There was no doubt that high school was much different than middle school. The Eden Hall Academy was huge-- almost like a college campus. There were separate buildings for almost every topic: a science building, mathematics building, etc. Currently the ducks were in a classroom with an ant farm in the middle of class.
"Hey, check it out. He knows Wayne Newton," one of the ducks pointed out.
Kenny walked over to Indiana, who had been counting ants next to Charlie. "Charlie, man, this is not a good start to our year."
Charlie sighed, "Don't worry, Kenny. These prepsters aren't gonna do anything to us."
Indiana continued, "if anyone bothers you let me know. I can be very persuasive." The two boys laughed as Indiana cracked her knuckles in an attempt to act intimidating.
"Check it out. Antsville. Look at 'em go," expressed Charlie, walking over to join Indiana at the ant farm. The rest of the team joined them, all watching as each ant took a different path.
Suddenly, a voice from the other side of the glass spoke up, "You can learn a lot from ants. These Brazilian fire ants can teach you a lot about successful societal structure." Buckley waved the group over to a certain part of the glass. "Come here. You see there's one queen in there. The rest are dedicated worker ants. Everybody pulls their weight. Nobody complains. There's harmony and growth. Same here at Eden Hall. Only you are the workers, the backbone."
"And you're the queen?" Russ asked, causing the group to snicker at Buckley, who grimaced at them.
Adam Banks watched Indiana out of the corner of his eye as she laughed, quickly placing her right hand over her mouth and covering it. He admired her smile for the mere moment that he could see it, instantly causing him to smile. The two of them hadn't had much time to speak alone, as the team had been spending every moment together. Even after being invited to Indiana's room, the rest of the ducks had tagged along, ruining any chance of the two speaking alone.
Adam watched as Charlie walked away from Indiana's side with Kenny. Adam took this moment to walk over to the girl and stand beside her, his arm lightly brushing against hers. Indiana's glance shot up, meeting Adam's eyes.
"Oh, hey Adam," Indiana smiled up at him.
"Hi Indie," he responded, the bell disrupting any further conversation to be had. "Can I walk you to class?" Adam held out his hand for her, grinning down at her. Indiana smiled back, agreeing to walk with him before taking his hand. Adam smiled back down at his shoes, pulling her along as she laughed.
"Gross," muttered Averman, Connie almost immediately smacking him alongside the back of his head. Adam and Indiana led the rest of the boys and Connie to their next class. Adam and Indiana sat in desks next to each other, eventually letting go of each other's hands.
"Every Monday you'll have a practice quiz, every Wednesday you'll have a real quiz, every Friday you'll have an exam, and anytime I feel like it you'll have a surprise quiz or exam," one of their teachers stated, causing each and every student to widen their mouths in shock. Their last class of the day seemed less stressful, but somehow stranger. The man utilized a puppet for dramatization, placing it on top of a book.
"It's been said that the present is to the past like a dwarf on the shoulders of a giant. If the dwarf holds his seat, he can, indeed, see further than the giant. But beware if the dwarf should grow careless and forget his place," the man slammed his book down on Fulton's desk, causing everyone to look back up at him with wide eyes. "History is a giant. Get ready to ride."
Indiana let out a gruff breath after the bell rang, signaling the end of that insanely weird history lesson. She waved goodbye to Adam, as she would later see him at the rink for their first practice.
"Hey, what's he looking at?" A gruff voice from the opposite side of the hallway asked, watching as Luis Mendoza practically stalked one of the blonde cheerleaders. Indiana noticed the voice came from the jock from earlier, Rick Riley. Indiana had done some scouting, finding out that Rick was the captain of the varsity team-- clearly, not a very good one. His follower, Cole, was constantly doing Rick's dirty work for him. Indiana smirked to herself, wondering how old Cole actually was-- he looked too old to not have repeated any years at Eden Hall.
Luis was pushed harshly into the lockers by Cole, who smirked back at him. Josh, one of the aspiring hockey announcers, watched this take place next to his locker.
"Ow! A hard check into the board. That has to hurt," commented Josh. Indiana rolled her eyes at Luis, who had been acting rather-- hormonal as of late. She wasn't sure what had happened or what had gotten into him, but she decided it would be best to ignore his sudden change of character and the whole varsity-junior varsity fight. That was, until they involved Kenny Wu.
As Kenny turned the corner, his lunch was snatched from his hands by Cole, "All this work makes me hungry."
Indiana slammed her locker, turning to the boys, "Give it back, Cole."
Cole, backed by Riley, smirked down at the girl. "Well since you asked so nicely." Cole held Kenny's sandwich out to him. As Kenny went to reach for it, Cole pulled it back.
"Cole. Give it back," Indiana repeated herself. Cole laughed before throwing the lunch over to Rick, who raised it in the air. Indiana, having enough of their delinquency, elbowed Rick in the chest. The boy folded over, grabbing the spot where she had hit and dropping the lunch. Indiana smiled at Kenny, bending over to grab the lunch and handing it back to Kenny.
"Bye boys," Indiana said to the two jocks, watching as Cole ran to Rick's side.
"Hey, Ken, Indiana," said Goldberg, walking down the hall unaware of the past events.
"What's up, guys?" Asked Averman.
"Indiana hit Rick," blurted Kenny, Indiana scolding him as soon as she noticed Julie's presence.
"You did what?" Julie asked. Charlie appeared behind them, raising his arm and giving Indiana a high five.
"He took Kenny's food," explained Indiana. "And I didn't hit him, I elbowed him in the ribs. Big difference."
The group laughed as Indiana explained the events that just took place, walking down the hallway. "Homework on the first day. Man, I don't believe it," expressed Averman.
"Get used to it, we're prepsters now," stated Indiana.
"Yeah, I know. We better be careful or we're gonna learn something here," said Goldberg. Indiana rolled her eyes, walking with her teammates and exploring the building. Eventually, it was just Charlie and Indiana talking about how snobby this school felt, and how they couldn't wait to get back onto the ice again. The pair walked down the stairs, before being bombarded by a brown haired, energetic girl.
"Hi. Uh, will you sign a petition?" The girl looked between the two of them, holding out a pen.
Indiana watched as Charlie studied the girl, somewhat in a trance. After a moment of awkward silence, he chuckled to himself, "Uh, yeah, sure. What's it for?"
"We're demanding the board change the demeaning Warrior name," said the girl. Indiana didn't really have a firm stance on a name change since she was a newer student, so the historical significance held no meaning to her.
Indiana reached for the pen as the girl smiled at her, handing her the clipboard as well. "Well, Warriors isn't so bad, is it? I mean, you got the Indians, the Braves, the Redskins, the Blackhawks," Ranted Charlie.
"You're a jock, aren't you?" The girl asked.
Indiana looked up from signing the petition, "What gave it away? The hockey jersey?"
Charlie ignored her and continued the conversation, "Yeah, I play hockey. In fact, I'm the captain of the new J.V. team," boasted Charlie.
"Forget about it. All you Warrior jocks stick together," the girl sighed before turning away.
"But I'm not a Warrior, I'm a Duck," pleaded Charlie, but it didn't matter. The girl was far gone onto the next person who she asked to sign.
Indiana shouted, "Hey, while you're on this little crusade, can we at least change the school colors? Red does not look good on me."
The girl looked back at Indiana with raised eyebrows. She smirked and nodded back, causing Indiana to smile.
Indiana grimaced, "You see, Charlie. Next time you try to hit on a girl, you might not want to devalue her opinions." Charlie rolled his eyes, pushing her by her shoulders towards the exit, where they would soon be getting dressed to play hockey.
Indiana unpacked her hockey bag into her hockey locker, hanging up her equipment on the holders. "How was everyone's first day?" She asked, earning some groans from her teammates.
"Oh, please it couldn't have been that bad," Connie stated.
"The only good part was hearing about Indiana hitting Rick," said Charlie, who began to laugh again.
Adam furrowed his eyebrows, "you did what?"
Indiana groaned, leaning her head back in her locker, "I'm going to explain the story for the last time. Cole took Kenny's lunch, so I ever so politely asked him to give it back. When he didn't and began to use it as a football, I took matters into my own hands and took it from him-- with a respectable amount of force from my elbow to his ribs." Indiana turned to look at Adam, who instead of looking impressed, seemed rather worried. The team erupted into separate conversations, Adam walking over towards Indiana to chat quietly.
"You should steer clear of the varsity team," said Adam.
Indiana was the one who was confused this time, "Why?"
"They're not good guys," he continued.
Indiana sighed, "I can handle myself, Adam. I'm not going to let these stupid jocks terrorize my friends-- and you shouldn't either."
Adam sighed, "You know I'd stand up for you in a heartbeat. But I can't risk losing my future over some stupid ongoing war."
Indiana nodded, knowing that he was right. Why fight a war that hasn't even begun? Plus, both Adam and Indiana wanted to continue playing hockey in college and didn't want to take any extra risks of suspension.
"I'll try to steer clear of them," said Indiana, causing Adam to relax a bit. "But I will retaliate if they do something big enough." Adam nodded to her, smiling at her bravery. The events described earlier painted a hilarious picture in Adam's mind. Indiana, being barely over 5'4," elbowing a dude that is well over six feet tall. Not to mention, there was a clear picture of Rick bent over in pain as Cole ran to help him. The two of them made an excellent couple. Indiana smirked back at the boy, knowing exactly what he was laughing at. She looked at her watch and quickly tied her skates and put on the rest of her equipment, being the first one to walk out to the rink. This was definitely going to be an experience that she wouldn't forget
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