A/N: Thanks for the reviews, you are all so sweet and awesome.

I DISCLAIM


"I'm too hung over to function," Cole collapsed on one of the couches in the common room Saturday morning, Rick throwing a Gatorade bottle at him.

"Hair of the dog that bit you or some crap," he grumbled, Cole taking a swig of the liquid and realizing it was half mixed with vodka.

"I don't know what that means but, I like it," he replied.

"Scooter," Rick called out, seeing the blonde walk past.

"Don't yell man," Scooter rubbed his temples and took a seat with his friends. "What's going on?"

"Ultimate Frisbee," Rick yawned. "Noon; loser buys for the party tonight."

"I'm in," Scooter held out his hand in a competitive shake.

"Carrie Briggs was all up in your shit last night," Cole commented. "You break up with the Freshman?"

"I don't want what Carrie has to offer," he shot back. "The amount of times she's hooked up with you... there aren't enough antibiotics in the world."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cole sat up and quickly became defensive.

"Scooter," Rick began to mediate, Scooter simply rolling his eyes and laughing. "But really, you get anywhere with the Freshman?"

"Her name's Julie," he reminded them, not particularly offended but becoming increasingly irritated with them referring to her as 'the Freshman.' "It's only been a week," he added with a grumble.

"Ooh, you better hope she didn't take a purity pledge," Cole laughed.

"I managed an ass grab," he added.

"One week and only an ass grab," Cole sat for a second in thought before continuing. "It's not enough time, man."

"Not enough time for what?" Scooter and Rick looked on in amusement.

"Prom tickets go on sale in a month," he began astutely. "It'll take at least another 2 weeks to cop a feel under her shirt, that leaves you with only a week to try and get her shirt off , get a hand job and figure out if you can get in her pants by prom."

"That's only three weeks," Rick interrupted.

"Shut up, let me finish," Cole huffed. "You need that extra week in case you have to dump her and find an easier chick."

"That actually makes sense," Rick looked to Scooter a bit amazed.

"Whatever, I'm going to shower," Scooter huffed, knowing his friend had just made a valid point but, not wanting to accept it.

"He knows I'm right," Cole shrugged, leaning back, his head snapping to the right when he heard a door unlock across the hall.

Emerging from his room, Portman stood in the doorframe looking less than amused after having heard their conversation from across the hall. Standing quickly, both Rick and Cole made their way over to him, getting within inches from his face.

"It ain't none of your business," Cole spoke first.

"I think it is," Portman challenged.

"I think, if you know what's good for you, you'll keep your nose out of things that don't involve you," Rick added. "You're new to this, so I'll let it slide this time, but we run this school and you scholarship assholes are at the bottom of the food chain."

"Stay away from Julie," he warned them, keeping himself in check. He was a big guy but he knew he stood no chance against the both of them.

"We will, can't promise Scooter will though," Rick told him with a smarmy grin before turning to walk away.

"Watch your back," Cole added, following the captain down the hall.


After a late night of wallowing in deep thought and regret, Julie decided to sacrifice breakfast for some extra sleep and lazily rolled out of bed at 11:30. After getting undressed, she wrapped a towel around herself, grabbed her shower caddy and trudged into the bathroom across the hall. She let the water run as hot as she could tolerate and stood under the shower head in an attempt to clear her mind. She had let Fulton get to her and spent most of the night tossing and turning, thinking about whether he was right or not. Was Scooter just using her? Maybe not so much to get back at Fulton but, realistically, he was a gorgeous, wealthy, Senior with only about 3 months before graduation and it wasn't as though they were spending copious amounts of time getting to know each other on much more than a physical level.

She was torn, completely and utterly confused and it wasn't anything that sleep and a hot shower could fix. It wasn't something binge eating and complaining to Connie would clarify either, but it sure didn't stop her from trying. Turning off the shower, she toweled off and made her way back into her dorm room, successfully getting into a bra and panties before the telephone rang.

"Hello," she answered weakly.

"Julia!" the unmistakable, high pitched squeal of her mothers voice rang through the receiver.

"Hi, mom," she replied trying to sound pleasant and generally excited to hear from the woman. "How are you?"

"Concerned," she replied seriously. "I was at mass this morning and I was overcome with worry for you."

"Don't be, everything's fine," Julie tried to reassure her mother, though her stomach started to knot at the prospect that Fulton AND God were now onto something.

"No, no, Julia, I need to you read Luke 7: 36-"

"Mother," Julie interrupted, "just tell me what it's about, I have a lot of stuff to do today."

"You should always have time to read the Bible, my word, this is your soul we're talking about," the woman huffed on the other end.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that, just, can you tell me about it?"

"It's about the woman sinner, Mary Magdalene, Julia," she began to explain as a Frisbee connected with Julie's window.

"Mom can you hold on a second?" she asked, though didn't wait for a reply, setting the phone down on the window sill she opened the window to see who was out there, forgetting her current state of undress. "What are you doing?" she called down, seeing Scooter and half of the Varsity hockey team outside her window.

"Better question, what are you wearing?" Scooter replied with a laugh, cat calls emanating from the group of teenaged boys behind him.

"Oh - Jesus!" she scrambled back into the room, throwing on an oversized tee shirt and grabbing the phone. "Mom, I'll have to talk to you later."

"Julia, who's there? Are those boys? Why are they whistling?" Julie heard the questions start but, hung up without answering any of them.

Taking a deep breath and trying to remove the red flush of embarrassment from her face, she stuck her head back out the window, a cry of disapproval coming from the boys. "What are you doing?" she repeated.

"Ultimate Frisbee," Scooter smiled up at her, Rick Riley sending the Frisbee toward her face. "I need my good luck charm."

"Yeah, she has some good luck charms alright," Cole commented crassly, causing Julie to hurl the Frisbee at his head.

"Come on," Scooter urged. "Get dressed, we'll be on the soccer field."

"Scooter, It's barely above freezing and there's snow on the ground!" she protested.

"Makes it more interesting," he smirked as the group walked away, Julie smiling to herself over the fact that she'd just been invited to hang out with his friends.

"Cat!" Portman called, running out of his building to catch up with her as she rushed off to the soccer field.

"Hey Portman, what's up?" she smiled, momentarily forgetting the night before and his obvious connection to Fulton.

"I need to talk to you about something," he started nervously, inwardly wondering how he had gotten himself into this situation.

"If it's about Fulton, I don't want to hear it," she turned and started walking again, stopping when he reached for her arm.

"No it's about Scooter," he started, Julie rolling her eyes. "I don't think he's as great a guy as-"

"Portman, stop," she interrupted. "I get it, none of you like him and obviously you're going to take Fulton's side but this is my life, please stay out of it."

"I can't stay out of it if I know you're just going to get hurt," he rationalized, trying not to loose his temper.

"I'm not going to get hurt, I know what I'm doing," she reassured him.

"I don't think you do," he grumbled.

"Don't," she held up her hands. "Just…don't."

"Girls," he grumbled, trudging back to his room to debate if he should send out a Duck call and tell the team.