"Morning gentlemen, and lady." Coach said happily at practise. A big smile was plastered on his face as he spoke and I could see a sense of excitement lurking in his features. "Since class has started today our practises will now only be in the afternoon, if you cannot come due to class inform me now and I will email the program to you daily. I expect you all to follow that program if you are not at practise. If you want to practise at your own time please inform River or I about this and we will gladly open the astro to you. Now your first league match will be next week Friday, it will be against our rival Callaway. I expect you all to be there and we better win that game. River has informed me that you all are starting to do better with the fitness and I hope today goes well, so with that said I will leave you to my office and see you at our next practise," he waved his hand and walked away to his office. Eyes followed him until he was inside and then all the attention was on me.

"So today we are once again starting with a 5K run and then I will tell you the rest." The guys groaned at this, but started walking to the start apprehensively, my footsteps were slow as I followed behind them. "Three, two, one and Go!" I yelled and took off alongside the group. They all looked at me shocked, but I merely picked up speed until I was in front of the group. I could hear them panting as they increased their pace to meet mine and I felt a sense of achievement flow through me.

"This some new tactic or something?" Ryder panted as he started jogging beside me. He wasn't as out of breath as the rest of the group and he easily competed with my steady steps.

"True legends don't give up, even when the spotlight is turned on someone else," I stated, reciting the quote from my last game as Captain.

"What?" He asked confused. I knew that Gary and Hein weren't far behind us and it intrigued me why they haven't come up to us yet. I turned my head slightly and indeed the two of them were jogging comfortably behind us. Hein was chatting away about some girl he had met at a bar over the weekend and I could clearly see the irritation lurking on Gary's face. Gary hated talking about things like that, especially with Hein.

"That was the last thing I said to my team before the Championship. I went to them last week and that quote was up in the locker room. It motivated me, if Coach doesn't want a girl to play then I will just show him what he is missing out on," my confidence increase instantly and I once again picked up pace. Ryder groaned behind me, but he effortlessly increased his pace and stayed beside me.

°~°

After the jog, I had forced the guys to do half of a bowtie and a few cardio exercises afterwards. I had of course joined them with these wonderful exercises and I could feel my muscles aching softly. Coach had gone home halfway through and I was currently putting on my shin pads while waiting for Ryder to return.

It was odd how I had become accustomed to having him here when I practised and now it just felt wrong to start without him being here. He was picking up Cassie now since he didn't want to leave her in the clubhouse during fitness.

Once my shoes and everything were on, I grabbed a ball and my stick and started walking towards the goal. I placed the ball at the edge of the circle surrounding the goal, deciding if I should hit a few balls until he came. I raised my stick and was about to swing when a small voice started yelling.

"River! River! River, I'm here." I spun around, joyfully watching as Cassie came sprinting towards me. A small hockey stick was clutched in her hands and her short shins were covered by small shin pads. She looked absolutely adorable.

"Hi Sweetie," I kneeled down to her leave and gave her a tight hug. A toothy grin was plastered on her face and she looked truly excited about today.

"Ready," Ryder's deep voice speaks from above us, I lift my head towards him. His eyes were swimming with amusement as he looked down at the two of us, his stick was clutched tightly in his hand and he was also wearing his shin pads.

"Yes," I stood up and held out my hand towards Cassie, which she happily took. "I think we should hit some balls today. What do you think?"

"Yes, let's hit some balls," she released my hand and ran towards the ball that was still on the edge of the circle. Ryder was trying very hard not to laugh and I could feel my restrain slowly slipping as well.

"You shouldn't laugh, Ryder."

"Says you," he whispered before he finally couldn't hold it in any longer and started laughing like a maniac. The sound of his laugh was enough to break the last few strings of my restrain and soon I was laughing was well. Cassie was now desperately trying to figure out why we were laughing so much, but we didn't have the ability to tell her.

When we finally calmed down, Cassie had sat down on the astro. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her mouth turned into an angry pout.

"Cass," Ryder sighed and sat down beside her. "I'm sorry that I laughed. How about we play for a little bit now."

"You broke our pact."

"I know I'm sorry, but the tickle monster wants to play," her eyes widened and she quickly scrambled to her feet, running towards he stick.

"Ok, we can play but no tickle monster." She said firmly, pointing a small, accusing finger at Ryder. He immediately called a truce and picked up his stick, a truimphant smile plastered on his face. A small smile made its way onto my face as I picked up my stick and started hitting softly for Cassie.

We continued to play for a while until Cassie was starting to tire out and she finally went to get some water. As she walked away I turned towards Ryder, curiosity bubbling within me.

"So, where are you parents?" I questioned, chewing on my bottom lip and slowly rocking on my heels. It was a very personal question to ask, but I was very curious.

"Curiosity killed the cat." He retorted with one eyebrow raised. I kept quiet, waiting to see if he would answer my question or not; probably sensing this he continued,"They are in South Africa. They have a company there so they basically live and work there."

"How come you two aren't there?"  I knew that I should keep quiet, but I've been wondering about this ever since I found out that he was Cassie's older brother. The one she spoke so highly about.

"Well, funny enough I was actually born there. It sort of a complicated story," he sat down on the astro and cross his legs.  I looked down at him before following him and sitting down as well. "I was born in South Africa, my parents lived there their whole life actually. They started this big company that led to a major success and eventually it expanded worldwide. We lived there until I was about 5 years old and then we came here. My parents had to sort out the whole worldwide thing and I was dragged along with them. I spent most of my childhood being homeschooled by several tutors and so on. When I was 11 we moved back to South Africa and that was where I went to school for a big part of my teenage years. You know how I said that I moved schools? Well, I moved countries  as well. I came here for school after that summer, my parents decided to move here until I was 18 and could legally look after Cassie and then they could go back again. So that's basically how I became Cassie's guardian, I never want her to experience a home schooling teacher ever."

"Wow! That's pretty interesting. So Cassie was born there too?" He nodded in reply and my astonishment only increased. I had never expected this whole sob story, but it was actually really amazing. "Do you speak one of the native languages?" My head was swimming with different questions about the country. The only time I have been out of the country was for that hockey camp, but it didn't include a lot of tourist activities. I have always wanted to go and tour other countries, South Africa was one of the countries on my list. To most it seemed as a pathetic country, but I have done a lot of research on the tremendous amount of cultures, languages and tourist attractions the country offers.

"As a matter of fact I speak fluent Afrikaans and a bit of Sotho. I was still busy learning Sotho when we moved."

"Quickly speak!" I was truly excited about this whole ordeal. I haven't had a lot of contact with other cultures and since I was small it had fascinated me tremendously.

"Hallo my naam is Ryder," he said smoothly, my mouth was hanging open at his words. "I said that my name was Ryder."

"That's really cool. Ok I have one more question."

"Shoot."

"Why did you allow Gary and Hein to look after Cassie?" He looked slightly taken back by my question, raising his hand behind his head to scratch the back of his neck.

"Well, we actually live in the same building and the babysitter couldn't make it. I panicked and asked them."

"You're joking. We live in the same building" I couldn't believe it. Did we really live in the same building this whole time and I was just to oblivious to notice? That's probably why he's always hanging around our apartment.

"Yeah, I live like almost beneath you guys," he replied casually, leaning onto his hand that was pressed against the astro. He was looking up at the sky with interest as he said those words like it was nothing.

"But how come you drove away that day you dropped me at the apartment,"

"I went to get food and I didn't want you knowing that we lived in the same building. You really hated me then."

"Who says I still don't?" I raised one eyebrow at him, watching as his brows furrowed in confusion. I could see the gears twirling in his head as he tried to figure this out.

"But you- nevermind. I anyways have some question about you Miss Mysterious,"

"Fire away asshole," he ignored my comment and opened his mouth to ask me the question but a small, yet excited, voice interrupted him.

"Riv, I'm back!"

Another side of Ryder. Who of you expected the whole country thing?

Hope you like the story so far.

Vote and comment xx

-CharleCloete