((Disclaimer: No, I don't own them. Not the characters, locations or movies. The background stories and families I did write and I own any non-movie characters. Sad, Sad, Situation is a song by Bowiling for Soup. Anything else will be at the end.))

Julie's POV

I stepped off the plane, went over to the phones and punched in my home phone number. I did as I was instructed and put in two quarters. It rang, and rang and rang.
"Hello, you've reached the Gaffney residence. We cannot come to the phone right now. So please leave a mess--" I put the phone back down and heard my change fall into the bottom of the machine. I had talked to my Dad yesterday and he had said that someone would pick me up when my flight got in. But he didn't say who or at what time. Just to meet them outside by the coffee stand. So I head outside towards the small coffee vender at the end of the arrival terminal. I really hate waiting for things, it irritates the crap out of me that I'm half an hour from home but I'm stuck standing on a street corner. That's when a pair of hands slips over my eyes. Only one person does that to me.
"Guess who." I grab the hands and turn around and standing behind me is my brother. He looks so different with his dirty blonde hair grown out, mustache, goatee and all.
"Oh my god, Erik! What are you doing here?" I say jumping into his arms. We have always been close. And the weirdest thing is that we never really fought much because by the time I was old enough to argue with him he was already in college. His name is James Erik Gaffney, actually. But he hates the name James.
"Here to bring you home, JJ." He says hugging me tightly. JJ is his nickname for me. I don't know where it came from but there you go. He let go of me and grabbed my bag off the floor. "So word has it that you're quite the goalie. Oh wait that was national television and magazines and things. Sorry, you know how forgetful I am."
"So I'm not here more than a minute before you get to tease me. Nice." I say sarcastically following him to his black BMW. I sit down in the passenger seat while he loads my suitcase into the trunk. Then he sits down in the driver's seat and heads towards central Bangor. "So you're back in the Gaffney house I hear."
"Yeah for a little while. I don't mind it really. It's big enough to avoid Mom and Dad easily." I laugh.
"So, who is she?" He smiled widely.
"Who?"
"The woman who has an identical ring to that one." I say looking at his ring finger where there is a white gold diamond encrusted engagement ring.
"Oh her? Nobody special." He pulls up our long driveway and parks the car. I look up at the big white house in front of me. Hard to believe I've been away no more than a month. I start towards the trunk and open it.
"Hey don't worry about it JJ, I got it. Besides, god forbid you injure those goal saving hands."
"Shut up, Erik." I say walking up the stairs to the front deck. I love this house simply because it's so unique. The brick driveway leads up to a 4-car garage. Then up the stairs to the deck that wraps around the entire house. From the front door you can see a small lake that I used to skate on in the winter. Instead of immediately going inside I turn the corner and end up on the side of the house facing the lake. That's when I hear a dog barking behind me.
"Champion!" I say bending down to pet my giant golden retriever. Leave it to my father and his compulsiveness to win to name the dog champion. Erik comes up behind me and sits on the edge of the fencing with a beer in hand. I pull my camera out of my pocket.
"Hey Erik!" He turns to look at me and I snap the last picture. I put the camera down on the table and walk over to my 28 year-old brother.
"So who's the guy?"
"What guy?" I ask innocently. There's no way he knows about Dean…I hope.
"C'mon JJ. There is always a guy for you. It never fails."
"Not always." I lie and sit next to him. "So who's my almost sister-in-law?"
"Does the name Shanna Preston ring any bells?" Surprisingly it did.
"Isn't that girl you stalked when you were in Kennedy Academy?"
"I did not stalk her! I took her to senior prom, remember?" I laughed.
"Oh come on, Erik! As if we didn't already have enough blonde chicks in this house. Wait, let me guess she drives an Audi, has huge boobs and loves designer clothes?" I didn't think Erik would go for that kind of girl.
"No, she hates shopping and she's athletic and all that stuff. Actually she kinda reminds me of you sometimes."
"So you're missing out on a trophy wife and marrying your sister? You're even more twisted than I thought bro." I say grabbing the can out of his hands and taking a sip. Ughhh, beer is the grossest thing ever. He takes it back and gulps it down.
"So…who's the guy?"
"Shut up, Erik. Why do you assume there's a guy?"
"So what's his name? C'mon I need the hot gossip. If he's over 18, let me remind you, that's statutory rape in this country." ((Lol Gaffney06, not a reference, I swear!))
"Erik, seriously, stop talking. You're out of your friggin mind."
"Wait, JJ, you are a virgin right?"
"Ugh, we are so not having this conversation. God, Erik you're my brother!"
"What you can't blame me for being curious. Hell at your age, I wasn't."
"I really didn't need to hear that." Erik is so random, it's irritating.
"Just being honest with you. Let me guess." He pulls a newspaper clipping out of his pocket. It had the pictures of all the ducks plus their names and positions then the 'newbies' with all their names and positions. "Let's see here. Don't tell me you went out with the captain of the team. Because let me inform you JJ, sleeping your way to the top won't work. Trust me I've tried." Eww Charlie, eww.
"No, not Charlie. By the way I think you're mentally unstable." I say getting up and heading inside. Champion began following me to my room upstairs. I lie down on my queen-size bed and stare at the ceiling.
"So, not Conway." Erik says bursting into my room and jumps on the bed next to me. Honestly you would think I'm the older one. "Adam Banks, oh man Dad would love this kid. That's mean you'd hate him, next is Luis Mendoza. Wow JJ, didn't know you liked the Hispanic guys." I kick out my leg and trip Erik so he falls face first onto my bed. "So not Mendoza. Fulton Reed, no, Lester Averman, aww poor kid got the name Lester. Jesse Hall, maybe, Dwayne Robertson, more like lone ranger, Ken Wu, nah, Russ Tyler, nope." I sit up. He only has three names left: Dean, Guy and Golburg. "Germai--"
"ERIK! Seriously, shut up! You're not funny, okay? I am amazed that any girl could stand to be with you when you act like such an asshole sometimes. You had your joke, now you can leave. Please!" Headache, throbbing, ouch. He looked a little stunned that I had actually yelled at him, and cursed at him.
"Sorry, Jay. The engagement party is tonight at the club so we gotta be there by nine, okay?" He said while getting off my bed and heading towards the door. "By the way, Happy 16th Birthday, Julie."

((It's really short. I know. I just wanted to tease you a bit before I post the next big chapter. And I wanted to show you Julie's relationship with her brother, how much she cares about Dean and such. It being her birthday was kind of random of me, especially cause 16 is like the WOW age but I was reading the first chapter and it said she was only 15 and that irritated me so there you go. Champion was my doggie's name but he was a yellow Labrador not a retriever. Shanna looks kinda like Shanna Barker in my image so, whatever. You might meet her eventually. I'll update again, hugely, this week. X0))