AN: Bear with me on this one. I've been VERY depressed recently, and I'm trying to work through that, since this chapter is kind of a long one. I would like to thank all of you wonderful people who mad emy day with your reviews, even though I'd already read them: antiIRONY, punkteacher, and ChocolateCoveredJockey. You guys are the whole reason writers write! Thanks to all of you, for your reviews and for your support!

Chapter dedication: Like I promised. Christine, this one's for you. Since you're the only one who will play with me. It's Second Corinthians 5:14: "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died." Friends like you make life worth living.

"From Heaven to Hell in a Wicker Basket"

Monday morning came all too quickly, and the customary gorans about the shortness of the weekend were in obvious abundance. They were so automatic that no one really listened to any of the others.

Fulton's dark eyebrows crashed together when he saw Adam come into the mess with Scott and Riley rather than Maurae, who arrived a few minutes after, bearing a bagel in one hand. "Morning all," she said merrily, plopping into her seat. "How were your weekends?"

"Unhh," was the most common response from her sleep-deprived friends. Fulton's was different, however.

"What's he doing over there?" he demanded. She glanced where he indicated and smiled.

"Who, Adam? He's sitting with his teammates. He rather neglected them last week while we were,grieving. He thought it would probably be more appropriate to eat with them again, now that the funeral's over." Fulton wasn't the only one staring at her anymore. "What?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Why isn't he sitting with you?" demanded Dwayne heatedly. She blinked.

"Why should he be? We're not his teammates anymore, even though we're friends again." This wasn't the answer they wanted.

"Darling," Averman began in a patronizing, explaining-to-children voice. "Adam is madly in love with you. Why, then, is he sitting with his teammates, rather than the beautiful creature you are? Not that I'm complaining," he added in his own voice. "Because it means more of you for me, but still! I thought we did pretty well pushing you together on Saturday. When's the wedding?"

"You'll get an invitation in the mail," she giggled. "As for the team gossip vine, I'm disappointed. You're usually dead on with who's going out with whom."

"You mean...after all our work...you're not!" the redhead practically shouted. Maurae shook her head, smiling. To her surprise, Averman flashed her a smirk. "That's okay. I've got until the JV-Varsity game to rectify the situation." She blinked dumbly at him, then scowled.

"I don't need a matchmaker!" she screeched. Unfortunately for her, the relative emptiness of the mess worked against her. All those not already upright turned to look directly at the Ducks' table. She turned bright red and sank down in her seat a little more, but managed to catch Adam's grin from across the room. She couldn't help smiling in response. "Come on, guys, let me handle my own social life for once," she pleaded.

"Ro, I've got twenty bucks riding on when he kisses you," Averman stated frankly. If her face could have gotten redder, it would have. She glared at him.

"You're taking bets on my social life now?" she demanded. "That's low even for you."

"I know," he sighed happily. "I've hit rock bottom. I'm such a lower life-form." She stood and puched his shoulder playfully as she walked by.

"I think I'd like to know exactly what the bet was," she said, knowing no one was going to tell her. But she'd caught Averman's casual mention of the JV-Varsity game. Shrugging when no one volunteered the information she wanted, she started to walk across the room, towards Adam's table.

When she arrived, she grinned at him. He returned it. Riley scowled. For some reason, they had managed to get through the trouble he'd caused. They were friends again, and from the look of it, as close as ever. "What's up, Ro?" Adam asked, as though she hadn't parted company with him only twenty minutes ago. She tilted her head to one side and touched her cheek, winking cheekily.

"Averman's got twenty bucks riding on the results of Saturday afternoon," she told him cheerfully, deliberately using obscure words that only Adam would pick up on. His blue eyes twinkled. "Something about having until the JV-Varsity game. I'm thinking he'll win if it's pre. Dunno who he's betting against, but I'm pretty sure he'll lose if it happens after the game." Riley, tired of her word games, growled and stood.

"What are you talking about? And why are you over here, freshman?" he demanded, turning her status into an insult.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" she shot back. "I'm talking to my friend. It's what people do." She flipped her hair over her shoulder in a girlish gesture of dismissal that made both Adam and Scooter snort into their cereal, masking them as very fake coughs when their captain turned his glare on them. "So anyway, where was I? Oh, yes. I forgot toask you this morning. Did you finish looking over my geometry homework?"

"Oh, right!" He dug through his backpack under his chair and pulled out his math book. Shoved into the front cover, with his own pre-calc homework was her geometry problems. He handed them over. "You got them all right, but I corrected one of your proofs. You used like twelve steps when you could have used six or seven."

"Thanks. Do you want- Charlie!" she exclaimed, completely forgetting the question she was going to ask. Her mop-headed friend simply grinned, sweeping her into a hug and spun in a circle before setting down. Then he looked at Adam and the two traded stares until Adam smiled and stood, holding out a hand.

"Welcome back, captain," he said softly. With that, Charlie's smile grew, if possible, even wider, and her grabbed his friend's wrist firmly.

"It's good to be back again, Banksie." He motioned to the grinning Maurae with his shoulder. "You don't mind?"

"She's your friend too," was the serene reply. She threw herself on the back of Charlie's shoulders and hugged him again, right in front of the affronted Rick Riley, the amused Scott Reynolds, and the ever-confused Cole Aaronson.

"And you'd best remember it," she whispered. She looked at the Varsity boys. "Sorry to bother you so long. Ads, I'll see you in bio. Come on, captain," she said, threading her arm through his and pulling him away.

"Are you really that glad to see me, or were you just playing it up for those fools?"

"If you need an answer to that question," she mocked, "then you're more of an idiot than I thought."

"I thought so," he said quietly, pulling her into a small sideways hug. She grinned up at him, a smile that faded slightly when she thought of something.

"Have you talked to Coach Orion yet?" she asked. His face immediately soured a bit and he shook his head. "Char-lee!" she whined. "We've got a game this afternoon! You...you moron!"

"I was planning on talking to him before you all left for the game," he replied.

"Oh, come on, Conway, just say y'all like the rest of us," she teased. "And I am glad to have you back," she added as they left the mess. He mussed her hair, earning him a glare, but he was in too good a mood to care.

After she'd finished stowing her hockey bag under the bus, she filed in. "Grabeklis..." Orion muttered. "Wu..." he read off the list as Ken followed her on. She was staring out the window.

'Where is he? He said he'd talk to Orion today! He's going to miss us!'

"Mendoza...Fulton..." Orion continued to drone on. Then he stopped in surprise. "Conway?" Her head flashed up and she caught Charlie's sheepish grin from the front of the bus.

"I want to do it your way," Charlie said softly. I want to play two-way hockey." He hesitated, then offered a small but genuine smile of apology. "Can I come back?" The rest of the team waited, holding their collective breath, as cliché as that sounds, for Orion's verdict.

"Take a seat, we're running late," the man finally said, smiling. Charlie bounded up the rest of the way and made his way down the aisle, slapping hands as he went, until he dropped down next to Russ, who grinned wickedly.

"Aw, man, you should have seen your face," the black boy teased. Drawing two fingers down his cheeks in a mockery of tears, he imitated his friend. "Aw, Coach, I wanna play two-way hockey, can I come back, pleeeze?" Charlie playfully punched him. "Ow!" Russ punched him back and they started to tussle. Maurae and Julie, her seat-partner, shared a grin and a rueful headshake.

"Good, I almost missed you!" exclaimed the cheerful voice Maurae had come to loathe. About to open her mouth to tell the two boys to shut up, she whipped around in her seat and stared at the blankly cheerful face of their dean. "Coach, mind if I have a few words with your boys?"

"And girls!" Julie exclaimed, offended.

"Right, and girls," the man corrected himself with that same fake, pained smile.

"Sure, dean, but make it quick, we're running late as it is."

"This will only take a minute, but I'm afraid it's important. We're having a board meeting tomorrow and, well, you all are on the agenda. The board," he said bracingly, so that all of them were suddenly feeling twice as apprehensive, "is going to approve the withdrawal of your scholarships." The news hit them like a particularly weighty load of bricks. "Now, you'll be free to stay on until the end of the semester, but after that, it will be necessary for you to enjoy other educational opportunites."

Despite his big, fancy words, Maurae knew exactly what he was talking about. She'd been afraid of this only the week before. "Dean, can I have a word with you?" Orion ground out, and Maurae was touched both by his fury, and by his control.

"I think I've said all I need to say," Dean Buckley said, as though he sensed Orion would rather pound him into the ground than talk to him.

"No," Orion snapped. "Now." He stood up, cutting quite an imposing figure with his scowl and his brawny build. Buckley nodded and left the bus, left them staring open-mouthed in shock at each other.

"Other educational opportunities? What's he sayin', Russ?" Dwayne repeated as Maurae tried to hear Orion and Buckley. She stood up slowly as Russ explained almost gently.

"I'll put it in terms you can understand. Adios amigo."

"Oh."

They were all gravitating towards the front of the bus now, and they all heard it as Orion lost his cool. "So you're dumping them, just like that!"

"Ted, I'm sorry, but your team isn't performing, and I've been under enormous pressure-"

"From who?" Orion interrupted rather rudely. "The alumni? A group of aging pep-clubbers?"

"Ted, I'm trying to do you a favor!" Buckley exclaimed, trying to put a good spin on it. "With those kids gone, you'll get to pick your own team!" The way he said 'those kids' made it more of an insult than a distinction.

"I've got my team," Orion said coolly, firmly. "All right? Either they stay, or I go!" Warmth swept through the group of hockey players huddled just inside the bus. This was what they needed. This was the kind of coach they craved.

"We'll miss you, Ted," Buckley said, clapping a hand on his shoulder before rushing away smugly, as though he'd known Orion was going to react this way. Scoffing angrily, the team descended to the pavement.

"Can't we do anything?"Russ demanded.

"We were just pawns on a chessboard..." Averman, of course.

"Hey, I know where that dude lives," Luis growled.

"Jesters to entertain a king..."

"Can they do that?"

"Barnacles on a-"

"Shaddup!" Russ said, placing a hand in front of Averman's face, effectively cuttin him off.

"Coach, don't we have contracts or something?" Julie asked. Maurae seconded it with a nod; she'd actually read hers all the way through before signing it, much to her friends' amusement and her lawyer's pride.

"I don't know what it is," Orion replied, his eyes glittering dangerously. "All I know is that we're going to fight it."

Maurae growled and shoved the scholarship contract away from her. The others looked up expectantly. "Guys, it's the same as it was last time I read it. It says they can legally void the scolarships if they have just cause. It does no good to look up what their definition of 'just cause' is, because as far as we're concerned, it's fluid. What we need is-"

"A lawyer!" Charlie sang out as he sauntered into the room, a big grin on his face. Everyone rolled their eyes, except Adam, who looked thoughtful. If Hans' death had brought him back, this scholarship incident unified them.

"I could ask my dad if he'd mind representing us..." he began thoughtfully.

"No need to trouble him, Banksie," Charlie replied, holding the door open. "I've already found the perfect guy for the job." And in walked Gordon Bombay, with a huge smile on his face.

"Coach!" they chorused.

"Hey, Ducks. I heard you were having some trouble out here." He took off his suit jacket and swung it over the back of a chair, spying Maurae's scholarship folder in front of her. His eyebrows rose. "What've you been doing?"

She sighed, blowing some stray hairs off her forehead and out of her eyes. "They wanted me to read it through again, to be sure I didn't miss anything the first three times I read it through."

"You...actually read your contract?"

"Front to back, sideways, and diagonal, Coach," she replied. "Working on backwards now. The only thing it says about voiding them specifies a just cause requirement. But in this case, the definition for just cause is to flexible. We haven't won a game yet, but we've only played two, and the first one was a tie. I think they look at our lack of an instantaneous winning streak as their just cause in our case." Bombay looked increasingly more impressed.

"You'd make quite the lawyer, Ro," he commented at last, making her flush and grin.

"No thanks. But my mom's a lawyer, so I picked up a lot of the legal jargon along the way. She read it over with me before I signed anyway." She shrugged and lifted her hands in surrender. "If you can think of anything that would help..."

"That's what I'm here for. Why don't you get going back to Eden. I've got a copy of the scholarship contract. I'll look it over tonight and see what I can pull together for tomorrow." They looked about to protest, so he lifted an eyebrow. "Don't you have curfew? I'm sure that woul dmake a good impression tomorrow, violating curfew." That, of course, decided them. They all piled into the van Orion had driven to bring them all out to Adam's house and headed back to the school, still discussing ways to get around the board. Ideas that were quite ludicrous and even amusing. Like egging Riley's house and keying his car.

"Do I have a motion to reinstate?" Silence rang loudly in their ears. Across the room, Riley and the rest of Varsity were smirking to each other. Maurae struggled not to glare at them, instead focusing her attention on a spot above Riley's head, imagining a large stone (or an anvil) falling on his head and knocking him over. "I'm sorry, Coach, but without a motion from a board member, and a second, there's nothing I can do."

Orion didn't twitch. Maurae admired his perfect control. She was standing on her own foot, fingernails digging deep crescents into her palms, and biting her bottom lip to keep from grinning, knowing what his next move had to be. Across the room, again, she caught Riley looking at her with a smirk. He must think she was scared or something. 'Sadistic bastard!' she thought at him, then flushed pink, astonished at her own thoughts.

"Then you leave us no choice," he said blandly. "But to bring in our...attourney." His eyes swept to the door, which wa sopened from the outside. Bombay had been waiting for this cue. 'All lawyers are actors,' Maurae thought gleefully.

"Dean," the wiry man greeted him solemnly. "As representative for Coach Orion...and the freshman hockey team..."

Maurae finally lost control, despite all the pain she was putting herself in, and smiled. She got off her foot, relaxed her hands, and stopped biting her lip. For a moment, those places throbbed painfully, then it subsided. She listened blissfully to Bombay as he handled the board of diresctor briskly. She snickered silently at the dumbfounded expression on Buckley's face as Bombay thrust his briefcase into the older man's hands.

"Mr Bombay, this isn't a legal preceeding," he squeaked.

"Not yet," the confident attourney declared. "But I guarantee that it will be." Blah blah blah... (AN: Again, sorry about exact dialgue!) "These scholarships...an offer...became binding contracts upon the signatures of the recipients, and cannot be voided except for cause, which I guarantee you you have none. If you decide to pursue their cancellation, I will slap you with an injunction. I will tie this matter up in court for years, until long after these kids have gone off to college. And I will collect damages. I will win. Because I am very, very good. You know why I'm so good? Because I had a good education. You gave it to me. And you're going to give it to these kids."

He paused a moment for drama and Maurae heard Orion whisper to Charlie, "He is good."

"He's just getting started," her captain murmured back.

She lost track of things for a moment, because she felt someone touching her hand. She looked down and then up again, finding Adam watching Bombay, but reaching for her hand. She immediately seized his and held on tight. This was one of those 'defining moments', and they were going to have to face it together. He smiled slightly.

"Very well," Buckley sighed. "Do I have a motion for reinstatement?"

A ripple of apprehensive murmurs swept through the room. Then a woman sighed and lifted her arm. "I move...that the scholarships...be reinstated," she said slowly, as though unable to believe what she was suggesting.

"Do I hear a second?"

"Do we have a choice?" was the most common whisper among the remaining board members, but one finally raised his reluctant hand.

"All in favor?" Slowly, one by reluctant one, all hands went up. "Scholarships reinstaed," Buckley said formally, but the Ducks were ignoring him by then. They'd just thrown their arms around their nearest neighbor. In Maurae's case, Adam.

He whispered in her ear, "This time, I'm not letting Varsity claim me."

"Good," she whispered back, filled with smug satisfaction. Then she pulled away, still holding his hand, and moved to follow the rest of the team out of the room. She was reaching for Charlie's arm when a brunette she didn't know slipped between them.

"Charlie!" she crowed.

"Hey!" the brunet exclaimed, clearly surprised. "Sorry I was such a jerk before. But I'm staying in school. And I still owe you that Coke." Maurae and Adam exchanged confused glances at this. Charlie? And this strange girl? Why hadn't he told them? He shrugged at her and they both stopped, standing at the back end of a face-off between the school's two hockey captains.

"Congratulations," Riley said coolly. "On destroying our school."

"It's our school too," Luis said, sending apreciative and rather suggestive looks at the blonde cheerleader clutching Riley's hand.

"It's everyone's school, you stupid jock," snarled the girl on Charlie's right. Maurae's respect for her lifted a notch, though she still meant to have words with her friend before the day was over.

"No, don't you get it?" Riley sneered. "It'll never be your school. You were our own little affirmative action, brought in for color to entertain us, but you couldn't even do that. Your fancy lawyer kept you in on a technicality."

"You'll never be anything more than a bunch of rejects here on a free ride," leered Cole dumbly.

"Free ride?" Russ repeated incredulously. "Look at you, rich boy," he said, loading the words with scorn. "Mummy and Daddy gave you everything, huh?"

"Hey, Jv-Varsity game's on Friday. We'll show the whole school what a joke you really are." Riley reached out a hand towards Charlie's tie and the whole team stiffened. "Then maybe you'll leave on your own. It'd be the only...honorable thing to do," he added. His fingers just touched the silk tie before Charlie's arm snapped up and deflected him.

"Listen, you had an unfair advantage last time. You had one of us. Banksie." He jerked his head behind him to indicate his friend, who nodded and smirked. Riley eyed his former teammate, taking particular note of Adam's and Maurae's interlocked fingers.

He sneered. "Keep him. He never had the heart of a Warrior anyway." Maurae couldn't help thinking rebelliously, 'Damn straight, moron! His heart is a Duck's heart!' Adam's hand and the fact that Charlie was in her way kept her from leaping forward in a fit of temper and clouting the older boy across the jaw.

"Hey, Bif? One more thing," Russ added. "After we beat you, the Warriors die. And the Ducks fly."

"Whatever you say, loser." Then Varsity turned and walked away. Slowly, tension left the Ducks' shoulders.

"Good move, Russ," Averman said cheerfully. "Make him even madder. Charlie, man, we gotta do something."

There was new fire in Charlie's eyes. "You're right," he said slowly, his eyes suddenly catching sight of his teammates' joined hands. He raised an eyebrow and bit down on a smirk. "We've got to get to work."

AN: So, there you have it. This is turning into an epic or something! Wow! My characters are evolving. And I've decided to do at least one chapter beyond the JV-Varsity game. The victory celebration. With a little bit of flying feathers just for Jockey.

And yes, I know the chapter title had little, if anything, to do with the chapter's actual contents. But it's been a planned chapter title forever (was the original title for "Shipped Direct from Hell", I think), so...here it lies.