Sunshine - Dean Portman - The mighty ducks 2

Part fifteen

The team was exhausted. They dragged themselves to the locker room. Julie was halfway dressed out of her goalie gear sitting on the bench and Dean was already dressed in normal clothes.

Irene noticed a broken chair and looked at Dean. He still seemed upset by the fact he wasn't able to play and that Olaf hurt banks, one of the best players on the team.

All but Julie and Dean were sore and tired from getting hit left and right. They knew iceland was going to be hard but they didn't think it would be that brutal.

Irene walked over to Adam who was sitting on the bench staring at his wrist.

"Are you okay?" She asked him and he nodded.

"Your nose?"

"Totally worth it." She sent him a smile.

"and your shoulder?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw you get checked into the boards. It looked like it landed wrong."

"Oh. It's fine." Irene lied. Her shoulder had been bothering her since that day in the elevator but of course she didn't tell anyone that. She acted like it was fine and didn't ache every time moved it.

"Just sore."

"Damn it." Coach Gordon Bombay cursed. He was walking toward his teams locker when he was stopped by Don Tibbles.

The coach knew it was bad for sponsors to lose gamers. He knew how it looked, his players getting pushed around by iceland. Only scoring once the whole game and multiple players out.
They looked like a joke compared to iceland who were the champions once again.

Don Tibbles shook his head, "Twelve to one Gordon." He sighed.

"You think Hendrix is interested in backing a loser? You're only good to us if you win." Don said.

"Don I've-" he got interrupted by his sponsor.

"I've been good to you." He turned serious.

Most days Don was a nice guy cracking jokes and hanging with the team but he needed Gordon to know that if they don't start doing good the sponsorship will drop.

"I gave you a real shot and this is how you repay me? By losing."

"We didn't have the magic tonight Don." He tried explaining.

"Well you better get the damn magic back and fast too or I'm out of a job and you're headed back to Minnesota." He shook his head and walked away.

"Good luck Gordon."

He sighed and walked into the locker room. It was more relaxed than before since the game had been long over. The teens were talking amongst each other and laughing.

Irene quieted down as soon as she saw the look on her coach's face, it was full of disappointment. She gave Adam a part on the shoulder before walking away back to her locker near Dean and Fulton.

Adam knew even with the goal he made it wasn't good enough to win. He'd have to play harder than he had before even with a hurt wrist.

Of course no one knew that his wrist still bothered him. They all thought it was just a simple bruise but it was much more than that.

Everytime he moved it pain would flare up. Sure he could still play hockey but he couldn't shoot, and what is hockey without scoring a couple goals?

"Twelve to one." Gordon Bombay sighed for what felt like the hundredth that day and looked at the players in front of him.

"Do you know what word comes to mind when you think of that?" He paused and looked around at his team, "Pathetic!" .

"You were brought here to play hockey."

"What about you?" Jesse was the first to speak up.

"What about me, Jesse?"

"Coach Stansson knew everything about us. They were ready for us." Julie said, getting upset.

"And you spend your time driving around in convertibles talking to those sponsor fools." Luis told him. Luis mumbled something else and shook his head.

Fulton looked over to Irene who nodded. Irene leaned against the locker and took a deep breath.

"Or hanging out with the iceland lady. We saw you Saturday night." Fulton told everyone in the locker room.

"Eating ice cream with the enemy, huh coach?" Dean added on as shocked faces turned to look at their coach.

"Hope it was worth it." She mumbled under her breath as anger boiled.

"Hey! What I do is none of your business is that clear?"

All of team USA was hurt by this news some more than most. Charlie mostly, he felt betrayed that his coach wasn't there for them like he used to. Now all he cared about was money and winning.

He was the same Gordon Bombay that he met one morning on a pond two hockey seasons ago.

Tired and sweaty team USA began to get undressed. Irene was in the middle of taking off her shin guards when the coach yelled.

"Don't take those pads off. Everyone stay in your gear, we have practice."

"Tonight?" Goldberg said as everyone groaned.

"Coach, we're tired." Irene pointed on, trying to reason with him but he ignored her words.

"If you don't want to work during the game no problem we'll work now"

The whistle blew as players skated to and from the blue line.

Charlie skated up to where his coach was standing.

"This isn't much fun, coach." Charlie said out of breath.

"Who said it was supposed to be fun?"

"You did, when you coached the ducks." He told the coach.

"I don't see any ducks here Charlie. All I see is team USA one loss away from elimination." He responded as they stopped skating.

Irene bent over to catch her breath.

"My feet are going to fall off." She mumbled to Julie who looked like she was about to pass out.

"Twenty more sprints let's go!" He blew the whistle and they skated more slowly this time to the blue line.

"I'll keep you here all night if I have to!" He blew the whistle. And that's what he did. They skated well into the night away after the lights turned off.

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Word count: 1015