The Australian | Charlie Conway

Meeting the ducks

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Before going out onto the ice I looked behind me to see Kenny, Luis, Dean, and Dwayne all looking as nervous as I was. Well maybe Dean wasn't looking as nervous but still, he was showing a little emotion.

I took a deep breath and opened the door, I walked over to the gate, unlatched it, and went out to the ice. When I stepped out and began to skate it felt like a brick was taken off my shoulder,80% of my nervousness had disappeared.

I began to warm up with Julie and Dwayne for around 5 minutes before I heard another door open. Mr. Tibbles walked onto the ice followed by Coach Bombay and the remainder of the team all sporting the iconic green duck's jerseys. They all skated until they were in the middle of the rink,

"Tell am about my new players"I heard coach Bombay ask Tibbles.

"Luis Mendoza"I heard Mr Tibbles say

Luis began to skate in circles building up speed to show off his skills, I wasn't really paying attention to what Tibbles was saying but I heard him saying something about being a fast skater but not being able to...

There was a loud bang as Luis had just hit the wall, I along with the rest of the new members skated over to help him up.

"I was close that time," He said before he took Dwayne's hand and pulled himself up.

This dude really needed to learn how to stop.

"Next up we have Dwayne Roberson, the best puck-handler I have ever seen"

Dwayne then proceeded to show everyone what he could do, and let me just say it was a show and a half watching him.

"Yee-haw! How's everybody? Y'all ready to play some puck?"Dwayne yelled in the most cowboyie accent I have ever heard, and to think I thought my accent was odd.

"Hey, look, it's Hop-Along Gretzky!"I heard someone say behind me.

"He does have a tendency to show off" Tibbles continued

"Right here we have Julie 'The Cat' Gaffney, she won her state championships five years in a row for her team in Maine," Tibbles said

Julie pulled down her Goalie mask,

"We already have a goalie, Goldberg" Coach Bombay said before turning around and pointing at a boy.

Goldberg began to hype himself up before falling to the ground in a splits position. I couldn't help but laugh at that, a taller boy with brown hair turned around at gave me a quick look. He was very good looking, to say the least, but that's beside the point.

When Goalberg finished his little gymnastics routine Julie was given a turn to show off her skills. Multiple ducks lined up and began to shoot a puck towards the goal but failed miserably due to Julies' quick glove.

"Woooo Go Julieeee!I knew you were badass but not that badass" I yell towards Julie, I could hear laugh under her mask.

"That leads us on to Elyse Bronsdayle, best defenceman I have seen in a long time. She's the quickest backward skater I have ever seen, one minute you could have the puck heading towards the goal, and the next minute the puck has been taken from you without you knowing."

I stood there until a duck with blonde curly hair skated towards me, I began to skate backward picking up speed the further back I went. Now to work my magic,

"So what's your name?"I ask quite loudly,

"I um Gu-"I take the puck off him before he could answer and speed off in the other direction. I stopped right in front of the other ducks.

"The only real problem with Elyse is that she gets the puck not only by using her amazing skills but by using her quick tongue also. Her wit gets her in a lot of troubles with other players, her real problem is that after the other player gets angry at her she just doesn't stop taunting them."

I give the coach, team, and Mr. Tibbles a big fake smile before taking off towards the goal with Julie.

"That was totally badass Elyse!"Julie said

"Not as badass as your quick glove!"I said while giving her a high five.

I hear a loud bang and look to my side, I see Dean skating around with a pair of headphones on singing. Where he got those headphones from?
I have no clue

"Don't you know that everything's on fire" He sang as he skated over to Kenny. Kenny looked rather scared at that moment, he then he proceeded to pick Kenny up and place him on top of the goal.

"Hold this sweetie," he said before throwing me his stick.

"The hell you calling sweetie asshole?"I say back

That's when things got a little out of hand, in a matter of seconds everybody was screaming at each other. I skated over to the pack and nearly crashed straight into the very good looking guy from earlier.
He opened his mouth to say something but I beat him to it,

"Chose your next words very carefully duck man, anything you say may be thrown back in your face with vicious sarcasm," I say.

Well there we go again, that is a very good example of my quick tongue getting the better of me. The boy once again went to speak but again was interrupted this time by coach.

"Everybody freeze! Now, we didn't come here to fight! We came here to play hockey! We're Team U.S.A.You represent your country. Well maybe for everyone but Elyse but still you are here to represent team U.S.A!" Coach said

We all stopped fighting and listened in on what the coach was about to say.

"Now, I want you-"

"To be all that you can be, right?"Mr Tibbles interrupted

Coach stared at him,

"All right, now. Let's start with the scrimmage."

"You heard your coach! Now-
Hey. You don't need me here, I've got an appointment anyway. I've got to see Miss MacKay, She's the team tutor" Mr. Tibbles said

"Don?"The coach said while pointing at the whistle.

"You'll get it back at the end of the school term. All right, Ducks. Show 'em what you got! Let's scrimmage!"