Team USA *Adam Banks*

New Teammates

      We skated onto the ice toward Coach and Tibbles with sticks in our hands, realizing five new players on the ice in their own uniforms.

     Adam stood next to me and Charlie stood on his other side when Coach said, "Tell me about my new kids."

     "That's Luis Mendoza," he pointed to a skater with dark brown hair, a very attractive guy and he started skating, "He's from our Miami club a real speedster, incredible skater. I clocked him at 1.9 seconds, blue line to blue line."

     "Good-looking skater," Connie commented.

     "Very good-looking, what do you think Guy?" Averman asked.

     "Shut up Averman," Guy said then elbowed him in the stomach making him fall on the ice, the whole team started laughing uncontrollably, including some of the new kids.

     "Just one minor problem," Tibbles warned when Luis ran into the wall and fell down on the ice and continued, "He has a little trouble stopping.

     "You could say that," Charlie whispered making me look over at him to see Adam staring at me, the air in my lungs seemed to disappear.

     "Are you okay?" the other new kids rushed to help him up.

     "Yeah, I'm alright, I almost had it that time," Luis insisted after taking off his helmet.

     "Hey, how is everyone?! You all ready to play some hockey?!" another new kid asked with a thick country accent. 

     "Hey, look its Hopalong Gretzky," Jesse chuckled.

     "That's Dwayne Robertson from Austin, he's the best puck handler I've ever seen," Tibbles explained.

     "You mean for his age," Bombay corrected.

     "No, I don't," Tibbles insisted with wide eyes as Dwayne started puck handling, "He does have a tendency to be a bit of a showoff."

     "What about her?" Bombay asked pointing to the girl in front of the goal with the goalie pads on, "That's Julie 'The Cat' Gaffney, She won the state championship for Maine three years in a row."

     "Well, we have a goalie, Goldberg," Bombay replied as Goldberg skating to the other goal.

     "Alright come on, I can do this," Goldberg said and went down trying to do the splits but ended up falling over while Gaffney was already down doing the splits perfectly.

     "Watch this," Tibbles pointed as the rest of us Ducks lined up and shot at her, she didn't let one puck pass by her.

     "Wow, she is good, well, we could use a back-up," Bombay responded with wide eyes.

     "Isn't that that kid from the Olympics? The figure skater?" Coach asked with his mouth hung open.

     "Yup, 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," Tibbles said as Ken was swirling around in circles and twists.

     "Wait, is that guy a teenager?" Coach pointed to the tall, some-what muscular guy with a tattoo on one shoulder who started skating around with his head phones in and pushed between Charlie and Adam pushing Charlie down but not really touching Adam, Adam immediately bent down next to Charlie with me doing the same.

     "Oh, yeah, hormones, that's Dean Portman," Tibbles said.

     "He's a douchebag! My kids don't play that kinda hockey."