When I woke up I realized it was morning and my mother had been into my room.  She had taken off my jacket and covered me up with my blankets.  A cup of water and a sandwich sat on a plate along with some more painkillers.  Next to that was a note, I picked it up and read, "Adam, hope you slept well, went to run some errands, call me if you need anything, and be careful on the stairs.  Love, Mom."

I rolled my eyes as I set down the note and began to eat the sandwich. She was never going to stop worrying about me.  I sat up and realized that I wasn't in as much pain as yesterday, but physically I was tired and my body felt heavy.

I was about to attempt getting in the shower when the doorbell rang.  Sighing, I carefully made my way down the stairs and opened the door to see Charlie, Guy, Averman and Goldberg standing there grinning and looking all-together to happy.  "Hey, Banks, how's the leg?" Charlie asked me, as I let them in.

"Alright I guess. I can't play hockey for awhile." A stabbing pain went through my stomach as I spoke those words and I realized how disappointed that made me.

"Don't worry, you'll be back in no time," Guy tried to assure me.

"Yea, maybe…" I sighed as they invaded my living room and began to scour through the movies in my house.

"What movie's that, Goldberg?" Averman asked as he was channel surfing.

"Dead Pots Society or something like that…"

"Um, Goldie? Why don't you try the "Dead POETS Society?" Charlie told him, pointing out the E.

"Right, that's what I said."

"Sounds morbid, let's put it in," Averman said, taking the box out of Goldberg's hands and put in the tape.

I sighed and settled down on the couch and was just content to try and relax while watching the movie. As it went on I began to see my life as a parallel to Neil's, seeing how his father pushed him to be his best, and somewhat my father had stopped me from trying anything other than hockey. But I suppose it was never bad enough to kill myself over.

"You know, I could see this movie set in Eden Hall," Averman commented. "Charlie and Goldberg are perfect candidates for leading roles."

"Shut UP, Averman," Guy said, playfully punching him in the shoulder.

The guys hung around for a couple of hours, but honestly, I was kind of glad when they finally went home, I just really wanted to be alone.  I was laying on the couch lost in my thoughts when I heard the back door open, and my mom walked in carrying some groceries.

"Adam? Honey, are you up?"

"Yea, mom, I'm in the living room."

She walked in and sat down next to me, I looked over at her. She looked tired, and I could tell she had been crying. Her face was tear-stained and her eyes red.

"You OK, mom?" I asked cautiously.

"I'm fine, sweetie. I'll just go put away the groceries."

I nodded and watched her go. I didn't think I could take much more of this. I was going to have to go back to the dorms soon. The atmosphere in the house was too much for me to bear alone, it had been almost two months since he had died, but it still seemed like it was yesterday.

 I slowly climbed my way up the stairs to my room. I shut the door behind me, and sat down at my desk. There was my signed Wayne Gretsky photo, and then another one, of my parents and me. It was taken last year. I stared hard at the picture, and thought about what my dad would say about my injury. Then I looked down at my leg. What was I going to do?  I realized that if I didn't play, for awhile it would pretty much ruin my chances of getting a scholarship for a good college. Senior year was the most important year of my career so far, and I could defiantly forget about the NHL now. That dream was long gone, but I didn't want to admit it to myself.  I put my head in my hands and tried to think.

There were still a lot of feelings that I could not sort out, and this injury was not helping me to feel better. Then I realized that had I not been so shook up about him being gone, I would've played better, and had my mind in the game. Suddenly, I was angry that he hadn't been more careful driving and that he had left my mother and I in the situation that he did. 

With him gone, my mother had been looking into getting a second job to help pay for the upkeep of such a big house.  Also, there was college tuition to think about, and even though there was some money put away, it wasn't going to be enough. I was worried, especially with the idea that if I couldn't play hockey, and then I would lose a lot of scholarship money, which would help cover some cost.

Figures, first my dad as to pressure me so much as a kid to play hockey non-stop,  then he pushed me to be the best I could be at Eden Hall, always reminding me I could lose my scholarship if I played badly, and now he was gone, which had somehow created even more pressure.

"I hate you," I said to the picture, before throwing it across the room where it shattered against the wall.  Realizing that my head was pounding I got into bed and fell into a fitful sleep.

The next morning when I woke up I heard voices laughing from downstairs. I rolled over and looked at my clock, it was already almost noon, and I was surprised that my mom had let me sleep in so late. I needed to take some medicine, and realizing that there was a male voice downstairs I didn't recognize, I began to make my way down the stairs.

"Audrey," the voice said, referring to my mother. "Philip has been gone for almost two months; maybe it's time to tell Adam."

"Tell me what?" I asked, a little too roughly to my mother as I stumbled into the kitchen, looking back and forth from her to the mystery man who was holding her hand. She immediately let go of his hand and stood up, "Oh, honey, good, you are finally up." She had plastered a fake smile onto her face.

"What's going on?" I asked, "And who are you?" I shifted that question to the man standing up, looking somewhat embarrassed.

"Adam, this is Dan Carlton, my uh, friend from work." I suspiciously shook his hand as I saw him cast a sideways glance at my mother.

"Sorry, about t injury Adam, your mother told me all about it, you must be disappointed about being sidelined."

"Yea, but I'll get over it," I answered somewhat rudely.

"Of course you will." An uncomfortable silence followed as my mother searched for something to say.

"Mom, I was wondering of you could take me back up to school today, I'm getting kinda restless just sitting around the house."

"Of course, honey, as long as you feel up too it.  The doctor said not to push anything to fast; you need your rest after all."

"I know mom, its fine. I'll be ready in a little bit." I answered a little too whiney, something was going on, and she was exasperating me. I turned around and hobbled back up the stairs, when the throbbing in my ankle reminded me that I had been so surprised by the mystery guy, I had forgotten to take some pain killers. Oh well, I thought, I was really too tired to go back downstairs, and what was a little more pain?

* * *

On the way back to Eden Hall my mom tried to make small talk with me, which I wasn't interested in making; finally I just asked the question.  "What is it with you and that guy mom?"

"Well…"

"Is he really a friend from work?"

My mother's eyes filled with tears, "Adam, some things are hard to talk about."

"Well, you had no trouble sharing with him did you?" I asked angrily.

"No, I guess no. Adam, listen, Dan and I…Dan…Oh, I don't know what to say.  Your father…he wanted to get a divorce a couple years ago.  We had been disagreeing on everything, how he was spending the money, how he was pushing you in hockey, and where you should go for high school and college. We were going to wait until you at least finished high school; it was easy to cover it up since you had been gone so long. Dan and I had been seeing each other for about a year of and on…your father was seeing some women in California for years, pretending he was going on business trips and such, but I knew. A woman can always tell. That was another reason why I wanted to leave him, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I did still love him after all, despite what he was doing to me, and you.  Then I met Dan, and I was going to being up the courage to finally leave him, and then there was the accident. Then you got hurt. It was just a lot of bad timing all at once…I'm sorry Adam."

I sat stone faced; staring out the window as I saw Eden Hall come into view. My mom pulled into the parking lot by my dorm, and put the car into park. "Thanks for including me in on my family life, mom."  I grabbed my backpack, and angrily slammed the door, as I stumbled into the door and clumsily made my way up the stairs, blinded by tears. I heard my mom pull out of the driveway, probably heartbroken, but I didn't care. Not now.

I opened the door to my room, just glad to be back at school, even though I didn't really want to be here much either. I went to flick on the lights when suddenly people jumped out from everywhere. "Surprise!"