Chapter 30—Our Last Games Together
February 28th, 2000
Connie's POV
We had beaten St. Paul Academy, and we were going to the State tournament on Thursday. We came in as the seventh seed. We were facing off against the number 2 seed Blaine at 5:00 at the Target Center. We had two practices a day from Yesterday until Wednesday night and then a run through Thursday Morning. But that wasn't what had concerned me today at all. What had concerned me was the announcement that came during sixth period, "Would Connie Moreau please report to Dean Buckley's office."
"What did you do, Connie?" Guy whispered to me.
"I have no idea," I whispered back.
"Ms. Moreau here is your pass to go to Dean Buckley's office," Dr. Barber said, handing me a pink hall pass.
I grabbed my books and walked out of the JFA building and across the courtyard to the Administration building and Dean Buckley's office. When I arrived at Dean Buckley's office, I told the secretary that I was here to see him.
"Have a seat, Dean Buckley will be with you shortly," The secretary said.
I waited several minutes before I heard, "Ms. Maybel send in Ms. Moreau," Dean Buckley said from the intercom in the phone.
"Yes, Dean Buckley,' Ms. Maybel said and then she turned to me. 'You may go in now."
I swallowed hard as I got up from the chair that I was sitting in. Then I walked into Dean Buckley's office.
"Have a seat Ms. Moreau," Dean Buckley said.
I sat down across from him.
"It has come to my attention Ms. Moreau that you did not do what I asked you to do, regarding the file that you asked me about last Monday. Do you remember the file?" Dean Buckley said.
"Vaguely," I said.
"I see, I need that file back," Dean Buckley said.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because it is none of your business that is why, that concerns another student and that violates the HIPPA laws," Dean Buckley said.
"I don't have it. I don't know where it is," I said.
"I see then you leave me no choice to do this," Dean Buckley said as he passed an envelope across the desk towards me.
"What is this?" I asked.
"Your dismissal from your administration job," Dean Buckley said.
"But you can't do that," I said.
"Yes I can, Minnesota is an at will state. You're lucky that I am not throwing you out of school. If it wasn't for the fact that you were graduating in a couple of months, then I would have dismissed you for breaking the honor code here at Eden Hall," Dean Buckley said.
"Yes Dean Buckley," I said.
"Good you are dismissed Ms. Moreau you can collect your final check on March the 4th," Dean Buckley said.
I left the office and heard the bell dismissing classes from sixth period to seventh period. I had tears coming down my cheeks, I didn't know how I was going to tell mom and dad that I was let go from my job. I had promised that I was going to be able to pay for my half of the graduation party. I felt that I let them down.
"Connie what happened?" Guy said to me out in the middle of the courtyard, he was headed for Study hall in JD Majors building and I was going to the GYM for weightlifting class.
"I don't want to talk about it Guy," I said.
"Come on Connie, we don't keep secrets from each other," Guy said.
"Don't worry about it, it's for me to worry about," I said.
"Connie!" Guy said.
"Leave me alone Guy Wyatt Germaine," I said and then I ran into the gym building.
I told Bella and Julie as we were changing clothes for Gym.
"Man, that sucks," Bella said.
"Don't feel so bad Connie, mom and dad aren't going to have a party for me here, because of the distance between here and the family in Maine. They said that I would get a party when I came home," Julie said.
"Do you think Coach would let us have a party?" I said.
"I don't see why not, at least for the out-of-town ducks. Kind of a one last hurrah," Julie said.
"I don't know about that, we are not exactly talking," Bella said.
"STILL?" Julie and I said together.
"It doesn't matter anyway he is not my dad," Bella said.
"But I thought you were going to his house during the weekend's, how do you avoid him?" I asked.
"Easy I say that I am staying here for the weekend and then I go over to mom and dad's, my real Mom and Dad's," Bella said.
"Ladies let's go," Coach Murphy said.
Later that night, after practice I bladed up to my house to find my mom and dad in the kitchen doing dishes.
"Hi," I said.
"Connie? What are you doing here?" Mom asked startled.
"I need to talk to you about something," I said.
"Oh, what is it? Is it about school?" Dad asked.
"Kinda," I said.
"Oh God you didn't get kicked out did you?" Mom asked.
"No, but I got let go of the administrative job that I was doing," I said.
"What?" Mom said.
"Yeah," I said.
"What happened?" Mom asked.
"Dean Buckley asked me to destroy some files, during School Inservice last week. Well, I found some information about Gunnar, in those files," I said.
"And you didn't destroy the file?" Dad said.
"No, because it was about Gunnar's enrollment at Eden Hall. There was a bribe given to Dean Buckley to admit Gunnar into Eden Hall," I said.
"Connie where is the file?" Mom asked.
"Gunnar has it," I said.
"So, what does this have to do with us?" Dad asked.
"Well, I am not going to be able to pay for my half of the graduation party, now. Are you mad at me?" I asked.
"No Connie of course not, you did the right thing," Dad said.
"Are you sure about that?" I asked.
"It's immoral to take a bribe, Connie. It's unethical and probably illegal," Mom said.
"That is what Gunnar said that Coach Bombay said," I said.
"Well, he would know he's the lawyer," Dad said.
"So, what do we do?" I asked.
"Don't worry about it. We will figure it out. If anything, you can always use the money you earned for books and supplies, next year," Mom said.
"Well Julie said that she wasn't getting a party until she got home, and this is crazy. Maybe we ducks have one party?" I asked.
"One party for fifteen ducks, Connie, that is something to think about," Dad said.
March 3rd, 2000
10:05pm
Adam's POV
We eked out a victory against Blaine, yesterday, the final score was 6-5. Earlier this evening we faced Minneatonka, we smashed them with a final score of 7-1. Tomorrow night we will face Virgina for the title.
I and Charlie traded rooms back with Dwayne and Luis. Gunnar and I were going strong again. As were Guy, Connie, Charlie, and Bella. All of us senior ducks were in my room that I was sharing with Charlie, Gunnar, and Ken at the Best Western in Downtown Minneapolis. It was a playoff's present to us from Eden Hall. Which kind of sucked because we had Dad in the next room. Our rooms connected together through the wall, and we were told to keep the doors open, unless we were sleeping. Charlie and I rented a few movies from Blockbuster prior to coming up to state. One of which was the Breakfast Club. I had told all of the ducks that there was a guy that looked exactly like dad.
"This is unreal. He looks like Bombay," Guy said.
"I know right?" I asked.
"Shut UP! I am trying to watch the movie," Bella said.
"What are we having?" Bender asked.
"Uh, it's your standard, regular lunch, I guess," Brian said.
Bender reaches into the bag to grab a thermos when he said, "Milk?"
"Soup," Brian said.
Brian reaches for the soup and John slaps his hand as he digs into Brians lunch bag for a box
"That's Apple juice," Brian said.
"I can read," Bender said.
"Hey Ducks," Dad said as he walked in the room.
"Coach," Most of the ducks said.
"What's up dad?" I asked.
"Nothing, I was just getting ready to go to bed, so I would kindly ask you to keep it down to a dull roar," Dad said.
"Sure Dad," I said.
"What are you watching?" Dad asked.
"Son? Yeah Dad? How's your day pal? Great Dad. How's Yours? Super. Say Son, How'd you like to go fishing this weekend? Great Dad. But I've got homework to do. That's all right, son. You can do it on the boat. Gee. Dear, Isn't our son swell? Yes dear, Isn't life swell? Oh" Bender said, making fun of Brian's home life.
"The Breakfast Club," Connie said.
"Oh," Dad said.
"You have got to see this coach, this guy Andrew looks exactly like you," Charlie said.
"Hmm. Oh yeah Emilio Estevez," Dad said as the movie showed the look alike.
"All right. What about your family?" Andrew said.
"Are you sure he is not related to you, coach?" Julie asked.
"Oh, maybe down the line somewhere. But no, he and I are not related," Dad said.
"It's uncanny the amount of resemblance there is between you two," Fulton said.
"Yeah it's not like I heard that a million times, especially when the brat pack was really popular," Dad said.
"What happened to him?" Connie asked.
"I don't know. I assume he is still acting, but he hasn't had a successful movie in years," Dad said.
"Oh," Julie said.
"No, Dad. What about you? Fuck you! No, Dad. What about you? Fuck YOU! BAM" Bender said reliving his family drama.
"Well, I need to be hitting the hay. And I suggest that you kids do too," Dad said.
I grabbed the remote and pressed the info button to get where we were at in the movie. "It's almost half over," I said.
"Okay well not too late. Remember we have the Ice for practice at 10 Tomorrow morning, need to be on the bus at 9," Dad said.
"We will finish watching this scene and then we will shut it off. We can watch it tomorrow before the game," Charlie said.
"Okay that's fair, Good night ducks," Dad said.
"Night Coach," Most of the Ducks said.
"Do you believe this? Huh," Bender said showing Andrew the scar on his right arm.
Andrew looked away, "It's about the size of a cigar. Do I stutter?" Bender said.
I quickly got up and followed Dad into his room.
"Hey Dad, Thanks," I said.
"Sure, Adam you guys have to have something to do, Good night," Dad said.
"Night," I said. I then left the room and shut both doors behind me.
"Adam?" Bella said with her arm wrapped around me during the next scene.
"Yeah Bells? I asked.
"Is this where you took off?" Bella asked.
"Yeah," I said.
We ended up watching the rest of the movie.
March 4th, 2000
Fulton's POV
Tonight was my last hockey game, period. Don't get me wrong I love the game and I intend to pass it along to my kids, someday. I am glad that I got recruited by Bombay at age 9 to play peewee hockey for the Ducks. It gave me a place of belonging, a home, and my best friend. Granted when Dean and I first met we didn't get along so great. It was amazing; one Metallica Album later and we were the best of friends. I am very sentimental because in a few months I will be off to basic camp in Georgia for the Army. Dean got accepted into the Air Force Academy. None of the Ducks know this, but you need to keep this between me and you. Because Dean will kill me.
I wasn't the only one that was sentimental. The girls were crying. Dean, Adam, Gunnar, and Guy were suppressing the hell out of the situation. They didn't dare get emotional about this game because if they did well, we might have lost. Charlie was extremely moody about this being the last game. The end. Finished. Finito. After all, in just a little over 2 months we would be graduating and who the hell knows when we will all see each other again. Don't cry, Fulton. See even as I write this I am emotional. It was hard to sleep last night, I just couldn't. All I knew was that we had to get through this game, and we would be State Champions.
"All-right Ducks, you know what to do. Remember everything that we have taught you. This is a special group and let's win one more game. Especially for you seniors, this is your time to shine, Captain?" Coach Orion said.
"Let's play hard and play for each other. Let's get that State Championship. The starting line up; Bash Brother on Defense," Adam said.
"We got this baby," Dean said.
"Charlie's on the left, Gunnar on the right and I'm in the Center. The Cat is in Goal. Let's get that State Championship," Adam said.
"Hey Ducks, Have some fun out there," Coach Bombay said.
I followed the girls out in the hall, Connie was crying pretty hard.
"Hey Connie, we got this," Guy said.
"I know, I can't believe this is the last pregame walk down," Connie said with tears coming down her face.
"Relax Baby it's over," Dean said.
"Hey don't call Connie, Baby," Adam said.
"Let's win the game first, Portman," Julie said.
Bella's POV
End of the second period
This game was not going to be easy Virginia had come out like they had something to prove they were up 5-1. Julie had been relieved of her Goaltending duties early in the second period, when the Blue Devils went up 3-0 on us. I walked down to Coach Orion's office, and he was coming to terms with the loss.
"Coach," I said.
"What is it, Banks?" Coach Orion asked.
"Look I think that there needs to be a few changes," I said.
"Like what?" Coach Orion asked.
"Throw Julie back into the goal, Switch Ken, Jesse, Fulton, Goldberg, Charlie, and I around. And leave the rest up to me," I said.
"Put Gaffney back in goal? Are you crazy? She let in three goals," Coach Orion said.
"That's because the Bash Brothers were not on the ice. They taught Jesse, Goldberg, and Ken everything they know. We are already losing, let me have a shot. Please?" I asked.
"Alright you have shot. But the minute they score again it goes back to the way it was, got it?" Coach Orion asked.
"Deal," I said, and we shook on it.
I ran back to the locker room and said, "Hey Everybody shut up."
"What do you want, princess?" Portman asked.
"I have a way we can beat these, Guys," I said.
"Yeah how?" Adam snapped.
"By putting the Golden Duo back together. Portman you are going to be with Goldberg. Fulton you're going to be with Luis and Jessie you are with Ken. Julie, you are back goal," I said.
"What? No, I can't," Julie said.
"Do you want to win this or not?" I asked.
"Yeah, I do," Julie said.
"Defense you need to protect Julie and the net, Offense let's skate hard and fast and pump those goals in," I said.
Then Coach Bombay walked in carrying a box, before he said, "I have something for you all."
"What's this?" I asked.
"The original ducks jersey's a few sizes bigger of course," Coach Bombay said.
"I… I don't know what to say," I said.
"Well, if this brings us good luck. You can thank Jan later," Coach Bombay said.
I nodded, "Germaine,' Coach said, tossing Guy's new jersey over to him. When I got mine, I fingered the duck. It was the original duck with the D-5 stitched across his chest. With Ducks in bold letters underneath him. The jersey was mostly Red with Green, Purple, Gold, Black and Yellow stripes around the top and bottom. With EH on the side of the sleeves under our numbers in White. All of the seniors had there A's on their jersey, except for Adam's C. 'Hey Captain, this one is yours." Adam was tossed his jersey
"Thanks dad," Adam said as he caught it.
"Alright ducks we are going to start with the V and then defense I want you to skate as fast as you can back to our side and help Julie protect the goal. Let's have some real fun," Coach Bombay said.
We skated down the ice with the V and scored immediately. With Gunnar pumping in the goal at the last second.
Russ got his knuckle puck through when he was on the ice, bringing the score to 5-3
The Blue devils pulled their senior goalie for a freshman to stop the bleeding. Fulton scored on his shot from center ice. It was now 5-4 with 1:30 left to play. We had pulled Julie with 30 seconds to go and sent me out on the ice. I skated hard with Charlie, Guy, and Dwayne. I scored with 10 seconds left on a pass from Dwayne. We were tied now. We stayed tied for the two overtime periods. Finally, we came down to a shootout.
"Bring it in Ducks," Coach Orion said.
Once Julie got to the bench the referee came over and said, "Coach, you need to pick five of your best for the shootout. One on one with the Goaltender."
"Gaffney you are in Goal. I am going with Banksy, Ace, Conway, Guy, and Russ," Coach Orion said.
Since we were the home team we had to go second. Julie faced The Blue Devils sent out their first shooter and he scored. We sent out Adam and he twisted his wrist first before he was given the go ahead for his shot. Something that he had done since the Goodwill Games. He was whistled to begin his shot and he started to the goalie and deke once, twice, three, four times and deke again before he shot it into the back of the net. The Blue Devils sent out their second shooter and he scored. Charlie was next and he got it into the back of the net. The Blue Devils sent out their third shooter and Julie caught that one. It was Guys turn and it went wide to the right. The Blue Devils sent out their fourth shooter and scored. It was Russ's turn, and his knuckle puck went right through keeping us with a 3-3 tie. The Blue Devils sent out their last shooter and he scored. It was my turn; I was so nervous that I lost control of the puck at first and quickly regained it. The Goalie went down, and I went top shelf into the net. It was a 4-4 tie.
"Alright Coach we need 5 more players, you can't use the ones you already used," The Ref said.
"Okay Moreau, Portman, Robertson, Hall and Stahl," Coach Orion said.
"Me?" Gunnar said.
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