AN 3-28-14: Another chapter where there are just minor edits.

Hey Adam,

That's great news about the two goals you scored in the game. Your coach was

stupid not to put you in the game more. You guys probably would have won the game if

he had. Just keep remembering what Bombay told us last spring, that hockey is suppose to be fun

too, no matter what your coach says.

Things here are about the same. Hockey practice today was kind of grueling. The

coach had us doing a lot of laps and sprints. Kind of reminded me of Bombay when we

nickname him "Captain Blood". Not the most fun but I guess it is necessary sometimes.

We have another game tomorrow afternoon. It's against the team that we lost the

championship to last year. Needless to say we really want to beat them this time around.

Both our teams are undefeated thus far in the season so this game means a lot to both of

us. I expect the stands to be packed even though it is a Tuesday game.

School is going okay. I have this oral presentation for history to give on Friday.

I'm actually supposed to be working on it now but needless to say it isn't getting done.

The books I got from the library to do the research are sitting right next to me on the

desk but I'm putting off actually opening them. History isn't exactly my favorite subject

and I enjoy oral presentation about as much a I enjoy losing a hockey game. Writing this

email was much more appealing to me.

How are the other Ducks doing? I heard they tied their first game. Charlie sent

me a quick email to tell me that. I haven't heard from any of the others though. Have

they played their second game yet? How's Fulton adjusting to being the only bash

brother? Are Connie and Guy still together? Averman say anything particularly funny

lately? I never thought I would say this, but I'm starting to miss his ongoing comedy

routine, even though I didn't get half of the jokes he attempted to make.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Dwayne

Adam's POV:

Reading Dwayne's email was a nice escape from reality for awhile. I needed that after the awful Hawk's practice I had just gone through. We played the Panthers tomorrow and then the game I was dreading was Saturday - Hawks vs. Ducks.

I was currently blaring my music to drown out the sound of my parents yelling. They were having yet another fight over me being in public school. Part of me just wanted to give in and tell my Dad that I would go back to my old school, just to make him happy. To stop the arguments. In the end though, the only thing it would accomplish was me not being able to see Charlie and my other friends at all.

Since the end of the school year I had only managed to sneak out to meet up with them after school one time. Charlie and Jesse had both tried to convince me to join them a bunch of other times but I had declined, usually telling them that I had to do my homework or something. Truth was, I just didn't want to take the chance of crossing my father.

I glanced at the clock on the bedside table - 6:00. Dwayne's game should be getting underway. I wondered if I would hear about the outcome tonight or not. I looked at the blank area on the computer screen waiting for me to compose my reply. Somehow, I just didn't feel like writing it. With the mood I was currently in, I knew I wouldn't be able to sound at all upbeat and as he was hundreds of miles away, I didn't want to make Dwayne worry.

With a click I closed the browser and turned off the computer. I needed to get out of the house. I slowly reached over and turned down the volume of the radio. I listened for the sound of my parents yelling. When I didn't hear them, I turned the radio off all together.

Grabbing my roller skates, I ventured downstairs. As long as I didn't run into my Dad, I shouldn't have any problem with getting out of the house. Stepping lightly off the last step, I glanced around what I could see of the first floor. My mom's voice came drifting from the direction of the kitchen. She was probably talking with Maggie, the housekeeper. My eyes fell on the door to my Dad's den. The door was shut which meant he was inside. Getting out of the house shouldn't prove to be all that difficult.

I quietly made my way to the kitchen. Sure enough, my Mom was helping Maggie with the dinner preparations. My mom enjoyed cooking and would quite often help, if not cook the meals in the house, herself. She almost always retreated to the kitchen after a fight with my father.

"Mom," I said walking into the room. She looked up from the pasta salad she was preparing as I continued, "I'm going to go skate around the neighborhood for a little while, okay?"

"That's fine," she said nodding. "Just be back in a half hour. Dinner will be ready, and it's already later than we usually eat."

Code for, don't make your father wait longer for dinner.

"Okay," I told her. I walked across the kitchen and out the side door not wanting to take the chance of running into my father by going by his den to get to the front door.

Outside, I sat down on the steps and put on my skates. Once they were laced, I headed down the driveway. I tried clearing my mind. To forget about everything that was going on. To just enjoy skating, something that I couldn't do during hockey practice anymore. I was always worried about a cheap shot from McGill or one of the other players or from making some stupid mistake that Reilly would jump on.

It took awhile but I didn't finally manage to achieve the peace of mind that I had been searching for. That was until I started heading home and came across McGill , Foote, Murphy and Larson. They were the last people I wanted to see. I kept my head up and started skating past them, hoping they would leave me alone, but knowing it probably wouldn't happen.

"Hey look, it's the ugly duckling," McGill said as I approached them. It was something McGill had started last week. He thought he was awfully clever coming up with it despite the fact that the ugly duckling had been a swan not a hawk and it was the ducks who hadn't wanted the ugly duckling around. For the most part, the Ducks had been supportive since the start of the season. Alex had pointed that out to him and told him to come up with something that had made sense. So far he hadn't.

"Where's the rest of the flock," Foote chimed in.

I kept skating but as I skated by McGill he reached a foot out and tripped me.

"Definitely belongs on district 5," Murphy chimed in. "He can't even skate."

I slowly got to my feet, my hands stinging. Looking down I could see the blood from the scrapes on the palm of my hands from where they had hit the sidewalk. I didn't even turn around. I didn't want to see the smirks on their faces that I knew they were wearing.

This was just a reminder of yet another reason I didn't want to leave public school - it got me away from McGill and my other tormentors on the team. Sure, I got teased from time to time at public school, but it wasn't the same. Or maybe it just didn't hurt as much because those kids had never been my friends.

"I thought ducks stuck together," McGill taunted. "Where are they now?"

I didn't respond. I was out numbered four to one any way. I started to skate away again and felt someone shove me to the ground again. This time I managed to land in the grass which was a little softer of a landing. I quickly turned around expecting to find McGill coming after me. Instead I heard another voice.

"Leave him alone," Alex said. Turning onto my back I saw her striding across the street.

"Oh, look it's the other traitor." McGill taunted.

"Want to make something of it," Alex told him coming to a stop right in front of him. Without skates, Alex only came up to McGill's shoulders. She still didn't look intimidated by him though. I noticed the other three back up a little though.

"You know my father always told me not to hit girls," McGill said backing up a little. I couldn't keep the small smile off my face. McGill noticed and I could see it made him mad. I knew he just didn't want to mess with Alex again. "You know, my parents told me to be home tonight for a very important dinner so I think I'll just be going," he said backing up a little more.

"See you at the game tomorrow," Alex called after the retreating Hawks. When they were almost out of sight, Alex turned to me. I was untying my skates, planning to walk home at this point despite not having my shoes with me. "Adam, are you okay?" she asked kneeling down beside me.

"Yeah, just scraped my hands up a little," I told her. "I'm glad you came along when you did though."

"I really hate those goons," she said looking in the direction McGill and his pals had disappeared in. " I don't know why Shane keeps hanging out with them."

I chose not to comment. I knew Alex and Shane were still friends from what I had seen during practices. Not wanting to lose my only friend on the Hawks, I didn't want to say something about Shane Larson that might make Alex mad at me.

"Come on, I'll walk home with you," Alex told me helping me to my feet.

The crowd behind me went wild, as Larson put the puck into the net. I looked up at the scoreboard as the score changed to 5 to 1 in favor of the Hawks. This game was going much better than our Friday night game, even though I didn't have anyone in the stands cheering for me. The Ducks were playing at their rink against the Jets.

My mom hadn't wanted me to come today because of my scraped and bruised hands. She had been quite upset when I came in last night, and I had told her I had tripped on a rock. I wasn't about to tell her McGill had tripped me. Even if she believed me, it would have just upset her more. Luckily Alex, who had followed me inside, hadn't contradicted my story.

Despite the pain I was determined to be here. I wasn't about to let McGill have the satisfaction of me not showing up. For once, my Dad turned into an ally for me, as he told my Mom I would be fine. That it would build my character by playing hurt. Personally, I wish he would have shown just a little concern over my well being.

It was the middle of the second period and I had only played for about two minutes in the first period. It felt weird not being in the game more but I knew if Reilly had his way I wouldn't be playing at all. Still, during those two minutes I had managed to score one of our five goals. I don't think that had made Reilly too happy and he had pulled me right after I made it and hadn't put me in since.

I watched the rest of the second period from the bench, probably one of the few people who weren't put into the game besides the back-up goalie. The Panthers quickly made a come back though ending the period 5-4.

Needless to say the talk Reilly gave us between periods wasn't too upbeat. He wasn't happy that the score was so close especially against last seasons last place team. If we didn't win this game practice tomorrow was going to be hell.

Two minutes into the second period and the Panthers had scored yet another goalm now tying the game. I knew it didn't matter if we kept them from scoring another goal now unless we were able to score again. In Reilly's mind a tie was just as bad as a lost.

As the next play started, McGill got leveled by a Panther. He got to his feet, although quite slowly, skating toward the bench as the Panther's offense attacked our goal. Their fans went wild as they scored yet another goal on us. I couldn't help but groan along with the rest of my teammates.

I saw Reilly run a hand through his hair even as McGill sat down on the bench. I could tell the hit had him rattled. I saw Reilly glance my way and quickly looked down at the ground.

"Banks, you're in," Reilly called out.

Getting quickly over my surprise, I hoped over the boards and joined my teammates in the center for the face-off. Alex beat the Panther's center to the puck and knocked it in my direction. Getting a hold of the puck, I started toward the Panthers net. At the blue line, I passed the puck over to Larson as the Panther guarding him had went down. Taking advantage of the lack of coverage, Larson shot the puck toward the goal. It flew past the goalie's stick and into the goal, once again tying the game.

The Panther's won the next face off, but weren't able to capitalize as our defense got a hold of the puck. Before long, Larson, Paris and I were making yet another attack on the Panthers net. Paris took a shot which the goalie deflected. Grabbing the puck on the rebound I was able to score my second goal of the game. We were now back in the lead.

Reilly kept pulling me in and out of the third period. McGill was part way out of his gear, obviously done for the game. I was finding it hard to find any sympathy for my chief tormentor.

With two minutes left to the game, I was back on the ice and taking the face-off. Beating the Panther's center to the puck I knocked it over to Larson on my left. Murphy and I headed down the ice with him. Passing the puck between us, we started running the time on the clock down. None of us wanted to lose. We were one up on the Panthers. If we could just keep the Panthers from getting the puck there would be no way they could win.

As I got the puck back from Larson, I wondered what the time on the clock was. I couldn't afford to look at the clock though as I dodge around a Panther giving me a open shot to the goal.

"Take the shot, Adam," I heard Larson call from where he was on the ice.

I did, and watched as the puck went into the net giving me a hat trick for the game. As the crowd and team celebrated I looked up at the clock. We only had five seconds to the game left. Skating toward center ice I felt relief. It looked as if the game was ours unless we did something really stupid.

Facing the Panther center, I was more determined than ever to win the face-off. The puck dropped on the ice in front of us, and I quickly batted at it, successfully knocking the puck over to Larson on my left. Soon after the buzzer sounded indicating the end of the game. We had pulled it off and yet even in my own jubilation at the win, I found myself wondering how the Ducks did.

When I got home that night, the first thing I did was send Charlie a message asking him just that. Hopefully, I would get a reply by the time I went to bed that night.