Hey, guys. This is BetaL here with a new story. I've never written a story quite like this before, so hopefully it'll turn out okay. This is written very much is a 'slice of life' kind of way. The writing is meant to reflect the personalities of the kids and has a dominant theme of communication. After the kid's personalities are introduced it will become easier to tell them apart, because I realize the first chapter can be quite confusing.
Anyway, here's the first chapter. I realize that DDR isn't the most popular of fanfictions to read about, but I still like to get reviews every now and then to know how I'm doing. My stories have a habit of moving incredibly slow, but at the same time I like to think you learn a little more with the characters with every chapter. Thanks for reading.
Everything's Jake
Rating: T for language and sexuality
Disclaimers: I don't own DDR... Insert witty comment about how I wish I did here...ooo000OOO000ooo
The rules were simple. They were set in stone. Here's how it went down:
1) Teams of four, including one back-up player, just in case someone broke a hip on the dance floor or something.
2) Songs are chosen on random.
3) All players must be able to play heavy. We're not wimps here, you know.
4) 85 of your final score will be based off the score you receive from your song. The other 15 is chosen by style, or how hot you look when you dance.
5) Opponents will be chosen after the first elimination round.
Dates to remember:
Week 1 – Preliminary Elimination Rounds
Week 2, Day One – First Round Eliminations
Week 2, Day Two – Second Round Eliminations
Week 2, Day Three – Third Round Eliminations
Week 2, Day Four – Fourth Round Eliminations
Week 3, Day One – Final Eight Eliminations
Week 3, Day Two – Final Four Eliminations
Week 3, Day Two – Finals
Age restrictions: Must be between ages 13 and 25, so no old fogies and babies, alright?
Money: You can't expect to enter for free… The cash prize for winning the DDR U.S. competition is $12,500. To take part in the preliminaries you must pay a $25 entrance fee, and a $100 fee if you make it past the preliminaries. Hotel is only $30 a night per person, with the contest discount. It's up to you to make the registration.
Packages: There are different payment plans you can choose for the competition.
The Marvelous Plan – 15 nights at the hotel, both entry fees, and 55 standard-issue meal tickets. $800
The Perfect Plan – Both entry fees and 30 standard-issue meal tickets. $350
The Great Plan – Both entry fees $125
Meal tickets are used to purchase full-course meals for contestants only. You can buy meal tickets with proof of registration after the preliminary $25 entrance fee.
The winning team of the Finals moves on to a world-class competition, the DDRmach. Remember, you're dancing for America!
"They make it seem like it's something to be proud of…"
"C'mon! Don't you think it's awesome? To be the greatest dancers in the country?"
"DDR isn't dancing. If I saw anyone dancing like that at the club they'd be shot."
"But you're so good at it!"
"And they're grading on style, too, apparently. Fifteen percent… That can count for a lot come crunch time." The boy reading the sheet of paper placed it down softly. "So what do you guys think? Wanna give it a shot?"
"Hey, we're good, but not America-good. There's tons of better dancers at the arcade than us."
"I don't want to make a fool of myself in public…"
"I'm in!"
"Great!" the boy said, scratching the back of his head.
"You do that a lot," his friend said.
"What?"
"Scratching your head. I think you might've been allergic to the dye."
"Are you serious!"
"Yeah, that happened to my cousin Austin. He dyed his hair blue and it all fell off the next week!"
"He's lying. I saw Austin just yesterday. He still has hair."
"Yeah, thanks to a wig!"
"Do you really think my hair's going to fall out?"
"No, Jake, you hair will not call out," she reassured, patting him on the head. She reached down and picked the paper up from the table. "The deadline's coming up to register," she commented, looking towards the others. "What do you say? I think it could be really fun!"
"You think everything is fun. You're never serious."
"I'm not sure…"
"C'mon! It says that we have to have four players. It can't be just Jake and me!"
"Jake and i I /i ."
"Shut up, Royce. C'mon, yes or no?"
There was a pause.
"Even if I said yes, I wouldn't be able to go. I don't have the money and I work. I can't just skip out to go to some DDR competition downtown."
"Yeah, but the prize money!"
"And what if we don't win?"
"And I'm not old enough to find decent work. How am I supposed to pay for everything? Does a hotel accept prize money we haven't won yet?"
"C'mon, you two! Just say yes! I'll take care of it."
"What? You're just a waitress. There's no way you could make that much money for us, plus I already told you I'm not skipping work for this."
She growled defiantly, losing her grip on a good mood, and turned to Jake.
"But you're still in, aren't you?"
He looked up nervously, running his fingers through his, as of last night, red hair. "Huh? Oh, yeah, of course. It's a shitload of money. I could use it."
"Totally. It's, like, three thousand for each of us!"
"You're serious. You really want to join this competition."
"Is that a yes?"
The older boy took the paper from her and read it under better scrutiny.
"I wish they would've posted times. If the competitions are in the evening I won't be able to make it."
"What about you, Nathan?"
The youngest perked up at his name. "Oh, I'll have to ask my mom… If she says it's okay and is willing the shell out the cash I'll do it."
She squealed and wrapped her arms around Royce and Nathan, dragging them down towards her.
"You guys rock!"
"You realize that none of them are a hundred percent. We should probably find others."
"That sucks it doesn't have a Trick division. Some of the heavy songs are too much for me," Nathan sighed.
"We can't find others. Nate and Royce are the best at what they do."
"What is it exactly that we do? We're just like every other player."
"No you're not! Nate, you can dance so good to the songs. And I mean it, you really dance! The way your body moves, and hypnotizing!"
Traces of red rushed its way up to the boy's cheeks. "You… actually watch me when I'm up there?"
"Of course! I wish I could memorize arrows like you could. And you, Royce, who gets a triple A on almost every song?"
"I've only mastered seven songs. There's too many tracks on DDR, what are the chances that I land one that I'm actually good at?"
"It doesn't matter! You're good and keeping up with the really fast songs. It's hard for some people to play Hero times three in reverse."
"What about me?"
"Jake?" she turned and looked at him. "You get a lot of combos… and you get more greats than me…"
"Greats are bad!" he exclaimed.
"Okay, so you can practice some more," she sighed to her little brother, turning to the others. "So, do we have a team?" she asked, placing her hand in front of them.
Royce rolled his eyes. "You know you could never doubt me," he grumbled, placing his hand on top of hers.
"Maybe, if Mom says okay," Nathan replied, added his to the pile.
"Jake? What about you?"
"I don't know. Since I'm such a crappy player I think I'll stay home and not hold you back."
"Jeez, don't be that way. C'mon, we need you." She pleaded to him in the way a sister only could and he caved. He walked slowly to the group and put his hand on the top.
"So what should our group name be?"
"We need a name?"
"We can't have a DDR group without a kickass name."
"Oh! What about the Purple Cobras?"
"Funny. But seriously, any good ideas?"
"How about a song we're good at. All of us."
"Cartoon Heroes?"
"Yeah, right. I suck at that one. How about Captain Jack! I love his songs."
"Nah, that's lame. Something from DDR is too expected. What're y'all's favorite bands?"
"Greenday."
"The Killers."
"Chopin."
"Damn. I like the Gorillaz. This isn't going to work."
"What about Butterfly? We're all pretty good at that song."
"I am not playing for a group called 'The Butterflies'."
"Well, it doesn't have to be that… the Upswing Mix, that's the version we rock at, right? How about that?"
"The Upswing Mix?"
"Yeah, it's like a sucker punch! Exactly what we're gonna do to all the bastards at the competition!"
"So it's settled, Team Upswing, on three! One, Two…"
"Who's going to be the leader?"
"Huh?"
"You know, the leader of the pack, so to speak. I think it should be Alexis."
"M-Me?"
"Sure, why not. You're the one that practically forced Royce and Nate to join, and you're the most solid out of all of us."
"I don't know… I'm not really good at leading."
"No kidding, but Royce is too dull and Nate's too young for the responsibility."
"What about you?" she asked, flustered. There was a short moment where none of them spoke. "Right, never mine. I'll lead."
"Thank you."
ooo000OOO000ooo
The two siblings sat on opposite ends of their dining room table. They were no ordinary siblings, however. They were twins. And they were eating breakfast.
"Are you gonna finish that?" Jake asked, pointing his fork at Alexis's pancake.
"Nah, go ahead," she sighed, pushing the plate towards him. "You look weird with red hair," she commented.
"Is it really that bad," he said, cringing slightly and stroking his hair softly.
"Not so much as bad as different. I'm so used to brown hair. Why did you want to dye it to begin with?"
Jake shrugged, turning attention back to the food in front of him. "Dunno. Just felt like it."
"Oh, okay," she replied, finishing her drink. Glancing over to the wall she noticed the sheet of paper with the rules for the DDR tournament pinned to the bulletin board. Just last night her brother and their friends decided to join. It was going to cost a fortune, but hopefully they would get the reward at the end. If not, at least they could say they had fun, right?
Alexis was the older of the two of them, a full three minutes ahead. Jake had always acted like a little brother, although with his attitude and the way he talked sometimes he seemed older. Then he had his moments where he acted like a complete jerk. They were both eighteen and had just graduated from high school, a big accomplishment. Alexis had gotten accepted to all the major universities. Jake was going to take a year off to 'discover himself,' much to their parent's disapproval.
Jake was levelheaded for the most part. He never worried about anything unless it was his appearance. Mostly his hair, which was short, spiky, and an abnormal shade of bright red. He wore flawlessly torn jeans (ripped by Alexis, who wanted to go into fashion design and new all those kinds of tricks) and a white t-shirt. Alexis still had the natural brown hair that came in the family that fell past her shoulders, and personally she preferred to wear darker colors, a black shirt and maroon skirt.
"Mom hasn't seen it yet, has she?"
Jake looked up slightly. That's right, Alexis had dyed it late last night, after their parents were already in bed. They were gone by the time they had woken up. The summer schedule was already beginning to sink in.
"What do you think she'll say?"
His sister shrugged. "Dunno. Probably totally freak. Remember that one time I got a temp tattoo on my ankle from the prize booth at the arcade."
Jake started laughing. "Yeah, dad nearly cut your head off. Even after you told him it was a temp he still made you take it off!"
"That's why I can't wait until the competition."
"What, so you can wear as many temps as you want?"
"No, because I'm gonna get a real one!"
Milk literally went flying out of Jake's nose. "What? You're kidding, right? They'll never let you do that!"
"C'mon, we're eighteen! We can do whatever we want. We're leaving the house once summer's over so mom and dad can't look after us anymore."
He leaned back in his chair and took the final bite of pancake. "What're you thinking about getting?"
"Haven't really thought about it. Something simple and timeless so I won't regret it when I'm older."
"A tattoo sounds fun. I might get one, too."
"Serious?"
"Yeah."
"What're you getting?"
"Haven't really thought about it." He stood up, ignoring his sister's glowers as he picked up her empty cup and tossed the dishes into the sink. "But don't tattoos cost… I don't know… money?"
"I was going to take some out of my account for the tourney."
"Out of your account? Isn't that supposed to be saved for college and stuff? Every check for your birthday and Christmas got put into that account… with interest… that's probably a lot of money, huh?"
"Yeah, but I think it'll be worth it. It'll be a reminder of the best summer of all time."
"Is that what we're calling it now?"
"Because it will be."
"Whatever you say. I'm meeting Nate at the arcade."
"This early?"
"Well, Royce works late, he'd still be asleep. You take too long to get ready. So, I'm hanging out with Nate this morning."
"Fine. I'll meet you there in an hour. Wait up, okay?"
"Sure, sure," he sighed, grabbing his wallet off the table.
"And practice, but don't spend all your money. We need to save a little bit."
"I promise nothing!" he shouted as the front screen door slammed shut.
ooo000OOO000ooo
The walk to the arcade was short but hot. Summers were always the worst. Jake sighed and wiped some sweat from his forehead on the back of his hand. His sister never failed to surprise him. One minute she was the ridiculously brilliant college freshman and another moment she was your typical rebellious teen. He only wished he could be rebellious. He dyed his hair on a whim last night using the dye that his sister was going to use. She seemed happy that he was finally doing something outside the norm. He hated that.
He always wanted to be unpredictable, but instead he spent most of his time bending over backwards making sure his family was happy. This included keeping a secret. One that only his sister knew. Royce and Nate would probably run away if he ever told them. Speaking of Nate…
"Hey!" Jake shouted, waving his hand. The shorter boy was leaning against a bike pole in front of the arcade. His head perked up and a smile flashed on his face.
"You're late!"
Jake walked quicker and met up with the sophomore. He had met Nathan in his P.E. credit that he needed to graduate his senior year. Nate was just a freshman then. He was your typical underclassman. He wore the baggy torn jeans that he'd probably had since his last growth spurt. To top it off he had the dark green shirt and fishnet sleeves under it. Jake chuckled. He looked like he was trying to hard to look grunge with his messy, unkept blonde hair.
"Did you bring any quarters? The machine's broken."
"Wha-? You're kidding."
"Nope. We'll have to use the Laundromat down the street." He reached for his pocket and shook it softly. "I already got enough to last us a few rounds."
"Cool." They walked in the arcade, Le Fun.
"Which machine? Fourth Mix or Max2?"
"Extreme's broken?"
"Apparently."
"Why don't we go to Einstein's. They have a working Extreme and Dance Mania."
"Sure, if you want to walk all the way down," Nate sighed, pointing in the general direction of where the neighboring arcade would be. Le Fun was much bigger, and held a lot more games. The best part was the three DDR machines, even though at least one of them was always in a constant state of being broken. Einstein's was a lot smaller, but the games were usually running and people who worked there were friendly.
"Nah, here's fine. Let's play Max2. We can mod that one."
The first song was Candy, with vocals. Jake left his on heavy while Nate stayed safe on Trick. The song began and they coasted through the motions. It was pretty simple, nothing too difficult to warm up with. Next was My Summer Love, then Tsugaru. Jake got two As and a B, respectively, while Nate triumphed with all double As.
"Another round?" Nate asked.
"Sure."
"I want to play Fourth Mix, though."
"Why? The arrows are slow and you can't mod them."
Nate walked off to the back of the arcade where the older machine was. He turned his head a replied with a quite "I like to choose my character…"
Jake ended up being Rage while Nate stuck with Charmy, one of his favorite DDR characters.
"You pick first," he insisted.
Jake breezed past the song selection. Nothing good. Roulette was the only way to go. Nate understood Jake's little DDR quirks by now. If he chose Roulette, then that meant he had to press the button that would choose the song. Nate reached down and pressed the flashing green button, which made the wheel stop and land on Boys Boys Boys.
"You're kidding," Nate sighed. He always got the annoying songs. At least, it was annoying to him. Jake liked anything fast with a good tempo. Jake got a double A and Nate a B.
The rest of the time on the machine went on the same, using Roulette to chose the next track. The arcade was pretty slow, so nobody was around to distract them. It was the perfect time to practice.
"How about another one, on me. Then you have to start paying."
"No, I'm beat," Jake sighed. "You go on ahead. I'll get some change for the Laundromat."
"Fine, whatever," Nate replied, feeding his quarters into the machine, enjoying the sound it made as the game counted credits. Jake started to walk away, but stopped when he was choosing levels. He had always heard from his sister what a great dancer he was, but he never actually saw it. Him and Nate were almost always partners and practiced together since Royce was always sleeping or busy and Alexis spent so much time at home.
Nate started out with double mode. Jake was interested, creeping closer. Maybe if he studied his technique he'd get to know how to really blow the judges away with some awesome dance steps. What song? Oops I Did It Again? Was he serious? It was one of the long play songs, but…
Woah…
He was all over the place. He was skipping, using his hands on the mat instead of his feet, holding on the bar to give himself more airtime. It was like he was flying. Why couldn't he dance like that? It was a God-awful song, but Nate's dancing made it bearable.
"Like what you see?" a girl said from behind him. Jake jumped back, but realized it was only Alexis. "Odd. I didn't think this was your type."
"I'm just learning, don't look into it."
The song ended and Nate glanced behind him.
"Hey! Alex!" he jumped off the dance pad and rushed to her. "Did you see me? Was I good?"
"You were great," she said with a smile. "Different song choice, though. I know you like the long-play tracks, but the ones on Fourth Mix are horrible."
"You really think so?" he asked, crestfallen.
"If you want to dance to Britney you just dance." She looked quickly at Jake, their eyes meeting briefly, before she turned her attention back to Nathan. "You do whatever you want. Don't worry about what other people think."
"Even if that other person is you?"
"Even if it's your parents. Jam to whatever you want."
"You're running out of time," Jake commented, nodding his head towards the screen. Nathan cursed under his breath and rushed back to the machine to choose his next song.
"Don't forget to get change," he shouted over his shoulder.
"The quarter machine's broke. We gotta go to the Laundromat." Alexis nodded and followed her younger brother out the door. They traveled in silence for a moment until Alexis stopped in front of a shop.
"Wow! Look at those shoes. Aren't they wicked?" she commented, pointing in the store window. Jake stopped and backed up a few steps, looking inside. It was a pair of knee-high boots, black and covered with buckles. It was laced up with a fine satin ribbon rather than normal shoelaces.
"They look okay. Completely impractical, though."
"What do you mean?" she replied, slightly agitated.
"Well, look at 'em! The soles are inches thick and they'd be impossible to walk in. And what's the point of having buckles and laces. It should just be one or the other," he said, waving his finger up and down the displayed shoe.
"It's style, Jake. It isn't supposed to be functional it's supposed to look good." She looked at the boots a while longer. "You know what you'd look like if you wore those?"
"What?"
"A character from DDR."
"Really? Which one?"
"No, not like that. Like you could be a character from DDR."
"I'm don't get it…"
Alexis opened the door to the shop and her brother followed. "You know, with your red hair and the right outfit, you could look like a character from DDR. Like, Konami would make some polygons to look like you or something."
"Yeah, right. I'd be the most boring dancer. I can't do anything on the dance pad."
"Is that why you were watching Nathan?"
Jake glanced at her quickly and turned his focus onto the sale rack. "Yeah. He's so much better than I am."
"But only in Trick. He doesn't have the freedom in Heavy to dance like he does. If you just played Trick once or twice during a round you might-"
"I don't play Trick. I grew out of that years ago."
"See, there you go! It's your stupid arrogance!" Alexis sighed, grabbing clothes off shelves and checking their tags for sizes. "If would just swallow your pride and play a song in Trick you'd probably be loads better than Nathan."
"It's not that I'm scared, it's the principle. Nobody's gonna want to watch some kid make an ass of himself skipping around on Trick. They wanna see how fast a kid can move his feet on heavy. They wanna see how many perfects a kid can get, their max combo! If I could just dance like Nate and keep it on Heavy I'd be set."
"In a perfect world," Alexis finished, throwing a pile of clothes into Jake's arms.
"What's this?"
"A new outfit. Put it on. My treat."
"You're buying be clothes? Forget it, I wouldn't be caught dead in this!"
"You think you actually look good in jeans and a wife beater? I'm not going to be a part of Upswing if you walk around like trailer trash."
"What? I don't look like trailer trash I look hot!"
"When was the last girl who told you that, huh? Sure as hell wasn't me," she said with a small smirk on her face. Jake glared at her, disgruntled. Her smile faltered slightly as she added, "Or guys, for that matter."
"Fuck off," he growled.
"Language," she reminded, forcing him to turn around and pushing his back towards the dressing rooms. "Just try it. You might like it."
"But it's so…" he held up the bright red shirt she had given him that had glittering gold letters on the front. "Porn Star?"
"I think it suits you."
"But I'm still a virgin!"
"Aw, you say it like it's a bad thing."
Jake was now in a stall facing outside to his sister. "Just wear it," she said, finally. "I'm still wondering why you dyed your hair red but refuse to change anything else about you. This will be your summer of change."
She shut the door and walked away, leaving Jake by himself in the small room. He started taking his shirt off and put the red one on. He looked at himself in the mirror. The shirt had a tighter fit than what he was used to, but still comfortable, and it made his weakly defined muscles stand out slightly more than before. The only thing he had a problem with was the writing across his chest. He wasn't a porn star.
"Jake, never mind, look at this!" his sister declared from the other side, throwing a shirt over the door. It was another red shirt, but in black letters it read 'Everything's Jake.' He liked this one a whole bunch more.
After a moment of exchanging outfits, he looked in the mirror again. He felt like a different person. The shirt was a perfect fit. The pants were baggy, filled with much unneeded straps and buckles, but he had to admit…
"You look great!" Alexis commented, grabbing his shoulders and turning him around. "Ah! You're so cute now! The boys won't be able to keep their hands off you at the competition."
Jake swatted his sister's hand away. "Will you shut up about that? I'm not gay."
"It's close enough. Your sexuality is nothing to be ashamed of." He sighed and looked off, trying to find something to distract him. "I just think it's sad that you won't tell the guys that you're bi. It's not like they'll disown you or anything. I think it's cool that I have a boy I can talk about boys with."
"I've never talked to you about boys before!" he replied loudly. This caused some looks from a couple of girls shopping in the corner. They giggled and started whispering to each other. Jake sighed, "Can we talk about this some other time?"
Alexis rolled her eyes. "Sure, whatever. But we can't hold off this conversation forever. Your friends have a right to know. Now take your clothes off."
"What?"
"Take them off and give them to me. Think of it as an early birthday present."
"But my birthday was two months ago…"
"Then a Graduation present, whatever. Change back into your old clothes, okay?"
"My old clothes," Jake repeated softly. "Alright. Gimme a minute." He walked back into the stall and remerged as his same old self.
"We have to hurry. Nathan's probably wondering where we are."
"Aren't you going to buy new clothes?"
"I'm working on a new outfit." She placed the clothes in front of the registrar. "It's gonna be sweet. Red with buckles and spikes and something totally edgy."
"It sounds like the clothes you picked out for me," Jake sighed.
"I know. We're gonna match! I didn't have enough time to make one for you. I hope you understand."
When Alexis got her first sewing machine in the eighth grade she was constantly using Jake as her living mannequin. She always had a sense of knowing what he would look good in. He still kept the first shirt she ever made for him, a tee with a puppy stitched onto it. Ever since then he hardly had the need to buy any clothes at all. It was nice. Her buy him clothes was almost just as good. She was always looking out for him. He supposed that's what older sisters were for.
ooo000OOO000ooo
"What took you so long?"
"Shopping!" Alexis said happily, thrusting her purchase into Nathan's face.
"I can see that," Nathan said back, agitated. He shoved the bag out of his way and looked to Jake. "Did you get change?" he asked. "I'm fresh out. You guys were out so long."
"Yeah, yeah," Jake griped, handing over a dollar and quarters to his friend.
"So when's Royce coming over. He's never here to practice. I wanted to see how he could move his feet so fast."
"Relax, he works late. Give him rest," Alexis sighed, pulling up a stool and sitting next to the Fourth Mix. "We need to sign up for the competition. The deadlines creeping up." She took the paper that they were reading last night out of her bag. "Let's see, team members… Alexis Brick…"
"Nathan O'Connor!"
"Your mom said you could go?" she asked, looking up at him. He nodded.
"I owe her my soul and a few chores, but she said it would be a good way for me to make friends."
"Who needs friends when you got us?" Jake asked, wrapping his arm around Nathan's neck in a fake strangle hold.
"Jake Brick," Alexis added to the list, "and Royce McMillan. Perfect. Now we need team names."
"We're Upswing, remember?" Nathan asked.
"No, an individual team name for everyone. It can be as many characters as you want, but we also have to chose a four-letting version for the sake of high scores."
"Just leave me as Nate."
"I'll be… I don't know, I've never had to choose a name… Jake, what should I be?"
"I don't know. How about some weird name like they choose for the dancer options."
"What, like Maid Zukin?"
"Yeah, or some weird Japanese name. You're good at stuff like that."
Alexis sighed and glanced to the ceiling in thought. "I'll just keep my normal high score name, Fire."
"What about Royce."
"Rolls, of course," Alexis said, writing it down. "He always says how sophisticated his name is because he was named after an expensive car… And that just leaves you, Jake. What do you want?"
"Easy. Brik."
ooo000OOO000ooo
Hope everyone enjoyed. R/R, please...