Julie had been in Chicago for a week and still had another one left. She and Portman had been to the Art Institute, the Field Museum, The Shed Aquarium, and the Museum on Science and Industry among other places. Today they were going to take it easy. A picnic lunch at a park, a stroll along the Lake Michigan shoreline, followed by a night on Navy Pier. The two are sitting in Portman's Camero waiting for the light to change to green. "If you want, you can put in a CD, although I don't know if there's anything that you'll like."

"We'll see," she said, flipping through his CD binder. "Aha," she said, pulling out a CD.

"Whatchya find?" he asked, then slipped the car into gear as the light changed colors.

"Metallica's black album," she answered, slipping the disk into the stereo.

"You like Metallica?" he asked, completely amazed.

"Yeah!"

"Really?" he asked, still shocked.

"Yes really! Is there something wrong with me liking Metallica?"

"No, not at all. I just never took you for a Metallica fan," he answered as he pulled into a parking space.

"Well I am, so get over it," Julie said, jokingly.

"Whatever you say," Portman replied while grabbing a picnic basket and blanket from the trunk.

The two found a spot under a tree and Portman lay out the blanket. They sat down and enjoyed the picnic. Afterwards the put everything back into the trunk and walked towards Lake Michigan. "So, are you enjoying Chicago?"

"I am, very much so."

"I was thinking..."

"Uh-oh, now we're in trouble," Julie interrupted.

"Yeah, very funny! Anyways, I was thinking that we should go to Six Flags tomorrow."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Julie replied as they continued their walk along the lake shore.

Navy Pier was a ways down, but they were too busy enjoying each other's company to notice that they made it there. While Julie looked around the little mall, Portman took a cab to go get the car. As soon as Portman parked, he headed right to the shopping center where, he knew, Julie would be. He spotted Julie, surrounded by six guys, all trying to get her to go out with them tonight, and walked up. "So, did you find something you wanted?" Portman asked as he approached the group.

"Nothing here," Julie replied as she walked away from the group and over to Portman. "Although"

"Although, that sounds bad for me."

"Yeah, you're real funny!"

"So," one of the guys from the group said, coming up to Julie and Portman, "come on, how about it, you and I, tonight?"

"Sorry," Dean replied, taking Julie's hand, "you're not my type."

The two walked off, leaving the guy standing there with his mouth hanging open. Even after they were away from the group, neither made a mover to drop hands. They walked down the pier talking about Six Flags and hockey. Standing there, hand in hand, looking out over the water, they were suddenly interrupted by a group of giggling Freshmen girls. "So Dean, who's the girl?" one of them, who looked a little like Portman asked.

"Julie, this is my annoying sister Kate and her friends. Kate, this is Julie Gaffney."

"From the Ducks?" Kate asked.

"Yeah," Julie replied.

"The Ducks, like as in hockey? You play hockey? But you're a girl!" one of the girls said.

"Many fights have started that way," Dean said before Julie could say anything. "One thing I learned very quickly after joining the Ducks was never underestimate Julie or Connie."

"There's two girls on your hockey team? Wow!" anther girl from the group said.

"So are you a lesbian or something?" the first of Kate's friends said.

"Puh-lease!" Kate said. "Can't you see that they were about to kiss and that we completely ruined the moment."

"But she's on a guys hockey team!"

"No," Kate corrected, "she's on THE hockey team. Sorry about the interruption, we'll leave you alone now."

"Yeah, okay, bye," Julie stammered out.

The group of girls walked away, leaving Julie and Dean alone. "Well, that was interesting."

"Were Connie and I anything like that when we were Freshman?"

"I've never know you, or Connie, to be like that."

"Good answer. So, what do you want to do?"

"Actually, I think that Kate, for once, had a good idea."

"What's that?" Julie asked.

"This," he answered, then pulled her in for a kiss. "I'm sorry," he said after they pulled away, "I shouldn't have done that."

"You're wrong," Julie replied, pulling him in for another kiss. After they pulled apart for need of air, she continued, "Although you could have done it a lot sooner."

"Maybe I should have. Screw that, I definitely should have done that a lot sooner."

"Yes, you should have," she got out before being pulled in for another kiss.