Amore sighed as Julie seemed to distance herself from her. She knew something was wrong. She figured it had to do with what happened with the Varsity. When they went to the food court to get something to eat, Amore couldn't stay quiet about the matter any longer. She turned to Julie and swiped her strawberry milkshake.

"Hey!" Julie protested. "Give me back my milkshake!"

"I'll give it back when you tell me what is going on." Amore replied with an innocent smile.

Julie sighed. "It has nothing to do with you really."

Amore gave her friend the best Bombay stern look she could muster and Julie giggled.

"Goldberg is upset that I got first and he's back up." Julie replied. "He brought me a whole tray of goodies for lunch so that I would get sick on the ice."

Amore's mouth dropped open. "He tried to sabotage you! What the hell is happening to the team?"

Julie shrugged. "We're falling apart Amore. With a new coach, Jesse and Portman not coming, you and Adam making Varsity. And Charlie no longer captain. Everything is crazy and every one is on edge."

Amore sighed heavily. "The team will pull through. The Ducks always do. Like when Adam joined the team. Or when my dad became coach. And even when the you new Ducks came along. You'll see. Things will be getting better."

Julie shook her head. "This is different. Then we added people. This time we are losing them. We could have really used you guys at lunch. Even if you had at least shown up, we'd believe you're still one of us."

Amore bowed her head and raised her arm up to show Julie the bracelet. "I'll always be one of you. And so will Adam. But you don't know what we go through every day. Rick and his goons are always making our lives hell. We don't want any more trouble. We just want to play hockey."

"Even if it means losing the friendship of the Ducks?" Julie asked.

Amore sighed heavily. "I'll always be your friends. You all know to much about me."

Julie smirked. "That is such a Bombay thing to say. We'd better get going if we are going to have time to pick up clothes for Adam."

Amore smirked and picked up a bag. "No need. Bought him some new clothes. And he's got a Eden Hall sweater in his locker."

Julie smirked then nodded over Amore's shoulder. "Man you must be a Banks magnet."

Amore turned to see Alex walking up to them, dressed in his work uniform. Amore rolled her eyes and turned back towards Julie. "Sure seems that way doesn't it."

Alex sat next to Amore with a heavy sigh. "You girls ready for your first game today?"

Amore nodded. "Not sure how much play time I'll get, but I'm excited."

Julie nodded in agreement. "It will be nice to show what I can do rather than sitting on the bench most of the time."

"Yeah I heard you got some skills." Alex said with a smirk. "If you want to better your skills let me know. I'm sure Jason and I can help ya out. We were pretty damn good."

"Pretty good?" Amore said with a laugh. "You were the best on the Varsity team."

Alex reached over and messed up Amore's hair. "Well I may just see you girls at the game. Just got off work and am heading there now."

"Good." Amore said handing him some of her bags. "You can give us a ride."

Alex chuckled and took Julie's bags as well. "Then come on ladies. Your chariot awaits."

The girls giggled and followed Alex to his car. When. They got back to Eden Hall, Adam was sitting out side waiting for them. "What the hell took you so long? Oh Hey Alex."

"Hey yourself." Alex replied with a smirk. He had noticed his younger brother had developed a small crush on one of the girls. So to see Alex with her bugged him. " Amore brought some clothes for you. But make sure you take the tags off before you wear them."

"Mory, I said bring me some clothes from your place," Adam protested. "Not buy me clothes. You know how picky I can get."

"Live a little Adam." Amore said with a smirk. "Just wear them. I've already taken the tags off so you can't return them. So wear everything that's in the bag. Even the boxerbriefs. You have got to stop wearing tightly whites."

Adam blushed and swiped the bag from her hand before rushing inside to change. Amore watched him go with a slight smirk on her face.

"Ok what else is in that bag?" Alex asked with a chuckle. "No, wait... I don't want to know."

A few minutes later Adam came back with a very red face. He was dressed in jeans, a blue striped long sleeve button up shirt, blue and black tennis shoes and a black belt with a belt buckle that said hockey stud. "Really Amore! You expect me to wear this."

"Well it kinda looks like you already are." Alex said with a smirk. Adam glared over at his brother. He should have known he wouldn't be helpful.

Amore walked up to him and intertwined her arm with his. "You look good Adam. Don't let Monster convince you other wise."

She then turned to Julie. "Doesn't Adam look amazingly handsome."

Julie giggled and walked around him. "Very nice Amore. You did a very good job. The jeans are just tight enough, but leave so much for a girls imagination to take over. The shirt gives him a slim but fit look and the color brings out his blue eyes."

Adam blushed and took his arm away from Amore. "I'm going to get my sweater."

He walked away and the girls started giggling at once. Alex shook his head and smirked as he put his arm around Amore's shoulders. "You do realize you just embarrassed the shit out of him right. He wont talk to you for a while."

Amore shrugged. "He'll get over it and thank me later."

Julie watched Amore and Alex walk in to the arena while some junior girls walk out. The girls rolled their eyes and glared at Amore.

"Man, first Dean Portman and now Alex Banks. Does the girl have any morals?" One girl almost seemed to growl.

"You're just jealous because you've been after Alex since he broke up with your sister last year." the other girl said rolling her eyes. Julie rolled her eyes and walked past the girls as she "accidentally" bumped into Mindy's sister.

"Oh I am so sorry." Julie said sarcastically. The girl just glared, flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder and kept walking. Julie smiled to herself and headed for the locker room. She was starting to get a little nervous about being starter.

She walked in to see Amore fixing Adam's sweater for him. She pulled the bottom down a bit more and rolled up the sleeves. Then rolled up the blue shirt sleeves. He held out his arms as if asking if she was done and she quickly messed with his hair. He had a slight smirk on his face as Amore looked him over one more time.

"Very hot." Amore teased. Adam smirked down at her. "Oh yeah, well now its my turn."

Adam grabbed her arm and pulled her into the varsity locker room. Julie stood their stunned. She couldn't believe what she had just witnessed. She shook her head and walked into the JV locker room.

Adam twirled Amore around and shook her head. "Amore you're in the same clothes you wore to school today."

"Nuh uh!" Amore protested. "I changed my jeans!"

Adam crossed his arms and shook his head. "No you wore those today. I know this because you spilled catsup on them at lunch. Right there."

He pointed to a spot on her upper thigh. Amore sighed and crossed her arms. "Sorry that I didn't have time to change because I was busy shopping."

Adam chuckled. "Why don't you wear something you just bought?"

Amore rolled her eyes. "They're in Alex's car."

Adam rolled his eyes and walked up to her locker. He opened it to show Amore had at least three outfits stashed in there. He over all three then took one out of the locker and tossed it to Amore.

"Change." He turned around to show he wasn't leaving till she actually did change. So Amore gave in and changed into a dark wash jeans, a black polo shirt and her black and white heeleys.

"Alright Adam, you can turn around now." Amore said walking up to him and grabbing his hand. "Lets go find our seats."

They walked to were the varsity sat and weren't surprised to see that Rick wasn't going to allow them to sit next to each other.

"Saved you a spot Rae." Scooter said patting the seat to his left. Amore shook her head and sat in between Scooter and Doug and she brought Adam with her forcing Scooter to scoot over.

Adam smirked knowing Amore had just pissed of Rick. But she really didn't care. She refused to sit with any one else on the team. She looked over at Adam and winked she couldn't wait to see the Ducks in action again. When the Ducks... Freshman hockey team scatted out onto the ice Amore whooped and hollered till Rick pulled her back into her seat.

"Remember who's team your on Rae." Rick spat at her. She smiled sweetly back at him.

"There is nothing wrong with showing some school spirit." Amore replied. "But if you have a problem with it, I'll be more than happy to sit with Jason and Alex."

"Do you want to play hockey Amore?" Rick asked with a sneer. "Because I do have the power to get you kicked off the Varsity team."

Amore opened her mouth again but Adam placed a hand on her shoulder. With a huff she turned back around. Adam needed her on the team. She couldn't get kicked off.

The first half of the game Amore sat in silence. The JV was dominating as usual. But something had changed by the second half. Blake seemed to get a second wind. The first shot on Julie went in with no problem. That wasn't like Julie. And every shot made at her after that made it in.

"Come on defense! Help Julie out a little!" Amore called out to them. "Come on Guy! They shouldn't be getting past you!"

"They already have a couch Rae." Adam said with a smirk. "They don't need you couching from the stands."

"They're slacking Adam." Amore protested. "They are way better than this."

"You and I both know this Mory." Adam replied. "They'll pull through."

Amore hoped he was right. They needed to step it up a notch though. She had already heard rumors of the board wanting to revoke the scholarships.

Amore held her breath as she watch Charlie skate in front of a Blake player. She hung her head when he was faked out and fell to the ice. She didn't even look up when she heard the goal buzzer. She knew the JV hadn't scored. She heard Adam gasp and she finally looked up in time to see Charlie break his hockey stick against the goal. Her heart sank.

"I can't watch this any more." Amore said standing up and walking away. Adam quickly followed her. He really didn't want to be stuck with the Varsity. Amore looked over her shoulder and smiled when she saw Adam following her. She lead him into the Varsity locker room and sat down on the bench in front of her locker. "I need to call dad."

Adam nodded in response. Bombay needed to know what leaving them had done to the team.

Amore took a deep breath and called her dad. He answered almost right away. "Hey Hon, how's school going?"

Amore almost broke down in tears. "I hate it dad. The varsity are being jerks, the ducks aren't talking to me or Adam much. And Charlie is falling apart. Dad... We need you back."

There was a pause on the phone. "Amore, take a deep breath and tell me everything."

Amore did what he he said. She started with Alex and Jason quitting the Varsity team. Then Adam making varsity, Orian taking Charlie's C, the prank Charlie pulled on the varsity and why the ducks were mad at her. Then the game that Amore just witnessed.

Bombay shook his head at the other end as he listened to what his daughter was saying. He wished he could just fly home to all of them. But that was just not going to happen. The team leaned on him way to much. They were getting older and eventually they would have to learn to fix their problems themselves. He hated doing it to them. They all felt like his kids. Hell when people asked him how many kids he had he'd say 16. One by blood the others by chance. Three years ago, if some one said a group of kids would have changed his life, he wouldn't have believed it. He had hated kids. They were annoying and always full of questions. And even though he fought hard to keep from caring. It didn't work. Because every time he turned around there they were. The Ducks. But most of all Charlie. If it wasn't for that boy. He wouldn't have stuck with the community service and he would never have found out Amore was his kid. Or He would have never tried out for the miners. And then the Goodwill games would have never happened. Yes he owed Charlie a lot.

"I'm sorry things aren't doing to well for you. But some times things have to get bad before they get better." Bombay said knowing it wasn't what his daughter wanted to hear. "Keep me posted if any thing else happens. If it gets worse, I'll be there in a heartbeat. And good luck on your game tonight. Luis's sister is taping it for me."

"Thanks dad." Amore said and hung up the phone. Bombay turned with a heavy sigh and looked over at his girlfriend Michele. She smiled at him knowingly.

"I'm sure everything will work out." She said kissing his cheek. "And soon you'll be back home with Amore and the rest of the Ducks."

Bombay smiled over at her. "What would I do with out you?"

Adam watched Amore hopefully. If Bombay came back a lot of the problems would be over. Amore hung up the phone and shook her head. "He's not coming. Said things need to get bad before they get better."

Adam nodded. "I guess he's right. Lets get ready for the game. I think your starting."