𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡 / 𝙖𝙙𝙖𝙢 𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙠𝙨

"sourpuss"

Adam and I stood outside our new locker room waiting for Coach Bombay. Huh that's weird. Coach Bombay.

I looked down at my Hawk bag. I probably should have brought a different one but why did I care what these Ducks thought of me? Deep down I wanted them to like me but at this point that seemed impossible.

"Well then!" A voice from behind me shouted caused me to jump. "How are my new recruits?"

Adam and I gave him stares, mine more gentler than his. "Ready as we'll ever be I guess."

Bombay just nodded and set one hand on each of our shoulders. He led us into the locker room and I now wished I was still at home with my dog, eating popcorn and reading a good book.

One can dream.

As soon as the door shut behind us I was met with dozens of eyes. Cold angry eyes. Except one.

"On behalf of the Ducks I'd like to say welc-" The nice boy, Charlie, whom I remembered from earlier stepped forward to kindly greet us. He was quickly interrupted by my least favorite person Jesse.

"Cake-eaters." He said bluntly.

"Ooh the Jess-man. Dissing the new kids. The jester-" "Shut up Averman!" "It was just a joke."

Then Jesse walked right up to my face, close enough to smell his breath. "Putting on a Ducks jersey doesn't mean you're a real Duck." he spat.

And then he walked out with the rest of the team following. Most of them made sure to give Adam and me a shove before passing.

Well that was a pleasant first meeting.

Coach stood awkwardly behind us rocking on his feet. Not like he was embarrassed by his team, but more like he was waiting to see if either of us were going to hightail it out of there and never come back.

Finally after a long silence he cleared his throat. "They're a good group once you get to know 'em."

"I'll bet." Adam said quietly turning away so only I could see his eye roll.

After that Bombay left us by ourselves to get ready. I picked a random locker, #309. Looking at the number reminded me of something. "Adam Coach left us new uniforms right?" His head popped out from his own locker to nod.

I did a quick scan of the room and immediately saw both green jerseys hanging by the door. I walked over to the one with a piece of paper taped on it that read Ella.

"Aw come on!" Adam exclaimed. "Coach gave me a complete new number!" He showed me the arm of his jersey, now stitched into it #99.

I looked back over at mine and frowned. "Oh quit your pouting. Look, my number is completely different. At least you kept the 9."

He shrugged and we both split up again to get ready.

I finished tying my skates at the same time Adam did. "Hey Cake-eater. Are you ready?"

He groaned. "Don't you start that now."

_

"Right here I'm open!"

I watched from the sidelines as Adam called for the puck. No one would pass to him. Figures.

"Come on! Right here! Up front!" Adam yelled again. He called for it one more time while the rest of the team slid it around pointlessly. That was enough for me.

"Pass it to Banks for crying out loud!" I screamed standing on the bench. Coach quickly pulled me down but I had successfully completed my mission. I watched as the puck was passed to Adam he swiftly hit it in.

All of the Ducks that were on the rink skated over to congratulate him. Jesse excluded. He glared at Adam and skated over to the bench. Without hesitation I slyly made my way in his direction.

"How's it going sourpuss?" He ignored me. "Not in the talking mood? That's alright." I walked away smiling, content with the fact that I had won that battle, no matter how small.

At this point the whole team was gathered around coach. He smiled at me as I sat down. I returned it. He turned back to the group. "Goldberg I'm benching you for this play."

An uproar of shouting was started. "A tie isn't gonna help us!" Bombay shouted over the noise. Everyone quickly hushed. "We need the win. Fulton you're our extra man." Everyone turned and looked at Fulton. There was much discussion before everyone skated back to the ice.

I stood waiting for the whistle to be blown. Pass it to Fulton. That was my job. Tweet! And already the puck was taken by the huskies. Fulton followed him and shoved the player down before he could reach the goal. I smiled and gazed over into the stands. I looked over again in time to see that the puck was already flying in my direction. I didn't have time to see who passed it but once I cradled it with my stick, I looked around to see if I could find Fulton. He was about 3 yards away from me so I passed it without hesitation.

The opposing team players leaped out of when he hit it. I chuckled at the wussy-ness of them until I witnessed the puck ripping through the net. Wow. Everyone including me raced over to tackle Fulton in celebration and congrats.

"We're in the playoffs!" I heard Coach yell happily from the sidelines. At that moment I realized how exciting this must be for the Ducks. Adam and I were used to going to the playoffs but these guys had barley even won a game.

It was at that moment that I knew I was happy to be a Duck.