Chapter 14

AN: Love you reviewers! I love the story Dark Angel From Hell, too. Sandy is now one of my favorite OC!! It's so fun making OC, huh? I'm still kind of stuck on Icy Paradise. I know what I want to happen with that story, but I'm still kind of iffy about it. You'll see when I post the next chapter. Also, about this story, I know who I'm gonna hook Yuri up with! You'll see! I knew who I was going to hook her up with by my 3rd chapter! Hee hee!

I lost track of Mac soon enough, and I couldn't see him let alone estimate his score. I just did my best as I listened to Atomika talk about the upcoming Freestyle event at The Junction.

I nailed most of the fallen trees and such (which made good railing) and managed to somehow catch a few moments of air at the same time.

Mac had taunted me the first couple of minutes of the race, but when I lost track of him, I couldn't hear him anymore. I tried to remain calm, I tried to tell myself that it didn't matter if he was ahead of me or not. He could still be ahead of me and lose. He would cross the finish line and that would give me more time to execute more tricks. Every opportunity I got I spun as quick as possible. I grabbed the back end of my board and tried to ignore the feeling I got when I soared through the air.

Next thing I knew, I could hear a rumbling sound.

"Oh shit!" Nate yelled behind me, "Yuri, go, go, go, go!"

I glanced over my shoulder and I could see snow rumbling after me. My first instinct: "AVALANCHE!"

"Ignore it! Just go, Yuri!" Nate bellowed, "There's no time to lose!"

I held my breath as I tried to ignore the falling debris and the low rumbling sound slowly coming up from behind me. Nate was now at my side to my right and begging for me to move faster. I took a deep breath and turned up the volume on my radio to ignore everything, even Nate.

The fallen trees looked like perfect examples of railing. I pushed off, determined to beat Mac and spare my life.

I started laughing when I was jumping off one tree. Nate looked so concerned and wigged out! Nate looked at me, puzzled, but dismissed my laughter as he too began to laugh with me. We were both outracing the avalanche, and it seemed everything was going to be alright.

When I looked over my shoulder again, everything seemed to have calmed down. The snow stopped moving, but I could barely see the tips of the trees. They were completely covered in snow....

I pulled off my head phones and grinned at Nate, who was laughing nervously, "That was great!" I shouted.

Nate nodded and gave me a thumbs up. "You pulled some great moves, too,"

"Really?" I beamed. I guess the saying "you work well under pressure" is true!

I could see Mac down below. He was sitting on the snow relaxing and waiting for me to show up.

"Hey, Mac!" I waved.

He smiled and returned to wave. "What up, Yuri?"

I slowed down and coasted next to him. "Now how do we find out who won?" I glanced from Mac to Nate.

"Simple," Mac replied, "Atomika can see anything that goes on. He's got cameras all over the mountain. We just check in with him later today and see who won,"

"Or better yet," Nate said, "you could just listen to his show and he'll announce it in a couple of minutes,"

Mac shrugged, "That too,"

"Cool!"

***

It turned out Atomika wasn't able to say much of anything over the radio anyway. A big snow storm suddenly blew in from the north and forced all the boarders to go into our lodge, and Atomika wasn't exactly too happy about that.

Psymon was busy sulking in the living room of the lodge. He had been forced to cut his practicing short and was upset, according to Elise, who had been trying to find out what's wrong with him. "He said he was perfectly content with practicing out in the blizzard," Elise rolled her eyes, "That man, I swear..."

"He's reckless and determined," I shrugged, "That's exactly what he's supposed to be like if he's going to defend his position on Peak Three, you know,"

I poured the hot water into a coffee mug while Elise sighed and helped me carry the mugs out to everyone in the living room. The fire cackled slowly, and everyone seemed to be bored with the lack of action.

"Yuri," Elise whispered, "You should thank Psymon for helping you out there on Peak Three when your leg was thrashed,"

I paused, "You know, I never did..."

"You should," Elise repeated, "He told Atomika it was his fault and that you were a newbie and didn't know as much as him because he's a veteran. He said that if it hadn't been for him, you would've been fine anyway."

I nodded.

"He got chewed out by Atomika pretty badly, and Atomika said that if he wasn't in such a good mood, he would've stripped Psymon of his Peak Three pass and just gave to someone else."

"Are you serious!?"

Elise nodded gravely, "You should really talk to him,"

"Alright," I said, "I will."

I set the mugs down for everyone and approached Psymon cautiously, who was leaning against the window muttering darkly about how Atomika should die and burn.

"Uh...Psymon?"

He turned around almost immediately and stared at me, "Yuri?"

"I just wanted to say thanks for helping me out at Peak Three,"

Psymon grunted, "No problem. You didn't think I was going to let you die out there, did you?"

"Well..."

Psymon laughed, "You shouldn't believe everything the media says about everyone in the league. They barely know us."

"What do you mean?"

"Trust me, Yuri, you'll find out for yourself soon enough,"

I didn't really understand what Psymon meant by his words at the time, so I dismissed it as some of his crazy ramblings. I knew that he meant you shouldn't judge someone just because of what other people say about that person, but I didn't know what he meant when he said "you'll find out soon enough". That kind of frightened me a little.

"Hey, Yuri," Nate said, placing a hand out my shoulder, "How about some cocoa, eh?"

I nodded, stepping away from Psymon. I didn't catch the last words he muttered as I walked away, but I was sure it was something about Atomika.

***

Griff was sitting on the couch, arms folded and eyes threatening to shoot laser beams at the next person who asked, "Hey, man, what's wrong?"

I noticed him, and I kind of felt bad for him. Everyone had kind of stopped being his friend ever since he trashed my room. Everyone but Nate.

As I sat there and reminded myself why I wasn't talking to him, I realized that the only people Griff had really bonded with were me and Nate. And that I had deserted him for some silly little picture.

But then I reminded myself that it wasn't just some silly little picture, it was my family. My only family since my father died. Ryan had always told me that my dad was going to play in the Olympics, or something big like that.

But when he died...

He was the only family Ryan and I had, except our cousins. Eric was living with us and even though he was my cousin, he was more like the other brother I never had. After my father died, Roy's parents had decided to take us in and take care of us. We were never really close to Roy's parents. They kind of let us do our own thing, and as soon as Ryan got his driver's license, we were always up at the mountain ripping it up.

"I SWEAR, YOU'RE SUCH A TYPICAL GUY!"

"YEAH? GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT? I'M SURE YOU KNOW HOW GUYS ACT, SEEING AS YOU DRESS LIKE ONE!"

"YOU LITTLE PRICK!"

I jerked my head up and saw Allegra quivering with anger. She was facing Mac, and her face was blotched with rage. "YOU'RE JUST MAD BECAUSE I STOLE YOUR THRONE!"

"WHAT?!" Mac roared, "WHAT?!?"

"GROW UP FRASER!" Allegra screeched and stomped off to her room.

Mac sighed and buried his face in his hands, "That woman..."

Zoe placed her hands on her hips and approached him, "What did you say to her?"

Moby was behind Zoe, flailing his arms helplessly and mouthing the words, "Don't get her angry" to Mac.

Mac snorted, "All I said was 'boxers or briefs?'"

Zoe shook her head and groaned, "You should know better. You're mouth gets you in trouble all the time, Mac,"

"I don't have a big mouth!" Mac retorted before casting a fleeting glance at Kaori, "Do i?"

Kaori sighed and retreated to the kitchen. Poor girl.

Mac looked from the kitchen door to Zoe. "Kaori?" he whispered, "Kaori?"

He ran to the kitchen, leaving Zoe speechless. "That man..." she murmured, "I can't believe him,"

Moby nodded, "He's just a little kid still. And Kaori, he's really embarrassing her,"

(Oh no...poor Kaori...)

***

Nate collapsed on the couch next to me while I was busy typing on my laptop.

"What're you doing?" Nate asked innocently.

"Writing to my family,"

"I wouldn't do that," Nate said mischievously.

"What?"

"Why don't you talk to Griff, huh? He's been talking about you."

"About me?"

Nate nodded, "Yeah, he's been really upset lately. He wants to be your friend and all, but he told me he's not sure if you like him anymore."

"I do, it's just-"

"Then go talk to him,"

"I..."

I couldn't protest, as Nate had shoved me towards Griff. Griff was sitting on the floor, toying with the chess pieces by himself.

"Er...Griff?" I asked nervously, "You need a chess partner?"

Griff looked up and me and gasped. I could tell he was surprised to see me; he wasn't really good at hiding it.

"Yuri...uh...yeah..." he motioned for me to sit down and I did. "I've been wanting to talk to you," he mumbled, still not meeting my eyes.

I was happy to hear that, I had to admit. "Really?"

"Yeah, you see, I've been thinking about what I did to you, and I'm really sorry,"

"Don't worry about it,"

"I was just all worked up over Elise and-"

"By the way, what about Elise?" I asked, cutting him off.

"She's been ignoring me,"

"I'm sorry, Griff,"

"I'm the one who needs to be apologizing!" he said angrily, "I was the mean one who went and trashed your stuff!"

We were beginning to attract attention. Elise and Nate were watching us from the couch and Kaori was absentmindedly staring at us.

"Look, Yuri, I'm really sorry I was stupid enough to believe that you would tell my secret. I'm sorry, and I promise I'll never do something like that again. I miss having you as my roommate and I miss talking to you,"

I sighed, not really sure what to say, "Griff..." Psymon turned his gaze from the window to us. Moby froze and dropped his playing cards when he saw what Zoe was looking at. Everyone was staring at us.

"I also talked to Atomika..."

"Griff..."

"-and he said that you're brother and cousins could come up to stay with us at the lodge,"

I froze. "Ryan? Roy? Eric?"

Griff nodded. "They can stay with you if you'd like, but they can't compete or anything. I convince Atomika to let them-"

Griff never got to finish his sentence. I tackled him and embraced him in a hug, knocking over the chess board with chess pieces flying everywhere with tears of joy streaking down my face, "Griff, you're my best friend! I'm so sorry I never talked to you after you did that! I'm really sorry I was so stubborn!"

Nate was grinning, I could see through my tear filled eyes. "Kaori?" he called out to the kitchen. Kaori jumped in surprise and quickly looked away from me and Griff.

"Yes, Nate?"

"You don't mind rooming with Mac, do you? I think Griff and Yuri want to be roommates again,"