Author's note: This is a sort of prequel to my story 'Ice cream Sunday' which is set when the boys are ten and focuses on the development of Carlos/Logan and Kendall/James friendship. This story is when they met at eight and focuses on all the relationships of BTR. Reading 'Ice cream Sunday' is not necessary to understanding this story, but you should give it a go anyway ^_^

James sat with his elbows on the table, his hands the only thing keeping his head from falling. He was staring at Hortense with a great unwavering intensity, and Hortense… well Hortense had just been trying to eat breakfast.

"You haaaavvveeee tooooo goooo" James whined. He was kicking his legs back and forth- hitting the table, then the floor, then the chair and back again in one smooth motion. "I don't HAVE to do anything James" Hortense told him, focusing on pouring the right amount of milk from the heavy two-litre carton of milk onto his cereal.

"Of course you do Hortie" James rolled his eyes, "we do everything together- if you don't go it'd be like… like the end of the world." James waved his hands around dramatically for effect, though this was mostly lost on Hortense who was studiously not looking at him.

"It wont be the end of the world," he mumbled between large mouthfuls of cereal "mum says it's good for us to spend time apart, to make other friends."

James gasps at him "why?" Hortense only shrugs in response, finally locking eyes with James. "She said we're Co-die-pendant" Hortense stumbles of the word "I don't really know what that means- I was gonna look it up in my dictionary later."

"Look it up now" James demanded "so we know how not to be codipendit!" Hortense shook his head gesturing at his cereal "I'm eating- and you should be too!"

"I did" James showed Hortense a half eaten apple and Hortense scrunched his nose up in disgust. "That's not a real breakfast James" Hortense took another bite of his cereal as if to demonstrate what eating breakfast should look like.

"Mummy says small frequent meals are key" James lectured Hortense with an air of superiority. Hortense scratches his head in confusion "key to what?" James face falls and he shrugs helplessly "I donno but mummy says that less is more or something."

"How could less be more?" Hortense argued he made a face at James "if less food meant more food I bet all those hungry people in Africa wouldn't be dying."

"People are dying in Africa?" James asked distressed "how do you know?" Hortense pointed at his mother's long forgotten newspaper and flicked it until he stopped at the correct page. He pushed the paper over to James whose fingers ran over the words.

James face scrunched up with concentration "re-repeted in-inced- incedemce pove high death rat in Aferica." He tilts his head, "Hortense that makes no sense" Hortense snatched the paper back and snorted "well not if you read it like that- it says reported inc- inci-a-dences prove high death rate in Africa."

James stared worriedly at the paper "so… what does that mean?" Hortense pats him on the arm "it means all the grown ups are gonna get together and do something about it." Well… Hortense assumed that's what was going to happen. The article had some pretty big words in it and even though he was probably the best reader in their class, Hortense couldn't make heads or tails over what the words 'economic crisis' meant.

"Oh" James sighed in relief "okay then." He seemed satisfied and got up from his chair and ran out of the room. "James?" Hortense called after him, when he didn't get a response Hortense turned back to his breakfast. He was going to finish this bowel and then has was going to bask in the accomplishment of him finishing the box of cereal by playing with his new decoder ring.

That was the plan.

But of course, James was going off script.

James threw a book down, knocking over Hortense's empty bowel. The spoon made a horrible clattering sound and they both winced. "I got it, I got it- you look up the word."

"What word?" Hortense groused he flicked the dictionary open "coo-depiantant" James replied excitedly. Hortense rolled his eyes and flicked to the 'c' section "I don't think that was the word."

"copendant? Co-depant? Coo-panitent?" James tried but Hortense shook his head at every one. "She moved her mouth like this" Hortense mimicked the movement of the words "I think it was co-de-pen-dant."

Hortense grinned satisfied and then began flicking through the book, his face slowly beginning to fall. "I can't find it…" James patted him on the back "um- don't worry maybe it has a sneaky letter at the beginning!" Hortense gave him a strange look "do you mean a silent letter?"

"Silent like a sneaky ninja" James nodded solemnly and Hortense shrugged "then I'll never find it! Or maybe it's like what they say on bookplace- some words don't look the same way they sound."

James made a face "Ew. You watch bookplace?" Hortense shoved him "of course dummy- they read to you and then the worm talks to you bout it, it's the best show ever!"

James gave him a thoughtful look "so… if I watch that show… I wouldn't have to do nightly reading?" He sounded excited at the prospect but Hortense shook his head "if all they wanted was for you to hear a story, they'd get you to watch TV."

James face lit up.

"They don't want that" Hortense snickered watching James' face fell "they wont you to get better at reading."

"Why would I WANT to get better at reading?" James said stubbornly "oh- um" Hortense floundered; trying to think of a suitable reason someone like JAMES would find reading useful.

"Oh I know" he said excitedly "so you can read sheet music- it's totally easier to read if you can read normal writing." James seemed to take this under serious consideration, so Hortense figured at the very least; James wouldn't keep making fun of his favourite TV show for at least TWO days (that was about how good James' memory was.)

"Soooooo back to our previous conversation" James shot Hortense one of his best smiles.

"PPPPPPPPLLLLLLLEEEEEEEASE come to hockey with me!"

Hortense dug around the empty cereal box trying to find his elusive decoder ring. "No James" he said stubbornly "hockey is lame."

"I knnnnooooowwww" James whined banging his head against the table, "but dad said I have to! He said gymnastics is for sissies."

"Is not" Hortense replied and then let out a whoop of excitement as he pulled out the ring. "Oh cool" James marvelled "look at the cool new decoder ring I have!" he snatched the ring straight out of Hortense's hand.

"Hey James you give me that back" he tried to jump up and grab it but James just stood high on his tiptoes. "No way Hortense" James then gave him a sly grin "not unless you say you'll come with me."

"Forget it" Hortense glared and knocked James over "keep it."

"COME ON! YOU'D MAKE A GREAT GOALIE!"

******BTR******

James ended up going to stupid ice hockey all alone because his stupid dad made him go and stupid Hortense was being stupid and refused to come with him.

You could say that James was pouting, he deny it profusely and call you a bunch of bad words, but you'd probably be right. James glared at the skates his dad gave him- MANLY skates, he had emphasised. James had wanted the sparkly ones but his dad looked like he was going to have a heart attack every time he so much as thought to ask for them.

His mummy didn't seem to care much about hockey one way or another as long as he protected his face- she said the exercise would do him good. When he argued that gymnastics had been great exercise AND he could hang out with Hortense when they practiced she just patted him on the head. She told him he should be 'networking' but he wasn't quite sure what networking was. Only that it meant him mummy was really good at it and talked on her mobile a lot.

Well James DID want a mobile…

Maybe for his eighth birthday? Though that seemed an awful long time away.

James shook his head- hockey was SO not worth it and it wasn't like Hortense had a phone, so who would he call anyway? When he voiced this to his mother she had told him he'd missed the point of social networking- well she told him after she finished her thirty minuet call to Japan, and by then James had mostly forgotten what they were talking about.

James blamed her inattention to his current predicament; if his mummy cared enough to be outraged on his behalf there was no WAY he'd be at the stupid ice rink right now. His dad was afraid of his mummy.

As was everyone.

James liked to use this to his advantage, to make up for the fact that she often scared him into doing stuff he didn't want to do (like cleaning his room or eating green leafy stuff.)

James glared heated at the ice, and all the subsequent kids who were skating on said ice, as if he could melt the ice (and people) by sheer force of will.

Who wanted to play ice hockey anyway? He never got the why hockey was such a big deal anyway- from what he could understand the rest of America seemed to prefer football. James totally got football- not that he ever wanted to play it, he just enjoyed that people started singing and dancing at halftime (and hockey sadly did not.)

James' dad put his hand on his shoulder and beamed at him "isn't this great son- this is a great place for you to meet… some NEW friends. James made a face, as a rule he didn't really like anyone who wasn't his mummy or Hortense (and even then- he didn't like either of them in big doses.) So the idea of having to talk to OTHER people was insane.

"I don't need new friends daaad;" he pouted at the man, but he just ruffled his hair (something James hated- was his not AWARE how long it took to get it to not stand up in the morning!) "Yes you do James" his dad responded firmly "it's not healthy to have just one friend."

"I had friends at gymnastics" James cried, his dad raised an eyebrow "oh really? Name them."

"oh um… HORTENSE and um Mrs Tuckerson?" James gave his dad a wonky grin, "Mrs Tuckerson was your teacher son" his dad replied. "SO?" James shot back defensively- teachers should SO count!

James' dad knelt down and tied his skates tight "now go and have fun- and I'll see you tonight." He kissed James on the forehead "you're not even going to stay to WATCH?" James cried in outrage "can't son- gotta get back to the shop, you know what it's like at this hour. Debbie will pick you up."

"Not Debbie" James pleaded. Debbie was James' nanny and if James testimony was to believed 'pure evil.'

"Yes Debbie- now go."

James smirked to himself that was so like his dad not to not even wait for him to get on the ice. Now all he had to do was get these stupid skates off and…

"AND LOOK ONE LAST STRAGLER!"

James' head shot up and realised everyone on the ice was staring at him.

Well… that couldn't be good.

The large man who had yelled at him glided over, "get in line son- we're just about to start."

"Oh I'm not really-" James started holding his hands up in defence "nonsense" the man grinned and lifted him up pulling him over the fence and on to the ice.

James stared at the man in horror as he continued to grin like an idiot and nudge him across the ice until he was in front of a large group of boys (maybe there were some girls? James was just growing out of the age where he determined sex solely on the length of a person's hair… turns out mummy IS a girl and James was a horrible little child for ever thinking otherwise.)

"It's tallest to shortest," a small boy told him helpfully; he was practically bouncing in his shoes and pointed his casted arm down to the end on the line.

James wished he were at the other end of the line. James was tall for his age, but the blonde boy standing at the very end of the line was WAY taller than him… James wondered how much older he was. He was also standing with military like precision and was watching the cheerful man (James' guessed he was the coach or something?) with rapt attention.

"I see some new faces" the man said happily, "and of course some old ones" he face faltered a little bit when he spotted the short boy who had helped him before. "Now you may be wondering why I have place you in descending height order please turn to the person next to you."

The man gave a long suffered sigh "turn to the OTHER person next to you Carlos."

"I'd make nice with this person as they will be your training partner." There was an outcry of noise and James gulped as the blonde stared him down, "yes, yes I see what you mean- this IS totally unfair." The man boomed "but THIS is the precaution I have to take so we have less injuries in practice."

It was very unnerving that the coach gave JAMES' partner the stink eye when he said this. It was also unsettling that the boy didn't even flinch, and merely snickered in the face of authority.

"But Mr Camerelli" Several people whined- including James' partner (which was really rude- HE wasn't going to have to be the one to partner up with a broody, physically intimidating tool.) James narrowed his eyes at the blonde, and instant dislike forming (who was HE to not like James? Everyone liked James! Well… everyone that mattered which again was only his mummy and Hortense.)

Mr Camerelli sent a fearsome glare out at them and they all cowered appropriately at the man's glare and imposing stature.

James hated hockey.

Mr Camerelli ended up blowing his whistle (a cruel high pitched sound that James had been in no way ready for) and making them all line up at one end of the rink. He marched in front of them like a drill Sargent, referring to them as men (something James found disconcerting- he was sure that one kid down the other end of the line with hair hitting their collar bone was in fact a girl) and made them all stand with straight backs.

James wondered if co-pidemant meant being slouchy… in that case hockey probably would help.

The blonde shot him a look James couldn't quite understand, "I can't BELIEVE you're my partner" he said despairingly more to himself than anyone else. "Hey!" James said angrily, he really wanted to kick the boy, but restrained himself remembering that Hortense said it was a REALLY bad idea to kick people while wearing skates and he should settle for just knocking people down.

So James did. He felt particularly smirky when Mr Camerelli didn't even tell him off, but snickered and told the taller boy to 'walk it off.' The blonde sent him a vicious glared "What the hell is wrong with you?" he hissed and pinched James hard in the side, "you started it" James spat back angrily.

"I was only saying the truth" the look was back on the boy's face James wanted to call it… superiority but that wasn't quite it (his mummy had told him superiority was when you were better than someone- but the FEELING of superiority just meant you had to BELIEVE you were better than someone else.)

"I saw you come onto the ice, you were stepping. Your skates are brand new and are really expensive- I bet you've never skated before, and what's worse your not going to be good. I don't see why I have to be paired with someone who's so stupid he doesn't know how to skate."

"This is not a test," Mr Camerelli said in a stern voice that clearly told them it was very much a test. "I want to see who can skate and how fast- so when I say go I want you to skate as fast as you can to the end of the rink and back okay one, two, three GO!"

The other boy was right (as much as it pained James to admit it- and it did even to just admit it to himself) James had never set foot on the ice before.

James had however, been given a set a princess barbie rollerblades as a supposed joke birthday present from his mean cousin when he was six. Much to his father's horror and his cousin's delight, James had loved the skates and would skate at every possible opportunity. He'd spent months trying to convince Hortense how awesome skates were- only to have him cut up his leg pretty bad and quit like a big quitter crybaby.

James' mummy had insisted that it was because James' feet were quite a bit bigger than Hortense's that had caused the smaller boy to fall. James still strongly believed it was because Hortense was simply allergic to fun.

James took off and managed to get a fairly solid lead right off the bat, ice-skating was a bit different from regular skating- but James was a quick learner (when he wanted to be.)

That was when he felt someone gaining and passing him. The blonde boy had over taken him easily and gave him a smug look as he touched the wall and sped past him.

Well now. It was clearly on.

James had better form for speed, he cut through ice lightly more like a figure skater than a hockey player. But that did in this case give him the advantage- he made sure to give the boy a victorious smirk as he skated past him and oh so close to the finish line.

Now he just had to break.

This was unfortunately the bit that was clearly the bit where ice hockey WASN'T like rollerblading. James cursed his unfortunately large feet that pushed his just into an adult sized skate-his dad said this would one day be a blessing rather than a curse. But right now it just meant his skate was made for someone older- who didn't need breaks on his skates.

James crashed into the wall and slumped onto the ice, moaning in pain.

Well… at least he'd won.

If James were a gymnastics practice with Hortense now and not at Hockey… okay he's still be falling down a lot but it would be onto a mat and not onto cruel unforgiving ice.

******BTR******

James sat on a bench, ice pack to his face (James didn't understand why Mr Camerelli had given him ice- the ice was the thing that had messed up his face in the first place!)

"You should have worn a helmet" the smaller boy next to him told him, while swinging his legs back and forth dipping his toes so he could scoop and sling snow clear in front of him.

"That didn't help you" James told the boy sourly pointing at the impressive bandage on the boys arm that WASN'T the arm already in a cast. The boy simply patted at the helmet he still hadn't thought to take off and smiled brightly with shrugged "stuff happens."

"Is that what you're going with when your mum gets here?" James snorted; James' dad would probably be impressed by his facial injury- if he wasn't wetting his pants over what his mummy would do when he saw what happened to his face.

"I get hurt a lot," he told him like it was some big secret- James grinned at him. The boy was easily as small as Hortense (previously thought to be the smallest eight year old in the world.)

"So- do you know that blonde kid?" James asked, hoping he and his new quirky bench mate weren't friends or something. "Oh- that's Kendall Knight, I've seen him around the rink before… everyone really likes him."

James couldn't believe that. Who would LIKE what did he say his name was? Kendall.

Kendall was a stupid name. It sounded like a girl's name. He'd check that suspicion with Hortense later.

"ergh he's a jerk!" James said loudly, the boys still on the ice were to far away to hear him, but the blonde boy tensed up as he said it in a way that couldn't be coincidence.

"He seems okay… it wasn't nice of him to try and knock you over while you were skating…" the small boy said with an easy smile "not that you needed much help with that."

"You noticed that too!" James exclaimed, "I KNEW he was out to get me! What a butt face!"

The boy giggled and James was struck by the fact that he didn't know his name.

James hated referring to people by just their gender- even in just his head (since he only seemed to have a success rate of about 85% anyway.) He gave the boy an intense stare as if trying to will him into telling his name.

The Latino boy cocked his head seeming to try and figure out what James was doing. The more James stared the more the boy squirmed until he finally blurted out.

"I'm Carlos" the boy said excitably and stuck out his cast cover hand for James to shake. James shook the boys hand enthusiastically and was impressed when the boy didn't even flinch. "Oh! So YOU'RE the guy the coach was yelling at all the time."

Carlos nodded enthusiastically (which seemed to be the only way the boy did anything) "Coach says I'm a liability!"

"Wow cool!" James said brightly and the scratched his head "but what's a liability?" the boy grinned at him and shrugged "I think it means I'm awesome" he told him and James nodded because Carlos did seem pretty awesome. "But coach gets all red and stuff when he says it... so maybe not."

James pulls out the small sparkly notebook Hortense had given to him (apparently several cousins he'd never met came to visit had been laboring under the assumption he was a girl. So he gave all their pink related gifts to James) He pulled out a pen and wrote 'libabality' in neat cursive.

James cocked his head and then scratched the word out, instead putting 'libybality' but he quickly scratched that out to.

'When you don't know how to spell a word' a voice that sounded like Hortense's rang through James head, 'just sound it out.'

'lie-a-bill-ity'

'Thanks imaginary Hortense' he told the invisible voice and looked up to see Carlos looking at him weird. '…Maybe this is what dad had meant about spending to much time with one person' James thought fearfully 'he was being weird with Hortense… and Hortense wasn't even here!'

"Carlos" James said suddenly looking up from his stooped position at the other boy, "do you want to be my friend?"

"I thought we already were friends" the boy scratched his head and gave James a blinding smile "I'd love to be your friend."

James beamed at Carlos, if he had known it would be so easy to make friends he would have done it alone time ago. When James had wanted to be Hortense's friend he had followed the boy around talking at him until he worn the smaller boy down, and he started talking back.

James was aware he had a large silly grin on his face, and he couldn't bring himself to care. Maybe dad had been right about that thing about friends… not about the hockey thing though. Hockey kind of blew, but the friend thing was working out nicely so maybe he'd give the hockey thing time (people were always telling him things take time but James can never remember past the day before yesterday.)

James watches Carlos blabbering at him out the corner of his eye (maybe he should check back into the conversation before the small boy noticed.) Carlos caught James' eye and beamed at him, James blushed and looked down at his hands.

He talked to kids his age the time; he was quite popular even if he refused to make friends with anyone in his class. His year two teacher; had written that he had 'anti-social tendencies' coupled with 'self-importance' in his school report last year. The man didn't teach at his school anymore and James wondered if that had to do with the face his mummy pulled when she read the report.

What he didn't do was engage in actual conversation, like Carlos was trying to (the boy simply filled every lapsed silence like James had responded and James wondered if Carlos knew he was basically talking to himself.)

"Hey" James interrupted and Carlos fell silent from whatever he had been talking about, and stared up at James expectantly. "Oh- um" James was suddenly at a loss "d-do you like the ninja turtles?"

"YES!" Carlos cheered and then winced as his banged his newly injured hand, but that hardly stopped him jumping up and down like an excitable puppy. "I like Michelangelo- he's like the best and Raphael is cool too!"

"Do you like Donotello?" James asked with a grin and Carlos made a face "I guess… and Leonardo's alright- I guess someone's got to be the leader and the smart guy." James nodded, that made sense, James had always wanted to be Leonardo… but he was always a little more like Raphael.

"The other guys are just as important- or the other two would be off being smart and leadery and they'd never have any fun."

James grinned at Carlos widely, "That's right, they ARE just as important!"

They grinned at each other sillily and chattered happily until the coach blew the whistle signalling the end of practice (the one they had long since had forgotten or wilfully ignored in James' case.)

Kendall stomped up to them, and crossed his arms, "sorry you feel over."

"Why?" James asked, he didn't understand why someone would apologise for something they didn't do- it would make sense if Kendall had said sorry for TRYING to trip him, but it was James' dumb skates and a lump of ice that had been his down fall.

"You've GOT to say sorry when something bad happens to someone" Kendall explained to him like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And you're my team mate now- my partner and I need you not to be hurt so we're the best."

"Why would he want to be the best?" Carlos cocked his head, Kendall responded but his eyes were trained on James. "We HAVE to be the best" he told the brunette as if it were unnegotiable "so you need to learn how to play hockey fast."

"Hockey's lame" James crossed his arms and both of the other boys gaped "n-no it isn't… hockey is the best thing ever!" Kendall cried in outrage and James shrugged, he could see his evil nanny lurking in the background, waiting impatiently and tapping her foot.

"You could be the best at something else" Carlos offered to Kendall diplomatically but Kendall didn't seem satisfied "what else is there to be the best at?"

"Math" James replied half-heartedly, Kendall could never be the best at math (and not just because he went to shades paler at the mention of the word) but because that's what Hortense was the best at…

Hortense! His nanny was supposed to pick him up soon so they could have a sleepover tonight. He'd completely forgotten.

"Maybe you should take up knitting" James told Kendall distractedly and ignored the blonde's impending tantrum in favour of turning to Carlos. "I have to go now" Carlos pouted and then gave him a great big hug, "you'll be here next week right?"

James bit his lip, he wanted friends, he wanted teammates (even if one of them was Kendall) and more importantly he wanted to talk to Carlos about the power rangers.

James had to come back. If only to explain to Carlos in great detail why the red power ranger is vastly superior to the black power ranger.

******BTR******

"And then I stuck the landing perfectly" Hortense told him excitedly, recounting his story of gymnastics. James had kind of hoped that Hortense would hate gymnastics now that James wasn't there to practice with him, but it seemed to just encourage the boy to be better.

So he would have something to brag about.

He guesses Kendall wasn't the only person who liked to be the best…

"Hey" James said suddenly interrupting Hortense's story, "why don't we like hockey?"

James had never really questioned his irrational hate of the sport- he only knew that Hortense hated it with 'the fire of a thousand suns' and he was usually right about things.

"I don't know why YOU hate hockey James" Hortense rolled his eyes "but I hate it because I'm Texan and all real Texan's like football not hockey- at least that's what dad says."

"Yeah but you being Texan is also the reason you talk funny" James pointed out and Hortense blushed, sinking into his seat, "I do NOT talk funny!"

"Yeah not much anymore- but when we first met you said things weird" James snickered, James had laughed incessantly and was constantly asking Hortense to repeat things just so he could hear them again in the accent. Slowly the accent had disappeared (which had NOT been James' fault no matter how much Hortense's dad had been mad at James because it happened.)

"ANYWAY- hockey wasn't so bad" James told him grinning, "I made a friend."

Hortense went pale "a friend?" he squeaked and James nodded excitedly "his name is Carlos, and he like's ninja turtles and pirates just like me- I think he's my soul mate."

"Your what?" Hortense spluttered and James creased his eyebrows "soul mate- that's when you like someone a whole lot right? I like Carlos a whole lot and I'm going to see him next week at hockey, but I've gotta know how to play hockey so that stupid blonde guy Kendall doesn't yell at me."

"Kindle?" Hortense tried to repeat the name and James broke out into a grin, "you're saying things funny again!"

"No I'm not" Hortense covered his mouth as if James not being able to see him say the words meant James couldn't hear him either. "I said his name fine!"

"Kindle! Kindle! Like Kris Krindle? Like Santa, Hortense? Oh my gosh that's hilarious! The next time I see him I wont be able to stop laughing!"

Hortense threw a book at James and hit him square in the face, "HEY!" James rubbed the side of his face and looked down at the book, which read 'how to play hockey for idiots.'

"Where did this come from?"

Hortense opened his bag and revealed several more books about hockey, "I stopped by the library on my way home and picked them up for you" Hortense said brightly.

Hortense was the only eight year old in all of Minnesota who owned a library card and regularly used it to pick out non-fiction books. Once Hortense had checked out so many books he made James help carry them all the way home with him- and they weren't even interesting! There weren't any pictures or anything!

"How about you read them and tell me how it works" James suggested and Hortense glared. James made his eyes go really wide and Hortense's resolve wavered. James went in for the kill.

"!"

"Fine" Hortense snapped and picked the book up "but don't blame me when I become better than you at hockey."

James rolled his eyes "but Hortense you can't even skate."

"Yes- well doesn't that prove what an awful hockey player you're going to be" Hortense shot back but grinned lightly at him, and cracked open the book.

"No Hortense" James told him solemnly "I am going to be the best hockey player there ever was."

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