Disclaimer: I do not own The Mighty Ducks.

The next few days were very quiet for the Ducks. It was as if they were sleep walking through the days. Unusually complacent and quiet during class even teachers were actually starting to get concerned. And Scooter was getting sick of babysitting his depressed kitty.

It seemed like all he was doing in his spare time was comforting Julie. Yeah, he understood that she was upset about her friend being in a coma, but that could lead to some great feel better sex. But, no, she wouldn't even really stop whining and sniffling. He was getting ready to throw Rick's plan out the window.

"Julie…"

"I still don't get wh-why he wou-would go out wi-witho-without a ja-jac-jacket." She blew her nose. "Its been nearly a we-week, and the doctor's say there is no change, whi-which could either be p-p-pos-positive or neg-neg…at…ive…."

The vein in Scooter's head was readily throbbing, as he raised a hand to rub his temple. "Julie…"

"I don't know what we'll do without him…" she said as she dove into his chest tears freely flowing down her reddened cheeks.

Scooter's arms remained at his side, "He's not dead."

"But it feels like he is!" Julie said exasperatedly, finally looking up at her boyfriend's stony façade.

"Scooter…?"

Julie was confused; she had never seen this look on his face. Normally he was smiling or concerned or even when he used to look down on them with Reilly and Cole he would wear a condescending smirk. Never once had this much agitation be written all over his face. And it was very obvious that he was annoyed with her.

"Get out, Gaffney."

Julie's heart dropped to her stomach. She could swear she felt the waves of nausea coming on. Never once, had he ever called her Gaffney in such a negative tone. In fact the only other time he'd called her that was after the show down when he was happily congratulating her. He's eyes had been sparkling with amusement and pride, while now he was glaring at her in anger and sheer annoyance. "W-what?"

"Get out of my room, get out of my life."

He watched her eyes widen as she caught her breath and he smirked. " When I tagged you, I didn't plan on having to deal with the waterworks every second of every day. Taking your virginity was fun; even I'll admit that. It'd been a while since I'd done that, so it was a nice change of pace. But now, hun, you're just a tired old slut. The sex is boring, and the tears are annoying. So get out. The game is over, you lost."

With that Scooter Vanderbuilt walked over to his door and opened it, with an arm gesture to usher the sobbing freshman out. He chuckled as she ran down the hallway, her grief and humiliation only being heightened as the upper classmen snickered as she ran by.

Rick Reilly walked up to Scooter as he leaned against his doorframe admiring his handy work. He patted him on the shoulder and smirked. "Kicking her when she is down? I'm proud Vanderbuilt. "

Scooter just shrugged. " Got f-cking tired of the tears. It's why I don't do long term relationships. That and sex with only one person gets really commonplace."

Rick laughed as Scooter retreated to his room. In his mind, there was no way the Ducks could mend themselves from this. They were broken and his school was safe.

Julie rushed through the hallways ever so aware of everyone seeing her in her misery. In her mind, even the concerned faces turned into horrible masks of mockery and laughter. How had she let herself be so played? All she was to Scooter was a toy that he could play with and then discard when he was bored. Couldn't she have listened to her friends; the people who she knew for a fact actually cared for her. But no, she was blinded by Scooter's deception and even turned away from her friends. She had defended his honor against the Ducks when he really had no honor. She'd given up time with her teammates to be used by him. She'd given him her heart, her innocence, and he had taken both and ripped them to shreds. Scooter Vanderbuilt had been her very first boyfriend, and he was in no way a good basis of comparison. Julie wondered if she could ever trust a boy's intentions again. She wasn't sure she could ever trust anyone again.

12 pairs of very concerned eyes followed Julie as she dashed past in tears, and all twelve dropped what they were doing and followed her up to her dorm.

Hearing sobbing from outside the door, Connie quietly let herself in, the male Ducks in tow. She sat herself down next to Julie, who was bawling into the pillow and rubbed her back. "Julie… honey; what happened?"

Julie ignored the question, to ashamed to reveal that they had been right about Scooter the entire time. Ashamed that she had believed him over them, when they would only ever have her best intentions at heart.

Julie wanted to stop crying, she did. She wanted to be over Scooter, wanted him to not affect her, but he had, and she couldn't stop. Julie wanted to be stronger, but she couldn't find the might to not let him affect her. So as Julie fought her tears and her emotions, she didn't realize the state of unconsciousness that was slowly consuming her until her sobs became hiccups before she dropped into slumber, mid-whimper.

Connie watched her best friend cry helplessly. She didn't know exactly what happened, although she had her hunches. She was going to make sure that her friend had support when she woke up, so when the guys left to find out what had upset their friend so, Connie stayed put next to Julie. She would help her friend get over whatever had occurred, even if she had no idea what to say.

People were whispering in the hallways as the Ducks went on their information mission, which only pissed off Dean Portman even more. Even worse was that few actually knew what had happened other than it had sent Julie Gaffney blubbering down the hallways, running at top speed. As the Ducks followed the trail of whispering voices they found themselves outside of the senior dorm.

Portman's blood was boiling as he clenched his fists tightly beside his body. "I'll kill him."

"Portman, don't jump to conclusions."

"Shut up, Wu. Just because I'll say what no one else will. We all know she'd been spending a lot of time with him because she thought for some reason that she could get comfort from him about Russ. Who else lives here that would make her cry like that?! Julie's not normally that emotional, you all know that if any random person made a joke about her, she would either turn the other way or shove it back in their face. She would be in no way offended. Which means that someone that she really cared for hurt her, and badly. And how many people who live in the dorm does Jules care about?"

The Ducks were silent; they all knew the answer to that question. And it made sense. But they had all hoped that they'd been wrong about Scooter Vanderbuilt so that Julie wouldn't be hurt. But all signs pointed to the correctness of their thoughts.

And although the situation allowed it, no one would be saying, "I told you so."

When no one answered his question vocally, Portman knew by their expressions what their responses were. So with their silence he turned on his heel and marched into the senior dorm, ready to make his opinion very well known.

Julie's slumber was quick as she tossed and turned. Opening her eyes very slowly she'd hoped that the breakup had only been a dream. Yet when she saw Connie's concerned face across the room, she immediately knew it had been real.

"Wanna tell me what happened?"

Julie looked down at the ground, "No not really."

"Scooter?"

Julie just nodded.

"Jules, I'm sorry he's…"

"He's an ass. He and Reilly had been planning this shit. And although I don't know what happened exactly, I sure as hell know it wasn't pleasant for you."

Both girls were immobilized at the sound of the voice. It took a few minutes before they could even look in the direction of it. Seeing the speaker, both were completely flabbergasted and their mouths hung agape. But then somehow, both reacted simultaneously as they lunged at him in happiness.

"RUSS!!"

Russ chuckled as he was tackled to the ground by his two female teammates. Even Julie was smiling.

"When did you get here? "

"When did you…?"

"Are you okay?!"

"I'm so glad you're here!!"

Russ chuckled. It was good to have really good friends who truly cared about his well being, especially when he was so far away from his home and his family.

"Girls, girls. Come on now, I do need air."

As the girls removed themselves from his being and sat down on their respective beds, sit beaming, Russ Tyler picked himself off of the floor and brushed himself off.

"Well, to answer your questions: I got here a few minutes ago, Devin came and picked me up. I woke up early this afternoon. Yes, I am okay, I just need to stay warm when it's cold out. And its good to hear that you guys are happy to see me. I'm happy to see you. And Julie, I'm sorry."

Julie's face again turned to a grimance, but Connie's façade stood in confusion. "Russ, what do you know?"

This time Russ was confused. "Of what happened right now, not really anything. I just got back remember? But before my… accident… I overheard Reilly convince Scooter to break up with Julie publicly directly following having sex with her. And based on what I saw here, I figured that he did that. Julie, I'm really sorry, I was trying to tell you. Had it not been for the stupid Minnesota cold."

Julie was stunned. Sure it wasn't exactly what happened, but it was a planned break up? Done in order to simply crush her? That thought made her think of Scooter in a whole new light. It wasn't until right then that she realized that Scooter had been planning the course of the relationship the entire time, manipulating her to get what he wanted. Scooter knew that the relationship would end this way when he kissed her on the cheek in congratulations after the JV/Varsity showdown. Maybe since he asked for a treaty during their first interface. He had just wanted a challenge, something that was out there. And in his mind what was better than a newbie transfer freshman who knew absolutely nothing about him and who didn't really interface with anyone who did. Her sorrow was quickly fading away and being replaced by anger. Sure she was angry with herself, but she was livid at Scooter. What gives him the right to treat people like puppets just for his own pleasure? Just as Julie's mind began to race with ideas on how to seek vengeance on Scooter, she came upon another realization.

Who had been the hardest on her about dating Scooter initially?

Who had threatened Scooter if he'd ever hurt her?

Who was probably about to get expelled for beating the living shit out of Scooter Vanderbuilt, or at least trying?

"Crap…. Dean…"

And with that Julie took off at full speed back towards the senior dorm, trying to prevent her enforcer from falling into the trap that the seniors had inevitably set.

Connie and Russ watched her go, before fallowing momentarily after, Russ grabbing a jacket as he ran out the door.

So, I got bored in class and was multitasking thus bringing you another chapter before my Chem exam, which I must go now and cram for. Anyway, I hope you liked installment 10.

Is that the sun stretching just over the horizon, or simply a hallucation of hope? You'll have to wait for the next chapter to see if Dean Portman goes through with his plans and gets expelled.

Anyway please REVIEW! They make me happy!

Ciliegina