Chapter 5: Meet The Team

Notes: Thanks for the reviews guys, it keeps me writing. This isn't a brilliant chapter, but it'll do for now. I may come back to it and improve it later.

Note from 12 years later: Yeah, I didn't ever come back to it. But I did write a separate fic called Dropping Anvils.

Fulton smiled. "I didn't realize it had gotten so late," he told her. "It's time for the team to practice."

"Oh," she said. "Do you want me to go?"

"No, come and meet my friends." He took her hand and let her across the ice.

She followed him slightly reluctantly, worried the team wouldn't be as friendly to her as Fulton had been.

She noticed Dean smiling at her and felt better, then noticed Julie from her phys ed class and relaxed a little more.

Fulton led her over and introduced her. She forgot almost all of the names instantly. He then left her so he could get suited up for practice.

"Taz, why don't you sit with me through practice?" Julie offered, seeing the girl's nervous face.

"Aren't you playing?" Taz asked, skating off the rink inelegantly but without Fulton's assistance.

Julie smiled ruefully. "No, I fell down the steps this morning and landed on my knee. I'm fine, but coach has benched me until the game to make sure I rest it properly."

Julie led Taz up to the stands and took a seat, explaining it was best to be away from the coach if they wanted to talk through the practice.

"Are you ok?" Julie asked. "You're limping."

Fulton came out of the changing room at that point, and froze on hearing Julie's question. He was pleasantly surprised to hear Taz respond easily, "I'm fine. I always limp. You're probably in worse shape than me."

He smiled and skated on to the rink.

"That's Charlie, he's the captain." Julie said, pointing.

Taz smiled hesitantly. Julie had been explaining the finer points of the game, who played which position. Mostly it was over her head, but she tried to retain the details.

"And that's Portman. He's one of the Bash Brothers."

"Yeah, I met him on Wednesday. He seems nice, looks scary, but seems nice." Taz was beginning to relax around Julie. It had been a long time since she was able to sit down and talk and not wait for the punchline.

"Yeah, he is nice." Julie smiled, her eyes not leaving Portman's hulking form. "And he's a good player. A lot of people think he's just a big goon, but he's a really nice guy, and he's loyal to the team."

Taz grinned, noticing the look on Julie's face. "He could probably win the game single-handedly," she said teasingly.

"Yeah," Julie sighed. "Hold on, what?"

"You've got it bad," Taz told her.

Julie frowned. "For Portman? No way. I wouldn't. I mean, why would I? He's a brainless idiot."

"But you just said—"

"I've dropped every hint on the planet, I've dropped anvils and still nothing. All year, and even more so this past week."

Taz hid a smile.

"We went out—which I thought was a good sign, and when we got talking he started backing off. He's barely spoken to me since Wednesday." She sighed. "You're Fulton's girlfriend, has he said anything?" Julie asked in frustration.

"Fulton's girlfriend?" Taz repeated. Was she? She turned the concept over in her head and decided she liked it.

"Well, of course you are. So, has he?"

"No." On catching Julie's downcast expression, she hastily added. "But we haven't really talked about it. I'll see what I can find out."

"So tell me honestly, were you bored out of your mind?" Fulton asked as he walked Taz home.

"Honestly?" She scrunched up her face, then smiled. "Not at all. Julie was telling me about the team and then we got talking about school too, so it was cool. I can't wait to see you play though."

"Really?"

"Yes. Really," she responded, still partially unable to believe that she was walking down the road holding hands with him. "I wish I'd seen the Junior Goodwill Games in person. I bet it was much more fun than just watching it on TV."

He stopped walking and turned to look at her. "I thought you weren't a hockey fan."

She blushed a little. "I wasn't. I kinda borrowed the tapes from the school library after you told me that you played in them. Is that shallow of me?"

He smiled at her. "Not at all. I think it's nice that you wanted to know more about hockey."

They slowed down as they approached her door. She shrugged awkwardly, not sure what was supposed to happen next.

"Am I your girl now?" she blurted out, then blushed furiously. She opened her mouth to somehow cover for her stupid question, but was stopped by Fulton leaning down to kiss her again.

"Yes," he said when they broke apart.

It was only after he left she realised she'd forgotten to dig around for information on Portman.