"Banks! Pace yourself!" Orion yelled a couple feet behind me. I had already lapped a couple of my teammates, Dwayne, Charlie, Luis, all who were fairly fast runners and had done at least one more lap than everyone. "Banks!"

I inwardly groaned and slowed down so I was running along side him and Julie, who was on his other side. I didn't want to slow down, I wanted to speed up and forget. Why couldn't he just get that? Julie glanced over at me and quickly looked ahead; her eyes straying from the gym floor, over at me every few seconds.

By the time we had finished running I was getting curious to why she was looking at me like that. You know when someone looks at you and you can't help but guess what their thinking about and then suddenly you decide that their thinking about how much of a loser you are? Well that's the feeling I got and it's ten times worse when it's a friend who is looking at you like that and a hundred times worse when it's a girl when you're a guy. You feel like you're beneath them.

Charlie looked over at me and gave me a smirk as we walked toward the guy's change room. "Your friend ready?"

I rolled my eyes. "Ryan. Can you at least get his name right?" I frowned at him and pulled off my shirt.

"Right, Ryan." He grumbled in a rather annoyed fashion as he walked over to his locker and grabbed a T-shirt from it.

I glanced over at Charlie and pulled a clean shirt over my head. "What about Fulton? What did he have to say?"

"I don't like it." Fulton replied through gritted teeth and walked past me to open his gym locker beside Charlie's. "But I'll go."

I looked down and shook my head. I couldn't believe how closed minded they all were. "Ok, I'll meet you outside the arena in a half hour." I replied and continued to change before heading for my meeting with Orion.

~*~

I knocked quietly on Orion's door and bit my lip uncomfortably as I shifted the strap of my backpack on my shoulder. I didn't want to be here and I was hoping like hell Ryan didn't come early because I wasn't quite sure what Fulton and Charlie would do to him.

No answer.

I cleared my throat and knocked again only louder. Was Orion hard of hearing or something?

"Come in." He grunted from behind the door and I opened it up finding myself much in the position I was the day before.

I stood behind the chair and looked at Orion who quickly put down a couple papers he was flipping through and he motioned at the chair, which I quickly took dropping my roller blades and bag to the ground with a thud.

"So, are you ready to talk?" He asked straightening up the papers and putting them on a corner of his desk.

I crossed my arms. "Do I have a choice?"

He looked up at me with sad eyes. "We all have choices Adam, no matter what situation we're in, whether you're on the ice, in the classroom, on a date, wherever. It's your job as an educated person to pick out these choices and weigh them appropriately and pick the best."

I glared at him. "Well it seems that you have outlined my choices already. Speak or be benched." I spat, leaning back in the chair.

He raised his eyebrows and sighed grabbing the papers that he had just straightened and began looking through them. "Speak then."

I pursed my lips. "About what."

He looked past the papers at me. "Don't toy with me Banks. I don't need you wasting my valuable time."

I frowned. This was completely unfair. "Josie dumped me." I grumbled under my breath.

He put the papers down on his desk. "That's quite surprising." He said rather concerned. "You two seemed quite content last I saw you together."

I nodded. "Well you know how high school relationships go. You can make and break them in a blink of an eye." I replied harshly and looked at him as he let out a breath. "I told you that you wouldn't be able to fix this."

"I-" He was interrupted by the phone that began ringing on his desk. He sighed and looked up at me. "Pardon." He excused the phone and picked it up.

I shook my head in annoyance. I couldn't believe this.

"Yes?" He snapped into the phone. "Oh. . . Hi Honey." He smiled into the phone. It must've been his daughter or his wife. His expression turned from pleasantly surprised to horrified. "Your what? . . . It broke? . . .  But you're a month early!" He glanced at me quickly and bit his lip nervously. "Are you sure it isn't a false alarm?!" He yelped and waited a few seconds. "You're sure, ok. Call Debbie and I'll meet you in the hospital. I love you."

I glanced from him to the phone frowning completely confused. "Coach?" I whispered.

He held one finger out signaling 'one minute' and continued to listen to the phone. "Ok, ok, I'll be there." He fumbled with the phone before setting it in the cradle looking back and forth.

I blinked. "Coach, what is it?"

He focused on me. "I've got to go." He replied getting up and grabbing his coat from the back of his chair with a grin. "I've got to go to the hospital."

I jumped out of my chair after grabbing my things and shook his head. "Coach what happened?"

He smiled. "My wife is having the baby, right now." He patted his pockets and grabbed his keys from it and began to usher me out of his office. "I have to go pick up Beth and get to the hospital." He explained and closed the door behind him and locked it. "So get out of here and tell the guys no Saturday practice ok? If they want to use the ice get Coach Wilson to unlock the arena." He said urging me to move faster.

I rushed along with him; his nervousness and excitement that was pulsating through him was contagious and I couldn't help but feel it too.

He suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway and looked around. "What if I've forgotten something . . .?" He whispered looking back at his office. His eyes suddenly locked on me. "Did I forget something?"

I blinked. "I wouldn't know Coach. I'm the youngest in my family." I shrugged feeling completely helpless to this situation.

"Should I go back and check? I mean, it couldn't be coming right now right? Like I wouldn't miss it would I?" He looked back at his office and then at the exit. "I-I-I…" He stuttered. "Do you think she could hold it?"

I rolled my eyes. "Coach, just go! Get! I'm quite sure that you don't need anything and if you do the hospital will have it. Now stop worrying and go!"

He nodded and pushed through the doors out into the cold, his hands shaking with excitement.

I looked at him. "Coach; are you ok to drive?"

He nodded excitedly as he unlocked his car and ran up to it.

"Hey Banksie!"

I spun around and saw Charlie and Fulton approaching quickly looking rather confused.

Orion rolled down his window after starting the engine. "Ok, remember, no practice and if you need the ice ask Wilson."

Charlie frowned. "No practice? Coach what's going on?" He asked once they were in earshot.

Orion pulled out of his parking space with a grin. "I'm going to be a Dad!"

Charlie scratched his head as Orion drove out of the gates. "I thought he already was. . ."

I looked over at him and smiled. "His wife just called. They're having a baby right now."

Fulton, whom had been fairly silent for the past couple seconds, got a look of shock spread across his face. "Go Coach . . ."

"Hey am I early?"

I spun around and grinned. "Ry, I was wondering when you would make your appearance." I laughed as he rolled to a stop a few feet away from us.

He shrugged as he rolled to a stop with his blades, glanced at Fulton and blinked at him nervously. I watched his Adam's apple bob up and down in reaction as he sized up the smaller of the enforcers in the Ducks. It seemed Ryan remembered Fulton from his days as a Hawk and wasn't to excited to be in a social situation with him. Not in the slightest.

I cleared my throat quietly as I attempted to break the awkward silence that had separated my three friends into two groups. "Larson, these are two of my friends from the Ducks, Charlie Conway and Fulton Reed." I glanced over at my fellow Ducks who seemed to be shooting red hot daggers at Ryan. "Guys, this is Ryan Larson."

Charlie's nose twitched in disgust and nodded silently in greeting.

Fulton blinked completely emotionless.

Ryan smiled awkwardly, exhaling; probably thanking God that he survived the introductions.

This was not going so well. I adjusted my skates that were tossed over my shoulder nonchalantly and glanced at my two teammates who had made no move to do anything. I studied Ryan's body language as he shifted his weight from skate to skate and fiddled with the strap to his backpack on his one shoulder.

"I need to put on my blades. . ." I announced feeling like a complete doofus as soon as I did. I backed up and sat down on the curb and took off a shoe and untied the laces that were holding my two blades together.

Hockey, I'll bring up hockey. We all agree it's an awesome game . . .

Ugh! No. Charlie will claim that Ryan's trying to steal our plays or strategies or something and they'll fight.

Well . . . the NHL. I just bring up the last game I saw. Larson was as loyal to the North Stars as Charlie was and told me that he was so pissed when they left Minnesota to 'freaking Dallas'. Of course, I would never tell Dwayne that those were his exact words.

"Hey, did Banks ever tell you how he pranked the Hawks back in pee wees?" Larson asked half laughing.

I looked up and saw Charlie, Fulton and Larson crowded together in a group laughing over past infractions. What the hell happened?

"Banks was a prankster? I thought that would be more of McGill's territory." Charlie replied half laughing.

Ryan shook his head. "Naw . . . McGill was the brawn; Banks was the evil genius of the group when it came to pranks that were done in good natured fun."

Charlie glanced over at me with a smirk. "Really, Banksie never told us of his back round in pranks."

"You mean he never told you about the itch powder!"

I shot a look at Ryan. "Don't even Larson!"

"Aw! He's shy!" Ryan taunted me. "He put itch powder into the socks of one of the new Hawk's socks and skates, saying that it would make them 'skate faster'. The only problem was that he accidentally got it on his hands and he couldn't shoot the puck straight all practice. Riley was so pissed!" Ryan burst out laughing along with Charlie and Fulton.

I lowered my head. "I can't believe you brought that up. . ."

"But wait there's more!" Ryan hushed Charlie with a wave of his hand. "The powder was like stuck into the material of his gloves and he couldn't play without his palms itching!" He smirked and pouted at me. "His daddy had to buy him new gloves."

I shook my head as I got up off the curb. "I think I liked you better when you guys were enemies."

Charlie shrugged. "Hey, you wanted us to be friends! Or at least civil."

"Yeah what happened? I turn away from you guys for five seconds and all of a sudden you're like long lost best friends!"

Fulton shrugged. "Why do you ask questions that don't need an answer?"

I nodded and skated towards them and started toward the front gates.

~

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A/N: Again! A chapter that didn't want to write itself! And to be totally honest, I don't have much to say about it so I'm just going to head for shout outs and be done with it!

Shout outs!

Emily- Hey there! Well there was the meeting but they're day isn't over! I hate writing filler. It bothers me. I would much rather action action action or tension tension tension! However, it can get super hard to after a while So for the next couple chapters there will be a little tension here and there but mostly I'm going to start adding on my humors subplots! OH how I love my subplots! I have a couple that are floating around in my head. One including Averman, and another including Larson. Can you guess? Can you?? Thanks for the review and the heads up on your fic! Later!

Beaner- Oh!! Ok, I promise, no more giving away half of my chapters before I post them. From now on I'll only ask opinions on certain parts that I'm not sure of so I don't give it all away because that's no fun! *grins* Do you like where I'm going with my Orion subplot? I was so excited when I came up with it during Don't Speak. I was like Oh!!! So awesome! And Larson's back! Next chapter there will be more Larson and he'll be a regular seeing I've got 2 subplots that I'm choosing between. I'm leaning towards one, but every so often I think of the other and am like, Ooh . . . tempting . . . OH and I promise to have Guy in there someplace. I'm not sure where. I'm trying to get all the Ducks in but it's hard! I want to drag Portman back into the story but I can't seem to find a place for him. Him and Russ and Dwayne and Kenny. I don't want to leave anyone out. Anyways, thanks so much for the review (would I expect you not to?) and I hope to talk . . . never mind . . . you just came online! lol Later!

Jess- Hi there! I'm glad that you decided to review! Welcome! I hope you continue to read my story. Ok, yes I get that you're a fan of our Banksie (I am too! He's my favorite!) However, you have to push your biases aside for two seconds. Adam may not be perfect however, most people I know would probably drop a guy like a bad habit if they found out they read their diary. Hell, I've yelled at one of my best friends for looking through my old diary from the forth grade. Those things are personal and usually aren't there for public reading, or private reading even if that person is you're significant other. And I completely understand that Adam is a guy and wouldn't chase one specific girl forever, and I do have that into consideration but sometimes it takes a couple weeks to get over someone and I get the feeling (this is just my logic here, you may thing otherwise) that Adam is the type to hold onto things like that. But whatever. Thanks for the Review and review whenever!

Rachel- Hey there! Oh and hi Averman! I miss you too much ok! *Adam pushes author out of the way* Adam: "Averman! I'm so murdering you the next time I see—" *author pushes Adam out of the way* Adam! No threatening Averman. He was kidding. You aren't a freak of nature.  *rolls eyes* He's so touchy! I was so proud of my Averman moment! I can't wait to add onto his 'subplot.' Yes you heard me! I'm giving Averman his very own special subplot! *grins* I can't wait to write it but I have to wait just a little bit, so hold on! I love writing Averman, although sometimes he can be a challenge, especially when I'm in a bitchy mood. Sometimes when I write him he doesn't come off as sarcastic but sadistic and depressed. I have to be very careful with him. I'm glad you and Averman are having fun and I'm glad I'm not alone on that D3 moment! I hope you enjoyed this chapter (even with its lack of our favorite prankster!) and thanks for reviewing! Later!

SqUiDsLiLpYrO- Yo from Canada! *waves* Hey Justin and friends! You still rock! I'm glad you didn't burn the rice however I'm slightly concerned with the whole melting the TV dinner thing. *frowns and bites lip* Anyways, I wanted to say I'm flattered that you guys are talking about me! That's so cool!! Oh and I hope you enjoyed my little Larson scene. Next chapter will have more Larson in it! I promise! I hope you liked my chapter and I hope you review really soon! You make me smile! : ) Thanks so much! Later!

Ok everyone! That's it!

REVIEW!

~Toodles!

KatieGurl!