It was early October and the boys decided to start practicing for hockey try-outs, which were in December before Christmas break. They went on a Wednesday after school, when nobody was on the ice.

Kendall, Carlos and James stepped expertly onto the ice, gliding around like pros. Logan, however, had never ice skated and slipped on his butt upon touching the ice. His helmeted head hit the ground with a thud and Logan groaned.

"Awe- poor baby can't skate." James giggled. Carlos punched him in the padded shoulder as he glided past him to help Logan up.

"Are you okay? What hurts?" he asked in a panic.

"My pride." Logan grumbled. Carlos grinned and tapped Logan's helmet before he began teaching him how to skate.

"C'mon! This is precious practice time- wasted!" James groaned.

"Look- he's already got it." Carlos said grumpily. "Don't gotta be a crotchmouth about it."

"Hear that, Kenny? I'm a crotchmouth." James giggled, nudging Kendall playfully.

"I know." Kendall laughed.

"Okay- ew." Carlos moaned.

It didn't take long for Logan to get the hang of skating and they started the game.

"Okay- no real rough stuff... Logan's still shaky." Carlos yelled at one end of the rink with Kendall.

"Carlos! You're the biggest offense!" James said smartly.

"If you break my boyfriend-"

"I'm not gonna break em!" James said impatiently. "Sturdy as a rock!"

He clapped a hand on Logan's shoulder, making Logan slip and fall- bringing James down with him. Logan laid there a second, feeling hopeless, but James got up immediately and jerked Logan to his feet.

"Loge? Sure you don't wanna switch teams?" Carlos called.

"No WAY! I know how bad Kendall is- I'm willing to take the risk." James said.

"It was ONE TIME!" Kendall groaned.

As soon as the game started, James got the puck and started for the other end.

"Logan- cover m-" James began yelling, but he was interrupted as he was slammed into the boards by a massive force and fell to the ice.

"You little BITCH!" James screeched as he watched Kendall proudly hit the puck to Carlos across the ice.

Logan, feeling bad for allowing James to get hit, decided to go steal the puck from Carlos but lost his balance and fell- skidding across the rink, in front of Carlos, and hitting the wall. Carlos, mouth open in shock and confusion, glided over to the groaning Logan.

"I'm not so sure hockey's your thing." Carlos said doubtfully. "Are you broken?"

"Yes." Logan moaned, then his dark eyes glinted to James stealing the puck from Carlos and in one fluid motion knocked it across the rink to the goal. He grinned and Carlos looked back to see James's celebratory dance.

"You set me up!" Carlos said in realization to Logan.

"Actually that wasn't planned." Logan giggled.

"I'm not even gonna help you up, little dickhole." Carlos said, sticking out his tongue and skating away.

"OKAY! JUST GONNA LAY HERE A WHILE!" Logan called, staring at the high rafters on the ceiling of the rink. Everything hurt a lot.

This happened three more times, then after that Carlos just stopped going after Logan.

Kendall and James, however were EXTREMELY competitive. The other would actually get ANGRY if one got a goal.

Logan was just worrying about not falling. Try-outs for the hockey team were in less than two months and if he didn't get this whole skating thing down, he'd never make it. He really WANTED to make it. Not only because he knew his friends would, but he also loved playing.

"Okay. Last game. Let's make it count." James said lowly as he stared Kendall down from across the rink.

"Kay." Logan said, trying to get in the zone. EVERYTHING hurt on him, but they had only won two of five mini-games.

The game started and Carlos got the puck- avoiding James's AND Logan's attacks and expertly passing it to Kendall as they raced toward their goal. Logan zoomed after them with James- determined. He couldn't let James down AGAIN. He got just close enough to steal the puck and pass it to James and they both raced across the ice. Carlos went after them.

By the time he reached the others, James had already scored. Carlos was going FAST and approaching the boards at breakneck speed.

"NNNOOOO!" he screamed as he tried to stop but lost his balance. He heard something crack and an extreme pain in his lower shin as he fell, skidded, and thudded against the boards.

"FUCK!" Carlos screamed in agony, holding his shin- neck making an arch.

"Get up, ya baby!" Kendall laughed.

Carlos laid there, groaning in agony.

"GUYS!" he yelled. "SERIOUSLY! I'M HURT!"

"Oh WHATEVER." Logan said sarcastically. He felt bad, but Carlos had tried tricking him this whole time, too. James skated over to look down at Carlos, and when he saw a tear falling down the boy's cheek, he knew this was for real. James took off his helmet and tossed it aside, kneeling before his best friend.

"My leg." Carlos said.

James inspected the beg and touched it, making the Latino scream.

"DON'T FUCKING TOUCH IT!"

Logan, brows upturned, threw his own helmet aside and knelt at Carlos's head.

"My- my shin's broken. I know it. I heard it." Carlos groaned. "My skate did it!"

"We gotta take him to the ER." James said. "Kendall? Help?"

"What? I can help." Logan said.

"You're not tall enough, Loge. Just be a cheerleader, kay?"

Carlos was hoisted up, an arm around Kendall's and James's necks, and taken away. They didn't even take off their gear- just skates- as they went out to James's car. They removed their equipment in the car as they drove.

"It hurts." Carlos groaned. "So bad."

Logan wiped sweat from his forehead.

"I wish I could help." he said.

When they got to the ER, Carlos was once again taken in with the support of Kendall and James and Logan signed him in. It took an hour for them to get called back to get an x-ray, all though it was obvious that it was broken.

"Carlos!" Mrs. Garcia called in relief as she and Papi came into the waiting room. Logan had called them for insurance purposes.

She rushed toward him and showered him with kisses, making him blush.

"What is WRONG with you boys? Can't you stay out of trouble for-" Papi began, but Mrs. Garcia punched him.

"Don't yell at them! He's in pain." she scowled.

"What happened?" Papi asked.

"I was going super fast and lost my balance and the ankle of my skate just... Snapped my shin." Carlos explained.

"We're gonna go take care of insurance and stuff..." Mrs. Garcia said. "Take it easy."

Just as they sat down at the desk, Carlos was called for x-rays. Papi said that he and Mrs. Garcia would wait in the waiting room until he comes out, so the boys went to the x-ray room.

"There's a bad break riiiight here." the woman doctor said, tracing a line on Carlos's tan shin where his skate was. "Snapped in half."

"So... A cast?" Logan said.

"Two months." she answered.

"What? No WAY! But try-outs are in LESS than two months!" Carlos argued. "Can't you do something?"

"There's no way of speeding up the process. All I can say is eat right and MAYBE you'll get this thing off a little early."

Carlos groaned and let his head fall back against the chair.

"Okay. So we gotta cast this bad boy up." she said. Carlos was given a pain med injection and taken to a room (in a wheelchair) to get a cast. Kendall and James left because they were due to have dinner with Kendall's 'parents'.

"What color?" the doctor asked after putting the cast on it.

"Pink." Logan suggested. "Men wear pink."

Carlos giggled, being on strong pain meds, and nodded.

"I'm a man." he said. "Gimme pink."

The woman shrugged and did so.

"Okay- I have to go get you some crutches. Be back in a bit." she said, then left.

Logan sat on the examination table, facing Carlos.

Logan gestured to the neon pink cast.

"I like it."

"Me, too."

"Does it hurt?"

"Not anymore. I'm actually feelin' really good right now." Carlos giggled.

"I'm glad you're okay."

"I'm glad YOU'RE okay." This made Logan laugh.

"I'm sorry that I thought you were trying to trick me. I'm horrible." he said.

"I probably woulda done the same under the circumstances."

"You know I love you, right?"

"I know. I love YOU." Carlos grinned. Suddenly the doctor came in with two metal crutches and told Logan he was free to go.

Mr. and Mrs. Garcia drove them home, getting them McDonald's on the way, knowing they hadn't eaten dinner. Carlos went straight to sleep once he got home- his leg on a pile of pillows.

"He has to Elevate it... Make sure he does, kay?" Mrs. Garcia said to Logan.

"Yeah, yeah." Logan said tiredly as she kissed his cheek and went to bed. It was midnight by now.

Logan got out a blue Sharpie and went to work on Carlos's cast.

He drew flames and skulls and crossbones and Carlos's name in cool letters. Hey- the guy had a pink cast. Might as well make it cool looking. Then, last but not least, right on the toe- upside down so that Carlos could read it, said "Logan" in thick block letters. He wanted to put a sweet note on it, but knew that everyone could see it and they didn't want anyone to know about them. So he just wrote "Love U" on his toenails in Sharpie and turned out the lights, going into his own room. He felt bad that Carlos probably couldn't try out for the hockey team. He knew that hockey was basically Carlos's life.

So truth time. Had no idea where I was going with this when I started it. I originally had Logan going through extreme angst about losing hope in God and he originally just gave up his religion and turned into this rebellious teen. But I didn't know that I liked this concept and didn't know if you guys would. ALSO in my original draft, which I posted for like 2 seconds until i got another idea and deleted it, LOGAN had the broken leg. BUT I figured with this happening to Carlos, I could do so much more with it. so I started a-fresh. :)

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