((Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the ducks. Not the movies' characters or the actual NHL team. Just any non-movie characters are mine. I Wanna is a song by the All-American Rejects))

Much sooner than she would have liked Julie's alarm clock went off. After practically dragging Connie out of bed, they walked in the dark to the hockey arena. The Varsity team was already there, skating around as the ducks made their way onto the ice.

Julie had laced up her both her skates and was about stand up in full gear. When she looked up she almost screamed in surprise, but held it back.

"What are you doing in here?" She said, pulling herself up.

"I'm sorry." Adam breathed. "I swear to you I did not know until it was too late, they told me if I said anything they would make sure that I wouldn't be able to start in the next game."

"What the hell Adam, are you in a cult? What were they going to do to you?"
He sighed. "I asked Scooter, he said one time they purposefully hit a kid during practice so he'd fall and sprain his ankle, and Coach Wilson turns a blind eye to it."

Julie shook her head. "You still should have told us."

"I know. Look Julie, I don't know how things got so messed up. You have no idea how bad I want to be playing on the Ducks right now. But nobody will talk to me."

"Adam, I--"

"Just promise me that no matter what happens out there that you won't write me off. Please Julie, you're the only one I have that still believes me." He green eyes stared into hers. How could she say no?

Julie sighed. "Okay, fine."

She pushed past him onto the ice, where Goldberg was setting up in net. No, way.

"Coach says I'm the starter."

"Coach? I don't see any coach." True.

"Then we'll split the shifts, I want a piece of these guys." To be honest Julie wasn't nearly angry enough to really hustle because she was exhausted. Maybe after watching a little she would build up her adrenaline. She skated over to the bench when she heard someone skate behind her. She didn't turn around but then he spoke.

"Hey. Can we call it even?" Scott. Julie suppressed her smile. She knew was the one behind all the pranks, and he knew she was the one planning the revenge.

"I hate ties, they're like kissing your brother." She said with a disgusted look, thinking about kissing her Erik. Ew.

Dwayne and Russ sat down next to Julie and the game started. Immediately Rick Riley elbowed Charlie in the ribs with his stick.

"Hey!" Julie said out loud. She turned to Dwayne. "Really?" He shook his head in response.

Rick passed it to Biff Cole who started straight towards Goldberg. Connie and Guy got in front of him, skating backwards. He threw a shoulder into each of them, knocking them both to the ground and continuing full speed towards Goldberg.

"I can't look." Julie whispered, shutting her eyes. Then she heard the Varsity team cheer. "Damn..."

"C'mon Charlie!" Russ and Dwayne yelled.

The flying V failed miserably, so Varsity scored again

"C'mon defense let's go." What the hell… Julie thought. This is bad.

Another faceoff was another swarm into the duck zone, the Warriors all over the net. If this was a regulation game they would no doubt all be in the penalty box, what with all the high-sticking, hooking, crosschecking, slashing, tripping, holding and elbowing that was going on. Mostly the ducks were on the floor, it was painful to watch. Julie was on her feet the entire time. She grabbed Charlie as he was skating by. "Try the triple deke." Something, anything…

"Yes, yes, yes." Julie muttered, until Scott blocked his shot. The puck was quickly turned over and back in the duck zone. "Goalie interference!" Julie said to nobody. "Uh oh…" It looked like there was going to be a fight. Charlie, Connie, Goldberg and Dwayne were lined up against Rick and two of his defensemen. Dwayne joined Julie on the bench again, shaking his head. Fulton, Ken, Russ and Luis joined them a second later

Face-off in duck zone, Guy actually managed to pass it to Charlie who was on a breakaway to the Warrior zone, until Adam came beside him and tried to steal the puck. That was until Charlie dropped his stick, and pulled Adam to the ground.

"Shit!" Julie said, throwing her padded legs over the edge. All the boys rushed over as multiple duck-warrior fights broke out all over the ice.

She tried, unsuccessfully to get over to where Charlie and Adam were having it out, and to see if Scott was okay after being rammed into by the two of them. But she couldn't because there were sticks, gloves and players in an obstacle course brawl in front of the net. Then she ended up in a fight herself.

And then God said let there be light!

"Freeze! Hey! Break it up!" Oh shit… "break it up now! Hey!" He grabbed Riley but his jersey. "It's a damn good thing I'm not your coach, now get your team out of here NOW. Varsity team our let's go!"

As Varsity left, the Ducks pulled themselves together, forming a semi-circle around Coach Orion

((… you all know what happened. It's actually pretty sad, I'd rather not dwell on it…))

Julie was both emotionally and physically exhausted. To make matters worse they had a game that night. After her shower she laid on her made bed in her bath robe. Connie was braiding her hair in their mirror.

"Adam called." Connie said quietly. "He said he'd meet you after the game to talk." Connie finished and turned around to look at her best friend, who had not moved.

"Jul?"

"Con?"

"You okay?"

Julie sat up on her bed, and brushed her hair out of her face. "Yeah. Just tired. Is it always like this?"

"Like what?"

"Epic, dramatic craziness? Is this what I have to expect for the rest of my high school career with the ducks?"

Connie chuckled and sat on Julie's bed with her. "Hate to be the one to tell you this…but yes." Connie said with a smile. "And you wouldn't have nearly as much drama if a) you weren't so attractive to male hockey players."

"Thanks Con."

The girls managed to sleep a few hours before their 8 o'clock game. To everyone's surprise instead of having Goldberg as an alternate goalie, Orion put him on defense. In the absence of Dean and Fulton, it helped them out a lot. But firstly Julie did not like the idea of not having a back-up if she got hurt and more importantly she did not like the idea of Dean never being a part of the team. Even though they weren't the Ducks anymore, Dean deserved a spot on this team. That plus dealing with Adam in her already jam packed brain, Julie let in four goals in the first two periods. And without a captain everybody was playing pretty sloppily, only managing to score one goal. The game ended 4-1 with another loss, they waited in the locker room to get chewed out by Orion while he was getting chewed out by Dean Buckley.

Once all of that was over everyone went their separate ways to their dorm rooms to salvage what was left of their weekend.

Julie opted to use the empty girls' locker room shower. She stayed in there an extra long time, letting the lukewarm water run over her head in an attempt to set her jumbled thoughts straight.

When she came out in her towel she was not necessarily surprised to see Adam sitting on a bench near her locker.

"A few more minutes and I was gonna come in there to see if you had drowned." He said with a small smile.

Julie's mouth tugged at the corner. She walked past him to her locker, grabbed her clothes and went around to next row of lockers to get dressed. He waited patiently until she was done, then she joined him on the bench.

"I watched the game. Sorry you guys lost." Adam said slowly.

"Its kind of hard to win when we're missing our captain, number one scorer and two best defensemen." Julie muttered. "Besides I wasn't exactly on my game either."

"Why not?"

"I was too busy thinking."

"About?"

"What we were going to talk about after the game." Julie shifted her eyes away from Adam.

"I'm sorry Julie, I didn't mean to be a distraction."

She shook her head. "It's not just you…it's just a minefield in my head right now. And karma getting back at me."

"How do you mean?"

She sighed. "I made a mistake with you. I shouldn't have…I'm just really selfish sometimes, I never should have made you think we could be anything more than what we are. Selfish Julie wanted you to make me feel better about Dean, and it did for a little while, but now I just feel guilty." Julie said without taking a breath. She deserved to be screamed at, she knew. But instead Adam's hand touched the bottom of her chin, forcing her to look at him.

"I had a feeling you'd say something like that." He sighed. "I kind of knew you'd say it actually. I just…I couldn't go on for much longer without telling you how I felt. Now that I did I know that, at least right now it's not going to work." She tried to look away but he put his hand on her cheek. "It's okay, really." She half-smiled. "I understand what it's like to fall hard for someone, those feelings don't just go away. I'm not mad at you I promise. Didn't we say that we were teammates and best friends before anything else?" Julie nodded and smiled. "Okay then. We can just put this behind us…for now." He said slyly, removing his hand from her face. "I mean I thought one good make out session would have you hooked." He said with a wide grin.

Julie laughed and playfully slapped him. "Haha, it almost did. You're really a surprisingly very good kisser."

"I know, I've been told. You're pretty good yourself. So am I better than Dean?"

She glared at him, but kept a small smile on her face. "Shut up." He shrugged, satisfied with her response. "So how bad is Charlie gonna be?"

Adam sighed. "It depends. See in this particular hissy fit he had an accomplice, and when that happens he can usual keep his head for a day or two before everything actually spins out of control."

"Sounds like you've dealt with this before."

"I've been the accomplice a few times, but usually the witness and doctor when things go insane. You'll just have to wait and see. Hopefully his Mom and Fulton can knock some sense into him."

"Hmmm." Julie mumbled. "So what about you?"

"Staying on Varsity for now. Daddy's orders." He said with an eye roll. "But hey at least we can win a few games here and there." He said with a chuckle. "Come on friend, I'll walk you back to your room."

…

((I honestly don't know where this came from after years of silence. Just tell me what you think.))