Avalanche

Chapter 3 | Ride Easy Railways

Akari was jamming out to some pop radio hits through a single earbud in her ear as she snowboarded. She thought it was a bad idea to not have some sense of hearing of her surroundings, especially out on the slopes. Her brother, Ryota, had been hit by a deer while boarding because he'd had headphones on and hadn't heard it coming.

What Akari didn't expect to see was two people laying right in front of the ski lift where incoming seats were dropping people off.

She had watched from a distance as the girl was the first to fall, clearly inexperienced in the art of leaving the lift, and then the terrifyingly muscular man behind her came crashing down as she was unable to move out of the way in time.

She sympathized with their misfortune.

At 5' 2," Akari got pretty frustrated when others took it in themselves to be rough with her out on the slopes. It took her a lot of training to get good enough to get off the ski lift, let alone to the point where no one would underestimate her in general. Of course, the whole incident with blondy the day before had been revisiting that very subject matter. As soon as she came out of the halfpipe, she saw the look on his face, shock, bewilderment. He had clearly not been expecting some tiny girl to beat him so badly. As good as winning felt, Akari did feel bad. He looked very disappointed, and she wasn't hoping to upset anyone. She'd tried to make it right by complimenting his run, which really was talented, but she guessed he just wasn't feeling it and walked away before she could say anything.

Akari was about to zoom down the slopes past the people struggling by the ski lift, but she made a hard stop. The ski lift operator was looking distressed, and the people on the ground certainly were as well. It wasn't in her nature to leave people like that.

She smoothly boarded over to the lift and grabbed each person by the hand, attempting to pull them out of the way. She quickly realized that her plan wasn't well thought out as the huge man was probably twice her weight. To her relief, a guy stopped what he was doing to give them a hand.

"Are you guys ok?" Akari asked them as soon as they were all away from the lift.

"Whatever," the huge man says, making Akari wince a little. She had only wanted to help him.

She soon realized however that his slightness wasn't meant to offend her. He was glaring at the guy who had jumped in to help pull them out of the way.

"Are you sure you're ok, man?" The guy who had helped asked. "Look, if this is about bumping into you earlier, I swear I didn't do it on purpose."

These two clearly had a past that she wasn't aware of, so Akari left the matter alone. She turned to the girl who had fallen first.

"Are you okay?"

The girl didn't say anything and turned her face away. Her hazelnut skin reddened just a little but. Was she ashamed? Akari hoped that she wasn't. Everyone had to start somewhere out on the slopes. Akari had certainly not started out very good at snowboarding.

She wanted to hug the girl to make her feel better, but she knew hugging a complete stranger was probably inappropriate. Her friendly and outspoken energy sometimes crossed the line. Probably like it did with the guy in the half-pipe. Maybe if she would have left it alone and walked away -

Speak of the devil.

His blue eyes reflected the pride he carried with him as he boarded off the ski lift towards them. He was looking directly at her, probably replaying the event of yesterday's competition in his head. He did not look happy.

Her quick intake of cold air burned her throat.

She hoped that he wasn't coming in for a fight. She could beat him in the half-pipe, but was she quick enough to get away? Surely he didn't take yesterday's competition that seriously...

He got no closer than about 10 feet and his gaze flicked away from Akari, and he looked over the rest of the people crowded around.

The girl who fell from the ski lift, still looking unhappy, hadn't boarded away and was still standing beside Akari. The two guys were still there. The huge guy was giving the dude, who apparently ran into him at some point, a piece of his mind.

"Would you two zip it?" He said to the two guys. "We have important business. But apparently not important to anyone except me."

Akari could tell that he had regretted saying that when the huge man whirled around and sized him up.

"What did you just say to me, kid?"

The color in the boy's face drained, but the pride in his eyes remained.

"Look. My dad, Benedict Winterborn, had called for a meeting that should have started 30 minutes ago with all of you there. I thought pros were coming, not a bunch of lazy boarders who aren't serious about the opportunity of a lifetime."

Akari fidgeted with her snow gloves. She'd forgotten about that meeting today. Apparently everyone else had too. But her guilt from missing the meeting didn't last too long as questions started piling in.
Blondy had said, my dad, Benedict Winterborn.

So this is Ricky Winterborn? Akari thought. I beat Ricky Winterborn yesterday? And he's my teammate? Along with the others here?

She'd remembered watching the Trick Attack Tournament on TV when Ricky had gone. His tricks were impressive. Apparently not on the half-pipe though.

The huge man took a step closer to Ricky, his expression turning dark.

"Shut your mouth you spoiled brat."

"What are you going to do big man, huh?" Ricky challenged.

Akari grimaced. Boys really needed to learn when to back off.

The huge man cracked his knuckles. "Man aren't you just a glutton for punishment."

Akari was afraid that a fight would break out. The gut who had angered the huge man earlier stepped in. "Chill out guys. Did you hear what he said? We're all on the same team."

"That won't stop me from breaking every bone in his body."

"Please do not break my son's bones."

Akari, as well as everyone else turned around as a middle aged man on skis came up behind them. By the looks of it, he was Ricky's dad, Benedict Winterborn.

"I'm afraid that he will need all of his bones for Aspen Regionals, as will the rest of you."

Not another word was spoken.