Rock in the House | Danielle

[Danielle Lane]

Danielle pressed her lips together as she kept glancing off to the side. Drake was really going to press the issue and she was no way comfortable telling him about it. But they kept walking and he kept acting like it was a big deal. And it was to her, but she really didn't see a reason why she needed to get Drake involved. There was literally no solution to her problem instead of just avoiding it. She looked back at her brother as she raised her eyebrows at her twin while the look on her face clearly said you really want to go there?

But she sighed as she reached up to push the hair out her face before she finally caved. "I was attacked by a dog when I was six, okay," she finally admitted as she glanced at Timber for a moment. "You weren't there because you were at a curling match or something. But a dog attacked me and bit my arm up pretty good. That's why I don't like dogs, Drake."

[Drake Lane]

She really didn't want to tell him but he knew he had hit on something with that twin comment. He didn't feel bad doing it either because he really wanted to know. If something was up he felt he had a right to know because she was his sister after all, his twin and he did care about her. He could have guessed of course and he would have been right. There was only one thing that got you that afraid of something and it was if you had a bad experience with them. As for Danielle's experience it was about a bad as you could get and it was made even worse by the fact that he hadn't been there.

"Damn, I'm sorry sis." He said genuinely. Drake felt bad for not being there. In fact, if it hadn't been for stupid curling he probably would have been and would have been able to stop it. "I won't let that happen again you know. If I'm there you don't have to be afraid." The problem was that he hadn't been there and he could just kick himself for letting Danielle down. "If it makes you feel better Timber's not like that. There can be bad dogs just like there are bad people but not all of them are that way."

[Danielle Lane]

She finally told him. A secret that she had been carrying around for years and only their parents really knew about it. Even then, Danielle never told them the complete details. But she looked at her brother as he processed the information. Maybe he would understand now why she didn't like dogs and even feared them and maybe would stop pressing the entire Timber issue all together. She pressed her lips together as he seemed to take the news pretty well, but she thought he was probably kicking himself over it. Even though he was just her twin, she thought he also viewed himself as her protector as well.

"I'll try," she said simply as she nodded her head slightly. It wasn't something as simple as he'd be there and she'd no longer be afraid. It was something much deeper, but she appreciated what Drake was trying to do. "And I know Timber isn't... he isn't like that... but it really doesn't help when he's barreling towards me... it does... I don't know... flashbacks or something... it just doesn't help."

[Drake Lane]

"Yeah, I get it." Drake said still feeling bad that his sister had gotten bitten by a dog when they were younger and he hadn't been there to stop it. It was bad enough that she was afraid of them now but he really wished he could have done something like give the dog’s owner a bad cast of frostbite but he supposed there probably wasn't even anyway to track that kind of stuff down being that it was so long ago.

"Look, I'll try to teach Timber not to run up and pounce on you." He gave her a reassuring smile and that said she didn't have anything to worry about. He really would get Timber under control even if it took a while training him. If it was that big of a deal to Danielle then he didn't want to go around terrifying her, at least not much. "Just try to give him a chance okay? He's really not that bad." As if to confirm this the young Husky wagged his tail happily at her.

[Danielle Lane]

Danielle felt so horrible that she was telling Drake this after she kept it a secret for so long. She knew how much he liked that dog even though he did caused her to panic and protect herself from him as much as she could. And her snapping at him and throwing insults around was a bit of her defense as well. But now she guessed she couldn't do that now that Drake knew what was up.

She looked up at her brother as she pressed her lips together as she glanced down at Timber. The dog seemed to be happy and she knew that Timber was a good dog and a sweet one at that. But she had to do it. At least for her brother. She slowly nodded her head as she looked back up at Drake. "Okay. I'll try," she said as she gave him a half-smile. "I'll try to give him a chance. Happy?"

[Drake Lane]

"Hey, that's all I can ask right? We'll do the rest to prove you wrong won't we boy?" Drake reached down to scratch Timber behind the ears and almost in response to the boy's question the dog gave two quick barks. Drake chuckled and continued walking hoping that he wasn't making Danielle too uncomfortable. It was hard to tell when she was so jumpy around dogs but it wasn't like this was the first time they had walked Timber home either so he was sure she was fine or at least was pretending to be.

Speaking of home though that did bring up an interesting thought and an opportunity to change the subject. "So, is there any news on if the parental units are going to let you go out for any big competitions yet?" He knew that Dani had some dreams about competing for the Olympics but he also knew that their parents weren't too keen on them letting things take precedent over their duties with the legion. It was still a long shot and he wasn't hoping for a miracle or anything but he kind of was wishing Dani some luck with changing their mom's mind. She deserved to have something to make her happy. "I know you've been trying for a while."

[Danielle Lane]

They were going to prove her wrong. Hopefully. Danielle didn't exactly know, but she knew that she was willing to give this a bit of a shot. And if anything, she knew that she could always blame her brother for the lifelong mental injuries she would incur if this happened to fail And if that was the case, she was no way going to let him live it down.

But the conversation got turned back to their parents as Danielle's face soured a little bit. "It's still the same old response," she said as she rolled her eyes before her voice went into a high-pitched tone to mock their mother. "Legion duties before your silly ice skating dreams! If it wasn't for the legion, you wouldn't have the childhood you had. While her and the legion are part of the reason I want to leave. Nobody has dreams and aspirations outside of here."

[Drake Lane]

Drake sucked in a breath as Dani told him how their mother had responded. He knew how Danielle would take all that. She not only had a pretty strong desire to skate professionally but she had developed an independent streak a mile long. She didn’t like being told what to do any more than she liked to be told what she couldn’t do. In some ways that was almost a little worse all things considered. His sister wouldn’t be happy and he didn’t have to have their bond as twins to know it.

“Well at least it keeps you close to home.” He offered hopefully. He knew this was pretty weak in comparison to her desire to compete but it was something and he liked it better when they weren’t miles apart. Truthfully he didn’t see what the big deal was about competing anyway. What if she got to compete and then failed to win? Wouldn’t it be better to just have never competed in the first place? Still, it was important to her so he tried to be supportive. “Hey I’m sure something will work out eventually. She can’t say no to you forever” Though he guessed that probably wasn’t entirely true either. “Besides, I’m sure you’ll figure out a way around her at some point.”

[Danielle Lane]

“Which is only good for them,” Danielle said as she rolled her eyes. She barely could stand their parents and they wanted her around New Rome constantly. Being hungover for their weekly brunches was the only thing that made her survive that mandated horror. She pressed her lips together as she looked over at her twin.

“I'm pretty sure that ‘no’ is the only word in her vocabulary. I've been trying for years Drake with no luck. How can I expect her to change her mind in the future?” She sighed as she shook her head. “And I don't know if I can stick around here when I'm wasting my potential.”

[Drake Lane]

He really couldn't argue with her logic on this one. It was kind of ridiculous to hold her back from doing something she really wanted to do. Skating was important to Danielle so why not let her have some fun in her life? Just because he would rather loaf around and skate by in life didn't mean she should have to. Still, what could they really do to change the situation? Drake just hoped she didn't take her acting out too far and that their parents would realize what they were doing to her through the legion before it was too late.

"Wait, what are you thinking about doing?" He asked as he raised a questioning eyebrow at her. "It's not like there's any way to actually run away from the legion." Hopefully she wasn't thinking about anything so risky as running away. That sounded like a good way to end up in the stocks or worse. He had heard Praetor Cheyenne didn't play around. Besides, just because they were stuck here didn't mean they couldn't enjoy themselves a little. "Come on Dani, it's not really that bad here. I mean sure drill isn't the best way to spend your time but it's not worth going AWOL over."

[Danielle Lane]

"And what's wrong with running away?" she asked as she looked at her brother and raised her eyebrows at him. "I mean, I'm almost eighteen. There's nothing much mom and dad can do once I'm legal enough to be on my own. And I think the legion has prepared me well enough to be on my own and I doubt there won't be that many monsters over in Colorado." Her eyes widened a bit as she realized what she had just said as she turned to her brother and narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't tell mom and dad about that. If you do, I'll make sure you're completely undate-able here, got it?"

She pressed her lips together before she curtly nodded her head. "I've only been thinking about it. You guys can't expect me to do drills day in and day out. That gets completely boring after a while, especially when I could be working on things like my triple axel."

[Drake Lane]

Drake bit the inside of his cheek as Dani unloaded on him. He knew that she didn’t like it here but not liking it was a pretty far cry away from running away. He hadn’t known she had been thinking about it and apparently pretty hard too if she had already picked out a place. Maybe she saw the look on his face or maybe she really was afraid he would rat her out but whatever the case he wasn’t going to tell their parents. It wasn’t really an ‘I’m going to tell our parents look’. Instead he was more hurt than anything.

“I’m not going to tell anyone geez Dani chill out.” He said with a frown. Drake wasn’t hurt because she wanted to follow her dreams. He couldn’t be mad at her for that. No, Drake was upset because she didn’t seem to care about what he thought about all this. Sure there would be consequences but all that would be nothing compared to leaving him without his sister. Had she not even thought of that? “I never said this was the perfect place to be but we could be doing worse for ourselves. Just do your time here okay? If things don’t get better then hey, no one’s forcing you to stay in the Legion. Just think about it okay?”

[Danielle Lane]

He wasn’t going to tell anyone? That was good, very good, because that meant her parents wouldn’t hear about her wanting to run away to Colorado and she would never hear the end of it from them. But she nodded her head sternly as she tried to keep the obvious look of relief off of her face, but it might have been failing slightly. Besides, knowing Drake and their weird twin connection, he probably knew it without looking on her face. She face back down the path as she took a deep breath to calm her racing nerves she felt for a moment.

“But how much longer is our time, Drake? Another year or two? There’s no guarantee that I’ll still be good by then. Things change and freak accidents happen. You still have a chance to go professional once we get out of here, because your sport is designed for old men or something.” She shrugged her shoulders as she looked back at her brother and gave him a sorry, not sorry face. She didn’t really understand how curling was a sport even an Olympic one, but her brother seemed to enjoy it for now.

[Drake Lane]

Danielle was always in such a rush always thinking about how her time as a figure skater was just slipping away. Drake didn’t get it. Why work so hard for something that was going to be gone in a few years? They had plenty of time for her to skate or do whatever else she wanted even if she didn’t get to compete so why did everything have to revolve around that one thing in her life? Drake shook his head. It was what it was and there was probably no changing it.

“I don’t know how much more time Dani and I know skating is important to you. I just don’t see why you think the Olympics is this great thing. Who cares about the curling team? You know I only do that because mom makes me. It’s not like it’s my choice.” Timber whined at his master’s obvious distress and Drake reached down to scratch his head as they walked. Danielle was going to do what Danielle wanted to do, that was a given. He just wished he could make her realize that everything in life wasn’t about being the best. There was a lot more to enjoy instead of spending all your life chasing after one thing. Where was the fun in that? “I’m just saying that there’s a lot more out there than some competition.”

[Danielle Lane]

He really didn't understand the Olympics? Danielle shot him a skeptical side eye glance as they kept walking. Sometimes, she wondered how they were even related at all when he made comments like that. She eventually rolled her eyes as she sighed. "The best of the best compete at the Olympics, Drake," she said as she adjusted her bag on her shoulder. "And I want to be one of the best. That's why I want to compete. But I only have a short time frame while I'm at my peak. Do you know that I could possibly get a gold medal if I could nail my routine with a triple axel?" She pressed her lips together as she glanced down at Timber before looking back up at her brother.

"It's not just some competition," she said as she rolled her eyes again before she shook her head. "You know what? Forget it. It's not like I'm going to make it out of this hellhole any time soon."