Kick, Push

Competition Day: 0

Celebration, coronationNo debatin', crown me king, I'm tired of waitin'

Glancing up at the scoreboard, Zayn double checks that he doesn't even need to take the trick attempt, he's already made it through to the Finals. It's the only reason he can laugh at himself when he has to stop his body from running into a rail after his board slipped out from under him during the failed switch 360 flip landing.

Heats over means that Zayn has a small break before the Finals start, but first: interviews.

Board at his side, he walks over to the gates lining the park course and immediately feels his guards come up once his competition mindset goes down. The sudden switch was similar to how he felt waking up that morning, going from a groggy state of mind, to a near panic attack when he realized what day it was. Irrespective of getting more sleep that night than any other the week prior, or Liam still knocked out next to him, their bodies somehow finding their way under the duvet, Zayn woke in a sweat. As if he had built in senses, Liam woke soon after, coming to quickly when he saw the fear in Zayn's eyes at what his body was doing to him. The physio dragged him downstairs for an early breakfast, since he knew Zayn not only needed space to breathe, but also because it would be difficult to stomach anything the closer they got to the event if his nerves were already this bad. Eventually Louis and the others showed up, but even with them filling the seats around the table, Zayn couldn't help but want to leave; there were too many athletes in the room who had already competed and were in celebration mode.

Somehow Zayn's subconscious kicks him into gear when the interview's over, the skater giving the reporter a curt smile before walking over to where Camden and the rest of the staff and teams were standing between the elevated seats for spectators, and the course.

Again, Zayn finds himself zoning out to whatever his coach is saying, drinking the ice water that's being handed to him by Niall and taking his hat off to pour a bit over his head in an effort to beat the humidity that's been growing as the morning progressed.

Eyes darting around his immediate area, Zayn finds it strange how he had actively avoided the venue his entire time in Tokyo, yet this morning as he sat eating, all he wanted was to be here, in his space, where he could shut out the rest of the world and focus. There was always the option of holing himself up in his room for alone time, but to Zayn it seemed more productive to be at the event space. On the ride over Liam made him put on a brace just to be safe. The drive was only ten minutes, so he doubted anything could really be prevented in that minimal of a time range, but regardless, he put it on to make Liam feel more at ease. Niall and Louis tried not to make it seem like they were walking on eggshells around Zayn, but the skater knew better than to be fooled. From inside the team room, Zayn called his parents, not wanting to video chat so they couldn't see how apparent his nerves were physically affecting him. His hands were shaking, and despite getting a hell of a lot more sleep than he expected (thanks to Liam's lavender concoction, or Liam himself, maybe even both, Zayn wasn't sure), his skin still looked pale up until he went out to warm up for the Heats.

"Does that all make sense?"

Looking back at Camden, Zayn nods, "Yeah."

In reality, even if he was listening, it doesn't matter what the man said, Zayn's going to do his own thing. Street skateboarding's all about figuring out tricks in the moment, he can't exactly run a play. . What Zayn had been practicing was accuracy, but more so different variants of tricks for that exact reason. The larger the bank of tricks that you could pull from, the better your strategy.

Photographers stood behind the barriers with their long barreled cameras, trying to get as good an angle of the skater as their positions would allow. It's nothing new, but in the headspace that's currently suffocating him, Zayn needs to get away, so he says that to his crew huddled around him before he decides to take off, Louis, Niall, and Liam following him into the venue rooms carved away under the audience seating.