Chapter 8 – A New Normal Part 2
For the next few months, they fell into a routine.
Even after a couple of months, Charlie couldn't sleep without Gordon in bed with him, and much to the kid's embarrassment, he still needed assistance with showering. But they found something that worked well: as long as Gordon or Ted helped him undress and get dressed and ensured the soap and shampoo were well within reach, Charlie could do most things in the shower by himself. But one day, when Charlie saw the slightest hint of facial hair shadowing his face, he needed to start shaving, and it had been Ted and Gordon who'd taught him how to, all the while fighting for a view in the medicine cabinet mirror above the sink in the guestroom bathroom.
Charlie had completed all of his summer work to get him to pass his freshman year. He even got glowing marks on his final English essay on The Diary of Anne Frank and managed to do surprisingly well in algebra and biology, though that was majorly attributed to Averman, Julie, and Adam coming over and tutoring him every day.
But of course, the board members still weren't convinced. They'd been tempted to have Charlie repeat freshman year despite the glowing marks on his summer work; it still made Ted's blood boil when he remembered that day he stood in front of the alumni association, the hockey booster club, and Dean Buckley, who looked at all of Charlie's work that had been placed right in front of them.
"And he did all of this work on his own?" Tom Riley asked reproachfully.
Ted, Gordon, and Casey stood there, looking at each board member; even after all the work Charlie had done to ensure he didn't have to repeat a year of high school, Tom Riley and the other alumni members were doubtful that Charlie had the substantial work ethic to move onto his sophomore year and play hockey with the Ducks.
Looking over at Casey, he knew the kid's mother was infuriated that these board members would ever suggest that Charlie cheat or try to take the easy way out with his work. Not that Ted wasn't furious, too – he knew how hard Charlie had been working all summer long on his schoolwork, determined not to get held back a year. Yet, Ted had a feeling these people would be willing to hold Charlie back a year out of spite toward Gordon since Gordon had been the one to fight for the Ducks to have scholarships at Eden Hall at all. It just read as incredibly petty to him. And he decided he was going to have none of it.
"Yes," Ted said, fighting to keep his voice even, but he honestly wanted to scream. He couldn't believe these people. What exactly was it about Charlie that they resented so much? That he was a kid who came from nothing and busted his butt to get to where he was? Did these people honestly forget what it meant actually to work for anything in life?
It pissed him off to no end; he and Gordon were fortunate enough to be raised with money, but Ted also remembered a point when he didn't have a lot because his father lost his job one day; fortunately, Ted's father Ted Sr. got a job that paid better when Ted was in his junior year at Eden Hall, but being at the bottom gave Ted awareness of what it was like for others who had nothing, to the point where when he graduated from middle school, he donated his old hockey gear to Hans' shop so that other kids who couldn't afford good equipment could get the gear for less than half the cost. In many ways, Charlie was him, not from the stance of fatherlessness, but from the stance of coming from nothing at one point and being fortunate enough to have people give him chances. And he was determined to pay that forward and give Charlie this second chance.
"Even though he's received tutoring for the homework assignments, he did the essays and tests on his own. Those scores are accurate; the teachers have confirmed it and declared him eligible to pass," Ted continued, keeping his tone calm, not at all in the mood to argue with these people.
"We aren't sure, Coach Orion," said Janet Darrow.
"What can you possibly not be sure of?" Ted demanded.
"Well, for one, he did consider dropping out," Al Mullin said.
"But he didn't," Ted snapped. "Not by choice. He was kidnapped and went through hell for seven months! This kid deserves a second chance because I know what he's capable of. And he's on scholarship, so you have no reason to take that away from him. I thought you learned from that last time you tried kicking the other Ducks out of here."
"But if he leaves, you get to pick someone else for the captain's position," reasoned Randy Kabine.
"I have my captain! Conway is my choice," Ted said calmly, despite seeing red at hearing these board members try and come up with excuses to kick Charlie out. "Either he stays, or I go!"
That was all Gordon needed to see, that his stepson-to-be was being discriminated against for coming from nothing. As a result, Bombay threatened to slap them with another injunction for trying to keep Charlie out of school.
This was the new normal for them. It wasn't anything any of them were expecting. It was sad that it took something so awful happening to Charlie for Ted and the Ducks captain to reach an understanding and become as close as they were, but Ted also knew that he wouldn't take anything back; he wouldn't have handled anything differently; the only thing he wished he could take back was his harshness driving Charlie away, but he knew that Charlie understood now why Ted had been so hard on him.
By early August, Charlie was preparing to head back to Eden Hall; he'd steadily regained weight but was still far thinner than Bella would've liked, and she kept on insisting he eat third helpings of everything she cooked at dinnertime. The only major setback that he had was being in the chair, but Bella had said his broken leg would take less than six months to heal; in fact, she said that Charlie was on his way to begin physical therapy earlier than they anticipated; he could get his cast off and start physical therapy by early-October, but he wouldn't be back on the ice until January, at least.
But in early August, Charlie's fifteenth birthday came, which everybody was surprised by; given how many months Charlie had been missing, the kid's birthday hadn't been something anybody had thought much of. Between Gordon and Casey preparing for their wedding date (they were aiming to get married soon, possibly by February since Casey had her heart set on a winter wedding) and Charlie preparing to go back to school, it had actually been Bella who'd mentioned that Charlie was about to turn fifteen, which prompted an impromptu, intimate birthday party with only the Ducks in attendance, and Bella and Casey cooked up all of Charlie's favorites from scratch-made Chicago pizza, to lasagna, to chili, to meatballs; Bella even baked the birthday cake from scratch, as she wouldn't take the thought of Charlie settling for cake made from a box mix, even when Charlie insisted that she didn't have to do that.
"It's no trouble at all. I want to. You deserve it," Bella had told Charlie despite his protests that this was all too much, especially when birthday gifts got passed around to him.
But it hadn't seemed to occur to Charlie just yet that he hadn't spoken to or seen the one person he'd probably thought of most during his disappearance: Linda Chavez, the sophomore class girls' representative who'd been named a prefect just shy of her junior year.
Connie ended up bringing this up with Charlie when slices of birthday cake were passed around.
"She's been worried sick over you," Connie told him. "She keeps asking about you; she's called Julie and me every day."
"I'm just not ready to see her yet," Charlie said.
Ted knew that it was a multitude of things: Charlie had a crappy attitude at the beginning of his semester at Eden Hall, the last he saw of Linda had been after he behaved like a juvenile brat breaking sticks at that game against the Bears, and he'd nearly ended up quitting Eden Hall, and on the day he almost quit, he got taken away for seven months and almost lost his life. How the hell was one supposed to look at the girl he'd been most fascinated with after he behaved like a complete ass, and that was her last memory of him before he disappeared?
If only Charlie knew that Linda had been worried immensely over him, she'd helped the police search for him and stood up to Rick Riley and Brad Cole whenever they dared to disparage him. She'd been one of the first ones to come to the hospital to see him when he'd been in his coma. Still, even Ted was confused as to why Linda was relaying messages through Connie and Julie – perhaps, it had something to do with the fact that it had been easier for her to see Charlie when he'd been unconscious; there hadn't been any fear of accidentally saying the wrong thing or worrying about what he would say to her. It was about fear for both of them, but at some point, one of them had to be assertive enough to make that first move.
Ted just wasn't sure who it was going to be yet.
Still, he predicted it wouldn't be Charlie. The kid probably would've pushed away the Ducks if it weren't for his friends asserting themselves and insisting that Charlie not isolate away from them. At this point, it was up to Linda to approach Charlie and let him know that she cared – she'd shown it when she visited him in the hospital, but she needed to say it. But really, it should be a joint effort between her and Charlie.
That was why, the night before the first day of Charlie's sophomore year of high school, Ted sat up with Charlie long after Lucy and Hans were put to bed, and Casey and Gordon went downstairs for some alone time (much to Charlie's disgust and happiness). Bella had already turned in early because she had an early morning shift at the hospital the next day.
St. Elmo's Fire played quietly on the television when Ted brought up Linda.
"So, you're gonna see Linda for the first time since this all happened?"
Charlie closed his eyes. "I don't wanna talk about that. Please."
"I think you have to. Because considering the way things left off between you two, you both have a lot to talk about."
"But . . . the way things ended before, you know . . ." Charlie swallowed around his words, tears rolling down his face. "I just hate that that's how she remembers me to be, you know? And she still came around to see me in the hospital after all of this."
"Which means that she cares," Ted insisted. "And you're part of why the school's mascot's name is changed in the first place. She's proud to be a Duck. And the Ducks made this happen because they played at that grudge match with you in mind. And she'd been part of searching for you. Between her and Adam, you had two people looking to ensure you came home for good."
"But I didn't want her ever seeing me like this." Charlie glanced down at the cast that remained on his leg, which had already had multiple signatures from the Ducks.
"Do you really think she'll care about that? If she really cares about you, she wouldn't look at you any differently."
"No, not that," Charlie emphasized his final word, looking up at Ted with an expression of fear etched in his eyes. And Ted suddenly understood: Charlie was scared of people seeing him as weak because he thought they'd have an image in their minds of someone who couldn't even fight back against his biological dad; the kid was a hockey player, one of the star members of the Ducks, someone who could take multiple hits on the ice but could hardly survive a beating from Robert Galloway. Ted could imagine the gossip that would flow around the school. While the Ducks acted like they were simply worried about Charlie, Ted also knew that part of them was horrified at what had happened and that seeing Charlie in such a state was their worst nightmare, and they didn't quite know how to talk to him about it. In fact, none of them had even tried asking him about the sick, horrible things Robert had done to Charlie because they knew Charlie didn't want to talk about it outside of therapy; even Dwayne and Averman, who were denser than rocks, understood what happened to Charlie was nothing short of a nightmare, and had the sensitivity to know that if Charlie ever did want to talk to them about it, he would. In fact, after Charlie had gone missing, Averman wasn't the funny guy making jokes anymore; he could hardly even bring himself to smile or laugh, and he still wasn't himself because he knew that Charlie wasn't himself.
The only people Charlie spoke to about it were Ted and Gordon. While Ted was honored to be one of those people Charlie trusted to talk to about it, he knew it would benefit the kid more if Charlie opened up to his friends and let them in.
Still, Ted also knew there was another part of it: the wheelchair. Charlie hated being dependent on others; he was used to doing everything for himself. It was bad enough that he needed to depend on others to help him shower or get items from places that weren't easily accessible, and Ted could understand how embarrassing it was for Charlie, who'd been an athlete his whole life and had taken care of his mom for just as long. Now, he couldn't even walk.
"I get it," Ted said finally after enough silence passed between them.
"No, you don't." Charlie's voice trembled around the words as he continued crying, though he was trying to wipe his eyes to stop the tears.
"Okay, maybe I don't. But you know my daughter does. When she started going to school, she thought kids would reject her because she was in the chair. I told her the people who do not care and see her for who she is are the ones who matter more."
More silence followed. Ted knew that Charlie was still having doubts, so he continued with, "The Ducks don't pity you. And neither does Linda. You gotta give Linda a chance and let her be there because she really has been worried sick over you for months. She was one of the first people to visit you, you know? And I have a feeling she's as nervous as you are. Because when she went to see you, she was scared she'd never get a chance to tell you everything she ever wanted. And now that you're awake and she knows you're gonna be okay, she has that chance now, but she doesn't know how to."
"That's how I feel," Charlie admitted.
"So, here's what I suggest. Just let it happen naturally. If it's meant to happen, it will work out. Do you remember what I said about confidence even if you fail?"
Charlie nodded.
"You can't be afraid of rejection. If it's meant to happen, it will. If it's not, then you will meet someone along the way who loves unconditionally, heart and soul."
The next day, at J.V.'s first official hockey practice on their first day back in school, Ted spotted Charlie sitting by the bench in his wheelchair, with Linda sitting next to him, holding his hand. At the same time, Charlie explained everything happening during the practice to her. Surprisingly enough, Linda, the girl who expressed disdain for jocks in general, seemed to enjoy watching the practice, especially when Ted had the team separate into two groups to play a scrimmage; Adam ended up winning the face-off against Dwayne and was once again the only one to get a shot past Julie the Cat.
Overall, Charlie was proving to be an effective assistant coach. Even though he couldn't play yet, he provided good constructive criticism to the team and was enthusiastic about participating somehow. And Ted didn't regret at all keeping Banks on J.V. – Wilson had actually considered putting Banks back on Varsity. Still, Ted had advocated that Banks was needed a lot more on J.V. right now with Charlie being benched due to his injuries, something he knew Wilson was bitter about, especially since he lost a lot of his best players after Rick Riley and Brad Cole graduated. That meant he had to go fishing for more underclassmen to join Varsity, even recruiting Corbin Riley, Rick Riley's little brother.
"Luis! Pump the breaks!" Charlie yelled, wincing as Luis nearly took Julie out of the goalpost; Mendoza and Gaffney were dogpiled on top of each other, and Linda laughed.
"Is he always like that?"
"Yes, almost always. It's good to see some things never change," Charlie commented as Portman and Fulton checked Russ into the boards before Russ could try his knucklepuck against Julie.
Watching the two on the bench, laughing quietly and sharing a shy smile, and their hands inching closer together, Ted had a feeling Charlie and Linda had had the much-needed conversation that had to happen months ago. He knew that Charlie would be okay; the kid didn't just have his friends; he had a girl who was more than willing to stand by him.