And…the usual disclaimer: Disney owns the Mighty Ducks. The name, the characters, Orion, the Varsity players, and Linda are not mine. However, I do own any characters you don't recognize…i.e. Ken's parents, Ken's grandfather, Elaine, Brian, Sky, Tony, Sonja, etc.
LA! I finally got my new computer (yay!!!) and finally got it hooked up to the Internet, so I'll be able to actually update occasionally now! However, school starts Monday, so I've got to cut back my fanfiction time in favor of o-chem and cell biology (ick!!!)…but I'll keep working hard on my story, so I'll try to keep updating it once a week. And, since I decided where to take this, I've got to note a few important things…one, I don't know how high school hockey works since my school was never cool enough to have a hockey team, but in this story, the hockey season goes from September (beginning of school) to October or November, depending on if you make the State playoffs. And two, I'm going to use the years the movies were released as basis for this; so the Junior Goodwill Games were in the summer of 1994, so Ken competed at the '94 Games and they all started high school in '96. Any questions? Ok.
Oh, and in case anyone's interested, Sky's snowboarding "incident"…true story. Didn't happen to me, but to one of my buddies…still, not pretty.
And big thanks and lots of cookies to percussion, Cards and KShyne99 for reviewing! It really means a lot to me…thanks kids!!!
And I would love to know what you guys think of this. If you like it, tell me! If you hate, great!, tell me why! And if you don't care either way, tell me your favorite cookie! Mine's butterscotch chip…mmm….ok, moving on.
The next morning, Ken groaned as the alarm went off at 6:30. He wasn't ready for school to start again. Only after a shower and a chocolate donut did Ken feel somewhat ready to start the day. However, the day had somehow started without him and Ken hoped he hadn't forgotten anything in his dorm. He checked his backpack; luckily he had packed some stuff the night before. He had his binder, a few schoolbooks, pens, and his class schedule; that should get him through the day.
"See you guys at lunch." Charlie called to everyone as the Ducks all headed in different directions, it seemed as though Charlie had recovered from his trauma yesterday.
Ken cut through the crowded halls to his locker to stash most of his books, there was no way he could carry those around all day. Glancing at his schedule, he kept his English novels and his geometry book in his bag; those were his first two classes.
He quickly found his English classroom and walked into an empty room; he was early. He took a seat in the second row and pulled out the geometry homework that had been assigned over break. He ran through it quickly, checking each problem as other students began to filter into the room.
"Hey, Ken, what's up?" Guy asked as he took the seat on the left of Ken's.
"Not much." Ken responded, glancing up from his work.
Ken also heard Averman and Adam's voices behind him and had just waved a hello to his roommate when he heard Guy muttering colorfully under his breath and knew that Connie had entered the room. Ken looked back and saw Connie and Julie standing by the door, looking around the room.
"Hey guys." Julie smiled at the group and led Connie over. Julie took the desk to Ken's right and Connie took the one behind it, refusing to look at Guy. Julie and Connie started a conversation with a girl sitting to their right and Ken heard Adam greet another friend of his.
Ken had just finished checking his math work when a small Asian girl took the seat in front of him and turned around.
"Hey Kenny." She grinned at him. "What's up?"
"Hey Sky," Ken greeted her. Being the only two students of Asian descent at Eden Hall, Ken and Sky had become fast friends at the beginning of their freshman year. Sky's family lived in St. Paul, but she was originally from Colorado. Her real name was Rochelle, but everyone, including her parents called her Sky, and she refused to tell Ken where the name came from. "It's a very long, embarrassing story." was all she would tell him.
"Not much. What's up with you?"
"Other than this," she said, pointing to her leg, "not much."
Ken leaned over his desk and saw a cast on her left leg and a pair of crutches sitting against her desk.
"What happened to you?" he asked her.
"Snowboarding." Sky sighed and shook her head.
"What?" Ken asked. He hadn't known her very long, but he knew Sky was an awesome snowboarder. It wasn't like her to get hurt.
"That's the less embarrassing version." She told him. "The true story is that my brother and I were goofing off on the chair lift up the mountain. He pushed me a little to far, I fell thirty feet and…" she gestured to her cast. "It wasn't pretty."
"Wow. Are you okay?" Ken asked.
"Yeah, aside from being way embarrassed, still ready to kill my brother, and stuck in this thing till February." Sky glared at the cast momentarily. "So how was your break?" she asked.
"Pretty uneventful compared to yours." Ken told her grinning.
Suddenly a sharp "Ahem" startled them and Sky turned around. Ken looked to the front of the classroom and found an older lady with grey hair standing there.
"Good morning." She began formally. "My name is Mrs. Willis and this is Honors Freshman English."
Out of the corner of his eye, Ken saw Connie raise a hand and say, "But I didn't-"
"I know none of you signed up for an Honors course." Mrs. Willis interrupted. "You were placed in this class based on your grades in your first semester freshman English course, along with your attitude and class participation. This is how students are chosen for Advanced Placement classes here at Eden Hall. Those of you that are in this course will continue on the AP track for English during your sophomore, junior and senior years. You will find the rest of your classes will follow the same plan."
"Now, if there are no other questions, take out your copies of To Kill A Mockingbird, which you all should have finished over the break. We will begin each class with a discussion of what you were assigned to read."
Ken sighed as he pulled out his book. She certainly was…focused. But at any rate, she was better than Mrs. Madigan, and her infamous "Anytime-time-I-feel-like-it-there'll-be-a-surprise-quiz-or-exam" speech.
Ken sighed as he took a plate of something that vaguely resembled macaroni from the cafeteria lunch line. Gross. It was almost enough to make him start living on sandwiches again. He pushed his tray further and took an apple; at least that was edible. He turned it over and found a squishy brown spot the size of his palm. Maybe not… He put the apple back and took an orange.
Ken took a seat at the Ducks table in between Guy and Dwayne.
"So how's your first day treatin' ya?" Dwayne asked Ken. Ken sighed again.
"Not terrible." He said, not wanting to complain much. It was going to be a long semester. Besides Engish, he had also been placed in Honors Geometry, History, and Earth Science; at least he had those classes with some Ducks. Averman, Adam, Guy, Julie and Connie had also been placed in those classes.
"It's gonna be a long semester." Averman, sitting across the table from Ken, echoed his thoughts.
"Yeah," Guy agreed. "I'm not so sure about this whole Honors thing. Shouldn't we at least be able to chose if we get stuck with this stuff?"
"This is a 'prep' school, Guy." Julie told him. "They're preparing us for college, we should be taking as many advanced classes as we can."
Portman snorted and nearly chocked on his can of soda at that remark. Returning a dirty look from Julie, Portman turned back to Fulton and Goldberg, who were laughing at something going on in the corner of the cafeteria.
Ken turned to see what they were laughing at and saw Charlie and Linda in the middle of what looked like a very heated conversation.
"What now?" Russ asked, voicing the entire table's opinion.
"Something about how he didn't get into any Honors classes with her." Connie told them. "She probably thinks he did that so he wouldn't have to spend time with her or something. How lame. She shouldn't pick on him for little things like that."
This time it was Guy's turn to snort, which set Ken and Adam off laughing. Connie stood up, knocked over her soda can, glared at the guys who were now laughing harder, took her tray and stormed out of the cafeteria. Guy, who was the first to stop laughing, shrugged, and started talking to Ken, Averman, Julie and Adam about the massive pile of homework they had already been assigned.
By 8:30 that night, Ken was exhausted. Despite the fact that it was the off-season, Orion had put the Ducks through a grueling two-hour practice after school. Now Ken sat on the floor of the dormitory common room, in a circle with Connie, Julie, Adam, Averman, Guy, Sky, and Adam's friend Tony, where the group had been slowly working their way through their homework for the past four hours.
"So the only thing we have to do for history is read The Inheritors?" Sky asked, frowning at her student planner.
"Only?" Averman exclaimed. "Have you seen that thing? It's the size of friggin' War and Peace!"
"Be thankful it's not War and Peace." Julie cut in.
"War and Peace might be more interesting. Have you guys looked at this thing yet?" Guy asked and Connie opened her mouth to respond.
"Okay." Adam interrupted, before a fight could break out. "I think we've had enough for tonight. We got everything done for tomorrow and yes, Sky, we won't have any work for history until we finish The Inheritors."
Everyone nodded and began packing up their stuff. Ken helped Sky up and handed her the crutches. "See you guys tomorrow." He yawned, waving to no one in particular.
After climbing the three flights of stairs that never seemed to end, changing in to his pj's, and brushing his teeth, Ken was asleep before his head hit the pillow.