Slash had managed to weave his way around town back to his house after a great effort, and proceeded up into his room. "Well, it's cool that I learned a bit more about the Blaze Board…" Slash said to himself, "But still, now a Social Studies project with Linda? That's like handing my opponents weapons at the start of a race, and letting me get the head start." While hesitant, Slash already knew that if he didn't do this project, it would be counted against him, and he may in fact be in danger of failing, so after gathering a bit of courage, Slash picked up the phone in his room, looked up Linda's number in the phonebook, and dialed up Linda.
After a few moments, Linda, who had just returned home herself, bringing Nancy along with, finally answered the line. "Hello, this is Linda." Linda replied.
"Umm, Linda, this is Slash…" Slash began, but was quickly stopped by Linda. "Slash! What do you want? I told you never to call me! This better be good."
"Well, it's like this…" Slash began again, "The teacher told me that she wanted me to do a Social Studies project, and that since you're not doing anything and haven't had a partner in your last project, that you would be my partner in this."
Linda hesitated a moment. "You're not serious? This is some sort of prank, isn't it?" She asked. "Actually this isn't." Slash insisted in return. Linda did not enjoy this at all, in fact she went as far as to give an unsatisfying groan over the phone, needless to say, this annoyed Slash as well.
"Look…" Slash began again, "I really don't want to work with you either, but if I don't get a good grade on this, I'm going to fail Social Studies and probably get held back." Linda pondered a moment, then answered; "Well, as much as I would like to see you fail to something again, given all the chaos you've given me, I wouldn't deny you something like this." Slash sighed with relief. "Thank you, thank you Linda!" He pleaded, "Just don't have me do all the work…" Linda warned, "If you do, I'll make sure you don't get your half of the grade."
Slash agreed, the both of them then began to set up a schedule on how they would take on this project, after a bit of work, they began to once again talk casually.
"I finally found out what you meant about all those new people coming to Snow Town." Slash said over the phone. "It's like a gigantic web of people trying to catch us, heck I even had trouble getting to school this morning through Snow Town with all the people just in Snow Town Central."
"Tell me about it." Linda replied, fiddling with one of her pigtails while chatting on the phone, "Nancy and I were trying to practice our techniques earlier, Nancy was showing me one of her new tricks that she's been working on, it was really something! Unfortunately before I could try to design any of my own, the slopes were swamped up by rookies, and I don't mean just any rookies, as in people who probably haven't even boarded, gone sledding, or skied in their lifetime."
"Speaking of rookies and skill…" Slash began again, "I saw this kid just outside the school, he was doing some dancing and interesting moves, kind of like how Jam does occasionally, except he was adding a bit of everything into it."
"Oh, that kid?" Linda asked. "That's Roger, he's actually been in Snow Town before, he just moved back to town, he competed in a tournament a while ago far to the north and decided to stay there, according to what he told me after one of our classes, he came back after the tournament stopped being held, supposedly snowboarding is in his family, yet I've never seen him snowboard when he was here before."
Slash thought to himself, "Another snowboarder; makes me curious as to what this person can do."
Linda continued speaking, "From what he told me, he never actually would snowboard on any of the courses, he said he was called an All Ground Snowboarder, which is supposedly a form of snowboarding that means he knows how to snowboard on any sort of surface and still be good on it, kind of like what we try when we go to Quicksand Valley or Grass Valley. The only thing is, unlike us, he can keep complete control over his board, or so he says."
Slash smirked a bit and spoke enthusiastically, "Well then, I REALLY have to race this guy. If he can do that, I wonder how he'll do if we take him to Dizzy Land…"
Linda smiled, "That's a good idea, maybe when we have some free time on our hands, we can challenge him to a race there."
Slash cheered and clenched a fist shouting into the phone with excitement, "Yeah!"
Linda moved her ear away from the phone to avoid getting it blasted by Slash's voice, then placed it back, "You know, this is surprising, I thought you'd only be prank calling me, and in fact we actually had a civilized conversation."
Slash blinked a bit, surprised she pointed that out, "Uhh, you know, you got a point." Slash ran his finger through his hair and blinked again, seeming a tad confused on how this actually occurred.
"Perhaps this is just a fluke, but perhaps there may actually be some sense in you." Linda said.
"Well, I guess that's a compliment…" Slash said sarcastically.
"Anyway, remember to meet me at Wendy's Internet around 4:00 PM, after school tomorrow, we can start with how the pioneers left their homes to search for a new place to live, and compare it as to why people here have moved to Snow Town." Linda said, obviously reminding Slash of his assignment.
"Will do, thanks for the help Linda…" Slash said, a tad quietly, as if ashamed to say it.
Linda hesitated at noticing this sudden change of volume in Slash's voice, then simply said, "No problem, take care Slash." Linda then hung up the phone.
"So, Slash is your Social Studies partner?" Nancy said, still sitting near Linda, it seemed Nancy had overheard the entire conversation.
"Yeah, strange too, I've never actually heard Slash sound intelligent like that before, he reminded me of Wendy." Linda joked.
"Well, maybe after all that's happened in the past, something's jerked Slash in a different direction, you do know it's been a while since you both have actually been fighting." Nancy replied.
"Hmm, you know, I think perhaps with this change of pace, perhaps some good can come of it, who knows, I might actually begin to like Slash." Linda said, tapping her chin quizzically. "Then again, it's so easy to lose someone's trust, yet so hard to gain it."
Nancy simply nodded, knowing that something was obviously stirring between the snooty rich girl, and the headstrong spiky-headed kid.
- End Chapter 3, Rejoice, the hiatus is over, my fanfic shall continue!