The Best That You Can Be

PG-13 (just in case)

DISCLAIMER- I don't own the Mighty Ducks or the characters except for my own that I made up. If I did then well I would be rich and doing other stuff.

Chapter 4-

A few weeks had passed and the Ducks had settled into freshman life at Eden Hall. All of the Ducks- now JV Warriors- were living on campus and struggling with all the homework that the teachers were assigning them. They were very tired after practice with one a few days left until their first game.

They were trying to stay away from the Varsity team as O'Rion told them- but it was kind of hard when one of your best friends was on Varsity. Charlie and Adam's friendship was a little shaky at times. One incident that started this was when one of the Varsity member- Cole- started picking on Kenny. Charlie and Guy came up with a way to get back at them-, which resulted in the entire student body chasing after the two teams during lunch one day.

So now Cate was sitting in her dorm room- practice had ended about an hour ago and she was trying to do her Science homework. Biology was not her strong point and she was ready to give up and wait until Julie got back from her meeting she had with the Student Council. Julie was deciding if she wanted to join the council as a freshman officer. Connie was out at the library researching for a history paper she has due in two days.

Cate decided to take her Math homework and go sit in the commons area. Maybe one of her teammates was out there and she could talk to them. She took her key card and went to the floor below where the boy's dorms were. Sure enough Adam, Luis and Fulton were there.

"Hey Cate" Luis said as she came and sat down with them. All of them were still in their uniforms because they still had not eaten dinner yet.

"Hey- have you guess done the Math homework yet?" She asked.

"Finished" Luis said. "Different teacher " Fulton said.

"I'm still working on it " Adam said.

"Great so you can help me?" asked Cate

"Sure, what number are you stuck on?" Adam asked.

Soon Cate and Adam were working on their math homework. Adam explained an easier way to do some of the problems then the way that their teacher explained in class. As soon as Math was done Averman came in to tell them that they had to get to dinner- and the boys needed their blazers. Cate went back up to her room and found that Connie had returned. They grabbed their blazers and Julie's and headed down the stairs. They found Adam, Fulton, Portman and Averman waiting for them.

As they got closer to the dinning hall- they caught up to Julie and Charlie. Charlie was ranting to Julie about some girl he had met in the hallway who was starting a petition to get the mascot name changed. She had said he was a jock and all jocks stick together.

"Oh, you mean Linda." Adam said. "Yeah I met her, she stopped trying to have a conversation with me a few days ago when I showed up with Riley and Cole to lunch."

"Linda- the brunette. Oh yeah- she does not like sports for some reason." Luis said.

Cate breathed a sigh of relief. This Linda girl was not a threat- she had seen her in the hall this morning trying to get Cate and Connie to sign her petition. But when Connie said that they were both on the hockey team- she stormed away.

They entered the Dinning Hall and Adam was pulled away from the team. Riley said that Adam needed to eat dinner with the Varsity team and not JV losers.

Charlie just fumed at Riley while Connie and Julie pulled him towards the table the JV team had claimed as their own weeks before. Cate chanced a glance at Adam and Adam looked back at her with a sad smile.

- - - -

Finally it was time for the JV team's first game. They were playing the Bears.

It was pretty much a boring game. The JV team was no match for the Bears. They kept scoring and scoring. Julie had complained after the 1st period that she was so bored- no one was taking any shots on her. Cate and Connie had noticed the Varsity team watching them and had waved to Adam. Adam tried to wave back- but Riley stopped him from doing that.

Everything changed in the 3rd period- their 9 –0 lead had suddenly changed from nine to zero. They ended up in a tie. Everyone was so depressed- a tie. Cate had seen the Varsity team leave when it was 9-5 to get ready for their game.

The JV team walked into the main locker room and O'Rion had a talk with them. The girls were standing up to leave when Guy had asked where were his clothes. The boys looked at each other then at their lockers. Russ came out of the shower room and told them to follow him. There they found all of the boy's warm-ups. Connie signaled the girls and the three of them ran as best they could with all their padding to their locker room. They were lucky- no one had come into their locker room. So while the girls were showering and changing into their warm-ups the guys were sending people up to the dorm rooms for clothes.

Russ came up with a brilliant way to get back at them. Freeze their clothes. Julie and a couple of the guys decided to help Russ out. Cate and Connie declined because they wanted to live the next day. Julie said that the boys would get back at them anyway because they were part of the team - plus Portman said he would protect her.

Their mother was lecturing Charlie after the game about unsportsman like conduct so he would be a while. Cate had convinced Connie to come with her to watch the Varsity game. She agreed only because she had a feeling that something was up with Cate. The Varsity team won their game and left the rink to go change. Julie caught up with the girls and tried to get them out of there but Adam's parents stopped them. Mrs. Banks wanted to know how school was going and did they like Eden Hall. Mr. Banks was commenting on the JV game and said that Julie did a good job trying to block all the shots in the 3rd period. He said that he was sorry to see that Connie and Cate did not get much playing time in the 3rd period- Luis had taken Cate spot on First line after she let a player get by her and score.

Mr. and Mrs. Banks soon left the girls and went to go find Adam. Julie finally was able to get the female members of the team away from the rink and to their dorm room where they could hide out until things blew over.

- - -

The Varsity team found them the next morning and invited them to a JV/Varsity dinner the next Friday. Riley said something about it being a tradition. Adam even told them that it was legit and it would be fun.

The JV team got by the weekend with out any incidents. Monday morning came along with another fun filled week of uniforms, school and practice.

Cate was sitting on her bed putting on her shoes when there was a knock on her door. She opened it to find one of the Equestrian girls. Her name was Alice and Cate had two classes with her. Alice wanted to borrow a hair dryer since hers just died. Julie walked into the room from the bathroom and handed hers to Alice. Alice promised to bring it right back.

Connie came into the room and put on her tie and announced she was going to breakfast. Alice came back with the hair dryer and walked with the girls. When they got outside they found Dwayne and Kenny walking along the path to the dinning hall.

"So do you guys just seem to know where each other is during the day?" Alice asked.

"What do you mean?" Julie asked.

"Well I have noticed that you guys are almost always together- as a team." Alice clarified.

"Well we do have twins on the team " Connie pointed out.

"Yet my twin radar must be off since I have no idea where my brother is at the moment " Cate added.

"I think it's cause we have been together as a team for more than four years." Connie explained. "We all know where each other is on and off the ice- it's this weird thing we have."

"Well it's kind of neat." Alice said. "My team doesn't have any classes together and were only see each other at practice or meals. We don't really have anything in common except for the love of riding."

"Well you can hang out with us." Kenny said as the girls caught up to him and Dwayne.

"Thanks. I'll take you up on that offer some time." Alice said.

The entered the Dinning hall and split off to their tables. Connie and Julie went to get in line while Cate went off to talk to Adam for a second.

She received some glares from the Varsity team as she walked up to the table.

"Hey Adam, Can we work on our Bio homework after practice today? I need some help with chapter 4." Cate asked.

"Sure. Meet in the library at 4:30?" Adam said

"Yeah. Around 4:30." Cate said. She then walked to the food line and got something to eat. As she was walking away she heard someone comment to Adam that he had a "cute girlfriend" and heard Adam respond, "She's just a friend" That hurt her feelings.

She was depressed as she sat down across from Julie and Portman. They had decided that they were going to try the dating thing and see how that went. Cate shook her head at them. Connie sat down beside Cate and noticed her friend was not eating. She noticed the look that Cate was giving Julie and Portman and thought it had something to do with them. She decided that she would talk to Cate after breakfast.

They were leaving the dinning hall when Connie decided to talk to Cate. Bu before she had the chance Dean Buckley came up to them and asked to speak with Portman.

Cate and Julie shared a look and Julie shrugged.

"He couldn't have found out that it was us?" Julie asked.

"Maybe he is just questioning him?" Cate replied.

"Or it could have nothing to do with the game?" Connie reasoned.

"Portman will tell us later. We have to get to class." Cate said and walked off. She had noticed Adam coming through the doors and kind of wanted to be away from him- which would be hard considering they had almost all of their classes together.

- - -

Lunch came and Cate was exhausted. It was hard trying to stay away from Adam and not talk to him. He tried to strike up a conversation three times but Cate faked different excuses to get away from him. Adam had no idea what was wrong and was determined to figure out why his friend was not talking to him. Connie had talked to him during classes and they reached a tentative verdict that it could be three things 1) Judie and Portman 2) Charlie did something or 3) Adam did something.

Cate sat down at the table with her lunch and looked down the table. Almost everyone was there except Portman. Hmm come to think of it Portman wasn't in English as well. Adam sat across from Cate and tried to get her attention. But Cate was ignoring him and talking to Kenny about the History project the entire freshman class had been assigned that morning.

Cate finished her lunch before everyone else and decided she was going to spend some time outside reading before Science. Adam took this opportunity to follow her and talk to her.

"Hey Cate are you ok?" Adam asked sitting besides her on the grass.

"No" she said into her book.

Adam took the book out of her hands and that caused her to look at him.

"Come on Cate. Something is wrong. You won't talk to Connie so you have to talk to me." Adam said.

Cate just looked at him and crossed her arms.

"is it Julie and Portman?" Adam asked.

Cate laughed "No, why would I have a problem with them."

"Did Charlie do something to make you mad?" Adam asked.

"When has he ever not done something to me." Cate said.

"Good point. Well then it is probably me. What have I done.?" Adam asked.

"Nothing. Adam that's just it you have done nothing." Cate said.

Adam looked over at her and saw that she was staring out at everyone who was coming out of the Dinning Hall. A couple of cheerleaders waved at him and he waved back. He also saw that he expression clouded over when the cheerleaders came by.

Connie came out and sat with them. As soon as she sat down Cate muttered an excuses about class and ran off.

Adam turned to Connie and told him about their conversation even his observation about Cate when the girls walked by. Connie pondered for a moment and asked, "Exactly when did this start again?"

"This morning after breakfast. She asked he to help her with bio. She walked away and Scott made a comment that I thought she did not hear." Adam said.

"What comment. You didn't tell me that before." Connie demanded

"Scott asked if she was my girlfriend and I said no she was a friend " Adam said.

In Connie's mind a light bulb went off. How could she be so blind? Of course, it all made sense the comments a few weeks ago, the comment this morning and all those looks she saw Cate giving Adam all these years. Cate had a crush on Adam. She had to tell Julie.

"Adam, don't worry. It's probably nothing and she will be back to normal in a day or two." Connie reassured him

"Ok" Adam said.

They got up and went to Science class.

TBC.....