A/N: Before you start asking, yes, I gave a couple of the Ducks a middle name if they didn't already have one...and a lot of them are weird. This chapter has switching perspectives. Oh, lord, does it!
Just pushing the 'Guy and Connie break-up' storyline a little further, as well as tweaking with the 'Julie is the villain' theme. No Bash Brothers this time...no Bashie-love, Bashie-sadness, or Bashie-torment--or any other kind of Bashie-ness. However, the Big Whammy (tm) is coming in Chapter Six. ::cue the forboding music::
****
"Combat Boots and Clover, Chapter Five" AKA The EVIL Chapter--Redux
[GUY WITOLD GERMAINE]
"You're going on a date?" Greg asked me.
I emerged from my half of the closet with about five shirts hanging all over me, but not actually wearing one. I glared at my roommate and snapped, "Don't sound so surprised."
"But...but...you /just/ broke up with Connie!"
"Almost two months ago, Goldberg." I corrected him. "Live in the now!" I let him sputter incoherently behind me for a few minutes as I held up each shirt for inspection. 'The orange one makes me look pasty, the Hard Rock Cafe tee has a hole in it...hey, is that mustard on my World Wildlife Foundation T-shirt?' I tossed the rejected shirts onto my bed.
'It's between the black tee with the witty saying, or the dark green button-up plaid over my white tank.' As I continued to stare critically at my shirts, Greg found his voice again.
"Why?"
"So that I can put in my journal: 'Friday, April 19th. Dear Diary: Today, I finally got a life.' I've always wanted to do that..." I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Greg was unamused. I sighed and explained, "Marcus is a friend of mine from Earth Club. He got a date with this girl Anita Benedict, for the local bands concert tonight, downtown. And Anita's roommate doesn't have a date, so Marcus suggested that he and Anita double-date with me and the roommate. It's just one date, and I'm only going 'cause I feel sorry for the girl."
Definitely the black tee.
****
I met Marcus in the lobby of the dorm. He smiled at me and gave me a thumbs up. "Good luck, man."
"Thanks. So, where are we gonna meet the girls?"
"Out in the quad. We're taking my car," Marcus explained. We walked to the door and he commented, "By the way, nice shirt."
I glanced down at my shirt again. It read in, in medium-sized white capital letters, 'I'm just one big *#@*!ing ray of sunshine, aren't I?!' I grinned at Marcus and shrugged. "I'm feeling a bit dark today."
"Obviously," he laughed. As we entered the quad, he said, "Look, there she is! The redhead wearing the green top, that's Anita." I looked around for a redheaded girl wearing a green top. When I located her, my heart stopped. Marcus continued, "And that girl next to her is your date."
The girl next to Anita Benedict was Julie Gaffney. In fact, the only girl within reasonable proximity of her was Julie Gaffney. My stomach promptly tied itself into a complicated knot, and my heart decided to go visit my toes. "Dammit," I hissed.
This date was going to suck like a Hoover.
****
[JULIE KATHERINE GAFFNEY]
My first thought upon seeing Guy heading over to us was, 'Oh, shit. This is uncomfortable.'
Anita was clueless. "Um, Julie, this is Marcus. And this is Marcus's friend, Guy."
"We already know each other," Guy said sullenly.
"From the JV team." I explained to her. She gave me a look.
"I don't watch hockey," she reminded me. I sighed. Just my luck to get the one girl who despises hockey as a roommate. And just my luck again to have to go on a date with Guy Germaine.
I didn't seriously mean those things I'd said to Connie after I heard that she and Guy had broken up. I was hurt that she hadn't taken my side when Fulton and Portman came out...I decided that if she'd rather be friends with a pair of fairies, that we would have to be enemies. I thought that she was a good friend, really I did, but honestly? I find her support of those abnormal people just disgusting.
Neither Guy nor I said a word as we followed Marcus and Anita to the car.
****
[GUY WITOLD GERMAINE]
'I am going to be a perfect gentlemen. I am not going to slam the door in her face, or step on her feet when the dancing starts, or anything like that.' This was my mantra. I had to keep repeating it, or I would probably have shoved Julie out of the moving Volvo. Preferrably over the side of an overpass, too.
Connie and I might not have been going out, but we still talked. And she told me about the things that Julie said. Part of me knows that she was just trying to get to Connie--and believe me, she did--but another part of me is furious. How dare she say those things? Not just about me, but about Fulton, and about Dean? She doesn't have any right to judge them for the way that they are.
We made it to the waterfront before I could be tempted to strangle her.
****
Anita and Marcus went right up to the stage as one of the local bands started to play. Julie and I hung back, eventually retreating to a relatively people-free area of the grass, just to sit in an uncomfortable silence. Julie began pulling up stems of clover and weaving them like a daisy chain. I lay on my back and looked up at the cloudy night sky.
I don't know how long this went on. But Julie eventually spoke first. "I know this isn't your idea of a good date, Guy."
"Really? What clued you in?" I shot back sarcastically.
"Oh, jeez, I dunno...the murderous way you look at me?" She replied just as caustically.
"Fuck off and die, Catwoman."
Julie sneered, "Ooh, the boy's gotta mouth on him."
I sat up. "Ooh, the bitch has a mouth on her," I mocked.
"You think that cussing me out makes you sound all macho, don't you?"
"No," I said truthfully, "You /are/ a bitch. And I wish you /would/ fuck off and die. You're malicious and spiteful and you treat people like dirt if they disagree with your illusion of the world."
She looked stunned. "Does the rest of the team think like that?"
"I don't know. We avoid talking about you. But I know that Kenny and Adam and Connie feel that way." I told her. I took a breath to steady myself and said, "That was some really fucked-up shit you said to Connie after me and her broke up."
"I'm sorry."
It was my turn to look surprised. "What?"
Julie, who had been staring into her lap ever since I called her malicious and spiteful, met my eyes again. Her expression was one of hurt and guilt. "I'm sorry for saying all those things about you. It was stupid."
"What about--" Before I could finish, she cut me off.
"No. Just don't even talk about them. I'm not sorry and I never will be. I believe what I believe, and nothing's going to change that."
"I'm sorry you feel that way." I stood up and brushed loose bits of grass from my jeans. "I'm gonna get a soda, you want something?"
****
[JULIE KATHERINE GAFFNEY]
I had been talking to my parents about moving back to Bangor and finishing high school there. They were supporting my decision, but part of me had held out for the chance that maybe, just maybe, some of the Ducks would see things my way or at least understand where I was coming from. And when Guy told me point-blank that he basically hated me, I knew that I would never be welcome among them again.
I was glad. Maybe this would give me a chance to repair the firendships that I had left behind in Maine. I seemed to have this uncanny talent of screwing up people's lives.
****
[GUY WITOLD GERMAINE]
Marcus pulled into the student parking lot of Eden Hall, and Julie and I bolted from opposite sides of the car. I hit the drivers' side window and yelled, "Never do that to me again!" before I stormed away. Julie shot me this wounded look and ran to her dorm.
I ignored her.
****
[JULIE KATHERINE GAFFNEY]
"Why do they hate me so much?" I whispered to my reflection as I rubbed a makeup-remover cloth over my face. "Am I so awful...?"
The rest of the team had always said 'Ducks fly together,' and I had really wanted to believe that. But maybe...maybe this thing about Fulton and Portman was a test, you know, like a test of faith. Or friendship. Not that they would lie about something like that to trick us...maybe it was something from God, something I was supposed to learn from. Or proof, maybe, that I wasn't really a Duck and that I should fly away before I wasted time and effort trying to get back friends who didn't trust me anymore.
When I came back to Bangor from the Goodwill Games, none of my friends there treated me any different. Paul, the team captain, congratulated me on The Save (saying it in a way that I /heard/ the capital letters), but he was disappointed that I hadn't got more play than in the final shootout. And Toph was still pissed--never mind the fact that I'd gotten an angry phone call /and/ an angry letter from him while in L.A.--that I'd managed to get kicked out of the first game against Iceland. I wasn't some 'great and powerful Oz' type for them to be in awe of. I was just Julie, the goalie.
And I miss that. Being just Julie. Because here, in Minnesota, at Eden Hall, I'm 'Julie the Cat.' As if I was someone really special and important. Better than the others.
So maybe that went to my head. Maybe I started thinking that I /was/ better than the rest of the Ducks. And I don't like that thought.
It's time to go back to being me.
~~End Part Five~~
A/N: Something Star said in the group really got to me. She talked about how she hated Adam, but she never presented him as being a horrible, hateable person in her fanfics. I think that I have done this to Julie (whom, it is no secret, I harbor my own seething hatreds against) in "Might as Well" and "Combat Boots and Clover."
And so, because Julie has fulfilled her role as the villain of the piece of the story--to be replaced by, to name a few, Cade Hampton and (surprise!) Patty Reed--I gave her about half a chapter. This was my chance to reason out why she acted the way she had. Plus, I want to get rid of her. I still hate Julie, and now I don't have to deal with her. Yay!
Just pushing the 'Guy and Connie break-up' storyline a little further, as well as tweaking with the 'Julie is the villain' theme. No Bash Brothers this time...no Bashie-love, Bashie-sadness, or Bashie-torment--or any other kind of Bashie-ness. However, the Big Whammy (tm) is coming in Chapter Six. ::cue the forboding music::
****
"Combat Boots and Clover, Chapter Five" AKA The EVIL Chapter--Redux
[GUY WITOLD GERMAINE]
"You're going on a date?" Greg asked me.
I emerged from my half of the closet with about five shirts hanging all over me, but not actually wearing one. I glared at my roommate and snapped, "Don't sound so surprised."
"But...but...you /just/ broke up with Connie!"
"Almost two months ago, Goldberg." I corrected him. "Live in the now!" I let him sputter incoherently behind me for a few minutes as I held up each shirt for inspection. 'The orange one makes me look pasty, the Hard Rock Cafe tee has a hole in it...hey, is that mustard on my World Wildlife Foundation T-shirt?' I tossed the rejected shirts onto my bed.
'It's between the black tee with the witty saying, or the dark green button-up plaid over my white tank.' As I continued to stare critically at my shirts, Greg found his voice again.
"Why?"
"So that I can put in my journal: 'Friday, April 19th. Dear Diary: Today, I finally got a life.' I've always wanted to do that..." I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Greg was unamused. I sighed and explained, "Marcus is a friend of mine from Earth Club. He got a date with this girl Anita Benedict, for the local bands concert tonight, downtown. And Anita's roommate doesn't have a date, so Marcus suggested that he and Anita double-date with me and the roommate. It's just one date, and I'm only going 'cause I feel sorry for the girl."
Definitely the black tee.
****
I met Marcus in the lobby of the dorm. He smiled at me and gave me a thumbs up. "Good luck, man."
"Thanks. So, where are we gonna meet the girls?"
"Out in the quad. We're taking my car," Marcus explained. We walked to the door and he commented, "By the way, nice shirt."
I glanced down at my shirt again. It read in, in medium-sized white capital letters, 'I'm just one big *#@*!ing ray of sunshine, aren't I?!' I grinned at Marcus and shrugged. "I'm feeling a bit dark today."
"Obviously," he laughed. As we entered the quad, he said, "Look, there she is! The redhead wearing the green top, that's Anita." I looked around for a redheaded girl wearing a green top. When I located her, my heart stopped. Marcus continued, "And that girl next to her is your date."
The girl next to Anita Benedict was Julie Gaffney. In fact, the only girl within reasonable proximity of her was Julie Gaffney. My stomach promptly tied itself into a complicated knot, and my heart decided to go visit my toes. "Dammit," I hissed.
This date was going to suck like a Hoover.
****
[JULIE KATHERINE GAFFNEY]
My first thought upon seeing Guy heading over to us was, 'Oh, shit. This is uncomfortable.'
Anita was clueless. "Um, Julie, this is Marcus. And this is Marcus's friend, Guy."
"We already know each other," Guy said sullenly.
"From the JV team." I explained to her. She gave me a look.
"I don't watch hockey," she reminded me. I sighed. Just my luck to get the one girl who despises hockey as a roommate. And just my luck again to have to go on a date with Guy Germaine.
I didn't seriously mean those things I'd said to Connie after I heard that she and Guy had broken up. I was hurt that she hadn't taken my side when Fulton and Portman came out...I decided that if she'd rather be friends with a pair of fairies, that we would have to be enemies. I thought that she was a good friend, really I did, but honestly? I find her support of those abnormal people just disgusting.
Neither Guy nor I said a word as we followed Marcus and Anita to the car.
****
[GUY WITOLD GERMAINE]
'I am going to be a perfect gentlemen. I am not going to slam the door in her face, or step on her feet when the dancing starts, or anything like that.' This was my mantra. I had to keep repeating it, or I would probably have shoved Julie out of the moving Volvo. Preferrably over the side of an overpass, too.
Connie and I might not have been going out, but we still talked. And she told me about the things that Julie said. Part of me knows that she was just trying to get to Connie--and believe me, she did--but another part of me is furious. How dare she say those things? Not just about me, but about Fulton, and about Dean? She doesn't have any right to judge them for the way that they are.
We made it to the waterfront before I could be tempted to strangle her.
****
Anita and Marcus went right up to the stage as one of the local bands started to play. Julie and I hung back, eventually retreating to a relatively people-free area of the grass, just to sit in an uncomfortable silence. Julie began pulling up stems of clover and weaving them like a daisy chain. I lay on my back and looked up at the cloudy night sky.
I don't know how long this went on. But Julie eventually spoke first. "I know this isn't your idea of a good date, Guy."
"Really? What clued you in?" I shot back sarcastically.
"Oh, jeez, I dunno...the murderous way you look at me?" She replied just as caustically.
"Fuck off and die, Catwoman."
Julie sneered, "Ooh, the boy's gotta mouth on him."
I sat up. "Ooh, the bitch has a mouth on her," I mocked.
"You think that cussing me out makes you sound all macho, don't you?"
"No," I said truthfully, "You /are/ a bitch. And I wish you /would/ fuck off and die. You're malicious and spiteful and you treat people like dirt if they disagree with your illusion of the world."
She looked stunned. "Does the rest of the team think like that?"
"I don't know. We avoid talking about you. But I know that Kenny and Adam and Connie feel that way." I told her. I took a breath to steady myself and said, "That was some really fucked-up shit you said to Connie after me and her broke up."
"I'm sorry."
It was my turn to look surprised. "What?"
Julie, who had been staring into her lap ever since I called her malicious and spiteful, met my eyes again. Her expression was one of hurt and guilt. "I'm sorry for saying all those things about you. It was stupid."
"What about--" Before I could finish, she cut me off.
"No. Just don't even talk about them. I'm not sorry and I never will be. I believe what I believe, and nothing's going to change that."
"I'm sorry you feel that way." I stood up and brushed loose bits of grass from my jeans. "I'm gonna get a soda, you want something?"
****
[JULIE KATHERINE GAFFNEY]
I had been talking to my parents about moving back to Bangor and finishing high school there. They were supporting my decision, but part of me had held out for the chance that maybe, just maybe, some of the Ducks would see things my way or at least understand where I was coming from. And when Guy told me point-blank that he basically hated me, I knew that I would never be welcome among them again.
I was glad. Maybe this would give me a chance to repair the firendships that I had left behind in Maine. I seemed to have this uncanny talent of screwing up people's lives.
****
[GUY WITOLD GERMAINE]
Marcus pulled into the student parking lot of Eden Hall, and Julie and I bolted from opposite sides of the car. I hit the drivers' side window and yelled, "Never do that to me again!" before I stormed away. Julie shot me this wounded look and ran to her dorm.
I ignored her.
****
[JULIE KATHERINE GAFFNEY]
"Why do they hate me so much?" I whispered to my reflection as I rubbed a makeup-remover cloth over my face. "Am I so awful...?"
The rest of the team had always said 'Ducks fly together,' and I had really wanted to believe that. But maybe...maybe this thing about Fulton and Portman was a test, you know, like a test of faith. Or friendship. Not that they would lie about something like that to trick us...maybe it was something from God, something I was supposed to learn from. Or proof, maybe, that I wasn't really a Duck and that I should fly away before I wasted time and effort trying to get back friends who didn't trust me anymore.
When I came back to Bangor from the Goodwill Games, none of my friends there treated me any different. Paul, the team captain, congratulated me on The Save (saying it in a way that I /heard/ the capital letters), but he was disappointed that I hadn't got more play than in the final shootout. And Toph was still pissed--never mind the fact that I'd gotten an angry phone call /and/ an angry letter from him while in L.A.--that I'd managed to get kicked out of the first game against Iceland. I wasn't some 'great and powerful Oz' type for them to be in awe of. I was just Julie, the goalie.
And I miss that. Being just Julie. Because here, in Minnesota, at Eden Hall, I'm 'Julie the Cat.' As if I was someone really special and important. Better than the others.
So maybe that went to my head. Maybe I started thinking that I /was/ better than the rest of the Ducks. And I don't like that thought.
It's time to go back to being me.
~~End Part Five~~
A/N: Something Star said in the group really got to me. She talked about how she hated Adam, but she never presented him as being a horrible, hateable person in her fanfics. I think that I have done this to Julie (whom, it is no secret, I harbor my own seething hatreds against) in "Might as Well" and "Combat Boots and Clover."
And so, because Julie has fulfilled her role as the villain of the piece of the story--to be replaced by, to name a few, Cade Hampton and (surprise!) Patty Reed--I gave her about half a chapter. This was my chance to reason out why she acted the way she had. Plus, I want to get rid of her. I still hate Julie, and now I don't have to deal with her. Yay!