Adam would never forget that day everything changed.
He had been going on with his life as usual, picking on the members of District 5, practicing at all hours to improve his skills in order to make his father proud, and lying awake at night thinking about Jesse Hall.
The Hawks were warming up for a game when the coach for District 5...or the Ducks as they were now known and some man Adam didn't know showed up. When Coach Riley called him over, Adam's heart began to beat rapidly. When they told him he was playing for the wrong team and should instead be playing for District 5, Adam couldn't believe it. This couldn't be happening. Two thoughts raced through his head.
One, his father demanded that he uphold the Banks family tradition by playing for the Hawks. There was Hawk memorabilia all over his house. He knew that if he couldn't be on the Hawks anymore, his father would be furious.
Two, if he were on the Ducks, he'd be on the same team as Jesse Hall, and he just couldn't do that. It was hard enough dealing with his emotions when the only contact they had was when their teams faced each other and when they would run into each other with their respective teammates and he was forced to degrade Jesse, even though it killed him. But being on the same team? Being that close to him everyday? Not to mention knowing that Jesse probably hated him for all he'd done to him and the rest of the Ducks.
His father's voice brought Adam out of his thoughts.
My son would rather not play than play for your team.
Adam couldn't believe his ears. His father hadn't meant that, had he? He knew he had to play. He loved hockey, and he wasn't ready to give that up yet. But the main reason he knew he had to play was because of his father. Hockey was the only thing he and his dad had in common. His abilities were the only reason his father was proud of him. He knew that if he didn't play hockey, his father would care even less about him than he already did.
No. He had to play. He'd be a Duck.
He just prayed he wouldn't pass out the first time Jesse Hall confronted him.
He remembers that first meeting in the locker room as clearly today, years later, as he did the day it happened.
He walked in, his Hawks bag slung over his shoulder because it was the only bag he had for his hockey stuff, and all conversation stopped. The first one he saw was Jesse. Of course it was, he thought to himself. He cast his eyes to the ground, his heart beating nervously against his chest.
One of them took a step to welcome him, but was stopped by Jesse.
Cake-eater.
He said it with such disdain Adam felt about an inch tall. One by one, the Ducks followed Jesse out of the room, the one who had originally tried to welcome him the last to go. He remembered him from purposefully knocking him down during a previous game. He would later learn his name was Charlie Conway and he would eventually become Adam's closest friend, aside from Jesse, of course.
He had noticed his new jersey when he had first entered the locker room. He remembered when he first heard that District 5 had become the Ducks. His father was talking about how ridiculous of a name that was and that it didn't change anything about them. Adam had remained silent, but inside he was happy. He hoped this had meant that District 5 would get some of the respect and support they deserved.
He saw that his number had been changed from 9 to 99. He wondered why that had happened until he saw that Jesse was number 9. As he was changing by himself, he almost laughed to himself. It almost seemed like destiny that they had had the same number on rival teams and now he was forced to change his...either destiny or simply fate laughing at him.
It would be years before it dawned on him that Coach Bombay had been number 9 on the Hawks too. Maybe it was destiny afterall.
At the start of the game, all of the Ducks were still hostile towards him, but after he scored a goal, it seemed to have lifted it all from them. From that game on, the Ducks all eventually warmed up to him.
All of them except Jesse.
It was killing Adam that of all of them, it was him who still wouldn't let his grudge go.
And then the phone calls started.
Almost every night, Adam would receive calls from members of the Hawks, threatening him. When Coach Bombay surprised them with a trip to a North Stars game, he saw two of the Hawks making signs at him and did his best to hide his face. It didn't help much that Jesse was watching him the whole time.
When the Ducks made the finals, Adam was both excited and nervous. He knew they'd have to face the Hawks.
As they stood in line for the national anthem, Adam cast glances at his former teammates, the anxiety building in his stomach. He could also feel Jesse's eyes on him, directly behind him.
He felt like he was going to have a heart attack. From the stress of dealing with the Hawks and Jesse having such animosity towards him or simply from being in such close proximity to the one he had been thinking about non-stop, he didn't know.
TBC