Sunday 29 July 2018, Luna Nova, Glastonbury, England
The days are going by, the supervisions at the Cavendish family mansion are constant, as Bernadette warned a team of firemen to be waiting at the mansion for that day so that nothing worse happens like a fire, while the skateboard championship was happening. They were days that were very excited, the girls spent training and also preparing the ground for the beginning of the championship, with a huge publicity made all over the internet calling the attention so that the championship would call enough for the beginning of some careers that were starting to pop.
That afternoon the event was about to start, the girls sit in the audience, the track was with some balloons spread around made of Helio gas, some that were dragons others that were witches, with the symbols of Luna Nova, already indicating that the place would emphasize a little of the culture that had regarding witchcraft. Croix would be on the microphone announcing and commenting every moment of the race, plus a good soundtrack.
The stream started exactly at 3pm local time, and with that places from all over the world were already starting to connect, and there were almost 831 people waiting for the start of the event.
" Welcome everyone to the most anticipated event of the year here in Luna Nova, after the success that was last year we will kick off the 2018 skateboard championship! Having some new participants and also new participants who will battle it out here to see who is the best skater in this mystical place! " Croix said through the microphone.
Then leaving by the big gate a Nissan Silvia S14 with purple colour and the Luna Nova's symbols appears starting to do drift in a course in the outside of Luna Nova, that was very similar to a skateboard track, who was driving was Laura, doing several maneuvers while a drone followed and the many cameras were also filming, arriving until a corridor inside that led to the skateboard track, in the underground, where arriving in the middle of some ramps she started to give donuts around a cone while she raised the biggest smoke, until she stopped there and everybody went crazy with that beginning.
" And this is Laura McLaren who is here to kick things off and give us a really intense start with her driving skills! " Said Meridies as Laura took off her helmet and went off waving to everyone, then leaving the car there.
The contestants were soon being introduced in the waiting lobby being the classics Akko, Diana, Amanda, Hellene, Wangari, Aira, Rita, Irene, Sarah, Catharina, Daisy, Sóla, Hilda, Carmen, Molly, Rina, Shao Yi, Heather, Verochka and Mary, plus the presence of new faces who are about to compete such as Marianne, Katie, Rosie, Bridget, Alice, Eliza, Abigail, Amelia, Aisha, Esther, Bice and Michelle adding up to a total of 32 participants, making it the biggest skateboard championship Luna Nova had ever seen.
" Well, here we are with our 32 participants who will separate themselves in 8 different groups and the first two of these groups will qualify for the finals, that is, we will have a great dispute to see who of these 16 will be finalists and who of these 16 will be eliminated, let the draw for the groups begin! " said the Italian as the screen began to draw randomly the group divisions.
Group A: Bice, Marianne, Shao Yi, Irene
Group B: Wangari, Aira, Katie, Eliza
Group C: Catharina, Bridget, Alice, Sarah
Group D: Amanda, Esther, Rina, Molly
Group E: Hellene, Hilda, Rosie, Verochka
Group F: Diana, Aisha, Amelia, Sóla
Group G: Akko, Carmen, Michelle, Daisy
Group H: Abigail, Rita, Heather, Mary
And so each of the groups were divided up and will compete against each other in what are likely to be some pretty intense clashes, since once the group stages are over things will taper off a bit more.
" Well and now we have our groups defined and drawn, I ask each of the girls to separate into their groups that we will start this dispute, first calling the girls from group A, things will work like this ... We have four people watching the performance of each one, the four will do simultaneous batteries, those two who have the best two scores will pass to the final stages and qualify for the long awaited battles of X1, so I will call here the group A! " Said the purple haired one and with that all the girls go.
Leclerc doesn't leave without kissing her girlfriend and smiling at the same time, she came all prepared for the time to show the world what she came for, all four gathered in the middle of the track waiting just for the warning.
" All right, you four have two minutes of drums to do your best, when the bell rings, start your lines and get cracking! " Croix said as the views quickly hit two thousand and the number kept growing.
Soon the signal is given with a shot and with that the four are starting to make their lines. Marianne goes confident, showing that she didn't come to play, she went for a flip and then hit a nosebluntslide on the railing coming out of there hitting an impossible halfcab, which from the lobby the girls were in shock.
" Woah! Who would have expected this from Marianne Leclerc, she has already shown the others that she is not messing around, such as Irene, Bice and Shao Yi, they are all here showing that they have made a great leap in skill! That's just in the group A contest! " said Meridies.
Leclerc came to show that he knew and a lot, hitting another line where he reached the car that was stopped on the track with a high enough Ollie hit a Nose Stall then changed to Tail and came down from there successfully, showing that that was another interesting point, but it was remarkable the a little bit angry expression of Laura watching from there of the bleachers.
In the audience the girls kept clapping, besides the other guests that were the people from the Cavendish mansion loving to see that event so close, that was captivating everybody.
The French girl went on to do another stunt that impressed well where she had a witch balloon mounted on her broomstick, she hit an aerial stunt where she caught the skateboard passing between her legs and then going back to the normal position. The audience was getting awestruck and there in the Lobby who was delighted was Hellene almost drooling looking at her girlfriend.
" Oh Hellene, you're going to flood this place with your drool," Amanda said with a debauch.
" Ihhh I don't think it will solve anything, I think someone fell in love the second time " Akko said laughing.
" Can Marianne get to that level? Was she just playing with us then? " Diana said with her hand on her chin.
" Well then she might even have a chance of taking us if we're not smart hein " Kagari said.
Back to the championship the first heat was over and soon the scores were appearing of each of the girls with their respective photos, what surprised everyone was the first place among them.
Marianne 90.3, Irene 84.4, Bice 83.9, Shao Yi, 77.1
" And in the first heat who did well was Marianne Leclerc, who before was there in the stands, is now here among us competing, just believe in yourself that you can also get there! " Said the Italian giving an extra motivation in the audience.
A while later...
Marianne proved to be the best in group A and qualified in first place so she would go through to the finals with an overall score better than the other competitors in the group, showing that her training with Croix and Chariot had got her to that point, as did the battle for second place between Bice and Irene, where the lower ranked Irene got the better of the third round and so qualified for the finals, eliminating Heather and Shao Yi on the way.
1st: Marianne 90.3/ 91.0/ 91.2 total: 182.2| 2nd: Irene 84.4/ 83.1/ 87.9 total: 172.3| 3rd: Bice83.9/ 85.5/ 81.0 Total: 169.4 | 4th Shao Yi 77.1/ 79.9/ 79.8 Total: 159.7
" The group A already has its classified, Marianne Lerclerc and Irene Racanelli, unfortunately Shao Yi and Bice Farrow will have to try next year, but they went very well, the important thing was to participate and have fun as much as they could " Said Croix commenting what they were going to the audience, already the two classified went to the waiting lobby. In that hour the views reached another peak 4713, much more than they expected just for this part of the contest.
As they walked around Marianne already noticed Hellene's shocked expression, which she then shut her girlfriend's mouth and restored it with a kiss causing her girlfriend to melt all over, starting to giggle, then McLaren came back to her senses shaking her head as group B were being called to leave giving their battery.
" What bug has bitten you my little cutie? " Leclerc said.
" The love bug " Akko said laughing.
" Can you do it again? I loved watching you do those tricks " McLaren said in a totally unpronounceable accent.
" Do you always get a Scottish accent when you're embarrassed like that? " The Frenchwoman said.
" No, that's Hellene's doing," Diana said.
" What a lie, you look just like her when you get dull my cabbage patch " Akko said making his girlfriend blush.
" Stop it, it's not funny, I don't keep talking like that " She herself lost control of her accent as she became embarrassed.
" I feel in paradise today, it was the best thing in the world to see my girlfriend on a skateboard " Hellene said all with her head elsewhere.
From there the girls were kind of talking and watching the other groups' heats, watching everything excited for when it was their turn to do the same, the heats of group B and C had already passed and the ones who qualified were Wangari, Aira, Alice and Sarah for the next phases, where soon after had the call for the group D which Amanda belonged and she was waving to everyone.
" I'm going to show that I came with everything too and I'm not going to let myself be beaten so easily " O'Neill said picking up her skateboard.
Soon the battery for the D group was starting the views reached a milestone of 6000 which was much higher than the previous year, had many people watching that live stream so much that it was becoming the most viewed page throughout the uk.
Amanda was starting to do her line and has shown that came to compete for the championship, hitting a 540 flip just to start the beginning, then was continuing the line by hitting a manual, and down the ramp picking up momentum where he reached another ramp near an empty bleachers, where she hit a bluntslide, then went down alternating between nose and blunt, to reach the lowest part which earned some beautiful applause in addition to the girls who were there in the lobby amazed by the ability that the American had demonstrated.
" Woah! What was that? Amanda O'Neill made a fantastic line, that's manual balance, she really wants to go further than she had in the last few championships, a rather impressive result! " Croix said.
A time...
And the salmon haired girl dominated the group D and showed that she came strong to compete in the championship, with Molly staying in the second position, almost being eliminated by Rina who came very close to win a place for the finals, Esther was still very behind, a little bit because she was still a rookie and didn't guarantee a great score, but she was happy to participate in the event anyway.
1st: Amanda 92.9/ 91.8/ 92.5 total 185.4| 2nd: Molly 81.5/ 82.2/ 81.7 Total 163.9| 3rd Rina 81.7/ 82.1/ 81.6 Total 163.8| Esther 43.4/ 44.1/ 39.2 Total 87.5.
" And Amanda O'Neill is all powered up! She came to show that she's not kidding around that she'll do anything to be one of the winners, that was an impressive score! Molly narrowly missed being eliminated by Rina, who did very well, but unfortunately by 0.1 points she didn't match Molly for a contest that could go to an X1 " Meridies said.
After this group D battery several comments started to come in, mainly around Amanda being a professional skateboarder or for several skateboard brands to hire her, what was also remarkable was that some brands also contacted Chariot and Croix who were allowing them to broadcast the stream via their channel to attract more public and in exchange would come more money to Luna Nova, which views jumped to 8 thousand, entering the ranking of the most watched streams in the uk that day.
" And we are here with record views, it's eight thousand! We have eight thousand people watching us! That's impressive! " commented the Italian as Amanda arrived in the Lobby.
" Hey, ladies, did you see how I came to win? " Said O'Neill.
" I like it, I will give my all to beat you if we meet," said Marianne.
" You will have to, everything leads to the two of us meeting in the semi"finals, our bracket was a lot less complicated than the one Hellene and the girls will have to deal with," said the American.
" Well talking about her, I'll be right back guys, I'm going to try and see where this goes " Hellene said picking up her skateboard and heading to the call for group E.
By the time McLaren showed up it was noticeable that everyone was cheering the redhead who was raising her arms, showing that she was the big champion showing up which Croix was soon making a point of emphasizing.
" And the most deadly group of all, these three will simply have to face off against none other than the greatest champion in the history of these championships, Hellene McLaren Cavendish! Four times champion since the first edition of these championships when we were still doing it outside! That's our big name! " said Meridies as everybody kept repeating McLaren's name.
And soon the heat was starting and the Irishwoman was showing how she did, going with the skateboard as if it was part of her entering already with a double heellip hitting a boardslide, where she switched to a crooked coming out of there giving a 180 double kickflip and on the slide was holding a manual, then she did a flip where she changed to a manual nose giving maximum momentum arriving at the same ramp where Amanda was and she simply put both feet together on the tip of the nose going down with all the speed until she got to the jump where the feet were a little more right and on the impulse she takes the skateboard in her hand and pretending to be a magic wand until she put the feet again fitting a 5"0 grind, without fear she went to the high part of the bleachers where she stuck the skateboard on a ramp corner and soon she dropped herself on the next ramp where she boosted hitting a 720 melon, finishing that first maneuver combination.
" Well that's our great champion Hellene McLaren Cavendish " said the Italian.
It was at this time when the views became astronomical, the attention that Hellene drew with her tricks made it reach the 10 thousand views mark, and the number did not stop rising, reaching the top 10 in the united kingdom, brands and more brands wanted to broadcast the event and spread more, to be able to have a contract with the Irish girl who was simply enchanting the world with her tricks.
After the batteries.
Simply 13871 live views, it was the most watched stream in the uk at the time, simply because of Hellene's skill it was getting attention all over the country and also had people from other parts of the world delighted, brands and more brands wanting to know more about the young skater.
She simply dominated the group stage cementing her first position.
1st: Hellene 98.9/ 98.7/98.8 Total 197.7| 2nd Hilda 79.9/ 83.3/ 79.7 Total 163.2| 3rd: Verochka 75.4/ 74.9/70.1 Total 150.3| 4th Rosie: 61.2/ 64.0/ 63.9 Total: 127.9
" This is Hellene McLaren Cavendish, the top girl in the group AND the top skater in Luna Nova for four years in a row and going for a fifth trophy in a row, this is our top girl proving why she has that rank, showing herself as a force to be reckoned with, this girl is a skateboarding machine, she just looks like she was made for it," Croix said as the redhead waved to everyone.
Then she goes out of there waving also to the cameras, noticing how she must have called attention and when she arrived at the lobby there were all clapping their hands to the Irish girl, impressed with McLaren's spectacular performance.
" Look love, you really are another level, you just treat this like it's your own game, even I'm not going to get to that point, I guess if you couldn't get enough attention I don't know what will " Marianne said.
" I will give everything to leverage my career and if I need to risk I will do it, they will all be amazed with everything I was able to do, but I will not give any room, I will go with everything for my future, I want to show what I learned all these years, show that I am really able to be a professional skater " said Hellene.
" Well little sis you've shown, now I'm going to go to my call and we'll see how we'll beat each other in the next round heh " Said the older sister with a smile on her face.
And soon starts the battery of group F, which was Diana's group that probably has great chances of passing to the next phase of the skateboarding championship, while Akko was already watching in amazement, even more so because he was also delighted with her sister-in-law's tricks and how she sees no limits to creativity.
The skateboarding championship has started, which has been a great relief for all the tension and danger caused by the presence of Daryl who intends to cause the greatest terror, but thanks to this event things can be livened up a bit more and forget about this climate for a while.
See you, skater witches...