Charlie's POV:
The rest of the holiday vacation was fairly uneventful. I ended up spending Thursday hanging out with Guy and Connie. We hung around my apartment and watched some movies and talked about things. Guy told us about his decision to live primarily with his Dad and how his mom had taken it. I hadn't talked much to Connie over the break so she filled me in on how things were going in her family and told us that her Dad was going to be going back to work part time on Monday. His doctor had cleared him for three half days a week. She admitted she still wasn't comfortable with her Dad suddenly wanting to know details about her life but she was getting use to it slowly. And then I of course told them about my Mom and Coach Bombay being engaged. Overall things were starting to look better for all of us and I couldn't wait to get back to Eden Hall. I wanted to see how the other Ducks had fared over the holiday break.
My mom and I again went over to Gordon's for dinner on Saturday. It was an early dinner and afterwards my Mom and Gordon went to look at a couple of houses with their real estate agent. They asked me to go with them but I declined. I decided to keep Adam company instead. The last couple of days Adam had seemed to have had a set back in his recovery. Gordon had said that he hadn't even left his room on Thursday or Friday. Today he was out of his room but other than eating dinner with us at the table, he had been laying on the couch all day.
"What are you watching?" I asked him coming into the living room from the kitchen where I had been cleaning up from dinner. I sat down in the arm chair.
"I'm not really sure," Adam said. "After awhile all of these tv programs start looking alike," he commented sounding bored. Of course it probably wasn't just sounding bored. He probably was bored. He'd been stuck in this apartment for the last week and a half. I'd probably being going stir crazy myself.
"Do you think you'll be going back to school next week with us?" I asked him. I sort of knew the answer already but I figured it might get us talking.
"Probably not," Adam said. "Though I wish I were. The more school I miss the more I'm going to have to catch up on and I already have to redo two of last semesters finals."
"Really?" I said. It was the first I had heard of it. I had I feeling I knew which two they were. "Math and History right."
"Yeah."
"Don't worry about them. You'll do fine."
"Like I did the first time."
"You were sick the first time. Come on you slept through the study group and I'll tell you the three of us weren't exactly quiet."
"Great, maybe I can sleep through the next semester too."
"Don't worry about it. I'll help you out with your school work or if you'd rather I'll get Julie to help you," I said think about some of the grades I have gotten. Let's just say it's a good thing Bombay took over because I wouldn't have been playing toward the end of the season with Orion's B or higher rule. I just barely made a C in some of my classes, history for one.
"As long as you don't try helping me study from what you remember your help will be fine," Adam told me.
"It's a deal."
"So have I missed anything interesting lately?" Adam asked.
I filled him in about what was going on with Guy's family and Connie's family. Connie had gotten a phone call from Julie on Thursday night and Julie had been having a blast at the ski resort up until the point she sprained her ankle trying to get off the ski lift. It had only been a slight sprain though and she would be back to normal by the time she came back to Eden on Monday. I told him about our hockey game the other day and how Jesse had told Guy that they wouldn't be able to win without Adam on the team.
"Which I think only lit a fire under all of them because they ended up beating us 9-4," I told him.
"I bet Jesse wasn't too happy about that," Adam commented laughing.
"He took it pretty well up until the point that Guy started rubbing it in," I told him. "Toward the end of the game the two of them weren't talking to each other but I would imagine they've patched things up by now."
We were silent for a little while and then I decided to go ahead and bring up something that I had been wanting to do for a long while but I guess I had been afraid too. Afraid to bring up something that was probably left in the past. But it was something that I wanted to know.
"What was it like being a part of the Varsity team?" I asked him.
Adam was silent for awhile. I thought he wasn't going to answer me and I definitely wasn't going to ask again -right then or ever. Just when I was about to bring up something else though he finally spoke.
"I never really felt like part of the team. With the exception of Scooter and a few others I know that they didn't want me on the team- partly because of you guys but mostly just because I was a freshman. And then the prank war started and I felt alone. You guys hated me because I was a part of varsity and my new teammates hated me."
"We just operated on the fact that you were in on the pranks. I guess we never really thought about it."
"Charlie I was probably one of the last people to find out about the clothes in the shower prank. And as for the dinner, I learned about that one about an hour before we left for the restaurant. I even tried to come over and warn you guys but Riley and Cole caught me. Riley told me that if I even attempted to warn any of you guys again that I'd regret it. If it hadn't been that Scooter came along when he did I probably would have regretted it right then and there."
"Man, none of us even realized," I told him as I thought back to the beginning of the school year. Maybe we should have realized something. Looking back I could remember seeing Adam's total lack of interest in anything. He had been trying to hide what was going on. Trying to hide the pain he was in. I remember seeing the bruises that I just put off as coming from hockey practice. I suddenly realized that we had been no better than the Hawks had been. Adam had made another team and we had dropped him just like that. "I don't know what I could possibly say to make things better. I'm sorry doesn't seem enough in this case."
"You know I don't think anything you or any of the others could say could make things better at this point," Adam said quietly. I thought for sure he was going to tell me to leave. That he didn't want to talk to me again and the thing is I knew I deserved it. I had known this was a subject better left unexplored. "But Charlie I don't think that matters any more. Like I said the other night when I needed you guys you were there. After the scholarship hearings what you said to Riley about having an unfair advantage - well that meant a lot to me. I had my doubts at that point about it. I figured you guys just wanted to beat Varsity but things without you guys had been terrible. I figured I'd take my chances. But even after I went back to Varsity afterwards you guys stood by me. When I got injured it was you guys who were there for me -not my so called teammates. Hell they used my injury as way to get rid of me. Nothing said could make things better but nothing needs to be said because you guys were there for me in the end and to me that is what matters. People say and do things stupid without thinking about it but when they try to make amends for it then that is how they truly feel in their hearts."
"I don't know how you do it Adam. I don't think I could be so forgiving in your place."
"I don't have a choice Charlie. If I lose you as a friend then I lose the Ducks too and then what do I have. No one. I don't make friends easily so to me keeping the ones I do have is important to me."
Something I had said to Orion came back to me then. I had accused him of "breaking up the best thing any of us had ever had". I had been wrong. Orion hadn't been breaking us up. I had. I hadn't wanted to let go of what we had. I had been fighting the changes and in doing so letting it change who I was. That was the different between me and Adam. Adam hadn't let all the changes change who he was. Despite everything he was still the same quiet, determined, and loyal person he had been when he had come to play for the Ducks. Still putting others before himself. Bombay had called me the heart of team and maybe I was. But if that was true then Adam was the soul of the team. He had always been there for all of us. If one of us had an off day during a game Adam put in the extra effort to make up for it. No matter how far behind in score we had been Adam had always been the first one to insist we still had a chance. That we couldn't give up. And even when we had given up on him, he had never given up on us.
I think we both felt that enough had been said. Adam had picked up the remote to the tv and switched the channel until he had found a movie that we both liked. We watched the movie in silence. By the time my Mom and Coach Bombay came home the movie was almost over and Adam had long ago fallen asleep.
"How did it go?" I asked as they walked through the door.
"Good," my mom said. "We actually found a place that we both like. You and Adam would both have your own rooms, and there would still be an extra bedroom."
"Its closer to Eden Hall," Bombay said picking up where my mom left off but still close enough for the two of you to hang out with your friends on school breaks."
I knew why Bombay had been looking for something closer to Eden Hall. He had told us about taking the job as Eden Hall's Physical Education teacher and as long as things went well this semester he was going to stay there. As for coaching next season that depended on what Orion chose to do.
"Come on, Charlie its getting late," my Mom said. She was still in her coat so I got up and grabbed mine from the hook. As I got into coat she and Bombay kissed good-bye. As the two of us left Bombay was trying to wake Adam up enough to get him into his room. I couldn't wait until we were actually a family.
Guy's POV:
I spent the Sunday before going back to Eden Hall moving into the new apartment with my Dad. We were only a fifteen minute walk from my old home which was nice. At least I wouldn't have a problem with getting over to see my mom and brothers and sisters when I was home from Eden.
After we had gotten all of our stuff over at the apartment I left my Dad to start the unpacking and headed back to the house. I had promised to help Abby move her stuff out of the room she shared with Alexis and into my old room.
"You know I spent most of the fall semester being mad at you," Abby said as we carried the mattress toward her knew room. It was the last piece of the bed that we had to move. We had already reassembled the bed in her knew room and had the foundation on the frame.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because you weren't here. I had to watch what was happening with Mom and Dad by myself. I had to be strong for the other kids while you were away at school having fun."
"It wasn't exactly all fun," I told her " but I know what you mean and I'm sorry I wasn't here for you."
"Its not easy being the oldest. I've always felt as if I had to be the strong one. To protect all of you."
"I'm not a little kid anymore Abby," I told her. "I can help shoulder some of that responsibility for Mark, Eric and Alexis. Even if I'm not living here I'm only a phone call away. Anytime you feel overwhelmed and need someone to talk to just call. We need to be there for each other, now more than ever."
"That means a lot to me Guy," she told me as we put the mattress on top of the foundation. As she started to leave the room I stopped he and gave her a quick hug.
"Thanks, I needed that," she said.
"How about we move the rest of that stuff now," I told her. "I still have to get my posters and pictures off the wall."
"I was wondering, if maybe we could leave that poster up?" she said indicating my Star Wars poster hanging on the wall by the door. "It seems like its been there forever and with the way everything has been changing it be nice to have something that hasn't."
"Sure," I told her. It was probably one of my oldest posters but I understood what she was saying and it flattered me that she wanted something left behind that would remind her of me and how things use to be.
Note: Thanks for the reviews Katie, crazy4nc128, and Banksiesbabe99. I really liked that line myself so I'm glad other people found it funny. I realize this story is turning out to be more sappy than anything else but I'm glad you are all still enjoying it.
The rest of the holiday vacation was fairly uneventful. I ended up spending Thursday hanging out with Guy and Connie. We hung around my apartment and watched some movies and talked about things. Guy told us about his decision to live primarily with his Dad and how his mom had taken it. I hadn't talked much to Connie over the break so she filled me in on how things were going in her family and told us that her Dad was going to be going back to work part time on Monday. His doctor had cleared him for three half days a week. She admitted she still wasn't comfortable with her Dad suddenly wanting to know details about her life but she was getting use to it slowly. And then I of course told them about my Mom and Coach Bombay being engaged. Overall things were starting to look better for all of us and I couldn't wait to get back to Eden Hall. I wanted to see how the other Ducks had fared over the holiday break.
My mom and I again went over to Gordon's for dinner on Saturday. It was an early dinner and afterwards my Mom and Gordon went to look at a couple of houses with their real estate agent. They asked me to go with them but I declined. I decided to keep Adam company instead. The last couple of days Adam had seemed to have had a set back in his recovery. Gordon had said that he hadn't even left his room on Thursday or Friday. Today he was out of his room but other than eating dinner with us at the table, he had been laying on the couch all day.
"What are you watching?" I asked him coming into the living room from the kitchen where I had been cleaning up from dinner. I sat down in the arm chair.
"I'm not really sure," Adam said. "After awhile all of these tv programs start looking alike," he commented sounding bored. Of course it probably wasn't just sounding bored. He probably was bored. He'd been stuck in this apartment for the last week and a half. I'd probably being going stir crazy myself.
"Do you think you'll be going back to school next week with us?" I asked him. I sort of knew the answer already but I figured it might get us talking.
"Probably not," Adam said. "Though I wish I were. The more school I miss the more I'm going to have to catch up on and I already have to redo two of last semesters finals."
"Really?" I said. It was the first I had heard of it. I had I feeling I knew which two they were. "Math and History right."
"Yeah."
"Don't worry about them. You'll do fine."
"Like I did the first time."
"You were sick the first time. Come on you slept through the study group and I'll tell you the three of us weren't exactly quiet."
"Great, maybe I can sleep through the next semester too."
"Don't worry about it. I'll help you out with your school work or if you'd rather I'll get Julie to help you," I said think about some of the grades I have gotten. Let's just say it's a good thing Bombay took over because I wouldn't have been playing toward the end of the season with Orion's B or higher rule. I just barely made a C in some of my classes, history for one.
"As long as you don't try helping me study from what you remember your help will be fine," Adam told me.
"It's a deal."
"So have I missed anything interesting lately?" Adam asked.
I filled him in about what was going on with Guy's family and Connie's family. Connie had gotten a phone call from Julie on Thursday night and Julie had been having a blast at the ski resort up until the point she sprained her ankle trying to get off the ski lift. It had only been a slight sprain though and she would be back to normal by the time she came back to Eden on Monday. I told him about our hockey game the other day and how Jesse had told Guy that they wouldn't be able to win without Adam on the team.
"Which I think only lit a fire under all of them because they ended up beating us 9-4," I told him.
"I bet Jesse wasn't too happy about that," Adam commented laughing.
"He took it pretty well up until the point that Guy started rubbing it in," I told him. "Toward the end of the game the two of them weren't talking to each other but I would imagine they've patched things up by now."
We were silent for a little while and then I decided to go ahead and bring up something that I had been wanting to do for a long while but I guess I had been afraid too. Afraid to bring up something that was probably left in the past. But it was something that I wanted to know.
"What was it like being a part of the Varsity team?" I asked him.
Adam was silent for awhile. I thought he wasn't going to answer me and I definitely wasn't going to ask again -right then or ever. Just when I was about to bring up something else though he finally spoke.
"I never really felt like part of the team. With the exception of Scooter and a few others I know that they didn't want me on the team- partly because of you guys but mostly just because I was a freshman. And then the prank war started and I felt alone. You guys hated me because I was a part of varsity and my new teammates hated me."
"We just operated on the fact that you were in on the pranks. I guess we never really thought about it."
"Charlie I was probably one of the last people to find out about the clothes in the shower prank. And as for the dinner, I learned about that one about an hour before we left for the restaurant. I even tried to come over and warn you guys but Riley and Cole caught me. Riley told me that if I even attempted to warn any of you guys again that I'd regret it. If it hadn't been that Scooter came along when he did I probably would have regretted it right then and there."
"Man, none of us even realized," I told him as I thought back to the beginning of the school year. Maybe we should have realized something. Looking back I could remember seeing Adam's total lack of interest in anything. He had been trying to hide what was going on. Trying to hide the pain he was in. I remember seeing the bruises that I just put off as coming from hockey practice. I suddenly realized that we had been no better than the Hawks had been. Adam had made another team and we had dropped him just like that. "I don't know what I could possibly say to make things better. I'm sorry doesn't seem enough in this case."
"You know I don't think anything you or any of the others could say could make things better at this point," Adam said quietly. I thought for sure he was going to tell me to leave. That he didn't want to talk to me again and the thing is I knew I deserved it. I had known this was a subject better left unexplored. "But Charlie I don't think that matters any more. Like I said the other night when I needed you guys you were there. After the scholarship hearings what you said to Riley about having an unfair advantage - well that meant a lot to me. I had my doubts at that point about it. I figured you guys just wanted to beat Varsity but things without you guys had been terrible. I figured I'd take my chances. But even after I went back to Varsity afterwards you guys stood by me. When I got injured it was you guys who were there for me -not my so called teammates. Hell they used my injury as way to get rid of me. Nothing said could make things better but nothing needs to be said because you guys were there for me in the end and to me that is what matters. People say and do things stupid without thinking about it but when they try to make amends for it then that is how they truly feel in their hearts."
"I don't know how you do it Adam. I don't think I could be so forgiving in your place."
"I don't have a choice Charlie. If I lose you as a friend then I lose the Ducks too and then what do I have. No one. I don't make friends easily so to me keeping the ones I do have is important to me."
Something I had said to Orion came back to me then. I had accused him of "breaking up the best thing any of us had ever had". I had been wrong. Orion hadn't been breaking us up. I had. I hadn't wanted to let go of what we had. I had been fighting the changes and in doing so letting it change who I was. That was the different between me and Adam. Adam hadn't let all the changes change who he was. Despite everything he was still the same quiet, determined, and loyal person he had been when he had come to play for the Ducks. Still putting others before himself. Bombay had called me the heart of team and maybe I was. But if that was true then Adam was the soul of the team. He had always been there for all of us. If one of us had an off day during a game Adam put in the extra effort to make up for it. No matter how far behind in score we had been Adam had always been the first one to insist we still had a chance. That we couldn't give up. And even when we had given up on him, he had never given up on us.
I think we both felt that enough had been said. Adam had picked up the remote to the tv and switched the channel until he had found a movie that we both liked. We watched the movie in silence. By the time my Mom and Coach Bombay came home the movie was almost over and Adam had long ago fallen asleep.
"How did it go?" I asked as they walked through the door.
"Good," my mom said. "We actually found a place that we both like. You and Adam would both have your own rooms, and there would still be an extra bedroom."
"Its closer to Eden Hall," Bombay said picking up where my mom left off but still close enough for the two of you to hang out with your friends on school breaks."
I knew why Bombay had been looking for something closer to Eden Hall. He had told us about taking the job as Eden Hall's Physical Education teacher and as long as things went well this semester he was going to stay there. As for coaching next season that depended on what Orion chose to do.
"Come on, Charlie its getting late," my Mom said. She was still in her coat so I got up and grabbed mine from the hook. As I got into coat she and Bombay kissed good-bye. As the two of us left Bombay was trying to wake Adam up enough to get him into his room. I couldn't wait until we were actually a family.
Guy's POV:
I spent the Sunday before going back to Eden Hall moving into the new apartment with my Dad. We were only a fifteen minute walk from my old home which was nice. At least I wouldn't have a problem with getting over to see my mom and brothers and sisters when I was home from Eden.
After we had gotten all of our stuff over at the apartment I left my Dad to start the unpacking and headed back to the house. I had promised to help Abby move her stuff out of the room she shared with Alexis and into my old room.
"You know I spent most of the fall semester being mad at you," Abby said as we carried the mattress toward her knew room. It was the last piece of the bed that we had to move. We had already reassembled the bed in her knew room and had the foundation on the frame.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because you weren't here. I had to watch what was happening with Mom and Dad by myself. I had to be strong for the other kids while you were away at school having fun."
"It wasn't exactly all fun," I told her " but I know what you mean and I'm sorry I wasn't here for you."
"Its not easy being the oldest. I've always felt as if I had to be the strong one. To protect all of you."
"I'm not a little kid anymore Abby," I told her. "I can help shoulder some of that responsibility for Mark, Eric and Alexis. Even if I'm not living here I'm only a phone call away. Anytime you feel overwhelmed and need someone to talk to just call. We need to be there for each other, now more than ever."
"That means a lot to me Guy," she told me as we put the mattress on top of the foundation. As she started to leave the room I stopped he and gave her a quick hug.
"Thanks, I needed that," she said.
"How about we move the rest of that stuff now," I told her. "I still have to get my posters and pictures off the wall."
"I was wondering, if maybe we could leave that poster up?" she said indicating my Star Wars poster hanging on the wall by the door. "It seems like its been there forever and with the way everything has been changing it be nice to have something that hasn't."
"Sure," I told her. It was probably one of my oldest posters but I understood what she was saying and it flattered me that she wanted something left behind that would remind her of me and how things use to be.
Note: Thanks for the reviews Katie, crazy4nc128, and Banksiesbabe99. I really liked that line myself so I'm glad other people found it funny. I realize this story is turning out to be more sappy than anything else but I'm glad you are all still enjoying it.