A/N: I originally had this up but then I changed my mind and took it down. I am hoping to make it through all three movies and through sophomore year

Chapter 1: Introduction

Ava Bombay sighed as she placed her school bag down on the floor behind the counter of Hans skate shop. She had just returned from school and was miserable. At 11 years old she was a loner and she almost liked it that way. If she didn't have friends they didn't question why she lived with two elder men who weren't related to her. "Hey Hans I am back." Ava said poking her head in the skate sharpening part of the shop. "How was school?" "Fine. Learned tons." She shrugged. "No friends?" "Hans we talked about this. I don't need friends I am." "Fine. I know. Just think about it." She nodded her head and went back to the front of the room. Her blue eyes found the frame of the newspaper clipping about her father and his peewee hockey team. She shook her head and looked down at her torn fingernails. "Don't go down that road Ava." She muttered to herself. She had questioned herself about why her father left her with his adoptive fathers to go attend law school. Not that she could blame him. He was barely out of high school when she was born. He left her with the two men he trusted the most in the world. Hans and Jan.

"Hans! I will be back!" Ava called back to her guardian later the next afternoon. "Okay." He called back, he had been on her about making friends again. He didn't want her to be alone and sad all the time. The bell rang over the door signaling she had left the building and he smiled to himself.

"Hey isn't that girl in our history class?" Jesse Hall asked seeing the lonely girl walking down the street slouched down into her coat, a freshly sharpened pair of skates over her shoulder. "It is." Peter answered, "she is an odd one. She doesn't have any friends." "You wouldn't either if you didn't have us." Terry, Jesse's younger brother shot back. Peter rolled his eyes and went to retort when Charlie Conway's voice called out. "Hey you!" Ava paused and looked over her shoulder at the group of boys. "Me?" "Yeah you." Jesse said, "you go to school with us right?" "Yeah I do." "What's your name?" Charlie asked. "Ava. Ava Bombay." "Why don't you come to the pond with us?" Karp asked. She looked thoughtful for a second before nodding her head. The boys caught up with her. "Do you play hockey?" Charlie asked. "Nope, not a fan of hockey." She answered. "You live in Minneapolis and you aren't a fan of hockey? Are you from Mars?" Charlie asked. "No. Umm my dad played it and I guess it just skipped over me." She answered, "but skating I do like."

"You're Ava right? I am Connie." Connie Moreau said. "We have history and gym together right?" Ava asked. "Right. You gonna hang out with us?" "For a while yeah." She answered. She felt almost at ease around her. "We need more girls around, I hope you will stick around." "We will see." She said.

A limo appeared a while later and her father stepped out of the limo. She went over to the snow bank and undid her skates and yanked her shoes back on. Her father's bright blue eyes meet hers and the breath rushed out of her body. She quickly slipped away and went back to the skate shop. Hans was sitting in his armchair when she came in. "Did you have fun?" He asked. "Yeah until Gordon showed up." She answered going over to the couch and laying down on it. "Gordon?" She nodded her head and put her arm over her eyes. "I left him before he could say anything to me." Hans nodded his head, he was just going to have to matters into his own hands.

Gordon let himself into the backdoor of the skate shop and paused seeing his daughter sitting at the table writing on her notebook. 'Ava." He started. "Gordon." She returned not raising her eyes to look at him. "You doing good in school?" "Good enough.' "Any friends?" "No, i was only at the pond because Charlie asked me to go with them." He nodded his head, he was glad she hadn't been there when he said that he hated kids, she already thought that he hated her. He knew he had to be a father he owed that to her. "Ava, time to go to bed.' "Yes Hans." She said putting her notebook inside of her textbook and closing it. 'Gordon." She pressed a kiss to the older man's cheek before disappearing through the door and going into the hallway.

"How's she doing?" Gordon asked shoving his hands into his coat pockets. "She is a pre-teen girl that doesn't have any friends. What do you think Gordon?" Hans asked, "She told Jan that she thought that you didn't want her." 'I do want her." "Then act like a father, act like the father we both know you can be."

Ava leaned against the wall by the kitchen door holding her books to her chest. Hans had spoken the truth, he had known all along she had felt. And he never brought it up. He just wanted her to be happy even with living a bunch of old men.

And she wanted to be happy, really, she did. But she had been stuck for long, she didn't know if she could start fresh and make friends. Biting her lip Ava turned around and went into her small bedroom and sat down on the bed. Her time at the pond was going through her head. All of the district 5 hockey team had been friendly enough. Even Peter, the boy she had mused to be a jerk after being in a biology class with him.

Maybe for Hans and herself she would try and make friends with them. What was the worst that could happen with making friends?