"Come on team hurry up" Orion said sternly as he waited by the side of the bus. They had an away game that afternoon and they were running late.
One by one the Ducks, minus Adam, Charlie and Portman climbed onto the bus.
"Moreau, Gaffney, Tyler, Wu, Mendoza, Averman, Goldberg, Germaine, Robertson" Orion was checking them off against his list.
"Fulton"
Why doesn't anyone ever get that Fulton is his first name and Reed is his last? Connie wondered.
"Conway?" Orion's surprised tone had the rest of the team looking up hopefully.
Surely enough there was Charlie looking eager and hopeful.
"Hi Coach, I want to play two way hockey can I come back?" Charlie asked hopefully.
The rest of the Ducks waited to hear their coach's decision.
Please let him play, please let him play, the rest of the Ducks were hoping.
"Get on the bus we're running late" Orion smiled and the Ducks cheered.
Charlie took a seat next to Russ.
"Aw man you should have seen your face "Coach I want to play two way hockey"" Russ teased whilst using his index fingers to trace tears running down his cheeks.
The bus, well the people on the bus, started laughing.
"I'm glad I caught you, Coach I need a work with your boys" Dean Buckley jumped onto the bus.
"And girls" Julie pointed out reminding Connie of Tammy Duncan's outburst during detention when Bombay had said 'guys' rather than 'people'.
"Right, and girls" Buckley corrected himself.
He then launched into a speech about how there was a board meeting the next day and the Ducks were on the schedule.
Coach Orion's face was tense and when Buckley acknowledged that the Ducks will be losing their scholarships and they should seek 'other educational opportunities' Orion practically pushed the Dean off of the bus.
"Other educational opportunities? What's he saying Russ?" Dwayne was confused. He wasn't stupid it was just that unless it was put in plain English Dwayne had a hard time understanding.
"I'll put it in terms you can understand, 'Adios Amigo'" Russ said sadly.
"Adios Amigo" Oh I see" Dwayne said softly sinking back into his seat.
An argument between Orion and Buckley had the teams attention and they all scampered down the front of the bus to get a better listen.
They were shocked to hear the Dean say that the Ducks were drowning and that Orion should be glad because he could now pick his own team.
But was shocked and impressed them even more was Orion's response.
"I have my team, either they stay or I go" Orion laid his cards on the table.
"We'll miss you Ted" Buckley patted him on the shoulder before leaving.
"What a jerk" Connie said to Julie.
The Ducks piled out of the bus.
Averman was spouting some crap about Jesters until Russ held his hand up.
"Shut up!"
"Coach isn't there something we can do about this, like don't we have contracts or something?"
"Yeah" the team agreed.
"I don't know but I'm going to get to the bottom of this" Orion promised.
By the look on Charlie's face he had a plan.
………………………………...…………..
"Hey beautiful" Rick came up behind Connie and wrapped his arms around her waist.
"Go away" Connie threw his hands off of him and tried to walk away.
"Wait" Rick grabbed her hand and spun her around.
"Let go of me" Connie said menacingly.
Rick had enough sense to let his hand drop.
"What?" Rick was confused.
"Don't give me 'what' Rick, I know your father has something to do with this" Connie was mad.
"Oh the scholarship thing" Rick realised what was going on.
"YOU KNEW!" Connie yelled attracting the attention of a few students.
"Of course I knew, he's on the Board" Rick replied as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world.
"And you didn't think to tell me? No of course you wouldn't I should have seen it all along. What was it? Half when you get me to kiss you and the rest when we sleep together?" Connie exploded.
"What? No" Rick was trying to explain but she wasn't having none of it. He couldn't believe she thought he was using her for a bet.
"I can't believe I fell for it. I should have known" Connie turned to walk off again.
"Why are you so upset?" Rick was still confused.
"Because this whole time I thought you actually liked me but instead I find out you were just using me to get the Ducks out of here" Connie answered.
"You know what, fine, believe what you want, I don't care anymore" Rick thought a little reverse psychology would work. Unfortunately he didn't really know Connie that well.
She brought her hand up and slapped him hard across the face "A little incentive to stay the hell away from me" she looked like she was about to burst into flames.
"No problem there sweetheart, I can have any girl I want" Rick smirked seeing the flicker of hurt in her eyes. He knew he'd gotten to her.
"Good luck with that' Connie spat before storming off.
Rick stared sadly after her.
She was wrong; he really did like her and he was mentally kicking himself for being such a jerk.
Too late to back out now he thought.
…………………………………...……………
"I would like to point out for all students that this is a meeting and I expect all of you to keep quiet and not interrupt during the proceedings" Dean Buckley called the meeting to order.
Connie stood with the Ducks at the front of the room beside the table that contained the board members.
Tom Riley was almost smirking at them.
"What a jackass!" Goldberg whispered to Connie who smiled in agreement.
Connie avoided looking at Rick who was standing with the Varsity team directly across the room at them. Every now and then she could see him out of the corner of her eye and whisper something to Scooter behind him who didn't look all that interested in what he was saying.
"And its jackass junior" Goldberg whispered again.
Connie glanced at Rick and laughed quietly. Goldberg was right, he was a jackass.
Rick caught her eye and winked at her. She shot him a dirty look and turned her attention back to the Dean.
"I need someone to move that the scholarships be reinstated and someone else to second it. Without that the scholarships of the JV Hockey team will be revoked"
Connie and the rest of the Ducks looked hopefully at the table of board members. No one moved to reinstate them.
"Big surprise there" Goldberg nudged her again. Connie nodded her agreement.
"I'm sorry but you've left us with no choice but to bring in our attorney" Orion looked like that cat that had gotten the cream.
"We have an attorney?" Connie whispered to Goldberg who shrugged.
The doors burst open and in walked Bombay in his fancy suit and briefcase in hand.
"Gentleman, ladies of the board, Dean Buckley, I am Gordon Bombay, Attorney for the JV Hockey team and my friends, the Ducks" Bombay started as he pulled out a copy of one of the scholarship contracts and starting talking about how it becomes binding upon the recipient's signature.
"Mr Bombay this is not a legal proceeding" Buckley looked ready to kill.
"Oh not yet, Dean but I assure you it will be and I will collect damages. I am that 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" Bombay demanded.
Connie couldn't help but smile. She'd never seen the lawyer Bombay in action before. She snuck a glance at Rick who looked worried.
Good she thought happily.
Dean Buckley called again for someone to move that the scholarships be reinstated.
The lady at the edge of the table raised her hand.
"I move that the scholarships be……..reinstated" she said not sounding at all too happy about it.
"Anyone second that motion?" Buckley called.
The guy next to the lady raised his hand.
"All in favour?"
One by one the members of the Board, including Tom Riley, raised their hands.
"We have no choice" one of the members said.
"Scholarships reinstated" Buckley declared.
The room went wild. It appeared the Ducks had more support from the students than they originally thought.
Only the Varsity and the Board looked glum.
Each of the Ducks thanked Bombay and made their way out of the room.
Connie heard Bombay saying something about business in Chicago to Charlie before she was grabbed in a bear hug by Averman.
She grinned at Linda who was waiting anxiously to talk to Charlie.
And then they were confronted by Varsity led by Rick Riley who seemed to have a renewed interest in keeping Traci on his arm.
Connie rolled her eyes and glared at him.
Rick was spitting about them being kept in school on technicality.
"Its everyone's school you stupid jock" Linda snapped.
Go Linda Connie thought.
"It will never be your school" Rick snapped back at her and Traci tore her eyes away from Luis long enough to give Linda a look of distaste.
"JV/Varsity showdown is this Friday, and when we beat you we hope you'll leave on your own accord. It would the only" Rick paused to place his hand on Charlie who quickly flicked him off "honourable thing to do" he finished.
"You had an unfair advantage last time, you had one of us, Banksie" Charlie snapped.
"Oh well keep him, he never had the heart of a Warrior anyway" Rick said smugly.
Connie shot a look at Adam to find him smiling. He was a Duck again.
"One more thing Biff" Russ spoke up.
"When we beat you on Friday the Warriors die and the Ducks fly"
"Yeah whatever loser" the Warriors flipped them off and left.
Rick brushed past Connie on the way past. She stood her ground and ignored him.
"That's great Russ make even madder" Averman said sarcastically.
"Charlie what are we going to do?"
"I dunno but we've gotta get to work" Charlie led the group away from the meeting hall.
a/n thanks for your reviews and I finally managed to get this chapter uploaded. Sorry if the dialogue is wrong, I'm still just going from memory. I'll update again on Monday (its Friday lunchtime here right now)
