Dare to Be Different (25 page)

Tentatively walking into the house, Drew cautiously called out Dani’s name. She wasn’t sitting on the couch watching TV where Drew had expected she would be.

“Dani?” Drew called hesitantly and softly as she climbed the stairs toward their room. “We need to talk.… Dani? Dani?” Drew poked her head in every room, looking for her sister, but it was clear that she was nowhere to be found. Drew started to worry and considered calling Mom on her cell phone. Before she did anything,
though, she needed to wash her makeup off.

Back in the family room, after scrubbing her face, Drew sat down on the couch to think things through. Where could Dani be? Why hadn’t she come home? Or had she come home and left? Should Drew call one of their parents?

She walked into the kitchen to see if Dani’s backpack was where she normally dropped it when she got home. No backpack, so Drew assumed that Dani hadn’t come home at all yet. Where could she be?

Suddenly, the realization hit her. Today was the day of Dani’s tryout for the debate team. They had been working with her to prepare for days. How could she have forgotten? Dani was going to be crushed, and her parents would likely be angry. Oh man, she really did it this time.

At about that time, Drew heard the garage door opening. Trying to look casual, she got a quick glass of milk and sat at the kitchen table. When they walked in, Drew said, “Hey, guys. How did it go? I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it.”

Dani wouldn’t even look at Drew as she hurried out of the kitchen and went upstairs. But not before Drew noticed that Dani’s eyes were
bloodshot; she had been crying. The pain was evident in Dani’s sad eyes. It broke Drew’s heart when she realized how much Dani was hurting.

“Mom … I … what can I say? What can I do? I’m so sorry. I forgot to let Dani know that I wouldn’t be able to meet her after school. It doesn’t mean anything. I just had something come up for cheerleading that I needed to do.” Drew felt bad about lying, but she didn’t think she had a choice. She didn’t want to hurt her sister even more with the truth.

“Drew, you need to talk to your sister. This isn’t something I can fix for you. And next time something comes up like that, you need to call home and let someone know where you’ll be and what time you’ll be home. Okay?”

Drew agreed and apologized for the oversight; and then, eager to talk to Dani, she left the kitchen and went upstairs to find Dani crying softly on her bed.

“Dani, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there, and I’m sorry that the tryout didn’t go well.”

“You
could
have been there, but you chose not to be. Don’t think I didn’t see you in the bleachers
with Trevor. You picked him over me again … and on such an important day. You have no idea how much that hurt, still hurts actually.”

“To be honest, Dani, I forgot about it for a little bit after school. It wasn’t like I made a conscious choice to ignore you and your needs.”

“Drew, this goes so much deeper than just forgetting me after school. It’s about the fact that you are slowly pulling away from everything having anything to do with me, and it just doesn’t seem to bother you one bit. You don’t even miss me.”

Dani’s words cut like a knife. Drew knew that Dani was right, and she didn’t know what to say to make her feel better.

“Dani, it’s just that I don’t believe that we, or I, can’t have both. Why can’t we have our relationship
and
I can have a boyfriend and a commitment to a sport? Why does being your sister mean that’s all I can have?”

“No, Drew, you’ve got it all wrong. Loyalty is the issue here. It’s not about having it all—you could have it all without even trying. Instead, you have chosen that other stuff over me and pushed me aside without any consideration of
my feelings. It’s not that you want ‘both,’ it’s that you want me to step aside and let you do your own thing until you decide you need me again. The sad thing is, I’ll do that. I’ll be here—I’m not going anywhere. But I can’t pretend it doesn’t hurt.”

Drew was speechless, but tears began to form in her eyes. She never wanted to hurt Dani like she had.

“I was worried when you didn’t show up, so I went looking for you. I saw your first kiss. Funny, that was something that I thought we would discuss and share with each other. I thought we would squeal and jump up and down and run upstairs to our room where we could dissect every single detail. But at this point, Drew, I don’t even want to know about it. That is what I had to think about the whole time I was trying out for the debate team, which is as important to me as your cheerleading is to you. By the way, what makes you think that my tryout went badly?”

Drew said, “I haven’t seen you so sad in a long time, so I assumed that you didn’t make the team.”

“Oh, I made the team all right. It’s the fact
that I couldn’t share it with you that broke my heart.” Dani abruptly stood and started to leave the room. On her way to the stairs, she turned and looked hard at Drew. “I sure hope you know what you’re doing.”

Chapter 10

Drew missed Dani. Sure, they still shared a room and walked to school together, but their relationship ended there all week. Drew was busy after school with long practices every day, so Dani walked home alone after her shorter debate team practices. During school, Drew spent every spare second with Trevor, so Dani hung out with other people. At lunchtime, Drew sat with Trevor and his friends, so Dani ate with her other friends across the room. It was a sad week for Dani, and even for Drew in many ways. But mostly, Drew was enjoying her life and missed only certain things—things that she was more than willing to sacrifice.

Fridays were always supercharged with energy because there was usually a football game that night. When it was an away game, the teams wore their white uniforms with red and gold accents to school on Friday. Home games were the best, though. The community turned out in support, and, together with hundreds of students, they showed their spirit in so many ways. When it was a home game, they wore the red uniforms with the white and gold accents to school that day. Drew loved wearing her uniform to school; it made her feel really important.

As Drew was putting her books into her locker, Trevor sneaked up behind her and put his arm around her neck and gave a playful squeeze.

“Hey, there, silly. How are you today?” She looked him up and down in approval and he did the same.

“You look great,” they said to each other simultaneously and then laughed.

“Are we going to eat and party after the game tonight?”

“I hope so. I’ll have to check with my parents.”

Trevor rolled his eyes. “Come on, they need to get with the times and understand that you’ve
got things to do.” He laughed at his teasing, but Drew could also tell that he didn’t like to be put off by such immature things as needing permission.

“Oh come on, you know how it is. They just have trouble letting go of their little girl. I’m sure you had a curfew when you were a freshman, too.” Drew laughed good-naturedly.

“That’s not really the point. You know, Drew, I’m not used to dating a freshman; I’m sort of past all of that needing permission stuff. I hope this isn’t going to be a problem. I mean, I want to have my girl with me when I celebrate, not have to have her home and in bed by ten o’clock or some other crazy curfew.”

Drew was slightly annoyed by his lack of understanding but didn’t want to let him see that. “I’ll do the best I can, Trevor. I hope I can work it out.”

“Parents don’t need to know everything. You don’t have to say that you want to spend time with your boyfriend and that it’s a date. Just tell them it’s a school event and that everyone goes out after the game. Or even better, tell them you’re spending the night at a friend’s house. That way we can stay out later. You could stay at
Samantha’s after our date.”

“She hasn’t invited me, though,” Drew protested.

“Oh, don’t worry about that at all. She does this all the time.”

“Okay. I’ll think about it. Don’t worry about it, though. I’ll figure it out. We’ll definitely go out after the game.”

“Good. That’s my girl. I’ve got to run to class or I’ll be late. See you!”

Drew smiled as he ran down the hall, dodging bodies along the way like any good quarterback would do. No matter how far away he got, Drew could still see his tall frame and broad shoulders above the crowd. Smiling and lost in thought, she finished collecting her books and went to class, thinking about how she would get permission to go out with the gang after the game.

“Drew! You’re going to be late. Let’s go!” Mom called up the stairs. Drew had rushed home from school to shower and get dressed in her uniform in preparation for their second home game. She was so excited about the game but also nervous about getting the permission she
needed to go out afterward.

Skipping down the stairs, dark ponytail bouncing with each step, Drew said, “Here I come, Mom. Is everyone else ready?”

“Yep, we’re all waiting. Let’s go.”

On the way there, Mom said, “After the game, I think we should all go out for ice cream to celebrate.”

“Um, that’s a good idea … but I sort of thought I would ask if I could make other plans.” Drew hesitantly broached the subject of her “date.”

“What were you hoping to do tonight, Drew?” Dad jumped in with concern.

“Oh, it’s no big deal. It’s just that the teams usually go out to The Grill after games, and it’s such a fun thing to be a part of. I was hoping that I’d be able to make that a part of my game-night ritual—at least for home games.”

“Well, let us think about it, and we’ll talk about it after the game,” Mrs. Daniels suggested.

“Okay. That’s fine.” Drew didn’t want to argue, because she knew it wouldn’t do any good; but she really had hoped to have this worked out before the game. No matter … she’d figure it out
after the game. Maybe spending the night at Sam’s would be the best idea. Ignoring feelings of guilt, she tried to refocus her thoughts on the game.

The game was exciting. The crowd was wild and the players were doing great. By halftime, they were winning by fourteen points. It was dark by that time, and the stadium lights gave the whole atmosphere a completely different feel. The halftime show was perfectly executed and generated enough buzz in the crowd to get the team through the second half. Drew loved every minute of it. After the performance, there were some other things taking place on the field, so Trevor and Drew had a few moments to chat.

“Hey, you. You looked really hot out there,” Trevor said with a big grin on his face.

“You aren’t so bad yourself.” Drew winked at him.

“I wanted to tell you, instead of going to The Grill, there’s a huge party tonight. It happens to be at Sam’s house. She has a big pool and a field behind her house where we’ll have a bonfire. We’ll go there instead. It’s going to be awesome. And Sam said there was no problem with you spending the night. She even said that her older
sister would vouch for you if your mom wanted to talk to her
mom.’

“That sounds terrific.” Drew’s stomach turned at the lies she would have to tell in order to make the date with Trevor. Not to mention the trouble she would get into if she got caught. But the thought of not going was just as upsetting to her. She only had the second half of the game to decide what she was going to do.

It was an agonizing hour and a half as Drew’s mind filled with all of the reasons why she didn’t want to do it, countered with tons of reasons why she did. She dreaded the thought of lying to her parents and also felt a nudge in her spirit that reminded her of how much this went against what God would want her to do.

She wanted to be a part of all that was going on, and she really believed that she should be allowed to go. She rationalized that her parents would let her spend the night at Samantha’s, so that wasn’t a lie. And it wasn’t really up to her who else Sam invited to her house … then again, Drew’s mom and dad would never let her go if they knew there wouldn’t be an adult there. If she got caught lying and breaking so many rules, she would surely be grounded for a long time
and not be given permission for things like this for a long, long time. However, if she didn’t get caught and it worked out great, she would have catapulted her popularity and proven to Trevor that she was fun to be with and willing to make spending time with him a priority, no matter what.