Author’s Notes: Things will get weirder by the minute. But be patient. :) Everything will make sense in the end!

Priorities – Scrimmage

Julie

“So you know her?” I asked Adam while the Ducks and I changed into our hockey gear. We had practice in five minutes and Coach Orion would throw a fit if we didn’t get to the rink in time.

Adam looked over at me and nodded slightly. “Yeah, I met her at the community skating rink the other night. We hit some goals then just sat around afterwards.” He shrugged. “I didn’t even think I’d see her again.”

“Well, she’s here now, Banksie,” Russ teased, making a lovey-dovey face at him. Adam threw a towel towards Russ’ direction and laughed.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Averman and Goldberg making kissing sounds. Catcalls and such ensued and I had to laugh.

“She seems interesting though,” Adam added, shrugging again. Connie and I exchanged a look. Ooh, this was moving towards a fascinating road.

“Really, Adam?” Connie asked, smirking at him. Adam rolled his eyes and pulled on his jersey.

“Yeah, I find her interesting.”

“Not to me!” Dean’s voice boomed from his spot in the locker room. He walked towards me and I refrained from rolling my eyes as he put his arm around me. Oh here we go.

“And why is that?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Because she’s no you, Cat Lady.”

The locker room then erupted with cat calls and teasing remarks from Averman, Goldberg and Russ. Dean, on the other hand, just grinned and ruffled my neatly braided hair.

Damn, now I have to fix it all over again, I thought as I glared at him.

“Don’t do that,” I said, tucking loose strands of my hair behind my ear. Dean smirked and grabbed his hockey stick from the rack.

“Oh, you like it anyway, Julie,” he replied, and quickly ran off before my towel could have hit him on the face.

I was seething. “Damn that Portman. He makes me so… annoyed!” I exclaimed, tucking my hair into my jersey before grabbing my stick and helmet.

Connie laughed and patted me on the back. “Aw, it’s okay, Jules. You’ll get him someday.”

“And if you don’t,” Russ added, grinning at me like a Cheshire cat, “maybe you can just beat the crap out of him with your hockey stick.”

Coach Orion blew his whistle and immediately the Ducks divided into two teams. I watched Charlie and Averman take their positions in the middle of the rink before Coach blew his whistle again to start the game.

Charlie got a hold on the puck before Averman got a chance to take it and they were off in a heartbeat. Charlie passed the puck to Russ who passed it to Connie who passed it to Guy who hit it into my side of the rink. I caught it before it hit the goal.

“Not today, Guy!” I cried as I threw the puck back at them.

“Cut me some slack, Jules! Let me hit a goal by you for once!” Guy replied, grinning. Connie was laughing in the background as Fulton got a hold of the puck that she had passed.

Fulton passed the puck towards Luis who immediately started speeding towards Goldberg’s position. He hit the puck and Goldberg almost missed it by an inch.

“There you go, Goldie!” Luis patted Goldberg in the back for a job well done and off he went again.

“Nice save, Goldberg!” I exclaimed from my post and he held up his hand as a thank you.

“Thanks, Julie!”

I loved my team. Everyone was supportive of one another and we all knew how to encourage each other when we had a tough time pulling through. It was amazing how mature and how close we all have become since the JV/Varsity showdown in freshman year. I smiled and stopped another puck from hitting my goal post. We’ve come a long way since then.

After a few more plays, Coach blew his whistle and motioned for us towards him. I removed my helmet and skated towards him. Dean was beside me.

“Are you still dating that goalie dude?” he asked, wiping the sweat off his brow. I glared at him. The whole team knew I didn’t like talking about Scooter and yet, he’s the only one who has the guts to ask me about him.

“I don’t want to talk about him, Portman,” I replied, giving him a look of death. Dean grinned and I found myself suppressing a grin as well. His smile was contagious.

“Aw, come on, how come?” Dean nudged me with his elbow and I shoved him.

“I just don’t want to, Dean, so shut it!”

He grinned again and wrapped an arm around me. “You called me Dean. So you do like me,” he said, his face smug. I was itching to wipe that smug look on his face with my fist. But now was not the time… Coach was here and all.

“Alright, listen, we’re going to have a hockey game next month in time for Eden Hall Academy’s alumni event. It’s us versus the senior varsity.”

“Who?” Dwayne asked a confused look on his face. We were all confused.

Coach Orion sighed and massaged his temple. “We’re up against Coach Wilson’s team next month.”

“What!”

Each and every one of us was shocked. We were going to play against Coach Wilson’s team aka the last Warriors varsity team of Eden Hall Academy—the team we beat in the JV/Varsity showdown three years ago.

“Wait,” Averman said, holding up his hands and looking confused. “So we’re going to play against the Warriors next month?”

Coach Orion nodded. Averman paled.

“Oh great, now I have to rewrite my last will and testament.”

“You’re not going to die, Averman,” Charlie said, rolling his eyes at him. “We’ve beaten them before. We can do it again. Right guys?”

“Right!” we replied in unison sans Averman who was thinking of what he should put in his last will.

“Good. I’ll leave you guys for a sec, alright. Finish up your laps then go home.” Coach Orion gave us a look before walking off.

Then we all looked at each other and smiled. Charlie wrapped his arms around Russ and Goldberg and grinned at us.

“We can do this, guys. We can beat those preppies again next month! Trust me.”

“Now, I don’t know about that.”

We froze and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Charlie’s jaw clench. We knew who it was who spoke. Slowly we turned around and came face to face with the Warriors. Rick Riley was in front of all of them, of course, because he was captain.

“We won’t let you guys win again,” he said, looking over at all of us with a smug look on his face. He was such a snob. I could hear Fulton and Dean curse under their breaths. They wanted to beat the crap out of Rick Riley just as much as Charlie and the rest of the guys wanted to.

I looked at all the Warriors before my gaze fell on Scooter who was standing just behind Rick. He shot me a smile and I couldn’t help but smile back.

Dean cleared his throat. He raised an eyebrow at me and I frowned. What the hell does he want now?

“Looking at your boyfriend huh, Cat Lady?” he whispered, his voice filled with masculine smugness. I elbowed him (not that it would do any damage anyway. Dean’s bigger than me). He grinned at my annoyed face. Oh, someday, I will hurt this smart ass.

“Just shut up.”

“Nice to see you guys again, Riley,” Charlie said, a guarded look on his face. “But if I remember correctly, your team is skating on our team’s ice.”

Rick smirked. “We’re graduated from here, Conway. We can skate here if we want to.” He raised an eyebrow at us. “Besides, we’re still your superiors, so start giving us some respect.”

“Like the respect you’ve shown us three years ago?” Connie shot back. Rick’s smirk turned into a frown and he glared icily at Connie who met his glare right back with her own.

Guy and I smiled almost simultaneously. Connie has a really bad temper and we all knew it. It was times like these when I admire her courage to speak her mind… Guy and I both loved that about her.

“Hmm, obviously, you ducks haven’t quite learned your lesson yet,” he replied, looking at each and every one of us. Cole—their big bad enforcer that Dean beat the crap of on our last game against them—stepped forward and folded his arms across his chest.

Dean grinned. I knew he had just remembered the look on Cole’s face when he smashed him through the wall three years ago.

“Bring it on, chubby,” Dean said, looking straight at Cole. Cole flinched and I smiled. He was scared of Dean. Nice.

“What are you guys doing here anyway?” Fulton suddenly spoke.

Rick and Cole looked at each other and shrugged. “I’m here to pick up my little cousin. Since she was running late, I thought maybe I should check you guys out for a while.”

Charlie scoffed and shook his head. “Yeah, right, like you have a cousin here. I bet you guys just came over here to spy on us.”

“Why the hell would we spy on you guys when we know we’re going to hurt you next month?” Cole retorted, glaring at Charlie.

Fulton and Dean laughed. “Don’t you mean, when we hurt you next month?” they said in unison.

Cole looked like he wanted to attack but Rick held him in place. “Take it easy, Cole. Save your strength.”

“We’re going to beat you losers next month, alright? We’re going to reclaim what is rightfully ours,” Rick said, walking towards Charlie until they were face to face. “We are going to make things right.”

“The only thing that you guys can do right is to lose the game.”

Rick clenched his jaw and the next thing we knew was that he had taken a shot at Charlie—hitting him squarely in the face.

A fight ensued.

I don’t know what happened exactly. All I can really say was that I saw Scooter take a hit at Dean and Fulton pushing me and Connie away from their fight.

“Damn you guys, stop it!” Connie exclaimed, skating towards Guy who was wrestling with a Warrior.

I followed her and tried my best to pull Scooter and Dean apart from each other. Problem was they were both bigger than me which made it harder for me to pull them apart.

“RICK!”

I looked up from what I was doing and saw Rachel yelling from the stands. I looked at her surprised and confused when Rick Riley stopped wrestling Charlie and looked at her.

“What the hell are you doing?” Rachel cried, as she slowly walked her way towards us without skates.

“Hey, don’t walk on the ice without skates you dimwit!” Rick called after her and motioned Cole and Scooter to help her out. They followed and both supported her arms as she continued to walk towards us.

The glared at each other and the Ducks and I stood confused, wiping sweat off our brows.

“You two know each other, Rachel?” I heard Connie ask. Rachel looked at us and nodded.

“Yeah, he’s my older cousin.”

Rachel finally reached us and swatted Rick’s arm. “What were you doing! I thought you were going to wait for me outside the school… not start a riot inside!” she exclaimed, shaking her head in disbelief.

She scoffed. “And you tell me I’m a troublemaker?”

Rachel then looked at all of us and sighed. “I’m sorry about Rick. You guys can probably tell that he can be very violent at times when he doesn’t get his way.”

Rick rolled his eyes and cast Charlie and us a look of death. He took Rachel’s left arm from Cole and supported her from slipping in the ice. “Let’s go home.”

“This isn’t over.” He said that statement to us before he turned.

Rachel looked at us apologetically; her gaze held longer on Adam who had a cut on his lip and was too shock to say anything.

“How can you do that, you guys!” We heard Rachel yell as they walked out of the rink.

We looked at each other in confusion and let out a deep breath. Averman and Goldberg fell into a heap in exhaustion. Apparently, wrestling took a lot out of them.

“So, Rachel’s Rick Riley’s younger cousin?” Charlie breathed, unbelieving.

“Yeah. She is…” Adam whispered, taking in deep breaths.

“Things get weirder by the minute,” Kenny said in between breaths.

Russ began to laugh despite the exhaustion he felt from the fight. I looked over at him and wondered what was up. Then slowly, he skated towards Adam and patted him on the back. “Well, Banksie, good luck on winning her family’s affections.”

Luis and Dwayne laughed as skated towards the exit. Adam rolled his eyes and followed suit.

“I’m beat. I’m hitting the showers.”

Slowly, we all began to pick ourselves up and skate towards the exit. I looked over at Dean and stifled a gasp when I saw that his lip was bleeding. I skated towards him and examined his face.

“You okay?” I asked, making a face. I touched his lips and drew in a deep breath. The cut was a little deeper than I had expected.

Dean grinned and shrugged. “I’ll live. I gave your boyfriend a chance to hit me.”

I shook my head and wiped some blood off his cheek. “He’s not my boyfriend, Portman! But he did punch you good.”

He raised an eyebrow and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I rolled my eyes, ignoring the warm feeling going down my spine when he held me close and pulled away from his grasp. I started to skate away before he called me again.

“You love me, don’t you, Jules?”

I scoffed, and shook my head. Granted, he was attractive, well built and a very good hockey player, but his attitude showed otherwise. How can he even say that I love him when I would just love to kill him?

“I hate you,” I replied, turning away from him and skating towards exit. I heard Dean laugh.

“The more you hate, the more you love, sweetie!”