Disclaimer - I do not own anything even remotely related to The Mighty Ducks. I only wish I had thought of them first…

Italics indicate character thought.

They were skating in laps around the rink, an easy warm-up before practice. Beau was talking breathlessly to Charlie, knowing she should be focusing, but she had been dying to complain to him all day.

"A whole young adult's book! I mean, seriously, I am not that creative. It's like 90 of my grade!" She dropped her gloves down against her thighs in frustration. "What am I going to do?" Her jaw had dropped that morning in her advanced creative writing class when their professor had handed out the grade breakdown and forewarned them that in a week they would be turning in ideas for a book for pre-teens. By the end of the semester they would have been paired up with an advanced art student and would write and illustrate said book. She had felt like she was going to puke.

"Oh, come on Mayland. You're totally creative. We just have to come up with a kick-ass idea for you." As he said it and rounded the corner of the rink, they looked forward to where Fulton and Averman where shoving Goldberg as he slowed down in his laps. "Same old, same old." He laughed and sped forward to grab Goldie's gloves and pull him around as he complained.

Beau grinned, and was absolutely sure that there was a light bulb blinking over her head. She slowed down as ideas were racing through her brain. She watched them all in their very comfortable pattern and only resumed skating when Coach Neumann's voice broke in. "Mayland, what are you doing? Move!"

The words were flying through her head so fast that she couldn't get them out onto her computer fast enough. After practice she raced to the locker-room with barely a good-bye and then was back to the apartment and locked in her room. When Charlie called that night she promised to talk to him tomorrow but practically hung up on him in the effort to get back to the paragraph she had been in the middle of.

The next day at lunch time, running on no sleep and clutching 45 pages to her chest, she knocked on the door of the boys' house. Fulton opened it and suppressed a laugh. "Beau, your hair is…" he reached out and smoothed down several pieces that were sticking out from her running her hands through it. "Come on in."

With her brain in shutting-down-mode she hadn't been able to remember their schedules and was glad to see that Fulton, Charlie, Guy, Adman, and Averman were all in the living room. She plopped down next to Charlie on the couch, dropping the papers in his lap. He laughed as well.

"What's this? Have you slept at all?" He wrapped an arm around her and she immediately dropped her head back to rest on the cushion of the couch.

"It's my book." She closed her eyes. "It's about you guys."

He looked at the cover sheet. The Mighty Ducks. He raised an eyebrow. "You wrote this all last night?" But she was already asleep, her body pliant as he pulled his arm out from under her and began to read.

They passed the script around between them. After Charlie had gotten just several pages in he had insisted that the rest skip their classes for the rest of the day. They called Goldberg and Jesse and enticed them to come over as well and as Guy began reading the story out loud to the others, Charlie carried Beau upstairs, still sound asleep and tucked her into his bed.

Two hours later and they had read the story again, recognizing themselves in the book, their names changed, but their personalities so truly them that it was scary. They didn't know how she had gotten things so accurate, but they could only imagine that she had heard bits and pieces of the stories they were always telling, and to Charlie it touched his heart to know she had listened to every word he had ever said about the Ducks and Bombay with her ears actually open. Reading her story was like going back in time.

It was dark out when she finally made her way down the stairs, stopping in her tracks when they all turned to stare at her. Charlie beckoned her to sit and she did, hands clasped between her knees, eyes on her floor.

"I didn't plan on sleeping long enough for you all to read it. Now I'm totally embarrassed. But I guess I should ask what you thought."

There was silence as they all looked around at one another, smiling. They broke into applause and her eyes jerked up, her face lighting. Charlie kissed her cheek.

"It's perfect. It's us. We love it!"

The week after Christmas was one of the best in Beau's life. Throughout the semester her creative writing professor had worked with her to tweak her story. After reading it for the first time he had shocked her by calling her into his office and telling her that she was a true talent and that he wanted to send her story off to his friend who was a publisher. He actually thought it had potential to go somewhere. The Ducks, of course, were thrilled.

The Pennington State Wolfpack had breezed through the early rounds of the NCAA tournament again this year and in a repeat of the previous season took on Maine and, more importantly, Julie in the finals. Things did not play out the same and the match-up was looking to be a shut-out until when in the final minutes Adam Banks, captain extraordinaire, with a stunning pass from Jesse, slid one past his former girlfriend for a Wolfpack win. It was emotional for them all. For the Ducks it was their last game as college students. For most of them, they would not play competitively again. Only Adam, Charlie, and Jesse had been approached by scouts and Beau and Cole hung back and watched as the group, including Julie, gathered at center ice. It was heart breaking and heart warming all at the same time and Beau felt conflicting emotions - the high of winning her second title but the low of knowing that this was the last time she would be on the ice with seven of the best friends a person could hope for. Only Jesse would remain as he still garnered one season of eligibility.

Two days later she received a phone call that would change her life forever. It was the day before classes were to start and she let her car jerk to a halt, the wheels half way up on the boys' ragged lawn. Guy and Charlie were on the front porch and hopped up when she left her car door open and came running up the walk-way. "Whoa there speed-demon." Guy pointed at her car. "You know you left your…"

"Yeah, yeah Guy." She waved her hand at him absently. She looked from Charlie to Guy and back to Charlie. "You'll never guess." Her grin was massive.

Charlie looked at Guy. "Um…you've decided to dye your hair blond because blondes just have more fun?"

Guy laughed. "You've decided to out Cole since you keep catching him stealing your unmentionables and parading around the apartment?"

This earned Guy a high five from Charlie but they sobered when Beau shoved them both back a step. "No! This is serious!" She grinned again, enjoying making them wait. "My book…The Mighty Ducks…is getting published! I'm a published author!"

"What?" Charlie picked her up, swinging her in a circle and kissing her cheek. "Beau, that's great!" He set her down to let Guy give her a tight hug as well. "How did this happen?"

It finally hit her full force and she had to lean back against the porch railing to catch her breath. "Dr. McGee, my professor, he just called me. He sent the story to his publisher friend and apparently he loved it! He thinks it has potential as a series." She seemed shocked by the word. "A series!" She was pacing now, her energy at a ridiculously high level. "I talked to my dad and his buddy who is a lawyer knows a guy who is a literary agent who has agreed to represent me." She looked back at her friends. "I have an agent!"

I'm sorry for just glossing over the hockey season. I didn't have anything really exciting to say about it, so for those of you who read the fanfics for hockey...sorry! As always, thanks for all of the super reviews!