Author Notes: I'm not precisely sure what to put here this time. I suppose I could apologize for taking so long to update (eh hehehe) I wasn't sure where I wanted to go with the story, I had too much schoolwork, I made the mistake of saying I'd play drumset for the school musical, and I was just feeling all around blocked. Etc. etc. All in all, I'm sorry, but we all know it will happen again, so I won't make any empty promises.

Ooh! Marisol and Elise meet for the first time in this chapter. CATFIGHT!

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"Uhhh." Eddie made the grunting noise from deep in his throat, rubbing his wrist to try and see if anything was broken. Looking at the trail he had left behind him, he groaned. He had been doing fine until he had jumped off the side of the trail. That attempt at a trick had gone nowhere.

Finally satisfied that his arm was only sore from the jolt of it breaking his fall, he hopped back up, and with a few small jumps to get the board moving, began once again whizzing down the run. He was a little unnerved by the dense forest and rock formations he had narrowly avoided running into by forcing himself to fall. It was a miracle he hadn't hit a tree in his slightly uncontrolled board and tumble down the outside of the trail.

What's a miracle is that that stuck-up prick wasn't here to witness my fall. Her laughing cold-eyed face popped up in his head, making him scowl. She had already caught him fall twice more today. Once it had only been because he and Mac had been wrestling and Mac had tackled him from behind when he wasn't paying attention, but still, it had been pretty annoying to see her laughing at him, again.

What a faker. She seemed more at home when we were posing for the damn publicity pictures then when we're actually boarding. This is probably all one big modeling gig for her.

Then again, she had beaten him in their little race. Just because she can do it, doesn't mean she takes it seriously. She certainly doesn't take you seriously.

Normally boarding calmed Eddie down. Today, it wasn't doing shit for him.

What the hell. I'll just take a break once I get down. And maybe it'll help me stop fucking up.

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"Hey, Mackenzie! What's up, brother?" Eddie tapped Mac's fist with his own, ignoring Mac's glare.

"Nothing much, Edward."

"Alright, you've proved your point. Mac it is!" Eddie sat down across the cafeteria type tables from Mac, his tray sliding down in front of him.

"So, how are your runs today?" Mac asked while slurping soda through a straw.

Eddie squinted to make out the small part of Mac that wasn't covered in something baggy or hidden in his slouch. "Pretty good, man. I completely bombed on one run, but I'm so used to wiping out I hardly notice," he replied with a grin.

Mac chuckled. "Me, I got a little distracted watching all the others come in." He gestured with his head to the small collection of other boarders who were sitting at various tables around the room.

Eddie glanced over to see the other boarders who would be racing. Mr. Harrison had already explained what would happen in the next few days. A series of races for publicity (Mr. Harrison had warned that the beginnings of the league would most likely be about the publicity) for the new league, plus a few boarders that Harrison had his eye on to try and pull into the league. There were only about four boarders hanging around at the other three tables, besides the one where Mac and Eddie sat, and the one where Moby and Elise seemed to be chatting small talk from a few seats away from each other.

Eddie whistled appreciatively over the girl who was sitting at the table next to theirs, a small blonde with curves in all the right places. This was only accentuated by the fact that she was wearing a pink stretch wrap-around shirt, and a skin-tight pair of black pants. She tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder, and Eddie knew she had heard him and realized it was for her, despite the fact that her face said otherwise, remaining blank. She just looked like the type of girl who knew when a guy whistled for her.

Eddie heard a sound of disgust coming from the general direction of Elise's table. Eddie felt a juvenile sort of pleasure over this as he quickly scanned the other tables to see the remaining four (he had miscounted in his first quick scan) new boarders. Sharing the table with the blonde bombshell was a tall blonde guy, who was smiling as he talked with her. At another table, a heavy-set man with closely trimmed brown hair was finishing off the remains of what looked like a rather large lunch, while behind him, a small slight-figured red-head in red pants and a blue shirt ate a few fries smothered in ketchup. The only striking thing about her really, was that when she turned around to catch a comment the man at the table behind her had said, Eddie was able to notice that bright red lines were marked on her face, one on each cheek, and another on her forehead. Eddie couldn't help but wonder if they were paint, or something a little more permanent.

Sitting with the girl in Indian war paint was another girl of a slight frame, with reddish-brown pigtails in braids and freckles all across her nose. She looked like a misplaced farm girl. Nothing all that interesting, in Eddie's opinion.

"So, now that you've had your fill of the sight of all the other boarders, are we going to go out and actually board?" Eddie asked, as he finished wolfing down his burger and fries.

"Sure thing, Eddie, my man. Now don't get upset if I go beating your ass up and down the mountain, old timer," Mac replied with a chuckle and a sly grin.

"Old timer? Ha, I'll show you what an old school boarder can do. You going down, young'un!"

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Marisol blew out her breath experimentally, and watched the white puff rise in the air before her. Licking her lips, she was pleased to find them still warm.

"Boarding is indeed the best exercise ever. Well, besides dancing, of course." Marisol loved to hear herself talk. The way her accent twisted the english words always pleased her, almost as much as the way she looked when she was boarding. She had JP to thank for both of those things. Unfortunately, it wasn't a pleasant memory anymore.

When they had broken up, months ago, Marisol hadn't been surprised. But she had been disappointed. She supposed she should be able to thank him and move on, as he had most certainly done. But it still continued to irk her that the things she had come to love most in life had been received at the hands of someone who she had come to loathe with a passion. At least she was able to hate the French language, something he had given her, and something so much more personal than the English one.

Language of Love, ha! Spanish had so much more passion and heat than French. And those were the things that made up a great love anyway. The thought twisted the glare on Marisol's face to a satisfied smile. Marisol definitely had those, something she had been able to share with JP. She hoped he missed them dearly now.

Soothed, Marisol stopped to notice that despite the fact that she had been getting extremely heated and angry over her thoughts, her body had gotten cold. A shiver passed down her back involuntarily and she pushed off, rubbing her bare arm against the cold, feeling goosebumps.

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"Arrrrgh! That's fucking cold, man!"

"Watch that language young man! And of course it's cold. You act like you've never had ice down the back of your shirt before," Eddie grinned wickedly.

Eddie had won the race, but Mac had showed him up beyond belief when they tried tricks. So much so that the small distance Eddie had beat Mac by had become inconsequential. Unfortunately, Mac's well-deserved victory had been cut short by the larger mass that was Eddie. Tackling Mac and showing his superiority in size, if not skill, he had managed to pin Mac down on his stomach in the snow, using his knees and begin shoving massive amounts of snow down his back. Mac had not taken it very well.

"I'm going to freakin' murder you, man!"

"Not till you hit puberty, my friend."

They paused at the sound of a throaty giggle reaching them from somewhere off in the direction of their heads. They both stopped to look up and see the curvy blonde from lunch standing a short distance away, laughing.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," she said suggestively, almost incoherently due to her heavy accent.

Mac took advantage of this distraction to Eddie to squirm out from beneath him and lob a snowball at him, getting him squarely in the jaw. Eddie glared at him, wiping the slushy mess off his cheek while the blonde only laughed harder.

"I am Marisol, by the way," she finally got out, after Mac had lost his jacket in an effort to rid himself of about twenty pounds of snow that Eddie had managed to stuff down his jacket once he had pinned him again.

"Eddie… it's a pleasure," he grunted out while trying to scoop more snow down Mac's shirt.

"Please… help!" Mac pleaded, scrabbling at the snow under him furiously in an attempt to escape. The front of his shirt was soaked from having been pinned down too long.

"This disrespectful young man is Mac," Eddie supplied, sitting back and brushing the snow off of his hands.

"The pleasure is all mine, I'm sure," Marisol purred from her height above them. Eddie had a hard time noticing past her chest, which she seemed to be sticking out, just a little. When he looked up into her face again, he noticed she was looking at him in an amused kind of way. He flushed and felt his ears getting hot as he scrambled up to his feet.

Am I that obvious? He coughed nervously while trying to think of something to say to break the silence. At least she doesn't seem to mind. He looked her a bit shyly in the eyes. Girls were not his strong point. Give him a computer and he knew all the right buttons to push. Leave him with a girl, and he was a freaking schoolboy.

"You are both competing in the races tomorrow, right?" She finally asked, addressing it more in Mac's direction.

"Oh, yeah. We're both in the league. Did you join?" Mac asked when he realized

she was talking to him.

"No. I was not asked to join, just to compete against you."

"Oh." Eddie ran his hand threw his afro, got stuck not even halfway through, and was forced to yank it out looking like an idiot.

Marisol continued as if she hadn't noticed Eddie's struggle with his hair. "Although, I have a feeling that the league couldn't afford anymore members at the moment, fledging thing that it is. There are a lot more famous leagues, better paying ones too, inviting us other boarders to join them."

"Hmm." Eddie looked up and was surprised to notice it had gotten dark, and at some point Mac had wandered off. However the course was still well lit, bright fluorescent lights flooding the area and bouncing off the sparkling white powder. He looked back at Marisol, who was looking up the course as well. "Hey, you wanna go boarding down a couple runs with me?"

She looked back at him with a smile. "Why, I thought you'd never ask."

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"Ooof!" Eddie slumped down against the rock, groaning. He had made it through two runs with Marisol decently, but had missed the small hill of snow that had formed in the path, and after jumping in the air a bit, and landed ungracefully, and more importantly, off-balance before rolling into the large rock that bordered the course.

"Oh, are you alright?" Marisol was at his side, kneeling next to him and looking worried.

"Ah, yeah, I'm used to it by now," Eddie grimaced, giving her a weak grin as he forced himself into a sitting position.

"Here, let me help you," she murmured, guiding him up with her hand.

Now this is much better than that prick Elise.

A derisive snort sounded from behind them. Well, speak of the devil.

"You don't have to worry about him. He crashes more often than a test dummy. I'm sure if it were possible to kill him, he'd be dead by now."

Marisol looked annoyed. "No one asked for your opinion," she replied, before turning her back to Elise. Her face didn't move, and sunglasses hid her eyes, even in the dark, but somehow Eddie could tell she was pissed.

"I'll leave you two alone then. Just one last piece of unasked-for friendly advice: don't forget the rubber. I'd doubt you'd look very good in that outfit, 5 months pregnant."

"And I'd doubt you've ever had to worry about that before. I'm sure it's hard enough to find a man your size, let alone one who will sleep with you."

This time an eyebrow creased downward to show Elise was glaring behind her sunglasses before she pushed off, speeding down the course like one possessed.

"Honestly, what did they do, find Bigfoot and decide to give it a snowboard? What a monster!"

Eddie grinned in response to Marisol's heated jibes. "You're something, you know that?"

Marisol looked up, a little taken a back before smiling. "You're such a sweet boy. Now come on, let's get up and moving down the trail. Not too fast though. Wouldn't want to see it again."

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Author Note: Hiss! Yeah, well, the fight had to start somewhere. Some people are just not compatible. Like in Sims. You get them talking, and they just piss each other off. Sorry if Marisol's speech didn't seem like stuff she'd say. I have a hard time with accents. And I know I make Eddie crash an outstanding amount of times. I just like the thought of a professional snowboarder who's an absolute klutz most of the time ;; See ya'll next update! (I hope! cross fingers)