We entered the arena looking around in awe at the largeness of the place and were shocked at the fact that Coach Bombay knew two of the star hockey players. He had brought us there as a celebration for making the playoffs. I looked at Fulton, sitting on the bench as we changed our shoes into skates,

"This is so cool." I cooed with excitement. He smiled like a kid on Christmas morning.

"I've never been here before. I've never been anywhere before." He said looking around. I smiled, taking his hand to pull him out on the ice. Everyone was skating around, just enjoying the free time. Guy and Connie were holding hands, big surprise, I thought skating around Fulton as some of the other guys were messing around. I was practicing my routine for the competition, it was supposed to be on the day after the Championships were to be held. I wasn't ready yet with the set backs of last week and my Mother was relentless in her pursuit of a gold medal. Every once in a while Fulton would interrupt me pulling me one way or the other and we would start messing around, sliding into other people and knocking them over. We took out Connie and Guy three times. They were not happy with us by the end of the day.

We went to the North Stars game that night as Banks and Fulton started talking and Jesse didn't want to sit next to Banks, so he ended up in between Fulton and I but I was just glad to see Fulton was having a good time considering he'd only been to the pee-wee hockey games where it was free to get in. We came home that night on a high and were laughing throughout the walk home.

"Why don't you just come in now?" I asked as we stood on my front steps.

"Tammy…"

"Fulton come on, for once, spare yourself." I said taking his hand. He smiled a little and walked with me into the house, unafraid of if anyone would see us. Tommy had ran to his room already and it looked like the parentals were asleep so we snuck up the stairs and closed my door quiet. We laughed a little as Tommy was in his room singing to New Kids On The Block.

"He's such a dork." I said having no excuse for my brother at this very moment. Fulton laughed too, a little from embarrassment, a little with happiness to feel accepted.

"Sometimes, I wish I had a brother or a sister." He said setting up his blankets on the floor.

"Tammy?" My Mom called from the hall. I moved Fulton towards the closet,

"Yeah, Mom?" I asked, waiting to see the door handle move.

"Just checking to make sure you got home." She said, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." I said as she walked away, I could hear the floor boards creak as she moved.

"That was close." I laughed looking at Fulton. He looked down at me and leaned in, going to kiss me.

"Tammy?" Tommy called from the hall. I sighed with frustration and turned my face into a grimace,

"What now, punk?" I yelled opening the door a crack to see him standing there in his PJ's with the feet on them. I laughed at the sight,

"Look, they still fit, I'm going to wear them." He said walking away with the butt flap up.

"I think you got a air hole." I called after him with a laugh. If Fulton had seen that I would have been embarrassed. I shut my door and saw Fulton already on the floor before turning to the closet to get a pair of shorts and a t-shirt to sleep in.

"I'm going to go change." I said as the tension in the room could be cut with a knife. I exited the room, going to the bathroom to change and found myself thinking about him. 'He was sleeping on my floor and I think he almost kissed me there.' I said to myself as I exited the bathroom walking past Tommy's room, he was still singing and dancing on his bed in his PJ's. The door sat open and I quietly shut it, letting a small smile play on my lips. Opening the door to my room, I found Fulton already asleep. I turned the light off and settled into bed, remembering the way he had looked at me.

The next few days were a blur as I practiced for 5 hours each day, both hockey and skating and then had to do homework, the only time that was my own was when I went to sleep at night and Fulton was there. He was becoming my best friend, next to Connie of course, who was my best friend...He was different though, I could tell him different things than I told Connie and we spent as much time together as we could, he'd even taken to coming with me and Tommy to practice figure skating in the morning. He'd sit and watch as we skated, smiling at me as I passed him. My Mother found this annoying and one morning voiced her opinion,

"Tammy, the competition's on the ice, not in the stands." She moaned with annoyance.

"Sorry." I mumbled still smiling at Fulton. My Mother had to admit, my skating wasn't suffering, and it was actually better when he was there.

"You looked really good out there today." He commented as we walked to the park later that night. It was snowing up at the sculptures in the park, I had wanted to see them, so Fulton offered to walk with me. It wasn't a date, I had told Connie earlier in the day when she teased me. At least that's what I told myself. We saw Coach Bombay and Ms. Conway there and waved politely, continuing our walk, stopping in front of some lit up sculptures.

"Fulton, everything is so beautiful." I said taking his hand. He smiled at me and led me to the next display, never letting go of my hand that night. It was Christmas Eve and approaching ten pm by the time we made it to my front door that night. I smiled,

"So you're going to be over tomorrow sometime?" I asked letting go of his hand for the first time that night.

"Yeah, I'll be here." He said as I leaned in and hugged him close. "Thank you for taking me tonight. I needed to relax." I said kissing his cheek. My cheeks reddened and I waited with nervous anticipation as to what his reaction would be. His lips turned up into a smile and I smiled too.

"Merry Christmas, Fulton." I said, turning to enter my house.

"Merry Christmas, Tammy." He mumbled, walking away into the cold night air.

I woke up the next morning at 6 am and Fulton was laid out on my floor, as usual.

"It's Christmas!" I said getting up and almost tripping over Fulton in the process. He rolled over groggy,

"What's going on?" He asked. I jumped on him,

"It's Christmas."

"So what?" He asked putting the pillow over his head.

"Fulton, get up!" I said jumping up and down on his butt.

"Stop it!" He yelled, slowly moving to look at me; I smiled down at him,

"Please, Fulton?" I asked. He groaned,

"Fine." He said, grabbing his flannel shirt and putting his shoes on to seem like he just got there and we opened my door to look out, no one was up yet so we were safe. We snuck down the stairs and he put his coat and shoes over by the door, coming in to sit with me in the living room. I grabbed a box from under the tree.

"Fulton, this is from me." I said handing him the box. He smiled taking it and opening it quickly. It was the leather coat that he had wanted,

"I hope you still like it, I saved my allowance for it." I said as he looked at it in shock. Fulton just looked at it and back at me.

"Tammy...I don't know what to say." He said in complete shock.

"Say, Thank you. Put it on." I said helping him try it on.

"Thank you, Tammy." He said staring at me. He put his hands on my cheeks and smiled at me leaning in to kiss me before I heard my parents waking up.

"I better go." He said smiling and walking to the door. "I better leave this...don't want my Dad to see it." He said still smiling. I took the jacket, hugging it to my chest as he opened the door, leaving quickly. My Mother walked down the stairs behind me,

"Was someone here?" She asked yawning.

"No, I just found Fulton left his jacket here last night when he dropped me off." I said holding the jacket.

"Oh." She said heading for the kitchen to make breakfast. I quickly got rid of the wrapping paper and placed the jacket in my room before helping my Mother in the kitchen.

I sat down at my desk to get a start on my holiday assignments later that night, feeling the jacket against my back. I grinned, wrapping it around me and taking it the scent Fulton had left on it. I smiled returning to my work. After that was all done, I settled into bed to wait for Fulton. He emerged at my window a few minutes later with a red rose in hand. I smiled as he climbed in my window handing it to me.

"I'm sorry, it's not much." He said handing me the rose. I smiled,

"You remembered my favorite color." I said leaning up and kissing him on the cheek, "Thank you." I said laying the flower on my desk. He smiled at me,

"You're my best friend." He smiled back. In a way, I felt a little sad to hear him say that.