Music blasted through Emma James' headphones, distracting her from the fact that she was miles above the ground. She closed her eyes and tapped her fingers along to the beat, focusing only on the music. She was totally caught off guard when one of her headphones was yanked out of her ear.
"Seriously, how are you not deaf?" her best friend Anna asked incredulously. The 18-year-old shrugged in response. "They just announced that we would be landing in about an hour." Emma nodded, trying not to look to excited but she knew Anna could tell.
The two girls were on a plane to Minneapolis, Minnesota to attend Eden Hall University. Emma got a scholarship to play hockey with the rest of her teammates and Anna decided to continue her education there as well. They were leaving Pennsylvania behind and they were so excited to start a new chapter together. But that's not why Emma was practically bouncing in her seat.
After a year of being separated by a thousand miles, she would finally get to be with Adam again.
The Goodwill Games ended too soon, forcing the two to go their separate ways. Airfare was too expensive for the teens, meaning they only got to visit each other twice. Adam came to her over Thanksgiving and she visited him in February. The rest of the year was spent video chatting, texting and calling each other. Long distance is hard on anyone so they had their fair share of fights, but they got through it together. Now, the long distance part was over. She had Adam with her for four years. Hopefully longer.
Anna broke her out of her thoughts, waving a hand in front of her face. "What?"
"Thank god we're almost there. If we had to wait any longer I think you might explode," Anna answered.
Emma rolled her eyes. "It's been five months since I've seen my boyfriend. Sue me."
Anna smiled at her in return. "I know. Just don't get too sappy when you two do see each other. The last thing I want is to stand there awkwardly watching you and hockey head make out."
Emma laughed and hit her. The two were interrupted by the intercom letting them know the flight was set to arrive in a few minutes.
The plane landed and the two girls walked through the short boarding zone hallway that took them into the airport. When they got there, they looked around.
"Emma!" The two turned their heads and immediately rushed over to the people who were calling for them. "Connie! Julie!" Emma yelled, tackling them both in hugs.
"I'm surprised Adam didn't come pick you up," Connie said.
Emma heaved an annoyed sigh. "His dad made him go to a last minute hockey camp. He won't get back until really late tonight so he's just staying home. I won't see him until school tomorrow," she said, "But I get to spend time with you guys so I'm alright with it."
"It gets even better," Connie grinned, "we're suitemates. Our rooms are connected by the bathroom in between us."
The girls cheered and gathered their things to leave the airport.
After a delicious home cooked meal at the Moreau's, Emma, Anna and Julie were dropped off at the dorms. Connie's parents were going on a trip and begged her to stay home for one more night, which she agreed to and told the girls she'd meet them in the morning.
Emma and Anna got their room keys and headed with Julie to their rooms. When they opened the door they were met with piles of boxes and other things that were shipped down by their parents earlier in the week. "We should probably get started."
Two hours later everything was situated. The girls spent the night talking and catching up with Julie. Finally at around 11, they decided they should get some sleep before school tomorrow morning. Emma crawled into her bed, beyond ready to fall asleep. "Lena?" Anna said quietly. Emma hummed in response. "We're gonna be okay here, right?"
Emma rolled over and smiled at her best friend. "We're gonna love it."
Morning came a little too quickly for the girls' liking, but Emma couldn't help but be excited. She would finally get to see Adam again. They got up and got ready for the day, both dressing a little nicer for the first day.
When they met up with Julie for breakfast, they found some of the other ducks. They said hello to Russ, Dwayne, Ken and Luis and immediately fell back into their regular banter. After they finished eating, they headed over to another building to meet with the rest of the ducks and the other freshman.
"This place is running low on the brothers quota," Russ joked.
Julie laughed. "I just wanna know who this new Coach Orion is. My dad said if I didn't like him I could come home." "That's nice," Russ started, "My dad said I better keep this scholarship or he'll whip my ass."
"I heard in the dorm that he played for the Minnesota North Stars and got suspended for punching out the coach," Luis added. Dwayne was quick to correct him with the Dallas Stars.
"I heard he was a Buddhist, like kung fu or Richard Gear," Emma said, repeating what she heard about him. "Are we talking about the old kung fu or the further adventures of the new kung fu?" Russ asked.
"Ya'll watch too much tv," Dwayne added, which Russ responded immediately to, "Shit, that's the safest thing to do in my hood."
They entered the building and found seats closer to the front of the room, right in front of a group of athletes in red jackets. They talked for a while until one of the jocks behind them interrupted.
"You know what," he started, getting their attention, "You ducks don't belong here at Eden Hall."
Russ immediately turned around, "What did you say?"
"Hey easy Russ, they probably just think we're someone else. I'm Dwayne, we're the new hockey team," he said, hoping to ease the tension.
The other guy laughed. "We're the D1 team, the only hockey team. NCAA champs. You could just call us the Varsity." They watched another player put his chewed gum in Dwayne's hand. "You know, my little brother lost his D2 scholarship when they brought you freaks in here."
"Probably wasn't good enough," Emma bit out.
The jock looked at her, annoyed. He leaned forward, closer to her. "That's my dad," he said, pointing to a man on stage. "He's gonna get the board to revoke your scholarships. Just wait."
"That's your dad?" Russ asked, "Nice outfit, does it come with a yacht?"
"Nice tie Banks. Cake eater," Charlie called out. Adam just rolled his eyes and laughed. The ducks all met up this morning and were now on their way to school.
His dad took him to a camp in Colorado for a week and even though he learned a lot, he was anxious to get home. The two got back late last night, which prompted Adam to stay home and immediately crash. Now he was anxious to get to school. Emma was already there.
When he broke out of his thoughts, he realized Charlie and Goldberg were missing from the group. Apparently Goldberg lost control and Charlie went after him. The rest of the group continued on, knowing that they'd catch up at some point. Minutes later, two bodies came flying over the bridge above them and landed right at the front of the group.
Finally, the campus came into view and the group rushed towards the building. They were late so they planned to sneak in from the back.
Emma listened as the Dean droned on about the Varsity team and how accomplished they were. He began talking about the ducks but was cut off when there was a sudden banging and movement in the curtains behind him.
Suddenly, the curtain fell on top of a group of people. When they lifted the curtain, she recognized the rest of her teammates. The seven sitting in the audience stared at them in disbelief before laughing quietly and face palming.
"Hi," Charlie said, "We're the ducks."
Adam was mortified. He knew it was a bad idea to sneak in the back. He looked over the crowd and his eyes immediately found his girlfriend. She shrugged and tried to hide her laughter in her hand, which immediately made him feel better.
After mumbled apologies, the group took their seats in the front row. Dean finished his speech quickly after and the students were dismissed. The ducks lingered, wanting to catch up before they were supposed to head into Dean's office.
Emma walked up to Adam, watching him take off his skates. "Nice entrance," she joked. He laughed, standing up to immediately pull her into a hug.
"Hi," she whispered. "Hi baby," he mumbled into her hair, holding her tightly. The two pulled away and kissed quickly, which was met with lots of cat calling from their teammates. Adam turned red but Emma just rolled her eyes.
Soon they were called into the Dean's office. The team piled in, looking at all of the awards and pictures that were scattered around the room.
"Yo, check it out," Charlie said, pointing to the ant farm. They were so busy looking at it they didn't hear Dean enter the office.
"You can learn a lot from ants," he said, making everyone jump. "These Brazilian fire ants will teach you a lot about structure. There's one queen in there. Everybody else pulls their weight and it's the same here at Eden Hall. You are the workers."
"And you're the queen?" Russ fired back. Dean looked at him unamused while everybody else tried not to laugh.
The rest of the day was spent in various classes. Because the freshmen have to take core classes and they have daily hockey practice, most of the ducks were in the same classes. However, they were caught off guard by the amount of work. They listened all day as professors droned on about assignments and quizzes. Emma felt her stress level rise dramatically, she was already worried about getting all of this work done.
Finally, their classes were over for the day and they found the locker room to get ready for their first hockey practice. They walked into the arena and looked towards the ice to find the "Varsity" team practicing. Above them, there were numerous NCAA championship banners hanging.
"They look pretty good," Luis commented. Charlie scoffed, "They're not so hot. Come on, let's go."
The team walked over to the doorway to the rink when they were stopped by Riley, the captain. "Well, if it isn't Captain Ducky."
Fulton pushed his hand off Charlie's shoulder. "Get your hands off him."
"Look, it's a Bash Brother. I'm so scared," Cole taunted.
The varsity coach came over and pulled the team away to the locker rooms, allowing the ducks to get on the ice.
"How bout a game of cowboy roundup?" Charlie asked Dwayne. "Shouldn't we wait for the new coach to get here?" Connie asked. Charlie laughed, "This is how we practice Connie. Duck hockey. He's gonna have to get used to it sooner or later."
Everyone looked unsure, but decided to play anyway. A few minutes into the game, Dwayne caught Charlie and when he fell onto the ice, they heard a whistle blow. Everybody stopped in their tracks and looked up to see a man skating onto the ice.
"I'm Coach Orion. You can call me Coach or Coach Orion."
Charlie stood up and held his hand out. "You can call me Charlie." Everyone looked at each other, wondering if he was crazy.
"That must be what that C on your jersey stands for, cause it doesn't stand for Captain."
The arena was silent. Russ quickly tried to ease the tension. "Sorry Coach, we were just messin' with you."
"Hey, Bombay gave him that C," Goldberg added defensively.
"And I respect that, but that's the past," Coach Orion fired back, "this is my team now and I pick the Captain."
Charlie scoffed, "Yeah right. You're the rookie. We've all been together for four years."
Coach Orion didn't seem impressed. "Okay Charlie, laps."
Charlie sighed, removing the rope from around his chest. "How many, Coach?"
"I don't remember saying."
With that, Charlie began skating circles around the rink. When he left, Orion looked at the rest of the team. "Now you listen and you listen good. We are here for one reason and it starts with a W. You know what that is?"
"To win Coach Orion sir!" Averman yelled, trying to suck up.
"No," he shut him down quickly. Russ laughed, but one look from Orion shut him up quickly. "To work. College hockey is hard work and it all begins with defense. I've seen your tapes. I know you can score goals, I just don't know if you can stop them."
Goldberg got defensive again. "Hey!" he yelled. Coach looked at him, challenging him to say something. "Sorry, sir."
"You're not little ducks anymore and I'm not going to treat you that way. You're going to learn to play two way hockey. Offense and defense. But that's going to take one thing that starts with a W."
"Work Coach Orion, sir," Averman chimed in again.
"Wrong. Will. It's going to take real will if you want to play with me."
With that, the team counted off and practice began. Goldberg got in the net first but let nearly every shot into the net. Julie went in next and stopped every shot, even Adam's. It was clear she practiced a lot over the past year.
After what seemed like hours, practice finally ended. The team piled into the locker room, groaning about the workout.
"Get a shovel and bury me right here," Goldberg said, laying across the bench.
"I'll teach you to play like what starts with a W!" Charlie yelled.
"Wussies," Averman answered.
"That's right, wussies on offense and-" "Defense defense defense!" Russ yelled, barking like a dog.
"Eden Hall University requires you to maintain a C average to compete. I don't like that rule," Coach said, surprising everyone with his entrance. He walked to the bulletin board and pinned a paper onto it. "I don't want any C students on my team. It's Bs and better or you're riding the pine pony. You have fifteen minutes to clear this locker room after practice. You have homework. Oh and one more thing," he added, turning around at the door, "stay clear of the Varsity until we play them in the showdown."
"Fifteen minutes? Man I cannot move," Russ complained after he left.
"Hey guys look! He posted our positions," Connie said, getting up to look.
A few other players went to look at the bulletin board, including Adam. Emma stayed behind, knowing he'd tell her her's.
"I can't believe this. I play left side, not right," Fulton complained.
"Third line? Man that's a major diss," Russ added.
Adam walked up and his heart stopped when he couldn't find his name on the board. "I'm not even posted."
Connie looked for his name. "Yeah you are. Adam Banks, third line center. Varsity?" she read, disbelieving.
Emma felt her heart drop. She looked up at him.
"I made Varsity?"
Here it is!
I made a few adjustments because I have them playing in college. At my school, there's a team for all three divisions, so I based it off of that. The Varsity plays D1, which is against all of the big schools, while the Ducks play D2, against the smaller schools.
Enjoy!
-T