Note: Thanks to Banksiesbabe99 and crazy4nc128 for reviewing chapter nine.
I do think the two of you are my most loyal reviewers. Thanks for the
support. Banksiesbabe99 I'm glad you like the fact that I didn't have
Charlie go off. I did that so that I could show that Charlie has learned
something from everything that has happened. Hope you two enjoy this
chapter just as much.
Charlie's POV:
The locker room started getting noisy as more of the Ducks filtered in. They knew even less than me about what had happened shortly before. They didn't even know Scooter had been anywhere near our locker room. Maybe that was for the best.
I finished getting ready and sat down on the bench. It wasn't quite time to go out to the ice yet. By this time, Averman was going through his usual pre-game comedy routine. He claimed it calmed him down so despite the fact that it annoyed the hell out of most of us we put up with it. Connie and Julie were at one end of the bench whispering to each other. There were other conversations going on that I could've made out if I wanted to but I sort of let them fade away into the background. Across from me Adam sat with a far away look on his face. After this many years of playing hockey I was use to that look. He got it before every game. Adam was worrying about not playing his best. About letting his team down. Letting his father down.
"Game time," Orion said sticking his head in through the door momentarily and then he was gone again.
My teammates and I started picking up our gloves, helmets and sticks and heading for the door to the locker room. I saw Russ holding the door open for everyone which he usually doesn't do. I couldn't help but wonder what he was up to. I soon found out.
"Remember which team your playing for," I heard him whisper to Adam who was right in front of me. Adam didn't say a thing he just kept walking. I chose to ignore the remark. Now was not the time to get anything started. I had no doubt that Adam knew which team he was playing for. There was no reason to dwell on the comment and make it into something that it wasn't.
By the time we reached the ice I was in the front of my teammates. Just because Orion didn't want to officially make me Captain didn't mean I couldn't take the role I always had. He had yet to decide on a Captain anyways.
Varsity was already out on the ice skating warm-ups. Their black uniforms made me think of going up against the Hawks back in Pee Wees, especially after Russ' comment to Adam. The Hawks were the last team that Adam skated against that he had at one time been apart of. I only hoped this game didn't go the same way that one had. Win or Lose I wanted all of us to still be here at the end of the game.
I stepped out on the ice and stood by the door. Goldberg had stepped out on the ice right behind me and stopped when he saw that I was still standing at the side of the rink. Gulton had stopped just before stepping onto the ice.
I looked at Fulton and then back at Goldberg. "This is for Hans," I told them my friends. Both of them nodded and then Fulton stepped onto the ice. One by one my teammates stepped onto the ice - Averman, Guy, Connie, until the last one to step onto the ice was Julie. I followed Julie toward the circle our teammates had started and fell in behind Adam. We all bent down and touched the ice in tribute to our mentor Hans. We all knew he was here in spirit.
After our tribute we all headed toward our team box. Those of who weren't starting clambered into the box with Coach Orion. I couldn't help but search the stands. I was looking for Coach Bombay. He had said he would be back in a couple of days. I was hoping that he would make it back for our game tonight but I didn't see him.
"All right," Orion said bringing my focus back to the game, "let's go hunting for goose eggs, huh? Come on, hands in."
'Great,' I thought 'our wonderful, original, go team cheer. How inspiring.'
However, Orion surprised me with his next words. "On three... Quack," he told us. I thought he was joking but as I looked at his face I could see he was serious and I could fell the grin coming to my face. I think the Ducks were beginning to get to him.
"One, two, three... Quack, Quack," he counted off and all of us enthusiastically joined in. It took a little while but soon the crowd was chanting with us. Now this was how you get fired up for a game.
Banks, Fulton, Russ, Dwayne, Julie and I all headed out to our positions for the start of the game. I took my position as right wing against the Varsity wing as Banks skated for Center Ice. Behind me I could hear Julie banging her stick on the goal getting prepared.
"You're going to wish like hell you had stuck with us," I heard Riley tell Adam.
"Save the trash talk," Adam told him now completely in game mode. He looked at Riley defiantly. Though quiet and easy going off the ice Adam was the complete opposite on the ice. I knew that from skating against him when we were younger.
Varsity one control of the puck on the face off and it didn't take them long to take a shot on our goal but Julie stopped the shot. Dwayne got the puck on the rebound and took it around the net. He tried clearing it out but it didn't take long for varsity to get a hold of it again. Varsity charged our net again and Goldberg got in front to help Julie defend the goal. Being defensive was all we could do at this point. At one point Julie covered the puck causing the ref to blow the whistle which resulted in another face off.
I took the face off against Riley this time.
"Why'd you come back?" Riley asked me smugly.
"Unfinished business," I told him staring him down.
"We'll finish it for ya," Riley told me which only made me more determined to get the upper hand in this face off.
The ref dropped the puck and the face off turned into a shoving match. Somehow I managed to knock Riley to the ice. Even though my teammates had gotten the puck it didn't take long for Varsity to get a hold of it again. As hard as we tried we couldn't seem to get the puck out of our zone. I got a hold of the puck on a rebound and iced the puck giving us a little bit of a break.
"Way to hang tough," I told Julie as she took a drink of water.
"These guys keep charging," Guy said joining us. " What are we gonna do here?"
"We gotta stand up to them. Play a little defense," I told Julie and Guy. "All right? Let's go!," I told them and Guy and I headed back into the game.
The first period continued to go that way. Varsity was taking shot after shot on our goal and we couldn't seem to clear out the puck. But thanks to Julie and some great defensive play none of the shots turned into goal. And then somehow we managed to get the puck out of our zone and heading toward the Varsity goal. I got an open shot on the goal and took it but Scooter blocked the shot. That was the only shot we got on the Varsity goal and the first period ended zero to zero.
The fact that they were shut out in the first period must have lit a fire underneath Wilson and his Varsity players because they came out HITTING in the second period. Some were legal checks but for the most part they were cheap shots. I saw Adam go down twice in the first minute of the period. The second time he went right over top of the Varsity player and landed on his back. It took him a few moments to get up but he did and got right back into the game. Despite Varsity's tactics we still kept them from scoring.
"Watch yourselves, Ducks. They're head-hunting," Orion told us after Fulton and Dwayne had helped Averman off the ice when a Varsity player had nailed him.
'Oh really,' I couldn't help but think sarcastically and they period continued.
Averman wasn't the only casualty of the first period. A varsity player checked Guy into the boards and the trainer came in to help him off the ice toward the end of the period. I couldn't help but think that at this rate most of our players might be sidelined by the end of this game.
Somehow near the end of the period I managed to get a breakaway. I sent a shot toward the Varsity goal but the buzzer went off before the puck got there.
"Damn," I muttered in frustration even as I was rejoicing for the break between periods. We definitely needed it. Even the break wasn't going to help us all that much I told myself as we all headed slowly for the locker room.
Scooter's POV:
I saw Charlie get the break away and come barreling down the ice toward me. I crouch down low and watched him. Trying to determine when he'd take the shot. I watched as he brought his arm back and shot the puck sending it flying in my direction. I dived to try and stopped it even as I heard the buzzer going off. I just barely stopped the puck with my glove. That had been a close one. As I headed off the ice and toward the locker room I realized just how lucky I had been with stopping that one. If I had let them score right before the break Wilson would've chewed me out in the locker room. As it was I knew this wasn't going to be a happy pep talk.
I sat down on the end of one of the benches and took my gloves and helmet off. Very few of my teammates were talking around me. We were all waiting for our Coach to come through the door yelling. We didn't have long to wait.
"I can't believe you guys can't score against these guys," Coach Wilson yelled as he came through the door to the locker room. I wouldn't have been surprised if the JV team could hear him next door. "This is pathetic. The undefeated team in the league can't even score against their own JV team."
He paused to let his words sink in. It was kind of ironic if you come to think about it. It might even let us keep our winning streak in the league going because our opponents would be laughing so hard. Not exactly the way I wanted the season to continue though. If we couldn't score against the JV team we probably would be the laughing stock of the league not to mention it would be the first time in Eden Hall history that Varsity had ever lost the JV/Varsity showdown.
"You guys are bigger and faster than they are," Wilson continued. "This game should be a cake walk for you guys."
"We're wearing them down Coach," I heard Riley say from beside me. "They've got to break soon."
"You better hope they do," Wilson said. "Because if you guys lose this game..."
Wilson didn't finish his sentence. He stormed out of the locker room much like he had come in. In the silence that followed we all looked to Riley, our leader. Our Captain.
"We can do this guys," he said. For the first time in the three years I had been at Eden Hall I didn't believe me. This wasn't the same team we had played that early morning a little over a week ago. I was starting to wonder if maybe Banks had made that big of a difference. " You'll see. Those guys are going to come out of that locker room as tired and dejected as they came in," Riley said. My teammates nodded in agreement with Riley's words.
We took the ice after the break before the JV team had come out of the locker room. When the JV team finally did show up though I realized just how wrong Riley had been. The Ducks came back onto the ice even more pumped up than they had started the game and it didn't take me long to figure out why.
"The Bash brothers are back," I said to Riley and Cole who were standing next to the net with me.
"It doesn't matter," Riley said confidently. "One person isn't going to help them."
I didn't say anything. I knew that what I was thinking wouldn't have been taken too well by my teammates. I had a feeling that the old Duck Magic was back. We were in for one long period.
Charlie's POV:
The locker room started getting noisy as more of the Ducks filtered in. They knew even less than me about what had happened shortly before. They didn't even know Scooter had been anywhere near our locker room. Maybe that was for the best.
I finished getting ready and sat down on the bench. It wasn't quite time to go out to the ice yet. By this time, Averman was going through his usual pre-game comedy routine. He claimed it calmed him down so despite the fact that it annoyed the hell out of most of us we put up with it. Connie and Julie were at one end of the bench whispering to each other. There were other conversations going on that I could've made out if I wanted to but I sort of let them fade away into the background. Across from me Adam sat with a far away look on his face. After this many years of playing hockey I was use to that look. He got it before every game. Adam was worrying about not playing his best. About letting his team down. Letting his father down.
"Game time," Orion said sticking his head in through the door momentarily and then he was gone again.
My teammates and I started picking up our gloves, helmets and sticks and heading for the door to the locker room. I saw Russ holding the door open for everyone which he usually doesn't do. I couldn't help but wonder what he was up to. I soon found out.
"Remember which team your playing for," I heard him whisper to Adam who was right in front of me. Adam didn't say a thing he just kept walking. I chose to ignore the remark. Now was not the time to get anything started. I had no doubt that Adam knew which team he was playing for. There was no reason to dwell on the comment and make it into something that it wasn't.
By the time we reached the ice I was in the front of my teammates. Just because Orion didn't want to officially make me Captain didn't mean I couldn't take the role I always had. He had yet to decide on a Captain anyways.
Varsity was already out on the ice skating warm-ups. Their black uniforms made me think of going up against the Hawks back in Pee Wees, especially after Russ' comment to Adam. The Hawks were the last team that Adam skated against that he had at one time been apart of. I only hoped this game didn't go the same way that one had. Win or Lose I wanted all of us to still be here at the end of the game.
I stepped out on the ice and stood by the door. Goldberg had stepped out on the ice right behind me and stopped when he saw that I was still standing at the side of the rink. Gulton had stopped just before stepping onto the ice.
I looked at Fulton and then back at Goldberg. "This is for Hans," I told them my friends. Both of them nodded and then Fulton stepped onto the ice. One by one my teammates stepped onto the ice - Averman, Guy, Connie, until the last one to step onto the ice was Julie. I followed Julie toward the circle our teammates had started and fell in behind Adam. We all bent down and touched the ice in tribute to our mentor Hans. We all knew he was here in spirit.
After our tribute we all headed toward our team box. Those of who weren't starting clambered into the box with Coach Orion. I couldn't help but search the stands. I was looking for Coach Bombay. He had said he would be back in a couple of days. I was hoping that he would make it back for our game tonight but I didn't see him.
"All right," Orion said bringing my focus back to the game, "let's go hunting for goose eggs, huh? Come on, hands in."
'Great,' I thought 'our wonderful, original, go team cheer. How inspiring.'
However, Orion surprised me with his next words. "On three... Quack," he told us. I thought he was joking but as I looked at his face I could see he was serious and I could fell the grin coming to my face. I think the Ducks were beginning to get to him.
"One, two, three... Quack, Quack," he counted off and all of us enthusiastically joined in. It took a little while but soon the crowd was chanting with us. Now this was how you get fired up for a game.
Banks, Fulton, Russ, Dwayne, Julie and I all headed out to our positions for the start of the game. I took my position as right wing against the Varsity wing as Banks skated for Center Ice. Behind me I could hear Julie banging her stick on the goal getting prepared.
"You're going to wish like hell you had stuck with us," I heard Riley tell Adam.
"Save the trash talk," Adam told him now completely in game mode. He looked at Riley defiantly. Though quiet and easy going off the ice Adam was the complete opposite on the ice. I knew that from skating against him when we were younger.
Varsity one control of the puck on the face off and it didn't take them long to take a shot on our goal but Julie stopped the shot. Dwayne got the puck on the rebound and took it around the net. He tried clearing it out but it didn't take long for varsity to get a hold of it again. Varsity charged our net again and Goldberg got in front to help Julie defend the goal. Being defensive was all we could do at this point. At one point Julie covered the puck causing the ref to blow the whistle which resulted in another face off.
I took the face off against Riley this time.
"Why'd you come back?" Riley asked me smugly.
"Unfinished business," I told him staring him down.
"We'll finish it for ya," Riley told me which only made me more determined to get the upper hand in this face off.
The ref dropped the puck and the face off turned into a shoving match. Somehow I managed to knock Riley to the ice. Even though my teammates had gotten the puck it didn't take long for Varsity to get a hold of it again. As hard as we tried we couldn't seem to get the puck out of our zone. I got a hold of the puck on a rebound and iced the puck giving us a little bit of a break.
"Way to hang tough," I told Julie as she took a drink of water.
"These guys keep charging," Guy said joining us. " What are we gonna do here?"
"We gotta stand up to them. Play a little defense," I told Julie and Guy. "All right? Let's go!," I told them and Guy and I headed back into the game.
The first period continued to go that way. Varsity was taking shot after shot on our goal and we couldn't seem to clear out the puck. But thanks to Julie and some great defensive play none of the shots turned into goal. And then somehow we managed to get the puck out of our zone and heading toward the Varsity goal. I got an open shot on the goal and took it but Scooter blocked the shot. That was the only shot we got on the Varsity goal and the first period ended zero to zero.
The fact that they were shut out in the first period must have lit a fire underneath Wilson and his Varsity players because they came out HITTING in the second period. Some were legal checks but for the most part they were cheap shots. I saw Adam go down twice in the first minute of the period. The second time he went right over top of the Varsity player and landed on his back. It took him a few moments to get up but he did and got right back into the game. Despite Varsity's tactics we still kept them from scoring.
"Watch yourselves, Ducks. They're head-hunting," Orion told us after Fulton and Dwayne had helped Averman off the ice when a Varsity player had nailed him.
'Oh really,' I couldn't help but think sarcastically and they period continued.
Averman wasn't the only casualty of the first period. A varsity player checked Guy into the boards and the trainer came in to help him off the ice toward the end of the period. I couldn't help but think that at this rate most of our players might be sidelined by the end of this game.
Somehow near the end of the period I managed to get a breakaway. I sent a shot toward the Varsity goal but the buzzer went off before the puck got there.
"Damn," I muttered in frustration even as I was rejoicing for the break between periods. We definitely needed it. Even the break wasn't going to help us all that much I told myself as we all headed slowly for the locker room.
Scooter's POV:
I saw Charlie get the break away and come barreling down the ice toward me. I crouch down low and watched him. Trying to determine when he'd take the shot. I watched as he brought his arm back and shot the puck sending it flying in my direction. I dived to try and stopped it even as I heard the buzzer going off. I just barely stopped the puck with my glove. That had been a close one. As I headed off the ice and toward the locker room I realized just how lucky I had been with stopping that one. If I had let them score right before the break Wilson would've chewed me out in the locker room. As it was I knew this wasn't going to be a happy pep talk.
I sat down on the end of one of the benches and took my gloves and helmet off. Very few of my teammates were talking around me. We were all waiting for our Coach to come through the door yelling. We didn't have long to wait.
"I can't believe you guys can't score against these guys," Coach Wilson yelled as he came through the door to the locker room. I wouldn't have been surprised if the JV team could hear him next door. "This is pathetic. The undefeated team in the league can't even score against their own JV team."
He paused to let his words sink in. It was kind of ironic if you come to think about it. It might even let us keep our winning streak in the league going because our opponents would be laughing so hard. Not exactly the way I wanted the season to continue though. If we couldn't score against the JV team we probably would be the laughing stock of the league not to mention it would be the first time in Eden Hall history that Varsity had ever lost the JV/Varsity showdown.
"You guys are bigger and faster than they are," Wilson continued. "This game should be a cake walk for you guys."
"We're wearing them down Coach," I heard Riley say from beside me. "They've got to break soon."
"You better hope they do," Wilson said. "Because if you guys lose this game..."
Wilson didn't finish his sentence. He stormed out of the locker room much like he had come in. In the silence that followed we all looked to Riley, our leader. Our Captain.
"We can do this guys," he said. For the first time in the three years I had been at Eden Hall I didn't believe me. This wasn't the same team we had played that early morning a little over a week ago. I was starting to wonder if maybe Banks had made that big of a difference. " You'll see. Those guys are going to come out of that locker room as tired and dejected as they came in," Riley said. My teammates nodded in agreement with Riley's words.
We took the ice after the break before the JV team had come out of the locker room. When the JV team finally did show up though I realized just how wrong Riley had been. The Ducks came back onto the ice even more pumped up than they had started the game and it didn't take me long to figure out why.
"The Bash brothers are back," I said to Riley and Cole who were standing next to the net with me.
"It doesn't matter," Riley said confidently. "One person isn't going to help them."
I didn't say anything. I knew that what I was thinking wouldn't have been taken too well by my teammates. I had a feeling that the old Duck Magic was back. We were in for one long period.