A/N:

A reference to a previous Charlie-Orion one-shot, The Breakup; Ted knows Charlie had been the one to orchestrate the senior prank at the school's ice rink.

The Senior Prank

Ted knew Charlie had something to do with this. Only Conway would ever have the brains to conjure up anything like this at all. But still, as clever as he thought it was, he also knew he needed to be there when Buckley questioned who was in on it, and what disciplinary action would come forth.

As Ted and Coach Hank Meyers arrived at the ice rink, they were met with a scene that left Ted dumbfounded. The doors swung open to reveal a throng of students, their hushed whispers filling the arena. Ted, pushing through the crowd, was taken aback to see the Varsity hockey team, their laughter echoing through the rink.

"Wow, whoever thought of this is a genius!" laughed Adam Banks.

"Tell me about it. This is so much more creative than what Riley and Cole did to us when we were freshmen," added Russ Tyler, chuckling hard.

Ted's heart plummeted. He knew, whatever this prank was, it couldn't be anything good. The weight of his concern for his team and the potential consequences of this prank bore down on him, threatening to crush his spirit.

Of course, he was aware of the senior pranks that took place every year. It was almost a tradition, dating back to when he and Gordon had been in school together, and he wouldn't lie if he said that he and Gordon didn't pull a few pranks themselves when they'd been seniors, either. Granted, when the Ducks first arrived at Eden Hall, the pranks had been far crueler than necessary, to the point of harassment on Rick Riley and Brad Cole's part to prove that the Ducks didn't belong at Eden Hall because they were there on scholarship. And while he knew his kids were known for messing around and occasionally getting into trouble, they didn't pick on the freshmen or do anything so outrageously egregious that disciplinary action was needed. They weren't the types to do the dine and dash that Riley's Varsity team had done to them; most of them didn't have that kind of money and were sympathetic to anyone coming into the school on an athletic scholarship because they themselves came from nothing.

Still, as he pushed his way through the crowd, he was met with the sight that they were all seeing. There was a banner hanging above the bleachers that read SENIORS – CLASS OF 2000! But right at center ice were the horses from the school's equestrian team, letting out loud whinnies and scraping their hooves against the ice, eating from bundles of hay. But what caught Ted's attention last, shockingly, was the massive mountain of horse manure sitting in the middle of the ice; the smell hit him last, and his nose burned with the horrible stench of crap. Gasping, his hand flew up to cover his nose as he gagged in disgust.

His blue eyes wandered over to the Varsity team. He tried to pick out the usual suspects – of course, he knew Averman would have the brains to scheme up something like that, and that Dwayne had the keys to the stables since he was the voluntary stable hand and also the captain of the equestrian team in the spring months, so that meant, he had access to the horses. But there was no way Dwayne would be clever enough to do this all on his own, and even though Averman was sneaky, he couldn't have executed this by himself, either. That meant, those two had to have gotten some help in some capacity.

While part of him was pissed, another part of him couldn't but feel impressed that they pulled this off. Still, when Dean Buckley arrived, and Ted saw how his face was burning red, he knew he needed to straighten up.

"What on earth is this?" Buckley demanded, looking tight-lipped as ever as he shook his head. "And why are Moonshine, Patch, Midnight, Diego, and Cobalt out of the stables?" He turned to Dwayne. "Robertson? Do you know anything about this?"

"No, sir," Dwayne said, shaking his head, though his smile completely gave him away. And additionally, the horses walked over to him, whinnying and nuzzling him with nothing but affection.

"Well, those horses like you," Buckley commented shrewdly.

"They like anyone who feeds 'em and scratches 'em behind the ears," Dwayne remarked.

Buckley sighed hard. "Robertson, Conway, Averman, follow me to my office, right now, boys."

This was how Ted now found himself standing in Buckley's office, with Charlie Conway, his captain, the boy he'd grown over the years to love like a second son, sitting in the chair across from the dean's desk. He kept his arms crossed over his chest, watching him with his steely blue gaze while the other boy sat there, at ease.

"Why am I here?" Charlie asked.

"Well, son," Buckley said, "it's almost tradition that the seniors pull some sort of prank every year. And seeing how you and your Ducks have a quite colorful history with practical jokes, we were under the impression you might have an idea as to who would pull this off."

"I really don't know, sir," Charlie insisted. "Look, if this is about the stupid pact my friends and I made after we won that grudge match against Varsity, how many years ago was that?"

"What pact?" Ted asked, casting Charlie a hard stare. He hadn't heard anything about this.

"Well, in freshman year, Averman and I kind of had this thought that when we were seniors, we'd pull a much more elaborate senior prank than what Rick Riley and Brad Cole did; they did pretty lame stuff like dump our clothes in the shower and that dine and dash. But I can assure you, Coach, that wasn't even on our minds; in fact, I hadn't thought about it in years."

"See, I have a hard time believing that," Ted said sternly. "I know for a fact that you are the only other one I trust with the spare key to the rink, other than Banks. And I also know Robertson is the stable hand; he'd have the means to get the horses to trust him and also to be able to sneak them onto the rink without anyone noticing. So where were you last night?"

"Home," Charlie said. "I don't live on campus. The only ones that do are the out-of-state Ducks."

"Okay, but what exactly did you do after practice was over?"

"I went to Mickey's to visit my mom and got some homework done. After that, I went off to assistant coach the Ducks Squirts team at the pond like I do every day after practice. Then, I went home, made dinner, and went to bed early." Charlie said it with such a straight face, even Ted couldn't bring himself not to believe the kid. But he'd also spent the past three years coaching him and knew Conway well; he knew the boy well enough to know that Charlie was a very good liar and that he could look you in the face and not even flinch.

While part of Ted wanted to be mad at the kid for pulling the prank and lying about it, the other part of him felt a warm wave of fondness swell in his chest. Compared to some of the other senior pranks that got pulled in the past, this was the mildest of them. Ted had seen lots of senior pranks get taken too far over his years as both an underclassman and an upperclassman at Eden Hall, and it only seemed to get worse as the years went on. But he also knew Charlie well enough to know that this prank wasn't meant to single anyone out in particular or hurt anybody – Charlie would never do that; the kid had a heart of gold and would never bully or put anyone down with the pranks that he pulled, and while part of him knew Charlie, Dwayne, Averman, and whoever else was involved in sneaking the horses into the rink needed to be disciplined, he also felt amused. It was odd, knowing he was angry and amused at the same time.

If you had spoken to him years ago when Charlie was a freshman, he would have had little sympathy and would have said that Charlie was just doing something like this to act out and act like a stubborn brat. Now that he knew the kid as well as he did, he knew that this was just pure fun on the kid's part and that nobody was truly harmed. Sure, it was wrong. But then again, was it so egregious that the kid should be suspended from school?

Deciding he was satisfied with Charlie's answer, Ted said, "All right, you can go. But meet me at the rink; you're cleaning up the ice before you go to class. I'll write you a late pass."

"Yes, sir," Charlie said, nodding. And as he left, Buckley cast him an incredulous glance.

"And you believe him?"

"Even if it were him, this isn't anything compared to what happened to him in his freshman year. Plus, the kid wasn't bullying anyone," Ted said with a shrug. "Besides, at least whoever did this made sure the horses ate, and the horses don't seem harmed at all."

Ted awaited Charlie with rakes to pick up all the horse crap that had been sitting on the ice. And as they cleaned up together, Ted watched Charlie from the corner of his eye; the boy's blue eyes seemed to glint mischievously as he raked up horse poop and dumped it into the trash bins. The banner still hung above the stands, screaming obnoxiously in its brilliant red painted letters, giving them the stark reminder that at the end of the school year, Charlie would be leaving to go to college, meaning Ted needed to find a whole new group of Varsity players to replace his Ducks next season.

As Ted and Charlie worked, he felt that realization sank in that Charlie was leaving him, and he couldn't help but feel bittersweet, knowing Charlie would be most likely attending Minnesota State University; even though he would be commuting to college and would more than likely visit practices if his schedule allowed him to, Ted didn't realize how much he'd miss the boy until now. Granted, he wouldn't miss Charlie's trouble-maker streak when he'd mess around during practices for the sake of some fun, but he would miss the boy in general.

Chuckling, he said to Charlie, "You did do it, though, didn't you, Conway?"

Charlie turned to glance at him, his eyebrows shooting upward. "No, I didn't. No need to jump to silly conclusions. Though, on the other hand, if I really wanted to, it would've gone down like this: I would've snuck out after curfew after accidentally leaving with the keys to the rink and forgetting to leave them on the desk in your office; I would have gone to meet up with Dwayne, who would've 'accidentally' left the stables open after feeding and grooming the horses, who naturally, would follow him because they trust him the most. And Guy and Averman would've needed to get the necessary supplies from some hardware store or from, let's say, the art classroom, and they would've met up at the rendezvous point, giving all of us just enough time to get over here and do the deed.

Ted shook his head. "Conway, the way you say that, it sure sounds like you did it."

Charlie's face went bright scarlet. "Are you gonna snitch on us to Buckley?"

"No." Ted winked at him, and Charlie's shoulders sank in relief. "And congratulations, by the way. You really did it this time."

Charlie laughed lightly, raking up the last of the horse poop, though in his haste to toss it in the trash, some of it "accidentally" flew and landed on Ted's Nike jacket, right on the shoulder, to be specific. Ted brushed it off, though he wasn't one to take retaliation lightly. Charlie's eyes widened as Ted began skating toward him.

"Oh, no, you don't!"

"Get over here, you little brat!" Ted was quick to catch up to the kid, having been one of the fastest skaters in the NHL; he hooked his arm around the boy in a side headlock and began giving him a noogie, with the same hand he'd used to brush the manure off with. But Charlie hardly seemed to care as he laughed, hard, trying to shove his coach off of him, but Ted wouldn't let go; he held on until Charlie finally wormed his way out, shoving his arm off of him. Still, the boy kept laughing with Ted, their laughter seeming to be one chorus that echoed through the empty arena, warming the otherwise frozen air.