Romeo and Julie - Chapter 5
Disclaimer - I do not own the Ducks. I only own Rebecca and Meredith, and now Old Man Walsh. (who is based off of one of my old teachers.)
Feedback - Go for it, I love feedback, and I love all the nice things that you all have to say about this story. I am really enjoying writing this.
Notes - It is funny how things happen really. When I wrote the first draft of this chapter, I was really disappointed with it, and then, I came back to it, and I think that it is majorly improved.
Thank you all for your kind words. To every one who mentioned it, I am glad that they finally kissed each other to. Just so you know, I still have lots of great ideas for this fic, so it is all good.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The door opened, slammed shut, breaking the silence of the dark room. Portman collapsed back onto it, breathing heavily. His hand moved over his heart, and he smiled as he felt his heartbeat against it. That, had been fun.
By the time he had left Julie's room, he had had to run back to the boys dorm to get in before curfew. Even then, he had gotten back late, and had had to dodge teachers all the way to his room. He didn't mind, since leaving her room, he had been running on pure adrenalin.
"Where were you?"
Portman held his finger to his lips to get Fulton to quiet down. He had had to run fastest from the end of the hall to their room, because Old Man Walsh (the one teacher in the whole school who seemed to have it in for him.) had almost caught him on the stairs. Dean looked around the dark of the room, and then launched himself at his bed, getting under the covers quickly before he began to kick his shoes and other pieces of clothing off.
Knowing his luck, Old Man Walsh would be right behind him, and would open the door as he was getting changed, and then, he would be on another crappy detention with him. Walsh was the one who had stopped him from getting to play practice earlier that afternoon. Every one hated detentions with Walsh, but it seemed that the old man had a grudge against Dean, because everything always seemed to be his fault.
"Close one?" Fulton asked.
"Close one" he agreed, collapsing into his bed and manoeuvring himself under the blankets. A minute later, he had managed to get out of his pants and shirt, leaving himself in his boxers to sleep He shrugged and threw the clothes towards the corner of the room, he would deal with them later.
"So, where were you? You didn't come to practice, or dinner, and I haven't seen you since" Fulton asked him, and then he smiled to himself in the darkness. "You were with some girl, right?"
"Not for the whole time. Some of it Old Man Walsh had me on detention, but yeah, the rest of the night I was with a girl…" Dean sighed, suddenly caught up in the memory of it all. "And what a girl…"
"Cheerleader?" Fulton asked, Dean shook his head. "Science Nerd?" once again, he shock his head. "Chess Club? Musician?" there was no reply. "Portman, I am running out of groups here…"
"It is not important who she was" Dean replied. "Only that it was…amazing." Dean stopped himself from saying anything else. He wanted to keep it a secret for as long as possible that he had just had one of the best kisses of his life with Julie. The best three kisses of his life really. He had only intended on kissing her once, a quick kiss on the lips, just as a warm up to what ever Meredith wanted them to do in the play.
But as he held her against him, he realised that he would not be able to just kiss her once. Before he knew it, they were a tangle of arms and lips, and honestly, there was no where else that he wanted to be. He didn't know what it was, but he had not wanted to let Julie go.
If Rebecca had not have come in, then who knows what he would be doing now.
"So, are you going to just leave me wondering, or do I get to find out what happened?"
"Sorry man, I am not sharing this story." Dean rolled on his side so that he could look at his roommate and best friend through the darkness. "This one I take to the grave…"
Fulton laughed to himself. "Shit, I did not think it would ever be possible…"
"What?" Dean asked. Fulton just smiled at him.
"What, you mean you don't see it?" He chuckled. "Dean Portman, you are in love…"
"Love? Are you crazy? I am not in love!" He replied forcefully. "I cant be in love."
"Then why are you keeping this a secret?"
"Because…because this girl made me feel something. More then any other girl has, this was not just any kiss, it was…"
"Love?"
"Yes…No. No, it was not love." he paused, and searched for the words to explain himself "It was respect, and understanding, comfort maybe. But it was not love. Maybe it was that really cool friendly love, you know. But we are just friends, have been for years, there is no romantic love there…"
"Julie!" Fulton smiled, sitting up and pointing at him. "You made out with Julie!"
Dean cursed silently. Anyone who said that his bash brother was not smart had obviously never been talked into a corner by him. Fulton had always had a unique talent of getting people to admit things. He was a bit like Connie with her interrogation skills. Dean hoped that he was not the victim on the day the two of them decided to gang up on someone. It could get messy.
"Yes, ok, I kissed Julie." Dean admitted. "But Fulton, as my best friend and bash brother, you have to promise me that you will not tell anyone. No one…Promise me Fulton. Promise me!"
"I promise I will tell no one…" Fulton sighed, and then grinned to himself. "other then Charlie and Adam"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dean woke and stretched his hands above his hand, working the kinks out of his back. His mind was foggy still, and he decided that maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was still so early in the morning that it was still dark outside.
Usually, when he woke this early with out a specific purpose, it put him in a crabby mood for the rest of the day, he was thankful this time, however, that he had gotten any sleep at all. It usually took him no time at all to fall asleep, but the night before, after he had had the conversation with Fulton about Julie, he had found himself unable to go to sleep. He had counted sheep and recited hockey statistics, but nothing seemed to lull him into sleep.
His thoughts, it seemed, had been dwelling on two things, the kiss with Julie, and his own argument against his friends allegations that he was in love with Julie. He had said that he was not I love with her, if anything, he was comfortable with her. And in some ways what he had said was the truth, but his traitor of a brain had kept bugging him. Suggesting that maybe, just maybe, Fulton was right to.
Julie had been a big part of his life for a while now, but he had only ever considered her a friend. A hockey friend who just happened to be a girl. It was like he had built a wall to split up the categories. There were girls on one side of the wall, and then there were the Ducks on the other. It was like he had never officially realised that Julie was both.
Obviously he knew that she was a girl. She lived in different dorms, she changed in a different section of the change rooms, she had long hair and a girls body, hell, he had even admitted once that if he had had to pick who was better looking out of Julie or Connie, he would pick Julie (not that he thought that there was anything wrong with Connie, of course. He thought that she was a nice looking girl, but there had always been something about Julie) He knew that she was a girl, but in his mind, he had always just linked the name Julie to the fact that she was a goalie.
But as soon as he realised he would have to kiss her for this play, everything changed for him. He no longer looked at Julie as 'Julie the goalie' she was now 'Julie the girl' it was like she had jumped the wall and joined the girls side.
And then he had kissed her. The anticipation had gotten to much for him, and when he had seen his opportunity, he had pulled her into his arms and just went for it. He had kissed her, and his heart had leapt when he realised that she was kissing him back intensely. She had held him tighter then any other girl he had ever kissed, and he had found himself holding her tightly to him. Anything to keep them close together for as long as possible.
He had been in heaven, but like all good things, it had been ended. Rebecca had come in, and he although he didn't really want to, he had left. He knew that he had to get out of there, because if he didn't take that opportunity to leave, then he never would have.
And then he had returned to his room, and Fulton had used the 'L' word. It had scared him to think that maybe his friend had been right, so he had denied it. It seemed so much easier to tell him that he flat out not in love with Julie then to find a way to explain to him that maybe there was something inside him that may have in some way been in love with Julie. A part of him that never realised had existed.
He had never been in love before, and he was Dean Portman, who didn't want to be in love for quite some time. Love meant being with one girl, and making plans for the future. Love meant settling down, thinking ahead to how your actions effected other people. Love meant being two people instead of one. And he knew he was not ready for that yet. Nothing would make him ready for that, not for a few years yet anyway. So what he was feeling for Julie couldn't be love.
…It couldn't be…
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"You are kidding me!"
"Cake eater, you know me, would I joke about something like this?"
"He really said that?" Charlie asked. "He used the words 'I kissed Julie'? Those exact words?"
"Those exact words!" Fulton told them "Charlie, he even used the words 'That was not just any kiss'" He held out his hand to the captain. "Pay up"
"Wait, wait, wait, all bets are not off" Adam said, stopping Charlie (who was muttering curses under his breath) from digging in his pocket for money. Charlie looked up at his friend for further explanation. "We don't know he loves her, and we sure as hell don't know that she loves him back…this money could still be mine…"
"Like you don't have enough already" Fulton sighed, retracting his hand. He looked up to the door, and then quickly back at his team mates. "Remember, not a word, you know nothing…"
"Morning Portman" Adam nodded at him. Portman, who realised that Adam never said good morning to him, looked at him suspiciously before he sat beside Fulton. "Heard Walsh was on your back again…"
Fulton smiled. All three boys knew that that was a good distraction, Portman could rant and rave for hours about how much Walsh hated him, and how the feeling was mutual. Portman began his usual rant, and was in the process of explaining which detours Old Man Walsh could take on the way to hell, when something at the door caught the attention of all four of them. They all stopped, what they were doing, Dean stopping mid sentence, and watched as Julie said goodbye to Rebecca, and then made her way to the ducks table.
"Morning boys" she smiled, and then realised that they had stopped talking as soon as she had made an approach to the table. She looked at each boy suspiciously, pausing a little longer to look at Dean.. Had they been talking about her? Had he told the others about the kiss? "What were you talking about?"
"Walsh!" Dean spat, and suddenly, he was back into his rant. Julie, who had heard it all before, excused herself to go and get something to eat.
Charlie breathed a quick sigh of relief, and then went back to the friendly "Yeah, that's right" in the pauses in Dean's speech.
By the time Julie had gotten back to the table, a few other Ducks, had joined into the discussion, and were sharing their multiple stories about their run ins with Walsh. Then, the idea of revenge was presented, and ideas for pranks on Old Man Walsh were being thrown around the table. Julie sighed and turned to her breakfast. Some times boys never grew up.
Julie could not help but watch Portman, who seemed to be the leader of this prank. He waved his hands around as he ordered the other boys to do things. He had Ken writing down the details of Russ's plan to put liquid laxative in Old Man Walsh's personal coffee supply. He had Charlie and Adam thinking of ways to get to the supply in the first place. Luis and Goldberg were deciding the best way to get off campus to a drug store to buy the laxative in the first place, and Guy and Averman were thinking up ways to distract the teacher so that he would not be in the staff room when all this happened.
And then, as the team spoke loudly around him, Dean looked up, his gaze locked with Julie's, and they both smiled. A sneaky little smile, they shared a secret (of course, neither knew that Fulton had already told the team gossips about the kiss.) Dean smiled at her again, and then turned back to the other Ducks, who were asking questions about refining the plan.
Not long after, Meredith made her way over to the table, making the pranksters disperse as she informed them that she had pulled a few strings, and from now on, practices would be in the school auditorium, where they could work with a real stage.
When the bell rang, and the group split up to head to their lessons. They whispered in their little groups as they left the dining hall, and Julie could not help but wonder how many of them would be benched for this weekend's game as a result of this little adventure in revenge.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Just heard an interesting rumour"
Julie turned to see that Connie was sitting beside her. They were sitting in geography, their first lesson after their morning break. Julie looked at her friend and smiled a little.
"Really, what is that?" She asked, expecting to hear some interesting piece of juicy gossip that had been passed to her through the Eden Hall grapevine. Connie leant over the to her table a little so that she would be able to whisper to her.
"The number one goalie and one of the defensive enforcers of the ducks spent the night together!" Connie told her. "Julie, why didn't you tell me! You spent the night with Dean? You were planning on keeping this from me?"
"Connie" she hissed. "Calm down, I was not planning on keeping this from you, but it was not exactly something that I could just announce over breakfast. And I did not 'spend the night' with him, he just came by before curfew and we kissed like we had planned to do earlier that day." Julie informed her. She looked quickly at the front of the room where their teacher (incidentally, it was Old Man Walsh) had just entered, and was writing the class notes on the board. "Who told you anyway?"
"Adam!" Connie exclaimed quietly. "Adam. Julie, I am your best friend, and some how, Adam Banks knows things about you before I do. Did I wake up in the twilight zone?"
"No" Julie sighed. "I am sure that Dean told Fulton, who told Adam. You know how the Ducks grapevine works. You should be lucky that the whole team didn't know before you"
"Doesn't mean that I am happy with you." Connie mumbled sadly. "You said you would tell me when something happened between the two of you"
"And I was going to tell you" Julie replied "I was going to tell you today at some time. I promise"
Connie sighed "You promise to tell me if it happens again?"
"You will probably be present next time I have to kiss him. We had practice at some point today. Meredith will probably want us to kiss then" Julie told her. At the front of the room, Old Man Walsh was still writing up notes. Every one else in the room were copying them down, except for the girls.
"So…was it good?"
Julie smiled, and found herself softly telling Connie everything that had happened the night before.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Good, you all made it" Meredith smiled as she walked into the auditorium and saw the class already gathered. All of the male ducks were to one side, conversing quietly about something, and Meredith had to admit that she was a little suspicious of them. But then again, Ducks in big groups usually made her suspicious. There was something about them, something that no one could really put a finger on, but something that made them a little less than trustworthy. On the other side of the room was Julie and Connie, and a few of the other girls in the class, who looked to be discussing the play.
"Boys, sorry to split this up, but you are officially on my time now" Meredith told them. Soon the group wrapped up their conversations and sat, ready to start class.
"This is a stage" Meredith smiled, climbing up onto it. There were a few sarcastic replies, but Meredith just grinned. "And this stage is where you will all make your dramatic debuts. So every one come up here…come on"
The class stood and made their way to the stage. "Looks bigger then up here, doesn't it?" Meredith asked. A few people nodded. "I want you to practice in here to get used to it. There is an extreme difference between standing in the middle of a circle of chairs, and being here, in this room, with the stage and the atmosphere…It feels different, right?"
"Very" some one said. Meredith turned and realised that a few of her students looked a little green.
"You will get used to it. It may seem daunting at the moment, but believe me, you will come off of this stage on the night and the first thing that you will say is 'lets do it again!'"
"Doubt it" Guy began, and a few laughed. Meredith shrugged.
"Damn hockey players, you make it seem like acting on a stage in front of people is so much different from skating on ice in front of people." She sighed, jumping down off of the stage and sitting in the front row. "It is not really…"
"It is" Adam replied. "Hockey has guidelines and rules…"
"So does acting. Rule number one, when you are on that stage, your back must never face the audience. Rule number two, don't block your fellow actor. Unless the scene calls for it, you do not stand in front of anyone else. Rule Number three, know your lines and your cues." She began. "Those are just stage basics. There are a lot of things you have to remember, but don't worry, you will learn them as we go along. Some of them are just common sense." Meredith replied "But right now, lets move on!"
Meredith called every body down off of the stage except for Julie and Dean. After quickly questioning Dean as to where he had been the afternoon before ("Damn detention with Damn Walsh" had been Dean's reply), Meredith announced that they were going to move onto the kiss, just as they had intended for the last practice.
Julie blushed a little, remembering what it had felt like to have Dean kiss her the night before. Half of her could not wait for the opportunity to feel his skilled lips on hers again, but also, Julie could not help but wonder if it would all be different this time. The night before had been a spur of the moment thing, and the fact that they had been alone for it had played a huge part in the passion they shared. She looked at Dean, and the look in his eyes made her stop thinking completely.
"When you guys are ready, why don't you just go for it" Meredith said from her seat in the audience, where all the other ducks were watching. Julie looked at Dean nervously, but when he reached out and wrapped an arm comfortably around her waist, she felt herself relax, even though her heart beat increased.
"Hi" he smiled a little. Julie laughed.
"Hi" she replied. Dean could tell that Julie was nervous, and he wanted to do anything he could to relax her. He had to admit, it was a nerve wracking situation. All those people who would be giving them crap by the end of the lesson.
"Ready to do this?" he asked her. Julie sighed, nodded, and relaxed again when she felt him stroke her cheek.
They fell into the kiss quite easily, starting slowly as they had the night before. Soon, Julie forgot that she was standing on a stage in front of all the ducks, and just let herself be kissed by Dean. He seemed comfortable with taking control of the situation, and Julie was extremely comfortable with letting him do so.
Dean forgot where he was for a minute as they continued to kiss. Like the night before, he realised, he didn't really want to let her go. But he also knew that standing in the middle of an English class was not the best place to do this.
The kiss wound down, and Dean pulled away a little. Julie smiled a softly as she opened her eyes and looked deeply into eyes. They were so caught up in themselves, that they didn't even realise that the class was cheering.
Dean looked at Fulton, Adam and Charlie, and smirked, daring them to say something, anything. But all three of them looked so shocked that he knew that they would have nothing to say about it for a very long time.
The cheering died down, and both of them made their way back to their seats. Dean sat between Fulton and Charlie, smiling. None of them knew what to say to him.
But on the other side of the room, Connie grabbed Julie's arm and pulled her into the seat beside her.
"We need to talk" she hissed. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you what?" Julie asked. She looked across the room at Dean, who caught her eye and smiled at her.
"Why didn't you tell me you have feelings for him!"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
What? What is she talking about? Well, you will find out next chapter. Review.
Disclaimer - I do not own the Ducks. I only own Rebecca and Meredith, and now Old Man Walsh. (who is based off of one of my old teachers.)
Feedback - Go for it, I love feedback, and I love all the nice things that you all have to say about this story. I am really enjoying writing this.
Notes - It is funny how things happen really. When I wrote the first draft of this chapter, I was really disappointed with it, and then, I came back to it, and I think that it is majorly improved.
Thank you all for your kind words. To every one who mentioned it, I am glad that they finally kissed each other to. Just so you know, I still have lots of great ideas for this fic, so it is all good.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The door opened, slammed shut, breaking the silence of the dark room. Portman collapsed back onto it, breathing heavily. His hand moved over his heart, and he smiled as he felt his heartbeat against it. That, had been fun.
By the time he had left Julie's room, he had had to run back to the boys dorm to get in before curfew. Even then, he had gotten back late, and had had to dodge teachers all the way to his room. He didn't mind, since leaving her room, he had been running on pure adrenalin.
"Where were you?"
Portman held his finger to his lips to get Fulton to quiet down. He had had to run fastest from the end of the hall to their room, because Old Man Walsh (the one teacher in the whole school who seemed to have it in for him.) had almost caught him on the stairs. Dean looked around the dark of the room, and then launched himself at his bed, getting under the covers quickly before he began to kick his shoes and other pieces of clothing off.
Knowing his luck, Old Man Walsh would be right behind him, and would open the door as he was getting changed, and then, he would be on another crappy detention with him. Walsh was the one who had stopped him from getting to play practice earlier that afternoon. Every one hated detentions with Walsh, but it seemed that the old man had a grudge against Dean, because everything always seemed to be his fault.
"Close one?" Fulton asked.
"Close one" he agreed, collapsing into his bed and manoeuvring himself under the blankets. A minute later, he had managed to get out of his pants and shirt, leaving himself in his boxers to sleep He shrugged and threw the clothes towards the corner of the room, he would deal with them later.
"So, where were you? You didn't come to practice, or dinner, and I haven't seen you since" Fulton asked him, and then he smiled to himself in the darkness. "You were with some girl, right?"
"Not for the whole time. Some of it Old Man Walsh had me on detention, but yeah, the rest of the night I was with a girl…" Dean sighed, suddenly caught up in the memory of it all. "And what a girl…"
"Cheerleader?" Fulton asked, Dean shook his head. "Science Nerd?" once again, he shock his head. "Chess Club? Musician?" there was no reply. "Portman, I am running out of groups here…"
"It is not important who she was" Dean replied. "Only that it was…amazing." Dean stopped himself from saying anything else. He wanted to keep it a secret for as long as possible that he had just had one of the best kisses of his life with Julie. The best three kisses of his life really. He had only intended on kissing her once, a quick kiss on the lips, just as a warm up to what ever Meredith wanted them to do in the play.
But as he held her against him, he realised that he would not be able to just kiss her once. Before he knew it, they were a tangle of arms and lips, and honestly, there was no where else that he wanted to be. He didn't know what it was, but he had not wanted to let Julie go.
If Rebecca had not have come in, then who knows what he would be doing now.
"So, are you going to just leave me wondering, or do I get to find out what happened?"
"Sorry man, I am not sharing this story." Dean rolled on his side so that he could look at his roommate and best friend through the darkness. "This one I take to the grave…"
Fulton laughed to himself. "Shit, I did not think it would ever be possible…"
"What?" Dean asked. Fulton just smiled at him.
"What, you mean you don't see it?" He chuckled. "Dean Portman, you are in love…"
"Love? Are you crazy? I am not in love!" He replied forcefully. "I cant be in love."
"Then why are you keeping this a secret?"
"Because…because this girl made me feel something. More then any other girl has, this was not just any kiss, it was…"
"Love?"
"Yes…No. No, it was not love." he paused, and searched for the words to explain himself "It was respect, and understanding, comfort maybe. But it was not love. Maybe it was that really cool friendly love, you know. But we are just friends, have been for years, there is no romantic love there…"
"Julie!" Fulton smiled, sitting up and pointing at him. "You made out with Julie!"
Dean cursed silently. Anyone who said that his bash brother was not smart had obviously never been talked into a corner by him. Fulton had always had a unique talent of getting people to admit things. He was a bit like Connie with her interrogation skills. Dean hoped that he was not the victim on the day the two of them decided to gang up on someone. It could get messy.
"Yes, ok, I kissed Julie." Dean admitted. "But Fulton, as my best friend and bash brother, you have to promise me that you will not tell anyone. No one…Promise me Fulton. Promise me!"
"I promise I will tell no one…" Fulton sighed, and then grinned to himself. "other then Charlie and Adam"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dean woke and stretched his hands above his hand, working the kinks out of his back. His mind was foggy still, and he decided that maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was still so early in the morning that it was still dark outside.
Usually, when he woke this early with out a specific purpose, it put him in a crabby mood for the rest of the day, he was thankful this time, however, that he had gotten any sleep at all. It usually took him no time at all to fall asleep, but the night before, after he had had the conversation with Fulton about Julie, he had found himself unable to go to sleep. He had counted sheep and recited hockey statistics, but nothing seemed to lull him into sleep.
His thoughts, it seemed, had been dwelling on two things, the kiss with Julie, and his own argument against his friends allegations that he was in love with Julie. He had said that he was not I love with her, if anything, he was comfortable with her. And in some ways what he had said was the truth, but his traitor of a brain had kept bugging him. Suggesting that maybe, just maybe, Fulton was right to.
Julie had been a big part of his life for a while now, but he had only ever considered her a friend. A hockey friend who just happened to be a girl. It was like he had built a wall to split up the categories. There were girls on one side of the wall, and then there were the Ducks on the other. It was like he had never officially realised that Julie was both.
Obviously he knew that she was a girl. She lived in different dorms, she changed in a different section of the change rooms, she had long hair and a girls body, hell, he had even admitted once that if he had had to pick who was better looking out of Julie or Connie, he would pick Julie (not that he thought that there was anything wrong with Connie, of course. He thought that she was a nice looking girl, but there had always been something about Julie) He knew that she was a girl, but in his mind, he had always just linked the name Julie to the fact that she was a goalie.
But as soon as he realised he would have to kiss her for this play, everything changed for him. He no longer looked at Julie as 'Julie the goalie' she was now 'Julie the girl' it was like she had jumped the wall and joined the girls side.
And then he had kissed her. The anticipation had gotten to much for him, and when he had seen his opportunity, he had pulled her into his arms and just went for it. He had kissed her, and his heart had leapt when he realised that she was kissing him back intensely. She had held him tighter then any other girl he had ever kissed, and he had found himself holding her tightly to him. Anything to keep them close together for as long as possible.
He had been in heaven, but like all good things, it had been ended. Rebecca had come in, and he although he didn't really want to, he had left. He knew that he had to get out of there, because if he didn't take that opportunity to leave, then he never would have.
And then he had returned to his room, and Fulton had used the 'L' word. It had scared him to think that maybe his friend had been right, so he had denied it. It seemed so much easier to tell him that he flat out not in love with Julie then to find a way to explain to him that maybe there was something inside him that may have in some way been in love with Julie. A part of him that never realised had existed.
He had never been in love before, and he was Dean Portman, who didn't want to be in love for quite some time. Love meant being with one girl, and making plans for the future. Love meant settling down, thinking ahead to how your actions effected other people. Love meant being two people instead of one. And he knew he was not ready for that yet. Nothing would make him ready for that, not for a few years yet anyway. So what he was feeling for Julie couldn't be love.
…It couldn't be…
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"You are kidding me!"
"Cake eater, you know me, would I joke about something like this?"
"He really said that?" Charlie asked. "He used the words 'I kissed Julie'? Those exact words?"
"Those exact words!" Fulton told them "Charlie, he even used the words 'That was not just any kiss'" He held out his hand to the captain. "Pay up"
"Wait, wait, wait, all bets are not off" Adam said, stopping Charlie (who was muttering curses under his breath) from digging in his pocket for money. Charlie looked up at his friend for further explanation. "We don't know he loves her, and we sure as hell don't know that she loves him back…this money could still be mine…"
"Like you don't have enough already" Fulton sighed, retracting his hand. He looked up to the door, and then quickly back at his team mates. "Remember, not a word, you know nothing…"
"Morning Portman" Adam nodded at him. Portman, who realised that Adam never said good morning to him, looked at him suspiciously before he sat beside Fulton. "Heard Walsh was on your back again…"
Fulton smiled. All three boys knew that that was a good distraction, Portman could rant and rave for hours about how much Walsh hated him, and how the feeling was mutual. Portman began his usual rant, and was in the process of explaining which detours Old Man Walsh could take on the way to hell, when something at the door caught the attention of all four of them. They all stopped, what they were doing, Dean stopping mid sentence, and watched as Julie said goodbye to Rebecca, and then made her way to the ducks table.
"Morning boys" she smiled, and then realised that they had stopped talking as soon as she had made an approach to the table. She looked at each boy suspiciously, pausing a little longer to look at Dean.. Had they been talking about her? Had he told the others about the kiss? "What were you talking about?"
"Walsh!" Dean spat, and suddenly, he was back into his rant. Julie, who had heard it all before, excused herself to go and get something to eat.
Charlie breathed a quick sigh of relief, and then went back to the friendly "Yeah, that's right" in the pauses in Dean's speech.
By the time Julie had gotten back to the table, a few other Ducks, had joined into the discussion, and were sharing their multiple stories about their run ins with Walsh. Then, the idea of revenge was presented, and ideas for pranks on Old Man Walsh were being thrown around the table. Julie sighed and turned to her breakfast. Some times boys never grew up.
Julie could not help but watch Portman, who seemed to be the leader of this prank. He waved his hands around as he ordered the other boys to do things. He had Ken writing down the details of Russ's plan to put liquid laxative in Old Man Walsh's personal coffee supply. He had Charlie and Adam thinking of ways to get to the supply in the first place. Luis and Goldberg were deciding the best way to get off campus to a drug store to buy the laxative in the first place, and Guy and Averman were thinking up ways to distract the teacher so that he would not be in the staff room when all this happened.
And then, as the team spoke loudly around him, Dean looked up, his gaze locked with Julie's, and they both smiled. A sneaky little smile, they shared a secret (of course, neither knew that Fulton had already told the team gossips about the kiss.) Dean smiled at her again, and then turned back to the other Ducks, who were asking questions about refining the plan.
Not long after, Meredith made her way over to the table, making the pranksters disperse as she informed them that she had pulled a few strings, and from now on, practices would be in the school auditorium, where they could work with a real stage.
When the bell rang, and the group split up to head to their lessons. They whispered in their little groups as they left the dining hall, and Julie could not help but wonder how many of them would be benched for this weekend's game as a result of this little adventure in revenge.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Just heard an interesting rumour"
Julie turned to see that Connie was sitting beside her. They were sitting in geography, their first lesson after their morning break. Julie looked at her friend and smiled a little.
"Really, what is that?" She asked, expecting to hear some interesting piece of juicy gossip that had been passed to her through the Eden Hall grapevine. Connie leant over the to her table a little so that she would be able to whisper to her.
"The number one goalie and one of the defensive enforcers of the ducks spent the night together!" Connie told her. "Julie, why didn't you tell me! You spent the night with Dean? You were planning on keeping this from me?"
"Connie" she hissed. "Calm down, I was not planning on keeping this from you, but it was not exactly something that I could just announce over breakfast. And I did not 'spend the night' with him, he just came by before curfew and we kissed like we had planned to do earlier that day." Julie informed her. She looked quickly at the front of the room where their teacher (incidentally, it was Old Man Walsh) had just entered, and was writing the class notes on the board. "Who told you anyway?"
"Adam!" Connie exclaimed quietly. "Adam. Julie, I am your best friend, and some how, Adam Banks knows things about you before I do. Did I wake up in the twilight zone?"
"No" Julie sighed. "I am sure that Dean told Fulton, who told Adam. You know how the Ducks grapevine works. You should be lucky that the whole team didn't know before you"
"Doesn't mean that I am happy with you." Connie mumbled sadly. "You said you would tell me when something happened between the two of you"
"And I was going to tell you" Julie replied "I was going to tell you today at some time. I promise"
Connie sighed "You promise to tell me if it happens again?"
"You will probably be present next time I have to kiss him. We had practice at some point today. Meredith will probably want us to kiss then" Julie told her. At the front of the room, Old Man Walsh was still writing up notes. Every one else in the room were copying them down, except for the girls.
"So…was it good?"
Julie smiled, and found herself softly telling Connie everything that had happened the night before.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Good, you all made it" Meredith smiled as she walked into the auditorium and saw the class already gathered. All of the male ducks were to one side, conversing quietly about something, and Meredith had to admit that she was a little suspicious of them. But then again, Ducks in big groups usually made her suspicious. There was something about them, something that no one could really put a finger on, but something that made them a little less than trustworthy. On the other side of the room was Julie and Connie, and a few of the other girls in the class, who looked to be discussing the play.
"Boys, sorry to split this up, but you are officially on my time now" Meredith told them. Soon the group wrapped up their conversations and sat, ready to start class.
"This is a stage" Meredith smiled, climbing up onto it. There were a few sarcastic replies, but Meredith just grinned. "And this stage is where you will all make your dramatic debuts. So every one come up here…come on"
The class stood and made their way to the stage. "Looks bigger then up here, doesn't it?" Meredith asked. A few people nodded. "I want you to practice in here to get used to it. There is an extreme difference between standing in the middle of a circle of chairs, and being here, in this room, with the stage and the atmosphere…It feels different, right?"
"Very" some one said. Meredith turned and realised that a few of her students looked a little green.
"You will get used to it. It may seem daunting at the moment, but believe me, you will come off of this stage on the night and the first thing that you will say is 'lets do it again!'"
"Doubt it" Guy began, and a few laughed. Meredith shrugged.
"Damn hockey players, you make it seem like acting on a stage in front of people is so much different from skating on ice in front of people." She sighed, jumping down off of the stage and sitting in the front row. "It is not really…"
"It is" Adam replied. "Hockey has guidelines and rules…"
"So does acting. Rule number one, when you are on that stage, your back must never face the audience. Rule number two, don't block your fellow actor. Unless the scene calls for it, you do not stand in front of anyone else. Rule Number three, know your lines and your cues." She began. "Those are just stage basics. There are a lot of things you have to remember, but don't worry, you will learn them as we go along. Some of them are just common sense." Meredith replied "But right now, lets move on!"
Meredith called every body down off of the stage except for Julie and Dean. After quickly questioning Dean as to where he had been the afternoon before ("Damn detention with Damn Walsh" had been Dean's reply), Meredith announced that they were going to move onto the kiss, just as they had intended for the last practice.
Julie blushed a little, remembering what it had felt like to have Dean kiss her the night before. Half of her could not wait for the opportunity to feel his skilled lips on hers again, but also, Julie could not help but wonder if it would all be different this time. The night before had been a spur of the moment thing, and the fact that they had been alone for it had played a huge part in the passion they shared. She looked at Dean, and the look in his eyes made her stop thinking completely.
"When you guys are ready, why don't you just go for it" Meredith said from her seat in the audience, where all the other ducks were watching. Julie looked at Dean nervously, but when he reached out and wrapped an arm comfortably around her waist, she felt herself relax, even though her heart beat increased.
"Hi" he smiled a little. Julie laughed.
"Hi" she replied. Dean could tell that Julie was nervous, and he wanted to do anything he could to relax her. He had to admit, it was a nerve wracking situation. All those people who would be giving them crap by the end of the lesson.
"Ready to do this?" he asked her. Julie sighed, nodded, and relaxed again when she felt him stroke her cheek.
They fell into the kiss quite easily, starting slowly as they had the night before. Soon, Julie forgot that she was standing on a stage in front of all the ducks, and just let herself be kissed by Dean. He seemed comfortable with taking control of the situation, and Julie was extremely comfortable with letting him do so.
Dean forgot where he was for a minute as they continued to kiss. Like the night before, he realised, he didn't really want to let her go. But he also knew that standing in the middle of an English class was not the best place to do this.
The kiss wound down, and Dean pulled away a little. Julie smiled a softly as she opened her eyes and looked deeply into eyes. They were so caught up in themselves, that they didn't even realise that the class was cheering.
Dean looked at Fulton, Adam and Charlie, and smirked, daring them to say something, anything. But all three of them looked so shocked that he knew that they would have nothing to say about it for a very long time.
The cheering died down, and both of them made their way back to their seats. Dean sat between Fulton and Charlie, smiling. None of them knew what to say to him.
But on the other side of the room, Connie grabbed Julie's arm and pulled her into the seat beside her.
"We need to talk" she hissed. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you what?" Julie asked. She looked across the room at Dean, who caught her eye and smiled at her.
"Why didn't you tell me you have feelings for him!"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
What? What is she talking about? Well, you will find out next chapter. Review.
