Connie's POV:
Cecily and I headed for the pond at two o'clock that afternoon. I was supposed to be meeting my teammates around three o'clock so by the time we actually reached the pond I figured that we would have about forty minutes to skate before the others started showing up.
Cecily was thrilled to be going skating. Unlike me she didn't have any interest in hockey but my parents did have her enrolled in group lessons for figure skating at the local rink. She enjoyed it but wasn't real serious about it which was fine with my parents. They were just glad that she enjoyed doing it.
When we got onto the ice Cecily insisted on showing me what she was working on in her group lessons. I gladly watched. That was the only thing I hated about being away at Eden Hall, missing out on what my little sister was doing. Part of me wished though that she could have the oppurtnity to go to a private school like I did but it didn't look like it would happen. There was no way my parents could afford it. I had gotten lucky with the hockey scholarship. Cecily didn't have hockey to fall back on. She also didn't have the grades to get an academic scholarship. It wasn't that she wasn't smart because she was but she also had dyslexia which made school hard for her.
Jesse and his brother Terry were the first two to show up. Cecily and I were sitting on a bench when they showed up. Cecily had already had enough of skating and was taking her skates off.
"Hi Connie," Jesse said walking up behind us which made me jump. "Sorry didn't mean to scare you."
"Hi Jesse," I said standing up and giving him a hug. Then I hugged Terry who I hadn't seen since the summer.
Fulton, Goldberg and Averman showed up shortly after Jesse and Terry. By this time Cecily had started building a snowman nearby and Jesse and Terry were putting on their skates. As we greeted the newcomers I noticed another group of three walking toward the pond. I recognized Tommy Duncan and his sister Tammy first. But at first I didn't recognize the third person who was walking hand in hand with Tammy.
"Oh my God," is what I said when I finally recognized who it was. It was Peter. I hadn't seen Peter in almost two years and he looked nothing like the little guy I remembered playing hockey with. For starters he was much taller than he use to be and he had put blonde streaks in his dark hair. Once they had joined the group though I realized just how tall he had gotten. He was about an inch taller than Fulton although Peter was still thin not big like Fulton was.
"So are you two actually a couple?" Averman asked.
"Yeah. We've been dating for almost a year now," Tammy said with a smile on her face. I recognized the smile. It was the one that came to my face when I talked about me and Guy.
Karp showed up next with goalie gear which surprised us all. Karp actually reminded me of a bear. He wasn't pudgy like he use to be but he was broad shoulder and taller though still a few inches shorter than Fulton. If it wasn't that I was very happy with Guy I would probably go ahead and flirt with him he was that good looking now.
"I play goalie for my high school team now," Karp said when we asked him about the goalie gear. "It's actually kind of fun."
"Maybe you should have been the goalie from the beginning then," Goldberg said. "I kind of enjoyed playing defense this season."
"Well, you're a goalie today Goldberg," Averman told him.
"Yeah, yeah I know," Goldberg said but I thought he sounded a little disappointed.
Adam and his older brother Anthony were the next ones to show up.
"Anyone care if Anthony plays with us?" Adam asked as he sat down on the bench next to Jesse. No one did. We all knew he was a pretty good player and we also knew that with Adam now staying with Coach Bombay and Anthony going to college that the two didn't get much time together anymore.
When Guy showed up I could tell right away that something was bothering him. When I asked him about it though he told me he'd tell me later so I let the subject drop. As I was talking to Guy though I did notice the look that Charlie cast Adam's way although I think I may have been the only one. It looked like Guy wasn't the only one having problems.
Once everyone was ready we started to split into team. We decided the easiest way to do it was to let the two Goalies, Goldberg and Karp, pick team members one by one. Charlie flipped a coin and Goldberg got first pick. I ended up on Karp's team with Tommy, Averman, Guy, Adam and Terry. The other team consisted of Goldberg, Peter, Jesse, Charlie, Anthony, Fulton, and Tammy.
As the game started Fulton and I took a seat on one of the benches as each team had one extra player. As the two teams set up for the face off I glanced over to check on Cecily. She had settled herself on another bench and was looking toward the kids on the ice waiting for the game to start.
Adam and Anthony took the face off together. Adam beat his brother to the puck and passed it back to Guy who was on the right wing for out team. Guy headed down ice with it only to get checked by Peter. Charlie picked up the loose puck and headed back down toward the other end of the ice with it. Beside me Fulton was cheering as his team made its way up ice. Charlie passed the puck off to Anthony who got the pass, side stepped his brother and headed toward our goal. Terry tried to check Anthony but Anthony suddenly stopped and Terry went right buy him. With an open shot at the net Anthony sent the puck toward the goal where Karp expertly caught the puck in his glove and then dropped it on the ice and passed it off to Terry.
As Charlie tried to get the puck off of Terry, Terry passed the puck off to Tommy. Tommy ducked underneath a check that Anthony and Peter were setting up and kept skating toward Goldberg at the other goal. Now it was my turn to do the cheering. Tammy was the next one to try and stop her brother but seeing his way blocked by his sister Tommy did a drop pass and left the puck behind him for Adam to pick up. Adam skated toward the goal, circled around the net and then put the puck into the net on the other side.
"Lucky shot," Anthony called out to his brother jokingly.
"Its not my fault your rusty," Adam called back to his brother laughing.
Adam skated over to where I was sitting and told me to go ahead and take his place. I joined the rest of my team on the ice as Guy and Charlie got ready for the next face off. Charlie controlled the next face off and sent Guy down to the ice in the process. Jesse had gotten a hold of the puck and was headed toward my team's goal on my side of the ice. As Jesse went to pass the puck to Charlie I intercepted it and headed the other direction with the puck.
I did a spin move around Peter but as I did so I ended up running right into Anthony. The two of us went down and the puck went sailing free. By the time that Anthony and I both got back to our feet Peter had the puck and was almost at our goal. None of my team members were in a position to stop him. Peter took a shot at the goal but Karp was able to deflect it with his stick. Charlie picked up the rebound and shot the puck back at the net. Again Karp batted it away. This time Guy beat Peter to the rebound and passed the puck back to me.
By this time, Fulton was in for the other team and Tammy was on the bench. As I was heading back to the center of the pond Fulton stole the puck off me and then passed it down to Charlie. Charlie took another shot at the goal and this time the puck went by Karp and into the net tying the score.
The game went on like that for a little while. First one team would pull ahead but then the other team would score and tie up the game again. Cecily was enjoying the game too. I kept hearing her on the side of the pond cheering me and my teammates along. I was glad she had come along and I think we were all having a lot of fun. I even forgot about the look I had seen Charlie give Adam before the start of the game. And then Charlie and Adam set up for the next face off after Adam had just scored another goal.
This was suppose to be a friendly game but as I looked at Charlie from my spot on Adam's right it didn't look to me as if Charlie was thinking that way. He looked as if he was determined that he was going to win the face off. The last time I remember seeing him look that determined was when we skated against Varsity and Charlie was up against Riley.
Charlie knocked Adam down on the face off as he knocked the puck over to Jesse. Jesse was on the opposite side of the pond as I was. Terry was on that side for my team but Jesse was able to get around him. Averman and Tommy were playing defense for my team and ganged up on Jesse trying to knock the puck away. I'm not sure which one of them finally managed to do so but I saw the puck sailing my way and scrambled to beat Peter to it.
I reached the puck just before Peter did and dodged around him with it. I then passed the puck over to Adam who headed toward the other team's goal with it. We managed to get the puck down toward there goal but couldn't get an open shot at the net. Then Anthony got a hold of the puck and sent a flip pass to Charlie who was by himself on the ice.
Charlie's POV:
I'm not sure how I managed it but I had gotten clear of everyone else when Anthony was able to get the puck away from the other team. He sent a flip pass to me which I got and headed down toward Karp at the goal on the other end of the pond.
I thought I had a good break away but then Adam caught up to me. We were skating side by side toward the goal, much like we had in the unofficial game between Varsity and JV. Adam was using his stick to try to get the puck away from me and I was trying to keep control of the puck. The next thing I know we were both on the ice. I had no idea exactly what had happened but I got to my feet quickly and immediately began yelling at Adam.
"What the hell are you trying to do?" I yelled as he slowly got to his feet. I didn't care if he was hurt or not. I was just mad. Thing was it wasn't even this incident that had made me angry but that didn't stop me from using it as fuel.
"Im sorry Charlie ," Adam said as he stood up and regained his balance. "I tripped. I wasn't trying..."
"Save it Preppie, " I yelled cutting him off. 'He's too good of a skater to have tripped' I reasoned to myself. "You did it on purpose. You couldn't get the puck away so you took me out," I yelled moving toward him only to find Anthony standing in between us. I was also aware of the others silently watching us. It looked to me that they weren't sure what to do.
"I wouldn't do something like that," Adam insisted looking around his brother.
"Like hell you wouldn't. You'd do anything to win."
"Whaoh, Charlie," Jesse said calmly trying to diffuse the situation. "Don't you think that is a little out of line."
"No I don't," I said. I knew I should've just shut up at that point but I was on a roll. "He probably thinks that by becoming a big hockey star he might win his Dad back. It's not going to happen. And meanwhile your making everyone else miserable." I kept thinking I should shut up before this got too far out of hand but I didn't. I went one step further. "And you're keeping my mom and Coach Bombay apart. I wish you weren't even in the picture. You're ruining everything."
After I finally stopped my tirade a stunned silence fell over the pond. My friends looked as if they couldn't believe I had just said what I had. Part of me couldn't even believe I had said it. Anthony looked as if he was about ready to kill me. I couldn't help but wonder if anyone one would actually step in between us if he went after me. As I glared at Adam I could see his eyes glistening from the tears he was holding back. I knew then that I had really hurt him and for the most part I didn't really care.
Adam didn't say anything else to me. Instead he just skated over to the bench where his stuff was and started taking off his skates. Guy and Fulton, who had been the extra people for their teams were already over there and I could see that they were talking to him but I couldn't hear what they were saying. Jesse and Connie and most of the other ducks headed over after him. The ones who didn't were just standing there staring at me. The hockey game had been completely forgotten.
"You can be a real jerk Conway," Anthony told me. "What you just said makes me wonder why Adam ever wanted to stay with your team." With that said Anthony skated over to a bench and started quickly taking his own skates off. As I looked in that direction I saw Connie try to put her arm around his shoulders and Adam just shrugged her off.
"You've changed Charlie," Peter said to me and then went and joined the others.
I went over and grabbed my stuff real quick and went to a bench away from all the others. I silently and quickly changed out of my skates, picked up my stuff and left the pond. No one followed me. I didn't really expect them too. As I headed home Peter's words echoed in my mind. And then the last words that I had heard Hans say to me before he died came to me.
"Be the boy on the pond, loving the game, learning to fly," he had said. "Be the boy who became a leader and held the Ducks together through think and thin."*
Problem was I didn't think that boy existed anymore. I know he sure hadn't a few minutes ago when I was yelling at Adam. Instead of holding the Ducks together I seemed to be trying my hardest to drive us apart. Deep down I knew that what was going on between my Mom and Coach Bombay wasn't really Adam's fault but I needed someone to blame, and Adam was the easiest target I could think of.
*Direct quote from the novel D3 The Mighty Ducks by Jonathan Schmidt (pg.88).
Note: Okay naming Guy's one brother Eric was just a whim. I was going to name them Mark and Matthew but I thought that would be to tacky. Thanks Katie, Nellie2, jess, crazy4nc128, and death_to_all_rubix_cubes for reviewing the third chapter please keep it up. I like to know I'm appreciated.
Cecily and I headed for the pond at two o'clock that afternoon. I was supposed to be meeting my teammates around three o'clock so by the time we actually reached the pond I figured that we would have about forty minutes to skate before the others started showing up.
Cecily was thrilled to be going skating. Unlike me she didn't have any interest in hockey but my parents did have her enrolled in group lessons for figure skating at the local rink. She enjoyed it but wasn't real serious about it which was fine with my parents. They were just glad that she enjoyed doing it.
When we got onto the ice Cecily insisted on showing me what she was working on in her group lessons. I gladly watched. That was the only thing I hated about being away at Eden Hall, missing out on what my little sister was doing. Part of me wished though that she could have the oppurtnity to go to a private school like I did but it didn't look like it would happen. There was no way my parents could afford it. I had gotten lucky with the hockey scholarship. Cecily didn't have hockey to fall back on. She also didn't have the grades to get an academic scholarship. It wasn't that she wasn't smart because she was but she also had dyslexia which made school hard for her.
Jesse and his brother Terry were the first two to show up. Cecily and I were sitting on a bench when they showed up. Cecily had already had enough of skating and was taking her skates off.
"Hi Connie," Jesse said walking up behind us which made me jump. "Sorry didn't mean to scare you."
"Hi Jesse," I said standing up and giving him a hug. Then I hugged Terry who I hadn't seen since the summer.
Fulton, Goldberg and Averman showed up shortly after Jesse and Terry. By this time Cecily had started building a snowman nearby and Jesse and Terry were putting on their skates. As we greeted the newcomers I noticed another group of three walking toward the pond. I recognized Tommy Duncan and his sister Tammy first. But at first I didn't recognize the third person who was walking hand in hand with Tammy.
"Oh my God," is what I said when I finally recognized who it was. It was Peter. I hadn't seen Peter in almost two years and he looked nothing like the little guy I remembered playing hockey with. For starters he was much taller than he use to be and he had put blonde streaks in his dark hair. Once they had joined the group though I realized just how tall he had gotten. He was about an inch taller than Fulton although Peter was still thin not big like Fulton was.
"So are you two actually a couple?" Averman asked.
"Yeah. We've been dating for almost a year now," Tammy said with a smile on her face. I recognized the smile. It was the one that came to my face when I talked about me and Guy.
Karp showed up next with goalie gear which surprised us all. Karp actually reminded me of a bear. He wasn't pudgy like he use to be but he was broad shoulder and taller though still a few inches shorter than Fulton. If it wasn't that I was very happy with Guy I would probably go ahead and flirt with him he was that good looking now.
"I play goalie for my high school team now," Karp said when we asked him about the goalie gear. "It's actually kind of fun."
"Maybe you should have been the goalie from the beginning then," Goldberg said. "I kind of enjoyed playing defense this season."
"Well, you're a goalie today Goldberg," Averman told him.
"Yeah, yeah I know," Goldberg said but I thought he sounded a little disappointed.
Adam and his older brother Anthony were the next ones to show up.
"Anyone care if Anthony plays with us?" Adam asked as he sat down on the bench next to Jesse. No one did. We all knew he was a pretty good player and we also knew that with Adam now staying with Coach Bombay and Anthony going to college that the two didn't get much time together anymore.
When Guy showed up I could tell right away that something was bothering him. When I asked him about it though he told me he'd tell me later so I let the subject drop. As I was talking to Guy though I did notice the look that Charlie cast Adam's way although I think I may have been the only one. It looked like Guy wasn't the only one having problems.
Once everyone was ready we started to split into team. We decided the easiest way to do it was to let the two Goalies, Goldberg and Karp, pick team members one by one. Charlie flipped a coin and Goldberg got first pick. I ended up on Karp's team with Tommy, Averman, Guy, Adam and Terry. The other team consisted of Goldberg, Peter, Jesse, Charlie, Anthony, Fulton, and Tammy.
As the game started Fulton and I took a seat on one of the benches as each team had one extra player. As the two teams set up for the face off I glanced over to check on Cecily. She had settled herself on another bench and was looking toward the kids on the ice waiting for the game to start.
Adam and Anthony took the face off together. Adam beat his brother to the puck and passed it back to Guy who was on the right wing for out team. Guy headed down ice with it only to get checked by Peter. Charlie picked up the loose puck and headed back down toward the other end of the ice with it. Beside me Fulton was cheering as his team made its way up ice. Charlie passed the puck off to Anthony who got the pass, side stepped his brother and headed toward our goal. Terry tried to check Anthony but Anthony suddenly stopped and Terry went right buy him. With an open shot at the net Anthony sent the puck toward the goal where Karp expertly caught the puck in his glove and then dropped it on the ice and passed it off to Terry.
As Charlie tried to get the puck off of Terry, Terry passed the puck off to Tommy. Tommy ducked underneath a check that Anthony and Peter were setting up and kept skating toward Goldberg at the other goal. Now it was my turn to do the cheering. Tammy was the next one to try and stop her brother but seeing his way blocked by his sister Tommy did a drop pass and left the puck behind him for Adam to pick up. Adam skated toward the goal, circled around the net and then put the puck into the net on the other side.
"Lucky shot," Anthony called out to his brother jokingly.
"Its not my fault your rusty," Adam called back to his brother laughing.
Adam skated over to where I was sitting and told me to go ahead and take his place. I joined the rest of my team on the ice as Guy and Charlie got ready for the next face off. Charlie controlled the next face off and sent Guy down to the ice in the process. Jesse had gotten a hold of the puck and was headed toward my team's goal on my side of the ice. As Jesse went to pass the puck to Charlie I intercepted it and headed the other direction with the puck.
I did a spin move around Peter but as I did so I ended up running right into Anthony. The two of us went down and the puck went sailing free. By the time that Anthony and I both got back to our feet Peter had the puck and was almost at our goal. None of my team members were in a position to stop him. Peter took a shot at the goal but Karp was able to deflect it with his stick. Charlie picked up the rebound and shot the puck back at the net. Again Karp batted it away. This time Guy beat Peter to the rebound and passed the puck back to me.
By this time, Fulton was in for the other team and Tammy was on the bench. As I was heading back to the center of the pond Fulton stole the puck off me and then passed it down to Charlie. Charlie took another shot at the goal and this time the puck went by Karp and into the net tying the score.
The game went on like that for a little while. First one team would pull ahead but then the other team would score and tie up the game again. Cecily was enjoying the game too. I kept hearing her on the side of the pond cheering me and my teammates along. I was glad she had come along and I think we were all having a lot of fun. I even forgot about the look I had seen Charlie give Adam before the start of the game. And then Charlie and Adam set up for the next face off after Adam had just scored another goal.
This was suppose to be a friendly game but as I looked at Charlie from my spot on Adam's right it didn't look to me as if Charlie was thinking that way. He looked as if he was determined that he was going to win the face off. The last time I remember seeing him look that determined was when we skated against Varsity and Charlie was up against Riley.
Charlie knocked Adam down on the face off as he knocked the puck over to Jesse. Jesse was on the opposite side of the pond as I was. Terry was on that side for my team but Jesse was able to get around him. Averman and Tommy were playing defense for my team and ganged up on Jesse trying to knock the puck away. I'm not sure which one of them finally managed to do so but I saw the puck sailing my way and scrambled to beat Peter to it.
I reached the puck just before Peter did and dodged around him with it. I then passed the puck over to Adam who headed toward the other team's goal with it. We managed to get the puck down toward there goal but couldn't get an open shot at the net. Then Anthony got a hold of the puck and sent a flip pass to Charlie who was by himself on the ice.
Charlie's POV:
I'm not sure how I managed it but I had gotten clear of everyone else when Anthony was able to get the puck away from the other team. He sent a flip pass to me which I got and headed down toward Karp at the goal on the other end of the pond.
I thought I had a good break away but then Adam caught up to me. We were skating side by side toward the goal, much like we had in the unofficial game between Varsity and JV. Adam was using his stick to try to get the puck away from me and I was trying to keep control of the puck. The next thing I know we were both on the ice. I had no idea exactly what had happened but I got to my feet quickly and immediately began yelling at Adam.
"What the hell are you trying to do?" I yelled as he slowly got to his feet. I didn't care if he was hurt or not. I was just mad. Thing was it wasn't even this incident that had made me angry but that didn't stop me from using it as fuel.
"Im sorry Charlie ," Adam said as he stood up and regained his balance. "I tripped. I wasn't trying..."
"Save it Preppie, " I yelled cutting him off. 'He's too good of a skater to have tripped' I reasoned to myself. "You did it on purpose. You couldn't get the puck away so you took me out," I yelled moving toward him only to find Anthony standing in between us. I was also aware of the others silently watching us. It looked to me that they weren't sure what to do.
"I wouldn't do something like that," Adam insisted looking around his brother.
"Like hell you wouldn't. You'd do anything to win."
"Whaoh, Charlie," Jesse said calmly trying to diffuse the situation. "Don't you think that is a little out of line."
"No I don't," I said. I knew I should've just shut up at that point but I was on a roll. "He probably thinks that by becoming a big hockey star he might win his Dad back. It's not going to happen. And meanwhile your making everyone else miserable." I kept thinking I should shut up before this got too far out of hand but I didn't. I went one step further. "And you're keeping my mom and Coach Bombay apart. I wish you weren't even in the picture. You're ruining everything."
After I finally stopped my tirade a stunned silence fell over the pond. My friends looked as if they couldn't believe I had just said what I had. Part of me couldn't even believe I had said it. Anthony looked as if he was about ready to kill me. I couldn't help but wonder if anyone one would actually step in between us if he went after me. As I glared at Adam I could see his eyes glistening from the tears he was holding back. I knew then that I had really hurt him and for the most part I didn't really care.
Adam didn't say anything else to me. Instead he just skated over to the bench where his stuff was and started taking off his skates. Guy and Fulton, who had been the extra people for their teams were already over there and I could see that they were talking to him but I couldn't hear what they were saying. Jesse and Connie and most of the other ducks headed over after him. The ones who didn't were just standing there staring at me. The hockey game had been completely forgotten.
"You can be a real jerk Conway," Anthony told me. "What you just said makes me wonder why Adam ever wanted to stay with your team." With that said Anthony skated over to a bench and started quickly taking his own skates off. As I looked in that direction I saw Connie try to put her arm around his shoulders and Adam just shrugged her off.
"You've changed Charlie," Peter said to me and then went and joined the others.
I went over and grabbed my stuff real quick and went to a bench away from all the others. I silently and quickly changed out of my skates, picked up my stuff and left the pond. No one followed me. I didn't really expect them too. As I headed home Peter's words echoed in my mind. And then the last words that I had heard Hans say to me before he died came to me.
"Be the boy on the pond, loving the game, learning to fly," he had said. "Be the boy who became a leader and held the Ducks together through think and thin."*
Problem was I didn't think that boy existed anymore. I know he sure hadn't a few minutes ago when I was yelling at Adam. Instead of holding the Ducks together I seemed to be trying my hardest to drive us apart. Deep down I knew that what was going on between my Mom and Coach Bombay wasn't really Adam's fault but I needed someone to blame, and Adam was the easiest target I could think of.
*Direct quote from the novel D3 The Mighty Ducks by Jonathan Schmidt (pg.88).
Note: Okay naming Guy's one brother Eric was just a whim. I was going to name them Mark and Matthew but I thought that would be to tacky. Thanks Katie, Nellie2, jess, crazy4nc128, and death_to_all_rubix_cubes for reviewing the third chapter please keep it up. I like to know I'm appreciated.