Chapter 2

"Sweetie, what are you doing?" Steffi asked, seeing Heath go through a box of some of Brian's old things a week later. "That belongs to your father."

"Dad says it's okay," Heath reassured her. "Now that I got on the team–it kind of took a lot of convincing of the coach, though with me being little–I'm trying to find some cool attire for my first match."

"I thought the school provided those," Steffi replied, confused.

"Yeah, but this is theme week. We get to pick out something and I know Dad has a bunch of awesome stuff in here he hasn't used in like forever."

"You may need something taken in," she nodded. "Daddy's not much bigger than you are, but still, we don't need your pants falling down in front of the whole school, do we?"

"Not quite." Heath then spotted something in the box. "Oh, man, these are totally awesome!"

Steffi stared in horror at the pink velveteen shorts her son held. It had a daisy with a smiley face on one of the legs.

"God, Heath, surely you're not thinking of using those?"

"Why not? Did you know Dad wore these when he got a title in Japan or someplace like that? And again when he was in some tournament that Uncle Paul ended up winning. These could bring me luck."

"If nothing else, you got your eccentric tastes from your father; I'll grant you that much."

"I'm going to go try them on!" Heath said, excited.

"They'll need cleaned," Steffi pointed out.

"Yeah, I know. They smell kind of funny, I guess from being stored so long," Heath called from the bathroom. "And they're a little big in the waist."

"As I thought," Steffi replied. "All right, I can get them fixed and cleaned up for you, but be very careful with them."

She had gone back downstairs to tend to other things before Brian was due home the next day. Audrey was sighing and gazing into a hall mirror again.

"Oh, Audrey," Steffi said warmly. "What's wrong?"

"Why did I have to end up looking like the fat version of Dad?"

"For one, darling, you are not fat. You're naturally curvy, like me, and Lord knows how much Daddy loves that. I think he worries if we weren't, people would think he wasn't feeding us enough. Second, you should be jumping for joy that you have those beautiful eyes and are naturally blond. Heath and I should be so lucky."

"I should be so lucky as to what?" Heath asked, appearing in the shorts behind them.

"Never mind. Just some girl talk with your sister," Steffi replied, inspecting him.

"What are you doing in some of Daddy's old ring attire?" Audrey asked.

"Theme week. I get my first match."

Audrey walked around, forgetting her own insecurities and looking him over. "Oh wow, those are the ones from Ring of Honor and Japan! Good choice."

Heath stared at her incredulously, amazed she hadn't cracked short jokes or another type of insult. "Really?"

"Yeah. And with your dark hair, that color looks really good on you."

"Oh wow, gee, thanks a lot, Sis."

"You might want Mom to take them in and wash them, though," Audrey added. "They're a little big and smell weird."

"Probably because your father hadn't washed them since dinosaurs roamed the earth before he stored them," Steffi replied.

"Eww, Mom!" Heath made a face.

"Really, once Mom gets them nice for you, we should take a picture so we can show Dad," Audrey suggested.

"That would be cool," Heath nodded. "Oh, and I found the matching boots for these too."

"Well, at least you and Daddy have the same size feet, right down to your cute piggy toes," Audrey giggled.

"Will you stop? My toes are not cute." Heath blushed a little.

"In either case, there's no question you're going to stand out at that match," Steffi said. "Go on, get those off so I can get started on fixing them up. We only have a week, you know."

"Sure, Mom. I'll be back in a few."

She then turned to Audrey. "You know, telling him those things was very nice of you."

Audrey shrugged. "He did look kind of good."

"Whatever the case, you and your brother should be like that more often, especially when your father's around. It's a pleasant change from the constant bickering and trading insults, and Daddy sees enough drama on the road without coming home and hearing you two all the time."

Later:

"Hey Audi," Heath said cheerfully.

Audrey stopped short. "What happened to 'Audi Ass'?" she asked, taking a bottle of water from the refrigerator.

"Dad and I kind of talked about that before he left," Heath shrugged. "Something about curvy girls having 'more cushion for the pushing.' Anyway, I know you have been all depressed about that dance and stuff and I'm sorry for being mean the other night."

"Don't worry about it. Daddy and I talked too, and it's no big deal now. Won't be the first time I've been alone on a Friday night."

"Well, yeah, me too; girls don't like short kids like me much either. And speaking of which, there's this new guy that moved down the street."

"Heath, I really don't need to hear about your little friends," Audrey sighed.

"No, no, he's older, seventeen. He was washing his car the other day and we just got to talking. He's starting at your school on Monday. At least go say hi sometime. He's real nice."

"Thanks, but I'll pass for now. Besides, he probably has a girlfriend."

"No he doesn't," Heath replied. "He said so. Hey, talking about girls, guess what else Dad and I talked about before he left?"

"Oh this should be good," Audrey shook her head. "What?"

"Sex."

Audrey spit out the water she had just drunk. "Heath!"

"Well, he did. Don't tell Mom, but I, uh, kind of had a weird thing happen the other night. Dad saw it the next day. He said I had something called 'a wet dream' and we talked about it and all the sex stuff."

"And knowing Dad, he probably went into graphic detail. Wait, you had a wet dream? Wouldn't Mom have found the sheets?"

"Nope, Dad and I stripped and washed them before she saw it and that is when we had the sex talk. Don't tell Mom, Audi. Please? I don't want Dad in trouble."

"I heard nothing," she grinned at him.

"Good. In any case, I'm going to introduce you to Bryan this weekend. I think you two would be good together."

Audrey shook her head and laughed a little. Her little brother trying to fix her up with a boy. What would Heath think of next?