Disclaimer: Do not own.

Because Adam looked a little devastated when he found out he was on the Varsity team. Please excuse glaring plot errors. These are of course, my own views of the character of Adam Banks.

"Hey Adam, shouldn't you be over on that side of the table?" Charlie asked, not quite able to keep his bitterness fully out of his voice. "This side is only for—"

"For Ducks?" Adam cut him off, his eyes fixed firmly on a point over Charlie's shoulder.

For the first time in a long time Charlie looked at Adam, really looked, and registered what he saw. Adam was tense, his back ramrod straight, his fingers toying with the cuffs of his shirt sleeves, his face carefully blanked. Charlie had known Adam for a long time, and now that he was looking, he could see all the hurt his friend was trying to hide.

"Yeah, for Ducks." Charlie said, and then reached out to catch hold of Adam's arm before the other boy took his words the wrong way; which, it being Adam, was practically inevitable. "I guess I forgot that for a while didn't I?"

Adam's eyes, which had switched from the wall behind Charlie to the hand on his arm, looked up slowly. "Yeah." It was a little rough sounding, and Charlie knew he was searching his face for any hint of deception, any hint that Charlie would go back to treating him like the Hawks had. Charlie hated that he had managed to throw their friendship that far back.

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"You had an unfair advantage last time. You had one of us. Banksie."

Adam felt a smug smile work its way into his face. He wasn't ridiculously insecure, no matter what Charlie liked to say about him, but it was nice to hear he belonged sometimes. God knows he hadn't felt that way lately.

"You can keep him, he never had the heart of a warrior anyway."

And that one sentence wiped his smile away, and tossed him right back to when he had first been transferred onto the Ducks. The Hawks had completely turned their backs on him, and suddenly he had been friendless. Making Varsity had filled him with dread, because he had seen it all happening again, only this time, he would lose friendships that meant so much more to him.

It had been everything he had thought it would be, he hadn't even realised until after Charlie had quit, that he had been purposefully distancing himself from the others, until they had started reeling him in. Losing one of them was bad enough, Goldberg had said, but losing both was as bad as committing suicide. Surprisingly, Adam hadn't felt like they were trying to use him to replace Charlie, he'd realised that they'd still considered him one of them even if Charlie apparently didn't.

He didn't realise the conversation had finished until he felt Charlie give him a shake. "You ok?"

Adam blinked. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

"Don't listen to those jerks. Who wants to be a warrior anyway?"

Adam shook his head vehemently.

Russ gave a laugh, and Charlie grinned at him, as did the rest of the team.

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"Hey Adam." Charlie leaned against the locker they had all unconsciously left empty and ready for Adam's return to them.

Adam looked up. "Yeah?" he asked, pulling the wrist wrap tight.

Charlie looked pointedly at the wrist bandage. "You haven't worn one of them in a long time Banksie." And his meaning was perfectly clear; Adam might say he was getting to be too much like Bombay, but it was hard not to look out for the teams welfare like this, and Adam hadn't worn a bandage round that wrist in a year and a half, since he'd taken a bad fall skating in the park (Charlie was still convinced some of the Hawks team had done it).

"Not taking any chances is all." Adam shrugged.

Charlie frowned. "You twisted it?" he guessed, then shook his head, Adam would just have said he had if that was the case. "Someone else twisted it?"

Adam stilled, and Charlie knew he was right.

"When?" he asked.

Adam shrugged. "It was an accident Charlie, it doesn't matter. Come on, we'd better finish getting ready."

Charlie put a hand on his shoulder to stop his getting up. "When?" he asked.

Adam sighed and rolled his eyes. "It was an accident Charlie. I just fell the wrong way during training."

"Yeah, see how I'm not buying that." Charlie asked, his frown deepening. "It was because of us, that's why your not telling." He sighed and sat on the bench beside Adam. There was silence for a moment, the locker room completely empty, everyone else already up on the ice, training.

"Did you know that the rest of the animal kingdom is afraid of the duck?" Charlie broke the silence quietly. Adam hadn't been there, at the beginning, and this was something he needed to hear, he'd probably needed to hear it years ago, but it was hard to remember that Adam hadn't been there from before they were the Ducks.

"They are?" Adam asked with a disbelieving smile.

Charlie nodded sagely. "Because they know that if they mess with one duck, they mess with the whole flock." He waited patiently for Adam to connect the dots, and when he saw that he had he stood, grabbed his helmet and smiled. "Come on Banks."

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Adam was not celebrating. He was using the pretence of stowing his gear to avoid suspicion; Charlie seemed to be trying to make up for being a jerk, and had developed a 'Banks is not his usual cheerful self' radar.

"Something the matter?"

Adam turned, surprised to find Coach Orion standing beside him, looking at him sideways, an easy smile on his face, a rare sight. "I'm fine."

"Worried about Varsity?"

Adam frowned, was he that much of an open book?

"Do you want to go back?" Coach asked. "You looked like you were having a hard time with them."

"How would you know?" Adam asked, wondering.

"I watch the practices sometimes. It helps to know what the enemy is up to. Seemed to me you were by yourself a lot."

Adam shrugged, he'd known that just scoring a few goals wouldn't impress his new teammates. They were all older than him, and knew each other, so conversations had gone over his head. It had just been easier to isolate himself as much as they would let him.

"You've got the skills for Varsity, better than some of the guys on the team." Coach said, eyeing him speculatively. "But you weren't happy with them were you?"

"I'm a Duck." Adam muttered, feeling once again like that lonely hawk drowning in the duck pond.

Coach gave a small laugh. "I'd wondered when Fred told me you weren't excited about joining Varsity. You know, usually kids like you are all starry eyed at being chosen." He smiled. "But I guess I understand. If you want I'll have a talk with the Varsity coach."

"Won't it look bad?" Adam asked quietly, but already he knew he would say 'yes, please'.

"If that's how they're treating their junior players, then there's not going to be a problem." Coach nodded at the wrist wrap, and Adam fought the urge to groan. Charlie had told the rest of the team about his wrist, someone must have leaked it to the Coach.

"Cake Eater!" Russ yelled.

Adam turned to see the rest of the team had stopped their revelling and were eyeing him.

"Sorry everyone." Coach Orion said, smiling. "I was just telling Adam the good news."

"What good news?" Charlie asked.

"I'll let him tell you himself." The Coach smiled, giving Adam a pat on the back before turning to leave the team to their own celebration.

All eyes turned to Adam, who found himself blushing. "I… I'm on the team." He said at last.

There was a unified rolling of eyes, and a chorus of 'Duh's!"

Adam shook his head and grinned, deciding to leave it at that, he'd give them a shock when he turned up at their regular practices.