Board Breaker.

Ch 10.) A Dream, A Reality and A Board

Marley turned the channel on the TV. "... and the police say they now have Jackson Trawps in custody for Driving Under the Influence and killing local resident Connor Lawrence in a tragic accident at the intersection of 48 and Elm" the newscaster says. Marley looks at the picture of Connor on the TV. He looked so happy. Smiling that goofy smile, his hair tucked under a backwards snapback. The picture switched to the mugshot of the guy who hit them. He was a light skinned man and had dark circles around his eyes and he had light brown hair. Marley switched the TV off. Marley walked up the stairs. She turned her head and saw her mom staring out the window with a glass in one hand and a flask on the table. Marley shook her head and kept walking.

Marley walked past Connor's room. She looked at the closed door that was sealed shut forever with no life on the inside. Marley slowly reached for the handle and turned it. She slowly opened the door and walked inside her brothers room. She looked at it, everything neat except for a few scattered shirts on the floor. Marley stepped inside and closed the door behind her. She walked to his desk. "Well Connor, let's see what secret's you've been keeping" Marley says while she opens the drawer. Marley scuffles through crumpled papers and pushes them aside. There was a bag of weed and a lighter in the drawer. Marley rolled her eyes at the drug. There was a wooden box underneath it with a couple hundred dollars inside of it. Marley pushed it away. She pulled out a notebook and opened the first page. There were smudged words all over the page and it smelled like alcohol. "What?" Marley said looking at the page. She flipped through all the pages. There were ripped pages everywhere. Mrs. Lawrence knocked on the door. Marley threw the stuff under Connor's bed.

Mrs. Lawrence opened Connor's door. "This came for you" she said tossing an envelope onto the ground. Marley picked up the envelope and opened it. Marley read a piece of paper. "20/20 Olympic Challenge" Marley said to herself. "Marley Lawrence, you have been invited to participate in a Winter Olympic Challenge where young winter sport-goers like you compete against others for an Olympic Title" Marley says. Marley looks at her mom. "Please?" Marley asks. "I don't really care" Mrs. Lawrence says walking out of the room. Marley looks at the paper then to the snowboards on Connor's wall. "Heading to Colorado Connor" Marley says.

The next thing she knew, Marley was on a plane heading to Colorado. "Is there anything I can get you miss?" the flight attendant asked. "Oh uh no thanks" Marley said to her. The attendant nodded and walked off. Marley put her headphones back in and listened to music. She made herself comfortable as she could on a plane seat. She mouthed a few lyrics from the song she was listening to and she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Marley awoke at the bumpy ride of the airplane landing. She turned her music up and got off the plane. She held her board and dragged her suitcase behind her as she walked through the airport. She looked around at everyone. There were skiers, snowboarders, curlers all around her. Marley awkwardly walked through the crowd. "Miss Lawrence" a man said to her. "This is she" Marley said. The man took her bag and board and put it inside a limo. "Uh" Marley said. The man opened the door for her and waited for her to get in. "Thanks" Marley said stepping in the back of the limo. He closed the door and drove off. "I feel so famous for a snowboarder" Marley laughed. "Well you are, Connor Lawrence is a legend here" the man said. "Connor came here?" Marley said. "All the time" the man said to her. "Well that's odd" Marley said looking out the window.

"Welcome to the Winter Olympic Challenge!" An announcer said. "My name is Mike Jones" he said. "And I am Dan Furley and I will be hosting your Olympics" Dan said. "The point of this competition is several young snowboarders will be competition in 3 different types of competitions from the slope style and speed challenge, to the beloved half pipe" Mike said. "Today we start with the Slope Style" he said. Marley waited at the top of the mountain. She took a deep breath. She looked at the sky then back down at the mountain. "Next we have Marley Lawrence!" Mike said. "Interesting fact about Marley is that she is the sister of Connor Lawrence" Mike said. "Oh really?" Dan asked. "Yep that means we better see something good here" Mike said. Marley took a breath again and waited at the gate. She put on Connor's helmet and grabbed onto the rails at the gate. "Marley Lawrence!" A girl says from behind her. Marley turns around. "Who are you?" She asks. "I'm Alexa Ventana, 4 time Gold Medalist here" Alexa brags.

"Nice" Marley says. "So I heard about your brother, such a shame" Alexa says. "Yeah" Marley says looking at Alexa. "He always wanted to beat me" Alexa smiled. "Ever since I dumped his sorry ass" Alexa smiled. Marley looked at Alexa and raised his eyebrow. "What?" Marley asked. "We hooked up 2 winters ago when he came down here to compete in this silly competition" Alexa said. "After I took home the gold medal he was all over me" Alexa smiled. "Oh" Marley says under her breath. "I heard he wrote a bunch of notes about me" Alexa said. "Really?" Marley said. "Yup, kept them in a notebook" Alexa said. "How did you know that?" Marley said, remembering the smudged notebook on the desk. "Oh you wern't here for that were you" Alexa said to her. Marley shook her head. "You're too young to know that stuff, don't worry" Alexa winked and walked past Marley. "Too young" Marley said and turned around. "Wait.. Oh my god!" Marley gasped in disgust. Marley pushes the comment Alexa made aside and focused on winning the Slope Style Competition. "You can do this" Marley said to herself. The gate opened and Marley pushed off the gate. "And she's off" Mike said from the announcer box.

Marley approached the first obstacle. A box. She slid onto the box and did a 360 turn. She jumped off the box and continued to pick up speed. She headed for the "cliff" and bent her legs so she can lift off when she reaches the top of the jump. She lifted off the jump and perfected a backside triple cork. She landed the trick but stumbled to keep her balance afterwards. "And she landed it!" Mike said in amazement. Marley hit more obstacles after obstacle she completed the course with a time of 42.82 seconds and faults of 3.

Marley holds onto the gate again. "Good luck" a Alexa says next to her snootily. Marley nods and looks at the course. The speed course. The clock beeps down and the gate opens. Marley slides down along with other contestants. "And here we go!" Mike says. Marley lowers her body to catch speed. She turns the corner and rides down the side of the mountain. She passes 2 contestants. "And here we have Marley Lawrence bringing up the rear" Dan says. Marley passes more people. "Can she beat them?" Mike says. Marley speeds up and turns the corner again. She is almost close to the girl in front of her and she was so close to the finish line. Marley accelerated her speed. "No" Alexa says looking at Marley. Marley looks behind had at Alexa. She looked back in front of her. Sweat dripped down Marley's face. Alexa sped up and caught up to Marley. "Enjoy last place!" Alexa said pushing Marley out of the way. Marley lost her balance and fell. She skidded on the snow and people passed her. "God damn it!" Marley said banging her fist on the powdery snow.

"Welcome back to the half pipe challenge" Mike said. "We are just moments away from seeing Marley Lawrence perform her tricks tonight" Mike said. "I must say Mike, Marley has done an excellent job of landing her tricks, the speed challenge was a little shaky but hitting those obstacles on the slope-style was almost too perfect!" Dan said. "I do agree with you Dan, It's almost as if we see Connor out there again" Mike said. Those words swirled around Marley's head. Marley licked her bottom lip. The countdown beeped again and Marley hit the half pipe and started to do tricks. Her first trick she decided to do was an alley-oop. She lands it and switches to the opposite side of the pipe. She goes in the air and grabs the nose of the board and switches her stance from regular to goofy. She goes to the other side of the pipe and shoots a tame-dog flip which is a front-flip on the halfpipe but it looks like a cartwheel.

She accelerates speed and for her final trick she hits Connor's favorite trick. A Haakon flip which is you ride backwards and preform a 720 inverted rotation. Marley lands back on the half pipe and slides down the side. "She has done it!" Dan said. "Beating defending champion, Alexa Ventana by 2 points, Marley Lawrence has dominated" Mike said. "Yeahh!" Marley yelled. Marley raised her fist in the air. Alexa stared at Marley in disgust. 3 other boarders congratulated Marley. "Yeah baby!" Marley said glowing with joy. She kissed her forefinger and raised it to the sky and saluted Connor. Alexa went up to Marley. "Congrats" she said to her. "Maybe next time you shouldn't screw my brother over" Marley said to Alexa. Alexa huffed and walked away. "Yeah!" Marley yelled again.

Marley stood on a block along with 2 other boarders. Scarlett Fredrick and Camryn Limpla. Marley bowed to a man who handed Marley her medal. Marley smiled proudly as cameras flashed before her eyes. She looked at Connor's helmet and held it above her head. Marley smiled proud and looked at her medal. She gleamed and smiled again.

The plane landed and Marley walked through the air port. "Marley!" Ms. Lawrence said. Marley dropped her stuff and ran to her mom and hugged her. "I'm so proud of you" she said to Marley. Marley stepped back and showed her mom her medal. "Connor would be too" Ms. Lawrence said with a tear of joy rolling down her cheek. Marley smiled. "I lived his dream" she said. "Come on let's go home" Ms. Lawrence said. "Yes please!" Marley laughed. They both walked together through the airport doors out into the sunny world.