((Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the ducks. Not the movies' characters or the actual NHL team. Just the non-movie characters are mine. From Yesterday is a song by 30 Seconds to Mars))

Julie's POV
I was sitting across from Averman at the lunch table. I hadn't even eaten anything yet because I was too busy trying to finish my English assignment that was due next period. Guy was sitting two seats down from me, not daring to come any closer because Connie was sitting next to Averman. The remaining five members of the team were sitting there without Charlie, Fulton, Russ, Ken, Luis and Goldberg. Adam was sitting with the varsity team, and he wasn't very happy about it. Goldberg plopped down next to me and slid a tray of cookies under my nose. I'm so hungry, was all I could think when I saw it. Not to mention I was craving chocolate.
"Just wanted to congratulate you on being number one. I didn't have time to bake you a cake so I bought you a yummy array of goodies."
"Thanks, Goldberg." I'm not sure what he said after that because he handed me a pastry filled with crème and my mind went elsewhere. I followed it up with three cookies and a chocolate frosted cupcake. Ken sat down on the other side of Guy and ate the other half of Dwayne's sandwich.
"I really hate those guys." He said in between bites.
"Has anyone seen Charlie?" Connie asked the table, looking curiously around the cafeteria.
"He was with Russ and Fulton, who knows what they're up to." Dwayne answered before taking a huge bite of his salami sandwich.
"Why is he you're new boyfriend?" Guy murmured under his breath. I don't think he had meant to say it out loud, but too late.
"Excuseme?" Connie asked, extremely offended.
"Nothing. I just figured you've probably moved on by now. Seeing as how you hate me so much."
"YOU BROKE UP ME, GUY." She yelled at the top of her lungs.
"Oh like it wasn't coming anyway. You were interested in other guys while we were together."
"Screw you!"
Just then Charlie managed to clap Goldberg on the shoulder before running full speed out of the cafeteria. Closely behind him were Russ and Fulton with giddy smiles on their faces and at their heels the entire Varsity team, including Adam and the cheerleaders behind them.
"What the hell?" Averman yelled, everyone else was screaming.
"Let's go, let's go!" Goldberg added while getting up from his chair and following the pack. I got up and ran after them along with the rest of the student body.
Sadly that was the highlight of the day, all of my afternoon classes passed in a blur, I'm pretty sure I fell asleep during one. After dropping my books in my locker I grabbed my bag and dragged myself to practice, feeling tired and pretty sick also. Once we were dressed and on the ice, Orion was already waiting.
"You're late, ten laps right now." He blew his whistle. We lined up and started skating. "And hurry it up, we're going to have a scrimmage when you finish." On the eighth lap I felt my stomach gurgle and puked into the penalty box. Surprisingly I felt better after that and managed to finish my laps. But Goldberg was already warming up in the net. I skated around while everyone was playing, not wanting to sit on the bench.
"That's how you attack life, even when you think you don't have any control. And that's how you play real defense." For a minute there I thought he was going to cry. "Alright, twenty more laps then you're free to go."
I skated very quickly, wanting to get out of there soon as possible. I had a chemistry lab to finish and needed to get to the library. I showered and put my clothes back on. As I was leaving the locker room I bumped into Adam.
"Oh hey. Just finish practice?" He asked me.
"Yeah, you?"
"Same, I'm heading home though. I know we made plans for the great cafeteria food but I have to have dinner with my Dad."
"Oh no problem. I have so much homework to do. But we have to hang out soon, I miss you." He smiled. He leaned forward and kissed me lightly. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion.
"What?" He asked.
"What happened to your eye?" The smile disappeared from his face.
"Nothing just, hockey stuff."
"Did one of the guys punch you?"
"It's just an initiation thing. Don't worry about it, I'm fine. I gotta go catch the bus though. See ya." He kissed my cheek then left. I sighed, angry that one of those morons had actually hit him, but ran off to the library anyway. I wasn't going to get involved, I trusted Adam's judgment, and he would've told me if he was in any real trouble.
I sat down at a table in the back of the library with only one other occupant and dumped my books on the table. I opened my chemistry textbook and started the assignment, not looking at the person across the table from me. I hadn't seen his face but I had seen one of those notorious red jackets, and had no intention of talking to him.
The hundred year old librarian turned on the fan and the loose-leaf paper he was writing on flew across the table onto my book. I autonomously read the name at the top and my eyes darted upward when I did.
"Scott Holland?" His face confirmed my suspicions. He was the Scott that I had almost lost my virginity to before he moved away.
"Hey Gaffney." He smiled and took his paper from me. My mouth was probably wide open in shock. I mean c'mon, this was impossible. I thought I was never gonna see this kid again.
"I…I, uh, I thought you moved to Hartford."
"Yeah I did, but I'm here on scholarship." He said calm as ever, and then went back to writing.
"But you've seen me this entire week and never came up to me?" I asked confused. Had I seen him earlier, I would've spoken to him.
"I'm sorry, Gaff. I just got the impression that your team wasn't allowed to talk to my team."
"You're one of the varsity assholes?" He laughed in response. "But, I um didn't notice you be—before."
"That's because I don't dedicate my time to torturing the JV team quite like the rest of the guys. And on the ice I'm usually the one behind the huge goalie mask."
"Oh." I said, the stupidest response ever. I was very dumbfounded and tongue tied. We were friends for years on opposing teams living in Maine before we started going out. Then that really awkward night where I had almost slept with him, chickened out and then viciously dumped him. I felt bad, but he moved away a week later so I completely erased it from my mind. Now he was sitting here in front of me, over a year later looking even hotter than he had been before.
"So you kicked my cousin's ass. It was amazing, I was in the crowd." I was confused before I remembered that he had once told me about his cousin, Gunner Stahl.
"Oh." Stop saying that! "Um yeah. I mean if it was good enough to earn me a scholarship here then yeah I guess it was pretty good."
"You were always really great. I'm glad you finally got out of Kennedy where the hockey team sucks. And away from you're parents, which I'm sure you're thrilled about."
"Yeah, thanks." Was all I managed to say. He knew me so well it was scary.
"I'm gonna go eat dinner. Good luck at the game tomorrow."
"Okay…bye." I stared at the spot his had been sitting in for ten minutes, the same shocked look on my face. Once I finally tried to finish the assignment, I couldn't concentrate, so instead I just packed up my books and went back to my empty dorm. Then I did what I always liked to do when I was stressed out. I put on my sneakers and ran until I couldn't breathe. It was my own special form of therapy. Running or skating, either one usually does that trick. After that I went back to the dorm, took a shower and went to sleep without so much as a word to Connie. At least it was almost the weekend and tomorrow was our first game, and I was starting.

End POV

The next morning Julie and Connie were in the bathroom of their suite. It was shared by eight girls which you can imagine is very difficult especially in the morning. Connie was at the sink braiding her hair when another girl came and stood next to her.
"You're on the hockey team right?"
"Yeah…" Connie gave Julie a side glance and Julie raised her eyebrows.
"Do you know if Luis Mendoza has a girlfriend?" While it was just one annoying bleach blonde asking, other girls were listening intently.
"No he doesn't have a girlfriend. But I wouldn't go there if I were you."
"What about Charlie Conway?" Julie coughed with laughter on her toothbrush.
"No I heard he asked Linda out." Someone else said before either of them could answer. Connie rolled her eyes and headed toward the door, with Julie right behind her.
"They have groupies!" Julie said, her face lighting up with laughter. It was the funniest thing she had heard of.
"Luis, maybe. But Charlie, seriously? Do they have any idea how much of a dork Charlie is?"
"Guess not. That just made my day."
Until the game that really was the highlight of both their days. Every teacher seemed to see Friday as quiz/test day, so by three o'clock they were itching to get on the ice.

After everyone was dressed, Orion came into the locker room and said a few words. Well the only thing anyone heard was defense and score because those were the things he chose to yell. As they were leaving Connie and Julie came on either side of Charlie.
"You both ready to play?" He asked.
"Sure…so we were just wondering, whose Linda?" His helmet fell off the top of his stick and he stumbled over his skates on the way to pick it up. He walked ahead of them after that, but they got their desired reaction.

"…C'mon. Alright, think defense. Hands in." They all brought their hands together and started the usual quacking. "What the hell is that knock that off." Everyone looked around at each other. Was he serious? First the jerseys and now they couldn't even quack? "Go team, on two. Ready, one, two…"
"Go team." Everyone said without the slightest bit of enthusiasm.

Charlie won he face-off and passed to Fulton who skated into the Bear's zone and passed back to Charlie, who scored. The band started up and the sirens went off. Seriously one goal was that big a deal? Then a few second later, Russ did a knuckle puck that knocked out the goalie and Connie shot it in.
2-0. Yay, great, but Julie was incredibly bored on the other side of the ice.
Yes, Julie thought as they came toward her with the puck. But before they were even in her zone Luis with Averman's help got possession back and started toward the other end. Luis scored, but slammed into the boards. The score was 4-0. (a/n: not sure when that happened but hey that's what the scoreboard says.) After Dwayne scored Julie started doing laps inside the circle. Then Averman got hooked but Fulton managed to score anyway. The second face off Charlie also won which led to Fulton scoring again. So of course Julie was now so bored she was singing and doing figure skating movements. Averman passed to Luis who passed to Charlie who scores. Period 3…and Julie has yet to do anything as the score was now 9-0. Averman takes the face-off which he lost, but Fulton somehow got the puck, but as he was shooting lost it. Connie got it back but missed her shot. Averman passes to Fulton who passed to Luis who
passes to Charlie, who looses the puck. Three of the Bears pushed Julie back into the net and scored. Shit.
The puck got caught behind the net, Julie got and passed it to Fulton, who passes but it gets intercepted and they score again Then their entire team swarmed the bet and Julie kept diving to catch the puck. It was only a matter of time before—they scored again. The score was now 9-5. Without even a single pass they shot again. Thankfully Dwayne gets the puck, but gets flipped as they rave back towards the net. Charlie falls and they score…again. 9-7. The only way this could be worse if we actually lose. Or if you loose your captain for unsportsmanlike conduct. Orion motioned Julie over to the bench.
"It's a total breakdown up front, it's up to you."
"No prob, cat lady." So much for that. Blake swarmed again and Goldberg got caught of the net, 9-8, 30 seconds net. Just as Blake pulled their goalie Charlie got out of the box. He skated fast towards their goal without passing and just as he was going to shoot he got hooked from behind. With barely any defense Blake scored tying up the game just as the buzzer sounded.

The mood was somber as everyone filled back into the locker room. Everyone looked at Charlie for an explanation, because usually this would be the moment that he made everyone feel a bit better about losing. Instead he threw his equipment toward the showers.
"The guy hooked me, alright?"
"We didn't need anymore goals." Ken said facing him. Nobody wanted to deal with Charlie's bitchiness right now.
"Hey listen I was trying to win it!" He said getting in Ken's face. Julie took of her jersey and sat down, waiting for the bitch fit to commence. Averman decided it was his turn to instigate. "Well mission not accomplished Charlie." I'll say. Charlie turned away from Ken and started towards Averman.
"We let down, simple as that." Guy commented.
"Hey, you let down. I played hard." Connie said pushing Guy out of the way.
"Yeah, man. No heart." Luis said quietly.
"Well what are we playing for anyway?" Charlie said while throwing all of his uniform at the opposite wall. "Some stupid school? The alumni?" Oooh, Charlie blaming his problems on something else, there's a shocker. "I mean Warriors? What the hell are we now?"
"Look man. We're on scholarship. I'm staying." Russ told him.
"Fine, you sellout." Fulton said bitterly. Uh oh…
"Man who you callin' a sellout, PUNK!" That's when Russ pushed Fulton, so Charlie pushed Russ then Averman, Luis, Guy, Dwayne and Connie all got involved. And that was the lovely moment our new coach walked in on. He chucked the puck so hard at the board that it cracked.
"No lead is safe if you can't play defense. Now get this straight. I don't give a damn how many goals you score. I want one number on your mind, zero as in shut out. YOU GOT THAT?" You could've heard a pin drop. "Practice, tomorrow morning, 5 a.m. Gotta get up early if you wanna hunt goose eggs."(a/n: if anyone knows what the hell that means, could you tell me?) Unbelievable amounts of maturity we have on this team, Julie thought to herself while going through her bag. Guy then voiced exactly what she was thinking.
"Who took my clothes?" And I thought our team was immature. "Freshmen Stink.", well that's original. And we're the JV team, might I add.
"They are not getting away with this…" Julie said harshly. "I have an idea. Anyone who is in, meet me at the Chemistry labs in half an hour. Bring your practice gloves and shaving cream."

It was a sight to see the entire JV team walking to their dorms in sweat-soaked shirts, borrowed gym shorts without shoes.
Julie got showered and dressed quickly so she was the first one at the lab. Russ and Ken showed up soon afterwards. Dwayne came down and Connie some time after that.
"So what's the plan?" Russ asked.
"Well since the only one of us who pays attention in class is here. Ken could you enlighten the rest of the group as to what liquid nitrogen is used for?"
"It's used for a lot of things but in lab we use it as a refrigerant."
"A fridge what?" Dwayne asked.
"It freezes things cowboy." Russ explained. "And you want to turn their locker room into a winter wonderland."
"It's only fair after they turned ours into a sauna. It shouldn't take too long. There's a huge tank behind the lab building and right next to that is the rink."
It took them a few minutes to transfer the tank. Julie, Russ and Ken went inside while Connie watched the back door and Dwayne watched the front door. Russ and Julie lifted Ken up to write their message on the wall with shaving cream. Once they were finished they put it back and everyone went their separate ways.
Julie was staying at Connie's house for the weekend since her sister, Taylor was staying at their grandmother's. The two girls sat together on Connie's bed.
"So…how are things going with Guy?"
"They're not. He's becoming such a prick."
"Don't let it bother you."
"I don't. So how's the affair?"
"It is not an affair. Dean and I are broken up. And Adam and I aren't really even a thing. It's just complicated."
"Boys are always complicated."

12-28-06

I swear to you I did not intentionally not update this story for 5 months. I hope to never do such a thing again. I just plain forgot about it for a while. Then school started, what a hectic mess. Thank you for patience, thank you for all the nice reviews and I hope this makes up for it somehow. I'm starting the next chapter today so with hope, you won't need to wait too long for it. Reviews are inspirational.
Oh yeah and Happy Holidays/New Year to everyone!