Author Notes: Ahh, nothing like a good case of self-loathing to get a story going. I know we all experience this at some point or another. We see pictures of ourselves, or have a small trip down memory lane… and then we start thinking along the lines of "I was such a fing loser." (or is that just me?)
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"This is going to be very, very interesting," Elise said, before smiling to herself in front of the Garibaldi backdrop. This was followed by shots of impressive tricks and shoves while the news anchor did an annoying voice-over.
"Yesterday afternoon at a nearby slope, Garibaldi which in fact just completed extensive renovations, a new snowboarding league hosted a competition for the newest member of their international racing team. The winner, a long term snowboarder for pleasure, had a few words today after his impressive victory."
"Hey, my name's Gary Mason, I just wanted to say it was a great time to just compete, and just the chance to keep competing is going to be grea-" A pillow hit the screen, managing to take the power button with it.
Elise snuggled deeper into her blanket, looking thoroughly miserable and forbidding. Mitchell had said there was going to be a special on the competition today on the six o'clock news, and Elise had stupidly thought to at least see how it all looked from another perspective. Seeing her stupid shot from back when she had thought she had a chance of making it into the league had just depressed her more.
"Yeah, it was real interesting seeing myself in that spectacular loss," Elise muttered viciously as she kicked at the table. Elise was spectacular in her poor sportsmanship.
The phone rang, but Elise sullenly sat in her blankets, boxed into a corner of her couch. The answering machine finally picked up, and her message rattled off.
"Hello, Ms. Riggs, this is the SSX Tricky League. We were hoping to catch you at home in order to discuss some matters with you… I suppose we'll try back- Ms. Riggs?"
"Hello! You keep calling when I'm in the shower!" Elise said with a little laugh. She turned a little to look at the mess the cushions and blanket were now in, piled on the floor where they had hit as she had made her hasty path to the phone.
"Er, sorry bout that. We were hoping that we could have a representative discuss a few matters with you, perhaps over lunch tomorrow?"
"What sort of matters?"
"Well, the league is still interested in your performance, and considering some sort of position for you in the league. Would you be willing to meet a representative from the league at noon? We'd pay for your lunch, of course."
"Well, I didn't have anything planned tomorrow, so that sounds great!"
After getting directions to a local soup and sandwich place, Elise went back to her couch. After a half-hearted attempt to straighten it up, she sat down, thinking to herself. What would they be offering her? They couldn't be considering letting her into the league as well, could they?
Maybe I was really that good… but that was just being too hopeful. They probably just want me to model off their gear or something, she thought miserably to herself. Still, maybe she'd get a chance to snowboard of some kind…
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Elise pulled up to the restaurant in her car and after putting on the brake and turning the car off, she pulled down the mirror above the driver's side. Quickly retouching her make-up, she threw the lipstick and mascara back in her bag, grabbed it, and headed in.
She was seated at a table where a man in maybe his late thirties was already sitting, polishing his glasses and trying to pat down his wispy brown hair. Upon seeing Elise, he immediately stood up and offered his hand to her.
"Hello, Ms. Riggs, my name is Henry Porter."
"Nice to meet you Mr. Porter, I hope you weren't waiting long," Elise replied charmingly, smiling as she allowed the nearby waiter to pull her chair out for her.
"Not at all. Just got here a few moments ago myself. If you'd care to go ahead and order, I hear they have wonderful-"
"Actually, Mr. Porter, I was hoping you could just tell me straight out what you called me about."
Mr. Porter gave a brief smile. "I suppose that's fair enough. We want you for our newest member of the SSX Tricky Snowboarding League."
Elise kept her face motionless, although her heart was racing on the inside. "I thought the League was only looking for one new member."
"We are. And you're it." Mr. Porter took a sip of the glass of water, allowing Elise to collect her thoughts.
"But… I came in second. Why not take Mr. Mason? He was clearly faster than I was. If he hadn't made those few mistakes towards the end of the race, I would have been nowhere near him when he won."
Mr. Porter cleared his throat awkwardly. "Yes, well, the League officials had several other factors when they made their decision…"
Elise suddenly felt her temper flare up. "And would one of those decisions be based on appearance, Mr. Porter?"
He seemed to be taken by surprise. "Well, yes, you could say that. However, I am sure the officials decision was based on much more than- Excuse me, Ms. Riggs, but where are you heading?"
"I already have a job as a model, Mr. Porter, so if you think I am going to take a snowboarding job just to model and pose for your agency, I would prefer you take Mr. Harrison." Elise slung her bag over her shoulder and offered her hand as she prepared to go, confusing the waiter who had just arrived with a pitcher of water to fill her glass. "Good day, Mr. Porter."
"For Christ's sake, girl, sit back down." Mr. Porter took of his glasses, rubbing his eyes. Elise slowly sunk back into her chair, but left her bag strap on her shoulder in case she once again decided to leave. "Technically, this was supposed to remain classified, but I'd hate to see you throw away such a great opportunity because of some silly notion of pride and dignity." Elise felt her temper bristle, but remained in her seat to hear what this classified piece of information was.
Mr. Porter looked up, eyeing her contemplatively. Finally, he put his glasses back on his nose and looked her straight in the eye. "Mr. Mason tested positive for steroids. That is why the League did not offer the position to him. Mr. Mason was notified, and another contestant was chosen. You are that contestant. If you do not accept the position, I am sure the post will go to the contestant who came in third, and will not be offered to Mr. Mason."
Elise felt a little embarrassed, as well as a little annoyed over the prospect of Rufe Donahue getting the post. "Well, in that case, I would be happy to accept the post as a member of the racing league Mr. Porter," she replied trying to maintain her dignity in the situation. She then picked up her glass which had been filled by the waiter a while back, and taking a sip, addressed Mr. Porter again, saying "What was it you were telling me that tasted so good here?"
Mr. Porter gave a chuckle, picking up his menu.
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Elise sat grinning like a Cheshire cat. She had signed the contract Mr. Porter had offered her after lunch, and she was now the newest member of the SSX Tricky team! And the only Canadian one at that. Afterwards she had gone to Aspen Hill, and casually mentioned it to Mitchell. By the time she had left the hill after her afternoon of boarding, the entire mountain knew, Elise Riggs was now a professional snowboarder!
Elise was hardly even paying attention to the man sitting next to her. Sure, she had let Gerry take her to the movies, but if he actually thought she meant anything by it… she knew he did though, because he kept looking over at her and had oh-so-smoothly turned his obviously fake yawn a moment ago into a chance to put his arm around her. She had been in such a good mood that she let it slide, but she'd give him a faceful if he tried anything with her! And by a faceful she meant her fist in his face.
Elise sighed in disgust as he tightened his arm at what he was sure was a terrifying moment in the movie for her. Truth be told, she found the movie a little dull and wished she hadn't been in the bragging mood. It would have kept her from the uncontrollable urge to go out that night rather than stay at home alone, safe from the imbecile who sat next to her, thinking she didn't notice every time he stole looks at her. But who was she kidding? Elise had been in a bragging mood when she stole the last cookie from her little cousin when they were younger. Something this big went without question!
Elise put up her hand in Gerry's face, effectively preventing him from finishing his move that would have left him planting a kiss on Elise's- actually she wasn't sure where it was headed, since she wasn't about to turn and kiss him back.
"Don't even think about it, Gerry." She said, giving his face a little push back to let him know just how he stood with her.
Elise actually enjoyed the rest of the spectacularly dull movie, since Gerry had gotten the idea and kept his hands to himself.
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Elise- uncoiled was probably the best word, her tall frame straightening much like a cat's- as she got out of her car, putting on a pair of stylish black sunglasses. She stood and watched the slope, letting her hip jut out a little. She supposed she stood that way because her body was familiar with it, standing that way often to pose for photo shoots. Today was going to be her first day as a member of the SSX Tricky Snowboarding League. They were having a photo shoot. Elise smiled at the irony of her situation.
Sighing, she began to walk towards Garibaldi, her snowboard under her arm. She knew that publicity was a large part of the whole celebrity sports gig, but what she really wanted to do was go up and try the powder on that slope again. Thankfully, she was not disappointed.
"Hey, good you made it, Ms. Riggs," a smiling woman in winter gear said, tossing her long straight dark hair over her shoulder, just so. She held out a hand to shake after she had taken off her black leather glove. "My name's Karen, I'm the, well, you can say I'm your chaperone while you're in the league. Now, later we're going to be doing some still shots inside, but first we're giving you some time to warm up, because after the still shots, we're doing some action ones. Now, the other three members of the league are already warming up, but luckily we held onto the only other member of our team you have to meet. Hey, Rahzel! Get your overpaid butt over here!" She smiled good-naturedly as a tall man in a black jacket and jeans jogged over. By tall, that meant he was almost as tall as Elise was. He stopped short of the two women and whistled.
"Well," he began after being introduced, "our only girl of the league isn't going to have to worry about the boys beating her up, now is she. I think you might actually be taller than our boys." He had an infectious smile that revealed a large mouth of pearly white teeth amidst his coffee-colored skin. Elise's eyes quickly scanned his bald head and laughing eyes as she held out a hand to take the one being offered her.
"Pleasure. What exactly do you do in the league?"
"I am the voice you'll be hearing in your head every time you snowboard for the next six months," he said, grinning.
"He's the announcer," Karen explained. "I am the one who gives you all notices and makes sure you guys don't wreck any hotels we have to stay in. If we left that up to Rahzel, he'd probably start getting smashed and wrecking it with you."
"Hey, don't rag on me just cause I like to have a little fun in life," he joked as he walked back over to the where he had been joking with the camera crew.
Karen shook her head before turning back to Elise. "You need anything, or are you ready to start?"
"I think I'm good," Elise replied, looking over her board.
"Well, you can warm up in that, but you're going to need to see make-up and dressing room before you get any shots taken," Karen said looking at the little clipboard she sported.
"What do you mean dressing room? Can't I wear what I got on?"
"I'm sure when you signed your contract it mentioned that the league could decide on matters of your appearance while you are associated with the league." Karen looked up to see the slightly panicked look on Elise's face. "Don't worry. We won't be doing anything extreme, like dressing you up in cowgirl wear or something equally degrading." After seeing this didn't seem to help rid Elise of her slight look of panic, Karen lowered her clipboard to face Elise. "If we're going to have you plastered all over our promos, we want to make sure you look, well, cutting-edge. Anything they pick out will just have to look good for the pictures. You get most say in what you wear. After all, the judges liked something about your appearance when they picked you. We just want a little more interesting clothing than four boarders all in jacket and pants you can find in any store in the country. And we might look for some more interesting board designs too." Karen arched an eyebrow at the way Elise's grip tightened on her board. "Relax, we're not going to burn it! Just go warm up!" Karen gave a laugh as Elise trudged away, looking at Karen like she was doing something suspicious.
Elise finally stopped when she was close to the lift and bent over to pull on her board. When she straightened up, she made a few moves to stretch her neck and arms, rolling out her shoulders and bending her neck from side to side, her eyes close as she tried to concentrate on relaxing.
You're in front of all the league members now. The first time they're going to see you board. Goofing up would not install confidence in your abilities among them. CONCENTRATE!
Nodding her head, Elise opened her eyes, noticing that someone was boarding down the slope. Shading her eyes she watched him- it had to be a him, Rahzel had mentioned she was the only girl- zip straight down. She smiled as she heard him shout "Riiiiiiiiight oooooooon, baby!" and threw up his arms and his head- his afro-ed brunet head- in time to miss the large bump of snow that must have been collecting for a while now.
He tumbled forward in a somersault, sliding on his back as his anchored feet refused to twirl around again. His loud blue patterned shirt rode up, revealing a pair of boxers sticking up over bright yellow pants and a thin, if not heavily muscled, stomach, as he yelped in shock at the feel of snow all over his back and probably up his pants as well.
He finally came to a stop at the base, having little to cause momentum to keep him moving. He just laid there, ignoring the feeling of snow and the chuckles of the varied crew at the base of the hill.
"Just like I planned it. Only bad." He coughed to himself as he began to sit up, wrestling the bottom of his shirt back in place, and brushing snow off his back.
Elise snorted at the sight of his afro, which was now brown only in the front, the back being an interesting blur of white powder. The boarder glared at her, unbuckling his board from his feet and standing up.
"What are you laughing at?" he asked, shaking out his legs to get snow out of his pants.
Elise couldn't help it. She burst out laughing, wiping tears from her cheek and trying to catch her breath. He growled deep in his throat as Karen came over.
"Eddie! Are you alright?" She looked deeply concerned, despite the fact that her breath kept catching in her throat as if she was trying to keep herself from laughing like Elise.
"Yeah, I'm good," he muttered, reaching up to shake out his afro. Karen nodded and gave some orders to a couple of men standing around to fix the bump to make sure no one else tripped on it. "Who's this," Eddie muttered, hooking a thumb at Elise who was just beginning to catch her breath, gasping at air.
Karen smiled brightly. "Eddie, this is Elise Riggs, the fourth member of our league. Elise, Eddie Wachowski."
"Nice to meetcha," Elise snorted, holding out a hand.
"Yeah, whatever," Eddie muttered, shaking her hand for the least amount of time possible. "Karen, I'm heading back up for another run."
"Good! You two can head up together!" She herded them together to the box lift, which was like a small trolley car, where she made sure they were settled before bustling back off to other duties.
After a few failed attempts to talk to Eddie, Elise realized she was better off shutting up and looking at the slope. On the way up, she saw two other dark blurs on their way down the mountain, in what appeared to be a race.
"What are the other boarder's names?" She asked, looking at Eddie with an expression that made it into a demand rather than a polite question.
Eddie glared at her. "Mac and Moby."
"They both from around here?" Elise asked.
"You're the only one from around here," Eddie retorted, crossing his arms in a way that said he was through playing with her.
"What's wrong with you? You a bad sport or something? I wasn't making fun of you for falling, it was just funny."
"Just cause you probably slept with an executive to make it into the league doesn't mean I have to be friends with you," Eddie replied, slumping in his seat like a teenager.
"Look, you stupid little boy, I'm not asking to be friends. I'm not here to make them. I'm here to win. And if you think I'm not good enough to be here, I'll race you down the mountain to prove it to you. Not that your display at the bottom of the hill was all that impressive. I've seen amateurs who would have handled bumps better than you."
"Oh, yeah?"
By the time they had reached the top of the mountain, Elise and Eddie were standing up, yelling at one another.
"You're such a juvenile pansy!"
"You're just a silicon wannabe!"
They finally noticed they were at the top and headed to the slots to prepare to push off.
"They don't have the light systems working yet, so you're going to have to let someone call it," Eddie growled.
"Ready when you are," Elise snapped back.
One of the electricians working above them, clearly amused, called out "Ready. Set. Go!" for them, and they were off, racing down the mountain.
Elise and Eddie were rather well matched, and kept close to each other throughout the race, each pulling of spectacular tricks as if it was a requirement of the match. By the time they reached the bottom, however, Eddie was starting to lag behind, clearly a little tired from all the work he'd put into previous matches. Elise crossed the finish line, sliding right over where the bump used to be just to spite him.
Eddie slid into second, shaking his head. "Not even a warm-up run on a fresh course, and you beat me."
Elise decided to not tell Eddie she had already raced this slope for the competitions to make it into the league, and instead just smiled at him in a superior way.
"I'm afraid that's all the time you have to warm-up," Karen said, holding her clipboard as she stood next to two other boarders. Elise unhooked one of her feet and pushed over, looking at the extremely short and young looking boarder in the oversized jacket and pants.
"Let me introduce you to Moby, and Mac," Karen continued, gesturing first to a black man with an interestingly shaped-goatee, and second to the short kid.
"Hey there, love," Moby said in a heavy British accent, shaking Elise's hand. They were close in height, but it looked like Elise was actually a little taller in the end.
"Yo," Mac said, nodding in an attempt to seem cool and aloof. It was hard to seem cool and aloof while he was craning up his neck to look at her face, and appeared to be a head shorter.
"Ok, now that everyone's met everyone and warmed up, we have to go inside and get ready for publicity shots. Hurry now, we're already behind!" Karen ushered everyone inside, despite the fact that she was shorter than all the boarders and Rahzel were, except Mac.
As soon as the four had made it inside where it looked like a temporary make-up and dressing station had been thrown together, Elise was forced into a chair as someone began coming at her with an eye pencil. She took it bravely, despite the fact that she didn't trust the speedy girl who took moments to draw dramatic dark lining around her eyes, tittering away all the while to a younger, less efficient looking girl who seemed to be learning the ropes. Elise hoped she didn't get to have a go at Elise with the eye pencil.
While the girls continued applying dark make-up- making her eyes more smoky, bringing out her well-shaped lips- Elise had a hard time keeping herself from laughing at the sound of the other boys being forced to suffer the application of something that she was sure was altogether foreign to them, and a serious threat to their manhood. She couldn't see anyone but Eddie, sitting behind her being reflected in the mirror, but all of them were extremely vocal.
"Hey, where do you think you're going with that! I don't need any make-up! I'm a guy!"
"Well, of course you need make-up! You'll look all washed out up there in the middle of all that bright snow if we don't darken your coloring a bit!"
"Blimey, get away from me with that powder!"
Splurt. Elise ignored the feeling of the wet gel in her hair and the girls smoothing it out to listen to the boys complain.
"Hey, watch where you're poking that thing! MY EYE!"
Elise giggled evilly as Eddie jumped up, knocking over the timid girl who had been trying to line his eyes while he thrashed about. He then proceeded to run around, trying to escape the girls applying make-up, until one of the security guards in the station grabbed hold of Eddie, slammed him in the seat, and proceeded to pin him there while the make-up artists advanced, brandishing their brushes and tubes of odd concealers and cover-ups.
"All done!" Elise's make-up artist said, whipping off the small towel they had covered Elise's front with.
"Thank you!" Elise replied as she headed on to dressing, sticking her tongue out at Eddie, as he began to whimper at the sight of the eye pencil again.
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Elise rubbed her arms as she waited for the boys to make it outside. She had been forced to change out of her skin-tight jeans, long-sleeved black shirt and white T-shirt into a tight red jacket and stretchy blue pants. Elise rather liked her outfit; she had even gotten to help pick it out from the large rack of choices that had been laid out.
The boys finally trudged out, looking somewhat beaten. They had just spent the last two hours being pushed and shoved in every direction while men and women armed with large flash cameras gave them directions. Elise had borne it all, noting a strong similarity between this job and her modeling career. Moby also seemed used to the drill. He must have modeled for something... maybe sportswear? Eddie and Mac, meanwhile, got shoved around the most, failing to follow what Elise thought were the simplest of directions.
The four were taken up the hill in the little enclosed trolley, and were then told to simply board down the mountain, trying out any tricks they wanted, only trying to make it look as sensational as possible. Elise complied, and after five more runs, the cameramen were satisfied.
"Great! Now, you all have rooms waiting for you upstairs!" Karen informed them, handing them keys with room labels on them. "Of course, you can leave if you want, and come back later, but you have to check in for the night by one. Tomorrow you get a chance to practice, along with racers you'll be competing against who aren't in the league. I suggest you come in earlier than one in order to get a good night's sleep. And that curfew applies to you too, Rahzel!" She called over her shoulder before he could slip out of the building.
"Congratulations on making it through your first day as an SSX Tricky Professional Snowboarder!"
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Alright. I'm ready to tell you all now. No. Elise will not remain the main character forever. Her days are numbered. Not that she won't return. You know what I don't understand? All the SSX Tricky writers make Marisol evil. And yet, she has more friends than Elise when you get right down to it. Power to the Hispanic-Booty-Shaking-Chick!