Disclaimer: If I actually did own the Mighty Ducks, I would be a very rich woman indeed.

– Chapter Ten –

"You feel like playing soccer in the hallways?"

"No."

"You sure?"

"Yes. You kick too hard."

"What time is it?"

"The same time as when you asked me ten seconds ago."

"Can you blame me for being bored?"

"I suppose not."

"Can we break out?"

"I don't think so. Connie would kill us."

Dylan shifted grumpily in his seat to glare at Maddie. After being diagnosed with an extremely severe case of pneumonia, the two had been stuck in the hospital for close to a week. And they were now fine. But alas, their doctors and Dean Buckley were insistent on them staying a few extra days.

So as the two were no longer deathly ill and had even finished all the homework that Adam had thoughtfully brought for them, they were restless. And when these two became restless, it was just an invitation for Hell to break loose.

"Mads?"

Sighing, she looked at him. Her father had left several days before and she was missing his presence extremely. He had been with her through her whole sickness and only at her reluctant urging, had left for his own patients back in New York. "Yeah?"

His silver eyes glinted. "Care to take a walk?"

"So maybe they went to take a bath?"

Adam Banks resisted the urge to howl in exasperation. "I swear," He grasped his hair. "Just stay still, get some rest so you don't get sick again – but no, it's I'm bored this and I'm bored that! One more bloody day they had to stay still but no! At this rate, they'll be in here forever-"

Angie surveyed her ranting brother with a clinical detachment. After learning that she was paired with Maddie for the joint showcase, she had tagged along with Adam to tell the other girl the news. Unfortunately, the room where the two invalids were supposed to be in was now empty.

"Well, did you honestly expect them to sit here quietly?" Adam turned to look at her mutinously. She shrugged defensively. "I mean, I only met them a couple months ago and I know better."

"Well, if you're so smart, why don't you tell me where they are?" He jutted his jaw out pugnaciously.

She pointed to the hallway. "Follow the trail of destruction."

Suddenly, music blasted from the end of the corridor, practically reverberating off the walls.

Angie blinked. "It's Britney, bitch."

"I've got that boom boom, that you want…watching me all night long, hurry up before it's gone!" Dylan sang as he cranked up the music to maximum volume.

Grinning, Maddie stood up from her conversation with a ten year old leukemia patient and clapped her hands. "Shortayyyyy! Shortayyyy! Get on the floor and shake that ass!"

His hips shaking like a leaf in the wind, Dylan weaved his way across the play room. "You probably weren't alive for this song. But learn it, it's a classic." He advised a giggling five year old girl, picking her up. Settling her on his hip, he grinned at his best friend. "How long has it been since we've heard this song? Get on the floor and shake that ass!"

"Connect the heel to the toe, yeah! Like that! And then set a rhythm to it!" Maddie smiled at her ten year old encouragingly as she taught him the finer points of fancy footwork.

"What is the meaning of this?" A voice burst through the noise and a large figure pushed through the crowd of laughing spectators that had gathered in the entrance of the playroom. "Oh, I should've known it would be you two! Enough-"

Dylan blanched slightly, stopping in his tracks. Spotting a scandalized Banks and his sister pushing their way through the crowd, he immediately waltzed over to them and deposited the still giggling little girl into Angie's arms. "Take care of me bonny lass for a wee bit, She-Banks?" He sang in a lilting, Scottish brogue. Then grabbing Adam's hands, Dylan twirled over to the furious head nurse and included in his odd dance.

As the two victims were forced to caper hand in hand, in Dylan's rather grotesque little dance of glee, the irrepressible blond spotted several cameras. "Oh! Pictures! Smile, everyone!" He flashed his pearly whites towards the spotlight.

He was the only one smiling in the trio.

"CARMEN!"

Blinking owlishly, the girl looked up from her book and had her vision obscured by a warm, vanilla-scented bundle of girl. Returning the hug bewilderedly, she struggled to breathe. "Maddie? What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be discharged on Wednesday!"

Getting comfortable in their armchair, the Asian girl beamed at her. "We got kicked out of the hospital."

Carmen's golden eyes narrowed suspiciously. "We?"

"So, Rivera," Dylan sauntered into the common room. "missed me? Our parting was such sweet sorrow, wasn't it?"

"So much so that I would like to send you to back to the hospital so I could live in sweet sorrow once again."

"I would never let you live in sorrow, babe." He leaned towards her, his eyes twinkling lasciviously. "How about a welcome-home kiss?"

She stared at him. After a brief second of delirious hope that she would actually do it, Dylan had that notion knocked out of him. Literally.

"You are the most disgusting specimen of a male that I have ever had the misfortune to see." She spat before turning to a rather entertained Maddie. "Come on, the girls will want to know you're home."

Watching them leave, Luis looked down at his roommate. "How many fingers am I holding up?" He asked, raising three fingers.

Moving his jaw gingerly, Dylan slowly sat up. "Now I know why the tennis team has been hounding her to join for the past year and a half. What a woman."

"She does have an arm on her." Luis agreed, helping him up. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah." The blond teetered slightly. "If she wanted to play rough, all she had to do was ask. I'm fragile! I've been medicated."

"That is extremely obvious." Luis muttered as he gave him a steady hand. "Good to have you back, man."

How did Connie's room always manage to smell so much better than his?

With a puzzled sigh, Charlie Conway sprawled out on Maddie's bed. Staring at the ceiling in idle contemplation, he absently scratched Bagel who had trundled over to him. Just how did the girls do it?

After all, he had Banks for a roommate who disinfected, scrubbed and deodorized almost religiously and the girls were nowhere near as neat as them. Yet Connie and Maddie's room always smelled like summer, especially now, with the late afternoon sunlight streaming in through the window. Noticing the slight hint of citrus-y verbena in the air, he smiled. That was Connie's signature scent.

Then, spying Maddie's bottle of obscure Italian perfume, he scrambled off the bed and settled himself on her chair. Giving himself a generous spray, he contentedly basked in the smell of soft vanilla. Maybe this was how they smelled better. Although, Charlie and Adam both had rather nifty colognes.

It was absolutely mind boggling.

"You know, Carmen has quite a large selection of perfumes to choose from." Charlie turned to see Goldberg walk through the door. "I especially like her Viktor & Rolf one. It's pure sex."

Luis and Fulton followed him inside. "Do the girls know that you're in their room?"

Charlie shrugged expansively. "What's theirs is ours, boys. Grab a seat."

"Good philosophy, Charlie." Goldberg said approvingly, making a beeline for Maddie's closet. "Now, if recollection serves correct, Maddie hides her sweets in her closet. Usually near her coats…ah ha! Found 'em!"

"Dude," Averman sauntered in and collapsed on Connie's bed. "the girls will kill you if you touch their chocolate."

Goldberg sniffed, raising a truffle to his lips. "Maddie loves me. And I'll blame it on Charlie. Everyone blames everything on Charlie." He seemed quite happy with the plan as he settled himself comfortably on her bed.

"What the fuck?" The boys turned to see Charlie hold up a lacy, black scrap of fabric. "She never wears this! Trust me, I'd know if she wore this!"

With a grin, Luis ambled over to inspect Connie's lingerie drawer. "Well, well, Conway. Looks like you're in for a good time. She's a bit of a dark horse, ain't she?" He tossed a thong over his shoulder. "Boring." Out went a pair of boy shorts. "So last year."

Fulton picked up the thong and stretched it out. "It's like a sling shot." He marveled happily, as he slung it across the room. "Aerodynamic too!"

Closing his eyes, Goldberg popped another truffle into his mouth. "You guys are so dead." He mumbled thickly.

"I don't know, Goldie." There was a slight giggle to Averman's voice. "What do you think? Is it me?"

He turned to look at them and felt his jaw drop. "T-that is actually just…revolting." He blanched, shielding his precious chocolates away from the sight.

The four boys had proceeded to adorn themselves with various pieces of underwear and tied brassieres around their heads. It was immature, disturbing and completely typical to their nature. You almost couldn't blame them.

Yet as Connie Moreau chose that moment to walk into her room, she felt that, for some odd reason, she could. And so she did.

"I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!"

"Hey, cowboy."

It ain't the best day for my manhood, Dwayne thought despairingly as he fell off the bench with a squeak. He looked up at the figure apprehensively and desperately thought for something to say. All that came out was a high pitched wheeze. Definitely not the best day.

Raising an eyebrow, Allie Howard settled herself onto the vacated bench. "You alright there?"

Nodding swiftly, the Texan quickly and unobtrusively tried to gather his belongings. It was too bad that stealth didn't seem to be in his vocabulary at the moment.

"Now, now, Dwayne. What kind of bad manners is that? You're just going to leave?" Allie smoothed back a strand of hair from her face and stared at him with limpid, sparkling grey eyes.

"I got work to do."

Crossing her arms across her chest, she narrowed her eyes. "You don't like me very much, do you?"

"I don't know you well enough to make such a judgment, ma'am."

"Well, let's change that then."

"I'm afraid I'd have to decline."

"Why? Oh." There was a knowing smirk on her face. "It's because of Moreau, isn't it?"

"I don't take kindly to people startin' fights with my friends."

"It was a discussion that escalated. It got her blood flowing and trust me, her complexion needs all the help it can get."

"It's not a discussion when y'all look ready to kill. G'day, ma'am." He tipped his hat to her coldly and prepared to stalk off when he was stopped by her cold drawl.

"Oh, enough with this ma'am business!" She stood up, noticing the way his body had tensed. She took a step towards him. "You're scared of me, Dwayne Robertson. You're scared of my reputation, you're scared of my potential and you're scared of what your little Ducks would say if they saw us together."

She walked in front of him and smiled at him. "And most of all, you're scared of the power I have over you. I bet you think about me all the time. It's okay. As far as I'm concerned, you're mine, Dwayne Robertson."

His eyes wide, he stared at her with a sort of terrified fascination. "You're madder than a rabid coyote."

To his surprise, she laughed. "You know, your little Texas witticisms never cease to amuse me. You're such a little angel…aren't you? Your utter, idiotic innocence. I think that's my favorite part about you. Because it sure as Hell isn't your looks. I'll see you around, cowboy." She then paused. "Oh and do try to stop hiding every time you see me. It's rather annoying. Not to mention, you have the grace of a drunken cow."

Dwayne blinked. And then decided to look for a large rock to hide under.

"This douche is impossible to work with!"

"You're a faggot!"

Stretching out a kink in her shoulder, Maddie looked up. His face a thundercloud, Dylan stood in the doorway of the studio, with his scowling Lewis School dancer in tow. She exchanged a glance with Angie, who shrugged. "What's going on?"

"He said that he doesn't want to do my routine!"

The Lewis School dancer, Shiloh, sneered at him. "With good reason! It sucks!"

"Yeah?" Dylan rounded on him. "So does your sister! She sucked me good and dry!"

"Shut the fuck up about my sister!" Shiloh launched himself on the furious soccer player before Maddie intervened by throwing her water bottle at them.

"Ow!" Dylan broke away, clutching his head. "What the fuck was that for, Maggot?!"

"Well, I wasn't going to actually get involved. You're bigger than me, I might get hurt." She answered defensively. "You two are just going to have to figure out a way to make it work. Now if you'll excuse us, Angie and I have to use the studio."

Clenching his jaw, Dylan tried to control his temper as he stalked over to his friend. "Maddie. Please. I have tests. I have homework. I have soccer practice. I haven't slept for more than five hours since I was in the hospital…two weeks ago. I can't do this right now."

Maddie looked up at him compassionately. "I know, babe, but what do you want me to do? I would help you if I could! You know that. And let's face it, that routine did suck. You whipped it up in like five minutes. Try to work with the kid."

"Alright." He ran a hand through his golden locks desperately. "How about a duet? She-Banks and Guyblow-"

"It's Shiloh!" The pre-teen growled, looking like he quite wanted to hit his "mentor" senseless. Oddly enough, Angie's expression mirrored her classmate's.

"You shut your mouth when you're talking to me!" Dylan snarled quite irrationally, before turning back to his girl. "What do you say? C'mon, Maddie, please. He refuses to listen to anything I say, makes me late for practice, and is just an all-around douche. I can't work with this asshole on my own!"

She bit her lip. "Okay. Okay, fine."

"Great, I'll let Madame Baryshkev know later. Thank you, thank you, you are a goddess!" He swept her into an embrace before turning to their mentees. "Okay, change of plans!"

"Thank God." Shiloh sneered, rolling his eyes.

"Okay!" Maddie hastily intervened and smiled at him. "Hi. Shiloh, right? I'm Maddie."

The look on the boy's expression was less than impressed. "Nice outfit." His lip curled slightly, taking in her royal blue leotard and bright yellow legwarmers. He turned to his classmate, as if expecting her to back him up.

Smoothing a piece of blonde hair behind her ears, Angie gave him a withering glare. "Shut up, Reed."

"What? She looks like a human Crayola."

Dylan itched to wrap his hands around the insolent boy's neck. "As opposed to you, who looks like a-"

Maddie quickly shoved her furious best friend towards the door. "Why don't you go tell Baryshkev now? I've got things under control! Bye!" She beamed at him and then promptly closed the door in his angry face. Taking a deep breath, she turned around and narrowed her eyes. "Alright. The insults stop here and now. You two will be doing a duet. Now we don't have time to waste as we need to start on a new routine effective immediately. Christ, I don't even have a beat for you. Well, I'll figure that out later, for now let's see what I've got to work with."

"Um, Maddie?" Angie stepped forward, a hesitant frown on her face. "What do you mean, what we've got to work with?"

The New Yorker blinked. "Oh, nothing, really. I'm just going to watch you guys break it down a little."

"Break it down?" Shiloh made a disgusted face. "What does that even mean?"

She stared at them. "You're kidding me, right?"

"I assure you I'm not." The boy rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

"Well, what do you do at school dances? Don't you bump and grind? Boogie? Anything?"

"Are you on crack?" Came the surly answer.

"I think it's safe to say that we don't." Shooting a glare at her ill-mannered companion, Angie shrugged scarlet-clad shoulders apologetically. "Sorry."

"Wait." Maddie held up a hand in horrified confusion. "Did you guys ever do tap, hip hop, jazz, ballroom? Ever? Any of them?"

The two shook their heads. "No, just ballet."

"Oh, boy." The older girl breathed. "Okay. It's fine. Really, it's fine. I'll do this one with you guys. Pay attention."

Angie's blue eyes widened as a pounding bass filled the room. "I think I'm out of my league."

"Don't be silly. It's Jadakiss. Always good to start out with. Alright, ready?"

"No!" Shiloh stamped his foot. "I'm not doing…this…whatever this is!"

"It's just a beat." Maddie started to look a little annoyed. "You'll still be arabesque-ing to your heart's content. Only in a more…urban fashion."

"Hey, newsflash, lady! We're white!"

"What does race have to do with anything? Look at Eminem!"

"Yeah, well, the world is a pretty fucked up place, isn't it?" Shiloh snarled. "It definitely is if the world's best rapper is white and the world's best golfer is black."

"Enough!" Maddie stamped her foot angrily. "Congratulations, now both of you will be pop, lock and droppin' til I say stop. Now pull up those tights and get in position!"

Wishing Shiloh Reed a messy and slow death, Angie let out a strangled groan.

Maddie whipped around in alarm and stared at her. "Okay. That's just freaky. You just sounded totally like Adam when I say something politically incorrect."

Angie glared at her.

"Oh my God, you look like him too!" Maddie breathed, her eyes going wide in fascination. "Wait, are you going to do that eye roll thing now? Oh shit, you did! This is better than the circus!"

Adam, I officially disown you as my brother, Angie thought bitterly.

"Dude."

"What's up?"

"Check it out!"

"What?"

"Jennifer Host, Upperclassmen President of 1979."

"Shit."

"Do you think they're related?"

"They have to be. They look like twins!" Russ marveled, staring at the photograph that was adorned on the hall.

Ken tilted his head. "That's just weird, man. Really, really weird."

"You okay there?"

Opening his eyes, Adam Banks saw Carmen's beautiful face hovering over him. "Yeah, I'm fine. Hey." He scrambled up into a sitting position.

"How was the lecture?" The blonde girl settled herself onto the couch gracefully. "I could hear it down the hall."

He reddened slightly. "Yeah, Em's not really big on tact."

"Or location and privacy, it appears." Carmen pushed up a sleeve of her vintage cashmere sweater. "You should've dragged her to your room, instead of letting her yell at you out here in the common room."

"I'll keep that in mind for next time." He then looked at her suspiciously. "What's gotten into you? You look almost happy."

"A board meeting just got cancelled, I got the highest score on my English paper, Jake Riley has hives, and I walked in a freshman engaged in an lewd act-"

Adam choked on his own saliva. "What?"

"He was getting head-"

"You know what? I don't really want to know."

She shrugged. "Okay, then. Anyway, he now has a month of detention. Oh! And March is here. March means soccer season starts again. And that means no Howard."

"You know…" Adam grinned at her fondly. "Dylan isn't that bad. He's a pretty good kid-"

"I'd rather not take relationship advice from you, Banks, darling. And if you ever finish that sentence, I won't hesitate to kick your pampered white ass back to Edina."

"Where the Hell is Edina?" The two looked over at the figure waltzing into the common room. "Don't answer that, I don't really care. Banks, your sister is awesome!"

"That's a new one." He muttered dryly, as he moved over to give her some room. "Nice legwarmers."

"Thanks." Maddie tugged absently on the bright yellow wool. "She's smart and she's hilarious and she's good. Not to mention, she's gorgeous! Wait til you see her at the showcase, she'll blow everyone away." She accentuated her words with wild gestures.

"Are we talking about the same girl?" Adam asked, avoiding Maddie's movements as best as he could. "Because that's the first time I've ever heard anyone say that about her."

"That's because everyone is stupid. Tell you what…let's trade sisters. You can have mine and I can take Angie."

Carmen rolled her eyes. "Leave your poor sister alone."

"I didn't even know you had a sister." Adam raised an eyebrow.

"She's old-"

"She's only eight years older than you!" Carmen said exasperatedly. "She's like twenty-three!"

"She's old!" Maddie spoke louder, resolutely ignoring her best friend. "Her name's Victoria. She's getting married this summer." She made a face. "She's an archaeologist – who does archaeology in this day and age anyway – and went to London to work at some museum. The next thing you know she's fallen in love with some British prick and they're getting married. Can you believe that? I bet she just likes him because of the accent."

"You're still mad about the fact that she broke your doll when you were four. Not to mention, you're scared that she won't have time for you now that she's getting married." Carmen said dryly.

Maddie sniffed. "No. I've gotten over that. What I'm mad about is that she has bigger boobs than me and proceeds to rub it in my face every single time I see her."

Adam hastily changed the subject. "So, she's getting married this summer?"

"Yeah." Maddie shrugged bad temperedly. "They're having it in London. Why they can't just elope, I don't know, but they want to have it in London. Which means most of my summer is going to waste."

"First time I've heard anyone complain about going to London." Adam remarked.

"It's the land of fogginess, rain and overall bad weather! And my sister's fiancé freaks me out. He's like 6' 5". Although, he'd have to be that tall, considering Vicky's like 5' 10" but still. Not to mention, his last name is Park. Can you imagine? Victoria Park? It's like the name of an arboretum out of a bad Edwardian romance novel." She stood up.

"Leaving so soon?" Adam grinned at her fondly.

"I need a shower." She heaved her bag back onto her shoulder. "And I need to check on Dylan."

"What happened to Dylan?" The boy asked, smiling at Carmen's look of disgust.

"He got into a fight with his mentee. I tried to stop it but…" She shrugged. "Toodles! Hey, Ken! Hey, Russ!"

"Mads." They smiled at her as they walked into the common room. Walking over to Adam and Carmen, they immediately sprawled out on the couch facing them.

"It was the weirdest thing. We were walking down Alumni Hall, you know, where all the photos of the old people are? And well, we saw one picture that looked like you. Like really looked like you. You two could have been twins." Ken leaned forward.

Russ nodded. "Yeah, Jennifer Host from the class of 1979. You know her?"

She was silent for a second. Then, running her fingers through her hair, she nodded slowly. "Yeah, I do."

Ken looked at her through narrowed eyes. He had come to recognize the distress patterns of the Ducks and Carmen ran her fingers through her hair every time she was distressed just as Connie chewed her bottom lip. "Car, you okay?"

"Yeah." Her smile didn't quite reach the corners of her eyes. "Jennifer Host is my mother. Listen, I got to go. I'll talk to you guys later." She gave them one last rather sad smile before she swept out of the common room.

"Good going, guys. She was in a good mood too." Adam groaned, as he sprawled out on the couch once again.

Russ waved it aside. "Why do you think she got so upset? I mean, it's just her mom."

Ken rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. "I believe…that it's her business. And we shouldn't bring it up again."

He was at quite a loss at what to do.

Raising an eyebrow, Luis stared at the figure pacing in front of his door. What the hell was she doing? This had been going on for the past five minutes! Just pace, pace, stop, raise hand as if to knock, bring it back down and pace some more. Then repeat.

Finally, becoming bored with the whole process, he approached her. "Uh, hi. Yeah, uh, this may come out a bit rude but uh…what the fuck are you doing in front of my door?"

Tricia Manning let out a strangled gasp and whirled around. "I-I was just…I don't see how it's any of your business!"

Luis stared at her in disbelief. "It is if you're standing around in front of my fucking door!"

"Y-your door?" Her green eyes widened slightly. "Y-you're roommates with Dylan?"

"Yeah, he is." They turned to see the door open and Maddie step out. "He's sleeping right now and I'd appreciate it if you guys kept it down. He's going to have a major headache when he wakes up." She then paused to stare at Tricia. "You are just freaky, you know that? Do you always stalk him?" Shaking her head, she flounced off.

Her face a mask of outrage, Tricia's face turned practically purple in anger. "S-she-" She turned to Luis as if for help.

Too bad Luis was never a help to anyone. "You heard the girl. He's sleeping. Now why the fuck are you still in my hallway?"

"Aargh!" The redhead practically screamed as she stomped away. Too bad she tripped over a roll in the carpet and fell flat on her face.

"Okay." Luis breathed, opening the door to his room. "I'll just cross her off my list. Redheads. So volatile."