Title: Familiar Faces: Merry Christmas

Disclaimer: Just the usual, don't own anything that you recognise.

Feedback: Yes please, anything constructive would be really appreciated.

A/N: This is my first fanfic, so please be gentle and if it is really bad then I am sorry. Sorry it took so long to continue, only excuse is work. Also I wasn't entirely sure of the dates later on, just a rough guess.

Julie POV

            School started and the rest of the Ducks came back. As we had pleased the school with our performance last year, and Coach Bombay's persuasive manner, all the Ducks were put in the dorms this year, and most were sharing, I still don't understand why me and Connie aren't though. Not that I'm complaining, Emma is really great, when we were watching the videos, we got to know each other, and with the exception of anything ice hockey, we can talk about anything. Its good having a break from it every so often, reminds me to have a life outside hockey. I really would love to know what her problem is with it, but every time I try to ask, she freezes me out. I'm in a couple of her classes, and from what she said, I think she is in the same classes as some of the Ducks, but she never talks to anyone, spends a lot of her time tutoring, she says she needs the money, and that it is part of her scholarship. I think that I'm her only friend here, hopefully next term I can get her to talk to others more, if I get to the bottom of this hockey thing, then maybe the team will be a start.

            So, a whole term has gone by and Christmas has come, I am so looking forward to going home, seeing my family and friends, though I will really miss the Ducks and Emma. I'm coming back early to spend some holiday time with the Ducks, apparently there is a party at the Banks', everyone teases him about his money, but no-one minds when the parties are always held there. We are also doing a secret santa, I got Connie, she shouldn't be to hard to find something for, maybe something hockey, though I reckon everyone is gonna go for something like that. Anyway, time to leave this room for 3 weeks.

            "Hey, Em, I'm going now, are you sure you don't want to come with me to the station?" I get the feeling that she doesn't want to go home, the lack of packed bag gives it away.

            "Er, no, its ok really. I don't have to leave for a little while, I'll see you when you get back."

            "Am I missing something here? Are you actually planning on going home for Christmas? Cos you haven't even packed you bags yet." Oops, think I have hit the nail on the head. "You're not are you? Don't you want to see your family?"

            "What family? My mum disowned me when I told her I was going to this school, haven't spoken to her since September."

            "Why did you never tell me this?"

            "Cos its depressing and just another person to add to the list of people who don't want me."

            "By the sounds of it, this really hurts you, why don't you go back and try and patch it up. You could try asking why she didn't want you to come here."

            "Wouldn't it be to late to get back now? I mean I'm sure all the tickets are sold out. Or just to expensive."

            "Never know till you try, and what is the worst that could happen? Them say they have no tickets. Chuck us the phone and I'll ring for you." As the phone came flying towards me there was a knock at the door. Catching the phone, I turned around and opened the door, getting greeted by a big hug from Charlie. "What you doing here, I said I'd be down shortly, hang on for a little longer please." Having known each other for 3 years, he knew the look and so turned and left. The team has been quite tolerant to my situation with Emma, not pushing it at all and hardly ever coming to my dorm.

            I rang the airline and managed to get Emma a ticket at a very cheap rate for a couple of days time, thought I best give her some time to pack and get the courage up. Looking back at my watch, I realised that I would be skinned alive if I didn't get down to the team now, so I gave Emma my phone number and told her to ring me whenever she needed to and to have a lovely holiday. I could tell she wasn't completely happy about going home but she had come to the realisation that she needed to sort it out.

            So that was the end of that term, time for the holidays and they were so needed. Goodbye Eden Hall.

Emma POV

            Hello Eden Hall. I must be the saddest person in the world. I am so happy to be back at school, just don't go telling everyone I said that. Julie was wrong, there was no chance of sorting out the relationship between my mother and I. Her words were something along the lines of: get out of my house, I never want to see you again. You are not my daughter, I don't have one.

            As you can guess, Christmas did not turn out to be a happy family occasion. It was all going great for the week before Christmas, we avoided to much conversation cos she was working a lot. I know we need the money but I think she was doing extra to get away from me. School was not even touched upon, but that wasn't anymore than I expected. Anyway, as I said, it was great before Christmas, then over lunch, I thought that I would try asking her what she had against Eden Hall. Lets just say that soon after she started shouting at me, I left the house, went to the local park and sat on a kids swing. I was there for a while, I don't know how long but when I got up to go home, I was ever so slightly cold, and it was getting dark. But I knew that it would be safe to go home, cos Mum was working this evening, apparently the restaurant needed waitresses for the evening, for the families who didn't feel like cooking after Christmas dinner was over.

            When I got home, I started packing all my bits up, just the small bag that I brought back with me. But, if she never wants to see me again, then I'm gonna need some vital things, birth certificate being one of them, not that I have any idea of where it is. That is why I spent the rest of the evening searching the house. I looked in the filing cabinet with all the important documents in, but no joy. Kitchen drawers, no. Back of the Hall cupboard, no. Only one place left that she puts things that she never wants anyone to see, me being me has been respectful of her wishes and never snooped, but if she is disowning me, then I was gonna look. I had a right, the certificate was mine.

            Unfortunately, or maybe not, I found something as well as my birth certificate. It was in a small box with a few other bits, a few photos and some letters. I sat there looking at them. The first photo was of two babies in an incubator, squinting I could just make out the faded date on the edge of the photo, 11-27-1982. Hang on a minute, that was my birthday. Was that me in the photo? Who was the other baby? Logic would say that one of the babies had to be me, who else would mum have a photo of? Glancing through the other photos, most of them were of two kids, as they were getting older, one of them definitely looked like me, and the other was a boy. I was shocked at one of the photos, cos it was at an ice rink. Me and this other boy were on the ice with a tall bloke between us, I could only guess that the bloke was our Dad. I continued to go through the photos, but they were all when we were small, in the oldest one, I think that we must have been 3 yrs, seeing as we were blowing out the candles on a birthday cake, and there were three of them. But did this mean that Mum had lied to me, she said that dad was dead, but she never mentioned a twin. Was she trying to spare my feelings? I never got a chance to get an answer, cos at that point I heard the front door open, hurriedly I pocketed the photo that was in my hand and stuffed the rest in the box, back into the drawer. Luckily, I was out of the room before she got onto the landing, she gave me a frosty look and then went into her room. I had such a lucky escape, after lunch today, I really didn't want another confrontation, its definitely to cold outside now.

            That night I went straight to bed, a lot had happened and it had definitely taken its toll on me. I slept till long into the morning on Boxing Day, and that meant that I missed Mum, that gave me the rest of the day to pack my bits, seeing as yesterday I had got distracted and had only put a couple of clothes in the bag. I stuck my dirty clothes into the washing machine and wandered round the house to find anything of mine that I really didn't want to leave behind forever. That really didn't amount to much, so much for 15 years of life, 2 small bags. As everything but my clothes in the washing machine were packed, I sat watching TV for a little while, occasionally looking round the room at what I was leaving behind, my life, but after my revelation yesterday, I didn't know how much of my life was real or a lie anymore. When my mother came home that evening she looked at me with contempt.

            "What do you think you are still doing here?" What a lovely greeting!

            "Seeing as it is Boxing Day, there isn't anyway that I could get back to school, and I refuse to sleep on the streets."

            "Fine, but I want you out of the house before I wake up in the morning, I don't care if you have to stay in the train station all day, I don't want to see you."

            "Fine, on one condition, you give me my birth certificate." I was pushing it still standing there, but if I had of asked about the boy, then I would have definitely been on the streets tonight.

            "Well, I think I know where it is, stay here and I will get it for you." With that she left for her room, coming back a minute later, thrusting it in my hand, then turned round and walking to her room. "You best be gone in the morning and I never want to see you again, I don't have a daughter."

            Normally I would have been crying by now, but I was to angry to cry, when I got away from here and had calmed down, then I might cry, When everything had sunk in. When life catches up with me. I grabbed the clothes that I had washed, and put them in my bag, everything was ready for me to go tomorrow, just had to be gone before she woke up, I wouldn't be able to cope with another argument, they are really tiring. If I set my alarm for 8am, then I will be able to leave the house by 9am, she definitely won't be awake by then.

Julie POV

            The 3 weeks zoomed by, the party at Banksie's house was excellent, we stayed up way into the night and presents were swapped, everyone got something connected to hockey, but if you think about it, that is what our life is about. Then everyone showed of by saying what new equipment they got for Christmas, how it was all top of the range. Although the school supplied uniform and hockey equipment, everyone felt more comfortable playing in their own pads and skates, it also meant that we could have muck abouts, without having to be at school. Anyway, as I have been saying, everyone enjoyed themselves that night, catching up on the gossip with Connie was good, I found out that she and Guy were back together again, and Averman had got into so much trouble at his job in the cinema, something about the Ducks misbehaving in the screen, and Averman joining in, rather than stopping them. Looks like he will have to find a new job next holidays.

            The party was on the Friday night and so I had got back Friday afternoon, along with all the other out-of-state Ducks, we got picked up by Mrs Conway and taken straight to the Banks' house, seeing as everyone was sleeping over and then we would go over to school together when everyone had woken up Saturday. As you can possibly guess, we didn't get to sleep till 5am Saturday morning, and being the typical teenagers that we are, we didn't wake up till gone 12pm, looking all bleary eyed. When everyone had woken up, we had breakfast/lunch in our pjs and laughed at everyone's bed hair, it is amusing seeing Banks when his hair hasn't been straightened out, sticking up every which way, the only other time that you see it in a mess is after a game, when it is drenched with sweat. Averman's hair didn't look any different, cos it is always in a mess, but he gets away with it, cos it looks like it is a style.

            Once we had all taken turns to shower and get dresses, not that there were many turns to take, for a house with only 2 people in it, there were three showers. One in Banks' on-suite bathroom, one in his Dad's on-suite, and one next to the gym in downstairs. Times like this that we are grateful that Banks lives in a house like this, it didn't take as long for all of us to get ready. We all piled into the many cars that had arrived, Mrs Conway, Coach Bombay and Mr Banks had agreed to ferry us to school. With Mr Banks having borrowed the minibus from work, all our luggage got put in there, seeing as it was 13 teenagers, hockey gear and clothes and stuff for a term. Then the team was split between the cars and remaining seats in the minibus, 4 in each car and 5 in the minibus.

We pulled up in front of our Dorm building, luggage got piled up on the ground and we all said goodbye to Mr Banks, Coach Bombay, and Mrs Conway. Now for us to get to our dorms and unpack. We all grabbed our own stuff and headed off, most of the team racing each other, but some of us just taking a leisurely stroll, loaded down with our hockey equipment and everything else. When we got to the corridor that Connie and I lived on, we branched off from the group calling our 'cya latter's. Continuing to gossip, we reached my door first.

            "This is my stop, what time was it that we were all going down to dinner?"

            "Six, gives us time to unpack."

            "Like most of them are even going to start to unpack, probably go to sleep!"

            "Cool, I'll meet you at the top of the stairs at six, if there are any missing by 6:15, we go wake them, deal."

            "Can't wait, have fun unpacking!!"

            "Will do, bye." Ending there, I opened my door and stepped in.

Emma POV

            "Like most of them are even going to start to unpack, probably go to sleep!"

            Oh no, that sounded distinctly like Julie's voice, she can't be back already. Ok, she could, as she obviously was, now to hide this, go for the classic teenage thing, under the pillow. Just in time as it turns out, the door opened and Julie stepped in, obviously she wasn't expecting to see me.

            "So how was your Christmas?"

            "Er, not brilliant, should have just stayed here." Not really wanting to discuss this, not right now, I walked out of the dorm, chucking a lame excuse over my shoulder, and walked round campus for a little while. Campus looks really nice in the winter, some of the trees bare and the air feeling frosty, bit like my life. I wandered off campus and around for a while, when I came upon a park, I sat down on the swing. Strange how every time I have thinking to do, I got to the park, everything seems to make sense then, or at least, while I'm swaying back and forth on the swing I think so much better, I feel like a child again and can think things through with that innocents.

            The one thing that kept on coming to mind was the photo that had ended up in my pocket, it was the one of us on the ice, but mum hated anything to do with ice skating with a vengeance, though she never explained why, just said that it took my Dad away. She always looked sad and gave me a look that said not to push it, so I never did, just assumed that it had something to do with why he died.

            Do you ever get those memories, that you can't decide whether you dreamed them or it actually happened. Whilst sat on that swing, I remembered one that I had always assumed was dreamed, cos I was on the ice, with a voice telling me how to skate. I didn't think about it often, because I linked ice skating with my Dad dieing, I may never have known or remember him, but it still affected me. I had sneaked out of the house a couple of times and headed down to the local rink, but I could never go in the door, it was to hard. That was years ago, maybe now I could go try again, it was the only link that I had with him and this mystery boy, my twin.

            I headed back to the dorms, but when I got there, Julie wasn't there, I was gonna ask if she would come with me to the rink, and maybe I could borrow her skates, seeing as I didn't have any of my own. Glancing at the clock, it was just after 7, I remembered that she had said to someone in the hall that they were going to dinner at 6, so that was probably where she was. Probably a good thing to, I was a bit rash, thinking of going on the ice, I mean, I haven't been on it for many years, probably not since that photo, or around then. I couldn't eat though, so I just sat on my bed, taking the photo out from under my pillow, I sat there staring at it, a part of my life that I never knew about, I wondered what my brother would have been like now, what life would have been like if they hadn't died, would we have got into skating? Hockey even? My mind went back to that memory in my head, with the instructions that I could here, I'm sure I could learn again, I should at least try, and I'm sure that Julie wouldn't mind if I borrowed here skates, I could explain why, she said that she would help if I ever wanted anything. I had never asked, but now I really needed it. I knew where she kept here hockey bag, so I borrowed the skates, wrapped up warm and walked over to the ice rink. Hang on, what if it wasn't open, I never thought of that, but seeing as I had started over there, I might as well try. Luckily it was, so I walked over to a bench right by one of the doors onto the ice, Now to put the skates on. I can't believe I had got this far, I was shaking so much and am surprised that I managed to tie the skates up, I had a voice in my head, the one that was becoming more and more familiar now, "got to be tied tight, don't want to break your ankles now". So I followed as instructed, nearly cutting off the circulation.

            I stood then and walked to the door, it was weird walking in the skated, have to walk differently than normal, anyway, I was shaking more and more now, but I had got this far and was not gonna back down now. This was for my missing family that I never got to know.

            Looking up into the rafters I called "this is for both of you, please help me." Stepping onto the ice, I felt unsteady, but inside it felt right somehow. Then the instructions ran through my head, keep you balance central, glide, bend your knees, lean forwards. I kept on thinking this and pushed forwards, running through these instructions and concentrating, thinking about the photos and everything that had happened this holiday, was that the last of my family gone, was I completely on my own now, 15 with no one to call family.

            "Hey, what you think your doing on our ice?" Splat.