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 11-
Cate was so excited and nervous. It was finally Saturday afternoon, the day of the big JV/Varsity hockey game. She was sitting in the JV locker room putting on her duck uniform. She looked in the mirror and found herself smiling at the sight before her. The white, purple and green of the uniform looked so much better that the red monstrosity that was her JV uniform.
"It's only for one night" Connie said to her.
"Yeah, but it's going to be worth it." Julie said coming up to the girls.
There was a knock on the door. Julie went to go see who it was and came over to tell the girls that Averman said to come to the boy's locker room.
The girls walked in a saw the boys dressed in their Duck uniforms. O'Rion looked up and began the meeting.
"Ok, just remember what we have learned at do your best out there." He said.
"What was it that Bombay always said?" he asked.
"Have fun" Charlie said.
"That's right have fun, you guys earned it. Just like you earned your spots on this team. Now let's go out there and show that Varsity team that they can't push us around." O'Rion told them.
The team grabbed their gloves and hockey sticks. O'Rion lead the way with Charlie and Adam behind him. As they made their way to the rink they saw that it was packed. They heard the announcement of the Varsity team who took the ice to a loud applause. Then the JV team was announced, O'Rion went to the bench leaving the Ducks to enter the ice. This was when they were going to pay their respects to Hans. It was a simple gesture and Kenny had been the one who found the idea and the rest of the team quickly agreed to it.
As the team stepped onto the ice with Charlie at the end, they each took off their right glove and moved in a circle to touch the ice in a Norwegian tradition of respect. They then proceeded to their bench to await the start of the game. As Cate sat on the bench she looked up and spotted their families. All of the Ducks parents had driven or flown out for the game. This was extra special to the out of state Ducks because most of their parents hadn't seen them play as a team in person.
O'Rion called them in for one last pep talk and had them begin their team cheer. Instead of the usual "Go Team", He led off with "Quack".
The rest of the team realized that was the signal to begin their regular Mighty Ducks Cheer. That got everyone who was a JV fan out of their seats and cheering loudly.
The game began with Charlie, Adam, Fulton, Portman, Guy and Julie on the ice. The Varsity team won the face off and the game began.
It was a tough 1st period of play. Both teams tried to get shots off but they were deflected by their goalies. The Ducks did everything possible to keep the puck from going into their net. Goldberg was extremely helpful as a defender. Cate and Connie were sore and tired from being banged into the walls by the Varsity boys.
Cate was sitting on the bench drinking water and listening to O'Rion talk to the team about strategy for the 2nd period.
"Don't give up." O'Rion said. "You want this as bad as they do, keep up the good work and keep shooting the puck."
The team nodded and got up to cheer.
During this period of play the Varsity team decided to beat on the Ducks. All of the players where being shoved into the walls, even if they didn't have the puck. O'Rion tried not to put Cate and Connie in at the same time, the Varsity team made it their mission to go after the two girls anytime they were in the game.
Cate was sitting on the bench catching her breather when she overheard the conversation that Russ and Kenny were having.
"Come on, teach me how to trash talk." Kenny begged Russ
"It's not something you teach, you just do it." Russ said.
"What do you mean?" Kenny asked.
"Just say the first thing that comes to mind." Russ said.
Cate started to laugh; this was something she had to witness- Kenny talking trash.
Kenny made a comment to someone and was shoved back to the bench.
"Make it short." Russ said.
Kenny made a move to speak to a ref but luckily Russ stopped him in time and Kenny moved on to someone else. Cate never heard the comment because she was distracted by the action by the Ducks net. Julie had just cleared the puck and handed it off to Guy. Guy was immediately checked by two Varsity boys and fell to the ground not coming up.
O'Rion and some Trainer rushed out to him. Cate noticed Guy's dad come out of the stands and rush to the ice. Casey Conway moved over to comfort Guy's mom with Connie's mom as well.
Connie came over to Cate and the held their breaths as they waited to hear about Guy. Next thing that Cate knew, Guy was standing up with the Trainer's help and walking off the ice. O'Rion came back to them and gathered them together.
"Guy will be fine. The Trainers are checking him out real quick." O'Rion said.
"We have two minutes of this period left. Keep up the defense." Charlie said.
"We can do this you guys." Julie said.
O'Rion then called Luis to take Guy's place on the ice.
When the 2nd period was over, O'Rion took his team to the JV locker room to talk.
Cate, Connie and Julie sat down on the benches and drank Gatorade.
"Thank god, one more period." Julie said.
"I have never played so hard." Connie said.
"I think after this game, I'll sleep for weeks." Cate added.
"We have one last period to play. We can do this." Charlie said to the team.
"It's still 0-0." O'Rion said. "I don't think the Varsity counted on this at the end of two periods of play."
"Guys, I know we want this more than they do." Portman said
"This last period everyone has a mission." Charlie said.
"Julie- keep the puck from going in. Goldberg, Kenny, Dwayne, Averman help her. Portman, Fulton try to keep the Varsity off our backs. Luis, Cate and Connie use your speed and agility to keep the puck away from the Varsity. Adam, Russ, Guy take the shots that you can get. Anyone open in front of the goal- take the shot, get the rebounds." Charlie said
"Remember, you can only win if you score more points than the other team" Cate said.
The team laughed at that comment.
"Hey, it's true." Cate replied.
She heard some comments from down the bench- more like her brother saying that she was a smart aleck.
O'Rion then took Charlie aside and handed him something. When Charlie turned around Cate noticed that he had a "C" on his jersey.
"Great, now there's no living the boy." Cate muttered.
"What's wrong?" Connie asked.
"Look" Cate said pointing at Charlie.
Julie and Connie just smiled and patted Cate on the shoulders and turned to fix their pads.
It was then time to walk out to the ice and start the final period of play.
For the first 8 minutes nothing really happened, the two teams took shots on each other with their goalies blocking them. With 6 minutes left to play, Kenny was charged with high sticking and put into the penalty box. This gave the Varsity team a power play which the Ducks were luckily able to defend. When Kenny was allowed back in the game, Portman was then charged with provoking the other team and sent to the penalty box. He tried to pump up the crowd while he was in the box.
Cate shook her head as she subbed into the game. She decided to focus on helping Julie keep the puck away from the goal since Adam, Charlie, and Fulton were in the game. Suddenly there was only less than a minute to the game. Each team was desperately taking whatever shots they could. O'Rion called for a line change and as she was coming onto the bench Kenny jumped out too soon making it 5 players on the ice when there should have been only 4. O'Rion called a time out. He sent Kenny to join Portman in the penalty box and looked to his team to see who to send to the ice.
"Julie stay in the goal. Conway, Banks, and Goldberg we are going with you three." O'Rion announced.
Cate almost fell out of her seat- Goldberg. He was putting Goldberg in. Oh please help the team someone she thought.
The boys went on the ice and began the last minute and a half two men down. Cate sat on the bench with her hands over her eyes yelling at Averman who was giving her a play-by-play.
She had had enough and pulled her hands away from her eyes to tell Averman off when she saw the goal. Julie had blocked the puck and sent it off to Adam. Adam and Charlie took off towards the other goal since the Varsity team was crowed around their goal. Goldberg was behind them with the Varsity team passing him. Adam sensing the Varsity team closing in on him passed the puck to Charlie. Charlie took off and was 7 meters away from the goal with two Varsity boys on him when he passed the puck back to Goldberg who had no one on him. Goldberg looked at the puck, looked at Charlie, looked at the puck again and shot it towards the goal. The goalie was slow to react and the puck went it and the time expired.
Cate started cheering and hugging everyone around her. She dropped her pads and stick and hopped over the bench to go hug the boys. She joined the mob of Ducks around Goldberg and they started cheering and jumping up and down. She was sandwiched in a hug with Dwayne and Russ when they heard Luis call out.
"Hey look at the score board." Luis said.
The group turned and noticed that the emblem of the warrior was now covered with a banner saying "Eden Hall Mighty Ducks".
"Wow" Connie said.
"Bombay did that," Charlie said.
"How?" Cate asked
"The deal you made with the Varsity." O'Rion said
"Hey guys, I don't know about you but we still have a Homecoming Dance to get ready for." Julie said
"Julie." The team cried.
"Hey, do you not want us to look pretty?" Connie said
"You look good in anything you wear." Charlie said to Connie and kissed her.
Cate's jaw dropped as well as half the team. They had never seen Charlie show this much affection with anyone.
Connie smiled at him and the team began making their way off the ice stopping to grab their stuff and hugging their parents before heading to the locker rooms.
The girls took a quick shower and headed to their dorm rooms to grab their dresses and make-up. They also grabbed Alice and Karen who were dates of the male Ducks. The then hurried to find Connie's mom to go to Connie's house and get ready. The boys were staying at school to get ready and the dads would pick them up and drive them to Connie's house to get the girls and drive them to the Homecoming Dance that was being held at the Country Club.
TBC...
Sorry for the delay in the update.... Real life and sports got in the way. I am so sad that our polo season is over and we didn't even make playoffs with our good record. The rain is evil and makes bad things happen to good teams.