D3 The Mighty Ducks My Way
I quickly bounded down the stairs. My hair flying behind me. Today is going to be perfect, I just know it.
"Mom I'm heading over to Adam's" I yelled as I ran into the kitchen and I grabbed a granola bar from off the counter.
"Now, but Su I just made you breakfast." My Mom said coming over to me and I smiled.
"Ah I thought I smelled something burning." I tore the wrapper off and dug into my granola bar while my Mom playfully hit my arm. After shoving the food down my mouth I quickly turned around and ran smack into my Dad.
"What's the hurry Su?"
"First day of school, and all of us Minnesota Ducks want to ride skate together, and I am excited because I haven't seen any of them for the past two weeks." I said grabbing my backpack from off the floor and hurrying to the front door my parents trailing behind me. I opened the closet door and grabbed my skates.
"I got to go, love you guys." I said kissing both of their cheeks and running out the door. I sprinted over into the next yard and ran up to the front door and rang the doorbell. The door opened and revealed Rose the housekeeper.
"Why hello Miss Su, haven't seen you in awhile, come on in." She said motioning me in but I shook my head no.
"No it's fine Rose just tell Adam I'm here." She nodded and shut the door and I walked off to his driveway and sat down and took my sandals off and started putting my skates and pads on. Just as I had got my skates on I heard a voice from behind me.
"Long time no see." I quickly turned around and smiled up at my best friend. Adam Banks. I stood up and skated over to him and gave him a huge hug. He returned it and we pulled apart and looked at each other.
"Adam it's so good to see you again." I said smiling, and he nodded.
"I know even though you were gone two weeks it felt like two years." I smiled and hugged him again. He was looking good as usual. I looked him over and started laughing.
"What?" He asked looking himself over and I shook my head.
"What are you wearing?" He sighed as I looked him over. Khaki pants, a light blue dress up shirt with a navy sweater vest and a red tie.
"My parents forced me too, like always." I laughed and replied.
"My parents are just as rich as yours and they don't force me to look like a"- I looked him over again-"cake eater." He laughed and ran a hand through his hair.
"I must be dressed badly if you, a cake eater yourself is calling me a cake eater." He started putting his skates on as I put my pads on. Our outfits were definitely different; I was just in shorts and a t-shirt with my hair up in a ponytail.
"So how was that ceremony?" I asked, it had been several days ago but I had been in the Caribbean and had missed it. I had actually just gotten home last night, and was excited to see everyone again. When I had learned all of us Ducks had been awarded scholarships I had been ecstatic. For the past two years the only way I could be in contact with the out of state Ducks was through, e-mail, letters, phone, calls, and cards. And for the past two summers the out of state Ducks had come and spent one moth her in Minnesota with us, but I had been in the Caribbean when they had came this year, so I was defiantly looking forward to seeing them. Adam sighed and said.
"Fine I guess, Coach just talked about us and then the Dean said how happy he was we would be joining his school and then we posed for pictures. All in all it was kinda boring."
"I bet. I am so excited to see everyone again, and to have Coach there it will rock." Adam looked down and said.
"Su, Coach won't be there." I stopped and looked up at him.
"What do you mean, won't be there?"
"He got a job with the Junior Goodwill Games, he isn't coaching us anymore. We have a new guy Coach Orion, I think?" I was in shock, Coach bailing on us. Wow, this is a mood killer. I sighed and weakly smiled.
"Alright that's a set back, but all the Ducks will be there and I have missed them so much." Adam smiled and looked past me.
"They have missed you as well."
"How can you tell?"
"Because they're speeding right towards as I speak." He said pointing behind me and I turned around to see it was true. Charlie, Fulton, Connie, Guy, Goldberg, and Averman were all speed skating towards us in the driveway. I smiled at all of them as they took notice of me.
"Su!" They all cried out as I was enveloped in hugs and what not.
"Guys you have no idea how much I missed you all and the others." We started taking off for school as the Ducks told me what they had been doing for the past few weeks. Sadly I learned Portman had bailed on us as well.
"Remind me to never go on vacation again, too much has happened and I hate being out of the loop." I complained as we skated down a hill doing the Flying V. We were talking and I didn't even notice Goldberg and Charlie skate off till later.
"Hey guys where did Goldberg and Charlie go?" I asked as everyone looked behind them. We all shrugged.
"What I can tell you is that Goldberg is either dead or seriously hurt." Averman joked as we laughed.
"They better catch up soon or they're going to be late." Connie said as we skated under a bridge. Guy was about to respond when we heard a scream and Charlie and Goldberg landed right in front of us.
"Go Goldberg!" I cheered as we skated forward. We soon were at Eden Hall skating quickly through the campus.
"Hey guys I found a backdoor!" Charlie yelled opening a door and ushering us into it. Wherever we are it sure is dark.
"It looks like we're backstage." I whispered to Connie as I heard someone's voice blare through the speakers.
"Move forward you two!" Charlie said shoving us forward causing us to knock into Goldberg who went flying forward running into a curtain.
"Goldberg!" We yelled skating after him as we all tripped and landed in a heap with a huge red curtain over us. We scrambled to get the curtain over us and when we did we saw the entire school laughing at us. I felt my cheeks get red as an older man looked down disapprovingly at us. Charlie took the time to introduce us.
"Hi. We're the Ducks." That made everyone laugh harder and I heard Connie next to me.
"Technically we're half the Ducks, the other half is laughing at us." I followed her gaze and saw Luis, Julie, Russ, Dwayne, and Ken all laughing.
--
"Guys!" I said calling over to the other Ducks as I rushed over and gave them all hugs. We were in the office of Dean Buckley, who wanted to talk to us about our behavior earlier.
"Charlie, man this is not a good start to our year." Ken said walking over to Charlie who smiled.
"Don't worry Kenny, these prepsters aren't gonna do anything to us." Charlie said walking forward looking at an ant colony.
"Check it out, antsville." We all crowed around it and watched the ants moved in a bored interest.
"You can learn a lot from ants." We all back away quickly as we looked up and saw Dean Buckley. He continued talking.
"These Brazilian fire ants can teach you a lot. About successful societal structure. You see there's a queen in there. The rest are dedicated worker ants. Everybody pulls their own weight. Nobody complains. There's harmony and growth. Same here at Eden Hall only you are the workers, the backbone."
"And you're the queen?" Russ asked as we snickered. Dean Buckley sighed and moved away from the ants.
"You all had an interesting start to the day, especially you 8." He said looking at all of us Minnesota Ducks.
"But why don't we start on a clean slate, I have your schedules here." He said walking over to his desk and picking up a small stack of papers.
"Why don't I just call you, and you can come get it." We all nodded and he started calling out names.
"Susanna Granger." I sighed as he said my full name and stepped forward; he looked at me and asked.
"Are you're parents, Mike and Ann Granger?" I nodded knowing what would be coming next.
"Ah I know them well, the last time I saw you, you were ten and so excited about playing hockey on the Hawks. I guess that didn't work out for you if you're now a Duck."
"And proud of it." I said dryly as I took my schedule and listened as he called everyone else. Adam patted me on the back and I weakly smiled up at him.
--
The rest of the day went by quickly, from weird teachers, like Mr. Bloster, who refers to history as a giant and us a dwarf and how we have to ride it, to Ms. Cranker who likes giving out quizzes whenever she feels like it. We also were getting picked on by the Varsity team, well they guys were. Julie, Connie and I were getting hit on by the Varsity team. I was snow deemed the Hot Duck. Adam seemed very angry about it though when they called me that, along with the rest of the Ducks. By the time hockey practice was around I was ready to let off some steam.
We changed quickly and made our way out onto the ice going past a sneering varsity.
"How about it, Cowboy. Round up?" Charlie asked turning towards Dwayne who was about to nod when Connie interrupted.
"Hey, Charlie, shouldn't we wait for the new coach before messing around?"
"This is how we practice. Duck hockey, Connie. You'll have to get use to it sooner or later. Well come on Cowboy. Hit it." Dwayne smiled and yelled.
"Yee-ha! Round 'em up doggies!" We all scattered around the ice avoiding Dwayne and his deadly lasso. Adam pushed past me causing me to fall behind and get caught by Dwayne.
"I hate you Adam." I called out as I fell over trying to get the rope off me; all I heard was his laugh. Dwayne went after Charlie and got him and he tripped and landed and then a whistle blew off. We all looked as a man skated forward and stopped right in front of Charlie.
"My name is Coach Orion. You may call em Coach or Coach Orion." Charlie stood up and smirked.
"Well you can call me Charlie." He held out his hand as we all held our breaths. It wasn't good when Charlie got cocky like now.
"That must be what that C on your jersey stands for, huh? It sure doesn't stand for captain."
"Sorry Coach. We were just messin around with you, you know?" Russ said quickly before Charlie could say anything. Charlie is known for having a bad temper, and we don't need it flaring up right now.
"Hey Bombay gave him the C." Goldberg said and Coach Orion replied.
"And I respect that, but that's the past. This is my team now and I'll be selecting a captain." We all watched as Charlie's face darkened.
"You gotta be kidding right? I mean you're the rookie here, we all have been together for four years."
"Yeah." We all replied.
"Ok, Charlie. Laps right now." Coach Orion said and Charlie sarcastically asked.
"How many, Coach Orion?"
"I don't recall saying." Charlie sighed and skated off to do laps as we remained standing watching our new coach. I could already tell we would be having problems.
"Now you listen up and you listen up good. We are here for one reason and one reason only. You know what it is? It starts with a W."
"To win, Coach Orion, sir!" Averman bellowed out as he snickered.
"No, to 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 bloke them." I glared as he talked to us; I looked up at Adam who was still looking at Coach Orion.
"Hey!" Goldberg cried out but stopped seeing Coach Orion's reaction.
"Sorry sir." He said quietly as Coach Orion continued.
"You're not kids or little ducks anymore. So I'm not going to treat you that way. You're gonna learn to play two-way hockey. Offense and defense. It's gonna take one thing. It starts with a W." I cringed as Averman opened his mouth; this isn't going to be good.
"To work, Coach Orion, Sir."
"No." He said quickly and Averman sighed.
"Will. It's gonna take real will, if you want to play in my barn."
"Shouldn't you say pond, since we're Ducks?" Averman asked as I rolled my eyes.
"Shut up Averman!" We all yelled at the same time as Coach Orion looked very annoyed.
"Alright count off. Let's climb the ladder."
--
We all limped to the locker room. I collapsed on a bench next to Connie towards the front of the room.
"I can't feel my legs." I complained as I leaned against a locker. Everyone grumbled but it all stopped as Coach Orion walked in the locker room.
"The Eden Hall Academy requires you to maintain a C average to compete. I believe that's a bad rule. I don't want C players on my team. B's or better or you're gonna be riding the pine pony. Now you got 15 minutes after practice to clear this locker room. You got homework to do. Oh and stay clear of Varsity till we play them in the J.V.-Varsity Showdown." He walked out of the room and Connie pointed to the paper he attached to the board.
"He left our positions."
"Connie will you check for me?" I asked and she nodded, she went up and yelled back at me.
"1st line center." I looked up in surprise; I thought I would be getting 2nd, like always. Adam always gets first and I'm after him. Our skill level is pretty much the same; maybe Coach Orion thought I was a tad bit better. I zoned out as I heard everyone else complain about their positions but I perked my ears up as I heard Adam's voice say.
"I'm not even posted."
"Yeah you are, Adam Banks, 3rd line center." What? How in the world is he 3rd line, he's the best player on our team.
"Varsity." Connie said and I opened my eyes.
"I made Varsity?" Adam asked and moved back over to his locker. No way could Adam be on Varsity. He was a Duck. Suddenly nothing was perfect anymore.
(Please R and R! I do not own The Mighty Ducks.)