Note: Sorry it's been awhile. I've been working on a couple of other storied which some of you are aware of and I needed the proper inspiration to write Adam's email. I hope you all like it. I was purposely vague on it before so I could include it in this part of the story. Thanks to Beaner, Banksiesbabe99, Rachel, anne918, and crazy4nc128 for letting me know how much you all enjoyed the last chapter and hope you think this chapter was worth the wait. And crazy4nc128 you'll be happy to know I answer your questions in this chapter.

Note 8-11-12: And chapter 3 is revamped. I hope you all enjoy!

Dwayne's POV:

"How was practice, honey?" I heard my Mom call out from the kitchen as I walked in the front door that afternoon.

I placed my practice bag down on the floor by the wall and walked toward the kitchen with my hockey stick still in my hand.

"Fine," I answered her as I leaned up against the doorway of the kitchen. I idly rotated the stick back in forth as

"Just fine?" she said looking up from the casserole she was making. "I remember last season practice was all you would talk about. The second you walked through that door you would start telling me everything that happened at practice."

"Nothing really interesting happened," I told her. Truth was I just didn't know how to tell her how I was feeling. I wasn't even sure myself. This was the first time that I didn't feel like I could talk to my mother. I usually told her everything.

"Dwayne, what's wrong? You haven't been the same since you came back from California."

Leave it to a mother to notice things like that.

"I guess the experience changed me," I told her simply, not really wanting to discuss the subject. "Do you need any help getting dinner ready?" I asked her trying to change the subject.

"No, I'm fine," she answered with a concern look on her face. I felt bad. I wanted to tell her what was going on because I knew she was genuinely concerned.

"I'm going upstairs then," I replied, knowing that if I hung around she would continue to try getting me to talk.

Leaving the kitchen, I made my way back to the foyer where I picked up my bag and headed upstairs. Halfway up the steps, I heard the sounds of the Back Street Boys drifting down the steps. I knew the music was from Nicole, my younger sister. She was eight years old and the only one in my family who didn't listen to country music.

As I walked toward her room the music got louder and then drifted away as I made my way past her room toward my own which was at the far end of the hallway. Halfway there I passed my other sister's room. I paused outside contemplating on whether I wanted to knock on the door or not.

Roxanne and I were twins and although technically I was about three minutes older, I never really had considered her a younger sister. In some ways she almost seemed like an older sibling. She was the more serious of the two of us and the one I had always gone to for advice. She was also the more popular of the two of us. Most of my friends were people I had met through her. The only ones who didn't fall into the category were the Ducks.

Roxanne was actually probably the better skater too, not that most people would ever know that. The two of us had gotten into hockey together and had played on the same team for a couple of years. Then when it had been time to move up to the Pee Wee league Roxanne got cut from the team. We all knew it had nothing to do with her ability and that the coach had cut her because she was girl. There were no girls in Austin's Pee Wee hockey league and they hadn't wanted to start with Roxanne. Hockey wasn't a sport for girls.

My parents had been furious. They had wanted to fight it but Roxanne didn't. She still skated with our friends and would play when we got together for fun but she had turned her interests to music and she seemed happy. She hadn't wanted to deal with the publicity fighting the league would have brought although there were times I was positive she missed playing hockey.

As much as I wanted to talk to someone, I just couldn't bring myself to knock on the door. With a sigh I kept on walking to my room and put my hockey gear aside. It was only three days into the start of my hockey season and part of me was wishing that it was already over.

Something was missing this year. It wasn't the same. Maybe the problem was that I was comparing my team here in Austin to the team I had played with in the Junior Goodwill games - the USA Mighty Ducks as we had finally came to be known as. Yeah, everything hadn't gone perfectly. The first game against Iceland had been a fiasco. I had never been on a team that had loss that bad in my life. We had only scored once and the goal had been made by Adam Banks, who had paid for the goal when an unhappy Iceland player had brought his stick down on Banks wrist. In the end though, we had pulled together. We had become a team, not just on the ice but off the ice too. Coach Bombay had even taken us on a camping trip over the summer to get us back together.

Boy did I miss the Ducks. I had grown closer to some of them than I had ever been to my friends here in Austin despite the short time that I had known them. There wasn't anyone her in Austin that I felt really close to. I mean, yeah sure I called them my friends and we got together from time to time to play games outside of practice but that is all I ever did with them. We never went out to the movies together or just hung out like the Ducks did. Roxanne had friends who she went and did stuff like that with, and in a way I guess they were my friends to as I always knew that I was welcome to hang out with them, but it just wasn't the same.

I sat down in front of my computer and turned it on. I connected to the internet and was happy to see that I had two new email messages. The first one was from Dean Portman. I'm not even sure how Dean and I got to be friends at all. We were as different as day and night. He had seemed so much older than all of us. So much more sophisticated. Yet for some reason we had hit it off from the moment we met, although not quite as well as he and Fulton Reed had eventually done. Even though Dean and Fulton had become best friends Dean had still found time for me and I never had felt left out.

Dean's message wasn't fairly short. His school year had started today and he had wrote the message during study hall. He told me about some of the teachers he had this year and about the practical joke he and some of his friends had pulled on their English teacher already. I kind of felt sorry for the teacher, what with having to deal with Dean and his friends. I wrote a quick reply as I didn't have much to tell him. My first day of school wasn't until Monday and I didn't really want to tell him about hockey practice much like I didn't want to tell my mother.

The second message was from Adam Banks. I hadn't really know Adam to well during our time out in California. Adam was not that outgoing and had kept to himself a lot during the Junior Goodwill Games. Even when he had gotten hurt, he had tried to deal with things by himself. I had tried a couple of times to get a conversation going with him and it hadn't been that easy. Still, even then, I knew that if I could ever get past the wall Adam put up to protect himself, we would be great friends. Time had proven me right.

Right after the Goodwill games all of us emailed each other a lot but then it had died down in about a week. After our camping trip the same thing happened, all of the Ducks wrote to each other but it didn't last long. I'm sure all of us had one or two teammates we kept in contact with, like I did with Dean and Adam. After a few emails Adam had started opening up to me. We had a blast on the camping trip together and I had even gotten to know Charlie and Jessie a little bit better as Adam was good friends with them. I always thought Adam had the perfect life, yeah his father seemed a bit pushy, but other than that Adam seemed to have everything. His family was rich, he was good at hockey, good at school, and people just seemed to naturally like him, even though he wasn't the most open person. His email however completely shattered that idea.

It read:

Hey Dwayne-

How's everything going? You've had a couple of hockey practices already

haven't you? Let me know how that is going.

Things here could definitely be going better. Remember how I told you about

the possibility of the league redrawing the district lines which could change which team

I play on this season. Well, the league meeting was today. My dad drug me to it. I wish

my dad hadn't even gone. The league was going to leave the lines the way they were,

which meant I was going to be able to stay with the Ducks, and then my Dad had to go

and open his mouth. He just can't except me being a Duck because he is so wrapped

up in tradition. Being a Hawk is a family tradition and my Dad can't see past that.

He's blinded to the fact that I don't belong on that team anymore. Not only do I hate

Reilly's idea of what hockey is, I know the Hawks don't want me back. I could see it on

their faces this afternoon.

To make matters worse, none of the Ducks were even there. It would have been

nice if some of them could've been there for support - you know, a few friendly faces in the crowd. Not even Charlie or Jessie could find the time to show up and they are

supposedly my best friends. With friends like that I don't need enemies but I have a

whole team of them too. Coach Bombay wasn't even there! He's the whole reason I was even a Duck in the first place! He had no problem meddling in my life last year. What makes this year any different. I'm starting to feel as if the Ducks don't want me on the team this year either. This season hasn't even started and I'm afraid of what it might hold for me.

Of course I still have to make it through try outs for the Hawks on Friday. Part

of me hopes that Reilly cuts me as I'm not sure I even want to play hockey this season.

I'd quit but who knows what my dad would do if I did that. At least if I get cut he can't

blame me, I hope. Knowing my dad he'll probably simply say that I didn't try hard

enough. That I didn't apply myself. And speaking of my father, if Reilly does cut me

on Friday I know that won't go smoothly. My dad won't be able to keep his mouth shut

and let it go. He proved that this afternoon.

I find myself wishing that the Iceland player who brought his stick down on my

wrist during our first game against them, had done it a little harder. That the injury had

been bad enough to keep me from playing hockey. It would've been my way out. My

father would have had to accept it. Then maybe he could have started seeing me as his

son and not as his last opportunity to fulfill his dream.

I'm sorry to go on about all this but I needed to tell someone. Just writing it all

done makes me feel a little bit better. I definitely hope things are going better down there

in Texas.

Later,

Adam.

I couldn't believe it, so I read through the email a second time just to be sure. The words hadn't changed. Adam sounded miserable and due to the distance between us there wasn't much I could do. His situation made my problems seem trivial. I immediately wrote him a reply, seeing as offering companionship through email was about all I could do with him in Minnesota and me in Texas. At least he had some other Ducks there for support.

But then I thought about what he had said, that none of the Ducks had gone to the meeting. I wondered if Charlie and the others even knew about the outcome or if they even cared. In a way, Adam was just as alone as I was. They were the ones who had taught Julie, Dean, Ken, Russ, Luis and I what it meant to be a Duck and the way I saw it they weren't living up to it right now. I was suddenly very angry with them.

I decided that I couldn't just let this go. I went into my address book and found Charlie's email address - after all he was the Captain and supposedly Adam's best friend. I decided to let Charlie know just how I felt about the way he was treating Adam.

Charlie's POV:

After the very quiet dinner with my mom, I retreated to my room. I thought about the short conversation I had with Mr. Banks. We all knew Adam's dad didn't like us and I'd have to say the feeling went both ways. I figured I was better off not having a father than to have a father like him. Still, why had he all of a sudden decided that he was going to forbid us from talking to Adam. What did it mean? What had happened at that meeting? I was wishing more and more that I had gone. I knew one way to find out.

Turning on my computer, I connected to the internet. If I couldn't talk to Adam on the phone then I would simply send him an email. It seemed kind of stupid because he lived so close but at least his father couldn't intercept the email.

I opened my email account to find that I had an email from Dwayne. I hadn't heard from him since right after our camping trip this summer. Curious I decided to read his email before composing the one to Adam. What I read came as a surprise to me.

Charlie

I can't believe you and the others would be so cold. Don't you guys care at all

about Adam. He is a Duck you know, despite the fact that your hockey league wants

to put him on another team. It shouldn't change the fact that he's your friend and if

it does than I don't want to be friends with you. For the first time ever, I'm not very

proud of being a Duck if it means you turn your back on your friends.

Dwayne

I sat there staring at the screen for a few minutes, trying to understand the email. It didn't sound like the easygoing Texan at all, but then I hadn't really seen him upset and the one thing that I was sure of from the email was that he was angry at me.

Dwayne mention the hockey league putting Adam on another team. I assumed he was getting his information from Adam in which case I knew what had happened at the meeting - the district lines had been redrawn once again and Adam was on the Hawks. I also had a feeling that Dwayne was operating on the assumption that I knew exactly what was going on and I guess it was a fair assumption. If I had been any kind of friend I would've been there at the meeting earlier this afternoon and I would've known what was going on.

If Adam was a Hawk again, which explained his father. Now that his son wasn't on the team, Mr. Banks figured it was going to be easy to keep Adam away from us. Well he was wrong.

Dwayne's email had made me realize just how wrong I had been. I turned off my computer. An email wasn't the answer. I didn't care what Mr. Banks wanted, I was going to talk to Adam in person.

Grabbing my roller blades and jacket, I quietly crept out of my room. My mom wasn't in the living room for which I was thankful. Though Mom would probably let me out of the house, I didn't really feel like trying to explain anything right now. Quietly, I made my way to the front door and slipped out of the apartment. Once I was outside I put my blades on and then took off in the direction of Edina. I had to talk to Adam. I just hopped he would be willing to listen to me.