Part Two

Welcome to Eden Hall Academy

Walking out of history class, Averman made a comment. "That teaches me something."

"What?" Connie did not really want to know, but it would get Averman's crack out of the way.

What are you going to say now, Averman? Adam asked the redhead mentally.

"Don't sit near Fulton!"

His friends just ignored that, including Fulton himself. He had not expected the history teacher, Mr. Barber, to put the dwarf on his desk then slam the huge history book on top of the it.

The new JV team split up to get to their third period classes.

History seemed to be the only class that Adam had with all of his friends. That was until he got to Ms. Delaney's music class.

Adam had thought that music would be just a waste of time. He liked music and everything, but to learn about the different composers and different types of music he could live without. But Ms. Delaney made it seem more interesting than he thought. They were just going to talk about the types of music for the next few weeks before going into the lives of the composers.

Before Adam knew it was lunchtime.

Adam set his lunch down next to Ken, who didn't have his lunch. From the looks of it, he beat his friends through the lunch line.

"Where's your lunch, Kenny?" he asked as he sat down.

Ken looked over to the other side of the cafeteria, where the Varsity team was sitting. "Cole got it."

"You brought a lunch to school?"

Kenny shrugged. "Didn't want the same thing three times a day. Besides most of the stuff has meat." He frowned.

Adam just nodded like it was perfectly normal for Kenny, who was out-of-state and in the dorms to bring a lunch to school. He also knew that Kenny was a vegetarian.

"Do you have money for lunch?"

"Not on me." Ken watched as Adam pulled some money out from in his pocket. "Oh no, you don't, Banks."

Adam was not going to get into an argument over this. "Look, pay me sometime later." He pressed a five-dollar bill in Kenny's hand. He was not going worry about Ken giving it back later either. "Just go and get something to eat, the others are getting out of line." He glanced toward the lunch line, since Connie and Guy where headed their way.

Kenny sighed. "Thanks." He headed to the lunch line, but stopped to talk to Connie and Guy.

After eating a few bites of lunch, Adam felt like he was being watched. Looking around, he saw what had to be the faculty table where the Varsity coach, and another man talking and glancing at him. That had to be their new coach, Ted Orion. What were they talking about anyway? Most likely JV and Varsity, he thought.

"Hey Cake-Eater, come back to Earth."

Startled, Adam turned, Connie and Guy were already there and seated and so was Russ who had spoken to him.

"You were a million miles away. What's up?" asked Connie.

"Nothing."

Soon the other Ducks had gone through the lunch line and came to sit down. Adam knew what to expect, he had eaten lunch with his friends the past two years. Lunchtime was not quiet. The Ducks were no exception. Now it was just a bit louder with the out-of-state Ducks with them.

"Man, I don't wanna start the beginning of every day with Mrs. Madigan," Russ grumbled.

Don't know if I want to end the day with her either, Adam thought. He had Biology as his last class of the day. He did not have any of his friends in the class. Most of them had her first period. If not then, it was third period, because they all had music class before lunch.

Lunch was soon finished. There was not too much to chat about before the bell rang. Everyone was either rushing or dragging themselves out of the cafeteria to head to their next class.

When the bell ending fifth period rang Adam was relieved. He said goodbye to Julie who was his only friend in the class. The class was Advanced Algebra. Math was a strong subject for Adam, but he knew this math class was going to be challenging this year. It was not hard yet; they had just only reviewed the material he had learned last year today. But Adam wished the day would end so he could go to hockey practice.

He did not know about everyone else, but he wanted to see what this new coach was like. He guessed everyone was a bit curious about Orion.

Adam quickly went down the steps. He was going to just turn and continue down the next flight, but he nearly ran into Charlie.

"What's up?" he asked. Charlie looked distracted.

Charlie glanced over his shoulder down at the floor beneath them. "The girl with brown hair and the clipboard. She doesn't like jocks."

Adam looked; the girl was talking to someone. "What's she doing?"

"Doesn't like the 'demeaning' Warrior name." He said demeaning with quotes. "Wants to change it."

Adam was not exactly a girl expert. Heck, he did not even have a girlfriend. He was not about to give his friend advice about something that he did not even have any experience in. "Wish I could help you, but we have class."

Charlie frowned at him. "Did you have to remind me?"

Shrugging, Adam did not offer an apology. Going around Charlie, he headed down the steps.

"See you at practice." Charlie said that with as much enthusiasm as one would say they were going to the dentist.

"Right." We'll just have to wait and see how that goes when the time comes.

Adam was not sure what he thought of Orion. Some of the stuff he said in that speech made sense. Work, will, and confidence. Yeah…then there was what Orion said about defense. As for work, Adam was not a stranger at working while playing hockey.

Once again Adam skated up to Julie to shoot the puck in. It went sailing in. That was another one in. He had been able to put some in and Julie was able to stop some. Everyone did not call her 'The Cat' for nothing.

Now behind his line, Adam glanced over at Goldberg, who was warming the bench. They had been practicing at shooting for the past ten minutes. Goldberg had been sitting there for that length of time save for the two minutes he was behind the net.

A quick blur caught his eye. Charlie was still doing laps. Was Orion going to have him do them for the entire practice?

"Banks!" Speak of the devil.

It was not his turn to shoot yet, but he had not been moving forward. Which caused a gap between him and Fulton who was last in line.

By now everyone knew to keep quiet. Adam had overheard Luis tell Connie they got the coach from hell earlier on. Connie had not said anything back, but Adam could only guess she could think of worst ones. From some of the things his friends told him from the time they had been District Five, and before Coach Bombay, he would not doubt that. He did not know how good or bad their coaches had been back then.

Adam had been a Hawk in the rest of the other Ducks' District Five days. He did not want to go so far and say that Orion reminded him of Reilly, but Orion may or may not be good for the team. It was not that Coach Bombay could not coach or teach the team anything. He had… in so many ways. Adam could tell every coach he had was different. He had gone through three now. He was sure that any future coach would be as different as the past three.

"Banks, pay attention!"

Adam cringed, both from Orion's voice and with a headache that was making itself known. Once again it was his turn to shoot the puck. But this one he missed completely. It did not even go within Julie's range to stop it.

This isn't good.

Orion blew his whistle. "Alright that's enough. Divide up to scrimmage. Goldberg, get in the other net."

"You think you can get in your game, Banks?" Guy asked. "With Goldberg as goalie and you seem-"

"Thanks for the support, Guy." Adam's voice was harsher then he intended it to be. Guy's eyes grew a bit larger. Adam was usually more level headed.

Adam blew out a frustrated breath. "Sorry."

"It's alright. You okay?"

Giving a quick nod, Adam skated to face off against Averman. There was not anymore time to say anything else. It was time to show Orion what they could do scrimmaging.

Lets hope I do better with the scrimmage then with my great shooting skills, Adam thought indignantly.