The next morning, CJ woke up to check his clock. It was 9:30 AM. He had been sleeping late so far. It was a good sleep for him though. He had fun last night and never woke up a satisfying man. So CJ took a shower, got dressed in clean clothes, ate breakfast, and headed out of the door.
He decided to go see Lisa, to see what she was up to. So he hopped inside his car and drove through the rode. It was another nice morning today. The sky was devoid of any cloud in the sky. The sun shone brightly with yellow-white colors. The other vehicles drove smoothly on the road.
CJ could feel his heart thumping. He had never felt so nervous around Lisa and wondered what changed. Maybe it was the fact that she had grown into a beautiful woman. Not that she wasn't cute to begin with, as CJ had even had a secret crush on her as a child, but CJ never thought it was enough for him to suddenly become nervous whenever he would either be around her or think about her.
CJ didn't think too deeply about it though. He just contacted driving until he pulled up in front of Lisa's house in Calton Heights. He hopped out of his vehicle and walked up to the front, knocking on the door in the process.
"Come in!" he heard Lisa call out from the inside.
CJ opened the door and walked down the hallway. The white walls were designed with blue butterflies, and the beige carpet was immaculate. CJ continued walking straight down the hallway, making a left turn to the living room, where Ryder was lounging on the sofa behind the staircase listening to Lisa's stern lecture while "Love No Limit" by Mary J. Blige was playing on the radio. There was a poster of TLC's album cover design on the wall above the couch, as well as a prolific number of butterflies around the walls. There was a brown nightstand on one end of the couch, with a lamp with a red lampshade designed with colorful butterflies, and a television against the other side of the wall.
Man, this girl's literally giving me butterflies, CJ thought.
"Seriously, Lisa," Ryder complained to his sister, "you just too bossy. You always telling me what to do when I'm grown."
"Hey, I'm just making sure you don't do any dumb shit," Lisa replied. "That's what I can't stand about you, Lance. You always have that stubborn ass attitude and never take any time to think your actions over, because you're too much of a dumbass to cooperate and take anything seriously. Maybe if you didn't smoke that wet to begin with and grow a fucking brain for once, you wouldn't be called out on it. This is the main reason I stopped talking to your ass once I moved out of Grove Street!"
"I'm grown," Ryder replied. "I can do whatever the fuck I feel."
"See, that's exactly what I'm talking about," Lisa told him. "You're too damn incorrigible to be reasoned with. You're like a grown man version of Kahlil from Bebe's Kids."
"Hey, don't compare me to some annoying character in that shitty movie!" Ryder growled, lowering his feet on the floor.
"Too late, asshole," Lisa replied. "Your attitude is just as shitty as that movie. There's this thing called growing the fuck up. You should try it. Honestly, sometimes, I feel so embarrassed to be related to you!"
"Well that's one thing we have in common," Ryder told his sister. "That makes two of us." Lisa just glared angrily at him.
CJ walked in just in time. "'Sup?" he greeted the arguing siblings.
"What's crackin', CJ?" Ryder greeted, giving CJ some dap.
"How you doing, Carl?" Lisa replied, giving CJ a hug. He smelled the strawberry scent on her again and started to blush.
"So what's going on over here?" CJ asked, looking around.
"Lisa here seems to have lost her tampons," Ryder replied. "She acting like she my momma, as if she was the one who gave birth to me."
"You acting like you're still in high school, asshole," Lisa retorted. "You may be grown right now, but you're still my younger brother. So why don't you fix that fucked-up attitude of yours and grow up, asshole?"
"Why don't you get out more and quit acting like you my parent?!" Ryder shouted back. "You need to go out to find your tampons, because you acting like such a bi..."
"I swear to fucking God, Lance!" Lisa shouted angrily, "I will make you suffer an infectious case of "assus pedus pukus"! That's the Latin way of me telling you that I'll shove my fucking foot so far up your half-stoned ass, you'll be vomiting out my toenails!"
"Yo CJ, back me up here," Ryder told CJ. "This girl's always trippin'. She losin' a lot of blood down there."
"Look, Ryder," CJ replied, "I don't like being lectured any more than you, and I do get sick of receiving them myself from Sweet most of the time, but I'm not trying to get in the middle of this."
"Yeah," Lisa snapped at Ryder. "Don't try to get any of your friends to kiss up to you whenever I call your dumb ass out on your behavior. And just to tell you straight up, if you were to get yourself killed thanks to your own dumb ass behavior, I'm not gonna waste my tears on your ass. I'm not saying that I don't care about you, but if you do something stupid to get yourself killed, don't expect me to cry over your corpse."
"Man, fuck you, Lisa!" Ryder growled, hopping onto his feet and getting in Lisa's face.
"Fuck you too, Lance!" Lisa shot back
CJ didn't wanted to get in the middle of the argument. Ryder and Lisa have always spent their time arguing with each other since they were children, and when they truly went physical, Lisa always overpowered Ryder easily.
Just then, Kendl came down the stairs. "Oh what's up, Carl?" she greeted as she saw CJ. She walked up to CJ to give him a hug. "How you doing?"
"Cool," CJ replied. "I was just having a conversation with these two here. Where you been?"
"In the bathroom," Kendl replied. "I had to fix my hair because I forgot my brush at my place."
"So Carl," Lisa told him. "I was thinking that we should all spend some time together – you know, a sibling bond of all four of us. You and your sister and me and my brother."
"Cool," CJ replied. "That sounds nice. I need to spend some quality time with my sister anyway, and I ain't seen you in five years. Where y'all wanna hang out?"
"We could go at a bar," Ryder told him. "Play some pool there. Plus it ain't packed today."
"Cool," Kendl agreed. "Let's go then."
The foursome headed out of the door and hopped inside CJ's vehicle. Ryder and Kendl hopped inside the back while Lisa took the passenger's seat, causing CJ to blush as he started the engine. He felt his heart thumping once again as he backed up from the driveway and drove onto the road.
"So where's the closest bar out here in San Fierro?" Lisa asked.
"Misty's over at Garcia street," CJ answered. "They got a pool table over there."
"Nice," Kendl replied. "I'd love a little friendly competition."
"Speak for yourself," Ryder chimed in. "Where we from, there ain't no such thing as "friendly."
"Just ignore him, Kendl," Lisa told Kendl. "He still believes he's a genius and the smartest man in the world. He's delusional with or without the wet."
"Hell I'm surprised no one locked this motherfucker up in rehab," Kendl replied. "Maybe there, he can find his water – when it's sprayed in his face."
Kendl and Lisa laughed with CJ joining in.
"Whatever you say, Kendl!" Ryder snapped at Kendl. "At least I dress clean."
"Oh sure," Kendl grumbled. "You still bringing that up!"
"You know, Kendl," CJ replied, "I do have to admit, you should wear something decent."
"As painful as it for me to say this to you, Kendl," Lisa added, "Lance is right. I think we should stop over to the clothing store first."
"Okay," Kendl agreed. "You're right, Lisa."
"Funny how you agree with Lisa yet you get pissed off at me for literally telling you the same thing," Ryder told Kendl.
"Well that's because Lisa was actually honest with me instead of blunt and didn't throw in any shady remarks, unlike you," Kendl replied sternly. "Carl, take us to the closest clothing store."
So CJ drove Downtown and parked in front of Zip in Downtown. The four left the car and entered the clothing shop.
As Kendl picked up a pair of clothes in the women's section, she headed to the changing room and tried on a few outfits. When she finally came out, she now had on a green polo T-shirt over faded blue shorts. "What y'all think?" she asked the other three.
"It look nice, sis," CJ replied.
"Now that looks much better," Lisa agreed.
"You don't look like a hooker no more, I'll give you that," Ryder sneered.
"Thanks," Kendl replied. "I'll go pay for these."
So Kendl purchased the clothing and the foursome exited the shop and returned to the vehicle. CJ drove through Downtown and made his way to Garcia street, where the bar was right up ahead.
"Next stop, Misty's," CJ said. "Just to warn you, the drinks are very cold - I mean ice cold! Be careful drinking them. We might get brain freeze."
"Oh it's impossible for Lance here to get brain freeze," Lisa joked.
Kendl and CJ both laughed at Lisa's implicit insult. "Good one, Lisa!" CJ chuckled.
"She got you!" Kendl laughed, slapping Ryder on the back.
Soon, CJ pulled up in front of Misty's. "This the place," CJ announced.
So he, Ryder, Kendl, and Lisa exited the vehicle and walked into the bar. Inside was a moderate amount of patrons either playing games or sitting at the counter drinking beer. Pearl Jam's "Even Flow" was also playing on the radio. CJ and Ryder guided the two ladies to the pool table.
"So y'all girls wanna play some pool or what?" CJ asked Kendl and Lisa.
"Oh we gonna play," Kendl told him.
"Yeah," Lisa replied. "Us girls against you guys."
"Ah shit," Ryder said. "Looks like we gotta go against the women."
"A'ight then," CJ said, picking up the pool stick on the side. "I'll let you girls set up the balls."
Ryder snickered silently. "Jeah, ladies first," he joked. "After all, you do like to handle the balls." CJ laughed along with Ryder.
"Grow up, Lance," Lisa groaned, rolling her eyes in annoyance. She used the triangular rack to round the balls into a triangle in the middle.
"Honestly, you guys can be so immature sometimes," Kendl added. "Lisa, I'll let you go since you're the oldest."
"My pleasure," Lisa replied. She placed the cue ball on front of the pyramidal balls and used a pool stick to hit the cue ball into the other balls. Two stripe balls fell into each pocket.
"Your turn, Kendl," Lisa said.
Kendl used the pool stick to hit the cue ball towards one of the stripes. It barely tipped the ball, causing CJ and Ryder to laugh at Kendl's shot.
"Maybe you should have Lisa be your personal trainer, sis," CJ chuckled.
"Very funny, Carl," Kendl sneered. "Says the guy who got whooped by his little sister in a little one-on-one in a b-ball game many times. Don't forget, you're still 5-22 against me on every b-ball game we played against each other."
While pool wasn't Kendl's game, she was definitely a good basketball player, and she almost always had the upper hand on CJ during a one-on-one game, to a point where she even kept track on the records she had against CJ. In fact, other than pool, Kendl was still good at every other sport besides basketball, such as baseball, tennis, and even bowling.
"Touche, sis," CJ replied, defeated. "Touche."
He used his stick to hit the cue ball against one of the solids, which fell into a pocket by the corner. Soon, the guys were winning, and as they each got every solid in the pockets, Ryder finally smacked the cue ball into the eight ball, which rolled into the corner pocket.
"Gyeah!" Ryder cheered in victory. "What I tell ya?! This shit was too easy!"
"That's a win for us!" CJ said, giving Ryder a high five.
"Best two out of three," Lisa told them calmly.
"You on!" Ryder said.
So the game resumed. This time, as the two went against each other, the game was much closer. CJ and Ryder almost won, until Ryder accidentally smacked the eight ball at an attempt to hit the solid ball in, giving the girls a victory of their own. They cheered in victory.
"It's our turn to prevail now, homies," Lisa taunted, wearing a sly grin on her face.
"Now we're even," Kendl smirked. "See, Lance? You ain't as bright as you claim to be." She and Lisa chuckled.
"Whatever," Ryder grumbled. "Let's play again!"
The game then resumed, and the two were having a fun time together. After about seven minutes, CJ finally hit the eight ball in the left side of the middle pocket, giving him and Ryder the victory.
"Yeah!" CJ cheered as he and Ryder slapped each other high fives. "That's 2-1 for us!"
"I told you girls y'all can't stop us!" Ryder added.
"You guys were lucky," Kendl scoffed. "Lisa had you guys up on your toes."
"I got another one," Lisa announced. "How about we have a sibling showdown."
"What?" CJ asked.
"You and your little sister against me and my brother," Lisa told CJ as she stepped over next to Ryder.
"Shit," CJ said. "Well, then it's on, I guess."
"You ready to lose, CJ?" Ryder sneered.
"Man, let's just play!" CJ demanded.
The game started with Lisa smacking the cue ball against all the other balls, which caused one solid ball to fall into a pocket. As Ryder and Lisa took turns hitting each solid into the pocket, Ryder finally smacked the eight ball into the corner pocket, winning the game for him and Lisa.
"Jeah!" Ryder cheered. "Victory is ours!"
"Wilson siblings, 1. Johnson siblings, 0," Lisa announced. "Wanna go again?"
"Sure," CJ said, his heart thumping rapidly.
It was CJ and Kendl's turn. CJ started off by smacking the cue balls into the triangular balls, which caused a stripe to fall inside. But with Kendl's bad shooting and Ryder and Lisa's sharp shots, CJ and Kendl were falling behind again. Kendl was getting frustrated, but CJ was just as good as the other two who were going against him and Kendl. He eventually got in every stripe in right before Ryder had a chance to hit the eight ball into the pocket after hitting all the solids inside. So it was CJ's turn to hit the eight ball in to win the game for him and Kendl. So he concentrated on the corner pocket and finally smacked the eight ball into the pocket. CJ and Kendl had won, and they slapped each other high fives.
"Nice save, Carl," Kendl congratulated. "Now it's a tie between the Johnsons and the Wilsons."
So the game continued, with Kendl getting much better at her shots. On her first hit, she hit two stripes in the corner pockets, and she and CJ started hitting every stripe in the pocket at a time, giving Ryder and Lisa no chance of getting a shot. So when every stripe was now inside the pocket, all CJ and Kendl had to do was hit the eight ball inside to win the game. CJ finally used the cue ball to successfully smack it to the eight ball, which made it inside. Unfortunately, he also smacked the cue ball inside as well, which won the game for Ryder and Lisa.
"Shit!" CJ muttered.
"That's game for us!" Ryder said. "We win again!"
He and Lisa slapped each other high five.
"You two were very close though," Lisa said, sounding more conciliatory. "Don't mind my egotistical brother's bragging. You're actually getting better at this game, Kendl."
"Sorry, Kendl," CJ told her. "Guess pool just ain't your game."
"I ain't too upset about that," Kendl said. "At least I had fun. That's what it's all about, right? Just to hang out and have some fun. I did started getting better anyway. Besides, I still own you at basketball."
She gave CJ a playful shove, which caused CJ to shove her back. "Screw you, sis," CJ replied playfully.
"You just mad because you're outnumbered against me," Kendl told him, shoving him back.
"Oh yeah?" CJ said. "We'll see about that. Come here!"
The Johnson siblings then began playfully wrestling with each other while laughing. CJ never thought he would have this much fun with his younger sister, especially in San Fierro.
Just then, a big African-American guy came around wearing a black sports jacket over baggy black denim pants and black boots.
"Yo, what up?" the big guy said. "Which one of y'all want to put a little wager on this game?"
"Sorry, big guy," Lisa protested. "I don't gamble. Count me out!"
"Me too!" Kendl added. "I ain't down with that shit!"
"How much you putting on this?" CJ asked.
"How about $15,000?" the big guy told him, setting a huge wad of money on the pool table.
"Holy shit!" CJ cried out. "You know what? I'm down I can bet more than that!"
CJ placed his cash onto the table. The wager was now $20,000.
"CJ, are you sure you want to risk it?" Kendl asked, sounding slightly worried.
"Don't worry about it, sis," CJ told her. "I got this."
"Don't get too cocky, Carl," Lisa told him. "You'll lose it all."
"Come on, let's get started!" the big guy said. "Name's Donovan by the way."
"CJ," CJ replied back.
"Come on, CJ," Ryder said. "Take that motherfucker to the cleaners!"
So the game began, with Donovan starting the game with one smack. The balls rolled around the table. It was CJ's turn to go. He aimed the cue ball for one of the stripes and smacked the cue ball into it. But only the solid fell in instead. As CJ missed his next shot, Donovan smacked the cue ball into one of the stripes, which made its way inside the corner pocket.
As the game went on for a good ten minutes, all the balls were in the corner pocket, and all that was left was the eight ball. It was CJ's turn to make his move. So as he took the time to concentrate, he aimed the cue ball to the eight ball, pushed his stick to ram it into the eight ball, and watched as the eight ball fell into the corner pocket. CJ had won! Which meant he was now getting $20,000.
"Good game, man," Donovan said, giving CJ a high five. "Whenever you want to make any more wagers, I'm right here."
"No prob, Don," CJ replied. He walked over to Ryder, Kendl, and Lisa to show them the cash. "Check it out!"
"Nice one, CJ!" Ryder said.
"Great game, Carl," Kendl added.
"You played very well, Carl," Lisa said.
"So we each get $5,000 a piece," CJ told them. He took $5,000 and put it in his pocket. He then gave the others the rest of the money and they all took $5,000 each as well.
"Yo Carl, can you take me back to my place?" Lisa asked CJ as the foursome walked out of the bar.
"Sure, Lisa," CJ said as he, Ryder, Kendl, and Lisa hopped inside the vehicle.
CJ started the engine and drove onto the road on his way back to Calton Heights. "I had such a great time," Lisa said, suddenly ecstatic.
"Me too," Kendl added. "We should do something like this again another time."
"We'll have all the time in the world," CJ told them both. "Right now, we got some shit to take care of at the moment."
CJ continued driving through the city. There were very few cars driving around the roads. The clouds in the sky blocked the shining sun, making everything bright white around the city. CJ finally made his way to Lisa's house, and Lisa hopped out of the car.
"Thanks, Carl," Lisa told him. "I'll see you later, okay?"
CJ watched as Lisa walked up to her house. He couldn't resist staring at her rump as she walked, which caused him to feel an erection. He waited until after she went inside the house to ride away.
"Take us back to the garage, motherfucker," Ryder told him.
So CJ complied and drove to the garage back in Doherty. After a few minutes, he made his way back to the garage. While Kendl hopped out, Ryder just stared at CJ.
"So what's up, CJ?" Ryder asked him.
"What?" CJ asked.
"Nigga don't play that game with me," Ryder growled. "Why is it that every time Lisa comes around, you all of a sudden lose any ability to communicate? You scared of her or something?"
"No, I'm not," CJ protested.
"Then why the fuck are you always such a nervous wreck when Lisa comes around?" Ryder asked. "What you hiding?"
"Okay, Ryder," CJ said, knowing that there was no way for him to talk himself out of it. "I'll tell you why." He took a deep breath and silently said, "I think I might like her."
"What?" Ryder asked.
"I think I might like her, okay?!" CJ shouted suddenly. "There! I said it! Are ya happy now?!"
"What you mean "ya think?"" Ryder asked him.
"I don't know what happened," CJ told him. "It just seemed that ever since she came back over here, I started liking how beautiful she looked, and I was fighting real hard not to develop a crush on her. I didn't wanted to tell you this because I didn't know how you'd react."
Ryder just stared at him in confusion. "Seriously?" he asked CJ.
"Yeah, I knew you wouldn't like it," CJ muttered.
"I never say that I didn't," Ryder replied. "But you? Actually like Lisa of all people?!"
"Yeah, I know it's a surprise," CJ told him, "but I don't know. She just seems like someone who grew into a nice, beautiful young woman."
"Well have you told her how you feel?" Ryder asked.
"I've been having a hard time doing that," CJ replied. "I mean she probably might not be with a gangster like me."
"Well don't just sit around," Ryder urged. "You better tell her before it's too late. I don't think you two will last long together, but if you really got feelings for her, let her know right away. Just to remind you though, CJ, watch out for her nagging."
So Ryder exited the car and walked into the garage. CJ was feeling hungry and decided to drive over to Well-Stacked Pizza for some lunch.