Chapter 3

I am on a freakin' roll with this story. As always, review please!

=D

After a week, the pain in my legs finally went away. I'm sure it would have gone away faster had I not had practice every single day, but it was going well. I finally got my toes over that damn plastic bar, and shortly after my dreams were crushed when I was told that they were on the lowest setting. Emma worked with me some on them, but she normally bounced around from group to group, not really focusing too much on a single person, unless they needed help. I wouldn't go so far as to say I had a crush on her, but I definitely admired her, for several reasons. She was smart and very easy to get along with, and a good teacher. It was nice to have your captain help you, rather than just be better than you. Plus, she was funny as shit. I had never met someone who made me laugh so hard.

And she was pretty, too, I guess.

I was held late in grammar class, for a paper that I didn't do too well on. I didn't want to be late to practice, but my teacher would not stop talking about the conjugation of some verb that I really didn't care about. One bad grade was not going to drag down that A that I already had. After she finally let me out, I ran to change, but it was 3:15 before I got to the track. The one time I was late, they were all gathered around the lonely set of bleachers on the other side of the field. There was no way I was just going to sneak in.

"Ah!" a young man who looked to be about 25 cried, a smile on his face. "We have our first singer of the year!"

I turned around to look behind me to see who he was talking about.

"Oh ho," he said, "I am indeed talking to you."

There was an exchange of giggles and smiles between the team. Even Emma, who was leaning casually against the side of the bleachers, had a sympathetic smile on her face.

"We have a no tardy policy, Mr. Fuji." I scratched my head. "You have one week to prepare and then perform, in front of your teammates, a song by Lady GaGa."

My heart stopped. There was NO WAY.

The man started practice with a 2 mile warm-up, and then did practice events. We broke into our groups, and then watched as each individual ran their event. I had practiced jumping the second notch, but I was so shaken I managed to tip one over, and touch all of the others.

Emma ran hers smoothly, and then came to sit by me.

"Hey, bro," she greeted, slapping me on the back. "Tough luck."

"I was held late by a teacher. Surely there's something that can be said for that."

She laughed, shaking her head. "I missed practice because I got hit by a car, and he made me do the same thing. And I warned you. I hope you've been doing your homework."

"I have no clue who Lady GaGa is."

She stared, a dumbfounded grin on her face.

"Am I screwed?"

"Majorly," she laughed.

"Which song did you sing?" I asked, desperately.

"Just Dance."

I groaned, falling back into the grass.

I finished practice half heartedly, managing to tip over every hurdle that I came across. I changed in the locker rooms, and then went by myself to catch the bus. Eiji and Oishi were still at tennis, which broke my heart just a little bit.

"Hey hurdle murderer!" I heard Emma's voice, muffled by her motorcycle helmet. "Hop on."

I spun around to face her. I was still for a few seconds. I didn't have any homework, and my parents weren't expecting me home for anything, so I had nothing to lose. I walked over to her Ruby Red Kawasaki something or another, settling myself on the back. She took off her helmet, and handed it to me. I was hesitant, but put it on anyway.

"Well hold on," she said, noticing my hands on my legs. I awkwardly grabbed her waist, and she took off. She was a good driver, maybe a little on the fast side, but I was never scared for my life. We wound up in the nicer side of town, where big houses with pools and gardens were on every block. She pulled up to a beautiful brick and wood house, with a big pool with a slide and diving board.

"I'm gonna help you out a little bit," she said, then motioned for me to follow her to into the house. The inside was even nicer than the outside. We headed to the basement, which was a big open space with a bed roll, a treadmill, a computer with huge speakers, and a T.V. with a Wii hooked up to it.

She fired up her computer, grabbed a blank disk and opened up iTunes. "I'm not supposed to help you," she said, "but you're a pretty cool dude." She was putting music onto the CD, but I didn't really see anything because she was clicking and pasting and copying so fast.

"Your house is really nice," I complimented. "Is this your room?"

"Thanks! And yep, this is my crib."

Crib. I really need to familiarize myself with modern language.

"Do you swim a lot?" I asked, thinking of the huge pool with the big slide and lane line.

"Well I try," she said. "I don't get much rotation in the shoulder any more. Even so…" she trailed, thinking. "I swim every day, just in case my arm decides to get better."

"You really loved it, huh?"

"Oh yeah," she smiled fondly. "I think I had a good shot at getting some scholarships too."

"You have a good shot of getting scholarship in track, too," I said supportively. "You're awesome."

"Aw, thanks," she said, and returned to the computer.

I had never told her about tennis. What would happen when I could get my spot back on the tennis team? I was planning on just quitting track, but…

"Would you go back to swimming if you could?" I asked anxiously.

She gave me a weird look. "Well I can," she said calmly. "And if I had never gotten hurt, I would have never quit. But…I did make a commitment to being on the track team. Maybe in college I would pick it up again."

Wow, quitting was not going to be easy business.

"You're a senior?" I asked.

"Finally," she grinned. And now that it had been said, she did look older, like she was on the brink of being a woman, but still holding on to childhood.

"Where are you going to school?"

"Dunno. Somewhere in America. But I want to travel for a year or two before I start." A message pinged across the screen, and she pulled out the CD. "Here you go. I suggest listening to the song you intend to sing every minute of every day."

"Which one should I do?"

"Whichever one speaks to you, man." She drove me home on her bike, then waved goodbye as I walked in the door of my less extravagant home. I heard the roar of her engine all the way down my street.

I ate dinner with my family, then popped the CD into my computer. She had written on the CD, "The Fame Monster". I had no idea what that meant, but it started with a song called "Bad Romance," which was full of bass and electronic sounds. Yet, her voice was strong and decent, so I continued.

I surfed Facebook, creeping on people's profiles. I ran across hers, and only had a few mutual friends. We weren't friends, but all of her pictures and info were available. Her profile picture was her and her brother, who was big and bulky, with brown hair, like her. I was going to creep on more of her pictures, but accidentally clicked videos. There were two, one labeled "Epic Computer Chair Jump," which even sounded dangerous, and "Mini Spencer- GaGa Song/Dance." Interested, I clicked.

The camera was zoomed in toward a smaller, but just as cute Emma. She didn't look nervous, but relaxed and totally confident. She then proceeded to sing what I assumed was the most amazing rendition of Just Dance (it was second on the CD, and I had listened to it a few times) that could ever be generated. But it didn't stop there. She had planned out an entire dance routine to go with it, her arm in a pink cast a lot like mine, taped to her body. Her face was torn up, too, but it wasn't as noticeable. She did a lot of one armed flips and fancy footwork moves that all flowed together, and she finished with a double back flip off of the bleachers, landing perfectly. People even stood up and clapped, and her big brother, who I recognized from her picture, came and gave her a high five and a big hug.

Now how was I supposed to compete with that? I turned off my computer, not bothering to listen to the rest of the CD.

I got that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I crawled into bed. I watched the stars in the sky from my open window.

I was so screwed.