Chapter 4: "Don't Get Mad…"

"You can't stop me now
You can't hold me down
You can't keep me here I'm on my way.
I've made it this far now
And I'm not burning out
No matter what you say, I'm not afraid."
Yellowcard – "Way Away"

The sun peeked over the edge of the mountain. Sunrise, and day 3 of the SSX Circuit. To recap, yesterday had been devastating, just like every other SSX Circuit opener. Loads of action, skill, tricks, speed, rivalry, and crowds. Lots of fun and enjoyment for everyone! …Well… Almost everyone… John had screwed up on national TV. Not going to bed until sometime after 5AM, spending his time in the kitchen eating and playing his GBA. The Qualifiers had passed, dropping John, Seeiah, Kaori, JP, Allegra, Griff, Sean, Luther, and Elise. Anyway. Today is a new day (7:34AM to be precise), yesterday is gone forever. Over in Room 6, Moby was up and ready for the day. After his punch-out victory yesterday, he felt unstoppable. He was gonna make this season his. Looking over at JP and Luther sleeping in their bunks, He grabbed his Banana Bandana and put it on his head. He snatched Superstar glasses and put them on too. He put on his Boys of Summer T-shirt, along with his Inside Line jeans and an orange and white pair of shoes. Walking out into the hall, he headed down toward the front room and over toward the Event screen to check the day's racing positions.
Race 1: Psymon Stark, Eddie Wachowski, Martin Stieber, Broderick Case, Viggo Rolig, Mac Fraser
Race 2: Zoe Payne, Moby Jones, Jamie Williamson, Marisol Delgado, Nate Logan, Rachel Young
Moby chuckled, seeing the lineup. Zoe's his Partner, so there shouldn't be any trouble there. Jamie? One of the newbies, pathetic… Marisol? too busy being flashy to win. Nate? There might be some competition there, but it's debatable. Rachel? Hah! A weak little girl, also a newbie, no problem there. Seeing that he pretty much had the whole race wrapped up, Moby headed out over to the Lift and headed down to the City.

8:30: Action over in room 5. "I'm gonna win today's race and tomorrow's too! I'll get the first Gold on the circuit." Nate said. The 2 ladies just sighed and rolled their eyes. Nate was more hyped than normal. Maybe he found Griff's sugar stash? "Ok mountain boy, calm down or you'll be to tired to win anything." Elise interrupted. Seeiah added "Yeah, Moby isn't pulling any punches and it doesn't look like he's gonna let up any time soon." Nate laughed and walked out, heading to the lift for some warm-ups. Seeiah and Elise just looked at each other with a smirk. "20 says he gets knocked off his high horse in the race". Seeiah shook her head "No way, I ain't touching that…"

10:52: Griff eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes in the kitchen. "Hey shrimp!" Mac called out as he leaned against the doorpost. "What do you want, Fraser?" Griff snapped back. "Oh, sorry if I upset you. Maybe you should go, cry to your… mommy?" Griff threw his spoon at Mac, who timely dodged it. "Too bad your parents aren't here to clean that up, sugar freak! And don't be so rude! Next time you see me, I'll be sporting a Gold Medal, from the race!" Mac walked out laughing. Griff slammed his fist on the table, spilling abit of the milk out of the bowl. He walked over and picked up his spoon and threw it in the dishwasher before grabbing a new one from the drawer. Then he went back to eating his cereal.

12:22: Rachel hopped out of bed and walked over to the closet to get some clothes on for the day's race. She looked at her wardrobe and grinned slyly. She never got to pick out her own clothes before, 'cause her mother always told her how it didn't match. Not like plaids and stripes, but like blue-green and yellow or black and brown. Rachel glanced over at her brother, who was still in bed. She grabbed a bunch of stuff off the rack and started trying on different outfits. After about 12 minuets of mix-matching, she settled on an attire and grabbed her Freestyle board to head out for some free-riding.

13:00: The TV in room 2 Turned on to the channel the Race was supposed to be playing on. The 6 racers were near the gates, getting ready for their races. Mac and Marty was standing to the side of the gate, talking about something with each other. Brodi and Eddie were in their places, getting ready to race. Psymon was flexing his board and Viggo was talking to Atomika in the DJ booth. 5 Minuets 'till race time… John woke up and looked at the TV. 1 in the afternoon? Wow, He never slept this late! He hopped out of bed and walked over to the closet to see it was already open. His sister must have got dressed herself. "Oh well, I just hope she didn't get too outrageous with her look." John grabbed a pair of black denim pants and a yellow t-shirt with the number 07 at left center with 3 stripes going vertically through it. He grabbed his gloves and his Navy and Orange beanie and looked at the TV once more. The riders were in position now and Mac was motioning to the crowd to be louder. "Yeah! Give it up!" was the last thing Mac said before John turned off the TV. He walked out and headed over to the rack room where everyone's Boards were put. Tons of Freestyle, BX, and Alpine boards were sitting inside the huge room with names above each section, showing each person's section where their boards were. Each person had 1 of each type of board, and an extra one depending on what style they preferred riding. John walked over to his area and though about which board he was going to use. After a few seconds, he grabbed his Freestyle, BX, and his Alpine then headed out toward the lift, which he then proceeded to use to go down to the city below. Disfunktion Junction was his destination for the afternoon…

As he rode up the lift, John watched the race on his Mcomm. A few highlights like Eddie doing a HUGE Coffin Roll on his alpine board off the jump into the woods, Viggo doing his Acrobat twice in succession, Marty doing a Foot Surf backwards on the bridge's rail… But all in all, Mac came in first as usual followed by Brodi and Viggo. Psymon came in 4th, Eddie in 5th, and Marty in last. Mac danced around on the stand, getting the crowd even more riled up, shouting "C'mon, give it up! Who da' man! Number 1, baby! I conquered that sucka!" John closed his Mcomm laughing at how stupid Mac looked. He started thinking about how Moby embarrassed him in the first race. That really didn't seem to matter as he neared the city below. A few more minuets and he'd be at his destination. A smile crept on his face as he looked down. The next SSX Event was his favorites.

About 4 minuets later, John arrived down by the city. He looked at a nearby area map to find the route to the competition area, then started toward his destination. The town looked different in the day… kinda boring to be truthful. After abit of walking, he arrived by the starting gates. He sat down on the thin layer of snow and pulled out his Mcomm and started typing a message:

To: SSX Competitor 11 (Rachel Young)
Cc:
Subject: Hey!
Message: Rachel! Where are you! You're not supposed to go anywhere without tell me first! And don't ignore this E-Mail or you'll be in big trouble when I find you.

After hitting the Send button, John put the Mcomm in his pocket and looked at his 3 boards. "I'll show them that I'm no pushover… I deserve to be on this circuit as much as they do, Especially Moby…" With that thought, He put on his BX board after pushing the other two aside and stood at the starting gates, which were opened. He pulled out a thick pair of wireless headphones and put them on, then he pulled out his Mcomm and plugged a small receiver in the Headphone jack before taking his feet off the board and walking over to the other two boards. He opened the song list he had uploaded from the computers at the lodge. He scrolled down the list which was filled with MP3's of video game soundtracks, background music rips, and even the SSX history play list with all the music from the three earlier seasons. 'Grow Up' by Simple Plan, 'The Anthem' by Good Charlotte, 'Party Hard' by Andrew W.K., 'Clockwork' by Autopilot Off, some Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario, Dance Dance Revolution, and other various songs… He finally settled on a track from the second SSX circuit when they introduced Uber tricks, just to keep the SSX mood: 'Move it With Your Mind' by Plump DJ's. John put the track on Repeat One and walked back over to his BX board to put his feet back in. He waited 'till the song hit 1:25, which is where the song actually 'started' and pushed himself through the gate for practice.