The Mighty Ducks

Take the fall, Act hurt, Get indignant

We're all lined up in a straight line for practice. Coach calls out for Karp to skate forward and fall to the ice. "One, two, three! Boom!" At the end of the countdown Karp falls to ice with a loud thud, laughter fills the stadium as Karp groans from the fall. Coach walks down the line stopping at Goldberg saying "What are you laughing at, cream cheese boy? Let's go!" He blows the whistle and we pair off, I skate over to Jesse who doesn't have a partner. "What? I can't knock down a girl!" I shake my head, my helmet slightly moving with it. "You're going down, Jesse." We both stand there trying to knock each other's legs out from underneath us. "If we're gonna cheat, we gotta make those falls look real." Just as coach finishes saying that, I put more force into the stick and knock Jesse's leg out from underneath him, he falls on his backside and glares at me playfully. I shrug my shoulders and help him up, making sure he is okay. I then hear "Keep it up! Whoa! Score one for spirit." I look over to see Connie helping up Guy from the ice. Whilst I was looking away Jesse managed to swipe my leg out from under me. I fall to the ice, straight on my back. He stands above me, making himself look like a giant. I manage to let out a small and weak "Ouch." And before he can say or do anything I grab my hockey stick and swipe out his leg. He falls right next to me, I laugh "I told you, you're going down." After doing that over and over again for at least 15 more minutes we stop and we get into two straight lines, facing each other as coach walks in between the gap we had made. "Good, good. Now say it again!" We stand up straight and repeat the same words "Take the fall! Act hurt! Get indignant!" Once he makes it up the line he stops and says "One more time!" He starts walking back down the line as we all repeat the same words. "Take the fall! Act hurt! Get indignant!" He stops and faces us all, with a mischievous smile on his face "Good! You guys are ready."

The opposition, that call themselves the Jets had the puck, Goldberg faked a dive and they scored. The buzzer went off and the ref skates over to Goldberg, telling him off for faking a fall. "Give me a break, ref! Open your eyes! Did you see what he did to me?" Goldberg yelled out, still trying to fool the ref, it clearly didn't work as the ref had skated away. We all skate over to the bench and listen to coach go off at Goldberg, "Goldberg, you don't take the fall while they're shooting at you." Goldberg shrugged saying "Oh! Well, I guess you didn't explain that very well, did ya?" As if things couldn't have gotten any worse, the ref skated over to us while Goldberg stormed over to Averman muttering "I throw myself on the ice!" I roll my eyes and suppress a smile. "District Five! Cut the acting class. One more dive, I forfeit to the Jets!" Coach gets aggravated by this and calls out to the ref as he skates away "What? I'm insulted by that!" I try my best to hide my annoyance as I get back onto the ice. I hear Terry hitting someones helmet screaming "Let's go! Let's go!" I then wince as Charlie gets checked into the boards. The ref blew the whistle "Face off! Let's go!" I skate over to Charlie and help him up, I then skate over to lean on the boards near our bench. "Charlie!" Coach screams in my ear. I jerk my head away from him and cover my left ear. 'He didn't even apologise, how rude' Charlie skated over and coach leaned over the bench boards. "That guy is twice your size. The next time he gets you in a corner like that, I want you to grab your eye like it's cut and then hit the ice! Got it? Let's go." I shake my head skating away from them, I honestly hate this, cheating. The ref blew the whistle declaring "Face-off! Let's go!" He puts the puck in the centre "Okay, even 'em up, boys. Here we go." The Jets got the puck and suddenly Charlie swoops in and gets the puck off of the Jets. He skates around the goals and then two Jets players corner him in. Charlie stares helplessly at coach, waiting for something. Coach cups his hands and puts them up to his mouth to make himself louder "That's it, Charlie! Come on!" Charlie's facial expression changed drastically and he kicked the puck away from him. The buzzer went off signifying that the game had finished. We walked into the change room throwing our gear on the ground. "We can't even win when we cheat" Terry exclaims hitting his helmet -which is now in his hands- onto the lockers. Jesse shook his head angrily, "Stupid cake-eater tricks!" I sit down on a vacant bench as Connie said "That was embarrassing." I nodded not saying anything, that's when coach slammed the door open. I looked over at Charlie giving him a sympathetic look. "Charlie! What the hell is the matter with you? When I tell you to do something, you do it! You got it? Look at me! You got it?" Charlie shook his head "You can't make me cheat." He then threw his helmet on the ground just as Terry and Jesse's dad came in to collect them.
"Jesse, Terry, let's go. This is what I gave up my overtime pay for? To see my kids takin' falls?" The three of them walk out. I finish getting out of my gear and just as I reached the door I looked back at coach and shook my head.

As I walked out of the stadium, I saw my mom and step dad waiting by the car. I ran up to them and gave them a hug not wanting to let go. The car ride was silent the only sounds being heard was the radio cutting out and my leg bouncing up and down. I tend to do that a lot actually, when I'm nervous or bored. When the car engine stopped I looked up and saw we were in the driveway, I hopped out of the car and collected my gear tossing it down on the porch. Mom had already unlocked the door and I made my way upstairs and to my room where I flopped down onto my bed, my face pressed against the pillow blocking any possible way I could breathe. I lift my head and inhale deeply, I run my hand through my hair and close my eyes shut. I finally got up and took a shower getting into my pjs:

Once I got dressed, I headed downstairs to the kitchen where I saw my mom putting the pizza's on a plate for each of us. "Thanks mom." I then grabbed a plate and sat on the couch, once I finished my food I kissed my mom and stepdad goodnight and raced upstairs. I jumped in my bed after turning off my lights. As soon as my head hit the pillow I was out.

Authors note: Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I just haven't been motivated to write. But I hope you enjoyed this chapter.