Disclaimer: I do not own the Mighty Ducks or any of its associated copyrights.

Thank-you to my reviewers!

Punkteacher: Thanks for being my first reviewer. I really appreciate it!

Banks'-gurl-99: Thank-you for your kind words and I hope you like this chapter.

Rachel: Sorry it took me so long to update. Thank-you for reading.

Kel: Adam will get mad at the Ducks soon. It's just he has been raised as a levelheaded person who has been trained to be courteous and a gentleman and not lose his temper. Yes, Adam's mother is dead, which will be explained in more detail in upcoming chapters.

CHAPTER TWO – Fire Ants

ADAM'S POV

Tonight was a complete disaster. How could he, the Adam Banks, let varsity trick him into tricking the ducks to pay for a very expensive dinner? The anxiety weighed down on Adam so much that it physically hurt. The ducks will never speak to me again now, he thought.

For a few hours Adam lay there thinking horrible things and listening to his roommate Nick Larson's snores. Finally becoming fed up, he got up, quickly dressed and decided to use this time constructively. Grabbing his books and satchel, Banks headed off to the library.

It was pretty cool that the school had a twenty-four hour library and computer lab. But, it was after dorm curfew and he didn't have permission to leave his room so Adam glanced quickly down the corridor and confirmed the coast was clear before making a dash to the library. Adam thought he heard something going on down the other end of the corridor, but it was probably the janitor if anything at all. Shrugging it off and not wanting to get caught, he didn't give it another moment's bother. Little did Adam know …

SCOOTER'S POV

He was itchy and burning all over. His body screamed in pain. There was something crawling all over him. This was the way that Scott Whyte woke up late in the night. Oh dear god it burned! Scooter's roommate Riley turned the light on and he saw that himself and Riley were covered in ants! Fire ants to be exact. Judging by the noise in the corridor so was the rest of varsity.

Riley finally managed to open the door and run out into the corridor, but Scooter could barely move. He was severely allergic to ant bites as well as oregano, but the oregano wasn't a problem at the moment. He couldn't think. He couldn't breathe. He tried in vain to swat the ants off but weakly fell back onto his bed with a thud. The room began to fade when he heard Riley say, "Tomorrow. Dawn." Before everything went black and Scooter not knowing if he were ever to wake up again.

ADAM'S POV

Adam packed up his books and headed back to his nice comfortable bed feeling slightly less restless now. Secretly he crossed the grounds and entered his dorm building. As he entered the hallway where the varsity players lived he noticed all the doors to the rooms were open. Odd, thought Banks. There was no one around. He peered around into each room until he finally found one person. Scooter.

Adam entered and walked over the Scooter when he noticed that there were ants everywhere. Scooter was bitten all over too. "Scooter" Adam said nudging him slightly. No response. "Scooter" he said again more forcefully and poking him pretty hard in the ribs. No response. It was then that Adam noticed that his breathing was laboured and his face was all sweaty and pale.

Panicking slightly, Adam grabbed the phone and dialled 911. It took the ambulance a pain-staking 8 minutes and 27 seconds to arrive according to Banks's watch. The paramedics immediately began to work on Scooter.

They hooked him up to a heart monitor, an IV and some oxygen. They performed tests on Scooter that Adam didn't really pay attention to. His attention was fixed on the sickly face of his teammate, the only varsity player who had been nice to him.

Adam reflected on his first training session with varsity. It felt like every single player was out to show him how tough they all were, and they did. Adam had played rough hockey before but had never received such brutal treatment from his own team. Finally the session finished and the team were changing the locker room. Adam sat down on the bench next to his locker. His body willed to fall on the ground so he could fall asleep and moan in agony, but Adam dared not show any sign of weakness. Adam was concentrating so hard on not showing his pain that he did not realise Cole and Riley walk up to him.

Cole grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and lifted him clear off the ground slamming him into his locker. Riley shoved his head almost right against Banks' so that he could feel his hot breath on his face. "You listen here Banksie. You give us any trouble or show any Duck loyalty and I will personally give you trouble. You're on varsity now." Riley smoothed over Adam's hair "Well you've got to look respectable now that you're actually on a real team." The other varsity players sniggered as Cole dropped him back onto the bench with no tenderness.

As the team filed out behind Riley and Cole, they each shot a menacing glance at Adam as though daring him to not do as they told him to just so that they would get the opportunity to show him who's boss.

Finally, Adam was alone. He slouched down on the bench and closed his eyes. Suddenly he heard footsteps coming from down the other end of the locker room. Snapping to attention and opening his eyes, Banks saw that it was Scooter. But to Adam's surprise, rather than ridiculing him, he walked directly up to him and smiled a genuinely friendly smile, the smile Adam knew made the girl's crazy. "Hi. I'm Scooter." "Adam Banks. Nice to meet you." "Same here Banks."

All of a sudden Scooter leaned in and whispered to Adam, "Don't worry about those guys. Most of them are just mucking about with you. They really don't have anything against you; actually they think you are a pretty good player. So just give them time." "And the rest?" enquired Banks. "They're jealous. You have much more natural talent than they have combined. No one has ever made varsity in their junior year. They are just worried you will take their position." Adam nodded. It seemed to make sense.

"Just hang in there Adam, and you will see how great the guys can be. And for those that are jealous of you, as soon as they realise what a great person you are, they will be ashamed of themselves for not liking you." With that and a comforting clap on Adam's shoulder, Scooter exited the room with Banks staring gratefully behind him.

Waking Adam from his thoughts, the shorter tanned medic to said to the older one said, "his throat is closing over. We need to intubate now." Immediately before Adam's eyes the paramedics stuck a tube down Scooter's throat and had to help him breathe. The medic's quickly came to the conclusion that he was allergic to the ants and gave him anti-venom.

"We have to get him to the hospital now." Adam broke his silence and asked worriedly, "is Scooter going to be okay?" "Scott here is allergic to the ant bites and while we have given him an anti-venom it may not be enough to compensate with the ant bites or we may have been too late. Do you want to ride to the hospital with us?" Banks nodded. It felt like the good friendly thing to do. Scooter had been there for Adam and Adam was determined to keep the favour.

The trip to the hospital was fast and uncomplicated until as they approached the hospital, the heart monitor suddenly flat-lined …