After a warm shower and a change of clothes, from my form fitting suit to a good comfy set of bedcloths, I ordered out, ate a nice warm meal of noodles, and dropped into bed, it still not dark.

I woke up the next morning when Zoe banged on my door. Odd that she was up so early. I thought. Turned out she had crashed right when we got to the hotel and had been wondering around the hotel since 4 am.

"Come on, Moby. Lets go do something" she yelled, banging on my door.

"It's seven in the blooming mornig" I mutterdly yelled, after looking at the clock. I had been having a nice dream about Elise and her swimsuit too.

"I've been up for three hours, Mobes" she yelled, knocking agian.

"she's an intelligent gel" I said to myself, stumbling to the door. I opened it, a funky punk boarder waiting on the other side.

"Oh Moby! How cute! Sheep pajamas" She said

I closed the door.

"Oh Moby! how uncute! Closing the door on me! Come on! lets do something!"

"like shut up" I told myself, pulling on a clean rider's suit. I slipped into my shoes and opened the door. "Coffee?" I asked the american rider.

"You mean, like. Outside of the hotel?" she asked.

"Yeah... We'll jog to the shop, drink up, and come back. That should be about the time they collect us" I said.

"Moby...where's your accent?" She asked me.

"Whatda?" I said.

"..it just. wasn't there for a bit"

"a bit ? Whatdya mean, wasn't there? 'taint an accent. Its me, me, and me blooming voice!" I said "You must really need some bloody coffee, mate"

"...right. Ok Moby. I'll race you to the shop" She said, before bounding off. Now, I think as a guy, I could have easily pulled ahead and beaten her to the shop. However, as a guy, I had a bloody good reason not to. I had a bloody good reason, and she had a bloody nice arse.

The coffee wasn't really necessary. The run along the dry path surrounded by all the snow was what really woke me up. That and Zoe's a... Right. Well, anyway, we got the coffee from the all purpose little shop, drank it up, and walked back. Zoe kept teasing me about beating me, but I just was smug. Who really got the victory, right ?

We got back to the hotel at 8, so it had been a good hour. Everybody else was up, even Mac, who was still sore from the fence and groggy from everything else. Some official walked in, and told us to go to the rooftop gondola. After we got there, we started the long ride to the top of the mountain, and the top of the course. Mac groggily looked at me, than at Hiro. I fallowed his gaze, and nodded. JP also did. Than, the gondola stopped.

"Lets get you some coffee, Mac" JP said, his thick accent even thicker, indicating he was also tired. I fallowed the two to the food area of the lodge, and we all ordered a small coffee. I blew on mine, while JP talked about watching Hiro. Mac chugged his coffee, finishing the cup of his last drop. He stood up to get more, and I slid my untouched beverage across the table. He mumbled a thanks, and began to chug that cup as well. JP took a deep drink.

"I'll watch him, see if he can pull any of the opening tricks off the ramp. You gits through, watch the TV. You see anything on the later spot, talk to me over the heady, got it?" I said. They nodded, and I stood up, going to collect my board and inspect its waxing for that morning.

The show started at 10, and it was about 9:15, near as I could tell. Hiro was standing alone, by himself, and his body language was screaming for him not to be disturbed. I looked at him, and he looked at me. I'm pretty sure I gave him a damn evil look, cause the stupid get gave me one. I shook my head and went to the rack, cycling it towards my niche. I punched in my number, and the board popped out. I looked at it. There was a long scratching in the wax from the niche. Somebody had jerked the damn rack around. I huffed, and swung the board over my shoulder. I looked at it one more time, shook my head, and went to find a tech.

Hiro walked up to the rack, I saw in the unblemished part of the waxing. The board was shiny except that one place where it had been clamped down. He punched in his number and got out his own board.

"Kuso" I heard him yell out. I also heard Kaori chattering at him in Japanese. He replied something, and I heard the rack unlock again.

"Kisama!" Kaori said. Soon, I was being fallowed by half the boarders, all armed with thier damaged board. I found a tech, and he looked at the damage, wide-eyed. He sighed, and we all put our boards down on the carpeted section. Jurgen growled for them to be ready by 10, making the tech curse as well in Japanese.

After that wonderful experience, I looked at my watch. It was 9:30, and there was no way. I dragged the other blokes towards the rack, and we all went to the tech.

"Look, mate" I explained, "Fix the native's boards first. Hiro's, than Kaori's, than mine, than Mac's. Check the roster, and fix em in that order" I finished. He nodded, and proceeded to work on Hiro's board. I found Koari waiting, watching some skiers on a different track from ours, and asked her to take as long as possible on her showoff, so to give the bloke more time to work on them. She said she would, and than ran off to chitter at Hiro about it.

At 9:45, Mac showed up, bouncing around. "Hey, Mobes! I was over there and I heard Hiro say he would go the limit to give the guy time to fix it!" He said, than bounced away to find the others and report the good news to them. I shook my head at the git. He shouldn't have put all that suger in his coffee. I went and watched the bloke in the shop work for a bit, than went to the gate. I scooped up some of the snow from the edge and felt it. The snow was dry. I had learned from Jurgen that dry snow made you go fast, so the boards would only need a slight layer of wax.

I went to the shop again. The tech was putting a third layer of wax on Hiro's board. That's when I told him what condition the snow for the course was. He looked up, and muttered something into a walkie-talkie. After a response, he seemed to nod. Than he re-directed his attention at me.

"Thank you for your input. They have gone to inspect the snow at later track points. I'll just leave Hiro's board as it is. Go and tell your fellow rider that his is ready" he said, shoeing me away from his work.

I smiled as I walked away. Luck seemed on my side, highly that day.

I told Hiro, and the git just said a "hn" towards me. I shrugged as I walked away, going to inspect the now empty rack. I shook my head at the sharp teeth that bit down on the board to keep it from jostling. Damn stupid of the blokes who did that job.

Hiro showed up at the gate, I noticed. He put down his board and scraped the snow on its top, and latched on his boots. The announcer came on, and went to the fence, recently vacated by Kaori as she had gone to inspect her board.