Disclaimer: I do not own the Ducks, nor am I affiliated with them. They are the property of Disney and Steven Brill, etc.
Chapter Two:
First period: Biology class. Julie sat beside Dean Portman, in the middle row of the classroom. He was a nice guy but he was lacking in the conversation department. At least to her. He was usually too busy talking about heavy metal music and or their up-coming games with his best bud, Fulton Reed who sat in the table next to them. She was fortunate to sit in front of Charlie and Adam's table. She turned around to face them. She might as well hold a conversation before class started.
"Hey guys," she greeted them.
"Hi, Julie." Charlie smiled.
"Hey," Adam greeted her. "How are you holding up with the Bash Brothers today?"
"I'm doing fine, but it would be nice if they included me in some conversations except from 'when's our assignment due?' or 'have you heard this new killer track?'" She explained.
The two guys laughed.
Their teacher, Mr. Connolly came in.
"Charlie, I need to ask you something after class." Julie said quickly.
"Yeah sure." he smiled.
"Thanks," she grinned before she turned back around.
"Now class, I know everyone has already picked out their partners for this up-coming project. But I've taken into liberty with making the partners already."
The class groaned. Assigned partners were never good.
"The partners are Averman and Mendoza, Moore and Caldwell, Jefferson and Reed, Portman and Conway, Young and Davis, Banks and Gaffney..." Mr. Connolly's voice was suddenly out of Julie's range. Did I hear him right? Banks and Gaffney? Whoa. Suddenly Julie was starting to appreciate Mr. Connolly's opinion.
She jumped when a light tap came on her shoulder from behind. She turned around and faced Adam.
"Hey," she slightly blushed.
"Hey. Sorry about that." He returned. "Quite a shock, huh?"
"Yeah," Julie nodded. She had to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Okay, she wasn't.
"Ladies choice. You can pick out subject." Banks offered.
"Thanks," she smiled. "Hmm, that one looks interesting. Do you want to study the process of photosynthesis?"
"Yeah, that one sounds good." He agreed smiling.
Julie had always known that Banks was good looking but sometimes she wondered how he wasn't affected with the snob-elite at Eden Hall. Adam was rich and his father made it clear that he wanted Adam to go to Ivy League University. Julie found herself questioning, why he was so different from all the guys she knew? A lot of the wealthy guys she knew loved to rub it in everyone's face but Adam wasn't like that. If he didn't wear preppy clothing, she would have sworn he came from a middle class family.
"Do you want to talk about how to break down the work on the way to history?" she suggested.
"Sure. Right now let's discuss how we're going to set it up." Adam said.
"Okay," Julie told.
Him and Julie lab-partners. That never happened. Score!
Adam found himself looking up at Julie whenever he could without making it obvious that he liked her. He had liked Gaffney almost the instant they met two years ago, at the Jr. Goodwill Games. And their friendship was instant, as soon as they noticed that they both liked a lot of the same music, books and hockey players.
He liked how she was her own person and did things her own way. He envied her in that sense. Heck, she got thrown out of their game against Iceland and left the ice with her chin up. He was shy when it came to girls and was used to taking orders. He took orders from his coach, teachers and his father. He didn't like it but every time he tried to break out, he'd wuss out and go back to being a worker instead of a boss.
The two of them had gotten a lot of work done in the remainder of the class.
"Hey, Julie I'll walk with you to history?" he asked.
"Great," She said. She could feel her heart race and instantly told herself to calm down.
"Julie!" a deep voice called. It was Charlie.
"Hold up a sec, Adam." Julie stated. "Could you wait for me at the door?"
"Yeah," He grabbed his books and headed to the doorway.
"Hey," Charlie answered when he reached her. "So what's up?"
"Actually the problem's solved. I'll tell you what was up. I was going to ask you to switch partners with me. I helped Portman get a good mark in the last project but it was easy to tell that he didn't understand it. So I figured that you could probably get through to him better than I could. Maybe it's a guy-thing?" Julie explained. "Everything's worked out now. So I'll see you for practice after school."
"Yeah, bye." He waved her off as she walked down the hall with Adam.
Even though Julie's explanation had made sense, Charlie wondered suddenly why Julie would want to switch partners with him. To be honest, he figured that Portman would pay more attention to her than he would to him. Then again, it could be a guy-thing?
All of a sudden an idea hit him. She liked Banks.
Charlie laughed to himself. He knew that Adam had a crush on Julie for sometime now and then all of a sudden, he gets paired up with his crush. What a conspiracy! He'd ask Julie during the after school practice whether or not she was interested in Banks.
"Was Charlie able to help you out?" Adam asked.
"Yeah, pretty much," Julie said. They walked a few more steps down the hall without speaking. She cleared her throat. "Adam, I was meaning to ask you what was it like on Varsity?"
"Let's just say during every practice, they were out to get me. I always made sure I was the first one out of the locker room. They were just brutal," He sighed. "I was pretty surprised to know that I made Varsity." Deciding to change the subject, he asked. "Is it true that Goldberg tried to get you fat?"
She rolled her eyes.
"You can blame this all on Averman. You know how I beat Goldberg for starting goalie?" She reminded him as he nodded. She continued. " Goldberg asked Averman if he would be a better goalie if he shed a few pounds and that's when Averman said it would be easier for me to gain a few pounds. Sure, the pastries were all fun- for a while. The following week, I ralphed in one of the penalty boxes. I could hear Goldberg say 'One cupcake over the line, Catlady.' That's when I knew he wanted to take my place. I got even. You know when Goldberg came in with mono? I didn't kiss him but the school snake, Webster did. I snuck into Averman's and Goldberg's dorm room with Connie. Goldberg kissed the snake during his sleep."
They both laughed.
"Remind me not to get on your bad side," He joked.
She smiled. "It would take a lot for anyone to get on my bad side." Especially you, she wanted to add.
When they arrived in history class, Julie had quickly noticed that Adam had stopped dead at the doorway.
"Banks? Are you okay?" She asked. When he didn't reply, she waved a hand over his face. "Hello, earth to Adam?"
"Huh?" He suddenly jerked out of his trance. No, it couldn't be...
"Are you okay?" Julie repeated.
"Sort of. I just saw an old acquaintance back from junior high." He explained.
"Care to tell me who?" she kindly wondered.
"You'll meet her in a second." Banks said.
Her? Julie wondered.
They both walked over to the desk where the new girl was.
"Dana?" Adam asked. Oh yeah, it's her. There was no mistaking that high society debutante that was Dana Stanton. Beautiful. Icy. Controlling. That was Dana.
She looked up and saw him. Dana was pretty. She wasn't as pretty as Julie or Connie but was more ballerina-type attractive. She had long light strawberry-blond hair and blue eyes.
"Adam?" she exclaimed. "Hi!"
"Hey. What are you doing here?" He questioned.
"I'm just transferred here." Dana told, then she looked over to Julie waiting for an introduction.
"Dana Stanton meet Julie Gaffney. She's the starting goalie for the Ducks." He said.
"Hi," Julie shook hands with Dana.
"A girl goalie." Dana replied, uninterested.
That's it? I'm just the goalie? Julie's brain screamed silently at Banks. Without me, you guys wouldn't be half as feared.
"I'm going to sit down. Class is about to start," she said to both of them.
"I'll be there in a sec." He told.
Great, she thought. I lost him before I even had him.
A/N: Please read and review. I would love to get feedback. And thanks to Roxie and Dorothy for helping me out!
Analee