The rest of the school day proceeded fine, and after the bell rang for the end of the school, Mrs. Steeder smiled and took her briefcase. 'School's over. Have a nice vacation, class. Be sure to leave your desks behind properly. Before she walked away for one last staff meeting.

The majority of the class was about to leave, but Linda asked for the attention of Slash and the others. 'May I have your attention, everybody? I've decided to hold the race around 3:30, a half hour from now. Be sure to bring along your snowboards, and feel free to watch if you want to!' She then looked at Slash. 'I hope you're prepared to taste defeat, Slash!' She taunted him with a snobby laugh before cleaning up her own desk.

The rest of the group decided to watch it, being curious how this new Rick kid would perform, but then Ruby approached them.

'Hey, I've heard this new kid here's gonna snowboard, his first one in a race too! I'm definetly going to be there to see how you're gonna perform, but I don't expect too much from ya!' Ruby teased Rick with a grin, him being a bit intimidated by his appearence up close, but Slash then came up to Ruby and taunted him in return: 'Hey, at least he's got the guts for it! When I challenged you for a race you came up with all kinds of excuses until you couldn't bail out anymore.'

Ruby shaked his fist and puffed to Slash. 'You little... hmph!! I'm not gonna ruin my new stylin' haircut with pummeling you, spiky!' He then stomped out the classroom and towards the exit.

Rick stood up and smiled to Slash. 'Hey, thanks for sticking up for me there, Slash.'

'No problem, but better get ready for our race!' Slash told Rick in return.

'Yep, seeya soon!' Rick waved to the rest and hurried out of the school to get his snowboarding equipment back home.

Jam also headed out for the exit, slightly nudging Slash. 'Come on, let's get to Rookie Mountain already. We can do some practice on it before the race starts if we get there quickly enough. 'Sure!' Slash responded, and runned out of the classroom along with Jam.

*A half hour later*

As the group arrived on the top of the course of Rookie Mountain, a short racing course with few slopes to stunt off, no cliffs and few sharp turns, they could just witness Slash and Jam doing some turning and stunting practice before the race started. Slash was pretty determined to not lose this race to Linda. They both headed for the lift-in and took the chairlifts up the start of the course, where they both took off their boots from their snowboards and saw the rest of the gang, except for Rick.

'Hey Linda!' Slash shouted to the rich girl as she prepared herself for the race. 'You seen that Rick guy yet?' Linda shook her head vertical and replied. 'Not yet, but he better show up within the next 3 minutes or we're gonna start without him.'

And just with that, Wendy who stood on the sidelines along with the others who didn't participate could hear footsteps in the snow approaching, and upon closer inspection, they saw it was Rick.

'Sorry to keep you waiting, guys!' Rick shouted as he hurried himself to the starting line in a faster pace, having dressed himself up in a warm old brown winter coat and a grey ushanka with the ear flaps hanging out but the top cut off to see his brown hair visible.

'What kept you waiting?' Linda questioned Rick as she stood ready on her snowboard, while Rick did the same, responding: 'I had to tell my dad about all of you guys, and it took me a bit to get my snowboarding gear.'

'Well, we're glad you could come anyway.' Jam told Rick as he put his snowboard on the ground and stood ready on it near the red starting line.'

'Same, hope you'll do good, but I'm not planning to lose from you, or Linda over there!' Slash grinned towards Linda, who looked a bit irritated back to him.

Before Wendy came near the start line to give the signal for the race, the kids all looked at each other's boards. As inexperienced as Rick was, he could make out that Linda used a Alpine Board by the sharp edges of it, and he, Slash and Jam were using a All Around board.

'OK, it's a 3-lap race, to remind you all. Are you ready?!....GO!'

As soon as Wendy shouted it, all the kids except Rick jumped off well and gained a head start, all going at a steady pace but Rick himself started at a slow pace for the first few seconds, but got on a decent speed afterwards, though he could hear Ruby laughing as he yelled: 'Don't ya even know how to jump forward at the start of a race?!' Rick ignored him and continued forward in last.

Slash and Jam were both trying to get to the first blue item box that stood in the center of the the slight left arch, but Linda with her speedy board managed to get past the 2 boys and went through it, the box then disappearing, nabbing herself a rock which she kept for the time being as she went forward. Slash and Jam had to bail out on the blue item before it could reappear and continued on. Linda also went through the red shot box at the first sharp turn to the right, which gave her a bunch of freeze shots, also keeping it for later. Slash went a little faster than Jam and got in time for his own to grab a few bombs, and continued on.

In the meantime, Rick managed to steer himself at the slight left arch and went through the blue item box, feeling in his left pocket that he got a pan. 'Ah, I can use this to temporarily stun the other racers...' He thought in himself as he remembered it from watching a few races from the other kids. He waited with using it putting it back in his pocket, and headed straight, also getting the red shot box and felt in his other right pocket something cold: Snowman heads. 'Oh, if I remember correctly, this is to immobilize other people who get hit so they can't move around.'

Though he then saw a sharp turn to the right, and barely managed to steer himself without crashing due to using the edge hill slope to his advantage, and still stood on both his feet, though he could see the others about to make a jump...

Linda did a vertical spin, Slash approaching near her with a horizontal flip, and Jam pulled off one of his special stunts, the Spinning Jam, as he flipped himself backwards vertically twice, landing with style and continued on, quickly looking back being curious how that Rick could perform a trick. To his disappointment however, when Rick went off the slope he didn't dare to jump at all, and simply landed without doing anything. Jam shrugged a bit and continued on.

After turning the sharp right curve after a minor left arch, Linda came to the second stunting slope, and attempted another vertical spin trick, but Slash who was approaching right behind her grinned, took his chance to aim, and tossed a bomb towards her missing out on the stunt, but used the steep side of the slope to gain some extra speed, and he saw as right as Linda landed, the bomb hitted her before she could do anything, and was blown upwards a bit before plowing into the snow. Grumbling, she stood up and jumped forward to try and chase Slash, who bolted for the lift-in. Jam approached behind Linda as she managed to get to lift-in in second, but he managed to get a Invisibility item at the blue box before the lift-in, coming in 3rd. Rick took a few seconds longer to come by as it took him quite some effort to navigate the sharp right turn, plus he fell off balance from turning too sharply which he wasn't used to, but as he saw Jam looking at him briefly while going up in the chairlift, Rick attempted to do a few board grabs at least this time to show he does have something, and headed straight for the lift-in as well, managing to brake off decently and hopped on the chairlift still in last.

In the 2nd lap, Slash went right for the blue item box near the start, and took the contents of the box which was a fan this time around, a good thing in his position and immediatly used it. Linda who saw Slash in the near distance, approached the blue item box as well in hopes of getting something good to catch up to him, forgetting about the rock, getting a Ghost this time around which she immediatly used, and the ghost vanished and appeared before Slash, who upon sight slowed down to normal speed even with the fan in use because it gave him the creeps.

Rick who also landed back on foot after Jam, decided to use the Pan, throwing it upwards which then multiplied into 3, and magically appeared above the others. Linda who was busy with attempting a stunt in mid-air got one on her head and fell down with her face once more in the snow, but managed to recover quickly. Slash got one on his way down the sharp right turn, and lost his fan in the process, and tried to recover in time from the hit as well, as the ghost then disappeared. Unfortunatly, Linda came close and Slash tried to jump to gain some speed, but she already throwed a freeze shot in his direction, which froze him on impact, and moved on. Jam used the invisibility item just in time to avoid getting hit by the pan, and focussing on getting some speed in, managed to catch up to Slash who then broke out of the ice and climbed back on his board. Rick also managed to come closer, avoiding the boxes in favor of trying to take the inside parts of the turns to try and catch up, and this time took less time navigating the sharp right turn and jumped off the slope to get some speed in as he saw he was close to both Jam and Slash.

Linda who still was in the lead near the finish did a diagonal flip trick this time and landed with grace as she took the blue box's content before heading to the lift-in, seeing it was a rock again. Taking the chairlift to the top, she saw both Slash and Jam trying to outrun each other for the lift in first, but Jam couldn't resist to try another stunt, and did a diagonal flip as well. Though Slash already took advantage of it and bolted for the blue box and the lift-in, taking a ghost with him which he immediatly used on Linda to make her slow down with chills on her spine as he went after her on the chairlift. Jam had to bolt out of the box which disappeared briefly but he also went on the chairlift after the 2. Rick came by close as this time he also took less time to navigate the other sharp right turn without falling off, and at the slope attempted a horizontal flip, and landed, though looked like he almost tripped out of balance, but managed to steer himself past the next box, and got a fan this time, as he went up the chairlift behind Jam.

It was the final lap, and Linda who was still haunted by the ghost for a few seconds, decided to drop the rock near the starting line so Slash woudn't catch up to her so easily, and moved on, getting another rock from the blue box as she moved on. Slash jumped off the chairlift, but as Linda anticipated, he tripped over the rock, though quickly recovered in mere 3 seconds after the fall, and jumped forward for some more speed, ignoring the blue box this time in favour of trying to catch up with Linda, still knowing he had 2 bombs in his pocket left. Jam who upon landing immediatly jumped forward for some decent speed got the blue box and got himself a pan, deciding to save it for later. He also got himself a pair of slapsticks from the red box before the sharp right turn.

Rick in the meantime immediatly used the fan to go faster and trying to pass up to Jam, but ignored the boxes in order to focus on cornering the turns.

As Linda speeded to the sharp turn, not stunting off the slope this time, she did notice that Slash was starting to catch up to her as she looked back that he yelled as he stunted. Though just as Rick at the same time throwed a snowman head towards Jam, before he was hit, he tossed up the pan as he was trapped under a bunch of snow while heading off the slope. Rick lost his fan and fell to the ground, but attempted to regain speed quickly. Linda who was also hit in the middle of the sharp turn got back up, but saw Slash approaching from a bit of slow speed, also hit by the pan, obviously. He threw another bomb at her, but this time Linda anticipated such a move and did a board grab on her board as she jumped, deflecting the shot and sending Slash upwards this time before he fell back in the snow, Linda letting out a snobbish laugh as she went for the slope before the finish, and dropped the rock before she attempted a special double flip stunt for a finisher. Slash who was now looking red in his face chased after Linda as he recovered, but as he approached the slope, didn't notice the other rock she dropped, and fell, rolling off the slope and landing right before the finish line, where he witnessed Linda laughing as she crossed the finish line first, him grumbling as he crossed second and waited for Jam and Rick to finish.

At the same time, Rick used the steep slope to his advantage to gain some speed after the hit, and passed Jam who just crashed against the sidelines and fell down, trying to recover, and now used to sharp cornering somewhat, took less time as he maneuvred the last sharp turn. He smiled as he approached the last slope, preparing to attempt at least one full trick to show off to Linda and Slash, but he heard something and looked back, panicking as he saw a slapstick hand coming very close to him which Jam must have fired when he recovered and was approaching him, and got hit, instead rolling off the slope, still hearing Jam do one last stunt before he crossed the finish as 3rd, and Rick finally rolling all the way down the slope and landed on his stomach by the others as dead last. The spectators already having made their way to the finish during the entire race and saw it all.