Fearless by Chris O'Guinn Page A

let him know I wasn’t impressed by the threat. “I’m not brave like you, dude.”
    “So? Fake it.”
    “Fake it?”
    “Just think of what you would do if you weren’t afraid and do that.”
    I frowned. It sounded both brilliant in its simplicity and absurd in its insanity. “I don’t know….”
    “I dare you.”
    “I’m sorry, are we eight?”
    Liam laughed. I didn’t like being pushed, but I had to admit that with him encouraging me, the whole idea was a little less ridiculous-sounding. I chewed on my thumbnail and brooded. In the span of three days, my entire plan for surviving high school had been put into the wood chipper.
     I waited until the class was dismissed before approaching Lancaster. I still didn’t really like him, but I guess that wasn’t important.
    “Uh, so, uh, if it’s still okay…. I mean, if you still want me to…. What I mean is, if there’s still room on the team….” He didn’t say anything as I floundered. Like I said, he wasn’t one of my favorite people. “I’d like to join the team,” I finally managed to say.
    “You sure? I don’t want you to put some half-ass effort into it and then quit after a couple of days.”
    He was starting to piss me off. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
    “Good. You’ll need some equipment, a signed permission slip and a note from your doctor that you’re cleared to join. I’ll get the forms,” he said, turning to go.
    “Er, a doctor? I’m not sick, really,” I told him, causing him to stop.
    “School rules, kid.”
    “I don’t…. That is, my mom doesn’t….”
    Lancaster actually looked sympathetic, for once. I was shocked he even knew how. “Don’t worry about it, kid. There’s a clinic you can go to. It’s not expensive.”
    I breathed a little easier. “Um, okay.”
    After I got changed, Lancaster handed me a packet of papers. One was the permission form, another was a list of the things I was going to need like goggles and (oh crap!) a couple of Speedos. I’d forgotten about the dress code.
    Liam met me outside the locker room and swiped the packet out of my hand. “Holy shit! I didn’t think you’d do it.”
    I glared at him, choosing to blame him for the mess I was now in. “And now there’s no way out of it, either. The coach made me promise I’d stick with it.”
    “Good for him. Oh, Speedos! I bet you’ll look hot in them.”
    I went crimson. “I doubt it.”
    “Dude, you need some self-confidence, stat.”
    I sighed and took the packet back. I had to get to math and he had biology, so we said goodbye. I was still freaked out by what I had committed to, but I was also smiling because Liam had said I would look hot in a Speedo.
    He was insane, of course. But it made me feel really good.
    I was surprised to find my mom home already when I got there after school. It was Thursday and she always had the afternoon shift on Thursdays. I didn’t ask her about it, though. We had this kind of unspoken agreement between us—she didn’t tell me how bad our finances were and I didn’t tell her how miserable school was. Little white lies kept our family strong.
    “No Liam today?” she asked.
    “Uh, no, he had stuff to do,” I told her, sitting across from her at the kitchen table.
    She gave me a tired little smile that broke me up inside. My mom is too good a person to work as hard as she does and have so little to show for it. She broke off some of the grapes she was eating and handed them to me.
    “So, how was your day?” I asked.
    “Wonderful,” she lied. “I got promoted to manager, complete with a fat raise. And then I won a tropical vacation in a contest on the radio.” She savored a lush red grape. “You?”
    “Great,” I fibbed, munching on the sweet little fruits. “I got A’s on all my quizzes. I scored the winning basket in P.E. And a group of seniors asked me sit and have lunch with them.”
    Her wistful smile swelled and faded. “I got you something. Well, I got me something but it’s