Disclaimer: I don't own any of the ducks or anything. Shoot. Disney does.
It felt great to be back, his friends surrounded him, but they did their greetings and banter more apprehensively than before. Wasn't he the same big old tough guy who had Ken onto the net the first day he had met the ducks? But now Ken was towering above him, laughing at some dumb joke. Great.
He hadn't noticed them lace up their skates until Goldberg was pushed onto the ice, thanks to Averman's clumsiness. Some of the others joined them, only Fulton and Julie remained. Portman eyed the rink hungrily; he wanted to be out there, pushing someone around, like the good old days.
"I'm gonna go get my skates," Fulton said, turning his back to Julie and Portman.
Julie looked at him and then back at Portman, "Hey, grab mine too, okay?"
"No problem," he called without turning back to see the look of disappointment on Dean's face. He cleared his throat and replaced the look with his normal one, tough.
"Oh please," Julie said, watching him change. "We're not leaving to skate without you, you're coming out on the ice with us, you big doof," she laughed. "We wouldn't leave you out on your first day back."
He grinned without thinking, "Yeah, okay," he said.
Soon, Julie was on the ice, Portman and Fulton right behind her. "Hey, Germaine!" she called, "pass me that beach ball!"
"No, I'll get it," Adam volunteered, skating as fast as he could over to Julie, "here you go," he said sweetly. Portman tried to keep his eyes out of their business, but he couldn't.
"Hey, Fulton," he whispered up to his friend.
"Yeah?" he said loudly.
"Keep your voice, down, will ya?" he hissed. "What's up with the namby-pamby stuff between Jules and Cake-Eater over there?"
Fulton shrugged, "They broke up a couple of months ago and now he's trying to sweet-talk her back into it."
She grinned and took the ball, "thanks," she said, "now, let's play!"
It was hard for Portman to play, seeing as his wheels would slide on the ice, making it impossible for his brakes to be effective. They stopped playing after a while and sat in the bleachers, chatting and eating.
Dean noticed how everybody had little by little changed since the last time he had seen them all. Charlie had grown out his hair, but Adam was still an obsessive snob, Dwayne, Averman, and Goldberg hadn't changed at all, Connie had had a growth spurt and was now taller than Guy, but only a little bit. He noticed Fulton and Julie laughing out of the corner of his eye. They were the ones who had changed the most to him. Fulton had gotten skinnier and Julie had cut her hair. Those were the only changes, so why did they look so different to him? Maybe it was because he had changed their images around in his mind, gotten confused about who they really were, it had been so long.
"Good news, Portman," Fulton yelled at me.
"What?" he yelled back, amused.
"You're rooming with me at Eden when we get back," Fulton yelled again.
"Wonderful," Portman yelled back.
Of course, the whole team could hear them; Fulton was just a few feet away from him. They were brothers again.
"Hey, you've still got my Pearl Jam poster on the wall!" Portman said, wheeling himself into the newly-expanded dorm room he now shared with Fulton.
"Yep," Fulton said, dumping Portman's stuff on his bed. He stared at the clock, could it really be that late? Yep, it was after one eleven o'clock at night.
After a few minutes of incoherent jabbering and helping Portman put his stuff away, Fulton crawled into his own bed and stared at the ceiling. He could hear Dean struggle to get into bed, it must've been tough.
"God, I love being back in my old bed, with my old buddy," Dena said to him, staring at the same ceiling.
"Yeah, dude, the Ducks are glad to have their enforcer again," Fulton said with energy.
"I'm not going to be able to enforce anybody but the kindergarteners from now on, dude," Portman reminded him.
"Yeah, I know, even then I'll have to help you with them," Fulton laughed. He got a pillow chucked at his right ear. "Anyway, the whole team is happy now to have you back." He thought for a moment, "Especially Julie, I haven't heard her talk that much or laugh that loud in a whole long while," he said softly.
"What are you talking about? Julie always laughs," Portman said with a shrug.
"Not anymore, not since she started dating Adam," Fulton said, wanting to get off the topic. He already said more than he should have.
"I thought you told me they broke up," Portman said sternly. What was he doing? Julie's business was JULIE'S business; he had no right to go nosing around in it. But, he couldn't help it, Julie was his teammate, she had rescued him, no questions asked.
"They did, she just hasn't been the same, it's like she's decided not to talk at all," Fulton said quickly. Then under his breath he added, "Not since the first bruise."
"Fulton, you get a lot of bruises playing hockey," Portman said, obviously hearing what he had muttered.
"Look, just forget it, okay?" Fulton said, turning on his side.
Portman stared at his back, "What's the big deal?"
"Nothing, let's just get some shut-eye, okay?" Fulton yelled over his shoulder.
"Geez," Dean scoffed, rolling over onto his side. "What a way to start off."
At one o'clock that morning, there was a slight tapping on the door. Fulton got up immediately, while Portman awoke. He heard little sobbing noises and Fulton entered the room, his arm held comfortingly around someone's shoulders.
"Can I borrow a bandage for my wrist?" a girl whispered.
Fulton sat her down on the bed, Portman pretended to be asleep, but rolled over on his other side to watch what was going on. He opened one eye and saw Julie. She was crying into Fulton's shoulder. He was stroking her hair, his beefy arm still around her shoulder.
"It happened again, I think my wrist is sprained this time," she choked out, glancing at the mass in the other bed that was supposedly a sleeping Portman.
"You've got to let me tell someone about this, Julie, it's just going to get worse!" Fulton whispered to her, getting up to get a wrap for her wrist.
Julie sat there on the bed, holding her hurting wrist with her other hand, she looked terrible, her hair was in knots and there were tears running down her red and swollen face. Who had done this to her? What happened? Fulton knew something about it, how come he just hadn't told him when he had asked?
He watched as Fulton carefully took her hand and gently wrapped the bandage around it. "There," he said when he was finished.
"Thanks Fulton, I owe you one," Julie said in a clearer whisper. She had obviously stopped crying. She hugged him and went to the door.
"Just tell someone, okay?" Fulton called after her. The door shut. Fulton sighed and crawled back into his bed. "Thank God Portman didn't hear any of this," he said aloud.
Dean joined the rest of the group at breakfast the next morning. He looked over at Julie first thing, she had taken off the bandage Fulton had given her, but she had a bruise below her ear that she kept trying to cover up with her hair. When she reached to pick up her milk, she winced and set it back down and used her other hand.
"Hey, Portman," Ken called from a few seats away from him, "you wanna come watch practice today after school?"
He had a lot of homework to catch up on, so naturally he said, "Yeah, sure."
He was welcomed back to his classes with looks of pure intimidation from his classmates. Even though he was confound to a wheelchair, that still didn't mean his bravado had gone down the tubes. Luckily for him, he was so tall, he could stare some kids in the eye. He sat up tall in his chair, leering up at the kids who had the guts to stare down at him. Julie just laughed when she saw him in the hallway trying to look menacing. He stopped trying so much after that.
Portman, what are you doing sitting there? Get out here on the ice where you belong," Coach Oryan grunted at him the minute he saw him.
"Yeah, sure coach, nice to see you too," Dean grumbled back, trying to wheel himself over a bump to get onto the ice. He felt a push from behind, it was Charlie.
"Thought you could use some help," he said lightly and sped away.
"No thanks, Charlie, I think I can get over this bump just by myself, but thanks for asking!" He yelled after him sarcastically. He let out an angry sigh and slowly wheeled himself down near the goal Julie was defending in today's scrimmage.
At one point in the game, Luis had skated around the net and crashed into him. He was so focused on the game that he didn't even apologize, he whizzed off down the rink to the blue line. "Mendoza, one of these days…" he muttered violently under his breath and bent down to take the brakes off his wheels so he could go check him into a wall.
"Hold up there, big guy," Julie called to him, keeping her eyes on the game. "You know you're never going to be able to stop once you get going," she added from behind her mask.
"Shut up, I don't need any babysitter," he said, "but thanks anyway," he managed to add.
He could detect Julie's shoulder pads move, she had shrugged it off! Julie was always a fighter, how could this have happened? The Julie he had known would've come over and kicked him in the shins, not that it would hurt him any, and maybe have said a few choice words in his direction.
Adam skated by, he winked at Julie out of the corner of his eye and did a fancy move. Portman could've sworn he saw Julie retreat back into her net, even though Adam and her were playing on the same team. He grinned and sped off, what was that all about? He had nothing to prove to her, they all knew that he was going to be the most successful out of the lot of them, so why flaunt it now? Sometimes it felt like he couldn't hold back from kicking Adam's butt.
He kept his eyes on Julie, once he had been gone from her zone for a while, she seemed to shake herself and got out of the net. His stomach did something weird, like a flip…or a flop. What was wrong with her?
"Dude, why'd you stay down at Cat's end today? All the action was around Goldberg!" Fulton asked, turning down his music a little.
Portman lay on his bed. He thought he stayed there to protect her from Adam, if he made another repeat performance. He had been gone six months and had only been back one whole day and he could already tell something was up he wasn't being let in on. "I didn't want to get in the way," he answered truthfully, but it sounded more lame than honest.
Fulton shrugged good-naturedly and pulled his covers up tight around his neck, "Sweet dreams, dude."
Portman smiled and closed his eyes, letting the worries go. He hoped there would be another knock on the door that night, only he would open the door and Julie would fall into his arms. Wait, what? The sleep must have really taken over him by then. There wasn't a knock on their door for some time after that.
A week went by and Dean felt totally submersed in homework by the time the weekend rolled around. He had only been able to attend one more hockey practice, thanks to his English homework, some stupid play by Shakespeare, something about taming shrews. Fulton helped him with his math to the best of his abilities, but soon gave up, finding that Portman was totally unreasonable when it came to simple logic. Even Charlie tried to help him with his Geography, but was kicked out in an hour. Portman was showing them he was no different from when he had left.
But he was different.
It felt great to be back, his friends surrounded him, but they did their greetings and banter more apprehensively than before. Wasn't he the same big old tough guy who had Ken onto the net the first day he had met the ducks? But now Ken was towering above him, laughing at some dumb joke. Great.
He hadn't noticed them lace up their skates until Goldberg was pushed onto the ice, thanks to Averman's clumsiness. Some of the others joined them, only Fulton and Julie remained. Portman eyed the rink hungrily; he wanted to be out there, pushing someone around, like the good old days.
"I'm gonna go get my skates," Fulton said, turning his back to Julie and Portman.
Julie looked at him and then back at Portman, "Hey, grab mine too, okay?"
"No problem," he called without turning back to see the look of disappointment on Dean's face. He cleared his throat and replaced the look with his normal one, tough.
"Oh please," Julie said, watching him change. "We're not leaving to skate without you, you're coming out on the ice with us, you big doof," she laughed. "We wouldn't leave you out on your first day back."
He grinned without thinking, "Yeah, okay," he said.
Soon, Julie was on the ice, Portman and Fulton right behind her. "Hey, Germaine!" she called, "pass me that beach ball!"
"No, I'll get it," Adam volunteered, skating as fast as he could over to Julie, "here you go," he said sweetly. Portman tried to keep his eyes out of their business, but he couldn't.
"Hey, Fulton," he whispered up to his friend.
"Yeah?" he said loudly.
"Keep your voice, down, will ya?" he hissed. "What's up with the namby-pamby stuff between Jules and Cake-Eater over there?"
Fulton shrugged, "They broke up a couple of months ago and now he's trying to sweet-talk her back into it."
She grinned and took the ball, "thanks," she said, "now, let's play!"
It was hard for Portman to play, seeing as his wheels would slide on the ice, making it impossible for his brakes to be effective. They stopped playing after a while and sat in the bleachers, chatting and eating.
Dean noticed how everybody had little by little changed since the last time he had seen them all. Charlie had grown out his hair, but Adam was still an obsessive snob, Dwayne, Averman, and Goldberg hadn't changed at all, Connie had had a growth spurt and was now taller than Guy, but only a little bit. He noticed Fulton and Julie laughing out of the corner of his eye. They were the ones who had changed the most to him. Fulton had gotten skinnier and Julie had cut her hair. Those were the only changes, so why did they look so different to him? Maybe it was because he had changed their images around in his mind, gotten confused about who they really were, it had been so long.
"Good news, Portman," Fulton yelled at me.
"What?" he yelled back, amused.
"You're rooming with me at Eden when we get back," Fulton yelled again.
"Wonderful," Portman yelled back.
Of course, the whole team could hear them; Fulton was just a few feet away from him. They were brothers again.
"Hey, you've still got my Pearl Jam poster on the wall!" Portman said, wheeling himself into the newly-expanded dorm room he now shared with Fulton.
"Yep," Fulton said, dumping Portman's stuff on his bed. He stared at the clock, could it really be that late? Yep, it was after one eleven o'clock at night.
After a few minutes of incoherent jabbering and helping Portman put his stuff away, Fulton crawled into his own bed and stared at the ceiling. He could hear Dean struggle to get into bed, it must've been tough.
"God, I love being back in my old bed, with my old buddy," Dena said to him, staring at the same ceiling.
"Yeah, dude, the Ducks are glad to have their enforcer again," Fulton said with energy.
"I'm not going to be able to enforce anybody but the kindergarteners from now on, dude," Portman reminded him.
"Yeah, I know, even then I'll have to help you with them," Fulton laughed. He got a pillow chucked at his right ear. "Anyway, the whole team is happy now to have you back." He thought for a moment, "Especially Julie, I haven't heard her talk that much or laugh that loud in a whole long while," he said softly.
"What are you talking about? Julie always laughs," Portman said with a shrug.
"Not anymore, not since she started dating Adam," Fulton said, wanting to get off the topic. He already said more than he should have.
"I thought you told me they broke up," Portman said sternly. What was he doing? Julie's business was JULIE'S business; he had no right to go nosing around in it. But, he couldn't help it, Julie was his teammate, she had rescued him, no questions asked.
"They did, she just hasn't been the same, it's like she's decided not to talk at all," Fulton said quickly. Then under his breath he added, "Not since the first bruise."
"Fulton, you get a lot of bruises playing hockey," Portman said, obviously hearing what he had muttered.
"Look, just forget it, okay?" Fulton said, turning on his side.
Portman stared at his back, "What's the big deal?"
"Nothing, let's just get some shut-eye, okay?" Fulton yelled over his shoulder.
"Geez," Dean scoffed, rolling over onto his side. "What a way to start off."
At one o'clock that morning, there was a slight tapping on the door. Fulton got up immediately, while Portman awoke. He heard little sobbing noises and Fulton entered the room, his arm held comfortingly around someone's shoulders.
"Can I borrow a bandage for my wrist?" a girl whispered.
Fulton sat her down on the bed, Portman pretended to be asleep, but rolled over on his other side to watch what was going on. He opened one eye and saw Julie. She was crying into Fulton's shoulder. He was stroking her hair, his beefy arm still around her shoulder.
"It happened again, I think my wrist is sprained this time," she choked out, glancing at the mass in the other bed that was supposedly a sleeping Portman.
"You've got to let me tell someone about this, Julie, it's just going to get worse!" Fulton whispered to her, getting up to get a wrap for her wrist.
Julie sat there on the bed, holding her hurting wrist with her other hand, she looked terrible, her hair was in knots and there were tears running down her red and swollen face. Who had done this to her? What happened? Fulton knew something about it, how come he just hadn't told him when he had asked?
He watched as Fulton carefully took her hand and gently wrapped the bandage around it. "There," he said when he was finished.
"Thanks Fulton, I owe you one," Julie said in a clearer whisper. She had obviously stopped crying. She hugged him and went to the door.
"Just tell someone, okay?" Fulton called after her. The door shut. Fulton sighed and crawled back into his bed. "Thank God Portman didn't hear any of this," he said aloud.
Dean joined the rest of the group at breakfast the next morning. He looked over at Julie first thing, she had taken off the bandage Fulton had given her, but she had a bruise below her ear that she kept trying to cover up with her hair. When she reached to pick up her milk, she winced and set it back down and used her other hand.
"Hey, Portman," Ken called from a few seats away from him, "you wanna come watch practice today after school?"
He had a lot of homework to catch up on, so naturally he said, "Yeah, sure."
He was welcomed back to his classes with looks of pure intimidation from his classmates. Even though he was confound to a wheelchair, that still didn't mean his bravado had gone down the tubes. Luckily for him, he was so tall, he could stare some kids in the eye. He sat up tall in his chair, leering up at the kids who had the guts to stare down at him. Julie just laughed when she saw him in the hallway trying to look menacing. He stopped trying so much after that.
Portman, what are you doing sitting there? Get out here on the ice where you belong," Coach Oryan grunted at him the minute he saw him.
"Yeah, sure coach, nice to see you too," Dean grumbled back, trying to wheel himself over a bump to get onto the ice. He felt a push from behind, it was Charlie.
"Thought you could use some help," he said lightly and sped away.
"No thanks, Charlie, I think I can get over this bump just by myself, but thanks for asking!" He yelled after him sarcastically. He let out an angry sigh and slowly wheeled himself down near the goal Julie was defending in today's scrimmage.
At one point in the game, Luis had skated around the net and crashed into him. He was so focused on the game that he didn't even apologize, he whizzed off down the rink to the blue line. "Mendoza, one of these days…" he muttered violently under his breath and bent down to take the brakes off his wheels so he could go check him into a wall.
"Hold up there, big guy," Julie called to him, keeping her eyes on the game. "You know you're never going to be able to stop once you get going," she added from behind her mask.
"Shut up, I don't need any babysitter," he said, "but thanks anyway," he managed to add.
He could detect Julie's shoulder pads move, she had shrugged it off! Julie was always a fighter, how could this have happened? The Julie he had known would've come over and kicked him in the shins, not that it would hurt him any, and maybe have said a few choice words in his direction.
Adam skated by, he winked at Julie out of the corner of his eye and did a fancy move. Portman could've sworn he saw Julie retreat back into her net, even though Adam and her were playing on the same team. He grinned and sped off, what was that all about? He had nothing to prove to her, they all knew that he was going to be the most successful out of the lot of them, so why flaunt it now? Sometimes it felt like he couldn't hold back from kicking Adam's butt.
He kept his eyes on Julie, once he had been gone from her zone for a while, she seemed to shake herself and got out of the net. His stomach did something weird, like a flip…or a flop. What was wrong with her?
"Dude, why'd you stay down at Cat's end today? All the action was around Goldberg!" Fulton asked, turning down his music a little.
Portman lay on his bed. He thought he stayed there to protect her from Adam, if he made another repeat performance. He had been gone six months and had only been back one whole day and he could already tell something was up he wasn't being let in on. "I didn't want to get in the way," he answered truthfully, but it sounded more lame than honest.
Fulton shrugged good-naturedly and pulled his covers up tight around his neck, "Sweet dreams, dude."
Portman smiled and closed his eyes, letting the worries go. He hoped there would be another knock on the door that night, only he would open the door and Julie would fall into his arms. Wait, what? The sleep must have really taken over him by then. There wasn't a knock on their door for some time after that.
A week went by and Dean felt totally submersed in homework by the time the weekend rolled around. He had only been able to attend one more hockey practice, thanks to his English homework, some stupid play by Shakespeare, something about taming shrews. Fulton helped him with his math to the best of his abilities, but soon gave up, finding that Portman was totally unreasonable when it came to simple logic. Even Charlie tried to help him with his Geography, but was kicked out in an hour. Portman was showing them he was no different from when he had left.
But he was different.