A/N Hello to all you luverly people out there who gave me such nice reviews! They were great and they made me want to continue writing – they're such incentive! I get a nice warm bubbly feeling just thinking about them!
And I'm sorry to Nellie2 but I couldn't possibly have all the Ducks attacking Reily coz that would make my story very short in deed if the Coach died prematurely – and I intend to make it a nice large one (hopefully not tedious) for all you caring people who reviewed.
This is one of those chapters which has to be written even though it's torturing me – you'll see what I mean…
"Hey, Dude," Portman and Fulton came up from behind Charlie, Fulton slapping the boy on his back, warmly, and Portman leaning against the locker next to the Captain's, looking angry.
"Hey, guys," Charlie took out the folder he needed for the next lesson and shut the locker with a loud clang. "I better get going: maths test next lesson and I haven't even looked at the pages it's on," he turned to move away but Portman stuck out a large arm and held him back.
"So blag it, it's only maths and we have more important things to talk about," Portman's voice was dark.
Charlie sighed, "I thought Banksie had told you guys what had happened before I was even up."
"We know what Reily did to you, Spazway," Fulton said softly, "and we wanted to know what you were going to do about it. Check that you weren't planning anything stupid."
"Why don't you guys just get off my back about it? First Adam, then Julie and Connie, then Guy and now the Bash Brothers – I'm sick of it. Reily's my problem and no one else's."
Portman sneered at him, "Is that really what you think? Have you not been to any practices recently, Conway? So, yeah, he rags at you the most but no way can you say that he's only your problem. Most of the guys are terrified of him and we all hate his teaching methods. Kneeling before him…" he stopped, trying to get his pent up anger under control.
Fulton looked earnestly at Charlie, "And even if this was just between the Coach and you, do you really expect us to sit back and watch whilst he pulls stunts on you like last night's? He could've killed you for Christ's sake!"
Charlie looked at them both and almost managed a grin, "What would my mom do without the Ducks? I don't think she'd be able to cope if she had to mother me all by herself."
Portman relaxed, smiled, and casually punched Charlie lightly in the gut, "That's for even thinking I had paternal instincts!"
His captain looked at him innocently, "I didn't say paternal, I said maternal." Portman pulled him into a headlock. "Ok, ok, I'm sorry," Charlie elbowed the larger Duck in the ribs, "I can't breathe, Portman!" The Bash brother released him, reluctantly.
"So what you gonna do about Reily?" Fulton asked.
Charlie's grin vanished, "I dunno. I could go to the Dean, I suppose."
"So why don't you?" Charlie turned around to find the rest of the team staring back at him. He had no idea how they had managed to sneak up on him so silently – they had Goldberg with them. He stood, shocked, for a moment.
"You're all meant to be in lessons!"
"So are you," Averman pointed out dryly.
"What is this?" Charlie asked, frustrated, "an inquisition? You guys all planned this, didn't you?"
"Stop avoiding the question, Spazway," Guy said. He quirked an eyebrow, "Why aren't you at the Dean's office right now?"
Charlie sighed, resignedly, "I hate Coach Reily and all but I'd still feel like a total creep ratting him out. I just don't think I can do it!"
"I can't believe you just said that, Charlie," Julie face was a mask of disbelief. "You know what shutting someone up in a freezing cold room for five hours is called?" –
Adam butted in, "Sadism. Our Coach is a regular sadist, Charlie. You gotta admit that locking someone up in the equivalent of a freezer is not something a normal guy would do – even if he was a hockey coach!"
"Look, Dude, think of it like this," Portman threw an arm around Charlie's shoulders, "either you dig the dirt to the Dean or I'll kill the SOB. No one messes with the Ducks whilst I'm around!"
"I don't have a choice, do I?" Charlie asked, unhappily.
The Ducks shook their heads.
"And we're all gonna come with ya," Dwayne drawled.
"Absolutely not!" Charlie was adamant. "I'd prefer to do this by myself."
"Guys, this is not the most subtle of ways we could think of for complaining about the Coach. The thirteen of us aren't even all gonna be able to fit into the Dean's study," Charlie complained, futilely, for the fifth time.
Russ chuckled, "We had to come with you, Captain: you might have decided that you preferred being a frozen chicken to a free Duck."
"Yeah and if you've got to make a statement, you might as well make it a big one!" Connie added.
Charlie shook his head despairingly as he led the way into the Dean's office and up to his secretary's desk.
"I've come to see the Dean," Charlie announced, unenthusiastically.
The brunette looked at him, then turned her gaze to the twelve other ducks loitering in the doorway. Apparently unfazed, she asked, "Name?"
"Charlie Conway."
"Ah yes, he's been expecting you." Charlie looked at her, confused but the secretary didn't bother to explain. She leant forward to the intercom on her desk and pressed the small green button, "Charlie Conway and…" she paused, "friends to see you, Sir."
A tinny voice answered back, "Send them in."
She nodded towards the door and Charlie and the rest of the Ducks moved towards it. Charlie stuck out his hand and grasped the cold doorknob, turned it, and entered the large, airy office of Eden Hall Academy's Dean.
The slight man looked up from his mahogany desk and beckoned him in. Charlie complied and the rest of the Ducks followed suit. The man frowned slightly.
"I'm afraid that it would be best if the rest of your team stayed outside, Mr Conway." He turned to the others, "There is a perfectly adequate waiting facility outside in the main foyer. This shouldn't take too long."
The Ducks looked crestfallen and a bit angry at their treatment, but none of them dared to argue with the grey haired man. They sidled out the door, one by one, Luis shutting the door quietly behind him, until the room was a Duck-free zone discounting Charlie. Charlie stood, uncomfortably, in the center of the room as the Dean studied him closely with his dark eyes.
He signalled to the chair opposite him, "Sit."
Charlie sat.
"Now, what did you want to talk to me about, young man, which was so important that I fear you are missing maths at this very moment to bring it to my attention."
Charlie swallowed, "I've come to complain about Coach Reily, Sir."
"Oh?" The man's eyes were fixed on Charlie's face and the Duck squirmed uncomfortably in his seat, unwilling to bring his gaze to meet the Dean's.
"Last night, Sir, he locked me in the ice rink house for five hours."
"Purposefully?"
"Yes, Sir. He knew I was in there as he had just had a conversation with me. He ordered me to do laps and he left. I skated until I couldn't feel my feet and then I got off the ice to look for him," he swallowed painfully. "I couldn't find him and it was getting late so I decided to leave. I went to the door and found it was locked. I was locked in there till after midnight when the security guard came to check on the rink."
There was a pause, a very long pause. Charlie looked up at the man to find he was smiling a stretched, unpleasant sort of grimace. He looked at him, puzzled, wondering what could have brought the expression to a generally benevolent man's face.
"Interesting, Conway. It's unfortunate for you that John stopped by to explain exactly what happened this morning."
John? Who was John? The boy was confused. John, John, John… the name sounded so… Charlie looked at the Dean in astonishment as comprehension flickered through his mind. John Reily!
He shifted nervously in his seat. The Dean being on first name terms with Reily was a bad sign, Charlie knew, and the man obviously believed "John" a hell of sight more than he believed Charlie Conway, from the expression on the Dean's face. It looked like Charlie had just made the situation even worse for himself.
The Dean looked at him, "I am shocked at your nerve, Charles Conway. John told me that he apologized to you profusely for his grievous mistake, a mistake which only occurred because you missed hockey practice in the first place, may I add, but that you would have none of it."
Charlie opened his mouth to protest but the Dean raised a hand, his eyes blazing, to silence him, "Do not interrupt me, boy! Your Coach then told me that he feared you might come here to make a complaint about him, a perfectly reasonable assumption, and he asked me to tell you that, even though you skipped practice yesterday, he would allow you to take the day off to help you recover from what he called "your ordeal".
"I thought that he was being overly generous to you and I told him so. You are, after all, on a scholarship here to learn hockey but you, the captain of the JV hockey team, seem unwilling to cooperate. But, against my better judgment, I humored him and granted his wish that you may miss hockey practice today.
"And now you come in and have the insolence to grossly exaggerate the story and blame it entirely on John Reily. I am appalled at your behavior, Conway, and so I will change my verdict. You will have a detention for missing practice yesterday and you will have a detention for your impudence today. You will also go and apologize to your Coach, and if he asks what you are doing at practice, when he told me you could skip it, you will tell him it was because you lied about him to my very face.
"I am disappointed in you, Charles Conway. Dismissed."
The man waved his hand sharply to the door. Charlie stood, shock and anger reverberating through him, both fighting for dominance in his reactions. Anger won, as it will almost always do, and he turned abruptly and stalked out the door, slamming it behind him as he left.
The secretary gave him a look of disdain as he swiftly crossed the foyer and strode right past his worried teammates. A hand rested heavily on his shoulder for a moment but he brushed it off angrily, ignoring the shouts of concern from his friends as they hurried after him.
There was no way that he would ever apologize to Reily for missing the practice. And he would never humiliate himself by telling the Coach that he had lied when they both knew he had not. No way – they couldn't make him.
He bit back angry, frustrated, despairing tears because he knew he was lying to himself. He knew that between the two of them, the Dean and the Coach, they could make him do whatever they damn well pleased. And he had no doubts that Reily would do so, cruelly.
I know I said that I wouldn't probably update for a while but I'm kinda hooked to getting home from skool, turning on the email and getting loads of compliments for my stories – it's great! The thrills of being an author.
I know that this chapter had no Coach Reily in it and so, consequently, no sadism or refrigeration but I promise you that I know exactly what I'm writing in the next chapter and it is going to be very good – that is if you like evil coaches devising ways to get the Bash Brothers… Oh I won't say – I'll leave you in suspense.
Not for too long though, coz I'll find it hard preventing myself from writing this upcoming chapter.
Toodle Pips.