Sk8 the Infinity: 𝐁𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐢𝐝𝐞

chapter fourteen.

"That was shorter than expected." 

Shadow had been the first to win his race against his opponent by sending him flying off the track. Kaia clapped hesitantly along with the crowd with an awkward smile from being unsure whether to congratulate him or not. 

"Shadow's the first one moving up."

"Vulgar skating as always."

Adam placed his hand into the box before him to draw the names of the next two skaters. "This time the skater is.." He held the card between his fingers before revealing the name drawn to the crowd. 

"Snow!" He announced rather too delighted with a wide grin. "Oh! This makes my heart race!"

'Definitely too excited.'

He went to draw the name of his opponent from the box. "Who is the lucky one who can become his opponent?" He questioned joyfully. Once he pulled the name and saw what was written, all of his excitement disappeared from his face. 

"Joe." He said nonchalantly while shrugging his shoulders and lazily showing the card to the crowd. 

Langa looked over towards Joe who seemed pleased with his opponent. "Let's have a good one, Snow."

The two of them waited at the start with boards in hand. Everyone was yelling and placing bets with another on the side. 

"Skaters are really stupid. It's not like you get money from this, or like you get praised by society." Joe suddenly started saying. "If you have one slip, you get a bad injury, but you can't stop it. You have to say you're stupid to do so."

"You say it like you're having fun." Langa said with curiosity.

"I'm stupid, too!" Joe admitted happily. "S is simply competing to see who is more of an idiot."

"Then I'm an idiot too?"

"A huge idiot! You're an idiot making friends, fights, making up. You end up doing everything through skateboarding. There's someone I'd like to punch. Tell him to wake up. So, I'm gonna win!" 

Joe gripped his board when he remembered the way that Kaia looked at Adam as if he himself were inferior. "So he'll never look like that again," he muttered to himself. 

When the starting alarm sounded they launched forward. They were evenly matched for a while until Joe shifted his position on his board. He easily sped past Langa and towards the rocks ahead. 

"That's reckless! That's too fast!" Miya said. 

"Does that guy have a death wish?" Shadow added.

Joe rode up off the rock and was sent flying to the side of the mountain. He then turned a pushed himself off with the raw strength of his legs.

"He made a turn on the rock and accelerated?"

"That kind of skating is impossible. Your legs would break." 

"Only that muscular idiot can do it. That's Joe's Power Break," Kaoru said.

"He's pretty cool sometimes," Kaia admitted as he watched the screen.

"But, no matter how many times I tell him, he makes wasteful movements. His entry angle is too weak, too."

"Really?" Kaia tilted his head as he watched Joe on screen to see what he meant.

"If he entered at 25 degrees, he could have exited 0.3 seconds faster."

"0.3?" Miya and Kaia said in unison.