Note: Thanks for all the reviews. Heart of the South I'm glad you like the
way I'm portraying Adam. Banksiesbabe99 and anne918 its nice to know I
evoked the emotion that I wanted to. Its always nice to be able to evoke
emotion, whatever they may be, with what I write. Hope you both enjoy this
chapter just as much. Crazy4nc128, glad you approved of Scooter standing up
to Riley and I think you'll be happy with Scooter's actions at the end of
this chapter. Read and enjoy all!
Adam's POV:
The funeral was two days later on Saturday morning. My shoulder still ached a little but I didn't have to wear the sling anymore. My wrist luckily didn't hurt at all. I was suppose to go back to hockey practice on Monday afternoon. To say I was looking forward to it would've been a lie. I was scared. Scared of what else Riley might try. I had spent the last two days at school trying to avoid all of my new teammates. I had talked to Scooter a couple of times but that was it.
Neither of my parents went to the funeral even though most of the other Ducks' who lived in the area either had their mother of father there or in some cases both. My Dad had refused to go and had forbidden my mom and me to go too. My mom listened to him but I refused to. There was no way I was going to miss Hans funeral.
Coach Bombay arrived late. When he did show up he was carrying something but I couldn't tell what it was at first. When we were done reciting the Lord's prayer Coach Bombay stepped forward and unfolded what he was carrying. It was a Mighty Ducks jersey in the teams original green and yellow. As he held it up I could see the number 11 and Hans written across the back. Coach Bombay laid the jersey on the top of the casket.
"Every time you touch the ice, remember it was Hans who taught us to fly," Coach Bombay said looking at each of us. Off to my left I saw movement and glanced over to see Charlie walking away. I didn't blame him. Part of me wanted to do the same thing. Instead I stayed with the others.
I watched as Julie laid the flowers she was holding on top of the casket and then gave Coach Bombay a hug. I was holding back my tears. Sometimes I thought girls had it easier than guys did. They could show their emotions. They could cry and no one would think anything about it except maybe feel sympathy for them. Guys couldn't. Instead we had to try and hide how we were feeling.
Instead of going back to the dorms I walked back to my house. It was a long walk but I wanted the time to be alone. I wanted to go somewhere where I could cry and not have to worry about what others thought about me.
As I started walking away though I heard Fulton call after me.
"Hey Banks," he called. I turned around to see him standing with Russ, Ken, Averman, Dwayne and Julie. They all walked over to where I was. "We're going to get together tomorrow for a roller hockey game at the old court we use to play at. You going to join us?" Fulton asked as he approached me.
"Yeah sure," I said surprised that they had even asked me. I had been getting use to being an outcast here lately but ever since I had come back to school the Ducks had changed their attitude toward me. There had been no apologies but I didn't really care about that. I just wanted them to be my friends again and it looked as if that was happening.
"Okay, tomorrow at noon," Fulton said.
"You want to come hang out with us right now?" Julie asked.
"No," I told them. "I need some time to myself."
"Okay," Julie said and gave me a quick hug before she and the others headed back in the direction of Eden Hall.
I turned back in the direction I had been heading and started the long walk home. I figured I'd spend the night at home and then go back to campus the following afternoon after our game.
Charlie's POV:
After the roller hockey game on Sunday afternoon I went back home for a little while. I shut myself in my room and turned on my cd player. I needed some time to think and I knew I wouldn't be able to get that at the dorms.
As usual Coach Bombay had gotten me looking beyond myself. He had showed me who Orion really was. I had been thinking he was a washed up pro who couldn't hack it. I found out differently. Orion had made a choice. He hadn't left pros because he couldn't skate on that level. He had left the pros because he had decided something else was more important than hockey -his daughter. Maybe if I hadn't bee so wrapped up in hating the guy I may have realized that myself.
I remembered what Hans had been trying to tell me the last time I had talked to him. Hans had told me that Orion wasn't going to let me skate by. That he demanded more because he knew it was there underneath. Just like Coach Bombay had. My thoughts drifted back to that first championship game. Coach Bombay had chosen me to take the penalty shot. I thought he was crazy. I didn't think I could make the shot but he believed in me. Somehow he knew I could make. He had pushed me to be my best.
As I thought about it, in his own brusque way, Orion was doing the same. He knew we could be a better team than we were. He was trying to make us see that. Make us see that we didn't need tricks to win anymore. That we could skate at this level. Taking away the "C" had been a test. One that I had failed miserably. I realized now that Orion was trying to show me exactly what Hans had tried to tell me that night. That a real leader didn't need any recognition to lead. Others followed them because they wanted to not because of some kind of symbol. If my teammates believed in me and I believed in myself and them, then I was still the team Captain, "C" or no "C".
I wished now I had listened to Hans that night but I had been to angry. I hadn't given this school year a fair chance. Ever since Coach Bombay had told me he was taking the job with the Junior Goodwill Games I had been angry at the world. I had been pushing everything else away because I had been angry at Coach Bombay for abandoning us. But he really hadn't. We had just moved on and moving on meant our lives were taking separate paths. He was still with us though, just like Hans would still be with us, because he shaped who we are. He had been the one who had seen the potential in that rag tag team of misfits that had called itself District 5. He had given us a second chance just like he said we had given him one. It was about time I started taking advantage of the possibilities he had opened for me, for all of us. Like Coach Bombay had said yesterday when we had watched them play roller hockey for a few minutes before joining them, they were still the same old ducks. They hadn't changed. I had. I had been pushing them away. It was time to stop doing that and rejoin my old team and give Orion a fair chance.
I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock going off. I looked at it vaguely and saw that in read seven am. I must have fallen asleep in my room last night. I got up and hurriedly got ready. I had to make it to Eden Hall in time for my first class.
"Charlie, come have breakfast," I heard my Mom call from the direction of the kitchen. I headed into the kitchen. My mom had made pancakes and she sat a plate of them on the table. "Sit down and eat and then I'll drop you off at school," she told me. Part of me was wondering if she wanted to make sure I actually went to school. She hadn't said much about me skipping the last half of last week but I knew she wasn't happy about it.
"Thanks," I told her simply.
We ate breakfast together and then my mom drove me to school. I stopped by my dorm room to pick up my backpack and then headed for the academic building. I got to my first class just as the late bell rang. My friends looked surprised to see me but they didn't get a chance to say anything as the teacher started class right away.
I didn't say much to my friends that day and I didn't mention that I was going to try getting back on the team. I didn't want to get their hopes up. I tried to catch Orion during my lunch period but I couldn't locate him. I knew the Ducks had a game this afternoon. It was an away game and they were getting on the bus as soon as classes left out. I debated on whether or not to go talk to Orion before the bus left.
After some deliberation I finally decided to do it. The sooner I did it the better my chances were he'd let me back on the team. I rushed across campus to the waiting bus. My teammates were already filing onto the bus. I got in line behind the bus driver. As I got closer to the bus I could hear Orion saying the names as my teammates got on board.
"Fulton," he said checking off Fulton's name. He looked up again and I could tell that he was surprised to see me. "Conway?" was all he said.
I took a deep breath, swallowed my pride and said, "I want to be on the team coach. I want to play two-way hockey." I couldn't read his face. I didn't know if he was going to let me back or not. "Can I come back?" I asked him. Orion finally smiled.
"Take a seat," he told me simply. "We're running late."
Elated I climbed the rest of the way and started down the aisle.
"Let's go we have a game to catch," Orion told the bus driver.
My teammates were cheering my return for which I was grateful. They could've very easily resented me for walking off on them like I had. I sat down next to Russ who immediately started teasing me good naturedly. Things couldn't have been better. And then Dean Buckley came onto the bus and dropped his bombshell.
I couldn't believe what he was telling us. I couldn't believe that the school board was going to revoke our scholarships. It wasn't fair, I kept thinking. Orion got off the bus to talk to the Dean and we all crowded around the door to hear what they were saying.
"I got my team," we heard Orion tell Dean Buckley. "Either they stay or I go." For the first time I had genuine respect for the guy. Looking at my friends I could tell that Orion had just scored a few points with them too.
"We'll miss you Ted," Dean Buckley said and simply walked away. We all came off the bus and surrounded our Coach.
Around me my teammates were all making pointless comments. Pointless up until the point where Goldberg asked "Coach is this legal? Don't we have contracts or something?"
"I don't know what it is," Orion told us. "All I know is that we're going to fight it," he told us determinedly. We all nodded in agreement. It was Coach Orion who finally broke the silence. "Come on. Back on the bus. We still have a game to go win," he said.
I climbed back on that bus with the others. I know I felt even more determined to win this game than usual. I felt like maybe it would show them something. Show them that we were a good team. From the look on the others faces I think they were just as determined as I was.
Orion's POV:
The bus trip back to Eden Hall was much more jubilant than are ride over to Fredricks Hall Academy after what the Dean had told us. The kids had played hard and had earned a victory for their hard work. It hadn't been a shut out. In fact the final score was only four to three in our favor but it was a win. They deserved to be happy about it and I was happy for them. Right now I had other things to worry about though.
I watch them walk off together across campus toward their dorm. I couldn't help but smile and shake my head as I headed into the ice arena and toward my office. I had a phone call to make. I picked up the phone and dialed the number.
"Hello," I heard the familiar voice say when the phone was picked up on the other end.
"Hey Gordon, its Ted. Look something has come up and I need your advice," I told him. I filled him in on the events of the afternoon. " Is there anything we can do? Can they actually terminate the scholarships just like that?"
"No they can't," Gordon told me. "They need just cause to cancel the scholarships. Now if any of them weren't making the C's or above that are required to be eligible to play then they would have just cause but not winning the hockey games is not just cause."
"The board meeting is tomorrow afternoon at four. Can you make it?" I asked him.
"I'll be there. I'll catch the next flight there," Gordon told me.
"Great and thank-you," I told him. We said good-bye and hung up the phone. As I looked toward the door I found that one of the Varsity players was standing in the doorway. I recognized him as the Varsity goalie, Scott Vanderbilt. "Can I help you?" I asked him.
"I wanted to talk to you," he said. He seemed a little nervous.
"Have a seat," I told him indicating the chair across the desk from me. "What's going on."
"I need some advice. Hypothetically, what do you think someone should do if they knew that someone had hurt someone else but the person that was hurt didn't want to come forward."
"Are you talking about child abuse?" I asked him
"No," he said quickly. I had a feeling I knew where this was going.
"I have a feeling you're not actually talking in the hypothetical here," I said and waited to see his reaction.
"No sir, I'm not," he admitted.
"Does it have something to do with Adam?" I asked him. He looked down at the floor. I knew I had guessed right. "Look, I know you probably promised him that you wouldn't tell anyone but you obviously didn't feel comfortable with that or you wouldn't be here now. Tell me what is going on and we can decide where to go from here together."
With a sigh, Scott started talking. "Adam's sprained shoulder and wrist didn't come from the fall at our game Tuesday morning. That happened the night before. Adam over heard some of us talking about the prank we were going to pull on the varsity. He tried to leave but Riley saw him before he could. Riley caught him and twisted his arm behind his back and threatened Adam. I knew he was hurt but Adam wanted to just let it go. He was afraid Riley would just get angrier if he told anyone about what had happened. Then the incident between him and Charlie happened and he had an explanation for the injuries. He doesn't want to come forward about what happened the night before because he's still afraid of what Riley might do to him."
"Do you think Riley would try something else?" I asked him.
"It's possible," Scott admitted.
"Which means Adam may be right. It might be worse if he came forward about what Riley did. Without Adam's statement even if you or I tell anyone nothing can be done and if Adam does come forward the most that will probably happen is a suspension in which case Riley is just going to be madder when he does come back to school."
"So there is nothing we can really do," Scott said.
"No, I didn't say that. Probably the best thing to do is to get Adam off of varsity and back on JV," I told him. "Get him away from Riley and lessen the chances of Riley having an opportunity to do anything."
"But if Riley thinks that the reason Adam is going back to JV is because of what happened then he's going to still be mad."
"That's why we make sure he doesn't think I or Coach Wilson have anything to do with it," I told him a plan already forming in my mind. "Look, I'll take care of everything. No one even needs to know you came and talked to me," I told him.
"Thanks," Scott said as he stood up.
"Hey Vanderbilt," I said as he opened the door to my office. He turned around to look back at me. "You did the right thing," I told him. He nodded and then left.
I grabbed my coat from the back of my chair and left the office. I headed over to the student dorms. I wanted to tell the Ducks about Gordon coming to help us out. I also needed to have a talk with Charlie about Adam.
Adam's POV:
The funeral was two days later on Saturday morning. My shoulder still ached a little but I didn't have to wear the sling anymore. My wrist luckily didn't hurt at all. I was suppose to go back to hockey practice on Monday afternoon. To say I was looking forward to it would've been a lie. I was scared. Scared of what else Riley might try. I had spent the last two days at school trying to avoid all of my new teammates. I had talked to Scooter a couple of times but that was it.
Neither of my parents went to the funeral even though most of the other Ducks' who lived in the area either had their mother of father there or in some cases both. My Dad had refused to go and had forbidden my mom and me to go too. My mom listened to him but I refused to. There was no way I was going to miss Hans funeral.
Coach Bombay arrived late. When he did show up he was carrying something but I couldn't tell what it was at first. When we were done reciting the Lord's prayer Coach Bombay stepped forward and unfolded what he was carrying. It was a Mighty Ducks jersey in the teams original green and yellow. As he held it up I could see the number 11 and Hans written across the back. Coach Bombay laid the jersey on the top of the casket.
"Every time you touch the ice, remember it was Hans who taught us to fly," Coach Bombay said looking at each of us. Off to my left I saw movement and glanced over to see Charlie walking away. I didn't blame him. Part of me wanted to do the same thing. Instead I stayed with the others.
I watched as Julie laid the flowers she was holding on top of the casket and then gave Coach Bombay a hug. I was holding back my tears. Sometimes I thought girls had it easier than guys did. They could show their emotions. They could cry and no one would think anything about it except maybe feel sympathy for them. Guys couldn't. Instead we had to try and hide how we were feeling.
Instead of going back to the dorms I walked back to my house. It was a long walk but I wanted the time to be alone. I wanted to go somewhere where I could cry and not have to worry about what others thought about me.
As I started walking away though I heard Fulton call after me.
"Hey Banks," he called. I turned around to see him standing with Russ, Ken, Averman, Dwayne and Julie. They all walked over to where I was. "We're going to get together tomorrow for a roller hockey game at the old court we use to play at. You going to join us?" Fulton asked as he approached me.
"Yeah sure," I said surprised that they had even asked me. I had been getting use to being an outcast here lately but ever since I had come back to school the Ducks had changed their attitude toward me. There had been no apologies but I didn't really care about that. I just wanted them to be my friends again and it looked as if that was happening.
"Okay, tomorrow at noon," Fulton said.
"You want to come hang out with us right now?" Julie asked.
"No," I told them. "I need some time to myself."
"Okay," Julie said and gave me a quick hug before she and the others headed back in the direction of Eden Hall.
I turned back in the direction I had been heading and started the long walk home. I figured I'd spend the night at home and then go back to campus the following afternoon after our game.
Charlie's POV:
After the roller hockey game on Sunday afternoon I went back home for a little while. I shut myself in my room and turned on my cd player. I needed some time to think and I knew I wouldn't be able to get that at the dorms.
As usual Coach Bombay had gotten me looking beyond myself. He had showed me who Orion really was. I had been thinking he was a washed up pro who couldn't hack it. I found out differently. Orion had made a choice. He hadn't left pros because he couldn't skate on that level. He had left the pros because he had decided something else was more important than hockey -his daughter. Maybe if I hadn't bee so wrapped up in hating the guy I may have realized that myself.
I remembered what Hans had been trying to tell me the last time I had talked to him. Hans had told me that Orion wasn't going to let me skate by. That he demanded more because he knew it was there underneath. Just like Coach Bombay had. My thoughts drifted back to that first championship game. Coach Bombay had chosen me to take the penalty shot. I thought he was crazy. I didn't think I could make the shot but he believed in me. Somehow he knew I could make. He had pushed me to be my best.
As I thought about it, in his own brusque way, Orion was doing the same. He knew we could be a better team than we were. He was trying to make us see that. Make us see that we didn't need tricks to win anymore. That we could skate at this level. Taking away the "C" had been a test. One that I had failed miserably. I realized now that Orion was trying to show me exactly what Hans had tried to tell me that night. That a real leader didn't need any recognition to lead. Others followed them because they wanted to not because of some kind of symbol. If my teammates believed in me and I believed in myself and them, then I was still the team Captain, "C" or no "C".
I wished now I had listened to Hans that night but I had been to angry. I hadn't given this school year a fair chance. Ever since Coach Bombay had told me he was taking the job with the Junior Goodwill Games I had been angry at the world. I had been pushing everything else away because I had been angry at Coach Bombay for abandoning us. But he really hadn't. We had just moved on and moving on meant our lives were taking separate paths. He was still with us though, just like Hans would still be with us, because he shaped who we are. He had been the one who had seen the potential in that rag tag team of misfits that had called itself District 5. He had given us a second chance just like he said we had given him one. It was about time I started taking advantage of the possibilities he had opened for me, for all of us. Like Coach Bombay had said yesterday when we had watched them play roller hockey for a few minutes before joining them, they were still the same old ducks. They hadn't changed. I had. I had been pushing them away. It was time to stop doing that and rejoin my old team and give Orion a fair chance.
I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock going off. I looked at it vaguely and saw that in read seven am. I must have fallen asleep in my room last night. I got up and hurriedly got ready. I had to make it to Eden Hall in time for my first class.
"Charlie, come have breakfast," I heard my Mom call from the direction of the kitchen. I headed into the kitchen. My mom had made pancakes and she sat a plate of them on the table. "Sit down and eat and then I'll drop you off at school," she told me. Part of me was wondering if she wanted to make sure I actually went to school. She hadn't said much about me skipping the last half of last week but I knew she wasn't happy about it.
"Thanks," I told her simply.
We ate breakfast together and then my mom drove me to school. I stopped by my dorm room to pick up my backpack and then headed for the academic building. I got to my first class just as the late bell rang. My friends looked surprised to see me but they didn't get a chance to say anything as the teacher started class right away.
I didn't say much to my friends that day and I didn't mention that I was going to try getting back on the team. I didn't want to get their hopes up. I tried to catch Orion during my lunch period but I couldn't locate him. I knew the Ducks had a game this afternoon. It was an away game and they were getting on the bus as soon as classes left out. I debated on whether or not to go talk to Orion before the bus left.
After some deliberation I finally decided to do it. The sooner I did it the better my chances were he'd let me back on the team. I rushed across campus to the waiting bus. My teammates were already filing onto the bus. I got in line behind the bus driver. As I got closer to the bus I could hear Orion saying the names as my teammates got on board.
"Fulton," he said checking off Fulton's name. He looked up again and I could tell that he was surprised to see me. "Conway?" was all he said.
I took a deep breath, swallowed my pride and said, "I want to be on the team coach. I want to play two-way hockey." I couldn't read his face. I didn't know if he was going to let me back or not. "Can I come back?" I asked him. Orion finally smiled.
"Take a seat," he told me simply. "We're running late."
Elated I climbed the rest of the way and started down the aisle.
"Let's go we have a game to catch," Orion told the bus driver.
My teammates were cheering my return for which I was grateful. They could've very easily resented me for walking off on them like I had. I sat down next to Russ who immediately started teasing me good naturedly. Things couldn't have been better. And then Dean Buckley came onto the bus and dropped his bombshell.
I couldn't believe what he was telling us. I couldn't believe that the school board was going to revoke our scholarships. It wasn't fair, I kept thinking. Orion got off the bus to talk to the Dean and we all crowded around the door to hear what they were saying.
"I got my team," we heard Orion tell Dean Buckley. "Either they stay or I go." For the first time I had genuine respect for the guy. Looking at my friends I could tell that Orion had just scored a few points with them too.
"We'll miss you Ted," Dean Buckley said and simply walked away. We all came off the bus and surrounded our Coach.
Around me my teammates were all making pointless comments. Pointless up until the point where Goldberg asked "Coach is this legal? Don't we have contracts or something?"
"I don't know what it is," Orion told us. "All I know is that we're going to fight it," he told us determinedly. We all nodded in agreement. It was Coach Orion who finally broke the silence. "Come on. Back on the bus. We still have a game to go win," he said.
I climbed back on that bus with the others. I know I felt even more determined to win this game than usual. I felt like maybe it would show them something. Show them that we were a good team. From the look on the others faces I think they were just as determined as I was.
Orion's POV:
The bus trip back to Eden Hall was much more jubilant than are ride over to Fredricks Hall Academy after what the Dean had told us. The kids had played hard and had earned a victory for their hard work. It hadn't been a shut out. In fact the final score was only four to three in our favor but it was a win. They deserved to be happy about it and I was happy for them. Right now I had other things to worry about though.
I watch them walk off together across campus toward their dorm. I couldn't help but smile and shake my head as I headed into the ice arena and toward my office. I had a phone call to make. I picked up the phone and dialed the number.
"Hello," I heard the familiar voice say when the phone was picked up on the other end.
"Hey Gordon, its Ted. Look something has come up and I need your advice," I told him. I filled him in on the events of the afternoon. " Is there anything we can do? Can they actually terminate the scholarships just like that?"
"No they can't," Gordon told me. "They need just cause to cancel the scholarships. Now if any of them weren't making the C's or above that are required to be eligible to play then they would have just cause but not winning the hockey games is not just cause."
"The board meeting is tomorrow afternoon at four. Can you make it?" I asked him.
"I'll be there. I'll catch the next flight there," Gordon told me.
"Great and thank-you," I told him. We said good-bye and hung up the phone. As I looked toward the door I found that one of the Varsity players was standing in the doorway. I recognized him as the Varsity goalie, Scott Vanderbilt. "Can I help you?" I asked him.
"I wanted to talk to you," he said. He seemed a little nervous.
"Have a seat," I told him indicating the chair across the desk from me. "What's going on."
"I need some advice. Hypothetically, what do you think someone should do if they knew that someone had hurt someone else but the person that was hurt didn't want to come forward."
"Are you talking about child abuse?" I asked him
"No," he said quickly. I had a feeling I knew where this was going.
"I have a feeling you're not actually talking in the hypothetical here," I said and waited to see his reaction.
"No sir, I'm not," he admitted.
"Does it have something to do with Adam?" I asked him. He looked down at the floor. I knew I had guessed right. "Look, I know you probably promised him that you wouldn't tell anyone but you obviously didn't feel comfortable with that or you wouldn't be here now. Tell me what is going on and we can decide where to go from here together."
With a sigh, Scott started talking. "Adam's sprained shoulder and wrist didn't come from the fall at our game Tuesday morning. That happened the night before. Adam over heard some of us talking about the prank we were going to pull on the varsity. He tried to leave but Riley saw him before he could. Riley caught him and twisted his arm behind his back and threatened Adam. I knew he was hurt but Adam wanted to just let it go. He was afraid Riley would just get angrier if he told anyone about what had happened. Then the incident between him and Charlie happened and he had an explanation for the injuries. He doesn't want to come forward about what happened the night before because he's still afraid of what Riley might do to him."
"Do you think Riley would try something else?" I asked him.
"It's possible," Scott admitted.
"Which means Adam may be right. It might be worse if he came forward about what Riley did. Without Adam's statement even if you or I tell anyone nothing can be done and if Adam does come forward the most that will probably happen is a suspension in which case Riley is just going to be madder when he does come back to school."
"So there is nothing we can really do," Scott said.
"No, I didn't say that. Probably the best thing to do is to get Adam off of varsity and back on JV," I told him. "Get him away from Riley and lessen the chances of Riley having an opportunity to do anything."
"But if Riley thinks that the reason Adam is going back to JV is because of what happened then he's going to still be mad."
"That's why we make sure he doesn't think I or Coach Wilson have anything to do with it," I told him a plan already forming in my mind. "Look, I'll take care of everything. No one even needs to know you came and talked to me," I told him.
"Thanks," Scott said as he stood up.
"Hey Vanderbilt," I said as he opened the door to my office. He turned around to look back at me. "You did the right thing," I told him. He nodded and then left.
I grabbed my coat from the back of my chair and left the office. I headed over to the student dorms. I wanted to tell the Ducks about Gordon coming to help us out. I also needed to have a talk with Charlie about Adam.