Reach for the Sky

Godfrey had the camera out while we all sat around in Travis’s living room, watching crazy trick videos with a package of Sprees, which had been mine but had somehow been split between five or six of us. It was basically all I could do while I gave my leg and shoulder a courtesy week to heal up a little bit before I began practicing for the X-Fighters again.

“So I’ve had a lot of time to think about a few problems I might have for X-Fighters.” I began, as Godfrey stuck the camera in my face.

“Like what?” Distracted by the movie on the television, Travis only paid me a little bit of attention.

“Kicker Ramps.” That caught his attention. Gregg panned left with the camera to show Travis’s theatrical turn

“What do you mean?”

“My bike doesn’t fit on Kicker Ramps. Too narrow. I can’t hit them at speed at all.”

“Oh, man. Maybe they have wider ones for you?” Andy asked, also tuning in to the conversation.

“Yeah, doubtful.” I shrugged. “But I think I could go up two places side by side if they were exactly even.”

“Can we test this theory?” Travis asked, sitting up thoughtfully.

“Not for another five weeks!” Once again, Oakley played the part of my mother. Godfrey and Andy laughed at him as I got up, hands on my hips.

“Yeah. Let’s test this theory.” It wasn’t like I hadn’t gone for a five mile run the day after I blew out my knee, and a seven and a ten mile run - yesterday and this morning, respectively. Arm-in-arm, Travis and I practically skipped to the warehouse with the boys and Jolene in tow; Jo and Oakley were collaborating on how bad an idea this was.

I was forced into a stinky knee brace which was meant for Travis’s knee; Gregg and Oakley taped it on as tightly as they could as the rest of the boys worked on moving the two Kicker Ramps by the foam pit together. With a few flexes and tests of extension with the brace, I shimmied into my motocross pants (fitting them over the brace was difficult) and threw on the ride shirt and a brand new chest protector (my last one had shattered on impact and tore my back to pieces) before I got on the cut-up “trick” quad.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Oakley said to the camera in Godfrey’s hand, as I idled outside, testing the bike I had just wrecked.

“Make sure you land in the pit sweetheart, the pit!” Travis thumped me on the helmet before he joined the group of spectators who stood alongside the foam pit. With a sigh, I flexed my hands, and rode back to where I could start to “taxi” up to the jump.

Full speed in second gear, I didn’t attempt any tricks just in case the ramps wouldn’t stay together - even though there was no reason for them to separate, there was always a chance when doing something for the first time that something would go horribly wrong. Thank God it didn’t, if I had broken anything else it would definitely have been the end of competing in the X-Fighters for me.

“I mean, I could always just ride a dirt bike for it, but I don’t think that’s what they want. Should I make a few phone calls?” I called, sitting atop the quad as it was pulled out by a cable attached to the frame.

“Phone calls are always a good idea. I’ll go get through for you, meet me inside in five minutes.” Godfrey was my unofficial “manager,” as he was for Travis (currently, Travis, Jolene and I were the only “professional” motocross/freestyle racers at Pastranaland), and was also better at talking his way up to the organizers of events through the chain of command of events like X-Fighters.

“You’re crazy, girl. C-R-A-Z-Y.” I grinned at Oakley as he assisted guiding the tires of the bike to the ground so it was level. “Always have been. You’re going to give me a heart attack one of these days,”

“Alright, mommy. I pwomise I’ll be more safe next time,” We laughed as I rode the bike past him into the warehouse. Travis watched as I began to undress and redress into street clothes.

“You’d really compete on a dirt bike?” He asked, lifting an eyebrow as I handed him his stinky knee brace.

“Against you? I dunno. I’d probably end up pissing myself. But it’ll be the most fun I’ve ever had while wetting my pants,” Andy laughed from behind the camera, which never went far from the “Wonder Boy.” Travis grinned, and placed a palm over the camera lens and one on the side of my face, guiding it to his.

“That’s my girl,” He said with a grin and a kiss; I became absorbed in the gangly boy, but that didn’t prevent Oakley’s laser-beam glare from boring through the back of my head. Travis put his jacket around my shoulders, and I went inside to find Godfrey. He was sitting in the “office” area of Travis’s house, and motioned me into silence as he jotted things down on a legal pad while listening intently to the person on the other end.

“So you were going to feature her as the only girl rider there? But you thought she rode dirt bikes, not quads.” I took the pen out of his hands and wrote ‘Will Race Dirt Bike’ atop his notes, and in smaller letters beneath it, I added ‘for food.’ Gregg laughed silently as I set the pen down and perched on the desk as I watched him negotiate. “No, she says that’s okay, she does dirt bikes too, apparently. Yeah. So it’s all good?”

Godfrey nodded quietly and began taking more notes as I watched, and before long a very frustrated-looking Travis Pastrana stalked into the room and buried his head in my hair without a sound. Confused, I spared Gregg a glance and escorted Travis into the other room by his elbow.

“What’s wrong?”

“Your friend is being mean to me,” He sounded like a little kid as I sat down in his lap on the couch, lifting an eyebrow at him.

“Travis, really?” With a bright smile, Travis wrapped his arms around my waist and settled his head between my neck and shoulder. I kissed the top of his head - one of these days, I was going to steal his shampoo - and ruffled his hair as I was apt to do. Achilles’ toenails clicked on the tile transition in the hallway, and I was so tuned in to the dog I could hear him pad up to lay at Travis’s feet.

“I should actually call on a new dirt bike,” I began, but he silenced me with a few quick pecks and a groan.

“Just sit here. All will be well.” Travis stroked my hair with surprisingly gentle hands. Already in the act of extracting myself from his lap, I sat back down again as Godfrey strode in to the room with his notes. He tossed them at me as he spoke - Travis caught them in one hand and placed it in mine.

“You heard all of that about the dirt bike so I’m not going to re-iterate it, but yeah. My notes are there and they have the specifications on the bike you’re going to ride - like, the parameters, I mean. And the Safety Gear, and yeah. They say you can bring your quad as well, and if there’s a break in the entertainment they’ll send you out with it to fun around - they said they don't use narrow ramps because of safety issues so that's alright. Uh… That’s about it. Oh, and the girl on the line asked if you and Travis were dating, so if you two want to keep this to yourself, you might want to tone it down in public a bit. Again.” I sighed and leaned my head back against Travis’s shoulder, re-reading the notes again.

“I don’t think Monster’s going to buy me another damned bike, they’re too good to me already. But I’ll have to call again.” I said, and Godfrey placed his pen in my outstretched hand so I could start making a to-do list in my bubbly handwriting. “I guess you can’t help me with my fun now that I’m actually competing against you,” Travis laughed and took the pen from me, adding to my list ‘practice with Travis.’

“It doesn’t matter - I’ve taught half of the competitors how to flip anyway. Besides, this will be a walk in the park for you, you learn all your tricks on a bike before your quad. And if they don’t give you a bike, I have - how many 250’s are sitting in the garage, Gregg?” He added ‘Have Hubert help cut weight’ and put the pen back in my hand.

“Five or six in working condition, I think. Alright, I’ll leave you to it, the phone’s all yours, Scottie.”

Travis and Achilles both followed me as I got up and proceeded to the little office - the man sat on the chair before I could, forcing me into his lap once more, and Achilles settled at my feet. Asking for silence, I dialed Monster and began to explain my situation. To my surprise, they wire-transferred me the money right then and there, and said that they had shipped me a new set of gear and stickers for the event yesterday.

Since Monster had graciously provided enough for a new bike and the fixings, I let them off the hook for the extra gear - fitted knee guards cost a pretty penny, but they were necessary in light of my recent accident. Thor asked that I send them the gear Monster was giving me, as a secondary sponsor, they had the right to have their symbol on the jersey. I promised I would as I watched my bank account inflate once again.

“Oh man, that was much easier than I thought it would be,” I sighed, petting Achilles’ head as Travis read my notes and a re-vamped to-do list over my shoulder.

“Alright, well then grab your friend, Jo and the dog and let’s head down to Cernic’s.” Cernic’s was the bike shop in town which supplied Travis with all of his Suzuki’s and where the rest of us bought our bikes from. “When is Oakley leaving, anyway?” He asked, as I clambered off his lap.

“I don’t really know. He’s not coming to X-Fighter’s with us, but that’s all I know.” I shrugged, adding a few things to my list before we walked out into the house together. “Come on, Achilles, go find Oakley.” The dog happily trotted away as Travis looped his arms around my shoulders.

“This is so hard,” I murmured, turning so my head laid on his chest.

“What do you mean?” He asked, as if he didn’t know what I was talking about.

“Not being able to do this in public. Or almost any time that anyone else is in the house besides the core,” “The Core” was what I had taken to calling the usual group of hooligans that orbited around Travis.

“I’m sorry honey, really.”

“I know, I know. It just sucks.”