*Reviews are very much appreciated.
-Brian's Story-
Chapter 2
The competition in Los Angeles had gone very well for Emily. She had won several of her events. She was now landing in Bolder. She was about to meet up with her mother and brother, just like the other girls where reuniting with their families. She had received a phone call the night before, from her mother and Brian, they told her something that had her head spinning, for the words could have meant anything and she wouldn't know until she saw them. Even though she achieved major successes at the competition, now the phone call was the only thing Emily could think about. The other girls began to take notice of her seemingly vacant demeanor.
"Hey, Em' what's going on?" Kaylie asked her, seeming concerned.
"Yeah, why do you seem so turned off right now? You did great!" Payson said, thumping her on the back.
"I don't know. I guess it's the phone call I got from my mom last night."
"What'd she say? Is she alright?" Kaylie asked, trying to be of help.
"It sounds like she's fine. But she said something about there being some big change, something that would surprise me. I guess I don't know how to take that. A big change with her could be either really good or really bad. I mean knowing her it might just mean one of her redneck boyfriends is staying in our apartment again."
"Rednecks and apartments…only you Emily." Lauren jeered. No one paid any attention to her as they made their way out of the terminal and found their way to baggage claim. As they waited for their luggage the girls continued to try to help Emily figure out what was going on.
"Did she tell you anything specific?" Payson asked her.
"No just that I would never see it coming."
"Well that doesn't really help at all. Is there anything that's been going on with your mom that might have to do with it?" Kaylie asked trying to explore the possibilities.
"Not that I can think of. Brian has been acting weird lately. He's been gone a lot this whole year."
"Maybe it has something to do with him." Payson suggested.
"Who's Brian? Is he one of those redneck boyfriends you were talking about?" Lauren cut in.
"He's Emily's brother you idiot!" Kaylie snapped at her.
"But I have no idea what's going on with him." Emily said, thinking the conversation was going nowhere.
"Maybe your mom finally footed the bill for that operation she always wanted, you know so the upstairs size matches the downstairs size." Lauren said haughtily. But her remark fell on deaf ears. They had all silently agreed to ignore Lauren.
"You think maybe your brother got a girlfriend? He is kind of nerdy, so that might be a big surprise. But he's a nice guy so maybe not such a big surprise." Kaylie thought out loud.
"Oh please, who would go out with a gimpy trailer trash kid like him?" Lauren tried once more to attract attention and to her delight she had slightly succeeded.
"Shut up Lauren! My little sister Becca says she thinks he's really cute." Payson shot back at Lauren.
"Thanks Pay." Emily said, feigning disbelief, but at the same time hiding knowledge she was almost certain only she possessed.
"No, I'm serious, she does and all that studying they do together…she isn't that bad in her classes. Plus I heard his name out of her every time we talked on the phone. It was just about how much he was helping her, but I've never heard anybody that excited about Geometry." Payson replied seriously.
"Hmm, maybe you're right Pay. Who knows?" Emily said shrugging it off for the moment.
"You think Sasha's gonna ride us all extra hard now cause of that sixth place you got Lauren?" Kaylie said trying to shame Lauren.
"I'm guessing your mom wants to ride him!" Lauren hit back.
"You're the biggest idiot I know Lauren." Kaylie spat back at her.
"Come on everybody knows about Marty and your mother." Lauren said confidently grinning in what she perceived to be victory.
"Everybody knows about you getting beat by not one but two of Marty's team, Kelly Parker and some other girl nobody even knows. Oooh, burns doesn't it?" Kaylie smirked.
"Whatever!" Lauren scowled, having nothing left to say. Just then Lauren saw her bags. It seemed she had brought nearly all of her possessions. But everyone knew this was only a small fraction of them. She lugged them off the belt and made her way to the waiting area were the parents were presumably anticipating them.
"Thank God! I thought she'd never leave." Kaylie moaned.
"I learned to tune the little princess out a long time ago. It's all just white noise to me now." Payson told them.
"It's pretty much the same for me too. I don't let her have the satisfaction of winning with me. Eventually she'll realize it's pointless." Emily added.
"Well good for you two. But she's still a thorn in my side. Oh well, I'm national champion and she's not, so there." Kaylie said with a smile. "Oh there's my stuff, see you in a few minutes." Kaylie collected her things and headed in the same direction Lauren had several minutes ago.
"I wish I could've joined you guys, but I'm still trying to re-invent my technique with Sasha. It really boils my blood sometimes not being able to do those things anymore." Payson said, still maintaining composure.
"Hey, you and everyone else who knows you thinks…knows you are gonna be back on top by twenty-twelve. Don't ever question that." Emily told her.
"Well this is a switch, now you're the one giving sage advice."
"Yup, and you know I'm right."
"Yeah, that's what everybody keeps telling me. But I'm not so sure."
"What's there not be unsure of?"
"I don't know, it's just that it's not happening as fast as I'd like it to."
"You've got over a year to get there. Trust me you'll be at the top of the podium wearing the gold all the way through London."
"Corny, especially for you Kmetko!" Payson said breaking into a laugh, which was contagious enough that Emily couldn't help but laugh along with her. It almost caused them to miss their baggage. As soon as they removed their bags, the two of them having the least bags of anyone else on the team, they proceeded to the front of the airport where their parents were waiting. They saw Kaylie chatting away with her parents. Lauren was complaining fervently about something with her father and Summer. Sasha was telling the parents how successfully their children had performed. Payson then reached were her family stood, they all simultaneously hugged her tight. Now it was Emily's turn to reunite with her family. She found her mother standing close to the chattering Cruz family, which included Kaylie's older brother.
"Mom, I missed you so much." Emily exclaimed pulling herself into a hug with her mother.
"I missed you too baby." Chloe replied warmly.
"So what's the big surprise you told me about?"
"You'll know it when you see it Emily."
"By the way, where's Brian? I thought you said you where gonna bring him?" Emily asked, looking around. But she saw no sign of her younger brother wheeling himself towards her.
"He's here, I wasn't lying or anything." Chloe told her.
"I don't see him any…" Emily abruptly stopped talking when she caught sight of her brother. She thought the sight of him kissing Becca Keeler was the most shocking thing she would ever see him do but she was now aware of how wrong she was.
"Hey there super girl." Brian intoned, a familiar and yet totally foreign smile on his face.
"B-b-b-Brian."
"Yup that's the name don't wear it out."
"B-b-Brian, you're—oh my God, oh my…you're you're…"
"I think this is a lot for your sister to take in. Maybe I should have said 'huge surprise' and not just 'big surprise'." Chloe put in.
"Oh my God…Brian…oh my God…you…you're walking. How in the world…?" Emily sputtered. Brian walked closer to her, with the use of crutches.
"I'm finally taller than you. How 'bout that?" Brian said, nothing but kindness in his voice as usual, trying to break Emily out of her stupor.
"Yeah…taller…walking…wow." Emily stammered again.
"So do I get a hug or did you only have one in you?" Brian joked propping himself up on the crutches, Emily wrapped her arms around his long midsection, still a little robotically.
"You're right, you are taller than me. What else is new? Not that anything can top this." Emily asked, now that she had regained the use of speech completely, although she knew the shock of seeing Brian walk would not wear off for quite some time.
"We'll get to that later. What we both wanna know is how'd you do in LA?" Chloe asked, obviously covering something else up.
"Well I did…great. I placed first in two events. But…Brian…you're walking…amazing…anyway, Brian is there anything else new with you?" Emily asked still astonished at his newfound upright mobility. But the intent of the question was not to get more details on his lack of a wheelchair, but to see if things had progressed any further with Becca, and an attempt to get Brian to admit it to her without having to tell him what she saw.
"Well uhh…" Brian muttered, but before he could answer, Becca walked up and kissed him lightly on the lips, which he reciprocated.
"See ya' tonight!" Becca exclaimed as she left with Payson, who shot Emily an 'I told ya' look and an ear to ear grin.
"So, you and Becca Keeler, huh?" Emily asked proudly.
"Yeah, isn't it great?" Brain replied, as they walked to the parking lot, he was still hobbling slightly on the crutches.
"Yeah it is. But you couldn't have told me about this over the phone?" Emily asked, referring to the fact that Brain could now walk for the first time since he was a year and a half old.
"I didn't want you getting distracted." Brian put simply. Emily looked at her mother hoping for more of an answer.
"Don't look at me; he made me keep it quiet."
"Well his walking isn't the only miracle then." Emily remarked referring to Chloe staying quiet.
"You know we're really proud of you Emily, sounds like you did great in LA." Chloe said, trying to focus on Emily.
"Yeah, thanks mom. But, wow, this is what you've been hiding from me all year Brian? You've been learning how to walk."
"Well first I had to get surgery to fix my spine. Then I started the physical therapy. So…"
"Still… all this in a year? I always knew I had an amazing little brother. But…wow."
"To be honest this is the most I've walked…ever. So I'm gonna be really happy when we get to the car and I can sit down."
"Yeah this was really hard for him, but he had to see you as soon as you got back. I couldn't get him to wait."
"I don't blame him, I couldn't wait to see you either Bri." Emily said, smiling. "Brian…I know this is going to get annoying but I'm amazed at you. But why couldn't you tell me?"
"Well I went to the doctor and they told me I could get the surgery cause I had grown out of it enough now. I got to thinking and I figured it would be really cool if you didn't know until I could show you. So…that's why I didn't say anything."
"I guess that makes sense. It's a little weird but…yeah it's cool. Becca isn't just dating you cause you can walk now, right?"
"No, we were seeing each other before I started being able to get out of the wheelchair. I went to see her at some of her practices at 'The Rock', especially while you where away. Cause lately it's been a lot easier for me to get there. When you saw us together, the night before you left, I had gotten onto the couch by myself."
"Wait, you knew I saw you?"
"Yeah, I saw you jump into mom's room."
"Wow, okay. Good eyes."
"There's a little more news." Chloe said shortly.
"What else could possibly have changed?" Emily asked, not believing anything else could.
"I got a job at the 'Pizza Shack' last week… don't worry I won't let Razor mess with my head. But since I can almost walk now, I figured it was time for me to contribute."
"You've always contributed…" Chloe reassured him.
"You know what I mean…money-wise."
"I always thought you would be a computer engineer or a scientist."
"I will be but I need other work on my way up. Oh, one other thing, not that it needs to be brought up. But my walking means, I don't need help with certain…personal things anymore. That's gotta be a relief."
"We've always been there for you Brian…but yes, it is a relief." Chloe informed him, with a quick agreement from Emily.
"You don't think we should tell her about the other big surprise?" Brian asked their mother.
"No, I think she'll recognize this one all on her own."
"Come on guys, what's the surprise?" Emily demanded as they stopped walking.
"We're at it!" Chloe exclaimed.
"What's that supposed to mean 'we're at it'?" Emily asked, utterly confused.
"Look, it's your new car!" Chloe burst in excitement, handing Emily the keys.
-The End-
*Please feel free to leave reviews!
Authors Notes:
-When Brian says "Hey there super girl." That is a reference to the series premier when we first saw Brian and that's what he said (or something similar with the phrase 'Super Girl' in it) after Emily threw a sock at him.
-The reason Emily's job at the 'Pizza Shack' is secure is because they said the 'Pizza Shack' is "always hiring".
