Day 2
After school ended, the kids arrived at Ramp City, but not all at the same time. The first four were Craig, Yustice, Wildernessa, and of course
Cannonball.
"Hey, cannonball. How's it all coming?" Craig asked.
"Sadly, I could only get a total of six bikes." Cannonball answered. "But we can still work with this."
"I call the orange bike!" Yustice said with her hands on said bike.
"I don't really care which bike I get." Wildernessa said as she dismounted from Cheesesticks.
Soon enough, the other eight kids had joined them. Three of them had brought their own bikes. Jason, Eliza who was wearing a pink bike suit with the usual safety gear, and the Junk Lord who's bike looked poorly made.
"Why does your bike look so bad?" Jason asked.
"I made it myself using parts from the Junk pile." the Junk Lord responded.
"Now that you're all here, there's something important I have to ask you." Cannonball said. "Does anyone not yet know how to ride a bike?"
Four kids raised their hands. They were Wren, Bobby, Wildernessa, and Eliza.
"You have a bike, but can't ride it?" Kit asked.
"Daddy bought this a while ago, but I never took interest." Eliza explained. "At least I got this fancy bike suit in time."
"The rest of you go ahead and ride." Cannonball said. "As for you guys, I'll gladly teach you. Who wants to try first?"
"I'LL GO!" Wren loudly volunteered. "This should be an interesting experiment."
Cannonball lended Wren his bike and helmet and helped her on.
"Now in order to stay on a bike, you need to find your balance."
"Hmm. So you're saying that I should move my center of gravity until the bike can hold my weight without falling?"
"That... sounds like what I said."
"Then let's do it!" Wren moved a little from side to side until she shouted "Eureka!"
Cannonball pushed Wren along for a while and then let her go. Apparently being the smartest kid in the creek means that Wren is a fast learner.
"Me next!" Bobby said.
Wren got off the bike and let Bobby on. Before Cannonball could tell him what to do, Bobby then said "This is gonna be easier than I thought."
He didn't even move two feet before falling over and losing the treats he had in his pockets.
"My candy."
Meanwhile, the other seven kids agreed to a race.
"Okay, first one from this end of Ramp City to the other wins." Jason said.
"You're on!" Paintball Mike replied.
"On your marks..." the Sewer Queen said. "Get set... GO!"
And off they took. First in the lead was Yustice followed by Craig, the Junk Lord, and Paintball Mike with the rest in the rear. Then Jason and the
Sewer Queen caught up to second place with Paintball Mike falling behind soon enough. Next Kit made it to where Craig was and they both took the lead from Yustice. The racers were almost to the other end when the Junk Lord maneuvered around all of them and beat them.
"Ha! You just ate my trash!" he said.
Then his back wheel broke off and he fell.
"Junk Lord! Are you okay?" Craig said while running with the other racers to the fallen winner.
"Yeah, but my bike isn't." the Junk Lord said.
Kit and Yustice looked at the broken bike to find out what went wrong.
"Well here's the problem." Kit said as she pulled something out of the back wheel.
"You were using a rotten wooden peg to hold your wheel in place?" Yustice asked.
"Well it worked. Until now." the Junk Lord said.
"Maybe Cannonball has some spare parts." Craig suggested. "I'll go check."
When he reached the other kids, Cannonball was still teaching Bobby.
"Ready?"
"Ready."
Cannonball pushed the bike and Bobby successfully rode it.
"So, how's it going?" Craig asked.
"Only Bobby and I have learned right now." Wren said.
"I'll go next." Wildernessa said. "Cheesesticks, stay."
She got on the bike after Bobby hopped off.
"Don't forget what I told Wren and Bobby." Cannonball said.
"I didn't." Wildernessa replied.
And off she went. She managed to ride for a few feet, but then she fell to the ground.
"Wildernessa!" Craig said.
"I'm alright." Wildernessa responded.
"Not bad for your first try." Cannonball said.
"Thanks." Wildernessa said while getting up. "I guess I'm more used to riding dogs than bikes."
"Hey, don't give up." Craig said with his hand on her shoulder. "I know you can do this."
When Wildernessa heard those words, she felt more confident than before and said "Let's try again."
She got back on the bike, let Cannonball push her again, and took off. This time she did so well that she rode in a circle around each fellow student, Craig, and Cannonball. She even somehow stopped like a pro.
"That was awesome!" Craig shouted.
The others gave her compliments too, but Wildernessa was simply happy to hear one from Craig.
"By the way, Craig, did you need something?" Cannonball asked.
"Oh right. Junk Lord's bike wheel broke off. Do you have any spare parts?"
"We keep a box of them next to that ramp." Cannonball pointed to where it was.
"Thanks." Craig left for the box of parts.
"Are you ready, Eliza?" Cannonball asked.
"Ugh, whatever." Eliza moaned.
She got on her bike and let Cannonball push her. As you might expect, she almost instantly fell off.
Craig searched the box, grabbed what he needed, and returned to the other kids. The Junk Lord was a little annoyed by how long it took.
"Well it's about time." he said.
"Sorry. I wanted to see how the others were doing." Craig explained.
The kids got to work on replacing the broken part of the Junk Lord's bike. Thankfully, four out of the seven were smart enough to handle the task. After a short amount of time, the bike was in one piece again. The kids gave a few high fives and were about to start riding again when they heard a frustrated scream.
"I can't do this anymore!"
They all went to see what was going on. They were not surprised at all to see Eliza angry and covered with dirt.
"I've tried at least ten times and nothing you say is helping!" she whined. "This was a mistake. I'm leaving."
Eliza kicked a rock into the air before turning and leaving. Bobby saw the rock coming his way and caught it on instinct. When Craig saw that, he
remembered the hockey game they once played and got an idea.
"Hey, Eliza. Have you ever balanced a book on your head before?" he asked.
Eliza stopped, faced Craig and said "Of course I have. Why?"
"Maybe you need to pretend you're doing just that." Craig suggested. "Why not give it another shot? You're already a filthy mess anyway."
"Why you..." Eliza almost yelled at Craig, but then she thought about it. "Alright, but this is my last try."
She got back on her bike and let Cannonball hold on again. She imagined a book on her head and sat as straight as she could. Then she started to pedal. Cannonball let go and Eliza actually stayed up.
"I'm not falling?" Eliza looked around in shock. "I'm not falling!"
She rode around a little longer and almost fell again. Thankfully, Cannonball already told all of them how to stop. The others applauded her success and for the first time ever, Eliza felt proud for a different reason than usual.
"This actually isn't half bad for something un-lady like." she said.
"Better not let our leader HandleBarb hear you say that." Cannonball joked.
"Wait a minute." Wildernessa said. "I thought you were leader of the Ten Speeds."
"I'm not."
"Then why did you join the council instead of her? And why do you even call yourselves the Ten Speeds when there are only four of you?"
"Well first of all, ten-speed is a type of bike." Cannonball explained. "As for why me, there's a good reason. When I found that flyer for our first
meeting, I showed it to HandleBarb and suggested that she attend. Her exact words were 'There's no problem with the circle game. Everyone else is just unlucky.'"
Paintball Mike looked away in shame. Cannonball continued his story.
"After we all agreed on the rules, HandleBarb then came to me and said 'You were right and I was wrong. The game does need rules. I may be the team leader, but you're our best team member both on and off your bike. I'm glad you joined the council.' I've never felt more proud of myself than that moment."
"We're glad you joined too." the Sewer Queen said. "You are a true council member."
"Hey, Cannonball." the Junk Lord said. "I noticed that the spare piece you let me have was brand new."
"When we first met, I figured out that you claimed the Junk pile. So I stopped taking things. My bad."
"Thanks, and I'm sorry for calling you Ten Thieves and scaring you."
Cannonball and the Junk Lord shook hands and the whole gang got back to bike riding, taking turns of course. Some of them tried out the ramps, but they wiped out due to not enough experience.
"Man, we all stink compared to you." Jason said.
"Don't sweat it." Cannonball responded. "Even the smallest bike stunts are acceptable here."
Suddenly, there was the sound of a foghorn. It turned out to be coming from Craig's phone.
"Sorry. I set a timer for ten to six because even the Timekeeper is sick." Craig said before adding "Thank you, Kelsey."
"That was a lot of fun." Kit said.
"I guess I can keep doing this a little longer." Eliza said. "But I'm definitely going to need a bath when I get home."
"Time to see who's next." Craig said. "This time, I'll spin."
The kids except for Cannonball stood around the arrow disc again and Craig flicked the arrow. It spun a lot faster this time.
"Please be me. Please be me."
"Come on. Come on."
"Who's it gonna be?"
The arrow slowed down and stopped. It was pointing at...
Eliza.
"Yes!" she said. "Tomorrow we're having a tea party! Remember to dress your best!"
Obviously some of the kids were not looking forward to this thanks to previous tea parties, but they all knew better than to break a deal. They all
left Ramp City and went home to pick out their best clothes for tomorrow. After Craig chose his clothes, he video called his friends again.
"Guys, you've gotta hear what happened today."
Author's Note: Cannonball may not be one of my favorite characters, but he has slowly grown on me. Writing this particular chapter was very easy compared to some of the ones after. One thing I knew I wanted to do with his turn was make up a possible reason for the irony of a non-leader representing his group which I feel is most likely what happened. I still haven't planned out all of my chapters yet and I imagine some of them will
be tougher for me, but I'm doing the best I can. I hope you enjoyed this so far.
