Back to Where We Started From (Miracle)

Chapter Nineteen

Julie was unnervingly calm the rest of the afternoon. She spent the bus ride to the rink sitting beside Mark, cracking up as he did bad impersonations of everyone on the team.

"All I care about is my ma and hockey and my hair," he said in an overly-exaggerated Boston accent. 'Hockey' came out sounding more like 'hawkey' and there was no 'r' sound at the end of 'hair.' Julie laughed, pointing at Jack across the aisle, who sat beside Silky. Jack just glared at the two of them, shaking his head.

"You forgot that he cares about bugging the everloving shit out of me," Julie pointed out.

"Yeah, and don't you forget it," Jack told them, leaning across the aisle to mess up Julie's hair.

"Jack, stop! You're annoying," Julie whined.

"Jack, stop! You're annoying," Mark mocked in a valley girl tone.

"I do not sound like that!" Julie argued once again.

"Yes, you do," Jack told her flatly.

"Mackey, do I sound like a valley girl?" Julie questioned her best friend who sat behind her with Rizzo.

"You have for about a year and a half now. It started slowly, but I definitely heard it happen. Less Minnesotan, more Californian," Rob explained, making Julie's jaw drop. Kathy had said that Julie lost her Minnesotan accent, but Julie had no idea that she sounded so Californian.

"Did you really not know?" Mark laughed.

"No, but I guess it makes sense. Tommy and Cyndi are from California, so they have such bad California accents. Maybe I picked it up from them," Julie guessed.

"Tommy always was your worst influence," Rob chuckled. He liked all of the members of Stonehead, but it was no secret that Tommy tended to help Julie get in the most trouble.

"What does that mean?" Mark questioned. He was careful about giving Julie her space, but truthfully, Mark was wildly curious about her life before returning to Minnesota.

"Tommy is like my separated-at-birth twin. We clicked the moment we met, but we've gotten into a ton of trouble together. In fact, we're not even allowed to leave the house together without a chaperone anymore," Julie explained.

"Which is totally justified," Rob spoke up, glaring at Julie.

"Oh, my God! You get into a stranger's van to drive up the coast one time and all of a sudden no one trusts you," she rolled her eyes. The boys just laughed.

"Do you hear yourself when you talk?" Rob questioned.

"Tommy was with me the whole time, we were fine. They were really nice," she defended.

"You were missing for three days."

"I wasn't missing. I knew exactly where I was."

"No one else did!"

"I gotta side with Rob on this one," Mark said, shaking his head at Julie.

"You guys are no fun," Julie protested.

"Yeah, that's why you're with us. Someone has to keep you in line," Rizzo told her from beside Rob.

"For the record, the twenty-four of you combined couldn't keep me in line if I was actually wanting to get into trouble," Julie informed them.

"We'll take your word for it," Jack promised, rolling his eyes at his friend.

Herb sat in his usual seat in the front of the bus, trying to focus on the game ahead. He couldn't quite get over the nagging feeling in his stomach. The sound of his niece laughing with his players rang through the bus, but Herb felt uneasy. Herb would have liked to think that Julie's easy-going demeanor was a good sign, but unfortunately, he didn't believe it. Herb had known Julie her entire life. He remembered how she reacted when her mom left, when her dad would get belligerently drunk, when he eventually died. He remembered the fights she had with Rob, the teenage girl spats she had at school, the nights Julie and Patti would argue. Even when she was a little girl, he remembered the anger she would feel when a fish escaped her hook on a trip to the lake, how mad she had been when skating didn't come naturally to her. He even remembered the Sunday morning when she was 15 that one of her guitar strings broke, and she had to wait until Monday after school to go get a new one. In all of these situations, Julia tended to react brashly. She would cry, yell, stomp her feet when she was little. Herb couldn't understand why, after such a stressful day, she was laughing and seemingly relaxed. The only thing he could guess was that she had a private meltdown, which was still not her typical style. Julia Brooks craved human interaction, attention, affection. She wasn't a particularly private person.