Title: More Than You'll Ever Know
Summary: All Adam's dad wants is for Adam to make pro-hockey. All Adam ever wanted was a friend. A friend to stick by him. He'd lost one before, and when she comes back, sparks fly, but not for the better.
Main Duck: Adam Banks
Rating: PG-13 for language especially in this chapter and later violence
Time frame: After D2, before and during D3 maybe after D3 if I feel like it and if you give me reviews =p
Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews! We're back to Adam's POV, next is Jessica's again.
Disclaimer: Nope, don't own 'em. I just own Jessica, Ethan, Sally, Jason, and Andrew.
This chapter: So the war begins…
Adam
"I made Varsity?" I walked backwards until I hit a bench. 'Varsity…' was all that echoed through my head. Well, my dad would be happy. None of the Ducks even paid attention to what I was saying. Charlie wasn't captain anymore. Now that was a horror that I thought I'd never see. That evening, Riley (the captain) took me to the Varsity table to eat with them, only to find that Jessica made Varsity too. I suppressed a groan as Riley started listing the rules. I was barely even paying attention, longing for the Ducks to come to my rescue like they always did. But they never came.
"Banks, you'll be rooming with Cole," Riley patted my shoulder, "Jessica, as you already know, you get your own room." So I didn't have a first name on this team either. And once again, Jessica was the princess. My life sucked, I decided. We'd had another argument in the locker room, ending with me stomping out and her storming out the other way.
That night, I had trouble sleeping. First of all, Cole snored like you wouldn't believe it. Second of all, I hadn't spoken to the Ducks all day and I wanted to see what was going on. Tossing and turning, I finally gave up on sleep. Getting out of bed, I tip-toed to the bathroom, careful not to wake Cole. He scared me even though he was stupid as hell. I looked at myself in the mirror and tried to figure out what I really wanted. Of course I wanted to be with the Ducks, but playing with Varsity was a real challenge and challenges were good for me. But which did I want more?
I must have stood there for almost an hour, battling with myself about the pros and cons of each choice I had. I wished fiercely that I could be on Varsity and be friends with the Ducks. But Varsity already rubbed off on them the wrong way and vice versa. I was positive that Riley might be slightly angry that I was still talking to JV.
"Do you know what time it is?" a groggy Cole stood at the door that I had forgotten to close.
"Oh sorry, did I wake you?" I asked him, kind of scared.
"Nah…but nature's calling. Can I go?"
"Oh! Yeah." I moved out of the way, leaving the bathroom. I really wanted to be on Varsity. But was it really worth it? To live my entire high school life without friends? Turning over to face the wall on my bed, I tried not to think about the Ducks or Varsity. Jessica popped into my head, which wasn't much better.
She had started our argument that afternoon. If Jessica hadn't said anything about Zak, the Varsity team wouldn't know we had a problem. I wondered if she and Zak were even going out still. I decided that I didn't care, but in the back of my head, I knew that I did. I personally hoped they broke up. It was definitely better for Jessica to get rid of him. There was something fishy with Zak Hill and I'd placed that a long time ago, but I couldn't figure out what. I just felt that Jess could do much better, like she had more potential. But then again, that was what started our cold war. Needless to say, I got very little sleep that night.
A week later, one of the Ducks finally approached me and Jesse finally replied to my long e-mail. I had been sitting at the ever envied Varsity table at breakfast with Scooter, Labine, and Kabine, the only three I really liked on the team. Coincidentally, we'd been talking about the JV game that night when Charlie approached us. Jessica sat down next to Scooter at the same exact time and smiled at everyone, but didn't meet my glare. There was something different about her that I'd never seen two years ago when we were still friends. But I couldn't figure out what.
"Hey Scooter, Labine, Kabine…Jessica. Um, Banks?" Charlie asked apprehensively.
"Hey Spaz, what's up?" I asked as if there wasn't anything wrong or different between us even though there was.
"We, the team, wanted to know if you're coming to the game tonight."
"The whole team's coming to watch you defend Eden Hall against Blake. We'll be cheering our "little bro…sibling" team. It's only right. Good luck, by the way," Riley said from behind Jessica, setting his tray down next to hers.
"All of you?"
"All of us. Are you problems?"
"No funny business?"(A/N: This next part doesn't fit in with the movie. It's out of order, but I can't fix it so we'll just have to go with the flow. That's ok right? Okay.) Yeah, a prank war had been unofficially declared between the JV team and the Varsity team. I had just found out about Varsity burning JV's clothing via Guy yelling, on a rage, that morning. No one on either team bothered to tell me about the pranks. Varsity didn't tell Jessica either and JV gave her and me the worst treatment. Personally, I'd learned to detach myself from it and look as if I didn't care. Jessica always showed a blank face, devoid of any emotion. She was pretty good at it, I had to admit.
"Just watching," Riley confirmed with his signature annoying smirk, bringing me back to reality.
Charlie turned to me, "Banks?"
"I'll be there," I spoke up for the first time in a while.
"Okay. Later!" Charlie left, shooting Riley a glance as he was walking away. As soon as he was out of earshot, Riley turned to the rest of us, "Cole, did you study for Edmonton's test today?" Riley was an A-student, therefore in A-classes, but he wasn't in them for history. That's why Cole was in his class.
"Test? What test?" Cole asked dumbly.
I covered up my laugh by coughing and turning towards Scooter. I knew Cole hadn't studied. The night before, he'd spent half of it asking me about math homework that he had. The other half, he'd spent watching TV.
"Banksie, did Cold study for the test?" Riley turned to me.
"No," I choked out. Lately I had become Cole's study guide, study keeper, for Riley.
"Damn. Well, we'll have to study during study hall then."
The only two classes I had with the Ducks were history and music. I had been privileged enough to be put into A-classes with Jessica. That's what happens when your parents are perfect freaks. Not that I don't want to be in A-classes. 'You're just going in circles, Adam.' I shook my head and cleared all thoughts before confusing myself even more than I already had.
"Banksie! Bombay! Over here!" Riley called out. It was before the game and the team was standing by the JV locker room. You couldn't really miss them because they were a big mass of red and white jackets and sweatshirts. Jessica and I went down to the game together, but hadn't spoken a word to each other.
"Okay," Riled said, "When you two walk in the halls together, pretend to like each other even though I know you hate each other." WHAT?
"Why?" Jessica asked.
"Because on Varsity, you're supposed to be like one big happy family."
I rolled my eyes, "Whatever," I heard the game starting inside, "Can we go?"
"One minute, Banksie. Scooter, why don't you take the two freshmen over to the refreshments?" Riley suggested. Scooter nodded and led us over.
"What are they doing?" Jessica asked Scooter as she watched the rest of the team enter the JV locker room.
"They're playing a prank," Scooter responded uneasily.
"And you're going to stand here and let them?!" Jessica and I said at the same time. Scooter smiled with amusement before saying, "Look, Riley's captain. I have to do whatever he wants. Whatever Riley says, goes; it's just the way it is around here. My little sister and my little bother both lost spots on JV too because of them. They're not as outraged as Riley's brother, but they are a little pissed off."
"Oh," was all we said. We left the refreshment stand without buying anything, a sinking feeling in my stomach. Meeting the rest of the team by the rink entrance, we went in.
When the Ducks shot their first goal, I stood up clapping until Riley pushed me down giving me a look. The smile disappeared from my face and Scooter patted me on the shoulder. I saw Jessica stop clapping when Cole shot a glare at her. I shifted uncomfortablely in my seat and took a look at the JV Coach who was screaming his head off at the team. The game ended in a tie, a disappointment to everyone as they thought the JV Duc…I mean Warriors would get the Bears for sure. We headed back to the dorms together to quickly get ready for our game that was soon taking place.
"Okay team! This is the first game of the season. Let's blow those Bears away and prove that JV was just warming up when they played their JV team. Let's show them that when Warriors play, Warriors play hard! Riley, Cole, Brown, Kart, Labine get on out there and show them real hockey. Banks, Bombay you'll get your chance today in the third period okay?" Wilson addressed before the game. We nodded.
"On three 'Go team' One, two, three!"
"GO TEAM!" We thundered and our starters took the ice.
The game passed uneventfully with us scoring countless goals on the Blake Bears Varsity team, much like JV had done. But this time, we didn't slow down or get overconfident.
"Banks, get out there! Bombay, sub in for Kabine, let's go!" Wilson called at the beginning of the third period. I nodded, pulling my helmet mask over my face. I felt like all eyes were on me as I took center ice. When the ref dropped the puck, I won the face-off, hip checking the other center at the same time. Riley claimed the puck, passing it to Kart who got checked into the boards. Scooter saved a shot and Brown cleared it from the goal, passing it off to me. I was getting into the game and didn't notice that no Warriors were present until I was being closed off by three Bears. Behind me, Jessica was open so I faked a pass to my right where Riley was being covered by players and passed back to her. Jessica sprinted with the puck up to the goal, me following her. She stopped, spraying ice everywhere, and I took the puck, putting it into the net during the mass confusing of ice spraying. The buzzer went off and Warrior fans cheered. Warriors 16, Bears 5 was the final score.
Happily, the team headed to the locker room talking about highlights of the game. But just as suddenly as our happiness came, it vanished. Our locker room was ice. Not just ice cold kind of ice with a chill. It was more like everything in the room was physically frozen. Cole lightly tapped his ice block of a Varsity jacket with his hockey stack. Two slight taps were all it took before the jacket fell to the floor, shattering to pieces. It wasn't any kind of ice; it was liquid nitrogen.
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