flipped. charlie conway

34

the next morning, team usa sat in the cafeteria for breakfast and a highly anticipated announcement from don tibbles.

"morning, charlie." adam greeted as he sat down opposite the conway boy.

"hey, adam, what have you got?" he peered over to the other boy's breakfast.

adam shrugged dismissively, choosing to leave out that his beloved sister made said breakfast for him. "just honey on toast, it's pretty good."

charlie nodded approvingly before tibbles burst in excitedly, pushing a large box draped in black cloth along with him.

"morning, team usa!" he greeted, ushering the team to take a seat, even if they hadn't yet found their breakfast, "i have exciting news!"

coach bombay sighed as tibbles left the team in suspense. "we'll don't leave hanging, what's the news?" gordon exclaimed, eliciting a chorus of excited and anticipated cheers from the team.

"what do you think it is?" ken asked shyly amongst the eager cheers of his teammates.

"i haven't a clue," leah shrugged, "snacks for the team?"

luis piped up from the other side of ken. "i reckon it's a clone of you," he gestured to ken, "you'd totally fit in there."

leah covered her mouth as small chortles bubbled from her throat. ken's jaw dropped as he slapped luis' arm disapprovingly. "you're one to talk, mendoza."

seconds later, tibbles dramatically swept the black cloth away from the awaited surprise. low and behold, a large box of whole grain wheaties cereal featured a photo of team usa and the slogan 'the breakfast of champions'.

"seriously?" ken disappointedly groaned, causing luis and leah to chortle with laughter again.

"i'll admit, not what i expected." luis grimaced as their other teammates exclaimed their excitement for their feature on the cereal.

tibbles silenced the cheers of the team. "today, it's a wheaties box. tomorrow? video games, action figures, lunch boxes, you name it! the sky is the limit." he grinned proudly, showing his evident chuff for promoting the team.

leah pondered what she thought of the promotional production. sure, it was cool to see her teammates and herself on a cereal box, but it was also rather peculiar to see.

tibbles clapped his hands together as he reminded himself of the next surprise. "now," he began, "just to make sure everyone knows who you are, try on one of these!" tibbles pulled out a deep blue jersey, adorned with red striped sleeves and precisely cut white stars.

"now that's cool." leah exclaimed, admiring the jersey with the rest of her team.

tibbles paused to show the sponsor embellished onto the sleeve. "of course, brought to you by hendrix for all your hockey and sporting needs! fulton, take your jersey."

team usa burst out of their seats to collect their jerseys. leah admired the bright, beaming grins of her teammates as they received their new jerseys. she noticed adam looked particularly disgruntled when he received the 'banks' jersey with leah's sixty-six instead of his assigned ninety-nine.

amongst all the faces, she couldn't seem to spot the one teammate she always found herself admiring. no shaggy hair or sparkling eyes could be found in that small crowd surrounding the cardboard box. with furrowed eyebrows, leah looked around for charlie conway.

charlie slumped in his seat with a conflicted frown. when he sneered that the new additions weren't ducks, he didn't mean the additions to team usa. he meant adam and leah banks, one particularly more than the other.

"check it out, charlie." coach bombay chuffed, allowing charlie to take a closer look at the usa jersey.

charlie let out a sigh. "it's nice, coach, but we - well, most of us - are ducks," charlie paused as his coach gave a pointed look, "this stuff says 'hendrix' all over it."

"yeah, they're our sponsors, charlie." coach bombay shrugged as if it were obvious to the boy.

charlie shook his head. "so what? can't we be the usa ducks? or, at least keep our own colours?"

gordon chuckled lightly. "it's business stuff, charlie," he placed a hand onto the scrappy boy's shoulder, "don't worry about it." and with that, gordon walked away to congregate with his team of gushing players. charlie's frown deepened as coach bombay walked away.

leah thankfully collected her own jersey and the last jersey in the box: charlie conway's. with a bounce in her step, leah approached the conway boy with his new jersey in hand. and though his frown turned from conflict to disgust, leah noticed the uplifting change in his demeanour.

"for number ninety-six." she smiled, offering the jersey to the shaggy-haired boy. charlie only glanced up, huffing to himself with the grateful thought that at least she wasn't a duck this season. with a scoff, charlie simply snatched the jersey and stalked away with frustration bubbling away in the pit of his stomach.

butterflies scurried around in leah's stomach at the momentary contact hers and charlie's fingers made. oh, and how elated she was when she looked into his dazzling, dreamy, dusk eyes. even though they were ice hockey players, leah felt warm enough inside to protect her from the bitter ice forever.