𝙗𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙢 / 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙚

"ants"

*ring ring*

I sat up in bed, alarmed by the ringing of my phone. I quickly grabbed the phone from my nightstand to quiet the noise it was making. 

"Hello?" I asked, sleepily. Glancing over at my bedside clock, I realized it was 4:37 in the morning.

"Is this Ella?" The voice on the other end asked.

"Um, yes. Who is this?" I rubbed the sleepiness from my eyes and twirled the phone cord around my finger.

"This is Rick. Can you be ready at 5?"

"For what?"

"JV- Varsity showdown came a little bit early this year." he answered. "Someone will be by to pick you up. Banksie too. See you there." 

The line cut out and I set the phone back on it's base. I stared at my wall for a little while, trying to figure out if this was a joke or not. 

A few minutes later, I threw the covers off of me and started to get ready for the day. I packed my school clothes and slipped on something comfortable to play hockey in. 

At 5am exactly, a car pulled up next to my house. I opened and closed my front door silently, and walked towards it. I saw Adam making his way across his lawn. 

Inside the car was Cole and another Varsity player, Owen. I slammed the door shut and Cole gunned it towards the school. 

"Cole, can I ask why we're playing the JV team at 5 in the morning?" I piped up from the backseat.

He didn't answer me. I sat back and stared out the window, staying silent for the rest of the trip.

When we got inside the rink, I put on my skates and joined the rest of my team, doing laps on one side of the ice. On the other side, the JV were doing the same thing.

I skated up to Rick who was watching the JV warm up. I noticed right away, some weird marks all over his face.

"What happened to you?" 

Before he could respond, Averman came over and skated circles around us. "Oh, ants in your mask? Ah, it looks like you're a goalie for a dart team." he laughed and Rick grabbed Averman by his collar.

"I-I'll go now." Averman skated back to his team.

"Ants?" I asked, my eyes wide.

"Just a little prank your Duck friends pulled on us. Nothing we can't handle." Rick pulled his face shield down and skated away from me.

Just then Adam skated beside me. "Charlie won't listen to me." 

I shook my head. "Yeah, welcome to my world."

"I tried to tell him that I didn't know anything about the dinner but he didn't believe me."

I was getting really fed up with Charlie as of lately. "Let me guess, he called you a preppy?"

"Yeah, how'd you know that?"

"Lucky guess." I looked up to see Rick motioning everyone to get into position. I moved to the outer wall of the rink, near Goldberg.

Charlie and Rick had the face-off and right away, Charlie was knocked to the ground. Rick took the puck towards the goal and pushed more JV players as he made his way. Shooting the puck in, he made the score 1-0.

"Flying V!" Charlie called, and the Ducks joined him next to the net. I knew this play like the back of my hand. Now came the tough decision to play nice with my old friends or play for my team and help them win. 

Before I could think, I skated at Averman, causing him to trip and knock over Connie. I immediately felt horrible but I didn't have time to apologize.

Varsity was bringing the puck Goldberg's way and I skated fast to follow. In seconds and without any defense in sight, the score was changed to 2-0.  

The game didn't get any easier for the JV. The way my team was playing reminded me of the Iceland match up at the Goodwill Games. Except this time, I was Iceland. I didn't like that.

I looked over to see Charlie on a breakaway, bringing the puck towards our goalie. Adam was right on his heels, shoving his stick in front of Charlie.

"Dammit Banks!" I heard him yell.

Charlie hooked Adam and the two fell to the ground. The rest of the JV and Varsity players jumped up and onto the ice. 

I skated over to the boys who were still wrestling. "Get off me Charlie!" Adam shouted.

They stood up and Charlie shoved his old best friend. "How do you like it Banks?"

"Yeah nice take down, you'd be in the box!" Adam fired back.

Go cry to your rich parents!"

"All right fine!" 

The two lunged at the other, which caused the remaining players of both teams to go at each other.

"Guys cut it out! Adam get off of him!" I tried to break the two boys up desperately. They continued to fight and Charlie's elbow hit me right in the nose.

I jumped back in surprise and wiped the blood that had started to trickle down my lip.

Adam and Charlie stopped fighting for a moment and stared at me. 

"You asshole!" Adam yelled and went for Charlie again. I left them and skated through the chaos and to the side of the rink.

"Freeze!" I whipped my head towards the sound of a whistle and saw Coach Orion standing at the entrance of the ice. He skated out towards the players. "Hey! Hey! Break it up!"

He pulled people off of one another and took Rick by the collar of his jersey. "It's a damn good thing I'm not your Coach. Get your team out of here, now!" 

I followed my team out of the rink as Rick called back "We're gonna destroy you guys!"

I walked into the locker room and sat down on a bench. I was still holding my nose with my hand, which was now bleeding profusely. 

"Need a towel?" Adam held out an old ice skate rag for me to take.

"Thanks." I mumbled and took it. He sat down next to me.

"You okay?"

"Am I okay?" I looked at him and shook my head. "Of course I'm not okay! All of my friends hate me, Charlie seems to want me dead, Varsity thinks I'm a joke, and you aren't helping!"

Adam opened and then closed his mouth, unsure of what to say. "Ella, I'm sorry. You're right."

"I am?" 

"Yes. The way you've been getting treated lately isn't fair. I don't think we belong on Varsity."

"I don't think so either." I laughed a little and he shook his head.

"No really, I don't think we should be on Varsity anymore. Ella, we're Ducks. We belong with the Ducks. I think we should go back."

"Go back to JV? Can we even do that? And if we can, don't you think they won't want us back?"

"It won't hurt to try."

I smiled at him and he smiled back. Adam started to lean in and my heart began to race. 

"Hey let's go you two!" Cole shouted from the doorway. "Class is starting soon!"

Adam and I both stood up at the same time, awkwardly avoiding eye contact.

"Coming!" Adam called and walked over to his locker. 

I stood still for a few moments, trying to process what had just happened.

Did Adam just try to kiss me?  

_

hello again, i hope you're all doing well! ps- in the movie i don't think it's ever specified which of the ducks live on campus and which live at their homes. for my book, i have all of the minnesota-born ducks, living at their own homes and all of the out of state ducks, living in dorms. i hope that makes sense lol.