seven (adam banks)

chapter eight

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chapter eight: casey conway

( a/n: lmao i saw one of my childhood best friends today and he's so different now and i cried over it so this story is my coping mechanism )

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"Hey, Cole, how'd you-"

Jamie stands in the doorway of the boy's dorm, staring owlishly at Rick Riley's bare chest. Her eyes immediately flit up from his pecs at the sound of his laughter, her gaze awkwardly shooting to the ceiling.

Why was he in his friend's room and shirtless?

"Hi, Johnson." He purrs mockingly.

The girl, still looking up, smiles sarcastically. "Hi, Rick."

Cole snorts a laugh from the bed, shuffling around and sorting through some papers. She hears a whispered 'put a shirt on, jackass' and footsteps and then, before she knows it, the fair-haired enforcer is staring down at her.

"I got a D plus."

He holds the paper up and she takes it, taking her eyes off the ceiling to look down at the page. The big, red sixty-eight stares back at her.

It's far better than he's ever done.

"Oh! That's good!"

"Yeah." He rumbles. "I was really tired of that stupid book."

With that, he walks back to his bed and flops back on it. Rick, now fully clothed, sits on the other bed, watching her with a wolfish grin.

"You coming to tonight's game, kid?"

Jamie shrugs noncommittally, awkwardly taking the seat at the desk. She is going, of course, because she told Adam she would, but she doesn't have to tell him anything.

"I don't know, probably."

Cole snickers. "Of course she's gonna go- she's gotta support her Banksie."

Face flushing with indignation, she whips around to look at him as the dark-haired boy starts to laugh.

"Screw off."

Her huffing only serves to make them laugh even more, even louder. Clenching her jaw, she takes a deep breath and pulls out her notebook, working up the courage to tell Rick to butt out so she can actually try to work with Cole.

In an hour, she's free.

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The rink isn't any easier to be in than it was last time.

She shivers in the freezing temperatures, arms wrapped around herself as she sits alongside the masses of students. Jamie, despite growing up in Minnesota, isn't built for cold (it's resulted in her contracting an annual illness, one that has gone from making her bedridden to annoying sniffles as she aged.)

Her only solace is that she's not with Adam's family.

She tugs her hat down more on her head and buries her nose in her scarf. Adam so owes her for this one.

The crowd starts to react, a sea of red and black and the other school's colors writhing as people jump up from their seats. Jamie joins them with a sniffle, watching the players skate onto the ice.

She finds herself searching for Adam.

A cheer finally leaves her when she sees him, or rather the bold ninety-nine on his back. He skates circles with the rest of his team, earning louder cries from the crowd, and skates to a stop when he sees her.