Though I hardly think I need this now, DISCLAIMER: I only own Claire. Nothing else is mine. Thank you, have a good day.

Chapter 13

Adam wasn't himself in school or at dance the Friday at the end of that week. I assumed it had something to do with his joining the Ducks, which he didn't really mind; Adam didn't care where he played as long as he was playing. His father, on the other hand, had issues with his leaving the Hawks. And of course my assumptions were correct - he told me that his father and Coach Reilly were talking to Coach Bombay and his boss that day. I tried my best to get him to smile, and even goofed around during our dance lesson that day. It worked in the end, but the consequences of not taking the class seriously were not pleasant (but still overall worth it). After the lesson, I found Coach Bombay waiting outside for me.

"Hey, Claire. Have a good lesson?" I nodded in response to his question. "That's good. Apparently, most of your teammates - including your brother - managed to get detention. Your mom asked me to go bail them out, and to pick you up as well. So let's go talk some sense into those hooligans!" I giggled silently at his little speech and we were off to my old school to bust some troublemaking Ducks out of the jailhouse.

We got there as the final bell rang, as their school ran longer than mine. Coach and I walked into the office and were greeted by my ex-principal.

"Excuse me, there are some students here I'd like to see," He started.

"Who are you?" Ms. Wilkens, the principal, asked him in return.

"I'm their hockey coach. And this is their teammate, -"

"Claire Conway. I'm familiar with who she is. Enjoying your new school?" I nodded. "That's good." She flashed me a rare smile.

"Ah, if you could tell me where I could find each of them, please?" Coach asked as he handed over a list of everyone in detention - which was genuinely every single one of my teammates.

"They're in Room 223," Ms. Wilkins said, a bitter look on her face.

"All of them?" Coach asked.

"All of them," She replied, the bitterness spreading to her voice. I led Coach out of the office and down to Room 223. As soon as we opened the door, a general chorus of "I WILL NOT QUACK AT THE PRINCIPAL" emanated from the room. I rolled my eyes; of course they quacked at her. They were all such Ducks.

"What do you want?" Karp asked sourly, being the first to notice us.

"I want to talk to you guys," Coach said, causing everyone to stop writing their lines and turn around. I took a seat in one of the desks, waiting to hear what Bombay would say next as Tammy "corrected" him.

"People," she stressed, being the ever-annoying person who doesn't understand the use of 'guys' and 'dude' towards girls.

"People, right," Coach corrected himself. "Sit down, please, all of you." I remained as the only one sitting, as the others were too stubborn to comply. "Okay, don't sit down. Look, what's done is done. I wanna be your coach again."

"You're gonna coach a bunch of losers?" Averman asked in a low voice.

"No," Bombay immediately shut him down. "I wanna coach the Ducks."

"What about the things you said?" Karp inquired. "You said we didn't deserve to live."

"Karp, I was being sarcastic. Do you know what that means?"

"Noooooooooo," Karp said in a heavily sarcastic voice.

"Okay, then you do. I didn't mean those things the way they sounded. You guys know what it's like to be misunderstood, right?"

"Yeah, of course. We're kids." Peter responded.

"And not all of us communicate through words,making it even easier to be misunderstood," Jesse added with a pointed look in my direction. I just stuck my tongue out at him like the true child I am.

"So… can you forgive me? Can I be your coach again?"

"What about Banks?" Guy asked, with a sour note in his voice.

"He can be on the team if he wants," Bombay told him. "He should've been with us all year. It's you guys who were cheated. Let's forget all that crap! We're a team, right?"

"Yeah," Peter and a few others said.

"I made you guys, and I'm sticking with you," Coach said, standing right in front of Charlie and looking straight at him. Seeing the smile on my brother's face immediately brought one to my own. "So, what's it gonna be?" Bombay continued. "We can play tomorrow night, still have a shot at the playoffs, or we can forfeit again Peter, wh d'you say?" The short boy mulled it over for all of two seconds before responding.

"Well," he paused and sighed. "I guess it would help if we practiced first."

"Alright," Bombay started. "Let me see if I can get you out of detention." A few small celebrations happened before he started speaking again. "You really quacked at the principal?" He asked them.

"Yeah," Jesse responded, laughing a bit. Bombay chuckled.

"Are we Ducks or what?"

"YEAH!" A hearty cry was sent up by the team in response to our coach's question, and although I was tempted to chime in I restrained from doing so.

Bombay managed to get them out of their sentence detention, and after a good practice we all felt confident heading into our next game.

A/N: Here's another chapter! I wasn't on this site much toward the end of the month, had to make my last few weeks of freedom count. That, and my home/personal life got really busy. Thanks to those who continue to read and love this story despite my inability to regularly upload.

In other news, I am no longer free and had my first day of sophomore year in high school today. It shockingly wasn't that bad, and you may find it ironic to hear that the class I am looking most forward to at this point is English (but I only have it twice a week, I'm taking a hybrid course). So yeah, that happened today.

Expect another chapter hopefully soon, I thought I needed to type another one before uploading this but now I'm two chapters ahead..