Disclaimer: You know how it goes. I own nothing. Disney does.

(A/N: So yeah, this is my first story beyond a one-shot. Give it a chance please; I've tried hard. Please let me know what you think. Good or bad, hate it or love it: I wanna know. Thanks! -TT)


These are my people
This is where I come from
Were givin' this life everything we got and then some
It ain't always pretty but its real
It's the way we were made
Wouldn't have it any other way
"These are my People" – Rodney Atkins


Julie made her way to her dorm after practice and there it was in the "mailbox" on her door. She read over the cover of the letter, "Julie Gaffney." This was the letter she had been waiting for. She snatched it out and sprinted over to the guys' dorm. Knocking frantically, she yelled for her friends, "Dean, Fulton, open up! It came!" she squealed.

Fulton opened the door confused and annoyed that anyone would be outside his room squealing. "What's going o—" he gasped, "it came!"

"It came," she echoed. "Where's Dean?" she asked walking past him into the room.

"Oh, you know him, always hungry. He went to grab a snack from the vending machine."

They heard the door open behind them and saw their friend carrying an arm load of junk food. "Oh hey Cat. What's going on?"

"Eeeee!" she continued her squealing and jumping about.

"Ah! You have to stop that," Fulton complained.

"Sorry Fult, it's just the excitement. Dean, it came; it finally came! Grab your letters," she instructed the two Bash Brothers.

Dean let the food fall to the floor as they both scrambled to grab their unopened letters from their hiding places. They returned to their circle with smiles threatening and waited for the magic word.

Julie looked from friend to friend "Ready?" they nodded, and with a deep breath, "One… two… three… go!"

They each ripped open their letter and skimmed it for the key words.

"I'm in!" Dean looked up excitedly.

"Me too!" Fulton added.

The two turned their attention on the last one to report. A quick survey of her face told them news they didn't want to hear. She had her "assessing" face on.

"Jules?" she held up her index finger as she finished the letter.

She looked up at her best friends who donned anxious demeanors. "They said they couldn't offer me a hockey scholarship. They already recruited a goalie and a back up."

"Aw no!" he groaned.

"I'm so sorry Jules!"

A slight grin crept on her face. "But they gave me an academic scholarship instead."

"You're in?!" she nodded. "We're in! University of Chicago here we come!" Fulton celebrated.

Dean quickly enveloped her in a hug. "You know if we didn't like you so much, we probably would've pounded you for that stunt you pulled," he teased.

"Yeah, yeah," she swatted her hand absently, "if you guys didn't like me so much you wouldn't have convinced me to go with you guys. I just wanted to see what you guys would do without me," she laughed.

"Anyone up for a little celebration?" Fulton suggested. "Mickey's?"

"You know!"

At Mickey's

"Hey you guys," Charlie's mom, Casey, greeted.

"Hi Mrs. Con —er—Evens," she blushed, "Sorry I'm still not used to that yet," she confessed.

Casey smiled, "I'd be lying if I said you were the only one. So what brings you guys here? Just hanging out?"

"Actually, we're celebrating," Fulton supplied.

"Oh cool. What are you celebrating?"

"We got accepted into the University of Chicago on hockey scholarships," Dean shared.

"Well, they got hockey scholarships," Julie corrected.

"Uh oh, don't tell me these two are going to be released into that poor city without you to keep them under control."

"Very funny."

"Hilarious even," both men sarcastically replied.

"No, I got an academic scholarship. So no hockey but I can still keep an eye on these two.

"Good and congratulations! I'm so proud of you guys, just like you were my own. Speaking of my own, did Charlie tell you he got accepted to UCLA?"

"Yes ma'am, he's going there with Kenny and Russ," Julie told her.

"Oh, really? What about anyone else?"

"Guy and Connie are going to NYU," she offered.

"Adam and Jesse are going to BC."

"I think Luis is going to University of Miami, Dwayne to Texas A&M, and I'm pretty sure Goldberg and Averman are going to University of Pennsylvania."

"Wow," Casey said processing, "no one's staying here?"

They thought for a moment, "I guess not."

"Now who am I going to feed?"

"Aw, we'll still come by and visit," Fulton assured.

"I'm going to hold you to that," she warned jokingly.

"Yes ma'am," he saluted in jest.

"So how about milkshakes all around, on the house?"

"Sounds good!"

"Great!"

"Awesome! Thanks!"

They talked about their plans for Chicago: their boarding, their hockey team, their studies and majors, then finally their future with their majors.

"You guys are going to open a club! Why didn't I know about this before?" she asked surprised.

"I don't know," Fulton shrugged.

"It's just something we've been talking about for a while. We weren't trying to keep you out of it," Dean explained to her.

"Good, 'cause I want in," she told them casually, slurping up the rest of her shake.

Fulton and Dean exchanged looks and shrugged. "Sure, what can you do?" Dean asked teasingly.

She rolled her eyes "With you two going into business, you're going to need a good lawyer to keep you out of trouble."

"Yeah, but what can you do?" he teased.

"Ha, ha very funny, no, really." She pretended to laugh.

Fulton elbowed Dean in the side. "Knowing this guy," he gestured to the other Bash Brother, "We'll need your legal skills. Welcome aboard."

"Aw thanks Fult. I knew I could count on you." She stuck her tongue out at Dean.

The three of them walked back to the dorms, heading to Julie's first. As they made it to the third floor, they heard a voice behind them.

"There you are!" They stopped in their tracks. "Where have you been? I have been looking all over for you, Portman," Dean's girlfriend complained.

He drew in a slow breath and turned around plastering a smile to his face. "Alicia, hey," he said placing a kiss on her cheek.

"I asked you a question," she told him impatiently. Fulton and Julie exchanged shocked glances at each other from behind Portman.

"I was out with my friends," he gestured behind him, "celebrating."

Fulton gave an insincere wave as Julie shyly poked her head around from behind Dean, "Hi, Alicia."

Alicia forced a smile at Fulton but that 'courtesy' ended when she spotted Julie. She hated Julie. Who wouldn't in her position? Anytime she wanted to hang out with her boyfriend, she had to pry him away from Fulton and her, his 'friend.' She let her eyes snobbishly wandered up and down her, visually belittling her. "Celebrating?" she turned her gaze back to Portman, "You didn't invite me?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm sorry. It's just that we just found out today that we all got into the University of Chicago. We went to Mickey's pretty spur of the moment."

"Wait…Chicago?" she asked flabbergasted. With one last look at the two, she turned to Dean, "Portman I need to talk to you," she said seriously, walking out of listening distance, "now."

Dean sighed heavily and followed after her leaving Julie and Fulton behind. They watched as Alicia and Dean began to 'talk.'

"Oh man, that doesn't look good," Fulton was referring to fierce hand gestures added to their harsh, hissed tones.

"Wow did you see the way she was looking at me?" she laughed amazed at the amount of hate generated at her, "She doesn't like that I hang out with him. Do you think that's why she's yelling at him?"

"I don't know," he said simply.

"I'd hate it if she was yelling at him because of me. I hate that she yells at him at all. He doesn't deserve that."

Fulton looked over at her after picking up something that was maybe more than friendship. "You want them to break up?" he asked curiously.

"Oh yes," she said emphatically causing Fulton to raise his eyebrows at her. "What? You don't?" she asked surprised. "You like her?"

"Of course not. But Port does."

"I know. That's why I'm trying to be nice to her and put up with her snooty behavior, because she's important to him and what's important to him is important to me."

"Because you're his friend."

"Right," she gave him a 'duh' look. "She doesn't seem to get that- or care- or both. He should dump her and find somebody who can understand that, someone who treats him better."

"Someone who will like you and approve if he wants to spend the majority of his time with another girl," he supplied with a smirk ever increasing.

"Yeah."

"Someone who's going to let him be himself whether he's in public or hanging out back in our dorm room."

"Yeah."

"Someone like you."

"Yeah," Fulton's words sank in and she whipped her head around to face his smirk, "What?"

He laughed, "How long have you like him?"

"Dean? Oh Fulton, not you too," she whined. "He's my best friend. You both are. You can ask him; I say the same kind of stuff about you to him all the time. You can do so much better than the preppy cheerleader you've been seeing," she said caringly. "Why don't you try some women of character?"

"Hey now let's not get off track here. We're talking about your love interest." Julie rolled her eyes.

"No we're not," she crossed her arms, "I love him; I love you. You two are my best friends and I only want what's best for you guys, ok?" He nodded. "Great here he comes. Fult, please, drop this crazy theory of yours before you turn things weird between us."

"Fine," he agreed but still thought better than to listen to her "we're just friends" excuse.

Portman joined them with a dejected look on his face. "We broke up," he released.

"Oh Dean I'm so sorry. What happened?"

"Basically it just wasn't working out. She didn't like me hanging out so much with you guys," Julie snuck a guilty look at Fulton; they knew what that really meant. She didn't like him hanging out with Julie so much. "She said I should have thought to bring her along to celebrate too, but honestly she didn't want me to go to Chicago in the first place so she wouldn't have been celebrating anyway, so you know what? Whatever, good riddance, I say."

"What's she got against Chicago?" Fulton asked.

"Nothing it's just that she wanted me to go to New York State with her. I said no way and here we are."

Julie gave him a hug, "Are you going to be ok?" her muffled voice questioned from his shirt.

He smiled and hugged her small frame back, "Yeah," he broke out of the hug and slung both arm around them, "I got my friends to help me through."

"Yeah who needs to be attached to someone coming out of high school?"

"Fult, as I recall, you are still attached as we're nearing the end."

"Not for long, Cat-Lady here has inspired me to try for someone better." He winked at her.

"Oh yeah? How'd she do that?"

"Well we were talking about-"

"You know what?" she cut him off, interrupting, "It's getting late and we should head off to our dorms. So let's go."

Fulton smiled and agreed, "Yeah let's go." They started making their way to their destinations, "Just think one more month here and then we're done. Then it's off to Chicago!"

-TBC


(A/N-2: There you go. Chapter 1 is done. Tell me if I should go on. I'd appreciate it!)