Forever and Always | Adam Banks

The New Ducks

The Ducks were gathered around Coach Bombay and Mr. Tibbles, looking at the five new Ducks that stood before them. They team was excited to get to know who would be joining them, but a little nervous as well. There was always the possibility they wouldn't get along, which could affect how they play. "Tell me about my new playes," Coach Bombay tells Don. 

"That's Luis Mendoza. He's from our Miami club. A real speedster. Incredible skater. I clocked him at 1.9 seconds, blue line to blue line." Coach Bombay and the Ducks watch as Luis skates around the rink. He definitely had talent. 

"Good-lookin skater," Connie says, Ellie agreeing with her. The two girls were impressed by his speed and talent, thinking he would good asset to the team. 

"Very good-lookin. What do you think Adam and Guy?" Averman says, teasing the two as their girlfriends look at the new player. 

Guy and Adam knew that Luis was no competition, as both their relationships had no issues. The two boys rolled their eyes at their teammate and shoved him to the ground. "Shut up, Averman." The rest of the team turns their attention from Luis and focused on the thud that came when Averman hit the ground. 

"He has one minor problem," Mr. Tibbles starts saying. Everyone grimaced as Luis hit the boards. Thankfully he was wearing pads, because that definitely would have hurt if he wasn't. "Has a little trouble stopping." The rest of the new players skated to Luis, asking if he was okay and helped him get up off the ice. 

"Yeehaw! How is everyone? Y'all ready to play some puck?" A loud country accent echoed through the arena. Ellie and Adam looked at each other, knowing this guy was certainly going to be a character. He was probably a nice kid, but he seemed very extroverted, the opposite of Adam and Ellie. 

"Hey, look. It's hopalong Gretzky," Jesse says, making the team laugh. No one was used hearing a country accent on a daily basis, so this was definitely going to take getting used to. 

"That's Dwayne Robertson, from Austin. He's the best puck handler I've ever seen." The kids watch Dwayne show off his puck skills as Mr. Tibbles was telling Coach Bombay about him. Like Luis, he had a skill that could be a valuable asset to the team. Adam, Ellie, and Charlie all had their eyes on him, unable to look away. The way he moved the puck around was incredible. 

"He does have a tendency to showboat." Ellie let out a soft groan as she overheard Mr. Tibbles. She didn't get along well with players who were showboats. Showboating wasn't her style and she found it to be unnecessary. You're either good at hockey or you're not. You don't need to rub it in people's faces, just let your talent speak for you.

Ellie and Connie had big smiles on their faces as Mr. Tibbles introduced the next player. They were getting another girl on their team. Tammy didn't want to come back and play hockey, rather focusing on figure skating. They weren't all that surprised, seeing as it seemed she never really enjoyed the game. She moreso played because of her younger brother. "There's Julie'the cat' Gaffney. She won the state championship for Maine three years in a row."

Connie repeatedly took shots at Julie, not making a single one. Julie was way better than Goldberg, so Ellie hoped she would get some playing time in. She deserved it. 

"Isn't that the kid from the Olympics? The figure skater?" Gordon asks, as the next new kid skated up. A lot of the team had never heard of him, but Ellie and Connie had. He was a great skater and had the possibility of bringing in some figure skating moves to trick the other teams' defense. 

"Yep, Ken Wu. What can I say? I convinced him that hockey had more of a future. We put a stick in his hands and nobody's been able to touch him." 

Mr. Tibbles brought all kinds of talent to join Team USA and Ellie was excited to meet and get to know her new teammates. However, she did find one of them intimdating. He was about the same size as Fulton, clearly brought in to be an enforcer. Ellie stood with Charlie and Adam, talking about the new players on the team. The intimidating one skated right between the three of them, pushing Charlie to the ground. And Charlie wasn't the only one that got pushed the ground. It seemed Ellie wasn't the only one who found him a little frightening.