Title: Familiar Faces:  Let's Meet the Ducks

Disclaimer: Just the usual, don't own anything that you recognise.

Feedback: Yes please, anything constructive would be really appreciated.

A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews and hope that you continue to like it. I dedicate this chapter to Spaz-chick99, your reviews have made me continue this fic, thanx.

Julie POV

                "Emma, calm down. It really doesn't matter what you wear, they have all seen you before." Emma had been pacing the room for 10 minutes now, and everyone of those, she had asked if she looked alright. Not that anyone could actually go far wrong with jeans, jumper and trainers. I now she is nervous, believe me, I knew at 6am this morning when she woke me up fiddling with something. I had told her that if she wasn't gonna go back to sleep, then could she please do something quieter or get out of the room. She chose the latter and went for a run around campus. Next thing I knew, it was 7-30, Emma was shaking me awake, telling me that I had 15 minutes before Adam was coming over, and that I had to tell him that she wasn't going. Persuading her to at least get ready, seeing as I have never been any good at conversations when I'm not awake, I got up and dressed thinking of how I was gonna get her down to breakfast. Now it was 8-10 and we were waiting for Adam and Charlie, I wish they would hurry up, cos Emma was going mental.

                "What if he has changed his mind? He did say he was gonna collect us didn't he? What if everyone hates me?" She was ranting now, I was even starting to get nervous, it was very unusual for Adam to be late for anything, if anything he was normally early.

                "Will you PLEASE sit down before we have no carpet left. I doubt very much that he has changed his mind. Yes he is picking us up. And no one will hate you, if they do, they won't for long, us Ducks are very accepting." Saying that didn't actually help any, she was still passing when the door was pushed open.

                "Knock, knock. Sorry we're late, someone here decided that he needed to do something before breakfast. Shall we go down?" Charlie looked as exasperated with Adam as I was with Emma, wonder what time he was woken up this morning? I wonder how Adam is really taking it, he looks pretty worried for him, seeing as he always has a plain face on, now emotion to be shared with anyone.

                "Yep, lets get down there, I'm starving." and with that, me and Charlie started walking towards the door, ushering Emma and Adam out in front of us. Neither of them had actually said anything yet, they just walked along together looking at the floor.  After a while, me and Charlie ended up in front of them, looking behind us to make sure that the other two wouldn't here me, I asked "so what time did you get woken up this morning?"

                "Six , I chucked him out of the room, I was way to tired to be able to handle an unsettled Adam. How 'bout you?"

                "Same here, she went out running, you should have seent he state she was in by the time you came, we nearly had no carpet left." We both laughed at how bad they had been, then we realised that we had got to the dinning room, but Emma and Adam were a little way behind us, waiting for them, we all walked in together. Looking over to the table, I saw that every other member of our team was sat at the table, this was definitely not normal, at 8-15 hardly anyone was ever down, but not this morning. I looked over to Charlie and then Behind me to Adam and Emma, but they weren't there, I noticed Adam pulling Emma over to the food, it looks like we will haev to coax them out of there.

                "Charlie, you go over to the table adn tell them that if they want to live past breakfast then the leave Emma and Adam alone, to act normal." Once I knew that Charlie was ok with his task, I followed the other two over to the food. This was gonna be a long meal time.

                "I don't think I can do this Emma"

                "You can't! You know these people, have been friends with them for years. Whereas the only experiences I have ever had with them have gone badly. If your not doing it then I definitely am not."

                Like I thought, this was going to be a long mealtime. "Excuse me, but neither of you are chickening out." Turning to Emma, "I do not like being woken up at 6am for no reason," then Adam, "and I'm sure Charlie didn't like it much either." Then looking between the two of them I continued, "plus you were both like this last night and look at how that turned out. Me and Charlie will be there for you."

                "You said that ast night" Emma stated last night.

                "Yeah and then you abandon us after a short while." Trust both of them to bring that up.

                "True, but it was for the best we went, and we were watching you all the time, ready to run over if there was any problems." I think that hole was successfully filled, They had no other excuses, so looked down at the floor. "Lets get breakfast and head over to the table, and when you get there, just introduce around the table and see what happens, if they get to much then leave the table, I'm not gonna make you stay all breakfast time. Ok?"

                they looked to each other, then Adam nodded, they knew they had to do this at sometime, and now was a s good a time as any. I just wish I could do it for them.

Connie POV

                "What are all of you doing out of bed at this time in the morning, never mind dressed and down here?"  Charlie did not look impressed at our punctuality for once. "You are never all there for practice, never mind breakfast." This was true, when we had practice at 7am, most of the team wasn't there til 7-30

                "Well, we have now become accustomed to the early morning and so were awake." Nice try Russ but I don't hink that will work.

                "Yeah right, then if you are not all there on Wednesday at 7am then I will not be best pleased. Anyway, I know that you all want to harrass Banks for some gossip, but do me and Julie a favour and leave them alone this morning. It was difficult enough, getting them down here this morning, if you start bombarding them with questions, they may hide away in their room for ever. Ok?" Looking round at every one of us, he waited for some sign of acknowledgement before he continued. With a grin on his face he continued, "and Julie threatened to harm everyone of you, and she meant it. I'm gonna get my breakfast, just remember what I said."

                Charlie walked away and everyone looked around the table, I don't know about anyone else, but I was worried about how Adam and Emma were, it must be really hard for them, and meeting the Ducks was not an easy thing in itself, we are a scary bunch. Conversation soon started in a hushed whisper, everyone voicing their opinion on who was more scared out of the two of them, what the story was behind them. It continued until I noticed them heading over to the table, when I suddenly said load enough to shut everyone else up, "So everyone ready for school today?"

                They may be guys, but they got the hint, and for the few that didn't, namely Goldberg and Averman, I kicked them under the table, with great satisfaction. By the time they got to the table the conversation was safely onto the topic of school. They put their trays on the table and sat down, not saying anything. I heard a not so subtle cough coming from Julie, looking at her, she was giving Adam, some deep looks, nodding towards Emma.

                "Hey guys, this is Emma. Emma this is Connie, Guy, Ken, Russ, Luis, Fulton, Portman, Dwayne, Averman and Goldberg." Adam had gone round the table introducing everyone, then had looked down to his food, Emma had followed Adam as he pointed round the table, then looked to her plate as well. Obviously, they were expecting to be bombarded with questions, only we had been warned not to.

                15 minutes went by with everyone trying to make conversation about anything other than Adam and Emma.  "So you got a new additiont ot he table. Not gonna turn all dense on us are you Emma?"

                "Don't worry Riley, I'll still coach you and the rest of your dumb hockey team, though I can't promise that any of you will graduate, I can't perform miracles." Woh, Emma sure knew how to hold her own with jerks, and there aren't many worse than Riley and his friends, if she tutored them every week, then I really admire her for coping thus far.

                "Oh, fiesty Emma sweety." With that, one chair went scrapping back.

                "Leave my sister alone or you will have me to deal with." That is one side of Adam that you very rarely see.

                Riley and the rest of his team all turned to Adam, "You couldn't handle us last year, what makes you think that you can this year?"

                Then a lot more chairs were scrapping back, "because we are all behind him this time, and if I remember correctly, We beat you, hence Eden Hall DUCKS." Sensible, really sensible, hit them where it hurts, that will get them to leave us alone.

                "Just leave us alone Riley, I will continue to tutor the lot of you, just leave us all alone NOW." The Varsity team walked away, not without Cole turned around and blowing Emma a kiss. "Jerks, I really hate tutoring them."

                "Why do you do it then? Get someone else to do them." Adam had turned to Emma with worry in his eyes.

                "I can't, I need the money, with 11 from that team, I get a lot from them." Everything went quiet after that, but after a few minutes Adam couldn't take it anymore.

                "What is wrong with you guys, you are all quiet and I was sure that you would have harrassed us to death by now?" He said looking round at all of us, we all looked down. "Well, why are you all being so quiet?"

                "It might have something to do with us valuing are lives." Portman joked from the end of the table.

                This really confused Adam and Emma, "What do you mean?" Well, if any of the guys tell them, then they will exagerate and make Julie seem like the bad guy.

                "Julie didn't want us harrassing you two, so she said that we couldn't ask you anything. There was a small threat in there as well." Both Adam and Emma looked over to Julie with a thankful look on their face. Emma leaned over to her and they had a short whispered conversation.

                "Well, we do appreciate the consideration, but we might as well get the questions out of the way, so a bit of background for you. Me and Emma are twins, we got seperated when we were about three, we don't know why yet but we think it might have something to do with hockey." He got quiet now, looked over to Emma and she nodded, "so any questions?"

                The table was very quiet for a while, Ken was the first one to ask anything, "so, how come you left it until now to meet up,?"

                "Well, I was told that Emma and my mother had died. Emma wasn't told about me, she only found out at christmas." This must have been really daunting for Adam and Emma, they had the complete attention of the table, in the 5 years that we have know Adam, I don't think he has ever had the whole teams attention for so long. Emma didn't even know us and she was being scrutinised by strangers. "Next?"

                It went on like this for a while, people asked questions, most were answered, all by Adam, Emma just sat there quietly, looking at her untouched food. It was about time that we got Emma into the conversation, I asked "Emma, what's it like having Banks as a brother?"

                She looked to me with a deer in headlights expression, I returned a smile to which she settled down, "Well for the day I have know about him, it has been pretty good, never realised what I was missing out on, he seems to be quite protective," she looke dover to Adam, as did everyone else, and he blushed, "he stood up to Cole yesterday." She smiled at Adam and then looked at everyone else. She was getting used to the group, maybe she would fit in sooner rather than later.

                The conversation continued until the bell, when everyone got up to go to classes. Before we split Luis asked, "so you gonna be joining us for lunch then Emma?" everyone there knew what Luis was thinking, I doubt Adam would allow him anywhere near her though.

                "I don't know," looking over to Adam for his permission we all waited.

                "I'm not gonna be here at lunch, I have something I need to do, but sit with everyone else, they will make you welcome, won't you guys?" Looking at everyone of us, he had definitely mastered the big brother behaviour.

                "Yeah, she is one of us now." Guy stated, and everyone else nodded. Emma was gonna fit in just fine.

                "Good, we better get off to class before we get a detention. Coach would not be pleased if the whole team got one on the first day." We all split ff into groups heading towards our respective classes, calling byes to everyone. That had to be the most interesting breakfast for a while, and it now seemed like we had an additon to the group. I get the feeling that more questions will be asked before the end of the day.

AN: I would like to apologise, I realise that I keep on swapping from present and past. I am going to make an effort to stay in past, but my english skills are definitely first grade. Hope it doesn't confuse you to much. Also, I think that I should finish with the first few days soon, maybe 1 or 2 more chapters, but a lot of stuff has been happening in these first few days, or that is what I keep telling myself anyway. I better stop rambling and let you go, not that anyone ever reads the end authors notes, 'cept for me.