Practice was fun that day.

That was a sarcastic remark. I couldn't help myself. You know me. Kind of.

I was the first person out on the ice. I just wanted to get practice over with. Hockey was becoming more of an obligation than a team sport now. It was tiring. I loved hockey, but the last two days were tough on me. The sport was losing its appeal.

"Mendoza!" Coach Orion barked. "Where's the rest of the team?"

"They're coming." I took one very slow lap around the rink while we waited. I was dragging my skates along; Coach Cortez was the only one who noticed.

"Try lifting the skates, Luis," she commented in a dry voice.

I looked over at her. Her arms were crossed, and her right hand held a clipboard. Mumbling to myself, I began to speed up and was soon oblivious to the other Ducks, who had joined me in our usual warm-up laps only a minute before.

Adam tried to catch up to where I was in the front of the pack.

"Hey, man."

I sighed deeply. He had broken my concentration.

"Hey," I returned in a low voice.

"Sorry about today. We were all stupid about it. We should have known you wouldn't have anything to do with Connie and Guy's relationship and why they broke up. Well, you know what I mean." He fell silent for a moment, then continued, "So, everything's straight? Everyone's feeling pretty guilty about it."

I shrugged, keeping my eyes on the ice beneath my skates. "Yeah, sure, I guess." I pushed myself ahead of him, gradually getting faster with each glide of my skates. They just didn't get it. We weren't those little teenagers we had been in the Junior Goodwill Games. Things were more complicated; they didn't actually think an apology would make all their problems go away, did they?

"All right, Ducks. Get to the center. Take a knee," Coach Orion ordered, as we reached the end of our last lap.

Charlie found a spot near the front of the group and kneeled. "What are we doing today?"

"And please don't say we're going to hop up and down like fools, Coach. My legs can't handle that today," Averman complained.

Orion glanced momentarily at Cortez. "Okay, Averman. We're not doing "hopping" today, as you so intelligently put it."

I heard a sigh of relief from several Ducks.

Cortez cleared her throat. "No. Instead, Coach Orion and I have put together a practice plan for you all."

"Aww!" Goldberg groaned loudly in disappointment. At a warning glare from both coaches, he quickly added, "I mean, yeah, fun."

Russ snickered.

"As I was saying," Cortez continued, "Your practices are now organized from day to day. This practice will consist of perfecting offense skills for a full hour and ten minutes. Then there's a thirty-five-minute scrimmage and ten cool-down laps. Does everyone understand? I don't want to see anyone fooling around out there."

A chorus of, "Yes, coach" was heard.

Orion clapped his hands once. "Okay, get up. We've got practicing to do."

They lined us up side by side in front of the two goals. Half of the team practiced with Julie as their goalie, and the other half stayed on Goldberg's side of the rink.

I happened to be in Julie's group... with Charlie, Portman, Guy, Russ, and Ken.

"Oh, great," Julie joked, as she pulled her gloves on, "I'm stuck with the guys."

Before Russ or Portman could make a reply, Coach Cortez approached our group, forcing the two guys to glare at Julie with faces that clearly read, "You'll pay." Julie merely laughed and stuck her tongue out at them.

"You six," Cortez snapped. She allowed Julie to finish putting on her new gloves and turned to the six of us to talk. "No child's play. Just because this is practice doesn't mean you get to slack off."

"Done, Coach," Julie announced.

Cortez nodded and stepped off to the side so she could see all seven of us. "We're starting off simple for the next ten minutes. Take shots at the goal. Any way you want to do this is fine. Nothing too dramatic. It's just a warm-up."

We shook our heads up and down in understanding.

"All right. One at a time. First Guy, Russ, Luis, Portman, then Charlie. Keep the order." She walked off to the other side. "Begin."

Without a word, we lined up and took shot after shot... after shot. The pucks were giving me a headache.

It was almost five o' clock, and practice was far from ending. We still had a scrimmage to look forward to.

"Water break, you all," Coach Orion called out to the team.

Thank you.

Unfortunately, the water break did not by any means signify the end of practice. He called us back out onto the ice.

"Are we going to do something that's actually fun, Coach?" Dwayne asked.

"Yes, scrimmage means fun. You guys get to choose your own teams. We're giving you five minutes to organize your own scrimmage."

Cheering from the enthusiastic ones.

Is that possible? To organize our own scrimmage, I mean.

Charlie took charge, of course. He feels the need to take care of us, even if it means he has to boss us around.

"Averman, you wanted to be back-up for both teams, so you can take the bench."

Averman smiled gratefully, relieved that he had the easy job.

"Julie, you're goalie for Connie, Fulton, Ken, Luis, and Banks. Goldberg, you're goaltender for... me, Guy, Russ, Dwayne, and Portman. That's okay with everyone, right?"

There were no objections. We were too tired to speak for no reason. There was very little energy left in our bodies.

I skated over to my usual position as right wing. Time for the excitement to begin, I thought to myself. The coaches were killing us. But, Ken and Fulton I could work with. There were no problems between us.

Banks skated by me and gave me a thumbs-up. I nodded. Inside my mind, I shook my head. He was being way too naïve about the conflict at lunch.

"Take the puck, Luis!" Fulton yelled from across the ice, as Charlie intercepted a pass from Connie to Banks.

I raced after our captain. Charlie neared Julie's goal and appeared to be preparing for a stick-side shot.

I pushed myself to go faster and swerved between Charlie and Julie, stealing the puck for our team. With a snap of my wrist, I sent the puck flying to Ken on the other side of the rink.

"Damn you, Mendoza. What the heck was that?" Charlie grumbled, pushing past me.

Did he always plan to make me mad? My toleration for him was running low. I skated up behind him, ignoring the cheering of my team as Ken made the goal. "Stop your whining, Conway. It's getting old."

Charlie stopped abruptly and turned quickly on his skates to face me.

Author's Note: I know I didn't put the girl in this chapter. It was a last- minute decision.