The ride back to school was uneventful, a couple of paper balls being
thrown at people, but nothing too serious. The class arrived back at
school, Mrs. Steeder was standing at the front door, her arms folded, and
looking at the bus as it drove up. Jam saw Mrs. Steeder and gulped. "Oh
boy, she's gonna get me now." Jam said, beginning to sweat. "Not if we're
smarter then she is!" Slash replied, taking a clear plastic bag off of the
ground, wrapping it on Jam's hair, holding his hair down. Slash stashed
Jam's hat in his pocket, and they walked off the bus.
Surprisingly, Mrs. Steeder did not notice Jam, thinking he was just another boy on the trip, and he was able to pass by Mrs. Steeder without being noticed. Slash walked over to Mrs. Steeder to talk to her, "Mrs. Steeder, Jam wanted me to tell you he left ill after lunch, I guess he got some bad food and he ended up getting sick from it." Mrs. Steeder didn't seem to buy the story, but she nodded, acknowledging the story, and Slash ran in the school.
The school day continued and finished like any other, a boring session of English, some round-the-globe studying with Social Studies, and the typical short story in Literature class. Finally, the bell sounded, and the kids met up in front of the school, Jam ripped the bag off his head, crumpled it up, and tossed it aside. "Great, now I gotta fix my hair again." Jam said, looking at his mangled hair.
Linda leaned on one of the school front door columns, her head down, and her back against the wall, she looked tired for some reason. "Hey. Linda." Slash said. "You alright?" Linda looked up; her face was a bit worked up from something. "I.bah, it's nothing." Linda said, rubbing her eyes, trying to fix herself up. "So, where's this board of yours Slash?" Slash motioned Linda to follow, and they both grouped with the rest of the Snowboard Kids, and left for Slash's house.
After a bit of a walk back up Snowboard Street, they got to Slash's house, Tommy was panting quite hard after the long walk, stuffing a burger he bought from a restaurant up the hill into his mouth. Nancy shook her head again at Tommy, but didn't say anything, thinking it pointless. Linda took out a makeup kit and began fixing her worked-up face, she looked a lot better after she finished, she then clapped it shut, and slipped it back into her pocket. Jam on the other hand, was still fidgeting with his hair, still wanting it to be as he had it before, but the frizzing from the plastic bag had truly made his hair quite a jumble.
They walked in Slash's house, and sat down on the couch, looking around. Linda had never been in Slash's house, only seeing it from the outside. She found the house to be surprisingly clean, until she got a glimpse of Slash's room, which looked worse then a tornado striking....
Slash asked Linda to come upstairs to see the board, as he seemed that he only wanted one person at a time looking at it, so Linda approached the stairs, and went up to look at it. Linda folded her arms as she entered Slash's room, trying to stay in the only clean corner of the room. The room was strewn with clothes littered all over the floor, candy wrappers, gum, and other sorts of miscellaneous do-dads all over the place. Slash rummaged in his closet for the board, and took out a large cloth covering something.
"Alright Linda, before I show it to you, I want you to promise NOT to touch it, at least not until you've either won it, or I allow you to, because this board is very old, and I can't really afford it being damaged." Slash seemed quite protective over the board, Linda seemed to respect that, and nodded. "Alright, I won't touch it." Linda said, a bit surprised at Slash's protectiveness over the board.
Slash unveiled the cloth, revealing a glittering board, decorated with ancient engravings embossed in gold, silver lining along its sides, and bronze plating at the nose of the board. A dazzling flame engraving, painted with the colors of a sunset decorated the tail of the board, as if it were truly on fire. "They called it the Blaze Board when I got it." Slash said. "I have never used this board before as I said, as I don't know exactly what it'll do. All I know is, if you win, it's yours."
Linda looked at the board with both wonder and with wanting, she truly wanted the board, but other things also were running through her mind. "Slash, I know I shook on the race, but I do have something to show you as well." Slash put the cloth back on the board, and put it back in his closet. "What?" Slash asked. Linda took out her cell phone, and played a message in it, it was a doctor at the local hospital, and here is how the message played.
"Hello, Linda Maltinie, this is Doctor McCarthy at the Snow Town Intensive Care Hospital, I have some news for you, as well as for your father. I could not reach your father, so I left you a message instead. Your mother's case of pneumonia unfortunately has worsened, this is a case of pneumonia I have never seen before, and we have found no way whatsoever to bring your mother's temperature down. We've tried antibiotics, antihistamines, the works, but nothing is working on your mother. Her temperature has elevated to a grave level of 107.5, if we do not find a way to help her soon, and I will be honest, you may not have a mother anymore. I am sorry to bear you this ill news, but I wanted to be truthful with you, it will mean much to your mother if at some time you could even come in and give her comfort, she is no longer contagious, but comfort may aid her. Thank you for listening, and I wish the best of luck for your family."
Upon hearing this again, Linda burst into tears, still broken up from hearing of her mother's condition, falling to her knees and holding herself up with her arms. Slash couldn't believe Linda could ever begin crying this badly, as he thought Linda was a stuck-up brat (Which she tends to be), this display seemed to show that she actually had a heart of some sort. Slash helped Linda back up, she wiped her eyes, still crying. "Linda, why are you showing me this?" Slash asked. "In a way it has nothing to do with our race, but I can now see why you looked so gloomy a while ago, I mean, if my mom was suffering that much."
Linda gripped her fists, biting back the pain she was feeling. "I will still race you Slash." She said, with a more determined voice. "I just, was hoping, though you all really don't have much of a liking to me, because of my attitude, perhaps you could come and visit my mother with me, after the race."
Slash was a bit unsure of her request, visiting the mother of his arch rival, after she had just begun crying her eyes out in front of him. Slash ran his fingers through his own hair, then spoke. "Okay Linda, after the race I'll take a stop with you over at the hospital, even I have feelings." Linda nodded, her crying calming down, she walked back downstairs, grabbing a tissue and trying to recover from her crying.
"Whoa." Jam said as Linda came down the stairs, "What happened to you? Slash beat you up or something?" Linda followed his comment up with a very familiar fist-to-nose connection, Jam fell over, twitching a bit, muttering to himself. "I knew I shouldn't have said that..."
Linda wiped away her tears and recovered a bit, Slash asked the rest of the kids up one by one to see his board, Linda then left Slash's house before everyone else finished looking, leaving a note to everyone on the table in front of the couch.
"Everyone, meet me on the race day in front of my house, and then take me to Night Highway, Signed: Linda Maltinie"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------
- The Snowboard Kids will continue, the Night Highway race will soon come, keep updated for the next chapter. Chapter 6: A Race for Life
Surprisingly, Mrs. Steeder did not notice Jam, thinking he was just another boy on the trip, and he was able to pass by Mrs. Steeder without being noticed. Slash walked over to Mrs. Steeder to talk to her, "Mrs. Steeder, Jam wanted me to tell you he left ill after lunch, I guess he got some bad food and he ended up getting sick from it." Mrs. Steeder didn't seem to buy the story, but she nodded, acknowledging the story, and Slash ran in the school.
The school day continued and finished like any other, a boring session of English, some round-the-globe studying with Social Studies, and the typical short story in Literature class. Finally, the bell sounded, and the kids met up in front of the school, Jam ripped the bag off his head, crumpled it up, and tossed it aside. "Great, now I gotta fix my hair again." Jam said, looking at his mangled hair.
Linda leaned on one of the school front door columns, her head down, and her back against the wall, she looked tired for some reason. "Hey. Linda." Slash said. "You alright?" Linda looked up; her face was a bit worked up from something. "I.bah, it's nothing." Linda said, rubbing her eyes, trying to fix herself up. "So, where's this board of yours Slash?" Slash motioned Linda to follow, and they both grouped with the rest of the Snowboard Kids, and left for Slash's house.
After a bit of a walk back up Snowboard Street, they got to Slash's house, Tommy was panting quite hard after the long walk, stuffing a burger he bought from a restaurant up the hill into his mouth. Nancy shook her head again at Tommy, but didn't say anything, thinking it pointless. Linda took out a makeup kit and began fixing her worked-up face, she looked a lot better after she finished, she then clapped it shut, and slipped it back into her pocket. Jam on the other hand, was still fidgeting with his hair, still wanting it to be as he had it before, but the frizzing from the plastic bag had truly made his hair quite a jumble.
They walked in Slash's house, and sat down on the couch, looking around. Linda had never been in Slash's house, only seeing it from the outside. She found the house to be surprisingly clean, until she got a glimpse of Slash's room, which looked worse then a tornado striking....
Slash asked Linda to come upstairs to see the board, as he seemed that he only wanted one person at a time looking at it, so Linda approached the stairs, and went up to look at it. Linda folded her arms as she entered Slash's room, trying to stay in the only clean corner of the room. The room was strewn with clothes littered all over the floor, candy wrappers, gum, and other sorts of miscellaneous do-dads all over the place. Slash rummaged in his closet for the board, and took out a large cloth covering something.
"Alright Linda, before I show it to you, I want you to promise NOT to touch it, at least not until you've either won it, or I allow you to, because this board is very old, and I can't really afford it being damaged." Slash seemed quite protective over the board, Linda seemed to respect that, and nodded. "Alright, I won't touch it." Linda said, a bit surprised at Slash's protectiveness over the board.
Slash unveiled the cloth, revealing a glittering board, decorated with ancient engravings embossed in gold, silver lining along its sides, and bronze plating at the nose of the board. A dazzling flame engraving, painted with the colors of a sunset decorated the tail of the board, as if it were truly on fire. "They called it the Blaze Board when I got it." Slash said. "I have never used this board before as I said, as I don't know exactly what it'll do. All I know is, if you win, it's yours."
Linda looked at the board with both wonder and with wanting, she truly wanted the board, but other things also were running through her mind. "Slash, I know I shook on the race, but I do have something to show you as well." Slash put the cloth back on the board, and put it back in his closet. "What?" Slash asked. Linda took out her cell phone, and played a message in it, it was a doctor at the local hospital, and here is how the message played.
"Hello, Linda Maltinie, this is Doctor McCarthy at the Snow Town Intensive Care Hospital, I have some news for you, as well as for your father. I could not reach your father, so I left you a message instead. Your mother's case of pneumonia unfortunately has worsened, this is a case of pneumonia I have never seen before, and we have found no way whatsoever to bring your mother's temperature down. We've tried antibiotics, antihistamines, the works, but nothing is working on your mother. Her temperature has elevated to a grave level of 107.5, if we do not find a way to help her soon, and I will be honest, you may not have a mother anymore. I am sorry to bear you this ill news, but I wanted to be truthful with you, it will mean much to your mother if at some time you could even come in and give her comfort, she is no longer contagious, but comfort may aid her. Thank you for listening, and I wish the best of luck for your family."
Upon hearing this again, Linda burst into tears, still broken up from hearing of her mother's condition, falling to her knees and holding herself up with her arms. Slash couldn't believe Linda could ever begin crying this badly, as he thought Linda was a stuck-up brat (Which she tends to be), this display seemed to show that she actually had a heart of some sort. Slash helped Linda back up, she wiped her eyes, still crying. "Linda, why are you showing me this?" Slash asked. "In a way it has nothing to do with our race, but I can now see why you looked so gloomy a while ago, I mean, if my mom was suffering that much."
Linda gripped her fists, biting back the pain she was feeling. "I will still race you Slash." She said, with a more determined voice. "I just, was hoping, though you all really don't have much of a liking to me, because of my attitude, perhaps you could come and visit my mother with me, after the race."
Slash was a bit unsure of her request, visiting the mother of his arch rival, after she had just begun crying her eyes out in front of him. Slash ran his fingers through his own hair, then spoke. "Okay Linda, after the race I'll take a stop with you over at the hospital, even I have feelings." Linda nodded, her crying calming down, she walked back downstairs, grabbing a tissue and trying to recover from her crying.
"Whoa." Jam said as Linda came down the stairs, "What happened to you? Slash beat you up or something?" Linda followed his comment up with a very familiar fist-to-nose connection, Jam fell over, twitching a bit, muttering to himself. "I knew I shouldn't have said that..."
Linda wiped away her tears and recovered a bit, Slash asked the rest of the kids up one by one to see his board, Linda then left Slash's house before everyone else finished looking, leaving a note to everyone on the table in front of the couch.
"Everyone, meet me on the race day in front of my house, and then take me to Night Highway, Signed: Linda Maltinie"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------
- The Snowboard Kids will continue, the Night Highway race will soon come, keep updated for the next chapter. Chapter 6: A Race for Life