Rock in the House | Danielle

[Drake Lane]

Drake let out a long yawn as he listened to his teammates discuss strategy and their next move and how best to place their last rock in order to secure a win. He supposed he probably should be involved in the conversation since he would be taking the last curl but the simple fact of the matter was that he just didn’t care. "Yeah, yeah, rock in the house. Got it." He said dismissively when one of his teammates asked some question or others. He was sure it was very important and all but he was done for the day and ready top head back to the cabin."


As the huddle broke and his team moved off to take their positions Drake made the perfunctory motions of lining up a shot he wasn't overly concerned about. Almost without any thought or aiming he took a kneeling slide across the ice and gently released his rock to glide smoothly across the ice. His first thought as he watched it was 'Oops' as the rock actually began curving away from the target this was quickly followed with 'Well I guess I'll have to make this work' and then he began to put those ice powers to use making subtle changes to the rink to change his rock's course and send it back towards the target. "Well go on guys, sweep." He said to his dumbfounded teammates who immediately went to work brushing down the ice.



To his credit Drake knew what he was doing. The stone hit the opposing team's rock knocking it clear and then slid just a bit more to settle dead center for the point, the set and the match. His teammates cheered, the other team was crying foul but Drake was already headed for the door. He had put in his time for the week and it was time to get out of here. "Danielle." He called to the girl he saw on ice skates. "Danielle! Come on it’s past time to get out of here and I think the natives are getting restless."


Danielle Lane

[Danielle Lane]

A single Axel was easy to master. A double Axel took a little bit of time, but that was mastered as well. But this Triple Axel? It was one of the hardest jumps in figure skating and Danielle was determined to mastered it. She knew the stats. A few women had completely mastered the jump and fewer attempted it routinely in their programs. But Danielle was bound and determined to be one of the few who did both. And it was hard. Her couch wouldn't allow her to add it to her program quite yet, so once her practice was over, she practiced it back to back.

Doing the Triple Axel itself wasn't that hard. Danielle mastered that part very well, it was the landing she was having difficulty with. She had to land on her opposite foot than what she started with, but always seemed to end on the wrong foot or at least have a shaky landing. Nothing that passed her standards at all. Her jumps were a mixture of wrong landings and shaky landing and she was about to attempt another jump when she heard her brother's voice. That shook her concentration enough that she pushed off wrong, did only a single axel, and landed on her rear with her feet sprawled out in front of her.

She pouted for a moment as she sat there and shifted a bit in her spot. Her tailbone wasn't broken or at least bruised, so she survived that fall just fine, but as for her brother... She turned to glare at him as she moved to get onto her feet again. "I think the natives can suck it up for a few more minutes," she said once she was on her feet and skated over to her brother as she stuck her tongue out at him.

[Drake Lane]

“Careful sis that’s a good way to get frostbite.” He said with a nod towards the stuck out tongue. He wouldn't have really done anything and she probably knew it but it was still good to threaten. She was his sister after all. “Now, now it’s no time to pout. The ice rink will still be here tomorrow and there will be more than enough time to practice the backwards, spiny, twirly, jump thingy tomorrow. Besides, you wouldn’t want your brother torn apart by a mob of angry curlers would you?” He smiled at her winningly hoping that she would get the picture.

“Come on Dani. Haven’t you spent enough time in there for one day?” He was sure his sister would have spent all day at the ice rink if she could but even super serious Olympic ice skating hopefuls needed a break sometime. “Very graceful landing back there by the way. You didn’t hurt yourself did you?” Despite what she may have thought he did really care. The simple fact of the matter was he thought that she took her training a little too seriously sometimes and while he wasn’t expecting to change that any time soon he could do a small part by keeping an eye on her in the meantime which sometimes included pulling her away from the place against her will. Hopefully that wouldn't be the case today but you never really knew.

[Danielle Lane]

Danielle rolled her eyes as she skated towards the edge of the rink and grabbed her blade guards. She held onto the the edge of the rink as she put the guards on her blade before she walked off the rink. "What?" she said as she looked over her shoulder and smirked at her brother. "You can't take on a group of grown men with brooms?" She never really understood the sport, but it was something that her brother seemed to enjoy, even if she thought it was a silly sport. She walked over to the bench where she had her dufflebag as she sat down to take off her skates.

"I could've spent a few more if my brother wasn't going to be mobbed down by curlers," she said as she looked up at him and chuckled before she shook her head. "Nah. Nothing's hurt and I didn't break my tailbone. Thankfully. Last thing I need is to be sidelined by an injury." Once her skates were off, she put on her tennis shoes before she stuffed her skates into her bag and flung it over her shoulder as she stood up. She looked over at him as she raised her eyebrows at him. "You ready to get going then?"

[Drake Lane]

He shrugged as he glanced back at the arguing teams. Some of them were pointing at him and making some pretty colorful gestures. “For what it’s worth they are very pointy brooms and very hairy grown men. You try taking them on.” That would probably go over well. He could see it now with Danielle rushing in to save the day from the hairy old dudes on his team. He had apparently convinced her however and that was enough for him.

“My hero.” He said with a smile as she teased him. “But yeah I’m ready. I would hate to see what happened if this place if they got rowdy.” He nodded seriously enough but honestly it would have been pretty funny to see what a mob of angry curlers could do. That said he was happy to be getting out of here and he led the way to the nearest exit. “I saw you out there. Looked like you were getting close on your jump.” He said as he led them outside. He would have said more but just then something big, hairy and very canine came bounding around the corner and it was headed straight for Danielle.

[Danielle Lane]

Danielle looked over at the group of men as she noticed how they were gesturing towards her brother as she looked back at him and raised an eyebrow. "What have you done this time to make them so mad?" she asked. "I have blades that are pointer than their brooms. I can loan them to you if you need them, just don't get blood on the leather. I don't want to break in a new pair of skates." Breaking in new skates always meant at least a week's worth of blisters for Danielle and that was something she didn't feel like getting, especially since she was so close to mastering the Triple Axel.

"I'm nowhere close to perfecting that jump, Drake," Danielle said with a bit of a huff as she followed Drake outside. "My landing is all over the place. It's one of the hardest jumps in the entire discipline and only few can truly perfect it and I'm just so close..." And she was about to say more about her Triple Axel before her eyes opened and she screamed. It was Timber, Drake's dog, making a beeline straight towards her. She didn't know why he owned the dang animal in the first place when he knew how she felt towards dogs and, of course, the stupid dog took a liking to her. She nearly dropped her bag as she immediately tried to make herself as small as possible as she covered her face. She didn't want these so-called kisses from Timber. They were nasty. "Dammit, Drake!" she called out behind her hands. "Control your dog!"

[Drake Lane]

Drake usually took the dog with him when he went to practice. It was good for Timber to be out and considering that it was the only time he really got to see his dog since Danielle didn't let him keep it with them in the barracks that meant these times were all the more special. As the dog came into sight Drake's face lit up. "Timber!" He exclaimed but it wasn't Drake the dog was barreling towards. Instead, it was to Danielle that Timber went with his tail wagging happily to see her.

The girl's reaction was pretty typical. Drake had seen it 100 times as his sister screamed and crumpled away from the animal in fear. Timber didn't care. The dog happily licked at the girl's arms trying to smoother her in the love that she so clearly did not want. Drake couldn't help but laugh but he grab hold of his dog's neck and wrestle him gently away from the panicky girl. "Oh He just wants you to pet him Danielle. He missed you." Happy to receive attention Timber turned to his master as Drake got right into the dog's face. "Who's a big old softie? You are! That's right you are you big old softie dog." Timber licked at Drake's face as he laughed and cuddled the animal. "Did you scare Danielle? Yes you did." It was likely the dog would never learn to leave Dani alone if he kept getting spoiled like this but that was okay. He was harmless after all. No matter what Danielle might think.

[Danielle Lane]

Timber was licking her arm and it was the grossest thing ever. Danielle whined a bit as she tried to move away from the aggressively friendly dog. For some reason, Timber just knew that Danielle hated dogs, so he liked to focus much of his affection on her. Affection that she didn't want and freaked her out. But she wasn't under attack long before Drake was to the rescue with pulling the dog away.

She stayed in position for a few moments before she straightened up a bit. Her face was completely disgusted as she wiped the dog drool off her arm and onto her pants. She looked over at her brother as she cringed. “Why do you even let him lick you? You don't know where his mouth has been.”

[Drake Lane]

Danielle was such a baby when it came to dogs. Drake didn't understand what the big deal was. In fact, as far as pets went dogs were some of the most loving and most loyal and yet every time she saw one she went into hysterics. She was still his sister though and he guessed he probably shouldn't take as much pleasure out of seeing her reaction as he did but it was hard not to laugh sometimes especially when the dog "attacking" her was Timber.

"Bet his mouth is cleaner than yours." He said as he pulled away from the dog. He was still laughing at the moment but for now he seemed content to bring her torture to an end. He grabbed the leash out of his bag and attached it to Timber's collar who stood there watching the two of them wagging his tail happily. "Come on Dani it wasn't that bad. Besides, how could you resist this lovable furry face?" He scratched the dog lovingly behind the ear and gave his sister a reassuring smile. "I'll protect you from the big bad wolf okay?"

[Danielle Lane]

"I highly doubt it," Danielle said as she rolled her eyes. There was no way that Timber had a cleaner mouth than she did. "Dogs like to sniff at and eat poop, remember. And I don't think you brush his teeth at all." She kept a careful eye on Timber, not knowing if he was going to turn his attention back to her again and give her more of those so-called kisses that Drake apparently loved. But she let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding once Drake put the leash on Timber. At least the dog was more controlled than before which helped calm down Danielle's nerves a lot.

"Oh trust me," she said as she eyed Timber before looking up at her brother. "It's a lot easier to resist that face than you think." But she nodded her head as she smirked a bit. "Oh, you're my hero!" she said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes before she resumed walking before she was attacking. "C'mon. Let's go."

[Drake Lane]

"Rude." He said to her doggie put downs. Timber did nothing of the sort and Drake thought it was pretty low to start making generalizations like that. "You're going to hurt his feelings talking like that. You should be ashamed for picking on a poor defenseless puppy." It had been some time since Timber had been a puppy and Drake knew it but he wouldn't let his dog be viciously attacked because of Danielle's fear. She was just going to have to deal with it because Timber want going anywhere.

"You just wait. One of these days you're going to be glad you've got Timber around and then you're going to be sorry you made fun." He didn't know how but one day his sister would get over her phobia. She would realize that she had been wrong all these years and that Timber really was a good dog. He just hoped that when that day finally came that he would be around to see it. Those mean words would look good when she had to eat them but for now he didn't think things would be anytime soon. "Alright, come on. Timber could use the walk and maybe a little walk will cool you off too Miss Dog Hater."

[Danielle Lane]

“Hurt his feelings?” Danielle repeated as she rolled her eyes. She highly doubted that Timber could understand what they were saying let alone hurt his feelings. Then again, Danielle swore that her brother was heads over heels for that dog. “I don't think he's that defenseless,” she quipped back before she looked down at Timber and shook a bit. “I mean, have you looked at his teeth lately? Not defenseless.”

Okay, she was maybe being a little harsh towards the dog and even though Drake had a pretty good control over Timber, Danielle knew exactly what dogs like Timber were capable of. Quite too well. She rolled her eyes again before she said, “I doubt he'll come to my aid when we have the entire legion as well.”

[Drake Lane]

“They might not understand everything you’re saying but that doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings Danielle and yeah, he’s not defenseless but he is harmless especially to you. Why I bet he’d take a bite out of someone if it was to protect you. Dogs are loyal like that.” Dani didn’t know. She wouldn’t even give Timber a chance but despite what she thought Drake knew that Timber had feelings just like they did even if the dog couldn’t understand everything.

It was pointless trying to convince her though. Danielle had made her mind about Timber, really about all dogs in general. The only way things were going to change was for her to see how different Timber was from the generalizations she made about all dog-kind and that was going to take a while he feared. “What do you have against dogs anyways?” He asked her seriously as they walked. “I mean besides thinking they are gross, which isn’t true, what did they ever do to you?”

[Danielle Lane]

Danielle visibly shook at the idea of Timber biting someone because of her. She didn't wish that upon anyone, even her worst enemy. Sure, Timber wouldn't attack anyone unprovoked, but the idea of it just unsettled her. She crossed her arms over her chest as she looked uncomfortable with how this conversation was going and where it was going. She bit the corner of her lip as she took a couple of deep breaths.

And then Drake finally asked it. The million dollar question. Danielle shifted her arms a bit as she looked off to the side before she muttered just loud enough for him to hear, “Never mind. It's not really that important. You wouldn't understand.” And he wouldn't understand and she really didn't expect him to, at least, not now.

[Drake Lane]

"Don't be like that Dani." He said as his sister shut him down. It was strange for her to do that to him. Normally he couldn't get her to shut up when it came to ice skating and practicing or the latest party she wanted to attend. Why was this such a big deal that she suddenly wanted to be all closed mouth about it? "Hey, don't freeze me out like this. You know you can talk to me about anything."

He wasn't so sure about that anymore though. Sometimes he really didn't understand why Danielle did what she did. Acting out? Breaking rules just to have a good time? It wasn't like her and Drake knew that there were times when his sister could seem like she was a thousand miles away which wasn't exactly a good feeling when you had a twin. "If you can't talk to your twin then who can you talk to right?" He gave her a reassuring smile but he wasn't sure if it would be enough to convince her. This wasn't like her after all.