After Julie gets insulted by an opposing player during an away game, Coach Orion comforts her.

Inspiration taken from HP and the Chamber of Secrets movie, where Hagrid comforts Hermione after Malfoy calls her "Mudblood."

Nobody Puts The Cat in A Bag

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

It was the quote from his wife's favorite movie, the movie they saw on one of their first dates. And he felt those words couldn't ring truer when he watched the kids' tapes before he agreed to take over.

He'd watched them play in the Junior Goodwill Games on television and had seen Julie "The Cat" be underutilized, spending most of her time on the bench while Goldberg acted as the primary goalie. It was no wonder she kneed those Iceland players in the crotch – they'd probably said something stupid, possibly a comment about her gender; that was the only thing Ted could think of that could make a thirteen-year-old girl react that way, and it was understandable; she was a young teenager on the cusp of puberty, playing on a team of a bunch of boys with only one other girl.

For that, Ted had empathy. When he'd seen Julie knee those Iceland players in the groin, part of him nodded in approval – those Iceland players had zero respect; everyone witnessed how that one player broke his stick over Banks's wrist and how that other one nearly rammed Moreau into the boards when she was trying to get the puck away from the wall. Granted, women were still fighting to have women's and girls' sports. One couldn't expect things to change overnight because women had only begun fighting for their equal rights in athletics over twenty years ago. Title IX was signed in '72, ten years after Ted and Bombay had been born. Still, it didn't sit right with Ted, knowing that girls' hockey teams were almost non-existent, at least until the college level – girls were told to either choose figure skating or ballet classes, sports that were traditionally "feminine."

So, when he learned he'd be getting two girls on his freshmen team – not ordinary girls but Connie Moreau and Julie "The Cat" Gaffney from Team USA – he knew this would be a shakeup that Eden Hall Academy would not be used to.

For one, Eden Hall Academy was proud of its hockey team, grasping the straws of tradition that boys and only boys played hockey.

For another, the ice rink did not have a girls' locker room, meaning the girls needed to change with the boys. Ted did not think any of the boys would do something to Connie or Julie, but it was a reason for concern.

It was after watching Julie's tapes from her time playing with the Bangor Ewes and rewatching her making that save when the Ducks were in overtime in the Jr. Goodwill Games finals, that he made the decision:

"Nobody puts the cat in the bag."

He'd been infuriated knowing her talent had been wasted. No wonder she'd attacked those Iceland goons. After being sidelined so that Goldberg could be first and being one of the only girls surrounded by a bunch of boys, she probably had a massive chip on her shoulder. It didn't excuse her poor sportsmanship. But it explained why she assaulted two members of the opposing team; they didn't take her seriously because of her gender. And for Gordon to constantly prioritize Goldberg over her, making her feel less than, she probably thought Bombay to be a sexist ass.

Ted decided that was not what he was going to do.

So, he put her first. But even he saw how the boys on the team didn't seem to value her. In their first game against the Blake Academy Bears, the boys kept scoring, scoring, scoring, and by the time Julie finally had something to do, she was tired in more ways than one; Ted could see it all over her face how bored she was at not being able to do anything, how she stood there uselessly while Charlie and the others did all the work.

No wonder that game ended with a tie.

Luckily, after they defeated the Varsity team, Julie appeared to earn some respect. Even Coach Wilson begrudgingly admitted she was even better than Scooter.

That didn't mean she wasn't viewed as a joke among other schools, namely, Minnetonka Preparatory, a school notorious for having only three options for female sports: girls' softball, cheerleading, and figure skating. The Minnetonka Prep Barbarians were favored to make it to the state championship or at least the playoffs.

But when the Ducks went to play against them in their home arena, Ted noticed something: an air of sexism bled through to the whole Minnetonka Prep J.V. team, who'd never seen a girl in the goalpost before.

Not even two minutes into the first period did Minnetonka Prep have hold of the puck. Ted watched closely as the captain of the Barbarians scored against Julie, the puck sliding in right under her glove, and he saw the captain say something that clearly pissed off Banks, Robertson, and Mendoza, because Banks whipped around, marching up to the Barbarians' captain and snapping, "Her name's 'Julie!' Show a little respect!" just as Julie lashed out with her hockey stick, swinging it and cutting the captain off from underneath his legs.

Everyone groaned loudly, knowing Julie was likely to get kicked out of the game for that, which meant Goldberg needed to replace her. Goldberg wasn't the best. But he'd have to do.

Ted's theory proved correct when the ref said, "Number six! Disqualified for poor sportsmanship and intent to injure!"

"WHAT?" roared Conway and Moreau from the bench, more pissed than Ted had ever seen them.

Ted sighed, shaking his head. "Goldberg, get out there. See if you can hold these guys off."

"You got it, Coach," Goldberg said, putting on his goalie pads as Julie skated off to the penalty box. Ted noticed her blinking back tears as she sat in the box, throwing her stick down angrily. Until then, Ted had never seen her get that emotional and upset. Whatever was said to her was clearly very bad because Banks still looked infuriated over it. Looking at Julie, with her blonde hair and sapphire eyes, she looked like an older version of Lucy; it made Ted feel a swell of protectiveness, especially as the game carried on. The Ducks were losing badly and barely hanging on; they didn't score anything the whole time, no matter how many times he barked for a line change or had them go open-net with Russ, Portman, and Fulton as the extra men on the ice.

The game ended five to zero, a major blow. But he knew why it ended the way it did. It was because Julie lost her temper and allowed whatever that captain said to get to her. He had no clue what was said but was determined to find out.

The kids stalked off to the visitors' locker room to shower and get changed. But before they could, Ted stepped inside to address them all.

"Look, we're not gonna talk about what happened out there today," he said. "You all know why this happened. And you know what this means."

"Five A.M. practice tomorrow?" grumbled Portman, glowering at Julie and Goldberg, clearly blaming them for the loss, but Julie's face was bright red, tears still misting in her eyes.

"Yes," Ted said sternly. He turned to Julie. "Part of this wouldn't have happened if The Cat didn't get kicked out."

"Don't blame her!" Conway snarled.

"I'm not," Ted argued back. "But it was part of it. We wouldn't have been in this position if Julie had been in the net. But I also know, Gaffney, that you don't just attack an opposing player for no reason. Did he say something to you after he scored?"

"He did," Robertson said, looking utterly confused. "He called her a . . . well, I'm not sure what it was."

"Because you're denser than a box of rocks!" spat Banks, smacking Dwayne over the back of the head and rolling his eyes. "Anybody with a brain knows what it means!"

"Well, what was it?" Ted demanded as Julie got up, turning away from them.

Julie said nothing for a moment before finally saying roughly, "He called me a twat."

Ted felt shock settle in the first before it was replaced with a tsunami of anger. His hands clenched into fists as he watched Julie futilely try wiping her eyes, but to no avail, as Moreau and Conway got up and each wrapped an arm around her as she whispered, "It's such bullshit!"

"He did not!" Ted whispered furiously, his voice nearly transforming into a low growl.

"He did," Banks snapped.

"Well, what does that mean?" Robertson asked, still dense.

Julie turned and glowered at him, her blue eyes looking red, wet, and shiny. Tears ran down her face, and her nose ran slightly as Moreau handed her some tissues to wipe her face. She said, "It's a vulgarity referring to women's private parts. God, Dwayne! Do you not have an IQ above twelve?"

Robertson looked momentarily confused before finally realizing it. He said, "Ah, I see."

Banks rolled his eyes as he walked over to Julie, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and drawing her close as Conway said, "He said that because he obviously has antiquated views toward women; it makes me wonder if he even has respect for his own mother if that's how he thinks he can talk to a girl."

"Well, not all boys can be you, Charlie," Julie sniffled.

"That doesn't matter. You just don't say things like that to someone!" Wu said.

"But that doesn't change the fact that there are men out there who think they're better than women, especially in athletics," Ted said. "You're unfortunately gonna get that until you've gone on to college because girls' hockey teams aren't common; we're the outlier because we allow for the team to be co-ed. Before you all came to Eden Hall, that was completely unheard of. In fact, the board was almost reluctant to give you girls' scholarships because of the unfair disadvantages of girls competing against boys."

"So, why don't they do something about it and fund a girls' hockey team already?" demanded Conway. "District Five Public High School has one, and that place is falling apart and is surviving off government funds!"

"Unfortunately, it'll take a lot of these private schools years before they conform to modern times," Ted said, shaking his head, hating to say it, but he knew it was true. While he knew there were more girls' hockey teams forming throughout Minnesota, with Minnesota being one of the leading states in the country for girls' hockey, it appeared that they'd have to struggle with this kind of sexism in athletics for many more years to come. He could hardly blame Gaffney for lashing out the way she did.

"But that doesn't excuse what that captain said to her," Fulton said.

"Yeah. That's a disgusting thing to call somebody," added Germaine, looking in Moreau's direction with an edge of protectiveness.

"But it's all a bunch of crap anyway," Ted said sternly, feeling he had to say something; looking at the hurt expression on Julie's face, he wanted nothing more than to erase it. "Just because you're male, that doesn't make you better than an athlete who's female. They're even talking about forming a women's Golden Gophers team for the University of Minnesota, which will take effect in a couple of years. That means you young ladies will have your chance by the time you graduate from Eden Hall, and anything any of those people might say about you, none of it's gonna matter once you're in college because so many doors will be open for you. The same thing goes for all of you. You understand?"

A chorus of "Yeses" went around the room, but Julie just glanced back at him tearfully. Ted simply gestured for her to come closer to him, and she slowly walked over as he sat down on the bench and took her hand gently.

"Listen to me, Julie," he said, reaching his free hand up to gently wipe her tears away with his thumb. "I put you first because I knew you were the better goalie. You were my choice. So, do me a favor, and don't let another sexist jackass's opinion of you affect your performance out there. Never again. You wanna know why? Because nobody puts Baby in a corner. Okay?"

Julie managed a weak smile, her tears still rolling down her face as she whispered, "Thanks, Coach."