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.
And I'm always interested in hearing what you guys think of this. If you like it, tell me! If you hate, great!, tell me why! Please…?
Ken started out of his dream, awoken by…he wasn't sure. He sat up and squeezed his head between his hands, as if trying to wring the memories from it. He'd been at school for just over two weeks now and that dream, those memories, had haunted him for a week and a half of it. He just couldn't seem to shake it. The dream always started the same, but each time, it continued further and further. Tonight, Ken was almost glad he'd woken when he did, to keep from having to relive that…
He checked the clock – 5:08 am – and got out of bed. He grabbed some street clothes to change into for school and pulled his shoes on. Grabbing his keys and backpack, he slipped silently out of the room and down the stairs. Passing through the front doors, he began the walk to the ice rink that had become his morning ritual, more out of the need for a break from everything, especially his dreams, rather than practice.
Ken entered the arena through the back door, turned on the lights and heat and went to the locker room where all his hockey stuff was now. Ken dumped his street clothes on the bench and reached inside his locker for his skates. He dug further for a sweatshirt and uncovered the skate box he had stashed at the bottom of his locker. He sat down and stared at it for several minutes, his mind racing so fast he could barely put together a coherent thought.
He hadn't been on a pair of figure skates in years, not since joining the Ducks. Part of him still wondered if he still had it; if he could still skate like he used to. That was a dumb thought actually, of course he wouldn't be able to skate like he used to, but part of him wanted to see if he could still jump or spin or do anything at all. And part of him wondered why he was opening such a big can of worms…
Ken sighed and opened the box. He picked up one of the skates and turned it over in his hands, feeling the stiff leather, running his hands over the sharp blades.
"You're crazy." He told himself out loud. "I don't know what you think you're doing…" He sighed again, sat down and began putting the skate on. He laced it up and pulled the other one out, still wondering exactly what he was doing. Standing up, he bent his knees a few times to crease the leather and ease the stiffness.
Walking out of the locker room and down to the ice, he pulled the door open and stepped hesitantly onto the ice. He stood there for a moment, shifting his weight back and forth, trying to get used to the feeling. He hardly remembered what being on figure skates was like; he could lean further forward and backward without slipping off the blade, but…
He stopped stalling, took a deep breath and pushed off. He heard his toepick take a small piece out of the ice as he pushed and he reminded himself to push with the ball of his foot. He continued around the rink, slowly, still getting a feel for the stiff skates. Most skaters generally hated breaking in new skates and having to deal with blisters and sores, but Ken never had those problems; he liked the feeling of newer skates better because they offered more support in the ankle and he could get more speed and power.
Suddenly he leaned to far forward, caught the front of his skate and crashed to ice, hitting his knees and right elbow. "Toepick…" he muttered to himself as he sat there for a moment, rubbing the sting out of his elbow.
He picked himself up and began again, taking it slowly until he felt more comfortable on the blades. After several more laps around the ice, he began to feel better and picked up a little more speed and continuing on. An hour and a half and several more trips later, Ken felt more comfortable on the figure skates and had even tried skating backward on them. Since it was much harder to catch a toepick when you're going backward, Ken figured he'd have that down in no time. However, he also forgot that the back end of the blade didn't curve as dramatically as hockey blades did, and managed to take some painful falls backwards. But he eventually got the hang of that too and was finally ready to move on to something else.
However, it was also almost seven and class started at 7:30. Ken returned to the locker room, quickly showered and changed and raced to the cafeteria for some breakfast. He grabbed a bagel and an orange juice and grabbed a seat between Averman and Adam at the Ducks table.
"Skating again?" Adam asked him. Ken nodded.
"I've been having trouble sleeping in the mornings, so I figure I may as well get some practice in." He said. Adam shook his head.
"You're crazy," was all he said, before turning to Fulton, Portman and Charlie who were having some sort of discussion about cork. Adam stared at them for a moment or two, then turned back to Ken. "But, you're not quite as crazy as they are…" he said, shaking his head and laughing, Ken joining in.
"So what do you think?" Adam asked Ken, glancing at Julie and Connie sitting across the table, each with their head buried in a geometry book. "You ready for our first test?"
Ken sighed. "I hope so." He had studied till about 10:30 last night before giving up in favor of sleep. Not that it actually happened. "I think I'll do alright." He said, praying he was right.
After English class and the geometry test, Ken was more than ready to call it a day. Unfortunately, he still had science, history, Latin and his computer class left. Then, since it was Monday, the Ducks would have a two-hour practice with Orion, who, considering it was the off-season, was working them unusually hard. After changing from their practice clothes, the on-campus Ducks, plus Connie, Averman and Guy, an hour to rummage around the cafeteria for something that resembled dinner, then, all the Honors kids were meeting for another study session. Most of the Honors freshman found their new classes so demanding; they had to meet everyday in order to even have a prayer of keeping up. So their original group had now expanded to include Tony's roommate Luke, Julie's roommate Leiah (despite Julie's many pleas not to let her join), and two other girls from their classes; Remmy and Meg, who were both friends with Connie and Julie.
After an hour of geometry, half an hour of science and history each, the group had just begun English, which they were considering the most important right now, since they had an in class essay to write on Wednesday. They had finished To Kill A Mockingbird and had moved on to 1984, but at the moment, Ken didn't care. He was distracted, exhausted and sick of school. And he wasn't the only one. Sky was sitting next to him, leaning against the wall behind her, eyes half closed, looking very zoned out. Averman was throwing tiny bits of paper at people with a bemused expression on his face. Remmy, Meg, and Luke were discussing ways to interrupt history class tomorrow. Ken had heard conversations like this before from Fulton and Portman, but this time, the motive was different. They just wanted their teacher to slow down from his usual Mach 10 speed through the notes. For the most part everyone was being fairly low key.
Except Connie and Guy, who had been at each other's throats since lunch. Whatever happened earlier in the day had obviously been intensified by classes, practice, homework, stress, and probably having to be around each other the entire day as well, Ken guessed. Typically the Ducks just ignored them and didn't say anything, usually things blew over or were forgotten, but tonight they were being especially annoying, their argument going in circles. Even the non-Ducks were starting to look murderous.
"Enough already!" exploded Sky after Guy called Connie an "overzealous control freak" and she told him he was a "chauvinistic psycho." "What is wrong with you guys? I've never heard anyone act like this before!" she bellowed at them. Ken stared at Sky. Normally she was very laid back; he'd never seen her raise he voice at anyone.
"Why don't you two just grow up and figure out your problems like semi-normal human beings! I don't care if you aren't semi-normal!" she added as Guy opened his mouth to retort.
Silence settled over the group, everyone staring at either Sky, Connie or Guy. Finally Ken found his voice.
"Well, I don't think we're gonna get anything else done tonight. I think it would be a good idea to go over the review questions for the book, but we can all do that on our own time. If we want, we can spend some more time on this tomorrow night, but I think we'll all be okay for now."
Everyone nodded and began packing up their stuff.
"My mom'll be here to drive us in half an hour." Averman told Connie and Guy, who were both very red and not looking at each other. "Ken, I've got a question for you on Latin. Can you help me out?"
Ken nodded. "My book is in my room, come on." Ken, Averman and Adam were joined on the stairs by Guy, who looked like he'd eat live fire ants before sitting in the dorm lobby with Connie, who'd stayed to talk with Meg.
"So what's your question?" Ken asked as he opened the door to the room. He hopped on his bed and pulled his Latin book in front of him.
"I actually don't have one." Averman grinned a bit. "I just didn't want to wait in the lobby with them." He nodded in Guy's direction and shrugged.
"Yeah, so what is going on with you guys?" Adam asked Guy, who also shrugged.
"I dunno. I thought we'd be okay after a while, at least be able to be in the same room without hating each other's guts, but apparently that was expecting too much. And just in the last day or so, she's gotten ten times worse. Crazy chick."
Ken rolled his eyes, leaned back on his bed and listened to Adam, Guy and Averman talk. While his life had never exactly been normal, he was glad it didn't have this much drama.