Chapter 6: The Warriors Vs. The Barbarians
Eden Hall had significantly changed since Charlie had been in school there. In some ways, it had changed for the better. The school was known for its girls' hockey team, and it was still considered one of the best in the state overall. But knowing that the board had voted to revoke the Ducks' name in favor of changing it back to the Warriors left a bad taste in his mouth as he wandered the halls of the school, giving Teddi a little tour of his alma mater.
"Look at that," he said, smiling; he pointed to his photograph on the wall. He'd been named Athlete of the Year in 1999 for his achievements with the Ducks. "Look at that hair. I looked like Peter Bishop."
Teddi, despite her hurt, managed to put on a brave face and laughed at her dad's high school photo. This was the Ducks' inaugural game, and fate had it that it would be an away game at Eden Hall. She had made the decision to attend with Sofi and be there for the boys. But knowing that she wouldn't be out there on the ice with her little brother and friends was a bitter pill to swallow. Charlie understood that, beneath her supportive facade, Teddi longed to be part of the action.
"How's the petition coming along?" Charlie asked his daughter.
"We're getting some more signatures. But the board isn't going to change their minds at all. And Coach Vargas isn't willing to help us out, either," Teddi grumbled.
Charlie's voice was filled with empathy as he spoke. "Teddi, I know this is a tough situation. But remember, giving up is not an option. As for Coach Vargas, I can't say for sure. But I believe in giving people a chance, and change takes time. Remember how long it took for us to earn the title of the Ducks? It wasn't an overnight success, was it?"
Teddi shook her head. "There are no Ducks, Dad. The school's mascot is the Barbarian. And Vargas broke us apart. He put Billy on the Varsity team, and the girls aren't allowed to be on the team. I don't even know why I'm here right now."
"You're here because you deep down know that even without the 'C,' the team still needs you. Being part of the team is much more than playing. Sometimes, it's being right there in the stands, cheering them on when they need it most. Do you remember when I told you about how I went to the Junior Goodwill Games? How I decided to step down to allow Russ and Adam to play because I knew the team would benefit much more from them?"
Teddi nodded, sighing. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But it doesn't mean I like this, either."
"And you don't have to. But unfortunately, that's part of real life, honey. Now, come on, we don't want to be late. We don't want to miss the game."
Charlie wound his arm around her and led her across the campus to the ice rink, with a line of people outside waiting to take their seats. Teddi saw the outline of the Varsity team; their coach required them to come and watch the game. When Teddi saw Billy, she spotted him waving her enthusiastically, only for Alec Kentinsworth to smack his hand down rather aggressively, clearly telling him not to wave hello to Teddi. Charlie winced. He was aware of the kinds of bullying people went through. He'd seen Adam bullied by Varsity during their tenure at Eden Hall and was well aware of the tactics used. In this case, Varsity seemed determined to try to control every step Billy took. Charlie just hoped that Billy wouldn't cave into peer pressure or become complacent like Adam had when he'd gone to Eden Hall. But Charlie also knew his godson well; he'd seen Billy try very hard to live up to the Banks family's expectations, even though Adam always made it clear he was proud of his son for just being his best. It was just one of the many toxic Banks family traits that got passed along to Billy.
They found their seats in the stands, in the visitors' stands. Except when they took their seats, Charlie noticed a very familiar face he hadn't seen since his sophomore year at Eden Hall Academy. He'd recognize the light brown hair and gray eyes anywhere that belonged to Eden Hall Varsity's goalie.
"Hey, Holland!" he called.
Scott "Scooter" Holland raised his head upon hearing his name called and went over to Charlie, grinning.
"Hey, Conway!" He shook Charlie's hand. "What are you doing here?"
"My son is on the Minnetonka team," Charlie explained. "He's just a reserve player, but I wanted to come see him play against my alma mater."
Upon seeing Teddi, Scooter grinned and said, "Who's this?"
"My daughter, Teddi," Charlie said, smiling proudly. "She played for the Ducks while I coached the District Five team. Teddi, this is Scooter Holland. I used to play hockey with him at Eden Hall when he was a senior, and I was a sophomore. This guy used to rule in the goalpost."
"Let me guess?" Scooter asked sympathetically. "No girls allowed?"
"You know it," Teddi grumbled.
"Do you have a kid on the Warriors?" Charlie asked.
"I do. My son Avery is the goalie – he could give Julie the Cat a run for her money," Scooter explained.
"Well, good luck. May the best team win this one." Charlie shook Scooter's hand and beckoned him to sit in the Warriors' stands. As they sat down, Teddi noticed Maya was sitting in the stands, too, along with Lauren and Sofi, but one of the Varsity players noticed Maya, too, because he actually broke away from his friends on the team and weaved his way through the mess of people to approach Maya.
"Well, he's persistent," Teddi commented as they waited for the teams to exit the locker rooms. "He seems to like Maya."
"Almost reminds me of when Scooter tried pursuing Julie," Charlie said, watching as the kid walked over to Maya to strike up a conversation.
"I hate that we're not out there playing, but I wouldn't pass up watching them play," Sofi said as they watched the teams skate out onto the ice, causing the crowd to erupt into a roaring cheer. "Let's go, Evan!" she yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth and waving at her boyfriend, who waved back at her as he skated around the ice, smiling.
Logan seemed to be winking at the audience and messing up his hair, though Maya knew he was doing that because Teddi liked it; not only that, but it drove a lot of the ladies in the audience nuts when he did that. It was a whole part of why Coach Conway had given Logan the special nickname "The Beautifier."
While they watched the boys warm up on the ice, Maya felt someone's presence behind her. She shifted around to see Tommy Phillips, the defenseman from the Varsity team, sitting behind them, giving a slightly nervous smile. While Maya smiled back pleasantly, Lauren and Maya instantly became protective.
"What do you think you're doing?" Lauren asked, narrowing her eyes behind her glasses and tightly clutching her warrior princess cape around her shoulders.
"Don't worry. I've got no hostility. Scout's honor," Tommy said, raising his hands defensively, though based on the look on his face, he clearly wanted to talk to Maya alone. "Do you mind giving us a minute?"
"No way!" Sofi said.
"Sofi, chill," Maya said. "I know you're both a little overprotective. But I can handle myself." She punched her hand against her chest to make her point.
Lauren nodded, smiling, though it was a little tight. "All right. Just don't do anything we wouldn't do." She then glared at Tommy. "Watch your hands," she added coolly, and together, she and Sofi went off to go sit with Charlie and Teddi in the audience.
Tommy moved down the row, taking the seat Sofi had been occupying.
"Sorry about them," Maya said. "They're just looking out for me."
"I mean, as they should," Tommy said. "I'm Tommy, by the way, Tommy Phillips, the defenseman."
"Maya Kasper." Maya shook his hand. "Though I can understand why my friends have their guards up. I mean, look at the way your friends treat us."
"Hey, I'm nothing like those guys," Tommy insisted defensively.
"Oh, really?" Maya quirked an eyebrow. "You're just as complacent in it. Whenever they pick on others that they think are different, you may not go along with it, but you don't do anything."
"Well, I don't like it," Tommy said. "And hey, if you want me to be honest, I think it's super unfair that they look down upon you guys. I also think it's unfair that the school won't fund a girls' hockey team; I signed your petition, in case you didn't notice, because I have a little sister who is just as obsessed with hockey as I am, and she plays for the Huskies Squirts team. My favorite hockey team is the Canucks, and my hockey idol is Quinn Hughes, their captain. And I don't only like hockey. I'm obsessed with pizza, especially the stuff from Pizzeria Lola; their Boise pizza with the potatoes on it? Total game changer. I also like music, I love to read, binge-watching old television shows, and I hugely dislike everything about the current Varsity team because Alec Kentinsworth is a total dick. He may claim he's doing me a favor, but in reality, he only goes out of his way to benefit himself. Now you go."
Maya smiled; hearing this from Tommy made her feel marginally better about him. Sure, she noticed he put his name down on her, Sofi, Teddi, and Lauren's petition, but she'd been unsure of his motives. Hearing that he was genuinely interested in seeing some changes happen at the school brought her some hope that this guy wasn't so bad.
"Well, I love pizza; I'm from Brooklyn. I think something would be wrong with me if I didn't love pizza," Maya said.
"Music?"
"Icon for Hire."
"No way!" Tommy grinned broadly. "I didn't think I'd ever meet anyone who heard of Icon for Hire! Um, how about TV shows?"
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Maya said, "or Dawson's Creek. I also love Glee."
"Buffy is one of my favorites! How about movies?"
"I love Pretty in Pink. My second favorite movie is She's the Man with Amanda Bynes."
"So, you're a John Hughes fanatic, too? What about Patrick Swayze movies? Like Dirty Dancing? Ghost? Next of Kin?"
Maya nodded, smiling a little wider. "Of course."
"Favorite books?"
"Either Twilight or Little Women."
"Really? Two very stark contradictions there."
"Twilight isn't as sexist as you think. It's about agency and women being free to make their own choices."
"All right, so we have plenty in common," Tommy said. "Well, you know, Varsity has a home game next weekend against the Cardinals. I was thinking maybe after the game, you and I can go for some ice cream?"
Maya shrugged. "I still don't know you that well."
"Well, did I tell you I'm a pescetarian?" Tommy asked. "Not so much because of the animal rights part of it, but because I'm constantly looking for a healthier way of eating, but I can't bring myself to be a vegetarian because I still like eating eggs and fish. And I'm allergic to walnuts – it's crazy; I can eat any other kind of nut, but walnuts make me blow up like a balloon."
"Okay, well, I'll think about it," Maya said. "Because I really do like talking to you."
"Me too," Tommy said, and that was when they heard Milton Ryerson speaking into the microphone. "Oh, the game's about to start!"
Milton cleared his throat. "Ladies and gentlemen! It's the inaugural game of the new hockey season. The former Mighty Ducks, now known as the Minnetonka Prep Barbarians, are gearing up to face off against the Eden Hall Junior Varsity Warriors. Coach Vargas is preparing our boys to hit the ice with full force! The starting lineup for tonight's game includes former Mighty Ducks captain Evan Morrow, alongside first-line left wing Gordy Germaine, and first-line right wing Nick Ganz! Morrow has been a driving force for the team ever since their District Five days, so Coach Vargas is sending a powerful message by having him start the game. On defense, we have the Johnson brothers, Codi and George, while Anthony Herondale guards the goalpost. It's surely challenging for the players to be without the girls who were once part of the original Ducks roster. Nonetheless, the Barbarians are undefeated, and we're all hoping that our team will lead us to victory."
Maya couldn't help snorting in disgust at Milton's nonchalant commentary on the absent girls. Still, she clapped when she saw Evan take center ice, flanked by Gordy and Nick. She watched as the referee dropped the puck onto the ice, and Evan had the faster stick than the Warrior he faced in the face-off. He fought for the puck and skated hard across the ice, shouldering his way through the Warriors, who were very tight on defense. Maya bit her lip nervously as Evan passed the puck over to Gordy, who took his shot into the net. The puck sailed in, making the Barbarians 1 and the Warriors 0.
"All right, guys, way to go!" Maya yelled, jumping from her seat and applauding.
"Good job, Gordy!" she heard Lauren cheering. Looking around her, Maya saw Billy had been about to get up to cheer his friends on, only for Alec Kentinsworth and Stone to shove him down fiercely, demanding he sit down.
"Line change!" Coach Vargas barked. "LaRue, Vargas, Koobler, Underwood! Change it!"
The boys nodded. Logan went to take his spot at center ice, fist-bumping Evan while Finley Vargas went to Logan's left; Nick resumed his position on Logan's right while Koob and Oliver Underwood swapped places with the Johnson brothers. Even the Warriors changed it up, too. Logan ended up winning the second face-off, slickly slipping underneath the Warriors' right wing, who'd gone to hook an arm around his shoulders and illegally check him. Logan kept hold of the puck and then faked it to Finley Vargas, who faked it to Nick, who just as quickly passed it to Oliver, who'd left his place from behind the Barbarians' blue line to assist. Oliver set himself up to take the shot, and he sent the puck flying toward the net, only for the goalie to block it. Logan caught the puck again and retook the shot, scoring another goal.
"Yeah, Logan!" Teddi cheered from where she sat.
"Good job, you guys!" Maya heard Alex yelling from where she sat. If they were racking up two goals so far in the first period, then they were in good shape to win.
Or so they thought.
In the third period, things started unraveling for the Barbarians. Somehow, late into the second period, the Warriors tightened up on defense and managed to score past the Barbarians' goalie, Anthony, several times before Coach Vargas ordered Anthony to be out and be replaced by their backup, Jimmy Moreno, who ended up letting in more goals due to the nerves getting to him. It seemed no matter how many times Vargas demanded a line change, the Barbarians were barely hanging on; they'd scored a total of five goals, but when the Warriors began adapting and breaking through the cracks in their own defense, that was when the Warriors scored even more, making the game now tied at five to five.
Evan sat on the bench, pissed off that this was happening. He watched as his teammates tried to tighten up, but several of them got hurt; one of the Warriors hooked his stick around Logan's ankle, and Shane Stevens, Finley Vargas, Andrew Mizrahi, and Hector Morales took several vicious checks right into the boards, which left Evan, Henry, and Sam as a last resort for the final minutes of the third period.
Evan gritted his teeth and fought for the puck in the face-off, only to get knocked down. Henry raced in, trying to use his tiny size to his advantage; he weaved underneath the larger players and stole the puck away, only to get decked into the boards, his head slamming against the glass while the Warrior skated off in the final seconds. Evan raced after him, trying to play defense, but before he, Sam, Bowman, and Koobler could tighten up in front of the net, the puck sailed in as the buzzer went off, making it Warriors 6, the Barbarians 5.
Evan angrily threw his stick down, shaking his head as he skated off toward the bench, but not before helping Henry up to his feet. He knew he and the others were going to be in for one hell of a lecture from Vargas, and looking over at Finley; he saw that she looked nearly ready to cry as they went to the visitors' locker room to sit on the benches, their shoulders slumped in defeat.
He had to admit, in the final period, they played lousy. And while he knew Coach Vargas didn't care about wins, Vargas had been counting on him, Henry, and Sam to save this from being a complete disaster. Evan would instead take a tie than a loss.
"I can't believe this!" Justin Maywood said, shaking his head.
"Yeah, we needed one more goal!" Evan gritted out. He turned on Sam and Henry. "What the hell, you guys?"
"Hey, we tried our best out there!" Henry said defensively.
"Yeah, we let down, simple as that!" Gordy said.
"Hey, you let down!" snapped Logan. "I went hard out there."
"But what the hell are we playing for, anyway?" demanded Evan. "A bunch of aging, snobby pep clubbers whose brains are trapped back in the 1950s with obsolete views on girls playing hockey? If we had Teddi, Maya, Sofi, and Lauren out there with us, this wouldn't have happened! And maybe if we had Banksy, we would've had more of an advantage!"
"Like they would've made a difference, Morrow!" spat Peter Petronski.
"Yeah, if only we tightened up on defense, this wouldn't have happened!" Oliver Underwood roared.
"Don't go blaming me!" Evan spat. "I did my part out there."
"SHUT UP!" Everyone froze at hearing Vargas's enraged roar, and they all turned to look at him. "Look, I know what happened out there, you guys. And guess what? Blaming each other won't do anything. And another thing: goals don't matter if you can't play defense! I know you all know that! Ted Orion, your former trainer, told me that that's one of the first things you were taught. So why didn't you play defense? Huh? You boys know I don't give a damn about wins. But I expect that all of you make it count when you're on defense. You got that?"
"Yes, sir," they all whispered, glancing down at their feet.
"Practice tomorrow at six A.M. sharp," Vargas said sternly. "If we're gonna get back into shape for our game against the Cardinals next weekend, you all better be ready to work. You hear me?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good! Now get cleaned up; we've got a bus ride to catch back to Minnetonka," Coach Vargas said, shaking his head in disapproval. He left them all to shower and get dressed so they could get on the bus back to the school.
The next morning's practice was a bitch, and that was being generous.
Vargas didn't let up. He immediately had them warming up with sprints back and forth across the ice, and then they were doing drills until no tomorrow. The practice went on for a total of two and a half hours until Vargas finally let them off the hook to go shower.
Evan's legs burned badly, but that was nothing compared to the anger he felt toward the whole situation. While he didn't necessarily hate Vargas and understood that he was in between a rock and a hard place with the whole girls' hockey situation, the petty part of him couldn't help feeling angry that Vargas didn't fight hard enough for the girls to have a fair shot, to the point where his own daughter decided to masquerade as a boy to play on the team.
Sighing angrily, he walked toward his locker as he ripped off his ugly J.V. Barbarians jersey, but just as he opened his locker, he noticed the jeans, T-shirt, socks, and shoes he'd worn to the rink that morning were nowhere to be found.
"Hey guys, where the hell are our clothes?" asked Travis Bowman, confused. That was when they all heard the running water of the showers, and together, they all went off to investigate.
However, when they got to the showers, the boys all noticed a pile of sopping wet clothes sitting in several corners of the shower area. Evan felt his face burn. If he was not in uniform at school, his clothes mostly came from places like Kohl's or Walmart. Given that his mom was just a paralegal and not an actual lawyer, they didn't have a whole lot of money; it was often a choice between nicer stuff or putting food on the table and keeping the house. And he knew the other guys' situation was no better than his, especially Logan, Sam, and Henry; Gordy was really the exception among them due to his mom being a state senator. Still, it didn't make a difference who Gordy's parents were; he would be considered "dirty" because he hung around people who had less money, and Evan knew the same applied to the other boys who could afford to go to Minnetonka Prep without any kind of financial assistance.
Seeing the pile of their clothing soaking wet was a huge sting. It reminded them that most of them came from nothing and that they would always be viewed as nothing more than white trash. But what stung even worse was the graffiti on the shower walls that read J.V. STINKS!
Evan felt his face burning in embarrassment. Just the mere thought of needing to walk across campus like this in his sweaty pads, his hair soiled with perspiration, his body aching due to how hard Vargas had worked him, was so humiliating. He could only feel his jaw dropping to the ground as he noticed his clothes were on top of the pile; he knew that it was a little more than a coincidence that Alec Kentinsworth did that.
"Wait, they put our clothes in here?" Koobler asked. "Aw, man!"
"What the hell are we supposed to do? Walk across campus like this?" asked Finley, shaking her head and still speaking in that faux-boyish voice.
"I guess so," said Peter, looking disgusted.
"Well, we can't just let those assholes get away with this," Shane Stevens said.
"So, what are we supposed to do?" asked Henry curiously.
Logan and Nick shared a conspiratory smile with one another before Nick suggested, "Well, let's prank them back."
"But what about Banksy? Or Vargas's brother?" asked Evan.
"They're either one of them, or they had no clue about this; if we don't include them in it, Varsity will know something's up. We can't let them think that Billy's on our side in this war; they'll just gun for him," Logan said with a shrug.
"Sad but true," sighed Sam. "So, what's the plan?"
"Logan and I will think of something. We'll let you know once we figure it out," Nick said.
"Just don't do liquid nitrogen on their jerseys, though," said Gordy. "My dad told me once that his team did that to the Varsity when they were at Eden Hall after those Warrior guys did something like this to them. We should be a little more creative than that."
"I think I've got something," Evan said, grinning. "Have you guys ever seen the movie Big Fat Liar?"
Nick grinned madly at this. "Let me guess? Blue skin via the swimming pool?"
"Even better," cackled Evan. "And I think it's only fair we let the girls have a piece of this, too. I think this prank could use a feminine touch."
A/N: I'll admit this: the lack of reviews and support on this one could be a lot better. But at the end of the day, I'm writing this story for me. But if anybody would like to review, please feel free to and be my guest. I want to get some feedback on this story. Plus, the lack of feedback is part of why I won't do a sequel to this one, but I will leave it as open-ended for a potential sequel in the future if I feel motivated to write one.