Zack was shaking with school spirit after the afternoon's pep rally was over and Cody and Chase gave him bemused looks as they walked from their lockers to freedom. "Oh man, we're going to absolutely smash Jackson tonight," he said as he pumped a fist.

"Are we any good?" Chase asked as he looked between the brothers.

"Well...not really," Zack admitted. "But thankfully Jackson Middle is even worse than we are. They haven't won a game yet."

"We've only won one, by the way," Cody told his new friend as they walked down a flight of stairs.

"Are you a football guy, Chase?" Zack asked.

"A little, I guess. I went to a few Broncos games back home."

"I knew there was a reason I liked you. Also, I wouldn't admit that around here out loud. Patriots all the way here in Boston." Zack pretended to put a finger down his throat and retch. "Are you gonna go to the game tonight?"

"Maybe. I'd have to ask my mom and dad. Are you going, Cody?"

"I, uh...I hadn't thought about it. I'll go if you go."

"If you want, you can give me your number and I'll text you when I find out."

Cody and Chase exchanged numbers as they walked out the doors. Zack mumbled a particularly colorful word about the cold as a gust of wind momentarily took his breath away. The twins escorted Chase to the rows of buses and said their goodbyes. Cody paused for a second to make sure Chase got on the right bus but Zack tugged on his coat.

"He's got it. Let's go."

"I just want to make sure," Cody said as he craned his neck to see.

"If he has any problems he can call you. Now come on, I'm freezing." He gave another pull and Cody slipped in beside him.

"You do realize it's going to be even colder once the sun goes down and the game starts, don't you, Zack?" They picked up their pace as the bundled up crossing guard waved them on.

"Yeah, but after some cheese fries, hot chocolate, and big hits I won't even notice. You aren't going to chicken out, are you?"

"Nope. Like I said, if Chase goes, I'll go. That said, I wouldn't mind too terribly much if he can't," Cody said with a frosty grin.

"So should I be a little jealous that I've invited you to come with me to every football game so far this year and you've shot me down every single time but you're going to tonight's game because Chase asked?" Zack said once the boys were home and warming up.

"We don't know if he's going yet so we don't know if I'm going," Cody told him as he glanced down at his phone on the coffee table. He had just checked for any possible missed messages ten seconds ago and fought the urge to check again.

"I like how you totally sidestepped my question there, bro," Zack laughed as he sat on the couch beside Cody. He pulled a folded blanket from atop one of the back cushions and wrapped it around himself.

Cody's defensive instincts had kicked in and he chose his next words carefully. "As you may have noticed over the years," he said, "I don't really like football. However, I think it would be fun to hang out with my new friend tonight instead of studying."

"Having one of my toes sawed off with a plastic spoon would be more fun than that."

"Possibly," Cody admitted.

"Definitely." Cody shrugged as Zack continued. "You don't need a refresher on how the game works, do you? Just so you don't look like a dork in front of your friend?"

"Well, actually, there are a few things that you could clear up for me," Cody said as he picked his phone up and put it back down again after peeking at the screen. "Just so I don't look like a dork in front of Chase and all." Cody loaded his words with a heavy topping of sarcasm that Zack completely missed.

"Fire away."

"One, where does the goalie take the tip-off from, and two, how many points does a grand slam count for?"

Zack's mouth goldfished as he tried to count all the things wrong with what his brother just said. Cody didn't give him a chance and smacked him with one of the small pillows from the arm of the couch.

"I know how football works, Zack," Cody laughed. "I don't know why people like to run into each other at a hundred miles an hour but I know how it works."

"That's a good thing because I wasn't sure how to tell you that football might be too hard for you and that you needed to stick to watching curling," Zack replied, audibly relieved.

"Hey! Curling is actually really cool."

"Of course it is," Zack mumbled with a roll of his eyes. "That's why they only show it every four years in the Olympics and even then it's on at two in the morning." He was saved from Cody's defense of his favorite oddball sport by their mother's arrival.

"Hi, boys!" Carey said as she walked in with a bag of groceries under one arm. "How was school?"

"Good," the twins answered in unison but with varying degrees of sincerity.

"The same old same old, huh?" she said as she set the bag on the counter and began putting things away.

"Yep, it was as horrible as always," Zack told her, "but there's a football game tonight. Can we have some money for tickets and food?"

"We?" Carey asked. "Are you royalty now?"

"Cody's going with me tonight."

Carey poked her head out from behind the freezer door and looked at her younger son. "Oh really?"

"Cody might be going to the football game with Zack tonight," Cody corrected.

"Oh really?" Carey repeated.

"Yeah, Cody's going with me if his new friend can go."

"You made a new friend? That's great, honey," she said as she slid a new tub of ice cream out of sight behind stacks of frozen vegetables. "What's his name?"

"Chase," both boys said at once, followed quickly by a "do you mind?" from Cody to his brother.

"Sorry."

"He just moved here from Colorado and started school yesterday and-" Zack zoned out and traced the grain in the table's wood with a fingertip, occasionally looking up, while Cody talked for almost five minutes about his new friend. Carey looked questioningly at Zack during Cody's spiel and he could only subtly shrug his shoulders. He'd never heard Cody talk about anyone for that long, either.

"Well, he sounds like a nice boy, Cody," Carey said when he was finally finished. "You'll have to have him over some time so I can meet him."

"Will you make dinner?" he asked.

"Not if you don't want me to. I am getting better, though," Carey replied. "Haven't burned water once this week."

"We'll see, Mom," he laughed. She'd made that joke a million times and it still always made him smile.

"Sounds like a plan. We can do pizza or Chinese or whatever you boys want to eat."

Still draped in his blanket, Zack got up and stood next to his mother in the kitchen. "So, Mom...about that football game..."

"I haven't forgotten about it, Zack," she told him. "Let me get my clothes for tonight ready and I'll give you some money. When does it start?"

"Six-thirty," Zack told her as she ducked into her room and came back out with two dresses and shoes to match.

Carey winced at the thought of sitting on frozen metal bleachers at night in anything less than six pairs of sweatpants as she hung the dresses on the back of the door and dropped the shoe bag nearby. "So you'll be back around nine or nine-thirty?"

"Maybe. It could be after midnight if the game goes into enough overtimes, though." He looked up at her hopefully.

"No, it definitely won't be, Zack," she said as she rummaged through her purse. "I wasn't allowed to be out that late until I was seventeen and you're only twelve. Ten o'clock."

"Ten-thirty?"

"Eight?"

"Ten's a great time to be home, Mom. Ten it is," Zack agreed furiously as she pulled two twenties from her purse.

"One's for you and one's for your brother. I'd like to have at least some of it back, please." Carey put the two bills in Zack's hand. "Are either of you hungry? I need to head downstairs a bit early today to make sure they got the lighting for my second set worked out but I can whip up a few sandwiches before I go."

"Go ahead, Mom. I can take care of it," Cody said as he turned his phone over and over in his hands.

"You're sure? I don't mind."

"I don't know about Cody but I'm saving my appetite for big plate of the stadium's cheese fries so I'm good."

"Yum," Carey said and fake gagged. "Well, the usual rules apply. Don't get arrested, don't set any cars on fire, don't freeze, and most importantly, don't be late."

"Got it," Zack said as she bent down and kissed the top of his head. She walked over to Cody and gave him the same.

"Keep an eye on your brother if you go, huh?" she stage-whispered with a grin.

"I heard that!"

Carey was gone with a flourish a few seconds later. Zack came to the couch and settled back in. Cody held a hand out and Zack slapped it. Cody shook his head and wiggled his fingers.

"You don't even know if you're going yet," he grumbled as he dug Cody's half of the money from his pocket and handed it over.

"Just in case," Cody said and put it in his own pocket.

"When do you think you'll know?" Zack picked up the remote and flipped channels until he found something animated.

"Hopefully not long after Chase does."

"How did you know all those things you told Mom about him?"

"Well, he talked and I actually listened to what he said. It's not really that hard."

"It was kinda weird. It's like you're a detective working on a case about him or something. I'm not sure if I know that much stuff about you and we've shared a room our whole lives."

"Literally. You talk and I listen, I guess." Cody didn't think it was weird at all at first. He blankly stared at the television and started to think about it. Maybe it was a little weird. Not super weird. Mom wouldn't think anything of it. She'd just think I was excited about having a new friend. Which I am. Zack...Cody didn't know what Zack really thought of it.

The sound of a lightsaber igniting interrupted the commercial and Cody looked down at his phone to see a smiling icon in the upper left corner and nearly dropped it in excitement. He looked at it until the screen dimmed.

"Are you going to see what he said?" Zack asked.

"Of course. I was just...never mind." He opened the message and read it. Hey Cody, It's Chase. I can go tonight! When and where should we meet? The fact that Chase wrote actual English words instead of text-speak made him like his new friend even more. Most of Zack's texts looked like someone dropped a bowl of Alphabets cereal on his screen.

"Well?" Zack asked after a few seconds. "Did he write a novel or something?"

"He says he can go and wants to know where and when he should meet us."

"Tell him like ten after six and to meet us where he gets on the bus. The field isn't far from there and it'll be hard to miss him."

Zack watched over his shoulder as Cody tapped his message out on the screen and shook his head when Cody added don't forget to dress warm followed by an coat and scarf icon before sending it on its way. The lightsaber ignited again a few seconds later.

"You are such a nerd," Zack laughed. "What'd he say this time?"

"He just sent a thumbs-up and a smiley face."

"Jeez, he texts like you do. Where are you going?" Zack asked as Cody stood up and headed to their room.

"I'm going to find the warmest stuff I have and see how much of it I can put on before I can't move like the little brother in A Christmas Story. And then I'm going to put more of it in my backpack just in case."

"It's not going to be that bad."

Cody stopped in their room's doorway. "It didn't even reach thirty today when the sun was out. It's going to be worse tonight. You were thinking about painting your chest in the school's colors and going shirtless again, weren't you?"

"Well I wasn't until just now," Zack admitted. Cody simply shook his head and stepped into the bedroom.

"That's him, right?" Zack asked as the twins approached the loading area. There was a lone soul bundled up against the cold standing beside a pillar and out of the wind.

"I think so. That looks like his coat," Cody replied and waved and was satisfied when he got a wave back. They scurried across the parking lot and joined Chase under the roof. "We didn't keep you waiting long, did we?"

"Nah, my mom just dropped me off a minute ago," the boy said.

"Good. I tried to hurry Cody out the door but he kept being lazy," Zack told him as they started walking to the field.

"Yeah, because that's exactly how it went," Cody replied and rolled his eyes. "Chase, Zack lives in his own special world in case you haven't noticed yet."

"It's an awesome place," Zack shrugged. "It's always warm there."

"What's in your pack, Cody?" Chase asked when he noticed the duffel slung over his friend's shoulder.

"Arctic survival gear. Actually it's just a really big, thick blanket and some of those little chemical hand warmers."

"Smart," Chase said as they approached the end of the rather short line.

A few minutes later they were inside the gates and making their way along the bleachers. "Oh wow! Look over there. We can get really good seats almost on the fifty," Zack exclaimed as he saw an empty spot a few rows up and over. "C'mon!" He led the way and soon enough they reached the perfectly sized spot and sat down.

"This is so much better than two weeks ago," Zack said as he settled in. "I was waaaay over there." He pointed to a spot near the end zone.

Cody nearly told him that their last home game still had decent weather but didn't bother. He didn't want to be told that it wasn't that cold again even though he was fairly certain the little hairs in his nose were already turning into icicles. He turned to his right and saw that Chase was rubbing his gloved hands together while looking everywhere at once.

"This is pretty cool," he said when he saw Cody looking at him. "I can actually see the field without a telescope. Whenever we got tickets to the Broncos games back home, we were usually about two rows from outer space."

The opposing team took the field and Zack started tapping his feet. "It's about to get loud, you guys!" he said to his brother and Chase.

As soon as the boys in green and their coaches had reached the visitors' sideline, a tiger's roar followed by eighties metal pulsed through the stadium's speakers, welcoming them to the jungle. Zack jumped to his feet and cheered while the other two split their attention between him and their own players running onto the field.

Chase cupped his hands and almost yelled into Cody's ear over the noise. "He's a little excited, huh?"

"I can only imagine what he'll do if we score," Cody yelled back and Chase smirked.

The first quarter wound down and and the lone score on the board was a field goal by the other team. "I'll be right back," Zack said as he scooted by the other two and made his way off the bleachers.

"Snack run?" Chase asked and shivered.

"Probably. He had twenty bucks and I won't be shocked if he spends every bit of it." Cody reached down to the bag between his feet and pulled out the blanket. He unfolded it and offered half to his friend. "It's not the best but it'll help."

"Thanks," Chase told him as he took it and wrapped it over his shoulders. Cody felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and a tingle ran down his spine as they rubbed shoulders while getting the blanket around themselves. He swallowed hard and refused to think about it and hoped his cheeks didn't turn too much redder than they already were from the cold. He and Chase were already a few degrees warmer by the time Zack made it back with his fries and a trio of steaming hot chocolates.

"Don't mention it," Zack said as he handed the drinks out and was thanked by Chase and a very surprised Cody.

"There's enough room under the blanket for you, too, if you want," Chase told him once he sat back down. He held the side of the blanket open.

"Nah, I'm good. I don't want to tear it off of you two when we score and I have to do my touchdown dance."

"If," Cody said.

"No, when. We will. We're just spotting them a little lead before we come back and stomp a hole in them," Zack replied with certainty. Cody shrugged and Chase wrapped the blanket back around himself.

The second quarter began and ended, halftime came and went, and the third quarter trickled away and neither Cody nor Chase saw any sign of Zack's touchdown dance as Jackson Middle steadily increased their lead and their own score remained stuck at zero.

"Cody, you jinxed us," Zack said sadly as the final minute ticked away. He'd gone from standing and cheering to sitting with his head in his gloved hands.

"What?"

"You totally jinxed us. We should be creaming these guys but we're not."

"And this is my fault?"

"Well, maybe! We at least scored in all the other games this year even if we didn't win them."

"And then I come to my first game and magically suck all the skill out of every player on the field and make us lose the game by simply being here?"

"It...sounds so much stupider when you say it like that."

"It'll be okay, Zack. It's just a game. You'll live," Cody told his brother while trying to hide a grin. He turned to Chase and rolled his eyes and got a muffled chuckle in response.

The beatdown finally ended and the hundred or so fans that had remained through the cold and disappointing play began to head for the exits. Cody packed up his blanket and the boys joined the herd spilling out into the parking lot.

"Well, Chase, sorry about tonight's game being so crap. We usually don't suck that bad," Zack said as the trio moved through the thinning crowd.

"It's okay. I still had fun."

"You did?"

"Sure. No one wins all the time and I had a good time hanging out with you guys tonight. I, uh, didn't get too many chances to do that back at my old school," Chase's voice trailed off abruptly and he turned away to look for his mother's car. Zack looked at his brother questioningly but Cody shook his head and Zack dropped it. "I don't see her anywhere," he said after giving the lot a quick scan. "She texted me during the third quarter saying she was on her way."

"Welcome to Boston, Chase. The traffic here is terrible," Zack said. "We'll wait with you until she gets here."

"You don't have to do that, guys."

"That's what friends do," Cody told him. He had just started unzipping his bag to retrieve the blanket when Chase piped up.

"There she is!" The boys watched as the car maneuvered its way through the rows and pulled up to the curb.

"Sorry, honey, I took the wrong exit and was half way to China before I could find a place to turn around," Chase's mother said after her window slid down. "I don't know if I'll ever get used to driving in this city. It's just laid out so weird." Her breath rolled out in a white fog.

"It's okay, Mom. We've only been out here for a few minutes and I don't think we've lost any toes yet."

"That's good news. Hop on in and we'll try to keep it that way."

"See you later, Chase," Cody said as the boy started heading around to the passenger side.

"Yeah, later on, man. Maybe we'll win the next one if you come," Zack added. Chase said his goodbyes and ducked into the back seat and closed the door as quickly as he could. He waved through the back window as the car drove off. The twins cut through the parking lot and were walking quickly up the sidewalk when a car pulled up beside them and matched their pace. Cody looked over and saw Chase's face in the glass.

"Hey, my mom said it's too cold to walk so get in and she'll drop you off," he said once the window came down.

"That's okay, it's really not that-"

"What Cody is trying to say is that would be awesome," Zack interrupted.

"The car is a little on the small side," Chase's mother told them as she took it out of gear. "Chase, scoot over and one of your friends can sit back there with you and the other can ride up front."

"He's your friend," Zack said with a shrug after the twins shared a brief silent exchange over who was sitting where. Cody slid in beside Chase while Zack got in the front seat.

"Sorry, boys," she said once everyone was settled in and buckled up, "if Chase had told me you were walking in the first place we could have organized this a little better but he didn't."

"Yeah, sorry, guys, I didn't even think about it," Chase said sheepishly.

"It's okay, ma'am. We really appreciate it," Cody told her and Zack quickly agreed.

"It's no problem at all and this way I get to meet the mysterious Cody that my son has been talking about for the last two days." Cody looked up and saw her eyes and smile in the small mirror.

"Mom..." Chase exasperatedly drew the short word out to nearly a full second as only a boy that age can do before turning to look at Cody. "I told her how you've been helping me find my classes and all that stuff," he hastily offered as an explanation.

Cody glanced up at the mirror again and saw the same smile on Chase's mother's face before she looked away and pulled the car out into traffic.