Alright gang, here's chapter three. I open my mail box, and go "yes
reviews" only to find out I've managed to screw it up. *sigh* Well, this
is the real deal, I'm looking at it myself. Enjoy and leave reviews on
this one alright.
Ch 3
The bus ride had been long and exhausting, as the team was in the northern corner of the state, and farther away then most of them enjoyed. Fulton and Portman had sat in the back making plans, every once in awhile, grunting, cheering and then slamming fists. Kenny was sitting in front of them and would turn around to get on their plans, causing one of the other two to affectionately rub his head and mess up his hair.
Connie was sitting in the front of the bus near the driver deep in conversation with Luis, as Guy sat in the farthest seat from her in the other row and took turns between scowling out the window and up at Connie and Luis. Averman and Goldberg were planning some huge joke along with Dwayne and Russ while Charlie and Jesse tried to talk strategy. This was difficult, as they were having difficulty talking over Guy.
Julie was comfortably curled up with Adam herself, occasionally talking with Dwayne when he wasn't busy with the prank, as Adam would occasionally turning around to rehash plays with Charlie and Jesse when he felt the need.
Everyone was glad to get off the bus and stretch, and go off in different directions. Dean instantly was on a phone long distance to Chicago, it was an odd habit of his during and after away games since he'd come to Eaton, and he didn't talk about it often. Fulton just gave the same cursory glance he usually did and then walked over to the bags and grabbed his duffle.
The awkward moment of the day came when Guy, out of habit along had gone to pick up Connie's bag. The instant his hand had touched it he'd looked up into her eyes and recoiled as if he'd been burned. Everyone looked away and Guy sprinted for the hotel.
"Alright team, get your butts over here so I can give you all your room keys. Germaine! Germaine! For God's sakes. Here you go Conway."
Charlie reached out for the keys and looked down at them with a depressed glance. "Why me?"
"Because you're the best, best friend a guy could have?" Jesse quipped from behind.
The group laughed and then Goldberg piped up from in back. "Yeah, you could have Averman."
"I resent that."
Goldberg quickly grabbed Averman in a headlock and proceeded to give him a noogie. "Oh come on little buddy."
"Does that make you the skipper, because you really could apply for the part?"
Coach held up one of the tiny manila envelopes and wiggled it in the air. "Keys!" he shouted at them, causing them to spring a part and rush forward. "Get out of my face. And be ready please? And if I find Jello in the bathtub again I swear to God you two will spend your days doing drills."
The two boys stopped half way to the hotel and smiled at each other. "Jello!"
"Banks, Hall. Oh and Hall, don't make things easy on him by leaving tonight, huh? Reed, Portman. I really shouldn't let you two room together but because no one else will have you."
"Funny coach funny."
"Mendoza and Woo, Roberson and Tyler, please don't do anything nearly as stupid as the others would do. And for the ladies. Boys and the room mean a suspension from the team."
"We know."
"So." Julie commented as she laid her duffle down on her bed. "Haven't seen you and Luis that close since Junior Goodwill."
Connie's head instantly snapped up from her own bag. "Don't."
Julie raised her hands in self-defense. "I'm just curious, not passing judgment okay?"
Connie smiled and sat down on her bed. "He's cute, sweet, listens,--"
"Is the biggest player in the school now that he realized being a Latino from Miami is exotic," Julie muttered under her breath as she sat down.
Connie had over heard her though and was giving her a dirty look. "I'm not looking for serious. I spent seven years in seriousness."
"Gotcha."
"Just because you and Adam--"
Julie raised an eyebrow at her roommate. "Adam and I what?"
"The fact that you're all lovey dovey doesn't mean that's what everyone wants okay?"
'Liar, liar, pants on fire,' echoed in Julie's head but she kept her mouth shut. Connie Moreau was dead set on forgetting the dreams of a beautiful wedding dress and a reception in a chapel in the middle of February, and the guy who went with it all. That was her choice.
"Sorry alright."
"Apology accepted. Let's just relax, okay. You, me, a hotel room."
"It's usually you, me and a dorm room. Wanna explain what's so different?"
Connie shrugged, and then gave off a small, cunning, smile. "Different town, different boys."
Julie raised her hand and waved as if she were attempting to get a teacher's attention. "One very non-single girl."
"Yeah, yeah. Adam is, well he wasn't you were intending was he?"
Julie quirked an eyebrow at Connie. "What do you mean?"
"Scooter, and then the thing with Dean. What happened there?"
"It wasn't right. The phone calls, they're to some girl, a friend of his," Julie paused for a second, furrowing her eyebrows, "Aubrey I think. I think she's become more recently."
"He never told you?"
Julie just shrugged. "You know Dean. Private as hell. Fulton knows, but they share everything."
"Brothers till the end."
"Yup. It's not that big of a deal Connie, we both decided we were better off as friends." And personally Julie was pleased with that. She and Dean worked really well with a highly brother/sister relationship.
"He's still protective as hell of you. Then again, so's Adam."
"Don't do that. Pretending I'm the only one. You have enough people protecting you to have your own fan club."
Connie sent Julie a mischievous smile. "We can still beat them all blindfolded."
Julie returned it with relish. "With one hand tied behind our backs."
"At least on the ice."
"We just can't tell them. They'd be embarrassed."
"And challenge us, and we'd have to bring it. And it would just be ugly."
The two girls fell into laugher together. "Come out with me tonight, a girls night thing. I know we all usually do a Ducks thing, but for the past season we've been having difficulty."
"Because you and Guy are busy avoiding one another," Julie said pointedly.
"Shut up. Anyway, if we go out together, the guys can hang and no one gets left alone. And I wouldn't worry about Banksie," Connie said with a giggle. "I'm sure one of the other guys could fill in for you."
"Shut up!" Julie said childishly hurling a pillow at her friend, causing Connie to fall back on the bed in a fit of giggles.
Connie quickly got on her knees and grabbed a pillow and a pillow fight quickly started. They continued until another voice penetrated their thoughts. "Ooh kinky!"
Julie and Connie both whipped around towards the door. Julie was curious as to why it was open, but with Dean one never was quite sure how exactly anything got opened. "What do you want Portman?" Julie asked, quickly climbing off of Connie and her bed.
"We're heading out, thought we'd give you gorgeous gals a chance to be in the presence of some of the best guys the state has ever seen," he said cockily as he brushed off his shirt.
"That's the plan," Connie said cheekily, as she stood. "But trust me, it's not you."
Julie laughed and sent him a small smile. "Girls night out. Sorry."
Dean turned back to the hallway and cupped his hands over his mouth like a megaphone. "Hey Cake Eater, your girlfriend's mind has been poisoned by her roommate. They're going scamming for guys." He turned back to the girls with a smile and a wink. "Word to the wise ladies, nothing I wouldn't do."
Two seconds later Adam's head appeared in the doorway. "You're not coming?"
"Out, out. You'll convince her to spend the night with you, and then I'll be stuck here alone."
"Why?"
"Because Guy's been hibernating long enough. No need for him to stay that way, so we're just going to go have some fun and come back. I promise I'm not corrupting her."
Dean gave off another wolfish grin. "She was already corrupted. Right babe?"
Adam turned to glare at Dean. "What did I tell you about calling her babe?"
"You're telling me you've never called her babe?"
Charlie's voice echoed down the hallway next. "Are the girls coming or not?"
"No!" Adam and Dean shouted down the hallway, letting go of their rather heated debate.
"Guy get your ass out of that bed or I swear to God I'm getting Goldberg to sit on your head!" Charlie's angry voice came back. "Hopefully our stopping at Taco Bell today will ad a bit of motivation on one of your parts."
"I'm up."
Adam leaned over and gave Julie a kiss. "I'll see you later Jules."
Dean grinned at them and waved. "Later babes," he called as he started off down the hall.
"What did I--"
Connie was grinning at Julie. "Some things never change."
"Nope."
Ten minutes later the guys were heading through the lobby ready to head out.
"Freedom," Russ said with a smile as they headed for the doors. "if only for a few hours."
"We still gotta make it out of the hotel," Guy reminded them all.
"We're going to get out of here just fine," Dean insisted.
"Is that so?" a voice drawled out from behind, causing just about everyone to stop in their tracks and turn around.
"Yeah," Dean affirmed before spinning. "Coach." He practically choked on the word.
He swept them all with a glare. "Up stairs. All of you. And if you attempt to pull it again you will all be doing fifty extra laps."
Julie had just pulled a new pair of boots out of her bag to put on when the door knocked. As Connie was in the bathroom brushing her teeth, Julie got up to get it. Coach "Ladies, you better not be thinking of going anywhere."
Julie sent out her most innocent smile as Connie's head poked out of the bathroom. "Why would we ever think such a thing?" Julie asked.
"Just don't. Goodnight ladies."
Julie closed the door and turned around to lean against it. "So, indoor's girls night?" she asked looking at her friend.
"Guess so. I've got nail polish. Hot pink or Passion plum for under the gloves tomorrow?"
Adam and Jesse sat contentedly in their hotel room. ESPN was showing a hockey game between the Bruins and the Rockies.
Adam looked up from his playbook to the screen. "The Bruins aren't half bad this year. Think they'll go anywhere?" he asked Jesse, without looking at him.
There was a knock on the door and Jesse got up to answer it. "I dunno, they always manage to choke. Speaking of choking," Jesse said good naturedly as he opened the door.
Charlie walked all the way into the room, a duffle bag over his arm. He plopped it down in the middle of the floor. "Okay, someone needs to switch rooms with me."
"And that's our problem because?"
"Because," Charlie started, putting emphasis on the word, "if the captain kills a teammate, we're out two players, one that we desperately need, not that he's much use off of the ice."
Both turned to Adam who was still on his bed with a playbook. He looked up and spotted them both staring and shook his head. "Oh no. Not me. I go over there and I'm going to be forced to persuade him to do something like talk to Connie. And we all know how that's going to go."
Jesse snorted. "Whipped."
Adam looked up and leveled his gaze at Jessie. "You wanna mess with Julie?"
"Not in particular."
Charlie turned and grinned at Jesse. "Alright Jesse, ship out," he commanded in the tone he'd perfected for captain ages ago.
Jesse looked between his two friends. Charlie had flopped down on his bed and Adam had returned to his playbook, with a rather large smile on his face. "You're kidding me right?"
"Captain's orders. Besides maybe you can bug him into doing something besides listening to depressive music. Look," Charlie said, sitting up and giving off a much more serious air. "I've been living with him through this whole thing, you are one of his best friends, you take a turn."
"Fine," Jesse grumbled getting out his gear. "This is one huge favor Spazway."
"Yeah I know."
Adam looked down at the duffle bag on the floor as Jesse quickly collected his stuff and grabbed the other room key from Charlie. "Already have your stuff huh?"
Charlie moved his bag out of the middle of the room and to the side of the bed he'd now taken. "You are okay with this right?" he asked, curious if he'd just done something stupid.
"I would have said something if I wasn't," Adam reassured him. It had been a tough road reconnecting with the entire team after his short-lived stint on the Varsity team at Eden Hall his freshman year, but hardest with Charlie. It hadn't surprised Adam in the least bit, as they had attempted to tear each other to pieces on the ice that time.
"Isn't it a little late to be running plays?"
Adam said nothing about what he was working on but instead wordlessly pointed to the playbook Charlie was holding in his hands with a curious look.
"Yeah but I'm the captain."
Adam laughed at that one. Charlie depended on that C on his jersey like nothing else. Not that anyone complained, Charlie had always been a good captain. "You've been captain since pee-wees Charlie."
"Haven't steered you guys wrong yet, have I?"
Adam managed half a smile. "Going after me was a small issue. But no one's perfect."
"Hey you took that position."
Adam sobered as the memories of that time came back to him. He'd been isolated from his only friends and had done a few things he wasn't necessarily proud of. Not to mention his father's reaction to him being varsity freshman year. "At the time it looked like a pretty good opportunity, not to mention my dad's praise."
"Yeah."
"So apparently life with what's left of the Germaine/Moreau relationship is hell?" Adam said after a few minutes of silence. He wanted to shift off his own all too familiar difficulties and on to someone else's set of problems.
Charlie let out an anguished groan that reminded him of Julie when Connie was being annoying about the entire situation. "It's pathetic. How many times can one guy listen to Simon and Garfunkle's I am a Rock?"
Adam cringed for a second and then laughed, while Charlie sent him a glare. After a few moments Charlie started laughing as well. "Jesse's going to kill you," Adam told Charlie once he'd caught his breath.
"Hopefully he'll be willing to take one for the team. I mean it's not asking much."
"Sucks for--" The phone rang and Adam quickly picked up the receiver. "Hello? Hey," he said with a huge grin as Julie's voice came to him through the phone. "No, no. I've been back for awhile. Yeah."
Charlie rolled his eyes and concentrated on his playbook. "God no wonder Jesse changed rooms. Out of the frying pan into the fire."
Adam ignored the comment and looked at the muted TV. "It's only Charlie. Jules, yes I promise. You're impossible."
"The reason I no longer have a girlfriend," Charlie piped up.
Adam turned back to send Charlie a glare. "Yeah he's an ass," Adam said to Julie, but more as a pointed comment at Charlie.
Charlie grinned at Adam. "And proud of it."
Adam rolled his eyes and turned away to continue listening to Julie. "Alright. I'll see you in the morning. I love you too. Night."
"That's it? No hours spent talking about your non-existent evening? Or about how much you miss one another?" With the last line, Charlie pouted his lips and made kissy noises.
"Hate to tell you this but not all relationships are hours of meaningless conversation. Julie is pretty straight forward and we don't enjoy playing hours worth of 'no, now you hang up.'"
Charlie glanced to the bedside table on which a framed photograph sat. Adams gaze had been lingering on it since he'd hung up. "It's the picture that drives Jesse nuts isn't it?"
"Hmm?" Adam said, looking up at Charlie. It took him a second before he picked up the frame. "Oh this?"
"Nope," Charlie said as he shook his head, and the pointed at Adam. "it's the dopey smile."
"Shut up."
Ch 3
The bus ride had been long and exhausting, as the team was in the northern corner of the state, and farther away then most of them enjoyed. Fulton and Portman had sat in the back making plans, every once in awhile, grunting, cheering and then slamming fists. Kenny was sitting in front of them and would turn around to get on their plans, causing one of the other two to affectionately rub his head and mess up his hair.
Connie was sitting in the front of the bus near the driver deep in conversation with Luis, as Guy sat in the farthest seat from her in the other row and took turns between scowling out the window and up at Connie and Luis. Averman and Goldberg were planning some huge joke along with Dwayne and Russ while Charlie and Jesse tried to talk strategy. This was difficult, as they were having difficulty talking over Guy.
Julie was comfortably curled up with Adam herself, occasionally talking with Dwayne when he wasn't busy with the prank, as Adam would occasionally turning around to rehash plays with Charlie and Jesse when he felt the need.
Everyone was glad to get off the bus and stretch, and go off in different directions. Dean instantly was on a phone long distance to Chicago, it was an odd habit of his during and after away games since he'd come to Eaton, and he didn't talk about it often. Fulton just gave the same cursory glance he usually did and then walked over to the bags and grabbed his duffle.
The awkward moment of the day came when Guy, out of habit along had gone to pick up Connie's bag. The instant his hand had touched it he'd looked up into her eyes and recoiled as if he'd been burned. Everyone looked away and Guy sprinted for the hotel.
"Alright team, get your butts over here so I can give you all your room keys. Germaine! Germaine! For God's sakes. Here you go Conway."
Charlie reached out for the keys and looked down at them with a depressed glance. "Why me?"
"Because you're the best, best friend a guy could have?" Jesse quipped from behind.
The group laughed and then Goldberg piped up from in back. "Yeah, you could have Averman."
"I resent that."
Goldberg quickly grabbed Averman in a headlock and proceeded to give him a noogie. "Oh come on little buddy."
"Does that make you the skipper, because you really could apply for the part?"
Coach held up one of the tiny manila envelopes and wiggled it in the air. "Keys!" he shouted at them, causing them to spring a part and rush forward. "Get out of my face. And be ready please? And if I find Jello in the bathtub again I swear to God you two will spend your days doing drills."
The two boys stopped half way to the hotel and smiled at each other. "Jello!"
"Banks, Hall. Oh and Hall, don't make things easy on him by leaving tonight, huh? Reed, Portman. I really shouldn't let you two room together but because no one else will have you."
"Funny coach funny."
"Mendoza and Woo, Roberson and Tyler, please don't do anything nearly as stupid as the others would do. And for the ladies. Boys and the room mean a suspension from the team."
"We know."
"So." Julie commented as she laid her duffle down on her bed. "Haven't seen you and Luis that close since Junior Goodwill."
Connie's head instantly snapped up from her own bag. "Don't."
Julie raised her hands in self-defense. "I'm just curious, not passing judgment okay?"
Connie smiled and sat down on her bed. "He's cute, sweet, listens,--"
"Is the biggest player in the school now that he realized being a Latino from Miami is exotic," Julie muttered under her breath as she sat down.
Connie had over heard her though and was giving her a dirty look. "I'm not looking for serious. I spent seven years in seriousness."
"Gotcha."
"Just because you and Adam--"
Julie raised an eyebrow at her roommate. "Adam and I what?"
"The fact that you're all lovey dovey doesn't mean that's what everyone wants okay?"
'Liar, liar, pants on fire,' echoed in Julie's head but she kept her mouth shut. Connie Moreau was dead set on forgetting the dreams of a beautiful wedding dress and a reception in a chapel in the middle of February, and the guy who went with it all. That was her choice.
"Sorry alright."
"Apology accepted. Let's just relax, okay. You, me, a hotel room."
"It's usually you, me and a dorm room. Wanna explain what's so different?"
Connie shrugged, and then gave off a small, cunning, smile. "Different town, different boys."
Julie raised her hand and waved as if she were attempting to get a teacher's attention. "One very non-single girl."
"Yeah, yeah. Adam is, well he wasn't you were intending was he?"
Julie quirked an eyebrow at Connie. "What do you mean?"
"Scooter, and then the thing with Dean. What happened there?"
"It wasn't right. The phone calls, they're to some girl, a friend of his," Julie paused for a second, furrowing her eyebrows, "Aubrey I think. I think she's become more recently."
"He never told you?"
Julie just shrugged. "You know Dean. Private as hell. Fulton knows, but they share everything."
"Brothers till the end."
"Yup. It's not that big of a deal Connie, we both decided we were better off as friends." And personally Julie was pleased with that. She and Dean worked really well with a highly brother/sister relationship.
"He's still protective as hell of you. Then again, so's Adam."
"Don't do that. Pretending I'm the only one. You have enough people protecting you to have your own fan club."
Connie sent Julie a mischievous smile. "We can still beat them all blindfolded."
Julie returned it with relish. "With one hand tied behind our backs."
"At least on the ice."
"We just can't tell them. They'd be embarrassed."
"And challenge us, and we'd have to bring it. And it would just be ugly."
The two girls fell into laugher together. "Come out with me tonight, a girls night thing. I know we all usually do a Ducks thing, but for the past season we've been having difficulty."
"Because you and Guy are busy avoiding one another," Julie said pointedly.
"Shut up. Anyway, if we go out together, the guys can hang and no one gets left alone. And I wouldn't worry about Banksie," Connie said with a giggle. "I'm sure one of the other guys could fill in for you."
"Shut up!" Julie said childishly hurling a pillow at her friend, causing Connie to fall back on the bed in a fit of giggles.
Connie quickly got on her knees and grabbed a pillow and a pillow fight quickly started. They continued until another voice penetrated their thoughts. "Ooh kinky!"
Julie and Connie both whipped around towards the door. Julie was curious as to why it was open, but with Dean one never was quite sure how exactly anything got opened. "What do you want Portman?" Julie asked, quickly climbing off of Connie and her bed.
"We're heading out, thought we'd give you gorgeous gals a chance to be in the presence of some of the best guys the state has ever seen," he said cockily as he brushed off his shirt.
"That's the plan," Connie said cheekily, as she stood. "But trust me, it's not you."
Julie laughed and sent him a small smile. "Girls night out. Sorry."
Dean turned back to the hallway and cupped his hands over his mouth like a megaphone. "Hey Cake Eater, your girlfriend's mind has been poisoned by her roommate. They're going scamming for guys." He turned back to the girls with a smile and a wink. "Word to the wise ladies, nothing I wouldn't do."
Two seconds later Adam's head appeared in the doorway. "You're not coming?"
"Out, out. You'll convince her to spend the night with you, and then I'll be stuck here alone."
"Why?"
"Because Guy's been hibernating long enough. No need for him to stay that way, so we're just going to go have some fun and come back. I promise I'm not corrupting her."
Dean gave off another wolfish grin. "She was already corrupted. Right babe?"
Adam turned to glare at Dean. "What did I tell you about calling her babe?"
"You're telling me you've never called her babe?"
Charlie's voice echoed down the hallway next. "Are the girls coming or not?"
"No!" Adam and Dean shouted down the hallway, letting go of their rather heated debate.
"Guy get your ass out of that bed or I swear to God I'm getting Goldberg to sit on your head!" Charlie's angry voice came back. "Hopefully our stopping at Taco Bell today will ad a bit of motivation on one of your parts."
"I'm up."
Adam leaned over and gave Julie a kiss. "I'll see you later Jules."
Dean grinned at them and waved. "Later babes," he called as he started off down the hall.
"What did I--"
Connie was grinning at Julie. "Some things never change."
"Nope."
Ten minutes later the guys were heading through the lobby ready to head out.
"Freedom," Russ said with a smile as they headed for the doors. "if only for a few hours."
"We still gotta make it out of the hotel," Guy reminded them all.
"We're going to get out of here just fine," Dean insisted.
"Is that so?" a voice drawled out from behind, causing just about everyone to stop in their tracks and turn around.
"Yeah," Dean affirmed before spinning. "Coach." He practically choked on the word.
He swept them all with a glare. "Up stairs. All of you. And if you attempt to pull it again you will all be doing fifty extra laps."
Julie had just pulled a new pair of boots out of her bag to put on when the door knocked. As Connie was in the bathroom brushing her teeth, Julie got up to get it. Coach "Ladies, you better not be thinking of going anywhere."
Julie sent out her most innocent smile as Connie's head poked out of the bathroom. "Why would we ever think such a thing?" Julie asked.
"Just don't. Goodnight ladies."
Julie closed the door and turned around to lean against it. "So, indoor's girls night?" she asked looking at her friend.
"Guess so. I've got nail polish. Hot pink or Passion plum for under the gloves tomorrow?"
Adam and Jesse sat contentedly in their hotel room. ESPN was showing a hockey game between the Bruins and the Rockies.
Adam looked up from his playbook to the screen. "The Bruins aren't half bad this year. Think they'll go anywhere?" he asked Jesse, without looking at him.
There was a knock on the door and Jesse got up to answer it. "I dunno, they always manage to choke. Speaking of choking," Jesse said good naturedly as he opened the door.
Charlie walked all the way into the room, a duffle bag over his arm. He plopped it down in the middle of the floor. "Okay, someone needs to switch rooms with me."
"And that's our problem because?"
"Because," Charlie started, putting emphasis on the word, "if the captain kills a teammate, we're out two players, one that we desperately need, not that he's much use off of the ice."
Both turned to Adam who was still on his bed with a playbook. He looked up and spotted them both staring and shook his head. "Oh no. Not me. I go over there and I'm going to be forced to persuade him to do something like talk to Connie. And we all know how that's going to go."
Jesse snorted. "Whipped."
Adam looked up and leveled his gaze at Jessie. "You wanna mess with Julie?"
"Not in particular."
Charlie turned and grinned at Jesse. "Alright Jesse, ship out," he commanded in the tone he'd perfected for captain ages ago.
Jesse looked between his two friends. Charlie had flopped down on his bed and Adam had returned to his playbook, with a rather large smile on his face. "You're kidding me right?"
"Captain's orders. Besides maybe you can bug him into doing something besides listening to depressive music. Look," Charlie said, sitting up and giving off a much more serious air. "I've been living with him through this whole thing, you are one of his best friends, you take a turn."
"Fine," Jesse grumbled getting out his gear. "This is one huge favor Spazway."
"Yeah I know."
Adam looked down at the duffle bag on the floor as Jesse quickly collected his stuff and grabbed the other room key from Charlie. "Already have your stuff huh?"
Charlie moved his bag out of the middle of the room and to the side of the bed he'd now taken. "You are okay with this right?" he asked, curious if he'd just done something stupid.
"I would have said something if I wasn't," Adam reassured him. It had been a tough road reconnecting with the entire team after his short-lived stint on the Varsity team at Eden Hall his freshman year, but hardest with Charlie. It hadn't surprised Adam in the least bit, as they had attempted to tear each other to pieces on the ice that time.
"Isn't it a little late to be running plays?"
Adam said nothing about what he was working on but instead wordlessly pointed to the playbook Charlie was holding in his hands with a curious look.
"Yeah but I'm the captain."
Adam laughed at that one. Charlie depended on that C on his jersey like nothing else. Not that anyone complained, Charlie had always been a good captain. "You've been captain since pee-wees Charlie."
"Haven't steered you guys wrong yet, have I?"
Adam managed half a smile. "Going after me was a small issue. But no one's perfect."
"Hey you took that position."
Adam sobered as the memories of that time came back to him. He'd been isolated from his only friends and had done a few things he wasn't necessarily proud of. Not to mention his father's reaction to him being varsity freshman year. "At the time it looked like a pretty good opportunity, not to mention my dad's praise."
"Yeah."
"So apparently life with what's left of the Germaine/Moreau relationship is hell?" Adam said after a few minutes of silence. He wanted to shift off his own all too familiar difficulties and on to someone else's set of problems.
Charlie let out an anguished groan that reminded him of Julie when Connie was being annoying about the entire situation. "It's pathetic. How many times can one guy listen to Simon and Garfunkle's I am a Rock?"
Adam cringed for a second and then laughed, while Charlie sent him a glare. After a few moments Charlie started laughing as well. "Jesse's going to kill you," Adam told Charlie once he'd caught his breath.
"Hopefully he'll be willing to take one for the team. I mean it's not asking much."
"Sucks for--" The phone rang and Adam quickly picked up the receiver. "Hello? Hey," he said with a huge grin as Julie's voice came to him through the phone. "No, no. I've been back for awhile. Yeah."
Charlie rolled his eyes and concentrated on his playbook. "God no wonder Jesse changed rooms. Out of the frying pan into the fire."
Adam ignored the comment and looked at the muted TV. "It's only Charlie. Jules, yes I promise. You're impossible."
"The reason I no longer have a girlfriend," Charlie piped up.
Adam turned back to send Charlie a glare. "Yeah he's an ass," Adam said to Julie, but more as a pointed comment at Charlie.
Charlie grinned at Adam. "And proud of it."
Adam rolled his eyes and turned away to continue listening to Julie. "Alright. I'll see you in the morning. I love you too. Night."
"That's it? No hours spent talking about your non-existent evening? Or about how much you miss one another?" With the last line, Charlie pouted his lips and made kissy noises.
"Hate to tell you this but not all relationships are hours of meaningless conversation. Julie is pretty straight forward and we don't enjoy playing hours worth of 'no, now you hang up.'"
Charlie glanced to the bedside table on which a framed photograph sat. Adams gaze had been lingering on it since he'd hung up. "It's the picture that drives Jesse nuts isn't it?"
"Hmm?" Adam said, looking up at Charlie. It took him a second before he picked up the frame. "Oh this?"
"Nope," Charlie said as he shook his head, and the pointed at Adam. "it's the dopey smile."
"Shut up."