A Little Dinged Up (gxg)

Chapter 15

Three weeks after I went parachuting with Ava, I found myself in another plane with a whole bunch of parachutists. But this time I was in Arizona, and as I looked out the window, I could see a stunning view of the Grand Canyon. The group of people I was with were all looking wide eyed at the vista, and I couldn't blame them. It was indeed awe inspiring. They were on a trip to fly over the canyon, and then skydive nearby in tandem jumps with their instructors. Me? I was supposedly there to help out on the plane. But once they were all out, I had an agreement with the pilot, Jeremy, who absolutely loved my stupid idea.

Not that he'd ever say that in court mind you. Nor would I expect him to.

It had been a busy three weeks up until this point. Once Miki came by and got the keys, I quickly hopped on a plane to New Orleans, where I'd got my online life started. Some of my earliest videos included catching venomous snakes or grabbing alligators by the tails. Yes, I was an idiot, but it got views! But it was only later that I realized how cruel it was to do that to the gators, and I had always wanted to do something to make up for that. So now that I was a little older and hopefully wiser, I was going to try and do just that. So, I had signed on to help at an alligator rehabilitation farm where they would nurse wounded gators back to health.

It wasn't exactly a fun week, but I got to hopefully help a few gators, and got the facility some press and gave a link to their website for donations. It gave me a little hope that I'd repaid a little of the debt that I'd accumulated as a kid. I hope I did anyway. Was it a crazy thing to do? No. Was it interesting and a learning experience? Absolutely.

It took a bit to edit the video, there was just too much footage from the week, but in the end, I think it came out very well. It might not have been terribly exciting, and there was no sidekick involved, not human anyway, but it was informative. It probably wouldn't get the kind of hits my normal videos did, but that was okay. That was what the other two trips were for.

The snowboarding trip had been almost too easy. Yes, Trish and the group may have stolen my planning book, but I still had the contact numbers and text conversations that were brought over from the cloud onto my new phone. That meant that I could call Jill, the helicopter pilot who had dropped off Max, and arrange to do it the way we originally planned. The best part was hearing Jill cackle maniacally about Max and his wailing the entire time in the helicopter after his injury. That part wasn't on the video I'd seen.

"I swear, that boy had no business being on a snowboard!" Jill yelled over the helicopter engine. "Why he thought he could do that, I'll never know!"

"He thought because he read it in my book, then it must be as easy as the rest of the stuff they stole" I pointed out. "The leg might set him back though, so I can do some of my own stunts with him laid up!"

"Yeah! But his mom will have him right back out there. She couldn't decide if she should scream at him for getting hurt or me for not flying him to the hospital faster! I'm just glad I made them sign waivers or she'd probably sue me!"

I scoffed loud enough for her to hear me over the noise. "Who the fuck would bring their mom on a trip like this?" I mean, I loved my mom when she was still with me, but no way would I involve her in these activities!

"Fuck, his mom is his manager! She fucking ran everything!" Jill chortled. "That boy was so whipped!"

What the hell? His manager? "His manager, Juliette, was his mom?" I had to make sure.

"Yep! She made that very clear to me. She was the one in charge of doing everything. The only input he had was doing it in the daylight instead of at night. Just as well too, or he'd have never left the mountain alive," Jill confirmed.