𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑦 𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 - 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑐ℎ𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 - 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘 1

Chapter 3

"Hey, guys!" Charlie waved back to the group of other kids in they're mismatched tattered "hockey gear".

"Is that the District 5 team?" I whispered to Charlie while he walked over to a bench to sit down.

"Yup! Not much," Charlie threw his bag down in the snow, sat on the wooden bench, and unzipped his bag. I sat down next to him with the shaft of the hockey stick in the snow. "But! We are a team!" Charlie smiled before pulling out his 2nd layer of clothes to put on.

Charlie was putting on his other sweatshirt, then he popped his head through the neck hole, "So, I don't mean to talk about your dad, but you said he played hockey," My head perked up at his question. "But why didn't you get into hockey?" Charlie slipped his arms through the sleeves before putting on his other sweat pants.

"Oh, well," I paused to process the question. "I guess it was another thing to remind me of him." My mouth let out a deep exhale.

"Oh." He sat back down on the bench to untie the knot in the skate laces.

"Besides," I started. I was really nervous about telling Charlie my big secret which embarrassed me ever since I was little. "Between you and me, Charlie," I whispered. Charlie leaned in to hear my confession. "I can't skate."

"Shut up!" Charlie smiled widely.

I threw my hands in the air, "Well it's true!" Charlie let out a laugh.

"Like at all?"

"Yeah, at all. Can't ice skate, roller skate, or rollerblade." I said in a quieter voice than my usual voice.

"Wow," Charlie flopped back on the bench. "I would have never known." He half-smiled.

"Yeah," My cheeks turned red from the embarrassment. "I get really embarrassed about it. When my dad tried to teach me I would always fall down, or trip, or land on my face. It didn't matter if it was with or without someone else's help. I will always fall." I rubbed the back of my neck with my free hand.

"Well, maybe I'll have to teach ya," Charlie smirked at me. He tried to untie the knot in his laces but they were only getting worse.

"Gimme." I snatched his skates and started to untie the laces with ease before giving them back to Charlie who chuckled.

"Thanks."

"No problem." I nodded and watched the District 5 team members talk and occasionally look my way. Charlie then put on his makeshift knee pads and his helmet before standing. My arm extended outwards, Charlie took his stick and skated off towards everyone.

Meanwhile, I sat back down on the bench and watched everyone.

"Hey Victoria!" Averman smiled and waved at me from on the ice. His ginger hair was getting sweaty and messed up from under his helmet and the glass in his glasses were getting fogged. I kindly smiled and waved back to him.

All the District 5 players started skating around on the ice. A goalie and one of the players was shooting pucks at him, the goalie was doing a miserable job at keeping the pucks out of the net and some of the pucks didn't even go in the goal. All the goalie was doing was complaining when Charlie skated over to the two.

"Goldberg," Charlie whined and took his helmet off. "You're the goalie, it's supposed to hit you."

"Does anyone think that sounds stupid?" The goalie named Goldberg threw his hands in the air before everyone gathered around in the center of the pond.

As I was watching all the District 5 team members in the middle of the pond, I heard a car approaching us. When I turned my head, I saw a limo approaching the pond.