The school day passed quickly, but this day the kids tried to act on
their best behavior, due to try and avoid another detention by Mrs. Steeder
or anyone else. After school, Tommy, Slash, Jam, and Nancy all began to
meet up in front of Linda's House as was planned.
Linda's house was extremely big, looking more like a castle then a house *Which it actually was a castle* , it was alongside the middle of Snowboard Street, it's grassy lawn stretching over the street as if it were overgrown from the household. The house was surrounded by a large steel bar fence, also by lavish gardens and gazebos all over. The driveway in Linda's house was made with engraved cobblestones, pictures of Linda and her relatives encrusted in the cobblestone, adding to the beauty of the area. Though many of the kids just would say, "It's just a house." in their minds they did truly want a house like it, and perhaps one day would have it."
They approached Linda's door and rang the doorbell, which was actually a long rope. As they let go, a song began to play, the song sounded like the theme music they would play in the Sunset Rock Lobby a ways from Linda's House, perhaps it was one of Linda's favorite songs. Either way, a tall butler answered the door and looked down at the kids. "Can I help you?" he said in a deep, baritone voice. "Is Linda here?" Slash asked, looking partly into the house. "She said she'd meet us here at her house."
"Mrs. Maltinie is here, I will send word to her." The butler replied in his deep voice. The butler allowed the four to sit on a large, luxurious sofa that stretched across one side of the foyer of her house. The butler then walked up a tall fleet of stairs to find Linda.
"Wow, I rarely come in Linda's house, but when I do, I can't help but wonder where she keeps the food in here, where's her kitchen?" Tommy said, looking around curiously. "Tommy, for once, please think of something else other than food!" Jam outburst, seeming to finally be fed up with his want for food. "If Linda wanted us to have any food here, she would have had it on the table already." Tommy looked on the table, and found a large bowl of fruit. "Well, that's on the table, I guess I can eat that!" he said as he hungrily dashed for the fruit, he bit into a large apple that was on top of the bowl, then gagged and spit out the apple bite on the polished wood floor. "Auk! That tastes gross!" Tommy groaned and ran his tongue on his teeth, trying to get the taste out of his mouth. "You idiot, that's wax!" Jam said, shaking his head in disbelief that Tommy couldn't tell the difference.
Nancy was looking at Slash during the entire Wax Apple incident, wondering what was going through his mind. Nancy then moved over to Slash, who was fidgeting with his fingers, thinking of what was going to happen at Night Highway. "You can't be choking at the last minute Slash." Nancy assured him, "You've got more experience on this course than Linda does, she has none in Night Highway, so you have the advantage." Slash looked over to Nancy, and stopped fidgeting. "I may be able to beat her, just hope I don't take more then just her board when I beat her." Slash joked.
Linda walked downstairs behind her butler, who was escorting her down the stairs, Linda was dressed well for the event, and in her right arm she held her trusty Star Board. She walked down to Slash and the kids, and looked them over. "Alright." Linda said. "Let's get going, Slash, you know where Night Highway is, I don't, so you're going to have to give Yanci, my butler, directions. We'll take my daddy's car."
The Kids walked out the front door, accompanied by Yanci, who then opened the garage door a ways down to the right of the front door. The kids looked at the large car that was inside, a very detailed and clean limousine that had Linda's colors and name engraved on the side in gold lettering. The kids entered from the back door of the car, and sat down in the leather-cover seats that were set up inside the car. Yanci then started up the car, but stopped abruptly to ask Slash to sit up front with him to give the directions. Slash jumped over the front seat and buckled up next to Yanci, and began to navigate for Yanci.
About ten minutes later, they were at the top of a very steep-looking highway dip, which chicaned and twisted downwards through many crazy tunnels and causeways, this was, of course, the Night Highway. The kids piled out of the car and sat on a bench on the side, preparing to get on their gear. Slash, the only one not sitting, yelled out to them. "Wait, wait, WAIT!" he shouted. "We can't race now, it's not after dark! If we race now there's going to be cars out there, and we'll get hit!" The kids' eyes widened, and they stopped equipping themselves. Linda looked to Slash and asked, "Well then, what do we do for 50 minutes?" "You can practice on the hill over there; no traffic runs on that street ever." Slash said, "Just watch out for the potholes, they hide in the snow sometimes." Linda nodded and went to practice, swaying up and down the hill, practicing side, tail, and nose grabs, as well as nailing a few 360's and flips.
The time passed, the sun had begun to set behind the hills, the sun then disappeared behind the snowy hills and all became dark. A few seconds later, street lights began flipping on the highway, lighting up the street before them. "Welcome to Night Highway." Slash boasted, "You can only see the true Night Highway after the street lights go on, otherwise you might not be able to see it, and you'll end up falling off a cliff or something, not that it'd be a bad thing for some people." Slash snickered, Linda gave him a look, knowing it was directed at her, she got on her Star Board, and approached the starting line. "Well, who's racing with us?" Linda said as she looked at the remaining kids.
Slash had already been standing at the starting line, holding the cloth-covered Blaze Board up next to him, waiting for everyone to be ready. Nancy got up, picked up her very impressive-looking Alpine Board, and got on it at the starting line. Jam and Tommy looked at each other, and decided to play a small game of rock, paper, scissors for who could go. Jam won, celebrated a little bit, and got on his board and swooped to the starting line. "There are 3 laps for the Night Highway." Slash warned everyone. "Make sure you all are able to keep up!"
Tommy, a bit upset that he lost, decided to substitute for Mr. Dog, he took out a little pop-gun and aimed it at the air, looking at the kids. "You all ready?" He said, the kids nodded to him, a determined look in their eyes. He pulled the trigger, the blast went off, and the kids were off.
Jam was able to take an early lead, swooping down the first corridor, under the metal causeway and nailing a nose grab off the small jump after it. He quickly lost the lead, as a quick slapstick smacked him over, and he went face first into the snow, getting a good mouthful of it. Nancy was able to get a quick 360 spin off the small jump, and jumped right over Jam, taking the lead from him.
Slash followed behind Nancy, and Linda behind Slash. Slash began to aim carefully at Nancy's board, holding an Ice Shot in his hand; he fired the shot, and hit Nancy dead center, freezing her right before the next jump. Slash continued on, performing his "Slash Dynamite" over the jump, Linda gave an amused look at Slash's trick, and jumped in the air as she performed her own trick, the Whirligig, spinning twice in the air, and landing perfectly, just as Slash had landed.
Linda focused herself, using the momentum of her Star Board, she jumped the next jump, doing a vertical flip, holding the nose of her board at the same time, as she came down, she did not expect what was coming up, a very skinny road yawned before her, no guardrails or walls would prevent her from falling, she panicked, and began to lose speed, Jam took this to his advantage and sped by Linda, Nancy close behind. Linda cautiously made the turn, and then the next jump, doing a simple side grab to help her restore her confidence.
Slash in the meantime was gaining a commanding lead, he took a small shortcut that had been open on the bottom of another jump, and used it to gain good distance between him and the pack. He approached the next metal causeway, and jumped over a small river that was ahead, he then looked at the humongous jump that he was coming towards, he performed another Slash Dynamite as he jumped it, landing safely at the bottom of the hill, where the lift was waiting for him.
The other kids were then beginning to catch up as Slash approached the lift, Linda still lingered behind the pack, still trying to get a feel of the course, she missed the shortcut as did Nancy, but Jam pulled away from the pack as he took the shortcut, already knowing about it. Linda looked at Nancy, aimed a Parachute pack at her, threw it and continued down the side, she looked over to Nancy and said, "Nothing personal." then Nancy looked behind her, was unable to move away in time, and ended up being hoisted into the air, looking down at Jam and Linda sliding down further away from her. Nancy sighed, feeling she would not be able to make it to the rest of them in time.
As everyone finished the first lap, Slash had a demanding lead, Jam was a bit behind him, Linda was not that far from Jam, and Nancy trailed behind, still back a ways from the pack. Slash was quite confident in himself, he was quite happy that he was doing quite well instead of trailing behind like he felt he was at Rookie Mountain. As he was making the turn into the first metal causeway, SMACK! A pan landed flat on his head, as well as on Jam and Linda, Nancy then raced by Linda, and approached Jam as he was getting up, as he did get up, she threw a small white ball at him, it hit him, and Jam found himself stuck inside of a snowman! As he was already on a slope heading up, he began sliding the opposite direction! This gave Linda back her third place, but left Jam in a bad position.
Slash approached the unguarded road, and slid down it with ease, but as he began to finish it, he too was smacked by a white ball, and turned into a snowman! Because he was unable to turn, Slash slid down off the road, and into a thick mound of snow, he groaned, quite dazed from the fall, he then climbed back up the side of the road, and got back on his board. Linda had already passed Slash from his fall, and Jam was catching up behind him. Slash took out a bunch of pans, and threw them up in the air, BOOM! Linda, Jam, and Nancy all felt the impact of pans smacking down on their heads, while they were dazed, Slash skidded past Linda, and approached Nancy.
Linda was furious after being smashed twice now, she let out a yell, and threw a bomb at Slash. Something very strange began to happen as the bomb neared Slash, the back of his board began to open up, as if to grab the bomb, and sure enough, it did! Slash looked back to see the bomb attached to his board, he screamed and prepared for the blast, but when the blast happened, it did in a way he did not expect. The bomb exploded, the board used the force of the bomb's explosion as a boost, and sent Slash flying forward as if he were a rocket! Slash's eyes widened as the board sent him blazing by Nancy, who was completely spellbound by the speed of the board. Slash then saw a large rock up ahead, he steered the board away, heading down the track as the bomb's force subsided, and he began going his normal speed again.
Jam approached Linda, holding a slapstick in his hand, he came up quietly behind Linda, he threw the slapstick and knocked her over, what he didn't notice is that he threw two, and the other went and collided into Nancy! Using this luck, he sped away from the pack, taking second place for the second lap.
Upon the start of the final lap, it was, from front to back, Slash, Jam, Nancy, and Linda. Linda began to doubt herself as she got off the lift for the last lap, looking at the course and then speeding down it again. She grabbed hold of a cache of bombs, and flung them down the course like a madwoman, she was lucky enough to blast Nancy with a couple of them, and she took third away from Nancy. Jam was catching up to Slash, who had just begun approaching the second metal causeway, he quickly threw a bomb at Slash, but as before, the board grabbed the bomb, and sped him quickly ahead, but this time, it cost Jam and the others the race, as it allowed Slash to blaze into the finish line, fast enough to biff his nose on the end wall.
Slash finished first, Jam in second, Linda in third, and Nancy tailing in fourth. Nancy didn't really care about losing, though she was going to miss her board. Linda, who was already upset, looked down as she finished, she was both sad and happy at the same time, but she was also more worried of her mother than of what she lost. Slash smiled and jumped up, cheering himself as he had won the race.
Slash ordered everyone to line up in front of him with their boards, the kids already knew they took the risk, so they all lined up single-file, holding their boards for Slash. Jam walked up to Slash, holding his board out to him, "It's a good Alpine Board Slash, a year 1999, definitely a classic for a good trickster like me, hope you like it." Jam said as he handed him a board that had multiple signatures on it.
Next, Nancy came up to Slash with her own board, another Alpine Board, but this one had, as Nancy loved, many bunnies and butterflies painted on it, but the strange thing is that the back of the Alpine board was pointed inward, like the back of an arrow, this must have been what gave Nancy some extra handling during the race.
Finally, Linda approached Slash, her Star Board in her hands, Slash could see Linda was quite upset about losing the board, but probably more upset about her mother being sick, Linda pushed her board in Slash's arms. "Take it, just take it." She said, walking over to the lift. Slash looked over at Linda, who seemed a lot different now, she wasn't the crabby, snobbish brat he saw in school, but she seemed to have grown up a bit. Slash walked over to Linda's lift and sat down next to her, Linda grumbled at Slash, but didn't care she was sitting with her. "I wonder how my mom's doing." Linda said to herself, looking at the mountains as she rode the lift. "I'm sure she's fine." Said Slash, reassuring Linda. "Maybe they found a cure now, I bet you they did." Linda looked over to Slash, and for once, to Slash, without taunting him, smiled.
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Chapter 7: The Fate of a Loved One, Will be ready soon!
Linda's house was extremely big, looking more like a castle then a house *Which it actually was a castle* , it was alongside the middle of Snowboard Street, it's grassy lawn stretching over the street as if it were overgrown from the household. The house was surrounded by a large steel bar fence, also by lavish gardens and gazebos all over. The driveway in Linda's house was made with engraved cobblestones, pictures of Linda and her relatives encrusted in the cobblestone, adding to the beauty of the area. Though many of the kids just would say, "It's just a house." in their minds they did truly want a house like it, and perhaps one day would have it."
They approached Linda's door and rang the doorbell, which was actually a long rope. As they let go, a song began to play, the song sounded like the theme music they would play in the Sunset Rock Lobby a ways from Linda's House, perhaps it was one of Linda's favorite songs. Either way, a tall butler answered the door and looked down at the kids. "Can I help you?" he said in a deep, baritone voice. "Is Linda here?" Slash asked, looking partly into the house. "She said she'd meet us here at her house."
"Mrs. Maltinie is here, I will send word to her." The butler replied in his deep voice. The butler allowed the four to sit on a large, luxurious sofa that stretched across one side of the foyer of her house. The butler then walked up a tall fleet of stairs to find Linda.
"Wow, I rarely come in Linda's house, but when I do, I can't help but wonder where she keeps the food in here, where's her kitchen?" Tommy said, looking around curiously. "Tommy, for once, please think of something else other than food!" Jam outburst, seeming to finally be fed up with his want for food. "If Linda wanted us to have any food here, she would have had it on the table already." Tommy looked on the table, and found a large bowl of fruit. "Well, that's on the table, I guess I can eat that!" he said as he hungrily dashed for the fruit, he bit into a large apple that was on top of the bowl, then gagged and spit out the apple bite on the polished wood floor. "Auk! That tastes gross!" Tommy groaned and ran his tongue on his teeth, trying to get the taste out of his mouth. "You idiot, that's wax!" Jam said, shaking his head in disbelief that Tommy couldn't tell the difference.
Nancy was looking at Slash during the entire Wax Apple incident, wondering what was going through his mind. Nancy then moved over to Slash, who was fidgeting with his fingers, thinking of what was going to happen at Night Highway. "You can't be choking at the last minute Slash." Nancy assured him, "You've got more experience on this course than Linda does, she has none in Night Highway, so you have the advantage." Slash looked over to Nancy, and stopped fidgeting. "I may be able to beat her, just hope I don't take more then just her board when I beat her." Slash joked.
Linda walked downstairs behind her butler, who was escorting her down the stairs, Linda was dressed well for the event, and in her right arm she held her trusty Star Board. She walked down to Slash and the kids, and looked them over. "Alright." Linda said. "Let's get going, Slash, you know where Night Highway is, I don't, so you're going to have to give Yanci, my butler, directions. We'll take my daddy's car."
The Kids walked out the front door, accompanied by Yanci, who then opened the garage door a ways down to the right of the front door. The kids looked at the large car that was inside, a very detailed and clean limousine that had Linda's colors and name engraved on the side in gold lettering. The kids entered from the back door of the car, and sat down in the leather-cover seats that were set up inside the car. Yanci then started up the car, but stopped abruptly to ask Slash to sit up front with him to give the directions. Slash jumped over the front seat and buckled up next to Yanci, and began to navigate for Yanci.
About ten minutes later, they were at the top of a very steep-looking highway dip, which chicaned and twisted downwards through many crazy tunnels and causeways, this was, of course, the Night Highway. The kids piled out of the car and sat on a bench on the side, preparing to get on their gear. Slash, the only one not sitting, yelled out to them. "Wait, wait, WAIT!" he shouted. "We can't race now, it's not after dark! If we race now there's going to be cars out there, and we'll get hit!" The kids' eyes widened, and they stopped equipping themselves. Linda looked to Slash and asked, "Well then, what do we do for 50 minutes?" "You can practice on the hill over there; no traffic runs on that street ever." Slash said, "Just watch out for the potholes, they hide in the snow sometimes." Linda nodded and went to practice, swaying up and down the hill, practicing side, tail, and nose grabs, as well as nailing a few 360's and flips.
The time passed, the sun had begun to set behind the hills, the sun then disappeared behind the snowy hills and all became dark. A few seconds later, street lights began flipping on the highway, lighting up the street before them. "Welcome to Night Highway." Slash boasted, "You can only see the true Night Highway after the street lights go on, otherwise you might not be able to see it, and you'll end up falling off a cliff or something, not that it'd be a bad thing for some people." Slash snickered, Linda gave him a look, knowing it was directed at her, she got on her Star Board, and approached the starting line. "Well, who's racing with us?" Linda said as she looked at the remaining kids.
Slash had already been standing at the starting line, holding the cloth-covered Blaze Board up next to him, waiting for everyone to be ready. Nancy got up, picked up her very impressive-looking Alpine Board, and got on it at the starting line. Jam and Tommy looked at each other, and decided to play a small game of rock, paper, scissors for who could go. Jam won, celebrated a little bit, and got on his board and swooped to the starting line. "There are 3 laps for the Night Highway." Slash warned everyone. "Make sure you all are able to keep up!"
Tommy, a bit upset that he lost, decided to substitute for Mr. Dog, he took out a little pop-gun and aimed it at the air, looking at the kids. "You all ready?" He said, the kids nodded to him, a determined look in their eyes. He pulled the trigger, the blast went off, and the kids were off.
Jam was able to take an early lead, swooping down the first corridor, under the metal causeway and nailing a nose grab off the small jump after it. He quickly lost the lead, as a quick slapstick smacked him over, and he went face first into the snow, getting a good mouthful of it. Nancy was able to get a quick 360 spin off the small jump, and jumped right over Jam, taking the lead from him.
Slash followed behind Nancy, and Linda behind Slash. Slash began to aim carefully at Nancy's board, holding an Ice Shot in his hand; he fired the shot, and hit Nancy dead center, freezing her right before the next jump. Slash continued on, performing his "Slash Dynamite" over the jump, Linda gave an amused look at Slash's trick, and jumped in the air as she performed her own trick, the Whirligig, spinning twice in the air, and landing perfectly, just as Slash had landed.
Linda focused herself, using the momentum of her Star Board, she jumped the next jump, doing a vertical flip, holding the nose of her board at the same time, as she came down, she did not expect what was coming up, a very skinny road yawned before her, no guardrails or walls would prevent her from falling, she panicked, and began to lose speed, Jam took this to his advantage and sped by Linda, Nancy close behind. Linda cautiously made the turn, and then the next jump, doing a simple side grab to help her restore her confidence.
Slash in the meantime was gaining a commanding lead, he took a small shortcut that had been open on the bottom of another jump, and used it to gain good distance between him and the pack. He approached the next metal causeway, and jumped over a small river that was ahead, he then looked at the humongous jump that he was coming towards, he performed another Slash Dynamite as he jumped it, landing safely at the bottom of the hill, where the lift was waiting for him.
The other kids were then beginning to catch up as Slash approached the lift, Linda still lingered behind the pack, still trying to get a feel of the course, she missed the shortcut as did Nancy, but Jam pulled away from the pack as he took the shortcut, already knowing about it. Linda looked at Nancy, aimed a Parachute pack at her, threw it and continued down the side, she looked over to Nancy and said, "Nothing personal." then Nancy looked behind her, was unable to move away in time, and ended up being hoisted into the air, looking down at Jam and Linda sliding down further away from her. Nancy sighed, feeling she would not be able to make it to the rest of them in time.
As everyone finished the first lap, Slash had a demanding lead, Jam was a bit behind him, Linda was not that far from Jam, and Nancy trailed behind, still back a ways from the pack. Slash was quite confident in himself, he was quite happy that he was doing quite well instead of trailing behind like he felt he was at Rookie Mountain. As he was making the turn into the first metal causeway, SMACK! A pan landed flat on his head, as well as on Jam and Linda, Nancy then raced by Linda, and approached Jam as he was getting up, as he did get up, she threw a small white ball at him, it hit him, and Jam found himself stuck inside of a snowman! As he was already on a slope heading up, he began sliding the opposite direction! This gave Linda back her third place, but left Jam in a bad position.
Slash approached the unguarded road, and slid down it with ease, but as he began to finish it, he too was smacked by a white ball, and turned into a snowman! Because he was unable to turn, Slash slid down off the road, and into a thick mound of snow, he groaned, quite dazed from the fall, he then climbed back up the side of the road, and got back on his board. Linda had already passed Slash from his fall, and Jam was catching up behind him. Slash took out a bunch of pans, and threw them up in the air, BOOM! Linda, Jam, and Nancy all felt the impact of pans smacking down on their heads, while they were dazed, Slash skidded past Linda, and approached Nancy.
Linda was furious after being smashed twice now, she let out a yell, and threw a bomb at Slash. Something very strange began to happen as the bomb neared Slash, the back of his board began to open up, as if to grab the bomb, and sure enough, it did! Slash looked back to see the bomb attached to his board, he screamed and prepared for the blast, but when the blast happened, it did in a way he did not expect. The bomb exploded, the board used the force of the bomb's explosion as a boost, and sent Slash flying forward as if he were a rocket! Slash's eyes widened as the board sent him blazing by Nancy, who was completely spellbound by the speed of the board. Slash then saw a large rock up ahead, he steered the board away, heading down the track as the bomb's force subsided, and he began going his normal speed again.
Jam approached Linda, holding a slapstick in his hand, he came up quietly behind Linda, he threw the slapstick and knocked her over, what he didn't notice is that he threw two, and the other went and collided into Nancy! Using this luck, he sped away from the pack, taking second place for the second lap.
Upon the start of the final lap, it was, from front to back, Slash, Jam, Nancy, and Linda. Linda began to doubt herself as she got off the lift for the last lap, looking at the course and then speeding down it again. She grabbed hold of a cache of bombs, and flung them down the course like a madwoman, she was lucky enough to blast Nancy with a couple of them, and she took third away from Nancy. Jam was catching up to Slash, who had just begun approaching the second metal causeway, he quickly threw a bomb at Slash, but as before, the board grabbed the bomb, and sped him quickly ahead, but this time, it cost Jam and the others the race, as it allowed Slash to blaze into the finish line, fast enough to biff his nose on the end wall.
Slash finished first, Jam in second, Linda in third, and Nancy tailing in fourth. Nancy didn't really care about losing, though she was going to miss her board. Linda, who was already upset, looked down as she finished, she was both sad and happy at the same time, but she was also more worried of her mother than of what she lost. Slash smiled and jumped up, cheering himself as he had won the race.
Slash ordered everyone to line up in front of him with their boards, the kids already knew they took the risk, so they all lined up single-file, holding their boards for Slash. Jam walked up to Slash, holding his board out to him, "It's a good Alpine Board Slash, a year 1999, definitely a classic for a good trickster like me, hope you like it." Jam said as he handed him a board that had multiple signatures on it.
Next, Nancy came up to Slash with her own board, another Alpine Board, but this one had, as Nancy loved, many bunnies and butterflies painted on it, but the strange thing is that the back of the Alpine board was pointed inward, like the back of an arrow, this must have been what gave Nancy some extra handling during the race.
Finally, Linda approached Slash, her Star Board in her hands, Slash could see Linda was quite upset about losing the board, but probably more upset about her mother being sick, Linda pushed her board in Slash's arms. "Take it, just take it." She said, walking over to the lift. Slash looked over at Linda, who seemed a lot different now, she wasn't the crabby, snobbish brat he saw in school, but she seemed to have grown up a bit. Slash walked over to Linda's lift and sat down next to her, Linda grumbled at Slash, but didn't care she was sitting with her. "I wonder how my mom's doing." Linda said to herself, looking at the mountains as she rode the lift. "I'm sure she's fine." Said Slash, reassuring Linda. "Maybe they found a cure now, I bet you they did." Linda looked over to Slash, and for once, to Slash, without taunting him, smiled.
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Chapter 7: The Fate of a Loved One, Will be ready soon!