Disclaimer: Again, I own nothing.

Summary: Julie and Connie go shopping, and Julie starts to think about things. Luis meanwhile is doing sprints to try to clear his mind of thoughts of Julie, when he runs into Charlie, and spills his guts.

Author's Note: Alright, so now things are actually starting to heat up!

Broken Gem: I'm glad I'm not the only person to think up this pairing. I've noticed there is very little anything of Luis anywhere, which makes me sad, because well, I love him. To be fair, it's not just because of the character Luis, but because Mike Vitar is also Benny the Jet...anyway. As for Portman/Julie, I like it but not as much as Adam/Julie.

Hiding in The Shadows: I loved that I came up with that line, I'm very proud of it. I could actually hear Aaron Lohr saying it as I wrote it.

Chapter 2: Shopping and Sprints

The next day Julie flipped through the many racks of dresses in a small store in The Mall of America. She had been saving bits of her allowance for a dress, and a few days ago her mother had wired her an extra $200 with a note that read:

Find a dress you love! But make sure Mrs. Moreau approves!

Mrs. Moreau and Mrs. Gaffney had made friends in LA at the Goodwill Games, and when Julie moved to Minnesota to go to Eden Hall, her mom had insisted that Mrs. Moreau take on all momly duties. This included helping Julie pick out a prom dress.

"What about this one?" Connie held up a puffy pink dress with beading on the bust line.

"Um, I don't think it's very me." Julie said making a face. "You can try it if you want." Connie shook her head and put the dress down.

"So I was thinking," Mrs. Moreau came over to the girls. "Maybe you should come over after school on Prom day, Julie. We can't have you getting ready by yourself in the dorm."

"I'll hardly be by myself, Mrs. M!" Julie laughed, "There are plenty of other girls there and it wouldn't make much sense to go to your house and then back to school to meet Luis."

"Luis?" Mrs. Moreau said, "What about Scooter? Did I miss something?"

"I told you, Mom!" Connie rolled her eyes, "Scooter can't make it from Boston, so she's going with one of the Ducks. But I thought you were asking Goldberg." Connie said. Julie understood why, back when they were both goalies the two had gotten pretty close.

"I did, but he already had a date." She went on, "And then so did Adam, and Russ and Averman and Kenny." Connie stopped her.

"I get it, stop." She took a breath. "But isn't Luis going with Cathy?"

"He said he was looking for a reason not to." Julie said casually. "I mean could you imagine if he did, what she would be like all leading up to it, 'Oh my God! Can you believe Luis Mendoza is actually taking me to the prom!'" She let out a high pitched squeal to imitate the girls. Connie laughed as she continued to look through the racks.

"Oh, Julie!" She squealed. "Try this one!" She picked up a simple aqua colored gown with spaghetti straps. Julie's eyes lit up, it was the perfect dress. She took it and headed into the dressing room. She stepped out of her clothes and pulled the dress over her head and walked out. Connie gasped and Mrs. Moreau looked like she was going to cry.

Julie looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. The dress flattered her in all the right places and had a small train behind her, while the main hem fell just below her ankles.

"I think this is the one!" She squealed. Connie ran over and hugged her.

"We are going to have so much fun!" Both girls smiled.

After shopping for hours finally both girls had dresses, shoes, purses and jewelry. Connie had chosen a simple white dress with a princess cut and off the shoulder sleeves. The white color offset her dark hair and eyes perfectly. Mrs. Moreau had convinced Julie to stay at their house for dinner instead of eating in the cafeteria. In Connie's room while Connie showered Julie looked over the framed pictures on the dresser. There was one of the original Ducks on a pond, out of uniform, one of the team in their Team USA jerseys in LA. She examined the pictures. It was so old, they were so young. Julie was in the middle and Luis had is arm around her shoulder. She remembered how quickly the two of them had clicked, talking about how homesick they were. Finally she saw on of Connie and Guy at an eighth grade dance. She felt a pang of jealousy at that one. Connie was getting to the prom with her boyfriend. She also got to see him every day at school and hang out on weekends.

"What are you looking at?" Connie said, walking into the room.

"Oh," Julie said, "The LA picture, we were such babies!" She picked it up.

"Oh my god! I know." Connie laughed. "Look at Guy! He was so awkward. It amazed me how much we've all grown."

"Look at Portman!" Julie laughed, "He could probably lift his hands over his head then."

"And Luis!" Connie smiled, "God, how many times did he plow into you?" They both laughed.

"We're really lucky Connie," Julie sighed, "The Ducks are special."

"I've known that for seven years now." Connie smiled. "But we definitely shouldn't ever forget it." The phone rang breaking the moment.

"Connie!" Mrs. Moreau shouted. "Guy's on the phone!"

"Ok!" Connie shouted, "Julie run into my parent's room and get the cordless!" Julie nodded and Connie jumped onto her bed grabbing her phone.

"Hey Guy!" She said.

"Hey babe!" He answered.

"Hi Guy!" Julie piped in bathing though the door on the cordless.

"Hi Julie," He sounded actually happy, which made Julie feel good.

"What's up?" Connie said, eager to get the conversation going.

"I have awesome news, about prom!" Guy said. Connie was happy to hear that, the guys had yet to get excited about the prom.

"What?" Connie and Julie said simultaneously.

"Banks' dad said we could take pictures at his house before and then get this, he's renting us this giant limo! Isn't that awesome?" Guy was very excited, he had only been in a limo one other time, the first day they met Coach Bombay.

"Wow, that's great!" Connie said, "Julie, then you can come over after all!" Julie smiled.

"Yeah great!"

"Oh and Julie,' Guy added, "Luis said he wanted to know what color your dress is so he can coordinate. We're all going for our tuxes after school tomorrow."

"I'll see Luis later," Julie said, "Back at the dorm. He can come look at my dress then."

"Great," Guy said. "Well, I'll leave you two, to whatever girl stuff you were doing."

"I'll hang up and let you two say goodbye." Julie said.

"Bye Julie!" Guy responded. She pressed the button and headed off to take a shower.

Back at Eden Hall Luis was on the rink doing sprints. He did this a lot when he needed to clear his head. His stopping issues had ended a long time ago and now he could stop exactly on the blue line, precise and perfect. His mind was crowded with thoughts of Julie. It had been since they had decided to go to prom together. He remembered how she had been his first friend on Team USA. They had gotten into Minnesota around the same time. She had introduced herself and asked if he missed Miami already, because she sure missed Maine. They then went on for about an hour about their homes, families and teams. He shot on her and saw how fast her glove was. He did sprints until he plowed into her and knocked her over. They had made fun of Portman together, coaxed Kenny out of his shell and marveled at Dwayne's puck handling. When the other Ducks showed up he comforted her when Bombay decided to play Goldberg instead of her. Then she started hanging out with Connie, and he with Goldberg and Jesse and they floated apart a little, but still they were good friends. Freshman year they had both dated seniors. He had moved on from his girl quickly, but she and Scooter had stayed together.

"What's on your mind, Luis?" Charlie Conway walked onto the rink and then skated over to where Luis was. The captain knew his team mates well enough to know that Luis wouldn't be doing sprints in the middle of spring unless he was thinking.

"Girl trouble man." Luis said and took off. Charlie tried to catch him but it was impossible. Luis waited at the other blue line for him.

"Care to elaborate?" Charlie said panting. "Wait, I'll guess, Cathy's giving you a hard time about taking Julie to prom?"

"Nope, although it is about Julie," Luis said and headed off again. Things were simpler when he was going fast. Charlie stopped him at the other side.

"Don't do that again!" He panted. "What about Julie?" He was really trying to understand.

"Nothing specific," Luis shrugged. "Just can't stop thinking about her is all."

"Really?" Charlie squinted. "Is this new man? I mean, I know you were tight in LA. Have you felt this way about her all these years?"

"Nah," he shook his head. "Just since yesterday, when we decided to go to prom together. And I mean, it's stupid. Because she's with Scooter, but I don't know." He headed off again, Charlie followed behind.

"I think you should talk to her." Charlie said. "The distance thing with Scooter is hard on her. I know she's unhappy." Luis nodded, he knew it too, and usually a girl having a boyfriend wouldn't stop him from giving it a shot. But this wasn't just some girl he wanted to hook up with. This was Julie who he really cared about, at least as a friend if not as something more.

"Maybe he sighed, "I'll sleep on it."

"Conway, Mendoza!" They heard coach Orion from the locker room door. "What are you doing?" He walked out to them on the ice.

"Just conditioning, Coach!" Charlie answered back.

"Well stop!" He said, "You're tearing up the ice, and you should be studying."

"Sure thing Coach!" Luis said, rolling his eyes and heading to the locker room. Charlie started to go after him.

"Conway!" Orion stopped him.

"Yeah Coach?" Charlie said, skating in a circle.

"Everything alright with Mendoza?" Coach said confused.

"It will be." Charlie shrugged, "He just needed to clear his head."

"Alright, go home, do some school work." Coach winked.

"Sure thing, Coach." Charlie rolled his eyes and laughed.

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