MOVED ON | adam banks [2]

Who Are You?

"Did you all enjoy that?" Coach asked walking into the locker room. "Yeah!" We all cheered not realizing he was angry. "So did they, because they're up three points and we're one period away from defeat."

We all groaned once we realized he was being serious and sat down waiting to get yelled at. I sat in between Larson and Aspen, trying to fix Aspens braid while she kept smacking my hand away.

"If we can't beat 'em we might as well keep our pride." Jesse shrugged and we all voiced our agreements. "That's not pride. I've been there, I know how you feel. I wanted to beat up that jerk who busted my knee when I played in the minors. And I really, really wanted to go after Stansson for that cheap shot. But my knee will heal. And if I become someone I'm not, if I sink to their level, well, then, I lost more than my knee. Understand?"

"Yeah."

"We're not goons, we're not bullies. No matter what people say or do, we have to be ourselves." Coach finished and Aspen and I started to laugh a little. "Bravo, Coach! That was amazing." Aspen clapped and I did the same. "Truly inspiring." I added on before the whole locker room was laughing and clapping. "Alright, alright." He shushed us with a small chuckle.

"You, who are you?" He pointed to Dean. Dean stopped laughing and looked at Bombay wide eyed. "Dean Portman." He answered startled. "From where?" Coach questioned and we all looked around confused. "Chicago, Illinois."

"You." Coach started pointing to people left and right. We were all still confused, but we just went with it. "Guy Germaine. From St. Paul Minnesota."

"You."

"Jesse Hall from Minneapolis, Minnesota."

"Who are you?"

"Julie Gaffney from Bangor, Maine."

"Luis Mendoza. Miami, Florida."

"Greg Goldberg. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."

"Les Averman. Brooklyn Park, Minnesota."

"Fulton Reed. Stillwater, Minnesota."

"Russ Tyler. South Central Los Angels."

"Charlie Conway. Minneapolis, Minnesota."

"Ken Wu. San Francisco, California."

"San Francisco's in California?" Aspen muttered to me and I looked at her shocked. "I'm getting you a book of states, cities, countries, and capitals for your birthday."

"Connie Moreau. Minneapolis, Minnesota."

"Scarlett Anderson. Edina, Minnesota." I stood up and dragged Aspen with me because we refused to stand up. "Aspen Johnson. Brooklyn Park, Minnesota."

"Adam Banks. Edina, Minnesota."

"Dwayne Robertson. Austin, Texas."

"Alex Larson. Edina, Minnesota."

"Michele Mackay. Duluth, Minnesota."

"And I'm Gordon Bombay. Minneapolis, Minnesota."

"And I'm-" Emily stood up and we all snapped our heads towards her. "Not apart of this team." I cut her off. "Shut the hell up." Aspen rolled her eyes and the team cheered.

"We're team USA. Gathered from all across America. And we're gonna stick together. Why?"

"Because we're the ducks. And ducks fly together."

-

We walked out in our new ducks jerseys. They were white, and looked so much better than our green ones if I'm being honest. Greens just not my color.