Ted's daughter surprises the Ducks after they win at the J.V.-Varsity showdown.
The Posters
The Ducks were all sweaty, sore, and tired. But that didn't negate their excitement at what they'd just done. They defeated the Varsity team in the J.V-Varsity showdownwhen everyone thought that they would crumble under the pressure and lose against the undefeated state champs (or, as Russ put it, state "chumps"). Watching Varsity walk away, shoulders slumped in defeat, acting like sore losers, the Ducks couldn't contain how jovial they all felt – several of them were injured, but no one cared as they went off to the locker room, still quacking, unable to stop celebrating the win.
Charlie hung back behind them, and Ted noticed the boy looked slightly disappointed that Bombay hadn't hung back to celebrate with them all. But Ted also knew that Bombay was needed out there in LA, and his flight left tomorrow morning and he needed all the rest he could get beforehand.
He also knew that the kids' spirits would be lifted even more when they walked into the locker room and saw what had been left behind for them while they were playing in the third period.
He caught sight of his wife and daughter, who were sitting up there in the stands. Lucy cheered animatedly, joining in with the quacking. Even Bella, who was nearing the end of her pregnancy, quacked along; he was glad that Lucy and Bella had gotten to the game on time because he'd been worried about Bella's work schedule andthat she wouldn't be able to make it. Yet, somehow, she made it in time and met up with Ted before the game, pulling him aside and mentioning that Lucy wanted to give the Ducks something.
When Ted caught aglimpse of what that was, he couldn't contain his smile, especially when he told Lucy that she could put it all in the locker room after the third period started, that when the Ducks won, they would have something to mark the occasion.
"The Warriors die, and the Ducks fly!" Russ kept cawing as Connie opened the locker room's door, and the kids all wandered inside, except, when they entered, they were greeted with the display of vast pieces of construction paper taped to their lockers.
The huge construction paper posters made the lockers look like a rainbow of color, all sticking out because they all said different things:
IT'S KNUCKLEPUCK TIME! GO RUSS!
WE WILL, WE WILL, QUACK YOU! GO GET THEM, CHARLIE!
SHOW THEM WHAT IT MEANS TO PLAY LIKE A GIRL, CONNIE!
SHARPEN YOUR CLAWS, CATWOMAN!
KICK SOME BUTT, BASH BROTHER!
GO, GUY, GO!
GOLDBERG! THE GOALIE!
DUCKS FLY TOGETHER, LUIS!
LET THEM EAT CAKE, BANKSY!
The kids were positively stunned by the display. Julie and Connie looked like they were about to start crying. Charlie's eyes were misty. Even Fulton and Portman looked close to tears. Connie walked over to her locker and wiped her eyes while the others could only stare open-mouthed. It was a completely unexpected surprise not just to the Ducks but to Ted as well.
He had no clue about Lucy's intention to make the team homemade posters. But she told him that she'd made them in art class that day and that she wanted the Ducks to have them and take them home after the J.V.-Varsity match, that she had her teacher help her draw some of the designs on them like stars, the Mighty Ducks logo, hearts, and other little prints; she'd written their names on all the posters and had written most of the slogans on them, but she'd gotten some help with the spelling. Still, none of the Ducks seemed to care that a five-year-old made the posters; they didn't even know who drew them yet. Ted felt a warming sensation fill him as he watched the kids take it all in; in their weeks at this school, all the Ducks struggled with being accepted – Banks had filled him in about the bullying that had been going on, and he knew that the bullying didn't help matters at all; even though they were jocks, they would never be accepted here. They would always be viewed as "white trash."
So, he knew that this was refreshing for them all, walking in and receiving a gift, especially since after their first game against the Bears, they'd walked into the locker room to find their clothes dumped in the shower (which Banks said he didn't know about at all; he hadn't been aware of Varsity planning that). The contrast couldn't be starker; he knew the encouraging words Lucy had colored onto the paper couldn't erase the weeks of humiliation and bullying they'd suffered. However, he could see on their faces that this welcomed surprise made them feel appreciated for the first time in weeks. His five-year-old daughter's colorful, messy handwritinglit up every Duck's face.
"Who made all this?" Julie asked.
"These are sick!" Portman said.
Charlie turned to him, smiling weakly. Only Charlie knew about Lucy; Ted was sure because Bombay had helped tostraighten out Charlie's attitude, and part of that had been Bombay showing Charlie a side of Ted that the boy closed himself off from seeing.
"Yeah, I knew about this," Ted told them, getting them all to sit down. "And you all can take those home with you. But how about this? Who's up for pizza at Twin City Slice on me tonight?"
As he opened the door to the locker room, the kids gave him more jovial cheers, and Lucy came rolling into the room, grinning.
"This is Lucy, my daughter," he announced. "She did all those herself."
The Ducks all smiled warmly at her, introducing themselves while wiping their eyes, still overwhelmed by the sight of Lucy's artwork that had been pinned to their lockers. Charlie, the newly crowned captain, stepped forward and knelt in front of her.
"Hi, Lucy, it's really nice to meet you. I'm Charlie Conway, the Ducks captain." It was a side of Charlie Ted hadn't seen; the warm smile and the gentle look in his eyes were a blunt dissimilarity to the angry, insubordinate, moody teenager he'd met weeks ago. The boy's eyes glittered with a sort of gentle kindness, andTed could instantly tell that Charlie had a natural way with kids – maybe after baby Teddy was born, Conway could be his and Bella's emergency babysitter.
Lucy looked at Charlie in fascination, cocking her head to the side. "You're Charlie? I heard Daddy talk about you all the time to my mommy. I'm a really big fan of yours. Too bad Daddy says you're 'a huge pain in the ass.'"
Ted's eyes widened in alarm; had Lucy overheard him tell Bella that during one of his nights when he'd complained about Charlie's attitude? He quickly shot what he hoped to be an apologetic glance at Charlie, and Charlie just looked back at him understandingly before Ted shifted to scolding his daughter.
"Lucy!" he scorned, shaking his head. "That is not nice! Do you want me to put soap in your mouth?"
"I didn't say it. You said it," Lucy giggled.
Ted sighed – that child. Kids were too smart for their own good. "I said that because I was angry; I didn't mean it, okay? Sometimes, grown-ups say things they don't mean when they're mad, but it's never okay to say that. You understand me? That I didn't mean what I said?"
"Umm," Lucy seemed to ponder, and she burst into a fit of giggles. "Like that time you said that Rick Riley was a pompous shithead?"
At this, all of the Ducks started laughing, and Ted couldn't help but laugh, too – he needed to be more careful about cursing in front of his daughter because she picked up quite a sailor's mouth from somewhere, and it wasn't from Bella.
"Okay, maybe I meant that because he hasn't changed," Ted agreed, snorting. He shook his head in exasperation. "Don't have a smart kid," he advised the Ducks. "Because smart kids ask questions. And often, they're questions you don't wanna answer."
The Ducks all chuckled. Those who had younger siblings shared knowing glances.
"I think we know," laughed Julie. "I've got two little brothers back home."
"Hopefully, he said good things about the rest of us," said Adam, grinning.
"We know we weren't easy to put up with," laughed Guy.
"But you should come to one of our practices at some point," Connie said to Lucy.
Lucy beamed at Connie. "Yeah, I'd like that." She turned to Ted. "Please, Daddy?"
"I'll think about it," Ted told her.
Charlie just smiled back at her. "To be fair, I wasn't the easiest one to deal with. So, maybe what your dad said about me has some merit." He winked at Lucy, who giggled fiercely.
"You aren't that bad," Ted argued, still feeling he had to apologize for speaking that way about Charlie to his wife with Lucy in earshot.
"Oh really?" Charlie quirked an eyebrow at him, eyes glinting with the playfulness Ted hadn't seen since he'd returned the Ducks' jerseys.
Ted smiled warmly at his captain before saying, "Come on, let's get going. You all hit the showers."
"And hurry up! I'm hungry!" Lucy demanded.
"Speak for yourself, kid," Portman said, shaking his head as they all headed off to shower, the girls taking it first.
An hour later, Ted, Bella, Lucy, and the Ducks were congregated at Twin City Slice in downtown Minneapolis, sitting at tables surrounded by several large pizzas and pitchers of soda. Lucy animatedly talked about the game the whole time, describing the moment Goldberg shot the winning goal and reenacting the moments Julie blocked the puck. She even went around asking the Ducks for their autographs, which they more than happily obliged, and Bella snapped photos of Lucy with Charlie, Averman, Goldberg, Connie, and Julie, who looked flattered by the admiration from the five-year-old, and Ted also knew that the kids were watching him soften; Ted overheard Charlie laughing with Adam about how for what a hard-ass he was, Ted was a complete marshmallow when it came to Lucy, and Ted couldn't bring himself to stop and scold Charlie for it, because he knew it was true. Another truth he knew he was seeing was that the Ducks were becoming part of his family, and he knew he wouldn't have it any other way, especially as he watched Charlie spin Lucy's wheelchair in a circle, and Connie and Julie entertain his daughter with stories of their times playing hockey with boys.
"I used to be able to knock them over all the time," Connie explained.
"Really? You?" Lucy laughed.
"Yeah, really. The boys called me 'The Velvet Hammer.'" Connie blushed at the mention of her old nickname from when the kids were just known as District Five.
"And I played on an all-girls team," Julie said.
"What's that like?"
"It's a lot less smelly. And a lot less annoying. At least my friends back in Maine knew how to clean up after themselves."
"Hey!" Averman looked at her, offended. "We're not that bad, Cat Lady! Just ask Tammy Duncan. She'd tell you otherwise! Man, where's the respect? Why, I'm insulted by that. What are we to you? Animals? Neanderthals?"
"Shut up, Averman!" Julie rolled her eyes, and everyone laughed in response as Averman went as red as his hair. Even Ted couldn't contain his laughter as he lifted his glass of soda up.
"All right, Ducks, well, cheers to us. And on that note, quack!"
"Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack . . ."