The Race to an 19th Birthday

Nancy felt a little annoyed that the big race fell on her nineteenth birthday. She kinda wanted to sleep in and waste the day away since she had the day off of work. Still, as ten o' clock rolled around she got back out of bed, trying desperately to remember what she and Slash had been talking about earlier that morning. Everything was a blur due to the early hours. She kept thinking it was something important, and as she slipped her corset top and jacket over her black satin bra, she could only feel like another day was lost between them….like there was another perfect moment wasted.

The big race was today. The big race…was today. She couldn't believe it. As she grabbed her gear and slammed the door behind her, she felt the tension begin to boil from beneath up to her throat, choking her as she marched. Set in the streets of Snowboard Town, fans crawled out of the wood work, packing the sidelines of the track. Everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of their favorite boarder. Some had painted three stripes on their forehead, one red, one yellow, and one blue, signifying their allegiance to the infamous Slash Kamei. Others painted hearts all over their bodies, showing that they take their Nancy Neil fandom seriously. Mostly the competition between fans was friendly. The only time it ever got ugly was between the Linda Maltine and Nancy Neil fans. Those two groups never got along, and both had their reasons for hating the other. This race, in particular was bad for the fans because of this Shakespearian like battle of the families, but the formidable Wendy Lane and of course, Slash helped create a buffer zone for the opposing forces.

Nancy saw her coach at a corner of the street, underneath their big, pink, tent. As she stuck her snowboard in the ground and walked underneath the bright cloth, her coach immediately waddled up to her, sitting her down and running strategies through her ears. She would have caught it all too, if she hadn't been staring at the tent directly across from hers.

The Canopy of black served as a sun shield for Slash. He was being massaged by the all-too-eager Linda Maltine, as his coach ran some strategies into his head too. The thought of Linda touching Nancy's one and only infuriated Nancy. His head rolled around each shoulder; he was easing up his sore neck, taking any kind of help before shoving off. Linda, had too big of a smile on her face. Her eyes showed lust and evil, as her grin got wider and crueler. Linda only looked away from Slash to glance at Nancy's tent. When she saw Nancy staring on in utter horror, she only took more pleasure in granting Slash a massage. "Linda, I think I fine….honestly." Slash said, brushing Linda's hand off of his shoulder. That last one had really hurt Slash. Apparently something had caught her attention that pissed her off, Slash thought, trying to understand why Linda had nearly broken both of his shoulders. Linda sauntered off, feeling pretty good about herself. But Slash's eyes didn't follow her; instead they glanced over toward Nancy, and stared. Slash was taking every detail of Nancy's wonderful face in. All he ever wanted to do was love Nancy, now and forever. Yet, every time he got the chance, his fear of rejection robbed him of the odds that seemed to be on his side.

"Hello? Earth to Slash!" His coach was yelling at Slash. He snapped out of his trance as Coach Snider grabbed his face and turned it towards his. Slapping it softly coach exclaimed, "Fraternizing with the enemy is only good when it's not during your coach's speech. This is the big one Slash! The one we've been training for. Slash turned to see Nancy one last time. She was blushing.

The racers slid to their positions and readied for the take off. Looking one another in the eye, Nancy and Slash understood each other's glance as a preemptive apology fro what was about to come. Nancy turned her glance to the right, seeing Linda, looking evil as ever. Linda stared Nancy down.

"This one is for Slash…yes?" Linda wagered.

Nancy was really uncomfortable raising the stakes that painfully high. She switched her glance back to Slash, and then back at Linda.

"For Slash."

Mr. Dog floated above the racers.

"Get Ready……GO!"

The race was off. Nancy quickly fell behind with Wendy, them being the two trick types against a speed and balance type. Nancy panicked. She couldn't lose this race. She got in the zone, and slowly sped forward past Wendy, and eventually Slash. This race, in particular was stressful, given that I only provided one lap; No room for mistakes.

Linda felt pretty good about herself. Half of the course had zoomed by her and there was no sign of Nancy. Slash had attempted to shoot her to the sky with a few parachutes, but had miserably failed. When she shot them back, Slash unexpectedly took to the sky, stuck over a five point jump. Linda had no idea where Nancy and Wendy were. She figured they were tangled among themselves in the back.

"Ha." She giggled to herself, "this race is in the bag."

Linda, who was too busy gloating, didn't notice a chunk of ice speeding behind her. Suddenly, she was engulfed and in the middle of a giant ice cube, frozen for a few seconds. Nancy and Linda shot past her like a couple of bullets, followed not so closely by Slash. All three of them disappeared past her house and up the turbo jumps.

"Grrrrr!" Linda screamed, getting up to speed and trying to close the gap between Slash, Nancy, and her. A gleam of hope caught Linda's eye. She saw the tiny Wendy go over one of the Turbo boosts. With a quick shot and a brief second, Wendy was stuck floating down over the tallest jump in the entire course.

"One down…." Linda said to herself.

As she sped past Damien's house….Nancy's House….and eventually Jam's House, she saw the pair of lucky snowboarders turn a final corner and slip through the tiny hallway. She shot her last two parachutes, completely in vain. Slash, not concentrating on the race, was hurled in the air once again. Nancy saw this happen next to her and became flustered. Fans screamed from the side lines, "watch out Nancy!" or "Look behind you Nancy!" She looked behind her just in time to see a multi-colored chunk of cloth speeding right behind her. Instinctively, she jumped, rocketing it backwards and smacking Linda right in the face. When she realized what had happened, Linda found herself in the air, watching Nancy, Slash, and even Wendy cross the finish line. Once she was grounded, Linda dragged her miserable self across the red line, ending the race. Nancy was already celebrating, jumping up and down, and clapping her hands. The only person that seemed to be sour about their final position was Linda, who went storming towards the lift in an attempt to escape before bursting into tears.

Nancy, filled with glee, got herself unattached to her board and immediately jumped into Slash's arms.

"I did it! I did it! I won Nationals!" She exclaimed. Slash was very happy for her.

"Close second ain't bad either", he coolly replied.

"Not at all", she said with a smile.

When the master of ceremonies came out with her trophy and 10,000 dollar check, it only brightened her mood more.

It was the perfect birthday afternoon.