Chapter 11: Saving Grace
A/N- And 11 chapters later, I finally start to get to the point... -_-' You can figure out the POV on your own this time. It's easy. ^_^
*****
This place needs to loosen up. I was kinda expecting the other Ducks to take care of that. Man! They really do need me around!
The Dean, a stuffy guy in suspenders, escorts me to my room. "You won't have a roommate. I hope that's acceptable?"
"Sure, man. Just show me to the hockey rink." I can't wait to see their faces. They weren't expecting me back until the end of the summer. But my grandma got sick, so Dad brought Terry and me home while Mom stayed in Colorado for awhile. I had a hockey scholarship here at Eden Hall, just waiting for me to show up and sign, so here I am.
Guess the Dean didn't know that. "You're a hockey player? Well you just missed the team. They left to play a quarterfinal game against Lakes Academy half an hour ago."
Figures. "I'm going."
He frowns, but this is Eden Hall, and I'm a hockey player! If it gives the team a better chance to win, they'll do it. (Preps.)
They get me an extra jersey. Number 15, no name. It'll do for now. What really gets me is that it's Eden Hall colors, but has the Duck logo on it. Maybe the team's been doing better than I thought.
Next thing I know, I'm the only passenger on an Eden Hall sports bus headed for Lakes Academy. The things these cake-eaters'll do for hockey. Well, their hearts are in the right place, if nothing else.
The team is already warming up by the time I get there. They're looking good, but I don't know about the coach. He looks like he's wound a little tight.
They haven't noticed me. I track down Banks as they start to do laps, and wait for him to come near where I'm standing. "Hey, don't I even get a hello, Cake-eater?"
He stops dead. "Jesse!"
Naturally, the whole team hears, and I get swamped by Ducks.
"What're you doing here?"
"Are you playing?"
"How're ya doin'?" That last was Dwayne. I actually missed that Texas accent.
"Hey, whoa, slow down, man!" I back off a little. "I'm fine, I'm playing, and I'll tell ya how I got here some other time. Aren't you gonna introduce me to the coach?"
It's only when Banks is the one to introduce me to Coach Orion that I realize someone's missing. (After all, they've been crowding me too much to get a count.) "Hey, where's Charlie?"
Everyone answers at once. "Sick."
"Pneumonia."
"Committed."
"AVERMAN!"
Good to see nothing's changed.
*****
It takes a little to catch up on the current name situation. Cake-eater is now Banksie, Dwayne is Cowboy, and Fulton seems to have changed from Fulton Reed to Fulton Fulton. And the Warriors are now the Ducks, but I guess I'll hear about that later.
I steal the puck from one of the Kingfishers and drive it into their zone. Connie tracks it down and puts it in the net. It's 3-1, near the end of the third period. They're tough, but we're tougher.
After all, the Ducks are inspired. We've got a sick captain to win this for. And an old teammate to show off to.
In the locker room, I'm bombarded with questions. I have to explain how I got here three times before coach arrives, which saves me.
"Practice tomorrow is cancelled. You need to rest. The semifinal game next week is against the number 1 seed, Blake." An indignant growl goes up from everyone, except Portman and me. I'll have to drag this out of someone. Sounds like a vendetta. Could be fun. "I've talked to the doctor, and he says we should have Conway back by then. All right, clear out and be on the bus in half an hour."
Half an hour? Sure, we've already had 15 minutes or so and we probably would've been done by then anyway. But man! Not even Captain Blood actually told us how much time we had. This could take some getting used to.
Banks and I sit in the back of the bus. I'm trying to get some explanations of what I've missed, but it isn't working. Everyone keeps asking me stuff and I can't get a question in edgewise. And when I do, they all talk at once and it's no help at all.
Finally I just stop trying. "Cake-eater! I don't have a roommate, you're coming over tonight to tell me what's been goin' on!"
*****
It's great to be back. I think. Man! School full of preppy snots, bad. Workaholic coach, worse. But add the Ducks... and it's all worth it.
Someone knocks on the door. Should be Banks. "Come on in!"
He does. I gape.
He's wearing a hockey jersey. A green one. With a duck on the front. But I know that he doesn't have his old jersey at the moment. And I can see the number on the sleeves. 9.
"Cake-eater, I hate you."
He laughs.
~~~~~
We were leaving the next
morning. The team had already thrown a big goodbye party, but I wasn't
ready to go just yet. I had something I needed to do... I needed to talk
to Banks.
Cake-eater and I didn't let on how close we were. Not too often. I had a reputation to keep. But he couldn't hide it that day. Even in the middle of a party, he managed to be subdued. And I gotta admit, I'll miss him more than the rest.
I made a decision, grabbed my old Duck jersey, and ran out the door. But I was only halfway to where I was going when I saw a figure coming towards me. A tall, lanky, familiar-looking figure. On rollerblades.
"Hey Jesse." Banks grins, a little self-consciously. "You're out late."
"Lookin' for someone."
He gets the idea. We stare at each other for a moment, and I catch sight of something. He's holding something green. Duck green.
I laugh, and thrust my own jersey into his free hand. "Hang onto this until I get back, okay, Cake-eater?"
"Sure. And take this with you." He hands me the jersey he brought. "Well... guess I'll see you next year."
"Yeah. See ya."
~~~~~
I shake my head, dig around in one of my suitcases, and hold his jersey up. "Two can play at that game." I yank it over my head and glare.
He grins and flops on the unoccupied bed. Just like old times. I've missed all of the Ducks, yeah. But especially Banks... when Cake-eater loosens up, he's the coolest of them all. "So what's been goin' on here? Eden Hall Ducks? You've been assimilating them without me?"
"You picked the wrong person to ask about most of this," he responds. "But the Duck thing... we beat the Varsity in the JV-Varsity game, which just isn't supposed to happen. Coach Bombay got the school to change the JV team's name to Ducks afterwards. Just to spite them."
I can't help laughing. "So why're you the wrong person to ask?"
"Coach Orion's an idiot and put me on Varsity. I was with them for most of the interesting part of the year. So I'd be telling things from the wrong side."
Leave it to Banks to make Varsity! "And you got demoted?"
"Voluntarily. You have not had the misfortune of meeting the Varsity preps yet."
"And you're calling them preps? Man, they must be bad. But at least you had the Ducks on your side. Bet they regretted you were ever on their team!"
"Yeah." It's his hesitation that tells me I've said something I shouldn't have. I sense a story I'm not going to like. I'll get it out of him. Banks only wishes he could keep secrets from me. I know him too well. And usually, he doesn't bother to try, so now I know it's bad.
"Do I sense a lie?"
"Of course not."
"Cake-eater... don't make me come over there." Usually all I have to do is tell him I know he's lying, and he spills. Man, I'm gonna find out something I don't want to find out... like I picked the wrong year to spend in Colorado. "C'mon. I just want to help."
That gets him. "Help?" He laughs, a little bitterly. "It's too late to help. But I'll tell you what happened. The Ducks decided if I wasn't gonna wear a Duck jersey I wasn't gonna be friends with them anymore. And then the prank wars started. They treated me like just another Varsity player, who cares that I wasn't acting like one. Nobody was stupid enough to tell me what they were planning so I could go off and warn the Ducks, which any idiot should've realized. But the Ducks didn't realize it. They just went right on escalating things until we got into an unofficial JV-Varsity hockey match. Charlie and I got in a big fight and Coach came in and broke it up, and—"
He cuts off abruptly. I'm near furious. You'd think, if I can be best friends with the Cake-eater, they could show him a little support! He's not done yet though, and I'm not letting him off until I've heard everything. "And?"
"Nothing." It's his closed tone, the one that says 'get off my back' in no uncertain terms. But it doesn't work on me.
"You just ran outta stuff to say? C'mon, man, I won't tell."
He sighs, and stares at me. What I see is not the Cake-eater I left here. Yeah, I definitely picked the wrong year not to be around. "I won't tell you. You'll get all indignant and start acting like some sort of guardian angel, and I've already been through that once, and I don't like it."
"I won't." Maybe I really should drop it. But I have to know.
My persistence finally pays off. "Fine. Fine. I tried to kill myself. Are you satisfied now?"
I said I wasn't going to get indignant. Too bad. "WHAT?" I know whose fault this is, the Ducks wouldn't just bail on one of their own without his say-so. "Where's Charlie, man, pneumonia or not, I'm gonna—"
"You said you weren't gonna do anything. Look, I'm sorry I told you. Forget about it. Nothing's wrong now. Okay?"
Curiosity satisfied, I'll do as he asks. If he says it's okay... I'll be able to tell soon enough whether he meant it. We change the topic, something about rats, but it doesn't change my thoughts.
I wasn't here for my best friend. I wasn't here for my team. I've got to make it up to them. Man... I'm never going on vacation again.