He was still with the slackers and geeks, but he was also running for the Parry McCluer track team, and even though it was a while before any of the meets would begin, and for all he knew he wouldn’t live long enough to compete in any of them, it was fun to get to Lieder’s house before sunrise, running the whole way in the dark, and then see how Lieder had laid out fixed courses for him on the streets of Buena Vista, so that he would know just how far Danny was running in a given amount of time.
Now that his friends were all enlisted in the Great Gate project, the only way that Danny still connected with high school life was his running. He had come here to get away from magery and live a normal life; he had brought the magery with him, and running was the only normal thing left for him to do.
This morning, though, Coach Lieder wasn’t alone. Nicki, his daughter, was with him, and though she seemed a little sleepy, she didn’t have that wan look. That dying-nymph appearance. Her passage through a gate had healed her of whatever she was dying of. Lieder may not know it, but Danny had prepaid him for all the private track coaching. And yet it had cost Danny nothing. The effortless gift of a god. Need healing? Well here it is, because why not.
But just because it cost Danny so little didn’t change the fact that she was dying, and now she would live. Maybe that had something to do with why Lieder was more encouraging than Danny had expected. After all, he had so much less to feel angry and bitter about.
“Do you mind if Nicki watches?” asked Lieder. “She was up anyway, so…”
Did he think he was good at lying? Danny knew that Nicki must have asked him to waken her especially for this. And maybe Lieder was simply indulging his little girl. Or maybe he thought Danny would perform better with a girl watching. Or maybe he hoped something might happen between Danny and his daughter, though why Lieder should wish for such a thing Danny didn’t know.
It had to be the first one. Nicki liked Danny-and what’s not to like? — and when a daughter who had been this close to death now had a crush on a boy, what father wouldn’t indulge her? Especially when he was right there to supervise any interaction between them.
Danny felt her eyes on him the whole time. He ran short sprints today-Lieder was keeping him close to the front porch so he was never out of Nicki’s sight. And if the idea was that Danny would work harder to impress a girl, it wasn’t exactly wrong. He certainly made his best times in the various dashes. And this despite having run the whole way here, and not having had enough sleep the night before.
Last night I was this close to pledging my undying love to Pat, and this morning I’m showing off for Nicki. I’m such a teenage boy. Which is to say, I’m such a fickle jerk.
Well, running in front of a girl wasn’t kissing her. There was a difference and he’d keep it well in mind.
Even in the cool of an autumn morning, Danny was dripping with sweat. He had really given it his all, and he knew that sweat wasn’t unattractive to girls, not when it had been earned by real exertion, not when the guy doing the sweating had an athletic build. It was only sweaty fat kids and geeks that turned high school girls off. Danny had learned this from his reading of young adult novels during the years he was studying to prepare to be a normal high school student.
“Hi,” he said to Nicki when Lieder beckoned him to the porch. She gave him a little wave and a shy smile.
Lieder ignored the exchange between them and began reading off the times. “And you ran here, right?”
“Yes, sir,” said Danny.
“So the idea is to have these sprints in you at the end of a long race. To pace yourself so that you stay in contention but you don’t have to lead.”
“You know that I don’t care about leading,” said Danny.
“But the team needs you to win. To rack up points. So not for yourself, but for the team. You stay close enough to be in contention, but sprints like these are still inside you.”
“Why not just have me run the sprints?” asked Danny.
“I’ve got guys who can do the sprints. They’re not as fast as you, but they win enough. I need you in long distance. You’re a coin I can only spend once or twice in a meet. I’m not going to use you up on the short stuff.”
“You want me to be a quarter, not five pennies, is that it?”
“Yeah, smart guy,” said Lieder. “I want you to be a damn Susan B. Anthony dollar.”
“But fifty cents will do,” said Nicki. “He wants you to try for the dollar so you might make the fifty cents.”
Lieder reddened. If any other kid had said such a thing, he would have been angry. But it was his daughter, so the redness went away quickly. “She thinks she sees through her old man,” he said with a smile. “But I want the buck. I want a buck fifty.”
“Well, I better get home and shower,” said Danny.
“Oh,” said Nicki. She looked disappointed. Then, realizing that Danny was looking at her curiously, she stepped back and turned away, embarrassed.
“Nicki’s going back to school today. She was kind of hoping you might ride with us.”
Danny indicated his dripping shorts and tee-shirt. “I can’t go like this.”
“You could shower here,” said Nicki. Then she covered her mouth as if to keep more words from coming out.
“And put these back on?” said Danny, laughing.
“Look,” said Lieder, “Nicki’s right. I’ve worn you out with sprints. Now if you run all the way home and shower and change you’ll be late to school.”
It was true. They had gone long.
“You shower, and throw on something of mine. It’ll be baggy on you, considering that you’re made of toothpicks, but we’ll swing by your house and you run in to change. We’ll wait.”
Danny considered for a moment. It was a very generous thing. But could he afford to arrive at high school in Lieder’s car?
“How about if you drive me home and drop me off? Then I can walk to school on time.”
“Well, I’m not letting you get in my car as sweaty as you are right now,” said Lieder. He laughed, but … was it really so important that he shower at their house?
Danny shrugged and stepped up on the porch. “Whatever I do, I gotta do it now.”
Nicki rushed ahead of him and showed him to the house’s one bathroom. It really was an old place. But the tub was modern enough-it wasn’t sitting on claw feet, it was molded to the floor, and instead of a shower curtain there was a glass door.
He turned on the water and heard Nicki close the door behind him. He got his shoes and clothes off as soon as the door was closed and by then the shower was steaming a little. He got in and was washing his hair with regular soap when he heard the door open.
“Not looking not looking,” said Nicki. He couldn’t look because he’d get soap in his eyes so he’d have to take her word for it.
When he got out there was a towel laid out for him, and a pair of pants and a shirt in a style no self-respecting kid would wear. No underwear. His own clothes were nowhere to be seen. She must have taken them.
She was going to wash them for him. She was showing him how domestic she was.
No, she was trying to do something nice. Give her credit for being kind. Don’t assume that girls want your body just because Xena does. Xena knows you’re, like, a Norse god.
The only way the pants would stay up was if he held them with one hand while he held his shoes with the other. He went barefoot out of the bathroom. “Somebody stole my clothes,” he said, “but we’ll have to search for the thief later, when I’m wearing pants I can run in.”
Lieder laughed. “I didn’t think anybody could look worse in those clothes than me.”
“He doesn’t,” said Nicki. Then blushed. Then laughed.
“Can I make it to your car barefoot? There’s not any, like, gravel or hot coals or anything?” Their driveway was gravel, but it ran around the back of the house.