"Jess. Do you hear me? I just exposed a part of my locked-up emotional side to him. He saw that I was in this pain. I told him I miss Mama! Dude, seriously, what's wrong with me? I just met him yesterday." Parker stood behind Jess while he was brushing his teeth. He spit.

"Aw, I miss Mama so much."

"Jess." Her face was stern and scared.

"Maybe Guy is a good thing, then. He got you to open up without you wanting to, even though I think you really wanted to on some level. Maybe it's time to let someone in." Parker shook her head no. "You can do it. Come on. Maybe this kid is the one you're gonna let in. You don't know, see how it goes. Don't shut him out."

Parker inhaled and dragged her hands over her face. "But Jess…"

"I know." He put his arm around her and opened the bathroom door. "Try it. We'll be here to catch you."

- - -

"I don't know," Guy said, venting to Portman. "The way she looked when she said that... damn, Portman, it made me feel so bad, and I don't know why."

Portman was fixing his clothes. Who knew Dean Portman, Mr. Bash Man, could be such a neat freak? "Wow, Germaine, you sound pretty pathetic."

"Thanks."

"It's good, though. Time to really move on, right?"

Guy looked up, elbows on his knees, and his chin in his hands.

"This is a good thing. Plus, I told her you didn't really have to leave a long-distance relationship behind, and that you are a great guy."

Guy stood up, "You told her that?"

"Dude, you're lucky I didn't tell her how you were when you and Connie broke up. I told her you're a very good boyfriend, and you and Connie are on good terms, because you guys are… now."

"Portman-"

"It's a good thing, Germaine. Indulge in it, take it in, take the chance." Portman slapped him on the back. "Okay? Go for it."

- - - -

"Last night, you told her to not go for it, and now you're saying go for it? Hi Parker, I'm Jess, I'm totally bi-polar, and change my mind overnight on what you should do. Goodness, Parker, why do you come to me for advice?" Cooper was putting on her socks and Jess was sitting against the wall.

"She told him something, It's been what, 24 hours since she's known him, and she told him something? That's something different, very different, and I don't think she should run away from this one."

Cooper's mad face turned into a grin. "I knew it. Aw, man. You think of them together, and you just know they're gonna work." Cooper bit her lip. "Wait, what if it doesn't? What if it goes wrong? We've been on this good path before, where it's all okay and we feel like we can trust this guy, then biggity-bam, it goes down the fucking drain, and she believes less and less, giving no more chances to get herself disappointed like that. What if that happens? I don't know if I want this to go on if that's gonna happen."

Jess shook his head. "No, really this is different. Or, well, at least I think it is. I've never felt as comfortable with this before. I had some doubts with other guys, but not with this kid. He has the whole commitment look going for him." Cooper agreed with a nod. "Yeah. The thing she said about missing Mama, she never says something like that about Mama to someone she's known less than 24 hours, ever. You know it takes her like 5
million years to tell someone."

"5 million years, yeah." Parker rolled her eyes.

"You know what I'm saying, though, right?" Cooper nodded, and Jess looked mischievous. "So, we meddle in this relationship?"

"I abso-fucking-lutely think so," Cooper responded with a smile. "But you gotta tell Greenberg you wanna set up his current love with one of the best-looking guys in school and, let us not forget to mention, Goodwill Junior Championship winner. Have fun with that one, Jess."

"I hate being captain," Jess mumbled under his breath as he followed Cooper out the door.

- - - -

"So, what do you think?" Guy was asking Mendoza about his situation that formed in less than 24 hours.

"Go for it, man." Luis was putting his hockey gear in a gym bag.

They were about to walk out of the guest bedroom but Guy put his hand on Luis's shoulder to hold him back.

"But with Connie-"

"With Connie, man, you gotta move on from all that happened." Mendoza patted Guy on the shoulder and headed out.

- - - -

"Team!" Coach Rodriguez spoke and the team, including the Ducks, crowded around him.

"This is Dean Portman, Luis Mendoza, Fulton Reed, and Guy Germaine. They're great additions to the team and I hope you make them feel welcomed."

Half the team welcomed the guys with nods and smiles, as the other half grunted, looked at them up and down, and snarled. This wasn't going to be easy.

"Yeah, those are real welcoming looks," Cooper mumbled sarcastically.

"You Ducks better watch out. This isn't little Ducky hockey you're playin' here. This is college ice hockey, and you four got to have what it takes to really be a part of this team," the biggest one in the back said, attracting all the attention.

Guy turned to Parker on his right and she rolled her eyes.

"Enough. Let's start practice. You, Martin, come over here." The giant at 6'7" skated over and looked down at the Ducks as he passed them.

"Me and Portman could totally take that guy." Fulton shook his head.

"You're gonna need two guys to take that guy down." Guy added.

"Shut up." Fulton was still glaring.

"The guy is as strong as he looks, though." Max stood next to Portman. "It just takes a while for the team to welcome new people. You have to prove yourself to them. We've been a team forever, but you guys will prove yourselves. It'll be fine."

"How long have you guys been a team?" Portman asked.

"Since we were in fourth grade, all of us, same team, same people."

The guys' jaws dropped. "Wow, that is a long time."

At the end of the practice, Cooper skated over to the Ducks that sat on the bench and asked, "You guys okay?"

Portman scoffed. "Yeah, we're fine. No sweat."

The four were sweating uncontrollably. "Right. It's okay, you guys, it'll be fine. You guys are Ducks, you can totally make it." Cooper smiled, patted them on the back, and went into the locker room.

"Do we suck now, or have we not practiced in a while or something?" Mendoza
mumbled in the back of the group.

- - - -

"I'm beat." Guy walked beside Parker while they all started to leave.

Parker looked at him sympathetically. "Sorry, man. You guys will get used to the practices; it's probably just different or you guys haven't practiced in a while, and it's more college hockey New York City style. What college did you get accepted into by the way?"

"NYU. What college do you go to?"

"Same," Parker smiled, "It's my dream college, had to go there. Most of us are freshmen at NYU, but Greenberg and some other guys on the team are sophomores. Greeney goes to Columbia."

"When you do start?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"Me too!" Guy got excited. "What time are you going?"

Parker smiled at his enthusiasm. "I got class at 10:30 until 12:15."

"I got class at 12:30!" The excitement he had was definitely that of a five-year-old. "Well since I'm new here and everything, you wanna go to class with me? I'll go to your class and everything." He gave Parker a smile, one that a girl couldn't really say no to. "Uh, yeah, sure, but you gotta wake me up tomorrow, and, my friend, you know that is a hard job to do."

Guy nodded. "I think I can handle it."

- - - -

A/N:
conway-banks: thanks ') I'm glad you're enjoying it so far.

-00 annapolis 99- Yeah, I think one of the cutest ducks should definitely get a main part in a story. He's pretty under-developed during the film, so it's kind of easy making him what you want as long as he's relative to the character in the movie. It's pretty fun using him as a main. The other ducks do appear, on more than one occasion, so Banks and Julie will definitely be involved at some point. I'm glad you like it so far. ')