Charlie's POV:
I stared at the test paper before me. By this time into my math final the numbers were starting to blur together. I hated math. Especially algebra but I had done okay in the class the entire semester and I was determined not to let this final ruin that.
I glanced around the room quickly needing to take a break from the numbers. I saw Connie very calmly working on her test. This stuff came easy to her. Luis was busy chewing on the eraser on his pencil. Goldberg was frantically erasing a whole bunch of things. Julie smiled at me as our eyes met. At least I wasn't the only one looking around the room. Adam had his head propped up on his left hand as he slowly worked on the test.
I took a deep breath and then turned back to my paper and the next problem. I couldn't wait until finals were over especially this math final which was the last test and class for the day. After this I had only one more final, history, the next day and our music class was meeting on the last day before Christmas break and then we would be free. Ms. Delaney had promised that we would have fun in the class tomorrow. I have a feeling she knew she wouldn't get much done on our final day before break.
It wasn't long afterwards that I noticed that my classmates started finishing the test. Connie was the first one done and she quietly took her test up front to the teacher and then left the classroom. Julie was next followed by Guy and then I lost track of who was leaving as I tried to concentrate on my own test.
I finished the test with about five minutes left. I stood up and made my way to the front with my completed test. As I did so I noticed that there was only three people still working on the test. One was a girl name Abby that I didn't know well and the other two were my friends. Luis was looking frantic but at least he was writing and not chewing on the eraser. The third person was Adam which had me surprised. Adam was better in math than I was. I would have figured he would be one of the first ones done.
I placed my test paper on top of the pile on Mr. Mathews desk and headed out of the class room. Out in the hallway I found Linda waiting for me.
"How do you think you did?" she asked me as I took her hand and we headed outside.
"I think I did okay," I told her. "You?"
"Same thing. Now I just got to get through my English final tomorrow," she said making a face. The two classes that Linda and I didn't have together were History and English.
"I'll take your English final for you if you take my History final," I told her.
"I wish we could do that," Linda told me with a laugh. "So any special plans for Christmas?"
"No. Its just my mom and me. We don't really do anything special but its just nice to be able to spend the entire day together," I told her. What I didn't mention was that my Mom was thinking about inviting Coach Bombay over for Christmas dinner which could mean that Adam would be over at my house too depending on what plans Adam had for the holidays.
"That must be nice to spend the day together. In my family we usually open the presents together and then everyone scatters their own way. I think I remember one Christmas when we were all actually eating dinner together at the dinning room table. Usually someone ends up eating somewhere other than the dining room."
"Well when there is just two of you its easier for everyone to be together than if there are six different people," I commented. Linda had two brothers and a sister so with her parents they had a family of six. I had always wanted a sibling, I didn't much care if it was a brother or a sister. I had met her family once this semester when I went over to her house for dinner one Friday night. They were nice people but they weren't exactly the closest family I had ever met even though they didn't seem to fight a lot. Linda said they didn't fight that much even when they didn't have a guest it was just that they didn't spend a lot of time together.
Linda and I headed for the bus stop. We were going to go into town and having dinner at a nearby restaurant instead of eating in the cafeteria. We weren't going to see each other once we both headed home for the holiday break until we came back to Eden Hall after the new year.

Guy POV:
After I got finished with the math final I met up with Connie who was waiting out in the hallway for me. I felt pretty good about how I did on the final. After all my girlfriend was a math wiz and she had spent a lot of time helping me study in the days leading up to the final.
Together we headed back to our dorm building and then settled down on the couch in front of the tv in the common room. The cafeteria wouldn't be open for dinner for about another hour.
It wasn't long before the rest of our friends started wandering into the common room and joined us in front of the tv. Before long the tv was just background noise as we all chatted about how our family usually celebrated Christmas or in Goldberg's case Hanukkah, which had already started.
"We always go to a ski resort for Christmas," Julie was saying. "Christmas is the only time of the year that both my parents can manage to get time off together so we always use the time to get away from the house for a family vacation. My family will pick me up at the airport and then we'll go right from there to the ski resort."
"That's cool," I heard Connie say beside me. "My family usually spends the holidays in Michigan with my Mom's family but we're not going this year. My father hasn't been feeling well lately and doesn't feel up to making the trip."
"Is it anything serious?" Julie asked concerned.
"No. The doctor told him he was working too hard and was under too much stress. He forced my Dad into taking a leave of absence from his job for a little bit. My mom says he has been driving her crazy around the house. My younger sister has been hanging out at her best friends house a lot after school."
"I just can't wait to get away from the cold and the snow," Russ commented. "It was fun at the beginning but I'm starting to miss the warmth."
"Our spoiled California kid," I commented with a smile.
"Hey I'm with Russ," Luis said as he finally came into the common room. "Its too cold to be December."
"You can't have Christmas without snow," I told our warm weather Ducks.
"Yeah, how does Santa get to your houses without snow for the sleigh," Averman joked.
I heard the door to the dorm building open again and looked back toward the hallway to see Adam walk by the common room. I heard his footsteps go up the steps. I couldn't help but wonder why he didn't come in and hang out with us. I didn't have to much of a chance to speculate though as our argument over what kind of weather you need for Christmas continued.
"You can keep your snow, and reindeer, and sleighs and I'll keep my warm holiday weather with or without Santa," Russ said.
"Christmas isn't about the weather guys. Its about family and being together," Connie said beside me.
"And the presents. You can't forget the presents," Portman said with an evil grin.
Connie picked the throw pillow sitting next to her up and threw it across the room at him. Portman ducked and the pillow hit the wall behind him. He then grabbed the pillow and threw it back at Connie. Instead of hitting Connie though the pillow hit me.
"Hey, what have I done to you," I said as Connie grabbed the pillow from where it had fallen on the floor after hitting me.
"She's your girlfriend," Portman told me. The situation went down hill from there. Soon all three throw pillows were being thrown around the room. It was lucky for us that the teacher that stayed in the dorm at night was usually no where to be found until around seven o'clock at night. If he had been we all would have been trouble.
The pillow fight continued until Goldberg happened to look at the clock and realized that the cafeteria was now open. As the others grabbed their coats and headed toward the cafeteria I told Connie that I wanted to go upstairs and see if Adam wanted to come with us.
"I didn't even see him come in," Connie said as we trudged up the steps.
"He came in shortly after Luis joined us. He must have been one of the last ones to finish the test along with Luis," I replied.
I stopped outside his dorm room and knocked. My knock got no answer. Connie reached past me and knocked on the door. Again we got no answer.
"Maybe he already left again," Connie said.
"Maybe," I said not convinced. Something was going on with Adam lately but I had no clue as to what it was.
"Let's go Guy. I'm getting hungry," Connie said zipping up her coat.
"Okay," I replied and followed her down the steps.
"Oh I forgot to mention this earlier," Connie suddenly said as we cut through the snow covered grassy area between our dorm and the cafeteria. "Julie was telling me about a roller hockey team that Eden Hall has in the spring. She found out about it from Scooter. It isn't an official sport yet but most of the schools we compete with in ice hockey have teams. The teams are organized and coached by the students as the faculty advisor supervises but doesn't get directly involved. Seems Scooter and a sophmore got the roller hockey team here at Eden Hall started up last year. Julie said Scooter invited any of us whose interested to try out for the team after the holiday break."
"And I take it your interested," I commented a smile coming to my face. I could tell by the fact that she was talking quickly that she was not only interested but trying to get me interested in the idea too. I really didn't need much convincing but I wanted to have a little fun with her.
"I think it would be fun, don't you?"
"I guess," I told her as we walked into the cafeteria.
"Oh, come on Guy. You've got to at least go to try outs with me," Connie said to me pleadingly.
I couldn't keep from laughing anymore. As soon as I did Connie knew that I had been messing with her. She hit me playfully upside the back of the head and then said "So you'll do tryouts with me."
"Sure I told her. Sounds like fun," I said still with a huge grin on my face.
By the time we joined the other Ducks at the table Julie was telling the others about the roller hockey team. Some of the Ducks seemed interested and the others didn't. They said they were thinking about joining other extra curricular activities during the spring semester. It didn't really matter anyway because I had a feeling that even if we all tried out not all of us would have made it. Part way through our meal Scooter joined us and those of us that were interested started asking him questions about the roller hockey team. One thing I was curious about but didn't get a chance to ask was exactly who the other student coach was.

There was a knock at our dorm room door later that evening. I was sitting on my bed glancing through history notes and across the room Charlie was doing the same thing.
"Come in" Charlie called out.
The door opened and Averman and Goldberg strolled in history books and notes in hand. We were getting together for a history study group to prepare for the history final the next day.
"So we going to get started?" Averman asked as he pulled out the desk chair and sat down. Goldberg sat down on the end of Charlie's bed.
"Wasn't Adam going to join us?" I asked.
"I'll go get him," Charlie said getting up and leaving the room. Five minutes later he came back in with Adam following slowly behind him. I moved some of the stuff on my bed so that Adam could sit down on the bed.
"You okay?" I asked him as he sat down on the bed and leaned up against the wall.
"Yeah, I've just been feeling worn out the last few days. Its probably just the stress of finals. I'll be fine," Adam said sounding like he was trying to convince himself just as much as he was trying to convince us.
We got down to studying without any further discussion. All of us wanted to do well on this last final. I felt like I had done pretty well on all the other ones but this one had me nervous. History wasn't exactly my best subject and unfortunately it wasn't my roommates either. Averman and Adam were pretty good in the subject though which is why Goldberg, Charlie and I had convinced them to be a part of the study group. Adam, however, fell asleep halfway through the study session which I'm not sure how he managed because he was normally a fairly light sleeper. We had found that out during a camping trip the team had taken after winning the gold at the Junior Goodwill Team. All the sounds of the woods had kept waking Adam up so needless to say he got little sleep on the trip as did those of us who were sharing a tent with him.
When we were done studying it took both me and Charlie to wake Adam up. I ended up going with him to the his room just to be sure he got there. As soon as he was in his own room Adam laid down on his bed and I think he was back to sleep before his head even hit the pillow. Something was definitely up with him.