Chapter 3 - Dane

I was supposed to be at practice, but David told me about Lisa, and I had to see her for myself. It wasn’t easy keeping up with things if David was somewhere and then I was supposed to be there.

Yeah, I was Dane—the one who got into UCLA—and my brothers live with me, but everyone thinks we are one person. Shit, we’ve been doing it for so long and everyone always calls us Dane, sometimes we forget we are three. The only thing that distinguishes us are the tattoos of our names we got one drunken night. Our names were written in Korean, so unless someone knew the language and saw the tattoos—and figured out they were a little different—we were in trouble.

So far, no one on the football team has noticed—the same guys we get into the showers with after practice. If someone said, “Hey, your tattoos are different!” It would mean that the guy was checking you out, so we mess around, and there’s no mention of anything on anyone’s body.

As for women, we have one rule of no more than a one-night stand. Any more than that, and the woman would notice that we were three guys. Not that we’ve tried, but there was no way we would be the same in bed, and for sure, women would pick up on that sort of thing.

We had to do this; we had no fucking choice.

Dad ran off with his secretary, leaving Mom penniless to raise the three of us. That was when we came up with this crazy idea and somehow, we morphed into one kid instead of three. Only one of us had an up-to-date dental record, the other was up to date with his shots, and the other… well, he’s missing both. We have our schedule, and we keep to it.

No one understands how after a big game, Dane will get wasted and the next day, he’s out jogging at eight. That’s because I’d be at the game, Daxon would be drunk that night, and David would be the one running the next day.

We all play our part, and we know who needs to do what… and when. But sometimes we fuck up a bit—we’re not perfect. Sometimes we forget things, nearly get caught, and then laugh about it. Yeah, we get a bit of a kick out of it, too. We need to laugh to keep going.

“You didn’t need to come and watch us,” Fiona purred as I watched from the door, ignoring the other tryouts and waiting for the star to show up.

“I don’t mind being here. In fact, I think I should be one of the judges.”

“Judges?” She backed off. Whatever it was about this Lisa, I could tell that it got Fiona rattled up, which was a shame. I got up close and personal with her once. I didn’t tell the other guys that was the reason she felt there was a connection between us. Yeah, it’s a shitty secret I should share with my brothers, seeing as we’re pretending to be the same person. But this one, I dunno. I just wanted to keep it to myself. I told her it was something between us and that we shouldn’t share the one magical moment we had, and she’s so desperate to keep Dane happy that she would do anything he said. Which makes me feel sorry for her. If only she knew the truth.

“Yeah, I thought I could sit at the end, and then, well… who knows what could happen after tryouts. It’s been a while…” I winked at her, which was all the encouragement she needed. Somehow, during it all, she felt threatened by Lisa and became defensive about us. I couldn’t encourage her too much, or David and Daxon would have my guts for dinner. Neither of them liked her; they labeled her as the spoiled brat who had a privileged life, something we were never privy to. They both said that no matter what happens in the future, we would stray away from being someone like her or her type.

But I’ve seen the other side to Fiona, the one she keeps hidden from everyone.

“You heard from your parents?” I asked as I grabbed her hand, remembering the last time she had an encounter with them.

She shivered as she said, “No. I think they’re going through a divorce. I don’t know, but something’s up.”

“Why have they been down?”

She shrugged. “You want to know the truth?”

I nodded, but realized that she wasn’t asking if I wanted to know. It was a hypothetical question.

“I haven’t seen them in a year. Mom had called and I was telling her about the last game, and how I had a great routine and stuff. Before that, I haven’t seen her. I haven’t seen either of them. You know it just gets me, because I only joined the team to make her proud of me. She was captain…”

Penelope walked in, cutting our conversation short. “Fiona, are we doing the tryouts or what? I’ve got a date after this.”

She nodded. “Sure.” She moved toward me with sympathetic eyes. “We’ll catch up later.”

I smiled as I thought about Penelope having a date. She meant she had a booty call. That girl was some kind of sex addict. I was the only guy on the team she hadn’t fucked. But whether she had with Daxon or David was questionable. My brothers were horny, there was no doubt about that. Me, on the other hand, I wouldn’t say that I was fussy, but Penelope just wasn’t my type at all. She was too damn perfect—tall, blond hair, blue eyes, said the right thing, and smiled all the time. The girl had no flaws, and it just wasn’t natural. As Fiona and Penelope moved into the main hall, I followed them. As we reached the table, Fiona blurted to me, “Get a chair and sit with us.”

I did, but I didn’t sit at the end of the table. I sat directly next to Fiona. She smiled and I could tell that me being near had somehow reassured her.

“Next, we have Tanya. Tanya?”

She was maybe just under five feet. Completely different from all the other tryouts in terms of her height. She had a petite figure and bright blue eyes that shone as she waved her hand and announced her presence. I could tell that it annoyed Fiona because she shifted in her seat the moment Tanya said she was present.

“I’ll be doing a routine to Jerusalem.”

One judge, Ursula, said to Fiona, “Hey, that’s your favorite song.”

Fiona ignored her as she barked, “We have things to do. Get on with it.”

The music started playing and for a brief second, Tanya wiped out the nerves that shot out as Fiona barked at her, and she closed her eyes before moving to the beat. I could tell by the way she moved with confidence, with a bright smile on her face as her ponytail swung toward her moves, that she was good. Tanya was what the team needed because she would be light, and she did a backflip as if she was born to do it. She had confidence written all over her face as she reached her arms up in the air. The music and the beat did what it did to everyone who heard it—they started clapping to it. Moving to the beat, it was contagious. Tanya swung her hips to the side, keeping her composure. Her height, which Fiona had teased her about, didn’t stop her from completing her routine. She had grace as she went across the gym, and she didn’t stumble as some cheerleaders tended to do as they focused more on the routine with concentration written all over their faces. She jumped, then kneeled, and each time, she never took her eyes off Fiona, making sure Fiona’s frown didn’t deter her from giving a brilliant performance.

The squad was good but having someone like Tanya on the team would help them a lot. The other squads had outshone them in the last couple of games. They lacked the spark, and their routines were tired and needed renovation. That was the real reason for the tryouts. That and the fact that a couple of girls had left. They couldn’t take Fiona being so demanding all the time. I knew the real reason why she was hard on them; it wasn’t because of their moves or anything, but her frustration with her parents’ lack of interest in her at all.

As Tanya lifted her arms once again in the air, she did a crab. I thought like everyone, her routine had come to a halt. She did a handstand with both arms, then one arm suspended, then both legs back on the floor to do a backflip. Her moves were graceful, and she did them with ease, as she gently did a full split, and put her hands on her hips, her head high, indicating the end of her routine. The smile she presented at the beginning of the routine was still on her face as everyone clapped. I went a bit overboard and stood on my feet and cheered for her. She was good, really good. Fiona gave me a look of disapproval, so I sat back down.

“Well, Tanya, that was interesting. We’ll let you know.”

Penelope was loud enough for us all to hear. “Good? She was excellent. There’s nothing to say—”

“Yes, there is. I’m captain, and I said we’ll let her know.”

Fiona was even more rattled today than normal. The situation with her parents couldn’t have her this upset. I would have thought she would be used to it by now. I knew the feeling too well.

“I don’t know. I don’t like how everyone’s turning against me,” Fiona whispered in my ear. I’d seen her uptight, but nothing like this. This was a whole new level.

“I’m here. I think I’m the last one,” a girl with twinkling blue eyes said, and it was then that it all fell into place. Why Fiona was so uptight and who had caused it.

She must be Lisa.

Lisa had full lips, blond hair, and a slight tan. She must have moved here from somewhere like Boston or something because she wasn’t glowing, not like Tanya.

She had her hand on her hips, and she wasn’t asking if she should start, but telling Fiona.

“Fine, go ahead!” Fiona waved at her as if she was dismissing her. I didn’t want to appear eager and could have pretended that I wasn’t interested, but the way Lisa took to the stage in her tight leggings and short crop top—which neatly hugged her body—had my attention. Even the damn janitor paid attention to her. We all did. She had the type of presence that just stuck, and the crazy part was that I’d seen her face before. Those eyes were unmistakable. But she was a freshman, so maybe I’d seen her around campus.

“Hit it!” She smiled, and it was such a dirty smile that I knew she was going to smash it.

As soon as the song started playing, I knew she was more than interesting, and I could see why David wanted her on the team.

Girl like me, by Shakira and The Black Eyed Peas started playing, and Lisa lifted her leg and her hand held on to it as she went up on her toes.

So fucking impressive.

She slowly put her leg down, spun around and did the same thing with the other leg.

Each time, smiling and capturing not only Fiona’s attention, but everyone else’s as she moved her head, making sure all eyes were on her.

Then, she claimed the gym floor as if it was her own as she started moving around it, moving to the beat, swinging her arms with such determination, and striding with confidence as she moved and swung her arms to the beat. No one clapped like they did with Tanya; no, Lisa was going to give us a different type of performance. One which we would clearly never forget as she picked up the momentum and did a somersault, not just one or two, but three. She paused for a second to get her breath back, but it didn’t take long for her to do a no arm flip, end up in a split, jerk her head from side-to-side, and she repeated the routine, not only one more time, but three more times.

Each time, with a little twist, a leg kick one time, then a backflip. It was as if she moved effortlessly as she did it, while winding her hips and hearing her own music. Before she even finished, Penelope stood and started clapping. Shit, we all did. Well, not all of us. Fiona stood firmly down, as if she was dying for the experience to finish. Lisa wasn’t good or just above average; she was fucking fantastic. Lisa was exactly what the team needed. As she finished her routine and bowed, she thanked everyone for applauding. She seemed to have not only the kindness, but the type of attitude that could get everyone working together—not at all the type that Fiona possessed, which usually resulted in everyone arguing and some members leaving.

“Not you, too!” Fiona scoffed as she threw the clipboard onto the table. It was at that moment I realized that I’d been so lost in Lisa’s performance, I’d forgotten not to be interested in her.

Shit, I was a quarterback, not an actor.

There was no way I could pull it off and pretend that her performance didn’t blow me away.

“Maybe it’s time that we looked for a new captain. What do you think, Dane?”

I nodded at Penelope’s question. Fiona’s parents treating her like shit didn’t give her the right to do the same to everyone else. I wasn’t that interested in the cheerleading team, but somehow, Lisa just made me interested.

She’d sparked my interest a lot.