The locker room was quiet, with the exception of the trainer talking to Guy. Emma looked at her teammates. Everyone was exhausted and hopeless.
"You're playing hard. I'm proud of you guys," Orion said, patting Russ on the shoulder.
"They're cheap shotting us to death, Coach," Luis complained.
"I know they are."
"It's gonna take a miracle for us to hold on," Averman said, voicing the team's thoughts.
Suddenly, the door swung open.
"Dean Portman is awarded a full academic and athletic scholarship to Eden Hall Academy," Portman read, walking into the room.
The locker room broke out in smiles, looking at each other knowingly. The miracle has arrived.
"I had this lying around the house in Chicago and my attorney thought I should sign it. It's official boys, I'm back!"
The team cheered, all getting up to greet Portman. He quickly changed, and then they took out onto the ice with a renewed spirit. The crowd erupted in cheers when Portman came out. He egged them on, yelling excitedly.
After a quick talk at the bench, the starters, including Portman, headed to center ice to get ready for the puck drop.
"Oh look, it's the other bash brother," Cole said to Portman, "I'm really shaking now."
"So you're the big enforcer, huh? It's nice to meet you. You know, we have something in common-"
"Shut up."
Dean laughed. "Whatever you say, sunshine."
Emma smirked and waited for everyone to take their positions. The puck dropped and Adam got control of it.
"Let's see what you got bash brother," Cole yelled, charging at Portman.
Portman stood there laughing, and then sent Cole flying over his back, through the glass, into the stands. The ref blew the whistle, but play stopped long before that.
The Ducks skated over to Portman, looking through the glass at Cole, who was trying to stand up. They all laughed.
"Now that's clearing the garbage," Fulton said.
"Hey man, we're just getting warmed up!" Portman responded.
Another faceoff happened and immediately after the puck dropped, the bash brothers came charging at Riley. With Adam's help, they sent him to the ice and allowed the Ducks to have control of the puck.
Portman and Fulton were bashing every player they could find into the boards. Even Goldberg joined in, shoving players to the ground.
A few plays later, Guy took control of the puck. At Averman's call, he sent the puck over to him. He faked a shot and passed it back to Luis. He shot the puck and Scooter blocked it. He was still pretty bad at stopping, so as usual he ran right into the boards.
With two minutes left, Riley had control of the puck. He took it towards the net, but was stopped by Portman. The ref blew the whistle, calling it a penalty for hooking.
"Come on!" Orion yelled from the bench, obviously pissed at the call.
Adam sighed and patted Portman on the back. Of course, the refs hadn't made a call the entire game and now they decided to. A shitty call at that.
The team watched as Portman headed for the penalty box, still loudly protesting. When he got to the penalty box, he yelled, throwing his stuff in and jumping on the bench. The band started playing, egging him on further. A few seconds later, he hopped off the bench and began taking his clothes off. He was completely shirtless, dancing around in the penalty box and the crowd loved it. His teammates were laughing, realizing how much they missed Portman and his ridiculous antics.
A few seconds into the next play, Orion called for a line change. By mistake, one of the players hopped off the bench early and the ref caught it.
"We got too many men on the ice," the ref said, skating over to Orion.
"Alright, Luis back on the bench. Wu, go to the box."
The players sat down sadly. They were never going to make it now.
"Time out!" Orion called.
Russ, Emma, Adam, Guy and Julie skated over to the bench, waiting to hear what Orion was going to say.
"Listen to me, the pressure is all on them," Orion said, reminding the team to stay confident. "All we gotta do is hold our ground. Okay, Conway, Banks and Goldberg, we're going with you three."
The team nodded along with the first two, but then looked surprisingly at Goldberg when Coach said his name. He looked surprised himself.
"Me, Coach?" he said, shocked.
"Yes, Goldberg. You earned your spot out there." Everybody nodded their heads in agreement. "Okay, Ducks. Here we go, let's go!"
The team cheered as Adam and Goldberg headed out onto the ice. Charlie held the door open, waiting for his teammates to come in.
"Hey Charlie," Orion said, stopping him, "we've really backed ourselves into a corner here. If we hold them for two minutes, we've got ourselves a tie."
"We're up for it, Coach," Charlie said.
"I know you are, but you deserve to win. Not careless, but not too careful either. If you see your shot, take it. But make sure it counts." He reached for something in his pocket, before pulling it out and pressing it to Charlie's jersey. He pulled his hand back and Emma grinned when she saw a C. "Go get 'em, Captain."
Charlie smiled and skated onto the ice. The Ducks all cheered excitedly, hoping by some miracle they could hold on for two more minutes.
The puck dropped and as expected, Riley took control of it. The Varsity headed down the ice with it. The player circled behind the net, before coming in front and faking a shot. Julie mistakenly dove for it, which left the net open. The player took a shot at the wide-open net. Seeing that she wouldn't be able to stop the shot, Adam quickly jumped in front of the goal, allowing the puck to hit him in the chest.
He grunted when he felt the initial impact. He obviously had padding on, but that was a hard shot. He hit the ice and was a little slow to get up, though it was still quick enough that nobody would notice.
The bench jumped up, cheering loudly for Banks. Emma cheered, but also noticed he was a little slow to get up. Even though he had padding on, that had to hurt. Looking at her friends, she realized she was probably the only one who would have noticed that.
Without realizing, over the past year and a half she started to know every little thing about him, on and off the ice. She glanced across the arena at Lyla, who was also cheering for Adam, and she knew soon enough she would have to forget. He deserves better.
Her thoughts were broken when she heard Averman yelling next to her. Goldberg cleared the puck, but the Varsity managed to get it right back.
Riley headed up center ice, moving past Goldberg and Adam. Charlie was the last person in his way. The two skated down the ice, facing each other. Riley began taunting Charlie, trying to get him to make a move so he could go past him, but Charlie waited patiently.
Emma could hear Orion's voice in her head.
Make him make the first move, Conway.
Finally, Riley charged at him and Charlie seized the opportunity. He flipped Riley over his back, allowing the puck to get loose.
Charlie took the puck and headed up center ice. Riley began following close behind, but Goldberg came out of nowhere and knocked him flat on his ass. Him and Adam followed him up the ice, but Adam was trying to shake off a Varsity player.
With ten seconds left, he faked out the last line of defense and reached the goal. He faked a shot, sending the puck backwards into the hands of Goldberg. Goldberg looked up, looking at the open net and the players charging at him.
"Shoot, Goldberg!"
He shot the puck with two seconds left and it sailed past Scooter into the net. The final horn sounded.
The Ducks won.
The team jumped off the bench, raising their hands and yelling loudly. They hopped over the side, heading out onto the ice to join the rest of the players.
"Goldberg, I knew you could do it!" Charlie yelled, skating over and grabbing his face.
"Don't ever do that to me again," Goldberg replied, frantically shaking his pale face.
"Goldberg, you did it. You scored, we won!" Adam yelled, joining the two in a hug.
The rest of the Ducks joined into the group hug, cheering for Goldberg. They broke the hug, but stuck around to celebrate on the ice.
Adam turned his head to find Emma standing a few feet away from him. She had a huge smile on her face as she was hugging Julie. He felt his heart skip a beat whenever she smiled like that.
You're supposed to be moving on.
Right. He looked to the entrance of the rink and found Lyla waiting there, clapping with a smile on her face. He smiled and headed towards her.
"Hey you, good game," she said, reaching up to give him a hug. He returned it and thanked her, but pulled away.
Lyla gave him a sad, knowing smile. "It's her, right?"
Adam thought about it for a moment. He glanced at the girl Lyla was talking about, and felt his heart stutter.
He didn't want to move on. He wanted her.
He turned back to Lyla, a guilty smile on his face. "It's always been her."
"Did I ever have a chance?" she asked softly.
"No," he answered, figuring it was best to be honest. "I'm sorry," he added, sadly. She averted her gaze for a second but then smiled at him. "It's okay, Adam. Go get her."
He nodded and skated back onto the ice. He shoved his way through the team, stopping a few feet short from where she was.
She could feel him from where she was standing. It was something that happened around the time she fell in love with him. She was always very aware of his presence whenever he was close by. When they were dating, it excited her. Lately, it just scared her.
Slowly, she turned her head and met his eyes. She waited nervously, wondering what he was going to say to her.
"I don't want anybody else," he said simply, skating closer to her.
Emma felt the air leave her lungs. "What?" she breathed out.
"I want you. You make me happier than I have ever been in my entire life. You believe in me and you make me want to be a better person. There is no one else. It's you, Emma. It's always been you and it's always going to be you."
She felt a tear slide down her face and she choked out a laugh. He reached for her, pulling her in for a kiss. Instantly, they felt the fire that had been missing for so long. In that moment, they knew there would never be anyone else ever again. They were sure of it.
Emma pulled away, smiling at him and resting her head against his. "God I love you," she mumbled. He smiled softly and kissed her again. "I love you too."
"Hey guys, look what Bombay did!" Dwayne yelled.
The two broke apart to look at what the team was pointing at. Underneath the scoreboard, a new banner hung. Their logo of the Mighty Duck was in the center, and around it read "Eden Hall Ducks."
"Alright, Eden Hall Mighty Ducks!"
Later that night, Emma was getting ready to go out and celebrate with her teammates. A few kids decided to throw a house party in celebration. Connie, Julie and Anna left a few minutes ago. She was waiting for Adam to come by so they could go together.
She was wearing tight ripped jeans and a low cut black bodysuit, with black booties on her feet. Her long blonde hair was in curls and she had on a full face of makeup.
She was putting on a necklace when there was a knock at the door. Knowing who it was, she smiled and walked to the door. When she opened it, she met the blue eyes of her boyfriend.
He looked her up and down and felt his mouth go dry. He said a silent prayer, hoping he'd make it through the party.
Emma gave him a once over and felt her heart beat wildly in her chest. He was wearing jeans and a dress shirt that was rolled up casually. She swallowed.
Suddenly, the party didn't sound so interesting.
The two stood at the door in silence for a few seconds, the tension in the air thick. Finally, Emma broke. She reached for him, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him in for a kiss.
"The party can wait," she mumbled against his lips. He murmured in agreement and backed her into the room, kicking the door closed behind him.
"As fun as that party sounded, I think I liked ours better," Emma said a little while later.
Adam laughed and pulled her closer to his chest. "I agree."
The two laid in Emma's bed, exhausted from their previous activities. They both couldn't keep the smiles off their faces. It felt good to be happy again.
"I missed this," Emma mumbled, placing a kiss on his shoulder.
"What, am I only good for the sex?" Adam joked, causing Emma to swat at his chest and giggle.
She rolled over so she was on top of him. He rested his hands on her thighs and looked up at her lovingly.
"You and me?"
"Always."
