Chapter 2: "First Impressions "

"Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you're the Charlie Browniest."

- Peanuts: Linus

The next day, John woke up in his bed to see that the two kids left their mess of clothes, toys, games, and other items all over the floor. He looked over to see if the door was still closed, which it was. He threw the covers off, revealing his dog-patterned boxers and slid off the bed onto the floor, though that didn't help wake him up. He forced himself to his knees and shook his head abit before rubbing his face to try and wake up. He walked over to his bag and took out a pair of Denim pants, dark blue in color and put them on. He pulled out a few pairs of ankle socks and then, a white long sleeve T-shirt, and an orange Varsity Football regular T-shirt. He slipped them on, orange over the white and then proceeded toward the door rather sluggishly. Be the time he got to the doorknob, he realized he wasn't wearing anything on his feet. He walked back to his bag and grabbed a pair of socks he threw on the ground and put them on, along with his favorite pair of Skateboard Shoes. Light and Dark Grey with some black stripes on the sides. Now, finally being all dressed, he made his way to the door and placed his hand on the knob. John slowly turned it and slid it open, only to be greeted with a face full of silly-string. Griff and Rachel laughed and took off running up the stairs as John yanked the foamy substance off his head, then ran in pursuit.

Rahzel was over by the front desk, writing stuff onto his clipboard. It seemed to be the line up for the Qualifier Races he was putting in order. He stood and thought how he should match up the each line. There would be 4 Qualifier Races, 2 Semi-Finals, and then the Finals. These would all take place over 3 days. Since there was an odd number of racers this time around, there would be 3 lines of 6, and 1 line of 3. The top 3 would go on to the Semi's, and to even out the last race, the 3 racers who came in 4th in the first three would be able to race again in the 4th Qualifier. Though, how could he match up the ranks to make it fair? There was only one problem with this predicament… There wasn't. So he came to the next best thing. He opened his laptop that was next to him and started up a Graph Table program. He typed in the names of each racers and then hit randomize to mix up the names. After that, he set the groups to 6 entries, enabled random, then watched the results. He chuckled and then wrote the names on his clipboard, then proceeded to the lift going down to the city.

Mac exited his room, wearing an EA Radio Big red hoodie, with the hood down, some large headphones on his head, and black denim pants. He walked into the kitchen to see Kaori with a bowl of Cinnamon Life cereal and Elise with a large hot strawberry sticky bun and a glass of milk. They seemed to be doing that typical Girl talk, about clothes and hair styles and everything else that girls talk about. Mac walked up behind Kaori, put his hands on her shoulders and moved over to give her a kiss. Kaori turned her head and looked at Mac with a munching mouth full of cereal. Mac rolled his eyes and walked over to the fridge to get something to eat himself. "So what board are you gonna ride for the Qualifiers today?" Elise asked the Japanese girl across the table from her. Kaori chewed abit, then swallowed before replying "I'm using my Alpine board. I want to practice my Dervish and Madonna." Elise smiled. "Hmm… I'll stick with my BX, I might flash a La La La Lock Step." Kaori nodded and continued munching her cereal. Mac plopped a glass of milk on the table and walked over to the cupboard under the sink and pulled out some Pop tarts and tossed them in the toaster. "So, which line do you think you're gonna get put in, Elise?" Mac asked. "Well, I really don't care at all, as long as I don't get stuck with that… Marisol." Mac bust out laughing, "Man, you two really have some thing going on there, don'cha?" Elise ignored him and bit into her sticky bun. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you… envy her!" Elise stood up and gave Mac a shove. "Me? Envy that ugly thing? Hah! You've got a lot of nerve…" She walked out of the kitchen while Kaori just stared at her. Mac commented to Kaori "Geeze, what's her problem?" Kaori took her now empty bowl an put it in the dishwasher before walking out on Mac without saying anything. Mac looked totally clueless "What did I do! Man, everyone's so edgy today…"

Eddie was sitting in the main lobby, looking at the SSX event screen next to the desk, to see who would race in which round. "Man, it's almost 10AM, the line up should be up by now!" Just as he finished his sentence, the screen flashed the loading picture, then displayed the race lineups. "About time!" He hopped up out of his chair and walked closer to the screen to see where he was placed, along with the others.

Race 1: Psymon Stark, Moby Jones, Zoe Payne, John Young, Rachel Young, Seeiah Owens

Race 2: Sean Murphy, Eddie Wachowski, Jean-Paul Arsenault, Martin Stieber, Jamie Williamson, Kaori Nishidake

Race 3: Allegra Sauvagess, Viggo Rolig, Nate Logan, Marisol Delgado, Mac Fraser, Griff Simmons

Race 4: Luther-Dwayne Grady, Elise Riggs, Broderick Case, empty , empty , empty

Eddie Chuckled at his line up. "Well, I get to ride with two of the newbies. That Jamie seems good at races, so I'll have to up my game so I don't get humiliated." He walked to his room to grab his board. Might as well get some free riding in before his race this afternoon.

The time passed, SSX Competitors went in and out going on with their social and personal business. Nothing really noticeable or exciting happened that morning, except for the little yelling match between Marisol and Elise around 11:30. As Noon rolled around Rahzel gathered the 6 competitors for the first race.

"All right, the first race is happening at 12:15, so I suggest you all get ready and head on down there. You hear me? 12:15 sharp, on the dot. If you're late, We'll start without you." Seeiah raised her hand to ask a question. Rahzel pointed to her "Yeah? What's up?" "I noticed that there's 3 empty spots on the fourth race. What's the deal with those?" Seeiah looked concerned. Rahzel made a face noticing that he forgot something to mention to the competitors. "Oh dang, I forgot about that. The thing is, you see, since we had an odd number of competitors this year, we decided that for the fourth race, the three racers who came in fourth on the previous race would be put in those spots for another chance to go at it. The match-ups and completely random so there's no telling which race you're gonna get placed in. Though if we see a bit of repetition in the fourth races, we'll intervene and fix it, as to keep everything fair. Ok, you're dismissed. 15 minuets, no later!" The six racers went off to their rooms to get ready for the race.

Psymon was the first one out toward the track, already being dressed to go riding all he did was grab his BX board and leave. Moby and Zoe left shortly after Psymon only having to change their shoes to Snowboard Boots. John and Rachel were having abit of trouble back in their room… "Put on the stupid hat ok!" was the noise coming from their bunk. "No! I don't want to wear a beanie, I'm not 10 anymore John!" John was trying to dress his little sister war so she wouldn't get sick, or hurt her head too much if she fell. "Just 'cause your B-Day went by, doesn't mean that you don't have to listen to me. I'm older than you, so I'm in charge, now put the thing on! Besides, all you're wearing is a Shirt and Jeans! I gotta wear this coat and snow pants but you don't it's not fair!" Rachel threw the beanie across the room. "If I call mom, she's not going to be happy about you not listening to me." She grumbled and put the Small orange beanie with a roller on her head. "Now come on, we're going to be late and they'll start the race regardless." They both got their freestyle boards and proceeded out of the room. They saw Seeiah by the door, ready to leave. Rachel called out to her. "Hey Miss Seeiah!" She looked back "Hey flygirl, What's UP!". Rachel grinned at Seeiah's enthusiasm "We're in the first race with ya!" Seeiah laughed "I'm heading out right now, you coming?" John nodded and proceeded to put his snowboard on. "Yeah, I'm down with that."

The three started down the mountain toward the race area. Seeiah turned on her Mcomm's radio to hear 'Higher Ground' by Red Hot Chili Peppers end. DJ Atomika's voice came on right after. "And we're back, with Radio BIG. Here's some info you might find valuable: People new to town are advised to head down to City Hall in the event your Cargo is missing. It's most like to have been buried, not stolen… So stop calling me." Rachel, Seeiah, and John all laughed at the news report as Atomika continued. "In today's SSX News, Trees and Patches of Fog are what are looking forward to as the circuit kicks off with the Snow Jam race course. This guarantees to be an awesome event so make sure you and yours make tracks up to Peak 1 to check it all out. For all your Alpine listening, stay with Radio BIG." The three rode up to the starting gates and stopped. With 2 minuets 'till starting, Psymon, Moby and Zoe were getting ready, prepping their boards or stretching. John hopped off his board and ran over to the announcer's booth and knocked on the door. Rahzel opened the door and looked out at the newbie boarder "'Sup? What'cha want? You should be getting ready to race." John responded "Sorry, but I was wondering if you could take a late request for this race." He handed him a CD with various designs drawn on it with a black marker, and 'Mountain Tunes' in red. "It's the 34th track on that CD, Kaleidoscope by Dynamite Boy." He ran back to the starting gates to get his board on. Rahzel closed the door and looked over to Atomika…

John put his feet on his board and looked over to his little sister, who happened to be positioned as on the list, directly to his right. "Remember Rachel, don't get nervous 'cause it's only the beginning of the circuit. There's lots more races and whatnot to look forward to, ok?" Rachel seemed not to notice, as she was busy looking at the slopes. John looked up at the stands to see the cheering crowd. Though he got abit discourage when everyone was cheering and waving signs for the 'crowd favorite' which was no other than the fad-oblivious Zoe who was on his left. Zoe gave John a friendly punch on the arm. "Hey, don't get too mad when I come in first, it's a regular thing, ha ha!" John rolled his eyes and put his hand on the bars to get ready to push off. Rahzel's voice came from the speakers. "Hey all of you out there, this is Rahzel and welcome to Snow Jam!" The crowd went wild with excitement since the race was about to start. Atomika's voice came next "The first race of the season promises to be just as good as the music I spew out here around the mountain. Speaking of music, we've got a song requested by one of this year's newbies: John Young. Y'all know who he is, right? Oh come on, I know you people are hyped up for Zoe, but maybe you should give this kid a chance. 'cause he may refuse autographs in about 3 minuets. Here's Dynamite Boy with Kaleidoscope, going out for John." The music started up as John fitted his beanie on his head and pulled his gloves tight, and put his hands back on the board. Moby and Psymon glanced over his way, with a 'what?' look on their faces. The monitor attached underneath the center stands flickered blue, the numbers counted down to start the race.

5… Psymon moved back and forth, ready to blast out in a early lead.

4… Moby rolled his hands forward and back on the bar like on a motorcycle, making his gloves squeak.

3… Zoe crouched down and pushed back as far as her arms could reach, ready to get ahead in a blink of an eye

2… Rachel chuckled, ready for her first race. Seeiah gripped the bars tight and prepared to race off

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