It Never Took a Lot to Make This Hard

Without even getting close to the mountain, Louie could already tell that Daphne was the person riding the half pipe. She had such a specific style to her riding, something that had been unique to Piper when she was riding. And, now that Piper was coaching Daphne, it was obvious that her style had rubbed off on her.

As he approached the half pipe, Daphne took off for her run. Halfway through, she attempted her backside 900, only managing to not fully rotate her body, causing her to fall. “Damn it!” she yelled at the top of her lungs while punching the snow underneath her, not realizing anyone was watching her.

“Hey there. Take it easy on the snow. It didn’t do anything to you,” she heard Louie call out jokingly, and Daphne craned her neck to look at the top of the hill to see him standing there. He slid down the hill, meeting Daphne at the bottom, where she continued to sit, her boots still strapped to her board.

“I think I’m just going to quit,” Daphne mumbled.

“Okay, before you get all dramatic and quit, why don’t I try to help you out?” he suggested.

“Nope,” she shook her head. “I’m just going to quit now,” she told him, crossing her arms over her chest, acting like a little kid.

“Do you know how upset Piper would be if she heard you right now?” Louie asked her with a laugh, taking a seat next to her in the snow, not caring that his pants were going to get wet.

“But, Piper’s not here,” Daphne said, looking around for her cousin but not seeing her anywhere.

“Let me let you in on a little secret,” Louie said, and Daphne looked over at him, wondering what he was going to say. He leaned in towards her, his face a few inches away from hers and he dropped his voice into a near whisper. “Piper already thinks that she’s a horrible coach. If you quit right now, she’s going to think it’s all her fault,” he explained.

“What?” Daphne asked, moving back just a bit so she could get a good look at Louie’s face to see if he was telling the truth or not. “Piper really thinks she’s a bad coach?” she questioned, and Louie nodded his head. “Why?”

“It’s crazy, isn’t it?” Louie asked. “I tried to tell her that she’s a wicked coach, but she wouldn’t listen to me. She kept telling me that she thinks you’d be better off if you had a different coach. She feels bad that she can’t be out here with you on a snowboard, actually showing you some of this stuff. She thinks you’d be better off with someone that can actually ride with you.”

“That’s crazy!” Daphne exclaimed. “If it wasn’t for Piper, I never would have got into snowboarding in the first place,” she told him. “After watching her in the pipe and in competitions, I knew I wanted to do what she was doing. I wanted to be exactly like her,” she confessed.

“Yeah, well Piper doesn’t know that. So, what do you say? You still want to quit? Or do you want to try again?” he asked her, knowing she never had any intentions of actually quitting, but figuring that she might have a different point of view if she knew how Piper was feeling right now.

“Is that offer to help me still available?” she asked hopefully.

“Sure,” Louie nodded his head. “For a price, of course,” he told her.

Daphne turned her head to look at him, a smile on her face. “And, what exactly is that price?” she asked him.

“I’ll let you know later,” he told her, standing up and pulling her up afterwards. “Okay, we’re doing a backside 900, right?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Daphne sighed as the two of them began making their way back up the hill to the top of the pipe. “I don’t know why I can’t get it down. I mean, I’ve done tricks that are harder than this, and I just can’t get this stupid backside nine down,” she said, obviously frustrated at herself.

“Okay, first of all, you’ve got to stop thinking during your ride,” Louie said as they continued their trek. She took a sideways glance at him, not believing in what he was telling her. “Seriously,” he told her. “You’re an awesome rider, everyone knows that. But, these last few runs, where you haven’t been able to land the backside nine, you’ve been thinking during your run. You’ve got to clear your mind,” he told her.

Daphne burst out laughing at him. “Would you like me to try a few yoga poses before I do my run, too?” she asked him between her laughs.

“Shut up!” Louie told her, shoving her lightly. “I’m being serious here. Why do you think so many of us have music blaring before their runs? To block everything out, clear their minds,” he told her.

“Clearing my mind is not going to help me get this backside nine down. I physically cannot do it for some reason,” she argued.

“Daph, you can do it,” Louie told her as they reached the top. “And, what is it going to hurt trying it my way?” he asked her.

“Fine,” Daphne groaned, strapping her boots to her board and her helmet to her head. He watched as she made her way to the edge of the pipe, closing her eyes. She was doing great, and Louie watched as she went up for her backside 900. Half-way through the rotations, he knew she wasn’t going to make it, and she fell on her way down. “Fuck!” he heard her scream.

“Come on back up!” he yelled down to her, and he could see her once again pounding away at the snow below her, and he couldn’t help but laugh at her. When she finally made her way back up to the top of the hill, he looked over at her. “You started thinking in the middle of the run, didn’t you?” he asked her.

“Louie, this is ridiculous!” she exclaimed. “Clearing my head isn’t going to do anything!”

“Try it,” he urged her. “Once. Try it once and see what happens.”

Daphne shook her head, heading towards the pipe, only falling on her backside 900 once again. And again. And again. And again. “Try it one time,” Louie told her after every fall.

Daphne let out a frustrated yell before heading to the pipe one more time. She figured she could take Louie’s advice this one time, seeing as nothing else seemed to be working. She cleared her mind of everything, dropping into the pipe. She felt herself complete the backside 900 for the first time, and when she completed her run, she could hear Louie cheering for her. He quickly slid down the hill, meeting her at the bottom, and she unstrapped her boots, running towards him, engulfing him in a hug, causing both of them to fall to the snow.

“Thank you so much!” she told him, not bothering to get up off of him, instead staying where she was, her body on top of his. Before Louie could even think about leaning up and kissing her, Daphne already had her lips on his. And, just as quickly, she pulled apart, looking down at him, smiling. “Thanks!” she exclaimed once again before climbing off of him. “I’ve got to go tell Piper!” she said excitedly, grabbing her snowboard as she made her way back to the hotel. Louie stayed where he was, lying on the snow, trying to figure out what exactly had just happened, watching as Daphne walked away.

As soon as Daphne entered the hotel, she ran towards the stairs, not even bothering to wait for the elevator. She was in such a good mood after landing the trick, and all she wanted to do was tell Piper about it. She grabbed the electronic key card out of her pocket and swiped it, opening the door to her room when she saw the green light.

She walked inside and heard the shower on. “Piper!” she called out, and she heard the shower go off. “Piper, Piper, Piper, Piper, Piper, Piper, Piper!” she continued yelling until the bathroom door flung open, revealing Piper with a towel wrapped around her, her hair soaking wet.

“What?” she asked with a laugh when she saw Daphne bouncing on her heels. “What are you so excited about?”

“I did it!” Daphne practically yelled.

“What?” Piper asked, confused.

“I did it!”

Piper’s eyes widened as she finally understood what Daphne was talking about. “You did it?” she asked, and Daphne nodded her head. “You did a backside nine?” Daphne continued nodding her head excitedly, and Piper pulled her into a hug. “I am so proud of you!” she exclaimed. “How? How’d you pull it off?” she asked, wanting to know every single detail of her run.

“Louie,” Daphne said simply, and Piper stared at her, waiting on her to go into more detail. “He came down there and he helped me figure it all out,” she said, and a large grin spread across Piper’s face. “Winter X Games, here I come,” she said excitedly, bouncing towards the bathroom.

“Yep, Winter X Games, here comes Daphne Monahan,” Piper called after her. “The world better watch out because they won’t know what hit them!”