springchick5759: Okay, wow. Wow, you know what, you're getting ahead of me. Who says Maurae's gonna choose Adam, anyway? But keep your fingers crossed for me. This story's already evolved beyond my original vision.

punkteacher: Yes, I liked that little quotation too. And it fit, don't you think?

AN: Not my best work, but I had to shove this one through my nose to get the creativity flowing again. My muse wasn't cooperating, so I had to go hire three more. They're crazy. Here it is, for your reading enjoyment.

AN: CHAPTER DEDICATION TIME! This one goes to my "Cookie monster" reviewer named ChocolateCoveredJockey. You still want to give me that cookie? I like chocolate chip best! -wink- I'm so glad you like my story. This one is becoming a favorite, a pride of mine...aw, let's face it...this thing's my baby! I'm glad you like it. So, so glad. :)

"Shipped Direct from Hell"

"I should have known," Maurae growled as she tripped down the last few stairs, falling headfirst into the wall.

"Should have known what?" Julie asked sleepily, offering a hand to help her up. Maurae took it and was soon upright again, pulling her backpack higher on her shoulders.

"Should have known not to say anything last night. I said it would probably not get much worse, and guess what? It has. And not just a little! I almost electrocuted myself this morning when I turned on the light in the bathroom. Carrie's filled those stupid outlets with so much...crap! Then I couldn't find my toothbrush, and when I did, it had fallen behind the sink and was covered in dust bunnies. Okay, so I'm not about to brush my teeth with dust bunnies. So I grab some gum. Well, the damn gum has turned my tongue blue. I have fallen down the stairs, and now I have a headache. And the day hasn't even really started yet!"

Julie raised her eyebrows, as if to tell her friend she was being paranoid, but Maurae blinked and looked away. She knew she was being psychotic, but she didn't care. It was all she could do to keep from screaming at the others that their lives were over.

Drama, drama, drama.

Maurae and Julie walked across the manicured lawns to the general mess and got in line for their breakfasts. As usual, they got cold cereal, the one thing the cafeteria staff couldn't mess up.

It was the same, always the same. Though only two days into what they all considered living hell, they felt pretty well used to it by now. It was a blur of misery from the moment they woke up to the moment they fell, exhausted, into bed. Even the team chatterboxes, Averman and Goldberg, had nothing to say. On Monday morning, when Orion had scheduled an extra practice for them, he'd stuck Goldie on defense, since they were now down an enforcer. After the initial complaints, they had shut up and done their work. No one wanted to raise Orion's ire any more than they already had.

By all rights, Maurae should have been in a better mood. She'd been moved up to her old oposition of center forward, first line. However, the default status ruined any celebratory impulses she might have had. And she hated Charlie for it. She was furious with him. After what she'd said, after what he'd done! But she missed him fiercely, the same way she missed her brothers when she was in Minnesota.

The same way she missed Adam now that she wasn't talking to him.

'I have to stop thinking about it or I'll end up forgiving him and...' And what? She'd look weak? Or lovesick? She was neither. She just hated being mad at people she loved. And she wasn't even really mad at them. She was disappointed, and frustrated by both of their unwillingness to reconcile...she hated their stubbornness. And she hated it because she knew she had it too. She was too stubborn to forgive them when they asked.

Blearily, she dragged herself back to reality and looked around. Only a few of the others were present, but when she looked, she saw the rest of the Varsity team eating and chatting gaily. 'God, what do I do?' It was a desperate prayer, and she didn't feel better, nor did she feel guided. She slumped miserably onto the table and sighed. Maybe if she forgave him and got it over with, she'd feel better.

"I'm gonna go talk to Scooter," Julie said next to her. "He said something on Saturday that made me think..." Maurae felt a rush of something and she stared at her friend. Maybe God was listening after all.

"I'll come too," she said, standing up. The goalie sent her a peevish look, so Maurae felt the need to explain herself. "I think I need to talk to Adam." Blue eyes softened and Julie nodded.

"All right, then, let's go." Maurae sighed, determined, and picked up her backpack, following Julie across the room. "Hey, Scott. Can I have a word?" Maurae thought it might have been the surprise of Julie's sudden request that made the other goalie nod, but he did, and got up.

"Um...Ads, could I-"

"Aw, how sweet," Riley interrupted in a lazy drawl. She bristled, knowing he was making a crack at her more-southern-than-Minnesota accent. "The girlies have come to say hi to their boyfriends!"

"He is not my boyfriend!" both girls exclaimed in unison. Maurae elaborated. "Adam is my best friend. Ads, could I talk to you?"

"I don't think he wants to talk to you right now," Riley said, narrowing his eyes at her. "You see, he knows who his real friends are."

"Adam, if you think I am going to let this infantile specimen of the male species intimidate me when I don't let Gunnar Stahl intimidate me, then you don't know me half as well as I thought you did." She was using the big words to make him smile, like it always did. He was still determined to stare a hole in the table before him. She sighed. "Ads, please. I need to talk to you!"

"So talk." Riley was obviously enjoying this, completely unfazed by her exemplary vocabulary.

"I would like to tell Adam something."

"Anything you can say to him, you can say to us."

She glared at him, hands on her hips, but swallowed hard. She knew God wouldn't make it that easy for her to swallow her pride. "Ads, you're my best friend. I love you like you're my brother. I...I wanted to say I'm sorry. For the way I've been acting, the way I've been avoiding you. It was stupid and stubborn and prideful, and I...I was wrong to do it." He finally looked up, his eyes unreadable. She never not been able to not read her friend.

"No," he said softly. "You were right to do it. You were only following your coach's orders. Besides, you helped remind me that I am on Varsity now. These are my teammates." She took a step back. Of all the results she could have gotten from him, this was the worst. Cold indifference.

Oh yes, this day was straight from hell, courtesy of special messenger, custom made with her name on it.

It took all she had to keep from bursting into tears right there. She didn't have anything left to keep him from seeing her hurt too. Julie was the only good thing right then. The blonde slipped an arm around her shoulders, glaring red fury at Adam.

"I think you just kissed her friendship goodbye, Banks," she growled. "And mine too." She pulled Maurae to her and scowled. "Come on, hon. Let's go find Connie." Maurae nodded and turned her back on the one person she'd thought would forgive her readily. Julie continued murmuring comforting things to her as they crossed the mess again, this time in reverse.

"I can't believe what I was thinking," she finally managed to control herself enough to mutter. "God, how stupid was that!"

"Ro, it wasn't stupid. It was brave. Bad enough to have to tell Adam you were wrong. But to go ahead and do it in front of Varsity...? I dunno if I'd have been able to stand the humiliation...oops. Sorry, I didn't mean that the way it came out."

"I know, Jules. Thanks, though. For what you meant, not what you said." It was the first smile, however faint, that Julie had seen that morning. "Come on, we've got class. And I only managed to finish half of what Madigan assigned us." She sighed. "At least we don't have any form of quiz or test today. I love Tuesdays."

"For that reason only," Julie said with a grin. Maurae was loosening up again, and it was good to see.

"Whatever. Come on. I want to see if Ken'll let me copy the rest of it."

"What about me?"

"Jules, no offense, but if I copy yours, I'm sure she'll know. Your answers are always so...perfect. Like you wrote them out of the textbook. Ken's...Ken's are a little more contemporary high school student."

"No offense taken...I think." The two girls left the mess and hurried to their biology class.

"Ken!" Maurae exclaimed joyfully when they walked in. The Asian boy blinked and shrank back a little.

"What do you want?"

"Can't I say hi to my friend without an ulterior motive?"

"No!" chorused three voices.

"Averman has it anyway. So you'll have to copy over his shoulder," Ken said in reply to the unasked question. When she raised an eyebrow, he shrugged. "No, I can't read your mind. I just knew you hadn't finished it. You never came into the common room last night."

"Thanks," she said, dropping her bag onto her desk and pulling out her homework binder, ripping a pencil from the front pocket and glancing over Averman's shoulder at the neatly completed biology assignment. She jotted down the salient points of the answers she was missing and then returned to her seat, only a moment before Adam walked in. The Ducks ignored him completely, though Maurae bit her lip before focusing on the corner of her desk. The tension in the room had just multiplied...exponentially.

Maurae pulled her drawing pad out of her bag and flipped it open, both to distract her from Adam's presence and to work on her mid-term for 2D Art. "Hey, that's pretty good," commented Ken, on his way to his seat from retrieving his commandeered homework. She looked up, flushed, and looked down.

"You think so?"

"You've got skills."

"I like writing better, but this is fun," she said with a shrug.

"Well, it's cool. I like that symbol. What does it mean?"

"Oh, this is the symbolic representation for Pluto. I was doodling with the planetary symbols and decided to work one into my design." She shrugged with one shoulder. "It's weird, I know, but I have obscure references stored in my brain. My older brother took astronomy last year." Madigan swept in then, cutting off further conversation, and Ken practically ran back to his assigned seat, setting his homework on the corner of his desk for collection. The rest of the class followed his example.

Maurae managed to pay more attention to the lecture than to Adam for once, and a good thing too, since she didn't understand half of it at first glance. She actually breathed an audible sigh of relief when the bell rang. Three periods without Adam, and then lunch. She caught Julie's eye and smiled slightly.

The blonde grinned. They joined Ken and Russ, waiting for them in the hall, and the quartet made its way to geometry.

Julie laughed when she got to the mess and found Maurae seated as usual, but with her head on her arms on the table. "Tired?"

"Uh...no, sorry. Thinking." From her solemn tone, Julie could guess what she was thinking about.

"Come on, girl. Cheer up. We've got a game this afternoon. No detention. It's always good to get onto the ice."

"Yeah," Maurae replied noncommitally. She shrugged and leaned back in her chair. Suddenly, she brightened. "Sum 41!" she exclaimed. Ken, Averman, Julie, and Guy all raised their eyebrows at her and she grinned sheepishly. "I was trying to remember something. I've had the words to a song stuck in my head all day, and I couldn't remember what it was. It was "Still Waiting," Sum 41. This can't last forever. Time won't make things better. I fell so alone, can't help myself, but no one knows." They blinked at her. "Yeah, sounds depressing, I know. But it's an awesome song." They continued to stare at her, so she flushed and crossed her arms. Then she proceeded to defiantly hum the chorus, making them laugh.

"Well, at least somebody's in a better mood," Averman said. Her face fell, suddenly reminded that this day was from hell. Russ slapped the redhead over the back of his head as he sat down, but Maurae immediately smiled again, though everyone present knew it was more forced. "So, do you think he's starting Goldie tonight?" asked Averman to cover the sudden uncomfortable silence. Luis glared at him as he sat down, but other than that, people muttered the affirmative.

"We know Ro's starting," Ken said. "And Jules. Obviously. Maybe Orion wants to distract the other team with the girls' pretty faces while they pound them into the ice. Course, the rest of us can just stand back and watch, right, ladies?" Maurae, Connie, and Julie beamed at him.

"Okay, I'm Kenny's biggest fan!" Connie exclaimed. "That's the nicest thing anyone's said to me all day!"

"Hey!" Guy exclaimed, affronted. "I told you you looked nice this morning! Doesn't that count?"

"Oh, right. Sorry." They all shared a laugh.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't all shipped direct from hell.

"So, Goldie, do you think you can handle Fulton's job?" Luis asked conversationally, his eyes straying across the caf and zeroing in on Riley's girlfriend. Maurae shook her head.

"Man, you're asking for it with her."

"I know," he said, grinning. She only rolled her eyes, glancing over by the doors to see if Shayne was hanging out with her friends.

She spotted her cousin laughing and chatting happily with..."Oh My God!" she shouted, shooting to her feet and causing strange looks to home in on her from nearby tables. Her friends all looked up at her, but she was shaking herself free of the chair and her bag, with a smile on her face, a genuine smile. "Fulton's back!" she cried over her shoulder as she ran through the aisles. The burly enforcer saw her coming and stood up with a good-natured smile, to catch her as she threw herself on him. "Fult, Fult, you're back!"

"It would seem that way, yes," he said with a small smile. He greeted everybody else who'd come, and then they all left the caf to talk.

Yeah, hell had officially left the building.

flyinghawk: Kenny for you, just for you. He is a sweetheart, isn't he...um, he's still single. You want?

CandieBabie30: Soon enough?

springchic5759: OMG, I'm so sorry! I meant to have this all up and posted, and then I kind of got writer's block. I am so, so, soooooo sorry!

TamPhuoc: Interesting name. Hope you like the latest installment.

antiIRONY: Girl, why do you put up with me? Anyway, here she is. Surprise twist, I think, that no one was expecting. Not even me. Um, another thing. Now that you're a staff member of the C2, you can add stories, you know. It would be nice if they came from other fandoms than just MD, HP, and LotR.

AN: I know that the game comes next, but little was known about it, save that they lost and that Goldie was on defense for the first time. Next chapter contains the mention of character death.