Forever and Always | Adam Banks

Hunt Goose Eggs

The entire school had filled the seats in the rink, anxiously awaitng to see how the freshman team would perform in their first game against the Blake Bears. The pressure to play well was on tonight. Certain members of the board weren't too happy that the Ducks had received scholarships to the school and were hoping with bad performances, they could revoke their scholarships. 

As soon as the team took the ice, the first person Ellie looked for was Adam. She had been nervous for their first game all day and she knew that once she saw Adam, the nerves would go away. After scanning the crowd, she saw him sitting with the rest of the Varsity team. She let a sigh of relief. He shot her an award winning smile and a thumbs up. She returned the smile and set her focus on the game. 

The team gathered around Coach Orion, awaiting to hear his pregame speech. "Alright, think defense. Hands in. Here we go." Charlie started them off with their original quack chant, but it was quickly put to a stop by Orion. "What the hell's that? Knock that off. Go team on two. Here we go, one, two."

The team let out a nonenthusiastic go team and hit the ice. "Go team, how original," Charlie complains as he skates toward center ice with Ellie and Fulton.

"Just get in the game, Charlie." Ellie responds. She didn't need Charlie's bad attitude before the game even started. She had already turned down the captain position for him, in hopes that he would get an attitude change sooner rather than later.

"Let's do it, Charlie." A smile lit up Charlie's face and Ellie knew he was ready for the game, already putting Orion's dumb go team chant behind him. At least Fulton was able to put a smile on his face. The team Charlie focused on this game. 

Ellie took center ice, ready for the face off. She had Charlie on left side and Averman on her right. All she could hope for was that they pulled off the win tonight. She won the face off and passed the puck back to Fulton. He had passed the puck off to Charlie once the Blake defense started closing in on him. Charlie managed to get past the rest of the defense and score their first goal. 

"Knock off the celebration! Act like you've scored before, huh?" Orion tells them as they skate past the bench. Ellie takes her place back at center ice, ready for another face off. She wins it yet again, and gets the puck back to Russ. He makes his way to center ice and shoots his knucklepuck. The puck bounces off the goalie's helmet and Ellie was able to get the rebound. 

Luis manages to score their fourth goal but was still having trouble with his stopping. Which led him to jump over the net and crash into the boards. Ellie watched from the bench thinking that had to hurt. Dwayne and Fulton had both scored, taking the score to 6-0.

With another face off underway, Ellie had managed to get the puck to Averman, who took it up ice. She followed behind him, knowing he was going to pass it back to her. Thanks to Averman's improved stick handling skills, he had managed to confuse the goalie. Ellie had an open shot and scored her second goal. And with three seconds left in the second period, Charlie had managed to score another goal, which gave him a hat trick. 

They had the game in the bag. They were headed into the third period 9-0. The boys were getting overly confident on the ice, which caused them to lose the puck. Ellie had been the only one paying attention to Orion when he was teaching them defensive skills, but she was by herself as the Bears made their way toward Julie. She couldn't stop them and the Bears got their first goal.

"Nice try, Ellie." Orion says to her when she gets back to the bench after the line change. He was a little disappointed that she had turned down his offer to be captain. However, she explained the Charlie situation to him, so he had more of an understanding. 

"Sparks, Conway, change it," Orion tells them after the Bears had managed to score a second goal. The Bears were once again by their net, about to score another goal, but it was stopped Julie. "Clear the net!"

"Come on!" Julie yells at her team. She was a great goalie, but it was hard to be a great goalie when she didn't have the defense to support her. Instead of passing it to another teammate, Averman had managed to pass it to a Bears player, who made another goal. 

Their defense fell apart and never recovered in the final period. And thanks to Charlie, who pulled off the most selfish move in the final seconds, they ended the game in a tie. Everyone made their way to the locker room, heads down in disappointment. They should've won that game. Not to mention, a lot of the team was pissed at Charlie. 

The adrenaline was high and the arguments started happening, Russ and Fulton were about to take each other's heads off. Everyone froze when Orion walked through the door. "How long does it take to score a goal?" Orion asks the team and then threw the puck at their bulletin board. "Less than a second. That means no lead is safe if you can't play defense! Now get this straight! I don't give a damn how many goals you score. I want one number on your mind: zero, as in shutout. You got that? Practice, tomorrow morning, 5AM. Got get up early if you want to hunt goose eggs." 

Once Orion left, everyone started taking off their jerseys and gear. "Hey, who took my clothes?" Guy asks, noticing his clothes weren't where he left them. Ellie looked down and noticed her pile of clothes were gone as well. What the hell? The team heard the showers running and on the floor was all their clothes, soaking wet. Freshman stink was written on the wall. Varsity.

Ellie walked back to where her stuff was, thankful she always had extra clothes (Adam's clothes) stuffed in her bag. However, what she wasn't expecting was another bag of her own clothes (that Adam kept in his bag) with a note on it. 

I didn't know about the clothes until after it had happened. I'm sorry. Change into these. Can't wait to see you in the stands. I love you - Adam

"Where'd you get those?" Charlie asks, as Ellie started pulling out the change of clothes Adam had left her. He didn't understand how Ellie had managed to have a change of clothes, but no one else did. Did the Varsity not soak her clothes?

The rest of the team had eyes on her as well. "Oh, uh, Adam brought them." She wasn't sure how else to explain it to the team.

"Of course! Must be nice having an inside man, so nothing bad can happen to you." Charlie was fuming at this point. He was pissed about the game and his clothes. He wasn't the only one on the team that was pissed about the situation as well. They all had to leave the locker room in sweaty clothes while Ellie had fresh ones. 

"I don't have an inside man, Charlie. Adam didn't even know this was happening. He found out after it happened and then he brought these to me," Elllie says, showing him the note Adam had left her. "My clothes got soaked just like the rest of yours. Grow up, Charlie!" Tension in the locker room was higher than ever. Of course Ellie was going to defened Adam, since he had no idea this even happened. She felt bad that the rest of the team had to leave in dirty clothes, but that was due to other members of the Varsity team, not Adam. 

"But it's just convenient that he had a change of clothes for you," Fulton chimes in. Everything was starting to smell fishy, no one on the team believing Ellie about Adam's involvement. He was one of them; he had to be apart of this.

"He always keeps a change of clothes for me! He's done that since peewees. Just because he's on the Varsity, doesn't mean he's one of them. He's still your friend. If you paid attention, he was cheering in the stands every time one of us scored. You need to get over yourselves." At this point there was nothing she could say to get the team to believe her. She wasn't going to waste anymore of her time over an argument that was going nowhere.

"You're a cake-eater, just like him and the rest of Varsity team." That comment by Charlie sent Ellie over the edge. It wasn't in the joking tone the team usually uses with them. He was as serious as Jesse was when she and Adam first joined the Ducks.

"Call us whatever you want, Charlie. And to think I put my neck on the line for you with Orion." No one knew that Orion had offered Ellie captain or that she had turned it down. Charlie looked at her, confused as to what she was talking about. "He asked me to be captain, but I said no for you! I told him that I appreciated the offer, but if anyone on the team deserved it, it was you. You've been the captain of this team since peewees, Charlie. I told him to give you time, so you could prove to him that you deserve to be captain. Jokes on me, right?" 

Leaving the team stunned, Ellie went to the showers to clean off and then changed into her fresh clothes. She found her clothes in the pile and dried them out the best she could before putting them in the bag that originally had her fresh clothes. Once she was done and gathered her things, she walked out, saying nothing to her teammates.