Bail | LRH

Chapter 9: training

Adrian Casey

"And you didn't even respond," Luke said in a mocking tone, clutching his heart like the drama queen he is.

"Yeah, 'cause it was weird." I said looking back at him quickly, then turning around and heading for the garage. I don't know why he was taking a sudden interest in 'whatever I was up to' but it was odd, and he's never done that before. Maybe I'm reading too much into it and he's genuinely trying to be nice, but after years of throwing insults back and forth, it's hard to think of it as anything else.

My dad already had the garage door open and offered to help Luke get his gear from the car and load it into ours. While they did that, I got myself situated in the passenger seat and hooked up my phone to the aux ready for my dad and I's daily routine of blasting AC/DC on our way to the course.

Through the rearview mirror I could see Luke looking at me while he put his boots in the back of the car, so I turned around in my seat to face him and mouthed out 'stop.' He averted his eyes away from me and found his way into the backseat of the car, sitting behind the driver's seat.

As my dad pulled the car out of the garage, I instantly turned the volume up on the radio to play Thunderstruck by AC/DC.

Playing the air guitar and nodding my head back and forth to the beat of the song, I sang "I was caught in the middle of a railroad track. '' to my dad using an imaginary microphone. I didn't care that Luke was in the car to witness this because it wouldn't feel right if I started my day without this part of our drive.

My dad laughed along to my antics and reached up for the rearview mirror to position it in a way where he could see Luke directly through it. Then he reached for the volume knob and turned the music down.

"Hey!" I yelled "I was still jamming out to that" I protested.

"Luke, you like AC/DC?" my dad asked while pointing to the radio.

"My dad likes them, but I never really got into them," Luke responded. Yikes. Strike one.

"Get out" I said unlocking the door, while my dad laughed. "If you don't listen to them, you can't train with us" I turned to look at him while my dad told him I was just being dramatic. He then explained to Luke that every morning we listened to AC/DC to get ready for the day and hype ourselves up.

"That's cool, I don't really have a set routine or any traditions to do before training or competitions" he said looking out the window.

"Adrian's all about her superstitions and routines. Tell him about the gum" my dad said, nudging me with his elbow, encouraging me to partake in the conversation.

"What's the gum?" Luke asked, readjusting his sitting position and looking over at me.

"Every time I train or go to a competition, I have to be chewing watermelon gum or else I'll have bad luck. It's just something that sort of calms me and gives me something to focus on to calm my nerves." I sighed thinking that he probably thought it was really stupid.

"Why watermelon? Why not mint, or just bubblegum?" He seemed interested in this topic.

"Because when I won that first X Games medal I was chewing watermelon gum that day for some reason and I've just been doing it ever since."

"Cool, cool" was all Luke said before my dad changed the conversation into something that didn't interest me so I listened to the soft hum of the next song that played and looked out the window for the remainder of the drive.

We were at the course in no time, and before I knew it we were unloading the car. I kicked off my shoes and shoved my feet into my boots, tying them tight enough that my foot wasn't moving around in them, and then I grabbed my helmet and my board as I watched Luke and my dad repeat the same process as I had just done.