"𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿, 𝗰𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿." || 𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗺 𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀

07 | first point.

"what the hell are they doing?" i hear some Cardinal boy ask another. Peter throws the football at me, "every time you get the puck, you're the quarterback. make eye contact with the receiver, talk to him, let him knows it's comin'! come on, guys! this isn't a library, talk to each other!" coach instructs. "what a weird ass team." the same boy laughs and the other nods. i wanna go all insane on them like i did McGill, but i control myself and throw the ball to Tommy. coach goes over to Fulton who's in the box, "you ready?" he asks. "i think so." Fulton nods.

coach dumps a bag of pucks out onto the ice and tells us to get in the box. so i do just that, and so does the rest of the team. "okay, Fulton. shoot your heart out." coach smiles. he nods, and starts punting pucks into the goal, fast as lighting. "my god!" Guy exclaims. my head turns to the Cardinal team, who stopped training and is watching in awe. some pucks bounce off the walls, the post, and other places, but 9.9/10 make it into the goal. one puck goes directly towards a window, and it shatters. i gasp, along with everyone else. "one out of five." i see coach mutter.

"alright. let's forget the past. we lost a a few games, tough! but that was District Five. this, this is the Ducks. and we're gonna win this thing!" coach encourages. "yeah!" we all shout. "quack...quack...quack.." coach starts to chant. "quack, quack, quack, quack, quack! quack! quack! quack! quack! quack!" we all join in, putting our hands in the middle. "quack! quack! quack! quack! quack! go....Ducks!" we chant, flying our hands into the air before cheering and skating out on the ice. "let's go, Ducks!" coach cheers. i pass the puck to Terry, Terry passes it to Guy, Guy passes it to Jesse, and Jesse shoots for the goal. and...

ITS IN!! WE GOT A POINT!!

the crowd stands up, cheering and popcorn flying from Mr.Hall's bucket. we tackle Jesse into a huge hug, "YES!! THE OREO LINE!!" Jesse shouts. we skate over to the box and hug our teammates that weren't on the ice.

most of the Cardinals team was skating towards Karp, "defense, Karp! defense!" coach reminds.

all the sudden, boom! right in the head. he falls to the ice and me and Fulton skate over to him and put his arms around each of our shoulders, since he obviously can't skate on his own. the other Ducks and coach Bombay skate/walk out to me, Reed, and Karp, along with the ref, looking at the boy who's cross-eyed. Guy takes Karp's helmet off, "i don't wanna go to school today, mom..." Karp mumbles.

oh, god.

"Karp, how many fingers am i holding up?" coach asks and holds up four fingers. "he wouldn't know that anyway!" Peter teases. "shut up, Peter." coach demands. "look at this!" Guy whispers, handing his helmet to coach. it has a huge dent in it. "the Karp-ster! using his head to stop the puck! Mr. Karp-a-lanee!" Averman jokes. "let's get you off the ice. come on." coach instructs and me and Fulton carry the injured kid to the box, the crowd clapping. we lay him on the bench, where he closes his eyes and we assume, falls asleep. or passes out. one or the other.

"alright, Ducks. we've still got a chance, here. Connie, Terry, Jesse, Guy, time for the secret weapon." coach tells before walking to Fulton. "alright, Fulton. just like we talked about." coach reminds him in a whisper, Fulton nodding nervously before putting his helmet on. me and Connie do our handshake before her and the other players skate into the ice.

the game starts, and they're on. "come on..." i whisper-mumble to myself. everyone works to get the puck to Fulton, and they succeed. the Cardinals know what's about to happen. "that's it.." i whisper-mumble again. the Cardinals get scared, so they all jump out of the way. but Fulton's to far, and this is our plan. Fulton passes it to Connie, who passes it to Jesse, then Terry, then finally, the closest to the goal, Guy. the one boy who was talking crap earlier turns his head around because Fulton hadn't scored yet, only to see Guy. "gotcha." Guy smirks before hitting the puck with his stick and making the face-off!

WE TIED!! WE TIED, WE TIED, WE TIED!!

i jump over the box wall, and skate to my team, and we do a huge group hug, that coach joins in too. the crowd for the Duck's side is going insane, because we've never won. or even tied. we've always lost all of our games that District Five played. so, for us, this is huge.

~next day~

i walk out front to get the newspaper, and see the front cover.

it's a picture of us, our group hug when we tied the Cardinals.

Jesse Hall and Guy Germaine score the first scores of the season for The Ducks, who used to be District Five. Gordon Bombay, their new coach named them 'The Ducks' and i guess that lifted the player's spirits! The game was against The Cardinals peewee hockey team and it was a tie, 2-2.

i read, not feeling like reading the rest. i smile at the paper and run inside, "mom, Charlie! guess what?! The Ducks made the cover!" i yell. my family runs to me and looks over my shoulder at the newspaper i'm holding. "oh my gosh! that's amazing, kids!" mom says while bringing me and Charlie into a hug. "thanks, mom! the team is really coming together." i state. "yeah, we're starting to get better and coach is doing great by helping us learn better techniques and teaching us how to play better." Charlie adds and i nod.

i run upstairs and call Connie, telling her to go check her newspaper. she sees it, gets excited, and shows her parents, and we talk for a few more hours after that.

i look at my clock at see that it's 9:46pm, and i realize my eyes getting heavy and that i'm tired. "hey, Cons, i'm real tired so i'll see you tomorrow, alright?" i say my goodbyes. "alrighty, see ya tomorrow, Liv. goodnight, love you." she replies. "love you more, goodnight" i finish the conversation and hang up, changing into my pajamas and climbing into bed after turning my lights off, and falling quickly asleep, satisfied with the day i had today.