Page 50 of Crashing into Love

She took the next turn perfectly and heard something behind her that sounded like a couple of racers either falling or crashing. She knew there was still one boarder tight on her tail, and only the top three would advance, so she wanted to put some space between them. Out of the third jump, she lowered herself as much as she could, landed well, and picked up even more speed. That gave her a little more of the desired space. When she got to the final big jump, though, she knew she was in the lead by a wide enough margin that as long as she didn’t fall, she’d win, so she took the jump safely, not going for speed so much as a decent finish.

Drew had never been reckless, and this was only a prelim race, so she’d save her best stuff for the next one. She crossed the finish line first, followed by four other boarders who came in around the same time. The sixth one came in a few seconds later and must have fallen at some point.

When Drew pulled off her goggles and checked her time on the screen, it was her best in a very long time, and that was with her coasting at the end. She smiled and knew that she’d been right: she was back.

CHAPTER 16

It was the final heat in the preliminary round, and Selma was lined up in the second gate, which wasn’t her favorite. In fact, it was her least favorite gate. She preferred the first, obviously, but would even take the third or fourth gate over the second one, which put her next to the better boarder in the round. Ranked sixth in the world, Selma was only the second-best ranked boarder in Canada right now, and in the first gate, was the fifth-ranked boarder in the world who happened to be the top-ranked boarder in Canadian boardercross.

This event wasn’t super important to Selma in the grand scheme of things because, as the number two boarder in the country, she’d already be going to the Olympics, barring terrible performances leading up to the Games or an injury, so she viewed this more as a chance to show what she could do and solidify her spot more than anything. She’d been more worried about Drew, who had been convinced that Team USA wouldn’t give her another shot. Selma had been so happy when she’d gotten that text letting her know that they’d decided to let Drew be part of the team after all. She knew Drew had the first race of her event today, so she was hoping they’d be able to update each other after, but she wasn’t sure if Drew would be up for a call or if they’d only exchange some texts, which was what they’d been doing a lot recently.

As much as Selma wanted to talk to Drew, she only had a little time at the end of every long day here, and that time was always going to be given to Gia, who had started her new program at school, as well as a new drawing class. Once Selma was in her room, showered, changed, and had eaten dinner, she had her daughter on FaceTime, having Gia run her through her day while Grandma was usually nearby. She missed Gia, but she also knew that this was important, what Selma was doing. She wanted to show her kid that she could dream big and that if she worked hard, she could have the things she wanted. So, as difficult as it had been recently, Selma had managed to power through and still get here, at the top of her course, waiting for them to tell her to start.

If she came in first or second today, she’d move on to the semifinal race, which would take place that afternoon, with the final taking place tomorrow morning before the men’s final. She was confident, but not overly so, as she arrived at the set of small hills – or, berms – that had given her some trouble in her last prelim, so when she made it out of them in the lead, Selma felt good and made it into the final turn in first place. That left the big air jump that she nailed and, surprisingly, beat the number one boarder in Canada in the prelim. Of course, she came in second, so she’d move on to the semifinal as well.

After she had celebrated minimally with her coach at the finish, Selma walked over to the tent and handed over her board to her waxer, who immediately got to work on it while she found her bag and her phone.

Selma Driscoll: I’m through. On to the semis.

She sent that to her grandma so she could let Gia know, and then, Selma thought about messaging Drew, but she knew Drew’s day was busy, too, and she didn’t want to risk interrupting anything. Drew was very much an in-her-own-head kind of boarder, whereas Selma could get out of her head a little and talk to the other boarders, socialize a bit, and not have her headphones in pretty much the whole time she wasn’t racing. If Drew was in her headphones right now, trying to focus, and Selma texted, the notification would interrupt her music and, possibly, her flow, which Selma didn’t want.

Selma had lunch and prepared for the next race after getting a response from her grandmother that she was proud of her, and that Gia was, too. Then, she got back to the starting gate, taking her number two spot of the six racers again and waiting for them to tell her to start racing down a course of obstacles made of packed snow like someone with a death wish. This time, though, she had some issues at the top of the course. Her board felt almost too loose on the snow, which it hadn’t before, but she did her best to get back in the race, trying to make sure she landed in at least second place in order to move on to the final. It wasn’t easy. She had to take one turn a little tighter than she liked and almost toppled over. Then, her final jump before the big air jump didn’t put her in the spot she wanted, but it did allow her to take over second place. On the big air jump at the end of the course, she took it easy and ended up finishing in second, behind the number one racer, but given her issues at the top, Selma felt lucky to even do that.

“It was loose,” she said to her waxer. “Too much.”

“Okay. I’ll take a look,” he replied. “It was too slow on the prelims, you said.”

“Yeah, but this was worse,” she stated. “I had a big issue up top that cost me time.”

“Got it,” he said and took her board to work on it.

Selma was, thankfully, done for the day and had moved on to the final, which meant that she could go back to her hotel room and call her daughter. She showered, changed, and had her dinner on the bed before she pressed the icon on her screen and waited.

“Mom!”

“Hi, baby,” she greeted with a smile to match Gia’s.

“Did you win?”

“It was the semifinal, but I’m through to the final tomorrow.”

“Cool,” Gia said. “Did Drew win, too?”

Selma laughed and replied, “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to her. If I do, do you want me to tell you?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I will. How was school?”

“Mom, it’s so cool now. I get to learn whatever I want.”

“Whatever you want?”

“Yeah, like, whatever I’m ready for. So, I’m doing ninth-grade math and, sometimes, tenth-grade, too. Plus, I’m doing chemistry.”

“That’s great, Gia. Are you having fun?”

“Yeah, I like it a lot. Drawing class is fun, too. There’s this girl my age in the class. She’s really nice. We help each other sometimes.”

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