Big thank yous to randaroo32 and Magenta Stone for your reviews.

Also as a side note, I've always wanted to see another side to Rick Riley (minor aside he's only credited as Rick in the movie credits even though he's never referred to as Rick in the movie). Everyone always portrays Riley as this one dimensional character and we all know every one has more than one side.

Chapter 36: Fulton's Problems

That afternoon Orion brought Lizzy into the locker room just before practice.

"I have good news," Orion said.

"Uh oh," Lizzy muttered. The man looked entirely too happy. Well at least in Lizzy's opinion.

"These here are the eligibility reports for the jv team. Guess who is now passing every class?"

"But," Lizzy said, raising a finger, "I don't have a C average and that means I still can't compete. No C average means no competing; no competing means practicing is useless."

"How long has it been since you've skated with the team?" Orion asked, turning to look at her.

"Three months, yesterday."

"So you'd be rusty. You gotta jump back in the pool sometime."

Lizzy's breath hitched in her throat. Suddenly the fear was back.

"Wrong analogy, Coach," Charlie hissed.

"How about you gotta get back on that horse sometime?"

"Better," Charlie said.

"I bet the reason you don't want to practice is because you've forgotten how to skate."

"Coach," Charlie warned softly. He really didn't want Orion to push Lizzy into not getting back out there.

However little did Charlie know Bombay had told Orion to push Lizzy hard and then had given the guy Lizzy's warning signs of when to stop. "This has nothing to do with your grades; it's about you not wanting the team to see you can't ice skate anymore."

"Oh she can so ice skate and she will prove you wrong," Portman answered.

"Goose!" Lizzy exclaimed.

"Come on Mav, it's not like you have to show off to Varsity, we just want you to show Coach how wrong he is."

"Fine. Ten laps." Lizzy pulled her skates on but not her hockey gear and the team went out to the ice. Once they reached the ice Varsity was just leaving. Riley paused just as he was about to say something. He swallowed the insult aimed at the jv captain on the tip of his tongue and turned to Lizzy. It was all about the bet. He had to remind himself to be nice to JV as not to upset Lizzy. Upsetting Lizzy meant he lost his bet against Scooter. That was not going to happen.

"Est ma petit canard va patiner?" Riley asked.

"Oui, j'ai conteste," Lizzy answered.

"Good luck, ma canard."

Lizzy smirked and Varsity left.

"Okay, enough," Fulton snapped.

The rest of the Ducks stopped and stared at them.

"I want to know what he said, right now."

"Fulton," Lizzy warned.

"No. What did he say? He's 17 and you're my kid sister."

"Come on, Fulton. This is Riley were talking about. Rich, stuck up, country clubber Riley. I'm not going to fall for him, you know that. I don't have any feelings whatsoever for Riley. He's just trying to be nice. It probably has something to do with his friendship with Seth."

"I just want to know what he said." Most of the Ducks agreed with him.

"Fine, Guy can tell you. I have ten laps to do." Lizzy skated away taking Adam with her.

"He nailed that, didn't he?" Adam asked.

"Epically!" Lizzy cheered softly.

"Well?" Fulton asked, looking at Guy.

"He asked her if she was going to skate today and she answered yes, she was challenged and he said "good luck my duck." That's it, I swear. You know maybe, just maybe, he really is just trying to be nice to her. He has only made it really tough on Charlie." Guy skated away and Portman looked at Fulton.

"Maybe we oughta trust her with this," Portman suggested.

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean I have to like it," Fulton answered.

"I guess not."

A couple laps later Fulton caught up to Lizzy. "Nailed it," he said in her ear.

"Thank you," Lizzy replied, knowing that he would understand she wasn't mad at him and anyone else could take it as he had apologized.

"Give me ten more, Jacobs. Prove to me you can keep up with the team," Orion called to her.

Lizzy growled but skated 10 more laps. "I'm done, Ted." Lizzy stepped off the ice and went to do her homework.

"I see he still hasn't earned your respect." Fulton said as they headed for the bus stop after practice. Lizzy just gave him a look. "Liz, come on what more does the guy have to do? He's not griping about you calling him Ted, he gave us that water break the other day, he's not pushing you to play hockey, and earlier when you and I fought, he didn't say a word. Remember how Bombay used to?"

"Okay, so maybe that does earn him a bit of respect on game day, but he definitely needs to show me he wants it more."

"Okay. So, still freaked out by your stick?" Fulton completely changed the subject.

"A little bit."

"I'll come by tomorrow and we can hit the puck around some."

"Okay." Lizzy agreed. After dinner that night while Charlie and his mom spent some time bonding Lizzy hooked up her laptop and checked her e-mail. There were a few from Bombay, one from her dad, and most from her brothers. As she read through them, every now and then she would glance at her hockey stick in the corner of the room. Finally it had her so distracted that she set her laptop aside and walked over to it. She sat down inches from it and stared.

By the time Charlie walked in to get his PJ's and towel for his shower, Lizzy had her stick in her hands and was tracing Matt's signature. Then he saw both her hands and eyes were wet and figured she had been crying. Charlie knew he had to do something to help but he wasn't sure what it was. He slowly backed out of the room and called Bombay who was of no help so Charlie asked his mom. All she could tell him was that Lizzy was going through a rough time and they needed to be there for her when Lizzy came to them. Charlie reentered his room to find Lizzy fast asleep, curled around her hockey stick. Instead of waking her up or trying to remove the stick, Charlie picked her up, stick and all, and put her down on the bed.

When Lizzy woke up the next morning Fulton had already arrived and was having hot chocolate with Casey. Lizzy sat down and her aunt poured her a mug. "Thanks, Aunt Casey."

"You're welcome, sweetheart. So Fulton, what do you and Charlie have planned for today?" Casey asked.

"Oh, it's not Charlie I came over here for. Lizzy and I are going to get some shooting practice in, Mrs. Conway," Fulton answered.

"Fulton, how many times have I told you to call me Casey?"

"Too many to count but I always forget."

"Does being reminded of Uncle Bill hurt?" Lizzy asked.

"Not really, but I've known Fulton since the day he was born. It's alright if he calls me Casey. If it hurt that bad I'd just go back to using Jacobs." Casey answered.

"Oh."

"And I'm sorry, kids, but I'm afraid I have to work today."

"We'll be okay." Lizzy grinned, nodding.

"I'm afraid not. The prosecutor on your case found out how you spent the last two weekends. He reminded Bombay that if you don't follow your sentence to a t, you can be arrested. You'll just have to wait until later to get your shooting practice in."

"But Aunt Casey..."

"I'm sorry sweetheart; it's either the diner or juvvie." Lizzy looked at Fulton who shrugged. "Fulton can always come with. I get off right before you have to be at the school for the game."

"Who are we playing today?" Lizzy asked.

"Hampton Academy," Charlie said, grabbing some toast off the table, "Mom, I'm going to go hang out with Connie, Guy, and Goldberg."

"Don't be late to the game."

"Yes, ma'am."

So as Casey worked Fulton colored and Lizzy drew his picture. By lunch time they were both bored out of their minds. "Aunt Casey," Lizzy said as Casey sat down with them on her lunch break, "I have been good all morning. Please, please, please let me go skating. I'll be back in 20 minutes. I promise."

"You have 15 and your dad wants to talk to you tonight."

"Okay," Lizzy sighed. Though she wasn't happy about it being only 15 minutes it was better than nothing. "Thank you." Lizzy smiled then she and Fulton burst from the dining car and made the most of their 15 minutes of Lizzy's freedom. Soon though Lizzy was back to being trapped inside. No matter how hard she pushed to get Fulton to enjoy his time off and to go do something, he convinced her he was fine just sitting with her. Finally Casey's shift was over and they drove to Eden Hall.

During halftime, in which they were up 2-1, Lizzy convinced Orion to let her remain on the bench. Then she heard her name being called. Lizzy looked around then saw Joey Larson standing in the stands right behind the bench.

"Joey!" Lizzy said happily. She jumped up and stood on the back bench to talk to him.

"Hey Lizzy. I just wanted to see how you were doing. You never said what decision you came to. However because you're here I assume you came to Eden Hall."

"Not exactly. I ended up skipping school for a month."

"Wait, you're that local hotshot? About three weeks ago the Star Tribune did a big article on the front page of their sports section about it. They withheld your name of course, because you're a minor, but they talked about how you had gotten international sports fame then skipped a month of school. Most of the article painted you as a trouble-making kid."

"That's painful. Though there's a good chance some of it's true, I'm sure not all of it is."

Joey told her everything the article had said that he could remember.

"Sounds somewhat true. I—uh—I haven't touched a puck since the concussion," Lizzy answered.

"You've finally touched your hockey stick?"

The boy just appeared out nowhere. "'Riley," Lizzy smiled. "Rick Riley, this is Joey Larson. He played on your uncle's peewee team with Kyle about two years ago. Joey this is Rick Riley. He is Kyle's older brother and the captain of the varsity team."

The boys shook hands and Lizzy had a sudden cold chill, shivering just a bit. Joey instantly shucked his jacket then draped it around Lizzy's shoulders. Heat instantly flooded Liz's body, and Riley looked a bit put out. Lizzy didn't know why he did, but she shrugged it off. Instead she looked down at the jacket and was glad to see it wasn't the blue and orange of Hampton Academy Rams but rather red, white, and blue of the Minnesota Twins.

"I didn't know you were a Twins fan."

"They may not be the best team in the American league but they are good."

"My brother Chris would disagree with that. He's a Royals fan. Though he will admit that Kirby Puckett is one of the best athletes Minnesota has ever seen."

"Canard," Riley said gently, "you didn't answer my question."

"Since when do you call me Canard?" Lizzy asked.

"Answer my question."

"You first."

"Since yesterday. You are a duck, aren't you? Besides, how many of your team actually knows what it means?"

"True, and to answer your question, last night," Lizzy answered. "It brought up some painful memories, but ... at least I touched it, right?"

"That's progress. Now, next time you touch your hockey stick try to think of something besides the injury you suffered," Riley told her.

"That's what Fulton and Portman have said," Lizzy agreed.

"Think of the Italy game or your peewee games or ..." Joey trailed off trying to come up with something fun that had related to hockey.

"Last season's Battle of the City," Riley added.

"When we beat the Crockett Cougars. That was definitely fun. How do you know about that?"

"My dad threatened to get the school's lawyers involved when the dean told him part of your probation was being on the jv team. As much as he hated the Ducks, he didn't want that reputation clouding the prestigious hockey team. Dean Buckley said though you were put on there by force, you could actually play against boys and win. Then he showed my dad the tape from that game and reminded my dad you had a scholarship so his hands were tied. When I brought you and Seth up, my dad showed me the tape he had."

"Oh."

"You have potential to rival Adam; you just have to want it more than he does."

"Oh I want it bad enough but—Oh look, they're back."

"We should go."

"Joey, your jacket," Lizzy said, moving to pull it off.

"I'll see you out front later. Give it back to me then," Larson answered.

Reluctantly Lizzy sat back down and went back to watching the game as the third period started, having no idea Riley was grilling Larson in the stands.

After the game, Lizzy walked outside and returned Joey's jacket to him. "We should hang out some time, get dinner maybe," Lizzy suggested.

Joey looked around the courtyard then nodded as he folded his jacket over an arm. "I'd like that."

"I'll call you."

Joey walked away and Lizzy watched him go, feeling a bit confused as to why he would seem hesitant to accept her offer for dinner.

"First varsity and now Hawks?" Fulton snapped from behind her. "Are you even a Duck anymore?"

"What does the price of candy in Texas have to do with the weather in Maine?" Lizzy asked, spinning around to face him.

"What?" Fulton asked.

"One has nothing to do with the other. I can have friends that aren't Ducks and still be a Duck. One would hope you would understand that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Only trying to remind you that you're the one that first accepted the new Ducks onto the team. First me and Adam, then Portman, and even Russ. Out of all of us you're the first one to accept new friends. Why can't I do the same?"

"The difference here is my friends all became Ducks; yours hate us."

"You—you ..." Lizzy spun and reentered the arena to avoid saying something horrible to Fulton. She searched the crowd and found her aunt heading toward her as varsity warmed up on the ice. "Aunt Casey," she said, when the older woman reached her, "can we stay to watch the varsity game?"

"What did Charlie say?" Casey sighed. She had come to realize her son's nickname referred to more than just his tendency to mess upon the ice. When it came to his younger cousin, her son often stepped in it.

"It was Fulton," Lizzy answered. She told her aunt what had happened out front.

"I'm sorry he said that. Charlie?" Casey answered.

Lizzy was confused as to why Casey would ask about him until he answered his mom from behind Lizzy. "I'll go hangout with Fulton for a while. I can probably get him to calm down." Charlie hugged Lizzy from behind then headed outside.

As Casey and Lizzy found seats in the stands, Lizzy realized she hadn't told her aunt about the bet so her being friendly to varsity may not have made any sense. Once she filled her aunt in Casey nodded.

"The most dangerous thing about bets like this is that you might end up falling for a guy you wouldn't otherwise be interested in."

"True, but not me and Riley. The hardest part about this bet is that I have no interest in him. I'm sure he is a great guy but he's not my type."

"As a parent, I don't like that you made this bet. It's not fair to Riley or Julie, but the woman in me, hopes that you do win this bet for Julie's sake and to raise your grades. However no matter how this ends, don't hurt him. Riley may have been a jerk to Charlie and the Ducks, but he's still human."

"I know, but I don't think I am the only one with a bet against Scooter. I think Riley bet him something too so I'm not overly worried. Plus he hurt my friends; one does not get away with hurting my friends."

Casey sighed but knew she couldn't change Lizzy's mind about the bet so she let it go and went back to watching the game.

Anyway, thanks, please review.