Unfair Advantage ) Adam Banks

ch 17, aha moment

As Ripley walked through the halls after the board meeting earlier that morning, she couldn't help but feel... flustered.

So many things were running around in her mind. 

Why Adam was all of a sudden back with the Ducks? Why did everyone all of a sudden forgive him? Why did he stand up for her against Rick? What did Rick mean about the cheerleader comment?

There was way too much going on in her mind, and there was almost no room in her head to think about what actually mattered to her: hockey.

Feeling her anger subside was the only thing that kept her going throughout the day. She wasn't sure if it was because she finally got to punch Rick, or if it was because of the insinuation Rick had made.

"Banksie boy still has feelings for the girl. Thought we squashed those when we made that cheerleader kiss you."

The comment ran wild through her mind, as she tossed and turned it over trying to find out what Rick meant.

The sentence was clear, she knew what he meant, but it still didn't make a lick of sense.

If the varsity boys had set up the kiss, then why did Rick come to her personally to tell her about it? And, why did they feel the need to set the kiss up in the first place?

She felt her heart flutter at the thought that maybe, just maybe, Adam had liked her, and possibly still did. But as much as she wanted that to be the truth, she knew it wasn't. He still wasn't even talking to her, if he liked her he'd be doing much more than that.

She tried to pay it no mind, acting as if none of the comments bothered her, and awful habit Ripley kept repeating. She kept up the same facade when lunch came around. She hoped that if she remained quiet, no one would pay her any mind, and she'd be able to think over everything some more.

Unfortunately for her, lunch was nothing less than interesting.

She tried her quiet tactic, and for awhile it seemed to be working. She was able to go seemingly unnoticed by her friends are her eyes trailed over the lunch room, falling on her ex-teammates table.

She noticed Rick was staring back at her, and evil look on her face, and she quickly turned her head back to her food.

That's when she noticed something, someone, familiar making their way over to the table.

"Banksie!" Her friends shouted in excitement as the smiling boy took an open seat next to Averman, which happened to be almost right in front of the girl. 

"It's so good to have you back, man." Charlie said, smacking his back.

Adam smiled at the boy, "It's good to be back."

Ripley kept her gaze down towards her food, which didn't go unnoticed, as Connie took in the girls uncomfortable figure.

"The Ducks are back together at last." Goldberg said, leaning back in his seat.

"Ducks fly together." Charlie said, bumping Adam with his arm.

The blonde smiled, "Ducks fly together."

Ripley felt sick at the comment.

What the hell was going on?

Had she missed something? Surely she had. She assumed they must've made up in private or something, because she couldn't recall ever hearing that Adam was openly accepted into the group again.

Even if they had made up, she thought it was bogus. Considering mere days ago her friends wanted nothing to do with the blonde boy in front of her, but now, they couldn't seem to keep their eyes off of him.