It's Maggie Brooks's first year at Eden Hall Academy and she can't wait to dive into a school year full of fun. Down to earth and understanding good girl, Maggie finds herself getting into a crowd her brother and his friends don't necessarily want...
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The day of the big game came along.
The entire crowd was on their feet with arms in the air, clapping and cheering as they wailed out joyfully. Popcorn was being passed down rows and parents were settling for their children's big game and friends sat with a rowdy cheer and grin. Maggie and Nevaeh settled with their group of friends on the Ducks' side, both clapping with smiles as they cheered both teams on and their friendly friend spoke to the people through his microphone.
The game was halfway over when Maggie had come back from speaking with her brother, Danny, who sat with his own friends. She'd seated herself as the beginning of the third, and last, quarter was about to start. Neither team had won and she'd been starting to get a bit bored and frustrated with the game. It was constant back and forth action of shoving and puck shuffling.
No one had the puck for very long and if they did, it was Varsity. Varsity was doing everything they could to come out on top, but given all the practice JV had been doing with the last few days, they were outstanding and outlasting through the game. It was gruesome and tiresome from constantly being smacked into the boards, flipped to the ice, or thrown to the ice for the sake. Cole didn't hesitate to do some damage and Fulton felt like he couldn't keep up.
Poor Goldberg didn't hold enough confidence to strike and when he did, it's what gave him that bit of confidence to keep going. It seemed like Luis's stopping abilities were slowly kicking in and getting there, but not quite. Julie was a sweaty mess at the net, all the action down at her end as Scooter watched as if it were live TV, nothing much for him to do unless the puck came sliding down his way.
Coach Orion remained serious behind the bench, changing his players out faster than he normally would to give them breaks and a pep talk. He motioned where he wanted everyone and when, he asked for certain plays to be performed, but most importantly, he wanted them to be vultures around the net. To be cats on catnip and piranhas on meant; continuously moving.
What surprised her the most was seeing Dean Portman at face off at the beginning of the third period. He and Fulton went at it like monkeys on a piece of fruit, viscously scowering the ice for the next Varsity player to take down. She did cheer and holler, earning a few looks considering her brother was on the Varsity. Nevaeh yelled and cheered even louder, cupped hands around her mouth to ensure everyone heard her.
"Come on guys," She whispered to herself. "You got this." She watched as Guy had passed the puck to Averman, who faked a shot and left the puck. Luis coming in quickly and brought it all the way to the net on a clear break. With a shot on net, Scooter saved the puck and it rebounded off his stick.
"Ooh." Nevaeh shook her head with distortion as Luis had crashed into the boards.
With a play from Varsity, the Ducks switched out their players quickly and Maggie watched as Rick came up the ice with the puck, one handing it as he used his arm to block a player. Portman came from behind and swiped Rick's feet out from below him. With a tripping call, Dean was sentenced to the penalty box with a sigh and headshake as Rick snickered and laughed.
"Oh." Maggie shook her head, upset the Ducks had gotten a call, but was also concerned if Rick was all right or not. He seemed quite fine when he was back on his feet, so she watched as Portman went to the box with a smile, hollering to the crowd.
She wasn't too proud when an he'd a penalty because now meant the team was down a skater. Not to mention he began to strip in the penalty, to which she shook her head with a chuckle and looked away as Nevaeh stared with wide googly eyes. The boys on the bench danced and cheered him on, which made him continued as mothers stared in awe and children looked away disgustedly.
With a player down, the Ducks kept at it with heavy breaths and frustrated sighs, Coach Orion intently. Varsity remained steady on their feet, but another penalty came into view upon Orion's switch it up call. Coach Wilson and Varsity spitting out that they had too many men on the ice. The refs paused the game with a simple call of a whistle. Maggie shook her head.
"Boy do they irk me sometimes." She glared down at the bench full of boys in black jerseys.
"Hey mama," Nevaeh said, not hearing Maggie's comment.
"Are you even listening to me?"
"Nope." She said honestly. "Too busy staring at that pack." She nods over to Dean. "Ain't that a beauty?"
"Sure, but now they're down two players." Maggie crossed her arms over her chest. She glanced to Dwayne as he skated over to the bench, noticing her and he shrugged. There wasn't anything he could, let alone say, he was too far.
A small wait, Orion made a game plan among his players and looked to find his best players in an attempt to tie up the game within the last minute of the game. They had three players against five bigger and tough guys. Orion didn't want to make the mistake of placing the wrong guys on the ice, he wanted their best shot and decided on giving the people who really outshone themselves through the season.
With a glance and a speech, he named three players. "All we gotta do is hold our ground, all right." He looked to all of his players, who surrounded the bench with shoulders pressing one another as they huddled in. "Okay, Conway, Banks...and Goldberg. I'm going with you."
The boy's face went pale. "Me, Coach?" He said, shocked and bewildered to hear his name out of all the best players there before him.
"You Goldberg. You earned your spot out there." He nodded, his teammates nodding in encouragement as they believed in him. "Okay, Ducks, here we go!" He cheered.
With a final few words from Coach Orion to Charlie, the three players made their way onto the ice. Adam skated around before he made his way to face off, Goldberg and Charlie each taking their stance on the outer blue ring and Rick Riley approached with a smirk, knowing they had the upper hand shot to win, and warned Banks that he should've stayed with them. To which he contradicted.
Varsity had won the puck off the bat and Adam was shoved out of the circle.
