Part Fourteen

Helping Out

Scooter came in the arena. He just wanted to skate some before facing the day with Varsity. They were still steaming over the Ducks win last night. Now with the name change, it was like salt to an open wound.

Before he could head to the ice, he saw the Ducks, Orion, and Bombay talking. He heard Orion saying that he could take some of the Ducks with him in his van. Bombay had room for one, which from what Scooter could see left the rest of the Ducks stranded for a ride to wherever they were needing to go.

After hearing Charlie mention the bus, Scooter found himself asking if he could help.

All of them turned in his direction, they had not expected to see anyone coming to the arena this early in the morning.

"Vanderbilt." Orion said, he was polite and open.

"Where is to Adam?" Scooter asked, not seeing the younger teen among his friends. Hopefully someone would explain what was going on.

"It's more like what happened. He was in an accident last night." Julie told him. "Since you don't know what was going on, you don't have to offer to take us to the hospital."

"I don't mind at all."

"Can you fit five people in your car?" Russ asked, his voice laced with sarcasm. Scooter was on Varsity, which made him no good even though the goalie sounded like he wanted to help.

Ignoring him, Scooter glanced at Orion and Gordon with an idea going through his mind. All he said was, "I've got this covered; you can head over to the hospital if you want."

"Great. Thanks for doing this." Gordon said with relief.

"Whoever wants to go with me, meet me at the student parking lot. I'll meet you there in fifteen minutes." Scooter said to the Ducks.

Scooter headed quickly up to the Varsity dorm. Passing a still sleepy Cole without a word, he headed to his room.

Upon entering and dropping his skates, Scooter noticed Rick still asleep. Going over he kicked the foot of the bed to wake his roommate.

Rick woke blinking at the goalie. "What do you want?" he grumbled without raising his head.

"Get dressed. Banks was in an accident last night. I need you to give some of the Ducks a ride over to the hospital." Scooter said all of this as he want to the closet to find a nicer shirt then the ragged sweatshirt he had on. He could care less about he wore in front of the Ducks, but their goalie made him want to look at least decent.

"Why in the hell would I want to do that?"

Scooter changed into plain white long sleeve shirt. He turned around to face his roommate, "Maybe because you have just a speck of compassion?" he said while he pushed the sleeves up.

Sitting up, Rick scowled at him. "Why should I care about those damn Ducks? They can walk to the hospital for all I care."

Before Scooter could respond the door flew open to reveal Cole. His roommate Jeff Brown stood behind him.

"What's going on?" the enforcer inquired.

"Banksie got into an accident last night," Rick said. He sound uninfected by the fact that one of his classmates was hurt.

Flaming over the lack of concern his captain was showing, Scooter wanted to punch him in the face. Clenching his fists, he mentally counted to ten.

"Oh," replied Cole as he and Brown come in the room.

"And Scooter wants to take the Duckies and his stupid girlfriend to the hospital too."

Forget counting to twenty, he thought furiously as he leapt toward Riley.

But his attack on Rick never happened. Cole or Jeff tackled him from his side. He hit the floor with a thud and a gasp of air as his breath was knocked out of him.

"Chill, Scooter." It was Jeff's voice. He got up and pulled the goalie up. He glanced at his captain and enforcer. They did not look happy. Dragging Scooter out the door, "I'll handle this," he said to the others. As he and Scooter walked down the stairs, he said, "I'll help you out."

"Why?" Scooter stopped on the landing, he was not going any farther until Brown explained himself.

Turning around and looking up at Scooter, Jeff shrugged. "Cause I'm a nice guy. Besides, you don't deserve to get pounded by Cole." Not many could win fight against him.

"Thanks, I think. Go ahead to the hospital with some of the Ducks. I gotta do something first." After Brown heading to the parking lot, Scooter headed to the freshmen dorms.

Scooter got there quickly. Heading up to the dorm room Adam shared with Zack, he knocked.

After waiting about minute with no answer, he knocked again. "Alright! I'm coming!" was the reply he got to that.

Zack isn't a morning person. Scooter was not sure what was going to greet him when the door opened.

Sure enough when the door opened, a heavy-eyed Zack was on the other side.

"Adam was in accident with his dad last night. Adam is alright, but they do not know about his father who is in ICU."

Zack knew what Scooter said was true, but it was too sudden for his foggy mind to take in. "What do you want me to do?"

"Can you pack some sweats and stuff for Adam? You can come with me and the other Ducks that are coming."

"Sure…I'll be down in fifteen minutes," was all Zack said, but he did not like the idea of being around Adam's friends. Of course he did not think Scooter was going have a picnic with the Ducks either.

With that done, Scooter headed down to the student parking lot. He was pleasantly surprised to see Julie waiting for him. With her was Charlie Conway.

"Took you long enough." Leave it to Captain Duck to be polite.

Ignoring him, Scooter walked over to his car, the others following him. Before they could get in, he said, "We have to wait for someone."

"Thanks for sending one of Varsity to ride some of us over." Charlie's voice was sarcastic.

"You should be thanking me, Conway. Because your friends would be walking or riding the bus over if that was the case."

"Don't be hard on him, Scooter. We are just worried about Adam." Julie said.

"So am I." But I don't have to be an ass about it.

About ten minutes later they noticed Zack Larson heading their way. He had a duffel bag over his shoulder.

When Zack was ten feet away, Charlie walked up to him. "What do you think your doing?" he demanded.

"Going to see Adam." Zack stated while staring right back at Charlie without flinching. Charlie was taller than Zack, but he was not going to let that stop him from seeing his friend.

"Oh, really?"

"Yes."

Before Charlie could say anything, Scooter cut in. "Larson, give me the bag and get in the backseat. Conway, if you don't shut the hell up right now, your ass is walking, got it?" Scooter glared at Charlie daring him to speak. Charlie did not, but if looks could kill, he would be six feet under.

Putting the duffel bag in his trunk, Scooter could have questioned if he said anything to make Julie angry, but he did not care. She just remained quiet and got into the passenger seat.

The ride over to the hospital was quiet, save the music playing on the radio.

Charlie went in Adam's room. He was in the sweats that Larson had brought.

"Hi, Charlie."

Seeing Adam with his arm in a cast and his face bruised up hit Charlie in the gut. Up to this point he had not been sure what to expect. "Hey, how are you feeling?"

"A bit out of it I guess. They gave me some pain medicine for my arm."

"If you don't want to see anyone right now…"

"No, I don't mind."

"So, what happened after you left the arena?" Charlie did not really mean to be nosy, just wondered what happened.

Adam really did not want to go and retell the fight he had with his dad that led to the accident. He knew this was fault, and if something happened to Dad because of him…

"I really don't want to talk about it."

Charlie was not completely surprised when Adam said that. But at the same time, he wished his friend would not keep things to himself, locked up inside. But that was just how Adam was.

"That's fine, but if do want to talk-"

"I'll let you know, Charlie." Adam interrupted. To talk about something else, he asked, "Who is all here?"

"The entire team. Coach Bombay is still here. Orion is here too. So is some of the Varsity team." Charlie added sarcastically.

"Who?" Adam was slightly surprised to hear that, he did not doubt Scooter would come by if he had heard about what had happened.

"Vanderbilt and Brown. And I almost forgot," Charlie sounded anything but happy to reveal the last person, "Larson."

Nodding, Adam did not say anything. He could not change Charlie's opinion of these three. Adam knew he would have to talk to Charlie sometime, but now was not it. He was surprised that Brown wanted to help, but than he had not been one of Varsity to bother him much.

"I don't mind seeing anyone now."

"Are you up to having everyone here?" Charlie knew Adam could not see everyone at once. Everyone would what to know how he was doing and everything.

"Sure."

The next hour or more, Adam got to talk to his friends. He got a chance to talk to Scooter, Jeff, and Zack at one point too. Everyone was at least some what civil with each other, more for his sake then anything else. But the concern for his father was not too far from his mind.