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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: the talk
She awoke the next morning to an angry looking rick riley at her door—at five in the morning.
she was going to shut the door in his face, still half asleep. but then, she saw the red marks all across his face and neck. she frowned. "what happened to you?"
"the ducks happened to me. now get dressed, we've got a game." he said.
she looked at him in confusion. "it's five am."
he nodded. "i know. i'll explain in the car, just hurry."
so, for some reason, she did. she hurried to throw on regular clothes, meeting rick in his car. on the drive to eden hall, he explained that the ducks had released the ants from dean buckleys office into their dorms, hence the many bite marks across his body.
he also explained that now they were having a game between the two teams, which andrea thought was really more of a masculinity contest between rick and charlie.
so she found herself in the change room, sitting beside adam as they got dressed. now that the ducks hated her, it was really starting to suck that adam was being off with her. she tried to give him his space, but she was tired of losing her friends.
"adam," she said as she tied her skates. "you and me have to talk after this."
he looked confused, but also nervous. "about?"
she stood, pulling her jersey over her head. "us. whatever is going on between us."
with that, she followed her teammates out onto the ice, where jv stood across the red line. both teams skated around, warming up and preparing to take the other down.
andrea could see adam trying to talk to charlie, but clearly the ex-captain of the ducks wasn't interested in hearing him out.
andrea took the right wing after rick had insisted he get centre ice. adam was on left wing, the three crouching as they waited for the game to begin.
rick knocked charlie to the ground, passing to cole who skated down the ice. as connie and averman tried to play defence, he knocked them to the ground. he quickly scored against goldberg.
as varsity celebrated, andrea skated over to charlie. "charlie, please, i don't know what's gotten into you, but i'm on your team."
he scoffed. "really? is that what that varsity jersey means?"
she frowned. "fine. have it your way."
she skated off to take the face off, ready to remind jv just how good she was. she had tried to play nice, but if charlie wanted to play dirty, so could she.
taking the face off, she shoved charlie over. she skated down towards the net, dodging each and every jv player. she came to a quick stop in front of the net, sending the puck flying as hard as she could. two to nothing varsity.
charlie got the puck behind the net, calling for a flying 'v'. varsity skated back on defence, creating a 'v' of their own, taking down jv before they even neared the net.
rick got the puck, taking his breakaway. deking goldberg out, they scored again.
charlie got the puck, skating towards scott who stood in varsities net. andrea skated after him, noticing his attempt at the triple deke that bombay had taught him. scott caught the puck with ease.
adam took the puck, skating down the ice as his teammates flanked him. he passed to rick as cole knocked goldberg down.
rick stopped in front of the net, lifting the puck onto his stick and hovering it in front of goldberg's face. "quack, quack, quack." he taunted, before tossing the puck into the net.
charlie got a breakaway, adam right behind him, trying to get the puck away. but andrea could tell he wasn't really trying; just like she did, adam wanted nothing more than to be back with the ducks.
charlie shot and missed, taking his anger out on adam by grabbing him and pulling him to the ground. andrea gasped, skating over as the boys stood, pushing each other around.
she skated in, trying to pull them off of each other. soon everyone was joining in, pushing and fighting.
thankfully, they were saved by the bell. or, more specifically, the whistle. "everybody freeze!" coach orian yelled as he walked into the arena.
everyone scrambled to get away from each other as coach orian pulled people apart. he grabbed rick by his jersey. "it's a damn good thing im not your coach. now get your team out of here!"
"varsity team, out! let's go!" orian called, andrea following her teammates off of the ice.
they entered the dressing room, andrea pulling her equipment off. she barely listened to her teammates chatter, instead waiting for adam.
once he finished, she grabbed his arm, pulling him out to the hallway. "what are you doing? where are we going?" he asked, confused as she pulled him along.
she opened the door to an empty classroom, pushing him inside. she closed the door behind them, crossing her arms and turning to face him.
