AN: Sorry this one is shorter than usual, and sorry if I got the dialgue wrong. I haven't seen the movie in over a year, so go easy on me. This chapter's dedicated to antiIRONY, who loves it when I update.

"Mission: Unaccomplished"

They were a sad group that filed into the locker room after the game. Their first game as a high school team, and they'd tied with Blake, 9-9. Charlie was the most upset, and everyone who looked at him quickly looked away from his thunderclouded expression. "The guy hooked me, all right?" he finally said sullenly.

"We didn't need any more goals," Ken pointed out softly, exhausted.

"Hey, listen, I was trying to win it!" their captain exploded at the smaller boy.

"Well, mission unaccomplished, Charlie," Averman snapped irritably.

"Huh?" Charlie said, standing up straighter, hurting for a fight, even with one of his friends.

"Charlie!" Maurae chided just as Guy spoke up with, "We let down, simple as that."

"Hey, you let down," Connie said sharply, glaring at her off-again boyfriend...or was it on-again? "I played hard." Then she shoved past him, sweat sticking loose hair to her face. Guy rolled his eyes and the tension deepened. Maurae shook her head and went to her locker, dropping onto the bench with nothing to say. She was less disheartened by the loss than she was by the fact that Adam hadn't even cheered them on. She'd spotted him in the stands, sitting with his new teammates, merely watching passively. When Charlie had scored, she looked over and found him smiling, but otherwise neutral. And after that, after every consecutive goal, he'd merely sat with his hands in his lap.

"Yeah, man," Luis spoke up then. "No heart." As soon as the words left his mouth and Charlie started to inflate, Maurae knew he'd said the wrong thing. He seemed to know it too, because he winced and shrank back into his locker.

"What are we playing for anyway?" Charlie demanded, throwing his gloves into the chain locker. "Some stupid school? The alumni?" He yanked at his jersey, where the red and black Warriors logo was prominent. "I mean, Warriors?" He yanked it over his head. "What are we now?"

"Look, man!" Russ exclaimed, shooting to his feet, blood pounding. "We're on scholarship." He shook his head ruefully. "I'm staying."

"Fine, sellout," Fulton growled, the combination of Portman's desertion and the loss making his temper short.

"Man, who you callin' a sellout, punk!" Russ shouted, shoving Fulton, who responded by jumping back at him. Half the team dove in between the boys to try and stop it, only to end up fighting with someone. Even Maurae's temper was at boilong point and she jumped in to try and salvage their team spirit a little.

She didn't get far, because the door slammed against the wall and the bang startled them into letting go of each other. "How long does it take to score a goal?" he asked, voice hard. He pulled back his arm and the whole team ducked reflexively as the game's puck sailed over their heads to thud into the bulletin board, leaving a sizable dent. Fascinated, Maurae watched the positions list float gently to the floor. "Less than a second!" Orion continued, now that he had their undivided attention. "That means no lead is safe, if you can't play defense! Now, I want one number on your minds, ZERO as in, shutout. You got that?" He was standing firmly in front of Charlie, whose face had gone from angry to mulish, to mutinous. "You got that?" Dead silence. Orion turned angrily. "Practice. Tomorrow, five am. You got to get up early if you want to hunt goose eggs." And then he left, leaving them in silence.

With an almost universal sigh of release, they broke up to go to their own lockers and get dressed. It was Guy who noticed it first. "Hey, who took my clothes?" Instinctively, the rest checked their own lockers and Maurae had a sudden sinking feeling. Her locker was closest to the showers. Showers which were running.

"I think I know," she said softly, motioning with her chin towards the steaming tiles. The others leapt forward to look.

"They put our clothes-?" Goldberg blurted, stumbling into Averman from behind, his eyes widening when he saw the soggy mess on the floor.

"That answers your question, doesn't it?" Averman replied. Goldberg rolled his eyes at his friend. Maurae pulled off her skates and thick socks, stowing them in her locker. Then she ducked into her overlarge jersey and pulled off her pads underneath it, tossing them into her bag. Next came the rest of her padding, until she was left in the pair of stretch pant and the undershirt they all wore under their gear. She pulled on her normal shoes and stood.

"I think I know what Adam was going to tell me after detention today," she said in a low voice. "I'm going to head over to my room to get some clean clothes. Anyone want me to bring them theirs?" She received head shakes; they would just change in their rooms and take private showers for once. Maurae tried to ignore the significant looks Russ and Julie were exchanging, and decided that she didn't want to know what kind of revenge they were already planning.

Instead of going to her room, Maurae took a side trip back into the rink, where Varsity was just finishing their warm-ups in preparation for their own face-off against Blake. She hurried to the seats behind the team's box, ignoring the reproachful looks she was receiving from the board members.

"Adam," she said from right behind him. On either side of him, Riley and another boy she knew was named Mike Larson, turned to look. They snorted with amusement upon seeing her attire. She knew she looked ridiculous. Adam looked up and blinked. "You knew about this?" she asked simply. He nodded, his blue eyes meeting hers squarely, telling her he'd tried to warn her. "You tried to stop it?"

"Oh, Banksie kept telling us it was a bad idea," Larson said with a leer for her, though Riley shot him a glare. The captain's idea had obviously been to make her think Adam had condoned it.

"Sorry, Ro," Adam said in an almost-whisper. She nodded, her eyes slightly warmer. Then she turned and left, hurrying back to her room to shower and change.

"You did what?" Maurae screeched at the lunch table the next day. Julie clapped a hand over her mouth and dragged her back into her seat. People had turned to look at them, still whispering about the tie. "Oh, Jules, please tell me you didn't..." she moaned, burying her face in her hands. Her foremost thought was, Serves them right, followed closely by, I could have warned Adam. Which is probably why Julie was only telling her now, instead of before, when they actually planned the prank.

"Yeah," Russ smirked. "Frozen solid, every single one. And...you saw the messgae they left for us on the wall, right? We left them a similar message on the high wall. It'll be harder to get off, too." He and Ken slapped palms, grinning. The rest of the team looked pleased, so she smiled, though it was more pained than amused.

"It'll be fine, Ro," Charlie said, shrugging.

"Why didn't you tell me this morning?" she asked. "Or last night?"

"Because we didn't get the chance. You and Carrie ate breakfast together this morning, and last night you never came into the study room." Maurae shook her head. "And Adam is in our classes this morning, so we kind of expected him to say something. But when he didn't..."

"Oh, no! You guys!" she groaned, covering her ears. Julie smiled and patted her arm.

"Relax, Ro," she said soothingly. She would have said more, but Averman cleared his throat and chuckled into one hand.

"Check out the new jackets, guys," he said through his laughter, which he'd disguised as coughing. Almost as one, they turned to look, but Charlie whipped back around when he found his eyes level with Riley's armpit.

"Congrats on the Blake game!" the Varsity captain all but roared. Charlie started to scowl, a danger sign. No one made any mention fo the previous night's pranks, though Maurae was sorely tempted. There was something in Riley's smile that made her uneasy.

"Yeah right, we tied," Charlie growled.

"Hey, a point's a point," Riley assured him. "You guys proved your guts. We're all Warriors now." She wasn't entirely sure he was even referring to the game anymore, which confused her slightly. Were these pranks just the Varsity's way of hazing? Of initiating the newcomers? "You all set for dinner Friday?"

That threw them all off. "Dinner?" Charlie repeated.

"It's an Eden Hall tradition," Riley said smoothly. "Varsity got to treat the freshmen to dinner. So round up your posse and meet us at...six. At the MInnesota Club downtown. Any body need a ride, we can take you. You guys do like steak and seafood, right?"

"Ph-yeah we do!"

"Good." He straightened and motioned with his head for the rest of his team to follow him out. Cole stepped towards the table and frowned.

"Look, I don't like you pukes, all right?" he began, causing a ripple of stifled giggles down the table. No one seemed to be immune, either. Behind him, Adam rolled his eyes. "But this is tradition. And at Eden Hall, I learned to care about tradition." He tapped Adam's shoulder and started off to follow the rest of the team.

Adam grinned. "It's cool!" he assured them. Then he hurried off.

"It's cool."

"Banks says it's cool."

"I guess we'll go, then."

Maurae breathed a sigh of relief that the feud had finally worn down. Life was already exhausting enough without having to worry about being hazed by the Varsity boys.