Finally finished Chapter 6! Sorry it took so long, I kept getting annoyed with it but better late then never, right? Enjoy!
-Wednesday Night-
The Ducks were sitting silently on the bench as Adam took the face off against Levi. Bombay and Orion were told about Monday's brawl when several Ducks came to practice the next day with bruises on their faces. The coaches were not happy, to say the least, but managed to get the Ducks out of being punished by the school, having said the fight happened off school property. Even so, the coaches made them skate laps the whole practice, almost nonstop.
The puck was dropped and Adam won the face off, quickly passing it to Guy before getting checked, hard, by Levi. Adam got up, thinking how this game might be just like the Varsity vs. JV game last year; bodies being thrown around all for the hell of it and not for the game.
"Oo Adam Banks goes down hard," the announcer winces, along with some of the crowd, at the hit. "This is already shaping up to be a hard-hitting game." The crowd were already on their toes, most having heard about the brawl between the two teams, by now. "Guy Germaine passes it to Connie Moreau. She shots and …" The Ducks crowd groans in frustration. "Oh, stick save from the Wolves' goalie."
Once Levi gets the puck, Adam is covering him, following his every move down the ice, waiting for him to make the first move. Portman comes up behind him, slamming into his back. Levi grunts as his body hits the ice and Fulton steals back the puck.
"Fulton Reeds heads down into the Wolves' zone," the announcer said. "Moreau and Germaine clear the way for the Bash Brother. He shoots and SCORES!" The Ducks and the crowd go wild. "Fulton Reeds scores the first point of the game! The score now is 1-0"
The rest of the Ducks cheer from the bench as the five celebrate on the ice.
"Alright Ducks! Keep this up!" Bombay encouraged, clapping his hands.
"Conway, Kenny, Harper change it up," Orion tapped each one on the shoulder pads, signaling them to switch. Each player called off the player they were switching with.
Connie stopped AJ before she stepped onto the ice, to warn her. "Be careful, especially around Levi."
"I will. Thanks Connie!"
This time, once the puck was dropped, Levi won, but Charlie got him back for hitting Adam by stealing it while checking him. He passed it to Kenny, who squeezed between the two Wolves and spun around another player in order to pass it to AJ, two Wolves' defensemen starting to barrel down on her. Fulton managed to stop one but the another easily evaded Charlie's attempt and continued his path.
"Harper passes it back to Kenny Wu," the announcer announced right before AJ got bodied checked against the boards. She succeeded in staying up in order to watch Kenny score a goal. "Kenny Wu scores! The Ducks lead 2-0."
The Wolves curse watching the Ducks celebrate again.
The rest of the 1st period went by without any goals from neither team. The Ducks had started hitting back, when possible, leveling the playing field. The Bash Brothers were doing their best to keep the Wolves away from their smaller teammates but even they couldn't get them all. One of the Wolves ended up knocking Averman out, resulting in both the Wolf and Averman sitting out the rest of the game and a penalty shot, taking by Charlie. However, the Wolves' goalie saw through Charlie's triple deke and saved the shot.
As the 2nd period played out, the Wolves had gotten the upper hand, scoring two goals, tying up the score. The heavy hitting continued with Levi leading the charge.
"Dwayne Robertson is on a breakaway with less than a minute left in the second period!" Everyone watched as the cowboy made his way down the ice with a Wolf hot on his tail. The Wolf got annoyed with Dwayne's stick handling and hooked his arm sending the boy sprawling on the ice. "Oh, that's a hook. Number 77 will get two minutes for hooking. This is looking to be a close game, folks, as we end the second period with the score being tied 2-2!"
Both teams were batter and bruised by the time the period was over. The Ducks trudged into the locker room groaning and complaining, guzzling down as much water as possible before sitting down.
"Why does this feel exactly like the varsity game last year?" Guy asked before chugging half of his water bottle.
"Cause they have a grudge against us," Luis stated, running his hand down his face, wiping off the sweat. "Just like the varsity did."
"Feels more like the Hawks for me," Adam stated, rubbing his head, remembering the final game against his old team.
"And we're gonna beat them just like we did with varsity and the Hawks!" Charlie insisted, looking at Guy and then Adam right next to him, both nodding.
"That's right!" Bombay and Orion walked in the locker room.
"We just need to keep skating," Orion said, placing a hand on Goldberg's shoulder. "Just be careful out there, you guys really pissed them off."
The Ducks just shrugged it off, knowing they had it coming.
"Averman, how you feeling?" Bombay kneeled in front of said boy.
"Not good coach," he said, with his head resting on an icepack in his hands. "Doc says I have a concussion."
Bombay look to the medical personal next to Averman, who just bobbed his head in agreement to the boy's statement. Bombay sighed. "Alright, keep nursing your head."
Averman just hummed. With not cracking jokes or trying to lighten the mood, the Ducks knew Averman was seriously hurt. Despite being annoying with said things, he did in fact lift the Ducks spirits but no one dared to tell him that, knowing it will boost his ego.
"Everyone else go to play?" Bombay stood and took his placed back beside Orion. The team give various forms of yes, some grunts and some verbal answers. "AJ? How's the shoulder?"
"Good," AJ rotated her shoulder to prove it was good to go. "Only part of my body not sore."
Some laughed in agreement, understanding the fact that all their bodies are going to be bruised and sore come tomorrow.
"Alright! We got one period to go, lets get out there and win this!"
The Ducks erupted in shouts and cheers, much to Averman's annoyance.
The final period started, Ducks won the puck and kept it away from the Wolves at best as they could. By bumping shoulders with him, Portman had cut off the Wolf gunning for Connie as she made a breakaway into the enemy's zone.
"She shoots and SCORES!" The crowd is on their feet cheering her on as the boys covered her in a group hug. "The score is now 3-2."
Seven minutes into the period and the Wolves were getting angry and impatient. They shoved Russ into the Ducks' bench area and slammed Kenny into the boards when they both had the puck. The referee not calling anything. The Wolves got past Charlie on offense and now were up against Portman and AJ on defense. The puck was past to Levi, who was eyeing AJ with a vengeance. The two wrapped around the back of the goal, AJ blocking Levi's attempt at shooting with her stick, fighting for the possession of the puck. But Levi was bigger than her and used it to his advantage; making it look like he was turning, he threw his body at her. They collided and on impact AJ's knee gave out on her and had her landing with a crack on her stick.
"Shit!" AJ cursed as Levi was able to score a goal.
He taunted her as he circled around her. "Damn, I was hoping that crack was your knee."
"Asshole," AJ spit out.
Charlie and Portman came over, Portman pushing Levi away, glaring at him. Levi just laughed, as the referee placed himself in between the two boys preventing a fight.
"The score is now tied once again at 3-3."
"You okay?" Charlie helped AJ up, watching Levi and Portman stare each other down from across the ice.
"Yeah, but I'm gonna need a new stick." AJ held up her stick just as the bottom half fell away completely. She bent down to grab the broken part and skated to the bench, trading her stick for a new one and assuring Bombay that she was indeed okay.
Two minutes left in the game, the score was still tied and bodies were still being thrown around. Fulton was now facing Levi, with the latter controlling the puck in the Ducks' zone. All Fulton had to do was keep Levi from scoring another goal for the next minute and half and they would have a tie, which would be better than losing to these punks. Levi stuck his togue out at him, in a provoking way.
"Fuck it," Fulton lunged at Levi, knocking him on the ice, with a thud.
Levi shoved him off before pushing himself up to his feet, Fulton following close behind. "What the hell!"
"Oh sorry, did that hurt?" Fulton mocked, placing a hand over his chest.
"Bastard!" Levi pushed Fulton back but the latter just pushed back harder, cracking a smile.
The referee and both teams let the two go at it as long as it didn't get violent.
"You really should do something about that temper of yours," Fulton said, getting up into Levi's face, crashing their helmets together.
"Like you have any room to talk." Levi threw a gloved punch on Fulton's jaw area.
Fulton stumbled back, caught himself then returned the punch, knocking him to the ground. Events were playing out in a similar fashion as they did on Monday with Fulton on top of Levi, punching at his face.
Charlie and the ref had to pull Fulton off of Levi and away from the boy as it was getting out of hand.
"Looks like number 44, Fulton Reeds and number 17 of the Wolves, Levi Moore are gonna get kicked out of the remainder of the game."
With less than a minute left, Charlie and another Wolf took the face off in the Ducks zone, the Ducks winning and keeping the puck from the Wolves until the buzzer sounded, ending the game.
"Ducks tie the Westbrook Wolves, final score being 3-3." With that the crowd started making their way out of the stadium. Both teams shook hands and said their good games, even though both teams were battered, bruised and a bit bitter.
Back in the locker room, everyone was too tired to celebrate the tie and decided in not going to the diner but they were at least happy they didn't lose.
"You all did great out there," Bombay said as he entered the locker room.
"Agree, now get change and head back to the dorms, you all need your rest." Orion and Bombay left the team to get change.
"Dude, what the hell did Levi say to you for you to react like that?" Portman slapped Fulton on his back, before pulling off his pads.
"Nothing," Fulton grunted, pulling his hair back in half bun. "Was pissed off, needed something to hit."
The team laughed, lighten the atmosphere.
"Well, you almost started round two of Monday night's fight," Russ said, throwing a few punches at the air in front of him. "Man, that woulda been awesome!"
"I nearly got my head taken off in that fight," Goldberg wined as he untied his skates. "With a road sign!"
The boys broke out into an argument, leaving Connie and AJ with their own conversion at the end of the lockers.
"How you feeling?" Connie asked AJ, while watching Guy throw an arm around Charlie, siding with him over Russ and Goldberg.
"Sore but I'll live," AJ pointed to Dean roping Dwayne in trying to get the cowboy on his side of the argument. The girls laugh when Dwayne chose the Bash Brothers' side over Guy's and Charlie's side. "What about you?"
"Same but times like this has me wishing I was built like Dean or Fulton," Connie rubbed her arm, the side that had gotten slammed into the board at the beginning of the game. She finished getting changed into her street clothes. "But if I had a body like them, I don't think Guy would like me."
As she pulled on a pair of black sweatpants, AJ smiled, carefully shrugging her shoulders. "Who knows maybe he's into that kind of thing."
Connie stood meeting her eyes but neither of them could hold their laughter for very long.
They tossed their sweaty jerseys in the laundry bin on their way out of the locker room, followed by the rest of the team. Linda was waiting outside the locker room for Charlie. He spotted her and placed a kiss on her forehead when he reached her. Charlie had declined her offer to go out to eat since he was exhausted from the game, instead he, and the rest of the Ducks, respected Coach Orion's orders and headed to the dorm buildings, the guys and girls separating at their respective buildings, dreading the coming morning.