D3: The Mighty Ducks

Chapter four

Finally, we were at practice. We were skating around and Charlie cleared the puck right in front of the net. "Freeze! I said freeze!" Averman skated into the wall, "Averman!" Orion yelled
"I did freeze." Averman groaned.
"Where's the one place you never want to clear the puck?" He asked Charlie.
"It looked open." Charlie defended.
"Just answer the question, Conway," Orion demanded.
Charlie stood up, "listen, I'm a defenseman, I'm a scorer!" Charlie yelled.
"Follow me," Orion led him to the Bench.
"Anybody share his opinion? All right then, take a knee. What's the one thing all great teams have in common? He asked.
"Great coaching." Averman sucked up.
"Don't try to suck up to me, Averman. Defense. See, unlike scoring, defense never quits. But to play great defense. You need one thing above all else." Orion stated.
"Bet it starts with a 'W'" I whispered.
"Confidence. Listen, if you learn nothing else when you're here, you learn this. All right? 'Cause it's not just about hockey. It's easy to be confident when you have control of the puck. It's very, very difficult to keep that confidence when you gotta take whatever strange bounces life throws your way. Don't be careless, but don't be too careful either. You cannot be afraid to lose. That's how you gain the confidence to attack the game when the puck isn't yours. That's how you attack life, even when you think you don't have any control. And that's how you play real defense." Orion explained.
Charlie and I waited for the bus. While we waited for the bus Charlie got talking to a girl. He was asking her about herself and telling her he was allergic to nuts. He got her to go to our game tomorrow. We got on the bus and went home. "How was school?" Mom asked
"Same old, same old." We said.
We eat dinner and went to our room. Charlie hopped in the shower, I did my homework. When he got out of the shower I got in. I finished showering and dried off, and got dressed. I walked out to my desk to see Charlie sleeping. I finished my homework and went to bed. The next day we went to our game. I got changed and walked out. We started warming up, I looked up to see Adam holding a sign, it said, 'Katerina Conway I'm so sorry, good luck.' I looked away.
"Gather around. Let's go. Hustle up. Come on. All right, think defense. All right hands in, here  we go." Orion ushered.
We all started quaking, "Hey, hey, hey, hey! What the hell is that? Knock that off, all right, 'Go team' on two. Here we go, one, two,"
"Go, team." We said unenthusiastically.
"All right, come on." Orion cheered.
"Go team how original." Charlie sassed.
"Just get in the game, Charlie," Fulton said.
"Let's do it, Charlie." I encouraged.
"Point of fact, Charlie and Katerina Conway are not wearing the traditional captain 'C' and co-captain 'CC'. they have been this teams captain and co-captain since they played in District Five. I guess Coach Orion's making a statement." The announcer said.
I stole the puck from the Bears and passed it to Jesse, he passed it to Charlie, who then passed it back to me. I ended up scoring. I skated towards Charlie, "What did I tell you?" I smiled.
We all were cheering and whooping. "All right, knock off the celebration. Act like you've scored before, huh?" Orion yelled at us.
"Pass it over here, man. Ladies and gentleman, it's knuckle-puck time!" Russ yelled.
He shot the puck and knocked the goalie right out. We all cheered. Luis got he puck and was soaring down the ice. He jumped over the net in order to not hit their goalie. A few of us skated over to check on him. "Man, that was fresh." Russ smiled.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"I love my team," Luis said then fainted.
"I guess not." Russ sighed.
Charlie passed the puck to Averman, but he gets hooked and falls to the ground. Fulton manages to get the puck and was face to face with one of the opposing players, the player stole the puck from Charlie got do made he smashed his hockey stick against the post, his stick snapped into pieces. I removed my helmet and skated towards him, "Charlie you need to calm down!" I yelled.
"I need to calm down! Don't tell me what to do!" He yelled at me.
"I'm just trying to help," I said.
"I know and I'm sorry I'm just stressed." He apologized"
"Two minutes unsportsmanlike. Come on." The ref said.
"What? Are you blind?" Charlie asked.
"To the box, let's go."
Charlie continues to argue. We ended up tying nine to nine. It as after the game and we were in the locker room, "They guy kooked me alright?" Charlie argued.
"We didn't need any more goals," Russ explained.
"Hey, listen I was trying to win it!" Charlie yelled.
"Well mission unaccomplished, Charlie." Russ sighed.
"We let down, simple as that," Charlie said.
"Hey, you let down. I played hard." Julie scoffed.
"Yeah, man, no heart." Luis agreed.
"Well, what are we playing for anyway? Some stupid school? The alumni? I mean warriors? What the hell are we now?" Charlie asked.
"Look, man! We're on scholarship I'm staying." Russ said.
"Fine sell-out." Fulton sneered.
"Man, who you calling sell-out, punk!" Russ yelled.
Russ pushed Fulton away from him. "Hey, get your hands off him!" I yelled.
This caused us all to begin fighting. We all stopped when coach stormed in and threw a puck at the wall, "How long does it take to score a goal? Thess than a second! That means no lead is safe if you can't play defense! Now get this straight! I don't give a damn how many goals you score. I want one number on your mind: zero, as in shutout. You got that?! Practice, tomorrow morning,, gotta get up early if you want to hunt goose eggs." He lectured.
Once he walked out I went to get my clothes when I realized they weren't there. "Hey who took my clothes?" I asked.
We heard the shower running we all saw our clothes in the middle and 'Freshman stink' on the wall. I tried to dry my clothes as much a possible but they were still wet. I walked out of the locker room to see Adam. "Hey" He smiled.
"Hi," I said.
"Look I'm sorry for what I said and that girl came onto me, I swear Kitty Kat, please forgive me." He pleaded.
I smiled at the nickname. "Okay, I forgive you."
We hugged and he pulled away and kissed me, "I got to go catch the bus. Bye love you." I said.
"Bye love you too." He smiled.
We kissed one more time and went our separate ways.