~ CHAPTER THREE ~

Feeling like an absolute idiot Guy pulled his jersey on over the top of the white shirt his mother had forced him to wear and ran his fingers through his hair before following the rest of his teammates towards the crowd of people, some of whom appeared to be reporters.

At least his mum hadn't made him wear a tie like Charlie's had.

They were directed to gather on a little stage around a middle-aged man in an unflattering suit who was stood at a wooden lectern which a total of five microphones attached to it.

"Please welcome to the podium the head coach and leader of the Mighty Ducks," he announced, gesturing to the edge of the crowd where a familiar figure stood beside a much older man. It was obvious his introduction had been pre-organised. "Gordon Bombay."

Acknowledging the polite applause offered by the crowd Coach Bombay hurriedly replaced the man behind the lectern, smiling around at Guy and his teammates and gesturing for them to huddle in closer which everyone else did eagerly. Guy, however, hung back.

"Thank you," Coach murmured into the microphone as he smiled out at the gathered crowd. "It's a great honour to be here today to introduce you to a truly great group of kids."

Guy ducked his head, inexplicably shy all of a sudden even as his friends lapped up the attention being paid to them, Goldberg actually giving the audience a wave from his position at the very front of the group while Dwayne tipped his stetson towards them.

"Sure, they can be a little rambunctious," Gordon continued with his rehearsed speech, offering up a genuine chuckle of amusement for the crowd. "They've run me ragged and played more than their fair share of ranks. I still haven't forgotten about those eggs."

"Hey! That was your fault for having us practice with eggs instead of pucks!" Averman piped up indignantly from his spot to the right of Bombay. "You can't blame that one of us!"

"Yes, thank you, Averman…" Coach Bombay sighed deeply, much to the amusement of their audience. "But I hung in there, and in return they hung in there for me. We became the Quack Attack, the Flying V and the Bash Brothers. I've never had a better time. These kids are winners, each and every one of them. But more than that these are good people."

When he'd found out about the scholarship they were being offered Guy had been every bit as excited as the rest of them but possibly for slightly different reason. All Adam and Charlie could talk about for nearly an hour was the fact that sponsors had been known to visit Eden Hall looking for new talent. The others hadn't been much better. Guy, on the other hand, had been thinking that graduating from such a prestigious school would look much better on his application for the University of Reykjavik than graduating from Morden High would.

"I hope that they enrich and enliven your school and your lives the way they have mine," Coach Bombay finished with a smile. "Now I hand you over to the capable hands of my old biology teacher and the current headmaster of Eden Hall, Dean Buckley. Dean?"

Dean Buckley turned out to be an older man who towered over almost everyone with a shock of grey hair styled in a comb over and wearing a colourful bow tie with his plain suit.

"Gordon Bombay has a lot to be proud of," he began cheerfully, leaning against the lectern and seemingly ignoring the way that a few of the Ducks were openly mocking his appearance, Russ bring one of them as he stood making faces up at the man he was now stood beside. "We are happy to welcome the Ducks to our great educational institution."

Institution? That didn't sound particularly pleasant and, not for the first time since hearing the news, Guy found himself wondering exactly what there were letting themselves in for.

"So, today it gives me great pleasure to award you these full academic scholarships to the Eden Hall Academy," Dean Buckley announced, holding up a smart black folder with the schools emblem embossed in gold on the front cover up for all to see. "Where we hope that the Ducks will be happy Warriors and lead us on to glory and divisional championships."

Enduring the ceremony that came with handing out their official scholarships Guy smiled for the cameras and hopped down off of the stage as quickly as possible, making his way over to where his mum was stood at the edge of the crowd with some of the other parents.

She looked tired but proud and demanded that he pose for her to take a picture on their ancient camera, her work uniform creased and wrinkled from the night shift she'd just pulled. One day she wouldn't have to work so hard. One day he'd be able to look after her the way she had always looked after him, keeping him fed and clothed even after his dad had walked out on then when he was seven years old in favour of a much younger woman.

He made a mental note to get a copy of the photo his mum had just taken to send to Gunnar and Olaf with his next letter, knowing the two of them would be thrilled to have it. They'd called, carefully working out the time difference so that it worked for both ends of the conversation, after they'd received his letter about the scholarship to congratulate him.

"Ve are very pleased for you, love," Gunnar had murmured sincerely, his familiar voice succeeding in warming Guys heart as he reclined on his bed in his pyjamas. "You, and the rest of your team, deserve the chance to compete at a level appropriate for your skills."

"Já, that and it is one step closer to you coming here vith us," Olaf had pointed out, proving that they had had exactly the same thoughts as Guy had about how good it would look on his college application. "Ve haf missed being able to see and touch you every day…"

Bombay's voice drew him out of the fond memory of the way the phone call had devolved into little more that phone sex which, according to Olaf, had been part of their plan all along to congratulating him on securing the scholarship and he turned to gather around the man who had effectively changed all of their lives. Charlie was oddly absent from the group.

"I'm afraid I've got some bad news," Coach Bombay began, his soft words sending a flurry of options flooding through not only Guys mind but everyone else's, ranging from a terminal illness to there being a mix up with the scholarships. Guy sincerely hoped that it was something along the lines of the latter rather than the former or else it would be too much for them to handle. "The Junior Goodwill Games Committee has named me their Director of Player Personnel which means I'm going to be in charge of their junior hockey program worldwide. Unfortunately this means that I won't be able to come to Eden Hall with you."

His words were met with a mixed response. Some, like Guy, we're happy for the opportunity which had been given to Coach Bombay, knowing that it would further his career in a way that coaching never could although sadly there were quite a few who were angry with him.

Portman stormed off without another word, prompting Guy to wonder if this was where Charlie had disappeared off to, and after a couple of thinly veiled comments Fulton, Russ, Dwayne and Connie of all people followed him prompting Bombay's expression to fall.

"Don't listen to them, Coach," Adam murmured reassuringly. "You know what they're like."

"Yeah," Guy found himself agreeing softly, smiling across at the one responsible for his level of skill on the ice. "We're really pleased for you, Coach. It's a fantastic opportunity and if you can help other kids the way you helped all of us then I for one think it's a fantastic idea."

His friends echoed his statement, adding their own congratulations and wishing him well even as the older man blinked back at them, obviously struggling to hold back tears.

"Thank you," he eventually murmured, voice thick with emotion. "All of you, thank you."

Nudging the door open with his hip Guy slipped into the convenience store and made his way over to the counter, playing the cardboard box he carried down on the counter.

"Hey, Jesse," he smiled at his friend who was stood behind the counter. "My mum sent a few things for your mum and dad. Just old stuff, you know, that might come in handy."

Jesse offered him a tight smile.

It wasn't fair that one of his closest friends wasn't able to join them at Eden Hall Academy but he had chosen to help support his parents after his mother had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and his dad had lost his job due to the amount of time he needed to dedicate to caring for her. As it was ha was already doubtful that he would be able keep up with his passion for hockey whilst catching the amount of shifts he needed to work at the store so adding the extra practises Eden Hall Academy required was out of the question.

Terry was in the same boat, taking the early morning shifts so that his brother could sleep.

"Thanks, Guy," his friend murmured sadly. "All set for school?"

"Not really," Guy responded with a shake of his head, browsing the magazines on display. "It's a big change, you know? And it's going to be weird without you guys there with us."

"You hear about Peter?"

"No…"

"Got caught tagging again," Jesse explained as he moved the box of things so that it was out of view below the counter. His boss hated clutter, especially if it was what she deemed personal clutter, and he couldn't risk antagonising her into either cutting his shifts or letting him go entirely as she had done to others. "He's been sent down for another six months."

"How many times is that now?"

"This is number three," Jesse answered, ringing through the magazine and the chocolate bar Guy placed on the counter. Guy passed over the money without prompting, unwrapped the chocolate bar and snapped it in half so that they could share. "Thanks, man. If Peter's not careful he's going to end up being sent down for real soon and I don't think he'll like prison."

"You heard from Dave at all?"

Jesse shook his head.

They'd all been surprised to learn that whilst they were away competing at the Junior Goodwill Games their friend, whose broken led had made him ineligible to compete, had moved away without leaving any information behind about how to get hold of him. As it was there were rumours circulating about what had happened; his mother had remarried a rich man from New York, he'd run away to join the circus and, the more likely of them all, his mother had been offered a better job and she'd dragged him across the country.

"I did get a letter from Tammy though," Jesse offered, a lovesick grin blossoming on his face as he thought of his girlfriend. "She's competing next week for a place at Nationals."

It still amused Guy to think about how it wasn't when she'd been competing as a figure skater that she'd been noticed by a talent scout, rather during one of their hockey games when she'd demonstrated one of her signature "distraction" moves. She'd been offered the opportunity to train with one of the top figure skating coaches in the country shortly before they'd left for the Junior Goodwill Games and now she and her family resided in Boston.

Tommy had sulked about it at first but last Guy had heard he was playing for a good team at the top of their own hockey league and still had plans to pursue the sport as a career.

"How's she doing?" Guy asked, licking the melted chocolate off of his fingertips.

"Her coach thinks she stands a chance of getting through to Nationals," his friend answered, his smile becoming ever broader. "If she manages that she's got a shot at the Olympics."

"Seriously?" Guy choked. Jesse nodded proudly. "That's awesome! You going to go watch?"

Jesse sighed.

"I'd like to, if she makes it through but the National Figure Skating Championships are being held in Providence, Rhode Island this year so I don't know how I'd be able to afford it…"

He wanted to offer to lend his friend the money he needed but he knew that there was no way that the proud teenager would accept anything from him or anyone else for that matter. Jesse and his brother had been raised to see accepting charity as an embarrassment, even if that supposed charity was between friends who only want to help.

This had caused trouble in the past and no doubt would cause trouble in the future.

Guy suspected that the only way Tammy would be able to get Jesse to her competition would be if she purchased his ticket, arranged his travel and then used their relationship to blackmail/guilt trip him into accepting. Guy might write and suggest she do just that.

They parted ways after another customer came in demanding service, Guy promising to pop in after their first day at Eden Hall academy to let the other boy know how it went, before he disappeared out of the convenience store and began skating home, magazine in hand.

He was woken up on the morning of the first day of school by the house phone ringing and, as his mum was working night shifts, he had no choice but to roll out of bed and answer it.

"'lo?"

"I miss vaking up beside you," Olaf's familiar voice all but purred in his ear and the sleepiness washed away in an instant, replaced by the buzz of excitement. "Is too early?"

Glancing across at the nearest clock Guy automatically shook his head before realising they couldn't see him and, biting his lip in order to control his embarrassment, he answered.

"No, I needed to get up in half-an-hour anyway," he explained truthfully, running the fingers of his free hand through his hair in an attempt to tame his bedhead. "We, the other Duck's and I who aren't boarding at the school, have arranged to meet up and skate in together."

"Are you excited?" Gunnar enquired softly, his deep voice sending a shiver down Guy's spine. Olaf's voice was wonderful, his thick accent still exciting Guy to this day, but there was just something so uncontrollably arousing about Gunnar's rumbling purr. "Guy?"

"I'm…nervous…" he replied honestly. "I'm not exactly the most academic person out there."

"You vill be fine."

His hand rubbed at the back of his neck as they answered together without hesitation.

"…how can you know that?"

"Because you haf a good reason to do vell," Gunnar explained simply and Guy could hear the smile in his voice. "You vill be fine. You vill be perfect student. Perfect player. And the one day you vill join us in Reykjavik where you vill become great player. Vith us."

"You're right," Guy sighed, leaning back against the wall. "That is a good reason to do well."

"Onto more important matters," Olaf commanded. "…vat are you veering?"

He couldn't hold back the burst of laughter as he looked down at himself.

"Well, right now I'm just wearing my boxers," he answered and he could hear both Olaf and Gunnar react to that piece of news. "Control yourself. They're not even attractive ones."

They really weren't.

They were his most comfortable ones, old and worn but perfect for sleeping in.

"Doesn't matter vat they look like," Olaf countered instantly. "Matters vats inside them."

"Pervert…"

"For you?" his boyfriend chuckled. "Always."

"Vat Olaf meant to say vas vat are you veering to school?"

"I thought I'd wear my black jeans, the nice ones not the ones with the holes in them," Guy answered, looking across at where said clothing was slung over the back of his chair. "And my mum got me a new shirt to wear. It's blue plaid. I thought I'd wear a white t-shirt underneath and my black jacket on top. What do you think? I didn't want be too different…"

"It sounds perfect," Gunnar reassured him. "Smart but not like you are trying too hard."

"Just be careful," Olaf chuckled, the sound sending a shiver running down his spine. "You know how blue brings out your eyes. You'll haf to beat them away vith your hockey stick."

Rolling his eyes Guy turned the conversation onto a different subject, keeping them on the phone for as long as he could before he had to reluctantly say goodbye so that he could get ready. Gunnar and Olaf were equally as reluctant to say goodbye but promised to call later.

Once dressed he made sure his street shoes were in his school bag he pulled on his rollerblades, grabbed his safety helmet and set off to meet up with the others in the park by the lake they'd begun playing hockey together on. It was a familiar route, one he could do blindfolded which meant he could allow his mind to wander for the duration of the journey.

What would this new school be like?

He wasn't the best academic student there'd ever been, to the point where he'd been struggling to keep up his grades at their old school and had been forced to get a tutor.

Would that be an option at Eden Hall or would they expect them to do all the work alone?

What would their new Coach be like?

Due to their past experiences with coaches all the original Ducks were a bit wary or what to expect, each of them remembering the many problems they'd had before finally finding a coach they could work with, a coach they could trust. Firstly they'd had to deal with an alcoholic, then a creepy older guy who had been worryingly obsessed with Connie and had later been found to be a paedophile, then another alcoholic who had also had a gambling problem before their final coach before Bombay had arrived, a middle-aged man with a serious anger management problem who had shouted his way to a premature heart attack.

In the end he was one of the last to arrive and then as a group they set off towards their new school with Averman leading as apparently he was the only one of them who had any idea where they were going. Guy found this to be more than a little bit worrying.

"Averman, where are you taking us?"

It was going well until they lost Goldberg and Charlie.

"Should we double back to try and find them?"

"Nah," Averman laughed loudly. "They'll be fine."

Personally he doubted this fact, mostly due to Goldberg's questionable track record, but he also didn't fancy be being late on his first day at a new school. He had just been tightening the straps of his battered old backpack just as they were forced to take an unexpected turn, almost losing his footing which would have been both embarrassing and painful, which took them down into the public garden and through the tunnel underneath the busy main road.

"…bridge!"

"Hey, guys, wasn't that…?"

Their group was just about to emerge on the other side of the bridge when two instantly recognisable figures dropped down from above them, both of them crying out in fear.

"Yeah!" Averman began the cheering as their two missing friends landed in front of them, somehow managing to land on their feet and stay on their feet. "Goldberg! Yeah!"

"Goldberg, don't you ever do that to me again!"

It sounded as though they had been through one heck of a detour, if Charlie's exasperated and somewhat hoarse tone of voice was anything to go by. Not to mention that he appeared to be…well…wet…how on Earth had Charlie managed to get covered in water?

Finally, after what felt like a worryingly long time, they arrived at the school gates.

"All right, guys!" Charlie cried out cheerfully, clapping Averman on the back for a job well done as he took over the leading position from the smaller boy. "Let's get inside!"

"Hey, Averman, I'd wipe my rollerblades if I were you!" Goldberg called out teasingly just as a couple of horses appeared in front of them, the riders looking startled. "It looks like you rolled into something unpleasant on the way over here! Don't want to stink out the school!"

"Out of the way!" Connie, of all people, called out as the group of teenagers skated directly between the two horses. The poor animals skittered away nervously. "Coming through!"

It seemed as though every single door of the entire school was shut.

They were definitely late.

"Let's go! Let's go!" Charlie ordered as he pulled open the door marked 'AUDITORIUM' with more force than was strictly necessary. "Let's sneak in the back, all right? Let's go…"

Averman led the way and reluctantly Guy followed, stumbling as they had to manoeuvre up a short flight of narrow stairs whilst still wearing their rollerblades. Something didn't feel right about this, particularly not when they emerged onto what was undeniably a stage.

"Um, guys?" Guy mumbled, looking at the red curtain to their left. "I don't think…"

Of course that was when Goldberg arrived, tripping on something and grabbing onto said curtain in order to stop himself from crashing to the ground. Unfortunately, with a loud ripping sound, the curtain dropped down on top of them and Guy found himself knocked off his feet by another body as the heavy fabric of the curtain began to starve him of oxygen.

This was immediately followed by the unmistakable sound of people laughing.

"Hey!" Goldberg snapped just as Charlie managed to throw most of the curtain off of them although Guy was still left struggling with the section which had fallen on him. Somehow it had managed to become wrapped rather tightly around his legs, probably from the way Fulton had struggled when he'd fallen on top of him and knocked him over. "Get off of me!"

Of course this only caused the laughter to increase.

"Hi…" Charlie greeted the shocked faculty members and near hysterical students as the group of friends on the stage gazed out at them in horror. "We're the Ducks."

Guy could have smacked him.

This was not the first impression he'd been hope to make…

After what could only be described as an absolutely disastrous first day, his public school education leaving him almost completely unprepared in most of his lessons, Guy had been looking forwards to their first practise. Something familiar. Something he could handle.

"Wow…" Adam gasped as they exited the JV locker room as a group. There were a mixture of hockey jerseys, Charlie continuing to wear his original green 'Ducks' jersey as he had all day, Adam and Russ wearing their Goodwill Games jerseys whilst the rest wore random teams they'd either played for or supported. Guy himself was wearing a blue jersey his cousins had got him for Christmas as a joke. It was a Canadian strip. "This place is great…"

"This is a nice rink…"

"Hot dog…"

Dwayne's nasal voice almost completely drown out Charlie's soft admission as all of them came to a halt behind the protective barrier between the ice and the stands. It was a very nice rink, almost as big as the semi-professional rinks they'd competed on before now.

"It's huge!"

"You know, I bet they even have a snack bar here," Goldberg announced, his tone making it clear that he truly believed that to be the signature of a good rink rather than the vaulted ceiling from which their championship banners hung, the tiered seating and the smooth ice.

"Big deal."

"They look pretty good…"

Guy had to admit that Luis was right.

The Varsity Team clearly had a great deal of skill and skated with the precision and perfect time that came from years of playing together. They wore their black and red practise uniforms which only added to the level of intimidation they seemed determined to produce.

"They sure have won a lot of championships."

He let out a grunt of agreement when he heard Julie's statement, glancing up at the countless championship banners for a second time. There seemed to be hundreds of them.

"They're huge!"

Charlie scoffed, looking away from the players gathering together on the ice as he countered Dwayne's panicked cry with a somewhat petulant mutter of his own,

"They're not so hot…"

"Come on, guys," Connie called out brightly. "We could skate out there."

As one the team picked up their hockey sticks and made their way along to the nearest entrance onto the ice which, unfortunately, just happened to be the one the Varsity were exiting from. It was predictable that the two teams would collide, literally in Charlie's case.

"If it isn't Captain Ducky."

Riley, the Captain of the Varsity team if the 'C' on his jersey was anything to go by, sneered down at them as he reached out to place his gloved hand in the centre of Charlie's chest.

Predictably it was Fulton that moved forwards to push him away from their friend.

"Get your hands off him."

"Ooh, look, a Bash Brother," Cole, an enforcer who appeared to be a literal representation of the phrase 'all bran and no brain' added his own voice to the scene. "I'm so scared."

Guy suddenly found himself facing a young man who could have been Gunner's twin.

If he hadn't already been completely gone of his lovers he would probably have found himself being attracted to the Varsity's goalie. As it was he found the similarities a little bit unnerving as was relieved that their coach arrived to herd them away from the Ducks.

There was no sign of their own new coach.

"How about it, Cowboy?" Charlie enquired as they stepped out onto the ice. "Round up?"

Typical Charlie, taking charge of the situation without consulting with everyone else. Normally they all just went along with it but this time Connie decided to challenge him,

"Hey, Charlie, shouldn't we wait for the new coach before we mess around?"

"This is how we practice," Charlie responded, the patronising tone of voice grating on Guy's nerves although Connie just seemed to shrug it off. Whether or not Charlie had meant for it to come across as a joke was unclear but everyone else seemed to take it as something too laugh and smile about. "Duck hockey, Connie. You'll have to get used to it sooner or later."

Connie rolled her eyes in his direction.

"Well, come on, Cowboy," Charlie coaxed Dwayne, nudging him with his elbow. "Hit it!"

"Yee-ha! Round 'em up, doggies!"

Reluctantly he joined in with the rest of his friends, ducking away from the rope whenever it came his way. He even found himself having fun, a broad grin appearing on his face as the familiar game continued in the absence of their new coach. It was going well until they were all so caught up in their fun, in watching Charlie fall flat on his face as he was finally caught by Dwayne, that they missed the moment their new arrived and joined them on the ice.

"My name is Coach Orion. You can call me Coach or Coach Orion."

He was younger than any of them had been expecting, given the age of the Varsity coach, and was surprisingly handsome. It was obvious he took care himself, both in terms of his health and his looks. It was also obvious he was going to be even less fun than Coach Bombay had been in the early days of his time as Coach of the Mighty Ducks, then District 5.

"Well," Charlie sighed with a grin, holding his hand gloved out. "You can call me Charlie."

"That must be what that 'C' on your jersey stands for, huh?" Coach Orion scoffed, looking down at the offered hand with obvious distaste. "It sure doesn't stand for captain."

If it had been Guy in Charlie's place, being snubbed so blatantly by a person in a position of responsibility, he imagined he'd have kicked off. As it was Charlie just stared up at the older man, the colour draining from his cheeks as he realised he had just lost his prized position.

"Sorry, Coach. We were just messing with you, you know?"

Russ at least tried to sound apologetic, smiling broadly across at the man who was in charge of their high school hockey experience. Goldberg didn't even try to hide his annoyance,

"Hey, Bombay gave him that 'C'."

"And I respect that but that's the past," Orion brushed off the protests, looking around at the players gathered on the ice. "This is my team now and I'll be selecting the captain."

Charlie scoffed loudly.

"You've got to be kidding me, right?"

Shaking his head Guy looked from their team Captain, a renowned hot head with a bad habit of thinking of himself before others, and their new coach who didn't look very impressed with him at all. In fact Orion looked at Charlie like he was a bug on his shoe.

"I mean, you're the rookie here," Charlie pressed on, actually sneering at the older man as he gestured behind him towards the rest of the team. Guy wasn't the only one who shifted uncomfortably under the attention. "Most of us have been playing together for four years."

"Yeah…"

Goldberg wasn't the only one to respond positively but he was definitely the loudest.

"Ok, Charlie, laps," Coach Orion reacted calmly. His gaze was ice cold. "Right now."

"How many, Coach Orion?"

That's it, Charlie, Guy thought to himself, piss him off before we've even begun training.

"I don't recall saying," Coach Orion responded coldly, glaring at the headstrong teen until he pushed off and began skating the laps he'd been ordered to. "Now you listen up and you listen up good. We are here for one reason and one reason only. You know what that is?"

Guy actually found himself dreading the answer they were about to receive.

This was not the style of coaching they had become used to.

"It starts with a 'w'."

Averman was the one to finally offer a response worthy of the Hawks or the Vikings.

"To win, Coach Orion, sir!"

"No," Orion shot him down as swiftly and as bluntly as possible. "To work."

Ok, Guy thought to himself, that's not as bad as it could have been.

"High school hockey is very hard work," Orion continued. "And it all begins with defence. I've seen your tapes. I know you can score goals. I just don't know if you can stop them."

"Hey!" Goldberg protested loudly, pushing himself to front of the group before catching himself, freezing under the intense glare being laid upon him by Orion. "Um…sorry, sir…"

"You're not kids or little ducks anymore so I'm not going to treat you that way," the Coach announced firmly, turning the glare on the rest of the Ducks. "You're going to learn to play two-way hockey: offence and defence. It's going to take one thing. It's starts with a 'w'."

"To work, Coach Orion, sir!"

Averman sounded so confident as he recited what their coach had literally just told them.

"Wrong," the Coach cut him down effortlessly, bringing forth a round of snorts and chuckles at Averman's expense. The comedic member of their group took it well. "Will. It's going to take real will if you want to play in my barn. All right. Count off. Let's climb the ladder."

From that moment their first practise went from bad to worse.

Nothing they did was good enough for their new coach who seemed to delight in bringing them all down time and again. Every little thing was criticised; the way they skated as individuals, the way they skated as a team, the way they handled their sticks and the puck.

It was one of the most frustrating practises Guy had ever been put through.

Goldberg was the first through the door of the locker room once they had been dismissed from the ice and wasted no time in throwing down his stick and gloves before lying down on one of the long benches and announcing as melodramatically as humanly possible,

"Somebody get a shovel and bury me right here."

"I will teach you to play like what?" Charlie called out dramatically. "Starts with a 'w'!"

"Wussies," Fulton piped up as he followed the other boy into the room.

"That's right," Charlie agreed sarcastically, dropping his own gloves down onto the bench underneath where his street clothes were still hanging. "Wussies on offence and defence!"

Russ grunted like an animal and begun thumping his hands against his padded chest,

"Defence! Defence! Defence!"

There wasn't a shred of doubt in Guy's mind that their new coach had overheard every single word his friends had said about him given that he pretty much followed them into the locker room, shouldering his way past Ken who had been the last to enter the locker room.

"Eden Hall requires you to maintain a 'C' average to compete," he announced, calmly making his way through the team as they moved out of his way. "I believe that's a bad rule."

Goldberg crowed triumphantly,

"Go Coach!"

It was almost too predictable when the Coach turned his steely gaze on them.

"I don't want any 'C' players on my team," he informed them strictly whilst pinning a single sheet of paper to the notice board. "I want 'B's or better or you're going to be riding the pine pony. Now you've got fifteen minutes after each practice to clear this locker room."

Fifteen minutes?

That wasn't nearly enough time for them all to take a turn in the showers given that they were a mixed team and the showers were always communal allowing for no privacy, let alone to get themselves presentable to face the world outside the locker room once more.

"You've got homework to do," Orion reminded them almost cheerfully before becoming stern once more, actually pointing a finger around at all of them. "Oh, and one more thing. Stay clear of the varsity until we play them in the JV-Varsity Showdown. You got that?"

And with that parting threat their new coach left them alone to sort themselves out.

"Fifteen minutes?" Russ groaned pathetically. "Man, I cannot move!"

"Hey, you guys, look!" Connie gasped, jumping to her feet. "He posted out positions."

A crowd quickly gathered around the piece of paper he had posted, shoulders bumping as they jostled each other out of the way so that they could each discover their new positions.

"I don't believe this," Fulton was the first to complain. "I play left side, not right."

"Third line!" Russ added his own complaint. "Man, that's a major diss!"

Adam's voice, when it came, was soft and filled with confusion,

"I'm not even posted."

"Yeah, you are," Connie countered quickly as she spotted his name, her voice trailing off with obvious confusion as she read it aloud. "Adam Banks, third line centre. Varsity?"

"…I made Varsity?"

Varsity?

They were losing Adam to what was effectively their rival team?!

"That's the great thing about being goalie, you know?" Goldberg laughed cheerfully from where he was taking his time removing the cumbersome pads he had to wear. "You always know where you stand. I just mind my business, take my place between the pipes."

Averman snorted loudly from where he stood in front of the sheet of paper.

"You're riding the pine pony, pal."

"…very funny."

"Julie's one," Averman explained simply. "You're two."

"I'm backup?"

To say Goldberg took the news badly would be an understatement, stumbling over to hang off of Averman's shoulder as he stared at the words neatly typed up on the sheet of paper.

"How can he do this to me?" he demanded sharply. "What am I, chopped liver?"

Guy found himself standing between Ken and Dwayne as he searched the piece of paper for his name, relieved to find that unlike most of his friends his position hadn't changed.

"Hey," Dwayne grunted, voice filled with confusion. "Who's Captain Tibid?"

Shifting his gaze to the top of the page Guy saw at once what had confused the other boy.

"Oh, no, that's Captain T.B.D," he explained clearly, shooting a worried glance across at Charlie who's expression turn glacial as Guy broke it down further. "To Be Determined."

"Oh," Dwayne mumbled, his brows furrowing with confusion. "Oh, I see. Well…no I don't."

He turned, drawing all of their gazes to where Charlie sat fuming silently.

"That's your job, Charlie."

Knowing that if he called his boyfriends as soon as he arrived home he would never get through the mountain of homework he had been assigned on the first day, most of which was to be completed by the second or third day and was supposedly designed to test their knowledge and academic abilities he forced himself to work through the homework first.

As such it was late when he called them which meant it was ridiculously late for them.

It was no surprise that it ended up going to the answering machine.

"It's me," he began softly, lying back against his pillows with the phone held up to his ear. "I'm sorry I left it so late to call but I had hockey practise and then homework to complete. I just wanted to let you know that school was…interesting…and that I miss you both."

He sighed deeply, feeling unexpectedly emotional when faced with leaving a message rather than speaking to his two boyfriends in person. For some reason a message felt even worse.

"I love you both. Um…" he bit his lip, inexplicably struggling to hold back tears. "Love you."

Hanging up the phone he frowned at his hand as he placed the chunky phone down on his bedside cabinet, noticing the way it shook uncontrollably. His mum was out, working, and he couldn't help but wish she was there so that he could go to her for a comforting hug.

He hadn't told her about his relationship.

She wouldn't understand, not just that he was gay but that he had two boyfriends.

But she was his mother and one of her hugs would have helped a great deal.

"Never mind," he sighed to himself as he began his nightly routine. "Bed time…"

Of their entire team only five of them had managed to get all of the required homework assignments completed, the others being Adam, Connie, Julie and Ken who no doubt completed them to a much higher standard than he had. Most of the others had only managed to complete some of the homework but a few hadn't even bothered trying.

They were all treated to "dinner and a show" come lunchtime curtesy of Charlie, Fulton and Russ who had decided to declare a prank war on the Varsity team without consulting the rest of them. It turned out that they'd seen them harassing Ken who had willingly traded his own cafeteria lunch for Goldberg's homemade lunch, preferring fresh food, and so their retaliation was justified. A little warning would have been nice, however, as Guy had only been half-done with his meal when he was caught up in the stampede caused by the prank.

He hadn't held much hope that their second hockey practise would be an improvement on the first and, sadly, he wasn't disappointed. Julie spent most of the practise throwing up due to a cruel prank which Goldberg had played on her for which he was thoroughly thumped later on by all of them but especially Julie, the talented girl positively vibrating with anger.

It was bearable, the repetitive drills which seemed to have been designed to break them down rather than to build them up, until predictably Charlie brought everything to a halt.

"Where's the one place you never want to clear the puck?"

Guy winced from where he had come to a halt following the coach's sharp whistle.

"It looked open."

"Just answer the question, Conway."

The hot-head of the team huffed loudly before snapping at their coach,

"Listen, I'm not a defence-man, I'm a scorer!"

Coach Orion's expression turned from cold to positively glacial in the blink of an eye.

"Follow me."

None of them could quite believe it when he put Charlie in the penalty box.

"Anybody share his opinion?" Orion demanded gruffly as he returned to his previous position, glaring around at the rest of them. No one spoke. "All right then, take a knee."

Guy was more than happy to obey and he was pretty sure he wasn't the only one who was grateful for the unexpected break. He could do with a drink as well but didn't want to risk drawing Coach Orion's attention to him by dashing over to the bench where his bottle was.

Reaching down Orion scooped up the puck into his hand, frowning down at it as he asked,

"What's the one thing all great teams have in common?"

"Great coaching."

"Don't try to suck up to me, Averman," Orion shot down his outspoken friend. Goldberg snorted loudly as Averman's smile fell. "Defence. See, unlike scoring defence never quits."

Not that he'd admit it to his friends but that actually made a lot of sense to Guy.

"But to play great defence you need one thing above all else."

"Bet it starts with a 'w'…" Averman muttered, just loud enough to be heard by their Coach who shot him a dirty look as he supplied the answer to his own sort-of-a-question,

"Confidence."

Guy shared a look with Julie, the person knelt closest to him. She looked just as confused.

"Listen, if you learn nothing else when you're here, you learn this. Alright?" Coach Orion demanded, gesturing around at all of them with the puck before folding it into the palm of his hand so that he could point towards specific players. "Because it's not just about hockey. It's easy to be confident when you have control of the puck. It's very, very difficult to keep that confidence when you've got to take whatever strange bounces life throws your way."

Huh…

Coach Orion had a point.

It was difficult to be confident about anything when things weren't going the way they should have been. His mother said he had retreated into himself after his father had walked out on them, not that he remembered much other than being really sad, but apparently it had only been joining the team as a favour to Charlie that had brought him out of his shell.

"Don't be careless, but don't be afraid either," Orion continued firmly, pointing towards Averman and Goldberg, then Ken, Dwayne and Connie. "You cannot be afraid to lose."

…and just how were they meant to do that?

Guy had spent every game he'd even played in terrified that they would lose, even when they were 'District Five' and all they ever did was lose again and again. It was still terrifying.

"That's how you gain the confidence to attack the game when the puck isn't yours," Coach Orion concluded his speech, using the puck to gesture to them again. "That's how you attack life, even when you think you don't have any control. And that's how you play real defence."

Stepping off of the ice after their first game Guy couldn't help but let out a deep sigh, feeling more disappointed with their performance as a team than he had in a long time. Since their first match against his lover's team, even. They'd performed well during the first two periods but sadly their early success had gone to their heads leaving them overconfident going into the final period. It had been embarrassing, watching his friends making idiots of themselves as they tried to show off long after Guy had realised that he needed to buckle down and play hard if they were to have any chance of leaving the ice with a victory.

"Oh, there goes the buzzer. This baby is over. A very disappointing tie for the Eden Hall Warriors," the annoying voice of the announcer echoed throughout the rink thanks to the schools impressive sound system, one which included the games being broadcast on the local radio station. "They opened their cabin door and let those Blake Bears climb right in."

Charlie stormed off, pushing his way into the locker room as he grumbled defensively,

"The guy hooked me, all right?"

"We didn't need anymore goals…"

Not wanting to get involved in what was blatantly going to dissolve into a fight, whether it be verbal or physical, Guy hung back near the door whilst his friends clashed in front of him.

"Hey, listen, I was trying to win it!"

"Well, mission unaccomplished, Charlie."

Nope.

This was not going to end well…

"We let down, simple as that…"

"Hey, you let down," Connie muttered, shoving past the group of boys standing chest to chest as she headed towards her locker to dump her stick and skates. "I played hard."

"Well, what are we playing for anyway?" Charlie scoffed angrily, throwing his arms wide as he glared around at his friends and teammates. "Some stupid school? The alumni?"

He snorted, shaking his head and Guy sighed, dropping his own head to look at the floor.

"I mean, Warriors?" Charlie continued derisively. "What the hell are we now?"

"Look, man, we're on scholarship," Russ pointed out, getting in Charlie's face. "I'm staying."

Charlie scoffed,

"Fine, sell-out…"

"Man, who you calling a sell-out?" Russ demanded. "Punk!"

He couldn't tell who shoved who first but it took mere seconds for his friends to dissolve into a fight, pushing and shoving at each other although no punches were thrown. Most of the others, like him, tried to pull the two of them away from each other, but some joined in.

"Hey, get your hands off him!"

"Hold up, Charlie!"

"Charlie, stop it!"

Even with the padding he was wearing the impact of the door on his arm as it was flung open sent a wave of pain flooding through his left side, his fingers tingling as though they were going to go numb. Turning to give whoever was responsible a piece of his mind he was stunned to see their coach storming into the room with a face like thunder, launching a hockey puck towards the fighting teenagers who only just moved out of the way in time.

As it was the puck flew through the air and imbedded itself deep into the noticeboard.

"How long does it take to score a goal?" he demanded angrily, glaring around at the young faces of his players, most of whom were now staring at him in open mouthed shock. As angry as Bombay had gotten with them in the early days he'd never, ever thrown anything at any of them. "Less than a second! That means no lead is safe if you can't play defence!"

Guy understood where their Coach was coming from even if his friends didn't.

"Now get this straight," Coach Orion pressed on, continuing to glare around at the talented young players staring up at him. Guy was the only one behind him. "I don't give a damn how many goals you score. I want one number on your mind: zero, as in shutout. You got that?"

Multiple heads moved as the group of friends reluctantly nodded.

"Practice, tomorrow morning. Got to get up early if you want to hunt goose eggs."

Dodging out of the way as their coach left the room just as swiftly as he had entered the changing room, allowing the door to slam behind him loudly. For a long moment no one moved, no one spoke, and then someone let out a sigh and they all moved to get changed.

"Hey," Guy found himself calling out, his voice filled with annoyance as he discovered that his things were missing. Everything, even his underwear and socks. "Who took my clothes?"

As a second silence fell they all heard the sound of the showers running.

"No…" Connie gasped, leading them as they all rushed towards the communal shower, stumbling to a halt as they caught sight of the large pile of fabric in the centre of the room. All the shower heads had been adjusted so that the spray was aimed directly at them. "I…"

"Did they put our clothes in the…?"

He could see his jacket resting on the very top of the pile but the rest seemed to have been muddled in with all of the other clothes. Only one of his trainers was visible and he was more annoyed about them than his clothes as they were his most comfortable pair of shoes and once they dried out they'd warp. Shoes always did. They'd never be the same again.

"Oh, man…"

"That answers your question, doesn't it?"

"They put our clothes in the shower," Guy sighed into the phone, sitting out on the fire escape of his apartment building where he had just eaten the Chinese take-out he had ordered for dinner as his mother was away on business. "So then some of the guys thought it'd be a good idea to get them back by using liquid nitrogen to freeze their clothes…"

Olaf burst out laughing on the other end of the line whilst Gunnar gasped loudly,

"…liquid nitrogen?"

It had been over a week since they'd last managed to catch each other, all of them trying at one point or another but choosing the wrong time. Guy hadn't wanted to leave a long winded message each time and so had just promised to call at a certain time every day so that maybe one day they'd be able to take his call. Thankfully it had worked although he feared the size of their phone bill, international phone calls and all that, so had started looking for a job which he could fit around school and hockey practise in order to pay it off.

He didn't want his mum to be landed with the bill, given that she'd want to know who he was calling and he wasn't ready to come out yet, especially not as he had two boyfriends.

"Yup," he confirmed with a smile, tapping the chop sticks against the railings. "Apparently they did the whole locker room and it must have been bad because they got us back by taking us out for dinner at a ridiculously posh restaurant and leaving us with the bill."

"Vat?" Gunnar gasped in shock. "That seems like an unnecessary amount of escalation."

"We couldn't afford it, obviously, so we had to spend the rest of the evening working it off," Guy sighed, recalling the various jobs the restaurant had made them all do. They hadn't been allowed to leave the restaurant until gone midnight. "As you can probably guess this didn't go down very well the rest of the team. I didn't really want to get involved but…"

"Vat did you do in retaliation?"

Olaf was definitely enjoying hearing about their prank war.

"Ok, well first you have to know that Dean Buckley keeps an ant farm in his office," he began the explanation of the events that had taken place earlier that very evening. "Not just any ants, though, fire ants. Anyway the Varsity Team all board on campus. It's a thing, apparently, so someone came up with the idea to put the fire ants into their beds…"

"Guð Minn Góður!" Gunnar choked out whilst Olaf cackled once more. (Oh My God!)

"We used a hoover to get them out of the ant farm and then used a network of plastic tubes we liberated from the science department to spread them throughout the rooms," he continued with his explanation. "I spent my evening perched in a tree with a pair of binoculars and a walkie-talkie guiding them through using a fishing rod through an air vent to lift the ends of the tubes onto the beds so that the ants would reach their targets."

"Vait, did…did you pull this prank tonight?" Gunnar gasped. "Guy!"

"And we'd tied all their doors in such a way that they couldn't get out until we let them out," he finished his explanation, speaking not from experience but from what the others had said when they'd met up following their hard work. "Unfortunately because they had to be there to let them out of their rooms that meant they were there to be challenged…"

"Challenged?"

Guy cleared his throat, using the chopsticks to rub at the back of his neck.

"Yeah," he confirmed softly, somewhat hesitantly as he knew that his boyfriends would disapprove of the outcome of the prank war. To be honest he wasn't too thrilled by it but he couldn't desert his friends now. "They challenged us to a pick-up game tomorrow at dawn."

"Vat?!"

A/N Here is the long awaited (sorry about that…) update in the re-write of my old story. Hope you enjoyed it and I'll try to get the next one out ASAP. Comments/Suggestions welcome. X