Author's Note- [Kaila] Yes Jessi still has a part in this she just… I dunno what she's doing right now. This is once again some short snippets of different scenes to set the grounds for more action and in depth "coverage". I'm going to start bringing in a lot of original characters that don't play a huge part in the story. I just find it ridiculous when everyone has the Ducks be friends with only the Ducks. As always all flames, notes, praise, and just random comments are appreciated, for I am a note whore.

Disclaimer- New disclaimer time! To anyone wishing to sue for I own none of this, even the OC's names and personas belong to living people, you may and will receive a banana Popsicle. Mmmmm…

~*~

Julie sprawled out aimlessly on her bed, semi unconscious, having been unable to get a good night's sleep since Tuesday. As she pondered the thought me, she decided that's the last time she had showered, even including 3 hockey practices.

'That would explain the smell Alliy keeps mentioning,' she thought to herself, remembering her roommate and Connie's close friend's reaction. She wasn't a particularly bad person to be placed with, the average sized blonde wasn't prissy in a stereotypical sense, had mastered the tomboy veneer and preferred to lounge around in soccer shorts and t-shirts. Her constant hyperactivity was overwhelming and frustrating, yet was often good for a laugh. The two girls were mutual friends, shared conversations about school and sports, yet never truly connected. Julie was described as a tyrant, a real bitch, while Alliy was well liked and social, who's constant training for soccer and field hockey and ever changing stream of boyfriends and activities isolated the two. And the fact that it was a Friday night would answer her question to where the girl would be. Off with her boy toy du jour (although you could never truly tell where her feelings lay for when she wasn't hanging off the poor guy in the halls and in the dorm, she was touching and flirting with anything that contained a Y chromosome in site and was within reasonable age difference).

Just as she turned over to inhale the musky scent of body odor and spearmint that seemed to radiate from her mint green comforter, the door to the room opened and simultaneously a voice shot her up from her half slumber.

"Julie Gaffney, it is 10 pm on a Friday night and you're lounging around in bed?" the boy spat sarcastically. Sure enough, in all straight moppy hair, purse carrying, satirical goodness it was Nick. One of the only people in whom she could relate to and bitch to and yet be respected by. Together they were the assholes of Eden Hall.

"Yes sir Nicholas," she mumbled, face still burrowed deep into her bed.

"And honestly woman," he retorted approaching the bed. "You reek like freshly slaughtered pig on a hot humid day. When is the last time you showered." Grabbing a piece of her limp blonde hair he tossed it where it landed back on shoulder. "Your hair is going to turn into a giant lump of green tainted mold if you aren't to at least attempt to wash it soon. I could fix the breaks to my car with this oil. And those clothes? I know people who have rags more attracti-"

"Since when you were the connoisseur of all that's fashionable and clean Billings?" she cut off his rant abruptly, sitting up facing him.

"Since I heard that my lady Katerina had once again taken a vow of poison towards all other humans and had locked herself in her room," he raised his eyebrow mockingly.

"Well this shrew is just fine. She has yet to bite your head off correct?"

"You can't fight fire with fire," he spat walking across the room.

"Well Petrucio-" she began to lecture, pausing when she noticed him walk to Alliy's side of the room, tearing a blink-182 and Green Day poster off from beside her bed, crumpling it, tossing it to the ground, muttering under his breath the hazards of subjecting one's ears to such garbage. "You yourself are not exactly the most hospitable of sorts."

"Obviously. Why else do you think I'd spend time with you," he winked as he wiped his hands on his black From Autumn to Ashes t-shirt and approached Julie once again.

"Desperate," she shrugged.

"Not as much as yourself, who would rather pine over a lost teammate and possible friendship because of her own bitterness, instead of focusing on the other things life has to offer, such as for one, hygiene," he responded, opening the flap to the small black bag (or purse as the student body had dubbed it) strung across his body with a strap covered in small pins and pulling out a notebook. Julie glared at him in response.

"I knew that would be your first and most basic reaction to the truth, which will soon be followed by a strong urge to beat me to a near pulp. So," he tore a small page of the book folding it in half and tossing it in front of her on the bed. "I thought I'd give you this and be on my way, seeing as I'm not one for violence. Good day my lady," he curtsied; walking out of the room, door slamming behind him as quickly as he had entered.

Furious that her friend had one upped her, in the constant battle for satirical superiority they held, she grabbed the sheet of paper which was floating upon the sea of green, and held it momentarily. With one fluent motion she stood beside her bed and turned around to open the small window. Grinning she tossed the crumbled note out the window which fell two stories into a large evergreen tree which was right out side Billing's own window, in sure sight. Leaving the window ajar, finally realizing the rancid smell of the room, she grabbed a clean towel from Alliy's stack of laundry and made her way to the bathroom.

~*~

Charlie stumbled along the cold damp sidewalk, pulling his lightweight hockey jersey closer to his body, attempting to keep out the chill. His clothes, pipe, hoodie, and all of his other belongs lay back in the apartment building or in his dorm room, making him scowl at his decision to wear the jersey in the first place. His face, kissed moist with perspiration from his emotional outcry and the freezing air pasted his damp curls to his forehead. He fought back tears of frustration, which trickled slowly down his cheeks freezing into tiny crystals, numb with the bite of the air, choking on the knot of aggravation that was lodged in his throat. He had yet to lift his vision from his feet, although he saw nothing. His thoughts and senses had blurred into a singular sense of murky rage. Unable to take in his surroundings, the dim streetlights that illuminated the dank sidewalk and small structures and houses that crammed the block to the occasional passing of a car, he walked obliviously.

His steps became a mechanical and time became incoherent long before he awoke from his frenzied daze. He stopped abruptly, looking up. A familiar dented street sign stood in front of him, lamely protruding from a patch of leafless sticklike trees, informing him of his location. Lifting his arm, which passed the stages of numbness half an hour ago and was now beginning to burn with pricks of heat, he looked at the face of his cheap digital watch, which read 2:43. For the first time in days a true grin spread across his face, although difficultly for his features seemed to be frozen into place, no longer able to be felt. 'Good,' he whispered to himself, his breath creating a lingering cloud of fog. 'He'll still be up.'

~*~

Connie stood in the petit kitchen, which seemed to radiate with warm colours and smells, creating a comforting atmosphere washing the dinner dishes with Donna.

"Connie dear, you don't have to help me," she told the girl scrubbing the pasta pot. "It's Friday night, go out and have fun."

"Oh it's the least I can do. And I was just planning on staying around here tonight," she shrugged, placing the silverware in the dishwasher. "Maybe watch a movie, sleep, do some homework, just usual relaxing things."

"Well… if you insist," the woman responded, mixed between shock that a teenager wanted to stay home and work on homework on a Friday night and sympathy for she knew she hadn't met anyone yet and was alone. Seeing that the last dishes were put away Connie nervously pulled her hands into the sleeves of her navy blue Roxy hoodie. As she began to walk towards the dark narrow staircase that led to the basement where the guestroom was, she bumped into Chris who was on his way out through the kitchen to his car.  Flustered, he mumbled under his breath and quickly attempted to walk behind his mother to leave.

"Wait, Chris where are you going?" she asked turning to him.

"Just out with some of the guys, I dunno there might be a party over at Vannatta's, I dunno," he shrugged, towering over his mum.

"Okay, just, why don't you bring Connie with you," she suggested pulling down his coat sleeves which he had pushed up to his elbows. "It'd be nice if you could introduce her to some of the guys," she nudged him. Connie listened attentively; stopping at the door downstairs that was right next to the kitchen. She had planned on calling Guy to pass some of the time, but she couldn't help but think a party sounded much more intriguing.

"Um… if she wants, that'd be fine," he offered his voice deeper than any of the guys she knew.

"Well Connie do you want to?" Donna asked. She turned around, pulse racing, and palms sweaty in a sense of nervous anticipation.

"Sure, if it's okay with Chris," she replied, attempting to sound slightly indifferent, trying to stifle her excitement.

"Fine with me," he shrugged.

"Sounds like a plan then."

~*~

A/N 2- Once again I leave out high quality Charlie angst that I had planned. Got too caught up in the rest of the subplots. But never fear, I guarantee in the next chapter that it will be a Charlie/Banks focus, and you'll find out where he is.