Chapter 9: Getting Closer
A/N- I know, I said school was in the way and this would take a long time, but I had a bit too much caffeine and somehow wrote half of it at 4 a.m. -_-' I've got no clue what movies would've been playing at the time of this fic, so I just kinda left that part out... oops. Rat's POV
*****
I'm going to kill Jay, if he doesn't kill me first.
I'm going to kill him because of that stunt he pulled yesterday. Where does he get off? How many times do I have to tell him that Adam's just a friend?
He's going to kill me for several reasons. One, I was talking to Adam during the Warrior practice today. And for more than a five minute stretch this time. Two, he asked if I wanted to go to a movie with him tomorrow. (Not a date, he assured me. But Charlie's busy and he doesn't want to go by himself.) Third, I accepted. Why not? He needs a friend, and I'm it.
~~~~~
"Hey."
Adam glanced at me. "Oh... hi." He looked exhausted.
"Something wrong?"
"Not really, except yesterday was the most confusing day of my life and I'm still recovering. Your boyfriend tried to kill me."
"Don't take it personally." I knew, of course, that he wouldn't buy it, that Jay's going after him could be nothing but personal, but that was okay. I'd set him straight and it would be no big deal. "Why do you always come here instead of hanging out with the rest of the Ducks, anyway?"
"They've got their own groups and I'm not in any of them." He didn't sound especially bitter about that. Simple statement of the fact.
We sat there for a little while, making idle conversation. "Why does the soccer team have a special team for people who don't make the grading rules, when none of the other teams do?" he inquired after a bit.
"Because soccer's almost as big at Eden Hall as hockey is. So soccer gets preferential treatment and hockey gets even preferential-er treatment." It was one of the things that really irritated me about the school. Anything to win! "If you're a soccer player and your grades suck, they put you on the Inferno. If you're a hockey player and your grades suck, they do some creative editing somewhere along the line and the official-types who could make you academically ineligible never find out. Either way you get stuck in tutoring sessions, but that's it."
"So that's how Cole's still allowed to play." He shook his head. "Typical."
"Everybody knows about it, but nobody's willing to call Eden Hall on breaking the rules. Admittedly, I'm a little biased in favor of the program since it means I still get to play."
"Scooter says you're studying with him and Julie."
"Yeah, I hang with the lovebirds. Occasionally." Going to Scooter and Julie's study sessions has to be the best thing that's ever happened to me. Though I'll certainly never get anything above a C in English.
"Somebody needs to figure out a way to get those two on a real date."
I laughed. "Not me, matchmaking's just not my thing."
We trailed off for a bit, just watching the Warriors practice. He was being a lot friendlier today, and I wondered if it had anything to do with Jay. Who was, naturally, glaring at us every free second he got.
Adam kept glancing at me, uncomfortably. "What?" I finally asked. "Afraid I'm gonna bite you?"
"No..." He sighed. "Charlie and I were planning to go to a movie tomorrow, then he remembered he has a date, so I'm stuck going by myself, and going to movies alone is boring. So I was wondering if you wanted to come..."
I laughed. I couldn't help
it. The last time I'd heard anyone so nervous it was Darryl Ritter, captain
of the Inferno, when he got caught putting thumbtacks on Mrs. Madigan's
chair. "Sure, why not. What movie?"
~~~~~
Yeah... Jay would be furious. That's okay, he doesn't own me. And he's busy tomorrow anyway, the Warriors have a game at Blake. So he doesn't have to know. And it really is none of his business. It's not like it's a date or anything.
*****
I pulled off acting normal for the rest of Monday and all of today so far. Good. I won't see Jay again tonight. As long as I don't do something stupid tomorrow, that means he doesn't have to know I actually have a social life beyond him. The moment I think that, I feel bad. He's really very tolerant... coming back to those 16 guys on the Inferno squad. But he still gets on my nerves sometimes.
Sure enough, nothing whatsoever happened at the movie. Nothing! Well, okay, I laughed too much and almost choked on an ice cube and he got all concerned. That was it. See, I knew it wasn't a date. Though we did talk through a lot of it, it was mostly just casual discussion.
The real fun was when we were walking back to campus.
"You've got a game tomorrow, don't you?"
"Yeah. Morris. They have a good hockey team. They're third in the league."
I remember how badly we beat their soccer team, and laugh. "Everybody has their moments. When do playoffs start?"
"Next weekend. We've got two more games. The one tomorrow, then we play Taylor Falls again this weekend. I don't want to know what happens during the week off. Coach already has us practicing three hours a day." He sighs.
"You don't like your coach much, do you?"
He looks startled. "Where'd that come from?"
I don't answer. Actually, I went to their practice today, looking for Julie to tell her I couldn't make the study session. Their coach asked Adam to stay on the ice a minute. Whatever he said, it couldn't have been good. Not the way he stormed off the ice. But I don't want him to know I saw that, so I just make up something. "I was just curious. I know I wouldn't like a coach that made me practice three hours a day."
"Well, I don't like him," he admits. "But it's not because of the practices."
He acts like that settles it.
"Elaborate?"
Long pause. I remember how Charlie tracked me down Sunday afternoon, and warned me that if I managed to earn Adam's trust, I'd better not hurt him. Or I'd really be in for it.
If you, somehow, actually manage to get him to trust you.
I guess his trust is not lightly given. Maybe I shouldn't have asked him to explain, I don't want to bring anything bad up. But he finally answers me. "He assigned me to Varsity at the beginning of the year."
I'm not one of the ones that's in awe of the Varsity 10-time-champ hockey team. I'm not stupid enough to ask, "Well isn't that good?" In that sentence I finally begin to understand why he looks so sad, so often.
One, I know Adam. He doesn't have many close friends. The Ducks are his only friends. So his only close friends are also Ducks.
Two, I know Varsity. (Pity.) They can't have one of their own associating with the JV team, of all groups! It would tarnish their reputation horribly. They would do anything to get him to stay away from them.
Three, I know the Ducks, sort of. From the assembly that we all had to go to, I know the Ducks have been playing together for a long time. Adam's friends on the Ducks should've tried to stay friends with him.
Did they? I doubt it, from what information I've been able to pick up. That explains why he won't trust people, after all. Emotional scarring. And he hasn't yet recovered.
I feel bad for bringing it up. "Sorry..."
"Don't be." He sighs. "It's okay now, anyway."
But I know it isn't. I've always been good at reading people's moods, even when they try so hard to hide them. For a minute, I wonder if there's something he isn't telling me. I can ask later.
We walk the rest of the way in silence. But when we split paths, he does something I've never seen before.
He actually smiles.
*****
"Conway with it, across the blue line, beats one defender. Puck stolen by Harley of the Pirates. Checked by Portman. It's getting rough out there..."
"Yeah, sounds it," Jay mutters. I made him listen to the hockey game with me as part of his punishment for going after Adam, since he told me he hates hockey. He actually seems to be enjoying it, though. Not much of a punishment, but not necessarily a bad thing either.
"Banks shoots from center ice, stick save by Carthridge. Oakes with it, into the Duck zone, has it taken by Wu. Wu up to Reed, across the blue line, back to Wu, he shoots, he scores!"
We high-five. The Ducks have it tied now, near the end of the second period. I'm still trying to get used to the idea of a game that's three periods long. Three! That's a weird number.
At the end of the second period, it's still tied. I take advantage of the break. "So Jay, just what is your problem with Adam, anyway?
"What's your interest in him?"
Grr. He wants me to answer that? "He's just a friend. Like the rest of the Inferno, and Scooter, and Charlie."
"Yeah, but Charlie and Scooter already have girlfriends—and you know I don't like them much either, anyway—and the rest of your team is... well, they're just that, your team! You don't even spend all that much time with them outside of practice, games, and tutoring."
"I don't spend that much time with Adam, either."
He sighed. "But you don't have to spend any time with him. And the way you keep denying it so quickly..."
I don't know if that makes sense or not, so I don't think about it. Poor Adam. He knows he's causing trouble, and he's probably blaming himself. Not his fault. I was the one who decided I should try to be friends with him, after all.
Not that I think it's hurt him. And it probably won't, as if I can handle Jay, I don't think he's much threat to a hockey player. Still. "I wish you'd try to get along with him."
He sighs. "I'll give it a try. But no promises. He doesn't exactly like me much, either."
"Wonder why?"
The game begins again before we can continue our talk, but if Jay says he'll try to be nice, he'll try to be nice. Because he knows he's in for a thrashing if he doesn't. (Is this starting to sound like an abusive relationship? It really isn't, I've never had any reason to beat him up. Yet. He's just aware that I can.)
"Conway gets it back to Averman, into the Eden Hall zone but the Ducks can't clear it. Shot by Oakes, Gaffney saves it and passes it up to Banks. Banks, to Conway, he fakes, back to Banks, fakes, shoots, scores!"
Jay raises his eyebrows. "That was quick. Your friend must be pretty good."
Yeah, Adam is good. He told me why. He's got nothing to do but practice.
*****
"One minute to go, score tied at two. The Pirates have the power play with Mendoza of the Ducks out for boarding..."
Adam says Coach Orion has been complaining about that a lot lately. (Complaining about Mendoza or complaining about the refs, it alternates.) It's not that Luis is trying to smash into them, he just can't stop in time to avoid it. And they tend to call him on it. (I don't know what boarding is, of course, so this only makes limited sense, but "refs suck" is sort of universal sports language.) Hockey refs, I guess, are like soccer refs, and only call the things that nobody wants them to call.
Jay is actually standing and pacing, which he only does when he's extremely nervous. "Don't tell me you're enjoying the game. You hate hockey, remember?"
"What I say at the beginning of the game is never what I meant by the end of the game," he mutters. But he sits down.
"Pierce wins the faceoff, passes to Kemper—intercepted by Banks, Banks passes it back to Robertson, up to Portman on the left wing. Hollis checks Portman hard, Pirates with the puck. Reed takes it, skates around a check by Harley, passes to Robertson, shot saved by Carthridge. Kemper drives it into the Duck zone, Gaffney cuts it off."
I'm getting a little nervous too. This is an important game, I know that much, and a win would be so much better for the Ducks than a tie... obviously.
"Banks checked hard, Reed gets the puck. Reed winding up... Pierce takes it, shoots, glove save by Gaffney. Five seconds. Robertson gets the puck, passes to Portman, shoots from the Duck zone—SCORE! No time left! The Ducks have won it!"
"YES!" Jay screams, leaping off his bed and punching the air. I give him a very odd look. "Uhhh... oops?"
"Yeah, I think so. Oops. You who hates hockey." He scowls, but I know I've won this round. "Come on. Game's over, now let's go practice." I grab his soccer ball and practically drag him out of the dorm. What he doesn't know is that the hockey team should be back here in an hour, more or less. (The ride from Morris is about half an hour.) And we're going to congratulate them when they get back.
And he's gonna like it.