could sense that Ashley was a little apprehensive. “I can stay if you want and sleep on the couch,” he said, glancing toward the couch facing the TV at the other side of the room.

  “I don’t want to get you into any trouble. You’ve already done so much to help me.”

  “No problem. What’s the worst they could do to me?” David said, although he didn’t even want to think about how much trouble they’d be in if the coaches found out.

  “We better get some sleep,” David said. “We’ve both got early games tomorrow.”

  Ashley headed into the washroom as David pulled some extra blankets from the clothes closet he’d seen there when he was looking for towels.

  Ashley looked at herself in the bathroom mirror and was disappointed at how she looked. She washed the mascara from her face which had been smeared by her crying. She didn’t have a comb but managed to make her hair look better with just her fingers. Not great, but a thousand percent better she thought to herself. She debated whether to take off her jeans, but decided to chance it when she realized her top came down far enough to cover all of the essentials.

  When she emerged from the bathroom, she saw David curled up looking extremely uncomfortable on the couch. It was more of a love-seat than a couch, so there was no way that David was going to fit on it. “You can sleep in the bed if you want,” Ashley suggested. “I trust you.”

  “Yeah, I’m not sure I’d be able to move tomorrow if I slept on this thing,” David said. He started pulling the multitude of extra pillows that were on the bed and placing them like a wall down the middle of the bed. He’d always hated those extra pillows as they seemed to have no useful purpose, other than for decoration. Finally, he’d found a use for them. He pulled a couple of more pillows from the couch and added them to the wall.

  “How’s that?” David asked.

  “T
hat’s fine,” Ashley said, “but it’s not really necessary. I trust you.” However, she wasn’t sure she trusted herself. Ashley turned off the lamp and crawled into her side of the bed. The room was almost completely dark except for the moonlight that shone through a slight opening in the curtains. David stripped down to his boxer shorts and crawled into his side of the bed. They laid there facing each other, but separated by a wall of pillows. They both wanted to say something, but didn’t know what to say. It seemed like an eternity until Ashley spoke.

  “I’m glad it wasn’t you that was with Jessica,” she said, placing her hand on the top of the mountain of pillows.

  “I told you she’s not my type,” David answered, reaching his arm over the mountain of pillows and taking her hand.

  “Goodnight,” he said. “Pleasant dreams.”

  “Goodnight,” she answered. She was already living her dream.

  * * *

  When the first beam of light came streaming through the small opening in the curtains, Ashley woke to find her head laying half on David’s chest, with her arm hugging him like he was a teddy bear from her childhood. Gone was the mountain of pillows that had been between them. She raised her head slightly to see that most of the pillows had been pushed to the bottom of the bed and a few had fallen to the floor. She wasn’t sure whether David had moved the pillows or whether she’d done it herself subconsciously while she slept. But she was happy either way.

  “Good morning,” whispered David. Ashley hadn’t realized he was awake until he spoke.

  “It looks like your wall of pillows somehow came tumbling down in the middle of the night,” Ashley said.

  “Yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever be an architect,” David said, kissing her lightly on her forehead.

  “I think you can be whatever you want to be,” Ashley said, pulling herself up so she was half on top of David and looking deeply into his eyes. She was looking for more than just a little kiss on the forehead. Ashley had always been somewhat shy as a girl and really only spoke when spoken to, but she was suddenly feeling much more aggressive. She kissed him full on the mouth.

  Suddenly there was a knock on the door and they both froze. “Breakfast is in twenty minutes,” said a voice from outside. Ashley remained frozen in fear wondering who knew they were in there. But David had recognized Bryan’s voice. He slid from the bed and opened the door a crack, but Bryan had already gone.

  “We’d better get up and get out of here,” David whispered. “I don’t want to get Bryan into any trouble for letting us use this room.” David headed into the bathroom while Ashley got out of bed and slipped on her jeans.

  “Your turn,” David said, when he emerged from the bathroom. “I’ll straighten up the room.”

  When Ashley looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, she could still see the passion in her eyes. She’d never felt like this before and it both excited and scared her. Who knows what they would have done if they hadn’t been interrupted by the knock on the door. Surely one of them would have kept things under control, but she wasn’t sure she would have, which scared her even more. She wondered if David was having the same feelings, but her thoughts started drifting into doubt the more she thought about it. Maybe it had been her that had subconsciously knocked down the wall of pillows that had been between them. Maybe David was just being a nice guy and helping her out when she had no place to stay for the night. She knew David liked her, but did he really like her? He had simply kissed her on the forehead. She had been the one who had practically jumped on top of him. “Oh my God,” she thought.

  “We better get going,” David said, tapping lightly on the outside of the bathroom door.

  Ashley wondered how long she’d been in the bathroom having her mini panic attack. When she emerged from the bathroom, she was surprised to see that David had stripped the sheets from the bed and was holding them in his hand. He’d put the bedspread back on the bed and laid the pillows out exactly as they were originally. The room looked like it hadn’t been used at all. David reached into the bathroom and grabbed the towels from the rack. He put the shower tiles and the grouting equipment back where it had been when they arrived the night before.

  “We can’t be seen leaving together,” David whispered as he opened the door a crack to see if anyone was outside.

  He could see some girls a few doors down getting ready to leave their rooms to head over for breakfast. Further down, he could see a laundry cart as the maids were now starting their rounds. He saw the last girl emerge from her door and join the group as they started to walk away.

  “OK, I think you can go now,” David whispered.

  “Thanks for helping me out,” Ashley said as she started to slip out the door. This time it was her who gave David a little kiss on the forehead. David pulled her back into the room, pressed her up against the wall and kissed her full on the mouth, hard.

  “OK, go,” he said as he opened the door again. Ashley scurried to catch up to the group of girls that had just left. Although they were from another team and she didn’t know any of them, she felt she’d be less conspicuous if she appeared to be part of their group. As she walked behind them, she felt almost like skipping. That kiss had told her what she needed to know. David really did like her.

  David watched as the group of girls walked away out of sight. The maid was pulling some clean towels from her cart. When she went into the room two doors down, David emerged from his room and dropped his soiled sheets and towels into her laundry cart as he walked by.

  When David reached the main lodge, he slipped Bryan the room key as he walked by the reception desk and continued into the main dining room, which was now almost completely full with the soccer players getting breakfast. He saw Ashley sitting at a large table on the other side of the room with her teammates. They made brief eye contact before Ashley turned her head to join the conversation at her table.

  David was pleased to see Alex heading up to the buffet. David grabbed a plate and slid in behind him in the line.

  “Good morning,” Alex said, “and how was your night?”

  David ignored the question. “Does coach know I wasn’t there last night?” David asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Alex said. “I told him you were in the bathroom when he knocked on the door to do the curfew check last night. I think he believed me.”

  “Thanks,” David said. “I owe you one.”

  “Is everything OK?” Alex asked, continuing to fish for details.

  “Perfect,” David replied, “and that’s all I’m saying.”

  *** Chapter 1 1 ***

  Ashley’s soccer team played much better in their game that morning, but still only managed to play to a one-one draw. They would have to win their next game by a large margin to have any hope of making it to tomorrow’s final, and they would have to have the teams ahead of them in the standings lose their last game in the preliminary round. Ashley had played a much better game this time. Her coach and several of her teammates had noticed that she had a lot more jump in her game today, rather than the down-in-the-dumps attitude they’d seen the day before.

  “You seem to have gotten out of the right side of the bed this morning,” her coach said as they walked off of the field. “We’ll need that kind of energy in our next game.”

  “Thanks,” Ashley said. Her coach didn’t realize how close to the truth she really was.

  David’s team also played well in their match that morning, edging their opponent out by a two-one score. David had seen his dad and grandmother arrive in the stands just before the game had started. They hadn’t come to the game yesterday because Henry was tied up at work and couldn’t get away. They came down to the field level to congratulate David when the game was over.

  “Great game,” Henry said. “I saw on the notice-board that you guys won your game yesterday as well.”

  “Thanks Dad, although we still have to win the next one to guarantee a place in the Championship game tomorrow.”

  �
��You played so well,” his grandmother said, giving him a hug.

  Ashley had also come over to congratulate David, although she was hovering in the background. She had only seen the last few minutes of David’s game as her own game had been playing on an adjacent field at the same time.

  “How did your game go?” David asked when he saw her.

  “We tied,” Ashley replied.

  They all walked together back to the small clubhouse which had the change-rooms and a large board showing the game results and standings. Ashley headed off to join the rest of her teammates.

  “Ashley seems nice,” Grandma said to David.

  “She’s just a friend,” David said, knowing that his grandmother was fishing about a potential budding relationship between them.

  “Please dear,” Grandma replied. “I wasn’t born yesterday.”

  In the matches later that afternoon, Ashley’s team had once again tied their game so their record of a loss and two ties meant they were eliminated from the girls’ championship game on Sunday. David’s team won their afternoon match and would now be playing in the boys’ championship game against a team from North Bay.

  Since the girls’ team had been eliminated, some of the girls would be heading home with their parents. Those who wanted to stay would be returning to the resort on the team bus. Since Ashley’s parents hadn’t come to the matches, Henry had offered to drive Ashley back home with them. However, the coaches had indicated they were only allowed to let a player return early if their parents signed a release form. Although Ashley had thanked David’s dad for the offer, she was pleased that she would be spending another night at the resort. She was hoping things would pick up where they had left off the previous night.

  “We’ll be back for the championship game tomorrow,” Henry said to David while standing outside the team bus. “Uncle Alan said he might come as well, but you never know with him.”

  “Thanks for coming to the game,” David said, giving both his dad and his grandma a hug. He watched them head off toward their car before he boarded the team bus.