𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘

❝ it's a crooked game we're playin' ❞

•••

Dean winked at Sophie who shook her head while stifling a laugh at his antics.

Dean skated around singing and pushing his way through the Ducks' players. He shoved down another player before wrapping his arm around Dwayne.

"Come on Tex! Sing it with me!" Dean encouraged with a smile on his face. Dwayne however looked terrified.

"Dean let him be!" Sophie laughed.

"Only for you," Dean responded with yet another wink.

He then moved on to shove another Duck over before handing Julie his hockey stick. The boy then made his way over to Sophie and Kenny.

Dean grabbed Kenny and set him on top of the goal before turning to Sophie. He once again leaned against the wall of the rink next to Sophie. A Duck player came near the pair and Dean shoved them over. This caused Sophie to roll her eyes and Fulton came over to them yelling at Dean.

The brunette girl left the two to argue and scanned the ice for her best friend. She noticed someone yelling something about a short stack and skated over to the voice. Nobody but Sophie got to call Kenny short stack. It just so happened to be Jesse yelling at Kenny. Sophie shoved the boy away from Kenny.

"Leave him alone," Sophie said while she shoved Jesse.

"Oh who's your boyfriend? The big goon or the short guy?" He commented.

"Neither if you must know. They're both my friends. Guys and girls can be friends with no feelings," Sophie said rolling her eyes.

"Is there a problem Jesse?" Fulton said as he skated between the boy and his sister.

"Yeah is there?" Dean said as he stood behind Sophie after his argument with Fulton.

Before Jesse could respond to anyone, Bombay blew his whistle.

"Everybody freeze!" Bombay yelled, causing everyone to turn to him.

Dean set his hands on Sophie's shoulder and put his focus on his new coach. Sophie mentally rolled her eyes at the boy before also focusing on the coach.

"Now we didn't come here to fight, we came here to play hockey. We're Team USA. You represent your country," Coach Bombay started his speech.

"That's right," Tibbles agreed, cutting Bombay off.

Bombay gave Tibbles a look as if to shut up. Tibbles nodded his head and let the coach continue.

"Now I want you," Bombay started again.

"To be all that you can be, right. You gotta raise yourself up guy," Tibbles cut Bombay off again.

The looks that Coach Bombay and Tibbles gave each other caused all the kids to laugh. Sophie looked down at Kenny who looked back up at her. The two scrunched their noses as they laughed before turning back to their coach.

"Alright. Now let's start with a scrimmage," Bombay said.

"Great! A scrimmage!" Tibbles said before blowing the whistle around his neck. "You heard your coach. You don't need me here. I've got an appointment anyway. I got to see Miss MaKay. She's the team tutor."

Tibbles started walking out before Bombay called his name. The coach stuck out his hand and Tibbles set the whistle in his hand.

"You'll get it back at the end of the school term," Bombay said, causing Team USA to laugh.

"Alright Ducks. Show 'em what you got. Let's scrimmage," Bombay said before he blew the whistle.

Coach Bombay and the Ducks gave the new kids two minutes to figure out their positions before they started the scrimmage. In those two minutes they decided that Dwayne would take center, Kenny would take left wing, Sophie right wing, Luis and Dean as enforcers, and Julie as goalie.

"Great day for hockey, aight it?" Dwayne asked Jesse. The boy was just trying to be nice but of course Jesse had to tease the guy.

"Sure is cowboy," Jesse said.

"Watch it Hall," Sophie said from her spot next to Dwayne.

Dwayne got the puck and immediately pushed it in between Jesse's legs. Jesse tripped and landed on the ice as the new kids skated down the ice with the puck. Dwayne passed the puck to Luis who continued to skate down the ice when Dwayne got taken down by Fulton.

"Slow down Luis!" Sophie yelled to her teammate as he continued down the ice.

Luis skated right into the goal and Goldberg. As the two players sat up, Luis held his helmet in his hand. Sophie skated over to help her teammate up.

"Thanks for breaking my fall," Luis before getting up with the help of Sophie.

"Anytime," Goldberg said, watching the two skate away and over to Kenny.

"Come on hot shot. Let's try this again," Sophie laughed as she took her place again. This time Adam had the puck and skated to the goal. He got knocked over by Dean. Jesse now had the puck and shot it at Julie. The girl caught the puck in her glove and threw it to the ice.

The puck eventually got stuck by the wall with about five players trying to get it. Eventually they got it out and were skating down the ice again. Sophie had managed to get the puck passed to her and was skating towards Goldberg before her brother caught up to her. Fulton shoved Sophie very harshly with his shoulder causing her to hit the wall and fall on her shoulder. Charlie, who got the puck, passed it to Adam who shot the puck and scored.

"You alright princess?" Dean asked as he skated up to the girl.

"It doesn't matter," Sophie muttered as Dean helped her up.

"What?"

"Don't call me that. I'm not your princess," Sophie snapped before skating over to Kenny. She had never seen Fulton be so rough with her. He normally threatened any breathing thing that touched her.

Dean looked at the girl as she skated away and then glanced at the boy who tripped her. Fulton was near the wall taking a water break with Charlie Conway. Dean looked back at Sophie and skated over to Dwayne.

When Sophie got to Kenny she grabbed onto his pinky finger. He gently squeezed her finger and smiled at her. She gave him a tight lipped smile before looking around the rink. The two skated to the center for face off again and the Ducks got the puck. As they were in the opposing zone, Dean and Fulton were behind the net. Dean body checked Fulton into the wall.

"Get up tough guy," Dean laughed.

Sophie skated up to him and helped Fulton up.

"How's California?" Fulton asked once he was standing again.

Dean shoved down Averman and Guy as they skated by. He was trying to eavesdrop on Sophie's conversation with her brother.

"It's been fine," Sophie shrugged before skating off to get the puck from Adam.

Fulton chuckled at Sophie before getting back into the game. By that time, Kenny and Sophie had taken off down the ice towards Adam who had the puck.

On her way to Adam, Sophie shoved her brother with her shoulder so that way her and Kenny could get the puck easier. Fulton lost balance and tripped. Sophie nudged Adam causing him to trip and lose control of the puck. Kenny got the puck and turned around skating down the ice. Sophie followed, catching up to him quickly and Kenny passed to Sophie who then shot the puck, scoring on Goldberg.

After a quick water break where Sophie tried giving Luis tips on stopping, the kids were back to playing. Fulton had the puck and was skating down the rink with it. He stopped and prepared himself for the shot. Sophie, knowing her brother skated out of the way and behind him.

Coach Bombay warned the kids and yelled, "Look out!"

All of the ducks skated out of Fulton's way and yelled. The new kids all were confused but Kenny had remembered what Sophie had told him about Fulton's slapshot and skated away from the net.

"What a bunch of wusses," Dean commented as he saw all of the Ducks moving away.

Dean's mind was changed however when he saw the puck coming towards him. The puck hit the pipe of the net and ricocheted off it and then the ceiling and various other places before hitting Mr. Tibbles' head and then finally the floor. Mr. Tibbles had been knocked unconscious and was lying on the ground.

"Oh god is he okay?" Sophie asked as her and her brother skated over to the unconscious man and the woman he had brought with him into the building.

The entire team along with Coach Bombay and the lady were crowding around Mr. Tibbles now. They were trying to wake him up and check to see if he was okay. Bombay had held something up to Mr. Tibbles nose to help wake him up.

When he started waking up, Mr. Tibbles was sniffing the air and making a face. As the lady spoke to the man, Julie was adjusting the ice pack sitting on Mr. Tibbles head. He pushed Bombay's hand away from his face and opened his eyes before he spoke up.

"Oh uh, I'll have the cheeseburger and fries and chocolate shake please," He said unsure of himself.

Some of the kids chuckled at the man. Fulton smiled at his sister who was standing right between himself and Dwayne. The lady sitting next to Mr. Tibbles softly smiled before chuckling.

"I think he'll be okay. We'll keep an eye on him," she told the team before standing up. "Oh I'm sorry. He didn't have a chance to introduce me. I'm Michelle McKay, their tutor."

"Hi I'm Coach Bombay, their coach," Bombay said a small chuckle at the end.

"Who said we need a tutor?" Adam asked, offended.

Sophie and Kenny looked at each other from across the crowd of hockey players, nodding their heads. The entire team seemed to agree with Adam. Dean was next to speak up.

"I don't need no school," he said.

"His grammar says otherwise," Sophie softly mumbled. Fulton and Dwayne had to stifle laughs, trying to not draw attention to themselves.

Goldberg decided to take it upon himself to try and persuade Miss McKay to let them out of school. As he discussed it with the tutor, Sophie had quietly made her way to her best friend. She stood next to Kenny in time to hear Miss McKay say that the tutoring was optional. The entire team seemed to rejoice at the announcement and cheered.

That was dampened as soon as Miss McKay spoke over them. She had told them that if they did not attend the school sessions they could not play. The team then started to complain about school once again.

After Miss McKay's announcement the team was able to go back to their locker rooms and leave for the day. On the way to the locker room, Sophie was walking beside Dean as he tried to make a move on her but was interrupted by Averman.

"Hey is that a tattoo? Is it real?"

"Get away from me," Dean told the shorter boy. He didn't look too happy to have Averman around.

"Yes sir," Averman told Dean before going to say something else.

However before Averman could speak up again Dean grunted at him and slightly got in his face. The redhead boy took off and headed towards his own locker room quickly. Sophie softly shook her head and turned to look at Dean. His face held an expression between guilt and relief.

"Why do you do that?" Sophie asked as they continued down the hallway.

"Do what?" Dean asked, not looking at her.

"Scare people away. After they run away from you, you look upset," Sophie says as they stand outside the locker room door.

"Why do you suddenly think you know me? I barely met you like two hours ago. Stop acting like you know everything about everyone," Dean told the girl. "Just leave me alone."

Sophie rolled her eyes before shoving the door to the locker room open and walking in. She walked to the locker where all her things were located and opened it. As Sophie was changing into the clothes she wore for the plane ride, Dean stood outside the locker room door regretting the fact that he snapped at her.

"Shit."