I woke up the next morning to the ringing of the phone in my ear. The room was silent and my arm had fallen asleep from hanging off the side of the bed the majority of the night. I peered over the edge of the bed, expecting to find Fulton, awoken by the intrusive sound. The floor sat empty. He was gone...I said sitting up and looking around, a frantic feeling rising in my chest. Had I dreamt the whole thing? I asked myself, shaking my head to remember the night before. But the blankets were on the floor, folded neatly, yes, he had been here. The window sat open, letting the early morning sun rise peer into my window, I wasn't crazy. The phone sitting on my night stand continued to ring, the sound bring my thoughts back to the moment at hand. I quickly picked it up before it woke anyone else.

"Hello?"

"Tammy?" His voice was on the other end and sounded low.

"Fulton, where are you? I woke up and you were gone." I asked confused, placing my hand on my chest to slow my frantic breathing.

"I didn't want to get you in trouble...You know having a boy sleeping in your room.." He said still talking low, was he hiding that he was calling me.

"Fulton, are you okay?" I asked, worry marking my voice.

"Yeah, just meet me at the pond in an hour?" He asked, almost pleading with me to trust him and find away to get there.

"Okay..." I said getting up from the bed in such a hurry I almost fell over my sheets to get to the closet.

"See you soon..." He said before hanging up. I hung up, tossing the phone back on my night stand and running for the bathroom before Tommy woke up, it was, after all, our day off from practice. He would probably sleep until noon.

Fulton sat on the bench next to the ice, silently staring away from the few children that skated around the pond in the early morning air. I walked up to him nervously, wrapping my fingers together against my chest. He stood, seeing me approached him out of the corner of his eye.

"Fulton.." I said a bit breezing, hugging him. He just held me close as we stood there for a long time, searching for comfort in the other that there was something in this world to hang on to. Everything had went from normal to completely screwed up the night before. My life, once laid out and set, had been thrown into turmoil.

"I didn't know how mornings worked in your house so I just bolted before anything happened or anyone woke up." he said sitting down with me. I searched his eyes for answers, instead finding so much pain.

"Does it hurt?" I asked cautiously, "Getting hit like that?" I motioned with my hand to his back. He shrugged.

"Sometimes, other times I don't even feel it anymore. I'm numb to the pain..." He said rubbing his shoulder a little with his gloved hand.

"I'm sorry..." I said trying not to cry, I couldn't imagine one of my parents misusing my trust in such a way.

"It's not your fault...If he didn't drink so much..." Fulton started before stopping. "He can be a great guy sometimes, but lately he's just been getting worse.. My Mom's been working all the time and he's been laid off, so he has nothing better to do than drink." He said as I looked on.

"Fulton, anyone of us are here for you...I'm here for you... You can tell me anything, I'm here for you..." I said as he looked down. He didn't look at me, just took my hand in his and we sat there for a long moment just staring at the froze lake.

"Ever since he lost his job, hell for as long as I can remember my Mom and Dad have been fighting...it started out small...you know yelling and arguing...then one night, I broke one of the dishes helping to dry them and he just flipped out, hitting me until I couldn't move. Mom tried to get into it and he beat up her too. She was out of work for a week recovering." He said staring straight ahead. I bit my lip to keep from crying,

"Since that night it seems like he wants to take his anger out on us, I try to defend my mom but sometimes I can't, it just hurts too much.." He said trying to distance himself from everything including the pain that he had been holding inside.

"I started running after the first time, sleeping in the woods or wherever I can find a place to sleep, when he'd get angry and hit my Mom.." He said as I gripped his hand with both my hands now.

"Fulton, doesn't anybody know?" I asked, his eyes filled with worry.

"No...I can't tell anybody..." He said looking down again.

"But.." I started but he looked at me and I couldn't finish it.

"Promise me you won't tell anybody...I can't leave my Mom alone with him..." He said as my eyes filled, letting a few tears down my cheeks. His eyes were so pleading, so desperate to keep his secret. Fulton wiped my tears with his thumb, holding my face in his palm.

"Please, Tammy?" He asked. I felt like I was letting myself down but I shook my head in agreement,

"I won't tell anybody..." I promised.

It was raining again outside on Monday morning as Tommy and I walked to school. The rain beat hard on my small umbrella as Tommy hurried to keep up and share the umbrella. My thoughts were everywhere but on the long walk. I thought of Fulton and looked up at the sky with hazing eyes...It was going to be raining for a while, the clouds were predicting it.

"Can you wait up?" Tommy asked, stretching to keep up with his short legs. I slowed in realization and continued my heavy thoughts, moving to place the umbrella over my little brother's red head of hair.

"Sorry, Tommy.." I mumbled as he looked up at me in disbelief that I actually apologized to him.

I sat in science with my back to Fulton later that day but I knew he was staring at me. I smiled a little stealing a glace at him every now and then. He'd smile knowingly back before returning his attention to the teacher. He was actually trying to learn something. Connie noticed and smiled at me, puckering her lips and kissing the air. Guy thought it was for him and smiled widely, as if he'd just scored the winning goal of the state finals. I laughed looking back down at my school books for composure.

At lunch Fulton came and sat with the team, sitting next to me at the end of the table. The team was all talking about the game that night, completely unfazed by our new guest.

"I can't believe they moved our game from tomorrow to today..." Goldberg sighed.

"I know we're not ready..." Guy chimed in

"The cardinals are the second seated team..." Jesse said as Banks, McGill and Lawson from the Hawks came up, standing at the end of the table.

"Hey, Girls..." They said smiling widely after spotting me and Connie sitting at the other end,

"Oh, " Was McGill's first reaction, moving towards us, "Looks like Connie finally learned the purpose of make-up..." They laughed as Guy was going to say something. Connie stopped him with a hand to the chest to reassure him she had this one.

"Gee, McGill, did you finally learn what Clearasil is for...looks like most of your zits are gone.." Connie said as we all laughed. McGill mocked her before looking at me,

"You must be new..." He said leaning over at me. I tried to ignore him, not knowing what to say.

"He's talking to you.." Lawson said when I didn't look up. Before I could say anything, Fulton was standing up.

"I don't think she's interested..." He said as he stared down at them. Seeing as Fulton had messed them up before, They backed down and began to move away fast. The team looked at him and started wooping and laughing.

"Yeah, Fulton!" Jesse said high-fifing him. Goldberg was laughing and Charlie came over to sit next to him. Fulton smiled at the new popularity and started a conversation of Charlie. The rest of the day I saw him in the corner of my eye, somewhere near, making sure McGill wasn't bothering.

Warm-ups came and went fast as Coach asked us all to hang around for him to talk to us. We gathered in the conference room of the arena and waited. When I walked in Fulton was in the back next to Charlie, they were still talking about something. I walked quickly to find a seat next to him, but they were taken, so he got up and let me have his seat, standing next to me against the wall. Coach came in and threw us his pitch in a sense for the new Ducks Team logo. Everyone dissed it before Fulton and Charlie agreed to be Ducks, like usual everyone started to join in after that. Before I knew it, it was game time and we were facing the Cardinals. I sat on the bench looking at my nails after running some passing drills with Connie and Guy. Fulton came out of the locker room, skating much better than before. I smiled as he sat down next to me,

"So you ready?" He asked questioning me about the game.

"Yeah, you?" I asked.

"I think so..." he said looking at the other team.

"Fulton, you ready?" Coach Bombay asked,

"I think so..." He said.

"Let's try a few practice shots..." He said as Fulton joined him on the ice. I'd never actually seen this shot that everyone was talking about but I looked on from the bench with enthusiasm. He began to shoot putting all his anger into his shots, one even broke the glass as the rest of the team looking on. I smiled from under my helmet as everyone was in shock, The other team looked scared out of their minds to be facing his guy. The game went fast and we tied the other team with Fulton's pretend shot that turned into Guy's. We all went to the diner to eat after. Fulton actually had a good time, laughing and joking with everyone. He even let me buy him a burger.

I was still laughing as Fulton walked me home that night, his bag flung over his shoulder,

"That was so cool though, we might be able to still make the playoffs..." I said as he smiled.

"Yeah, that would be cool..." He smiled as we reached my front door.

"So you coming over tonight?" I asked as he looked down to the ground.

"Maybe, I'm gonna try to stay home tonight but I might..." He said low.

"Well, I'll leave my window open a bit..." I smiled waving goodnight to him and walking in the house.

I glanced at my clock as he climbed in the window, it was 1:30 am. He pulled the blankets out of the closet and laid down in complete silence. I never asked him anymore what happened, I just leaned over taking his hand as we fell back asleep, he'd finally got my Mom's schedule down and was out at 4:15 every morning before my practice...Sometimes, he'd even follow us and watch from behind my Mother.

The next game was on Friday, as I suited up, Fulton looking at me from his locker. He had chosen the one next to mine.

"What's the deal with the monster..." Tommy asked sitting next to me.

"Shut up..." I said continuing to change. I always wore one of my skating body suit underneath my uniform so I didn't have to change completely with the guys there, after all I was a girl. Connie picked up the idea from me after having to change in the shower stall too many times. Jesse and Peter came sulking in and sat not getting ready,

"Must be a guy thing..." I said as I grabbed my gear and putting it on. Coach Bombay came in a few minutes after that,

"Okay team, everybody ready..." He said as we sat to listen to him.

"Why aren't you guys dressed?" He asked Peter, Jesse and Terry, "Warm ups in a half an hour...I got some good news, we're getting another player, Adam Banks.."

"What!" Everybody started to yell.

"We're gonna need him if we make the play-off..."

"If, what now you think we're not good enough?" Karp asked.

"No, he thinks we're a bunch of losers..." Peter said getting up and walking out. Everyone became quiet as Terry and Jesse walked out as well,

"Look, I'm going up to the bench cause that's where I'm supposed to be, anyone that wants to join me can join me anyone that doesn't well..." He said walking out. I looked at Fulton as the door shut.

"Come on guys, he didn't mean it like that!" Charlie said getting into an argument with Connie and Guy.

"Come on, we're one win away from the play-offs!" Fulton said standing up.

"Guys, we can do this." Charlie added as Connie and Guy started packing their bags to go home. Tommy followed as did Karp and Goldberg. I looked up at Fulton,

"I'm sorry.." I said grabbing my bag to pack it too. Charlie and Fulton stormed out of the locker room, heading for the bench. I looked at Connie,

"Maybe we should give him another chance..." I said looking to see if Fulton had come back.

"No way. We don't need a coach like him..."She said stuffing things into her bag.

"What about all he's done for us, I mean the gear, the practices... Everything..." I said sitting down.

"It was all just a show!" Connie said slamming her locker and grabbing her bag to leave. Pretty soon Tommy and I were the only one's left. I sighed,

"I hope he doesn't hate me." I whispered getting up to follow Tommy out.