perfecting the cloud nine

one

anna

"c'mon kayla!" i cheered for my half-sister. i stood between my stepmother and father at summit valley's monthly snowboarding competition. kayla was competing with team swift today while i was forced to sit and watch. i was currently in the dog-house because I attempted a trick that has never been done before. my dad and mr. swift, team swift's coach, got pretty upset with me; they thought i was trying to upstage kayla and take the win away from team swift.

as if.

in all actuality, i had just been bored. i had finished my online schooling for the day and headed out to the slopes. it was well known in summit valley that will cloud had created his own run with specialized tricks to win the annual 'fire and ice' competition. all the beginning moves built up just enough speed, power, and lift to execute the final original move: the cloud 9.

because will almost fatally injured himself trying to preform the run, nobody has since tried. it's almost like a taboo to even talk about it.

i had been trying to perfect the first move of the run when nick swift, kayla's lousy boyfriend and the star of team swift, caught me and turned me in to his dad and my dad. my dad immediately locked away all of my snowboards and threatened to give them away if he caught me on the slopes again until he granted permission.

normally, kayla and i don't even compete against each other. i'm a year older than her, which traditionally puts us in different competing age groups. however, this month, there weren't enough girls competing in her age group so she would have been moved up to compete with me.

if there's one thing mr. swift can't have, it's me competing against kayla. kayla has to keep winning so she'll stay happy. in turn, that keeps my dad happily funding anything the swift team could ever need or want.

it doesn't really bother me too much. i've just recently moved back to live with my dad, step-mom, and kayla. my mom lives in finland and i'm used to competing there. i used to travel throughout northern europe competing against all kinds of female boarders. summit valley was normally never on my radar because i was so busy. when i visited my dad and his family, i never had any interest in competing because i wasn't here for very long. so, i settled for watching kayla compete.

since i've moved back to summit valley, i've competed twice and won my age division both times. the swift team has tried to recruit me to join their ranks both times, but i've politely declined each time. i claimed it's because my contract in finland hasn't run out yet, but in all actuality, i'm not the biggest fan of the swifts' and my dad told me it was best just to stay away.

nick swift stepped closer to me and cheered for kayla, pulling my attention back to the competition. she had finally appeared at the top of the half pipe and was securing her goggles over her eyes. she gave me a thumbs up, which i barely caught. i returned it happily, sending her a little wave too.

she jumped off the top of the half pipe and sliced through the packed snow. i watched as she shakily landed her first trick. nick's dad looked on but the look on his face told everyone how bored and unimpressed he was. i rolled my eyes and went back to watching kayla.

her average score was around a 7.7. everyone clapped and cheered as she was awarded first place in the girls division. she waved to the crowd and held her trophy above her head. she waved for me to join her, so i did. we smiled for the pictures and waved to the crowd.
"congrats girl. i'm so proud of you!" she kissed my cheek.

"thank you so much. i couldn't have done it without your support." i smiled at her and gave her a quick hug, catching nick swift's eye as i did so.