reconnect • charlie conway

round up

i sat on charlie's bed, looking around at his now more teen-like room. there were rock posters on the walls, which seemed to have replaced the cartoon posters that used to sit there.

charlie was sitting at his desk, with his chair facing me,"do any of the other ducks know you're home?"

i gave him a weird look, his words not sitting right with me,"well i'm back...my home is in new york."

charlie made a face of realization, shaking his head,"right, i just meant...you know."

i nodded, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear,"yeah, i get it. and uh, no i haven't told anyone."

he smiled, feeling he had gotten a small victory, because he was the only one i wanted to tell, "not even guy and jesse?"

i shook my head,"not yet."

charlie was going to reply, when we heard a duck whistle blow, and the voice of gordon bombay shout,"hey, charlie!"

we shared a look of confusion, before going and leaning out of his window,"hey, coach!"

he smiled,"hi, dani! you wanna play some hockey?"

charlie nodded quickly, as we scrambled to get our skates on.

once we were finally done, we descended down charlie's steps and met coach outside.

i smiled, hugging him,"hey, coach, how's it going?"

he shrugged,"all things considered...i'm doing pretty good."

i nodded understandingly, knowing that coach had recently been injured during his time in the minor league,"well, i'm glad you're back."

"thanks, danica," coach smiled, before turning to charlie,"okay, so i need you to go get jesse, connie, guy, adam, goldberg, fulton, and averman. and then i want you guys to meet me at the parking lot of the diner, okay?"

charlie grinned, feeling completely ecstatic, "you got it, coach, we'll see you soon."

and with that we were off, skating to go find jesse.

"wait," charlie turned to me as we rounded a corner,"is this why you're back in town?"

i smiled sheepishly, nodding,"yeah, i was given the invite."

charlie gave me a confused look,"an invite for what, exactly?"

i realized that coach had done a bad job of explaining what was going on, and figured it would have to be who told the team,"right, okay, so basically we're gonna do the junior olympics in l.a."

he looked at me incredulously,"really?"

i smiled lightly,"yeah, really. hendrix came by a month ago and asked me to join."

he raised his eyebrows, still not fully grasping the situation,"hendrix?"

"the official sponsors of our team." i replied, hoping that would be enough to ease his mind.

but, of course, it wasn't,"what do we need a sponsor for?"

i shrugged, not sure what to tell him,"i mean, it's not like we have a choice. they picked us, not the other way around. if we were to say no, they would just find someone else."

charlie nodded slowly, but still looked a little bothered,"right. well, jesse's playing street puck, he should be in the park somewhere."

•

it didn't take too long for us to round everyone up, and overall, everyone seemed excited to see me.

especially guy, who had quite literally tackled me to the ground.