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.
Well, so much for being productive over break…classes started Tuesday; blech.
Flat*Out*Crazy – I hate that too…but my favorite is when I've got an exam the Monday after spring break…whose dumb idea was that?!? And as for Ken's spring break…read on to find out!
Gina, Pixie and Kaila – Thanks for your reviews…I'm glad you're all still enjoying it!
"I'm so glad you're home." Ken's mother told him, hugging him for the tenth time since his parents had picked him up from the airport.
"Mo-om, you've told me that twelve times already! Besides, I've only been gone two and a half months." He told her.
"It's a mother's prerogative." She insisted before telling him to take his stuff upstairs and not leave it in the hallway.
Ken dropped his suitcase and backpack on his bed and went downstairs to the kitchen, where his grandfather was already seated at the table. Ken sat in the seat next to him as his mother looked at him expectantly.
"So, what do you want to eat?" She asked. "You can't have eaten well on that plane."
After one of the best tasting home-cooked meals he'd had in years, Ken headed back upstairs to his room to unpack. He quickly unpacked his clothes, piled his school stuff on the small desk, and left both pairs of skates in his hockey bag on the floor. He sat on his bed for a moment, deciding whether he had the energy to tackle some more reading for school; while it was barely nine now, Ken was still on Minnesota time where it was nearly eleven. He pulled his copy of 1984 towards him, debating whether he had enough energy to work on his essay.
"Ken?" He heard his mother knock on the door.
"Yeah." Ken responded. His mother stuck her head in the door.
"Can we come in?" She asked. Ken nodded.
His mom and grandfather came into his room. His grandfather stood near the door and his mother sat on the edge of his bed. Ken looked at them both expectantly.
"How's school going?" His mother asked.
"Pretty well." Ken replied. "My classes are pretty hard, but some of them are interesting. And I'm doing well in all of them." He grinned.
His mom smiled back. "And how about skating? Your grandfather tells me you're improving a lot." Ken nodded again. "I've gotten a lot of my triple jumps back; I started landing triple flips last week."
"That's great." His mother smiled again. "And are you enjoying it?"
Ken thought about that. As much as getting up at un-Godly hours in the morning was most definitely not fun, the early mornings were definitely worth it. "Yeah." He said. "I guess I didn't realize how much I missed it until I started again."
"Have you given any thought to where you want to take it?" Ken's dad asked, appearing in the doorway.
Ken considered his question. He had always skated competitively. Even at four years of age, he liked competing. At that age, he just loved the thrill of being better than the other skaters. As he grew older, his grandfather taught him to view competition as a way to push himself even more; not just to be better than the other skater, but to be better than the last performance he had skated. Right now Ken was happy relearning everything, but then what? He looked from his dad to his mom to his grandfather.
"Your grandfather says he thinks you have the potential to be competitive again." His dad told him.
"I'm not sure – really?" Ken stopped mid-sentence and looked at his grandfather.
"Really." His grandfather smiled. "You are progressing much quicker than any of us expected. I see no reason why you could not compete if you wanted to. You would have to put more time in, of course, begin a training regiment again. But I think you would do very well."
Ken sat in silence, feeling a bit stunned, and not really sure how to respond. His mom must have noticed because she spoke up.
"Ken, you've got a whole week here. You could spend it training and decide then if you want continue and compete."
Ken nodded. "I guess I could try it."
Ken parents and his grandfather nodded and left the room, his grandfather saying he would call the rink to find out ice times. Ken quickly changed and crawled into bed; he knew he had a long week ahead of him.