It Never Took a Lot to Make This Hard

Daphne and Piper sat at the top of the hill, both staring at Piper’s watch. “Twenty minutes to go,” Piper stated the obvious, referring to when it was time for the women’s snowboarding half pipe event in the Winter X Games to begin. She knew Daphne was nervous, as if her biting her fingernails wasn’t proof enough. “You’ll do great,” she tried reassuring her.

Daphne nodded her head. “Yeah,” she said in an unconvincing tone.

“You nailed the backside nine in practice,” Piper reminded her. “Whatever Louie said to do worked, so just keep doing that.”

“Just keep doing that,” Daphne repeated under her breath, seemingly like a chant. Piper gave her a reassuring smile before vacating her seat, knowing Daphne liked to have some time to herself before she competed.

Piper made her way down to the bottom of the hill to watch Daphne compete, the snowflakes that were falling sticking to her head. She snatched her knit cap out of the pocket of her jacket, putting it over her red hair. She saw Louie standing against the barricades that were put up, surrounded by a bunch of ladies, practically bouncing on his feet.

Piper pushed her way through the crowd to Louie, earning complaints and yells from many of the spectators, not that she cared in the least bit. “Hey Louie,” Piper smiled, lightly hitting his shoulder with her own. “You seem nervous,” she observed.

“No, excited,” he corrected. “She’s going to pull it off,’” he stated matter-of-factly.

“Well, aren’t you just oh-so-confident?” she laughed. “Oh!” she suddenly exclaimed, causing Louie to whip his head around and look at her. “And, what is this I hear about you and Daph kissing?” she questioned. Daphne had finally admitted to Piper exactly what had happened between her and Louie after she had landed her backside nine hundred, and Piper couldn’t have been happier for the two of them.

Louie’s smile grew even wider as he replied. “Daphne told you about that?” he asked.

“Yeah, she did,” Piper said. “About damn time you grew some balls and kissed her,” she added with a smile.

“Apparently she didn’t tell you exactly what happened,” Louie muttered, and Piper gave him a questioning look as Louie launched into the whole story.

“Louie, Louie, Louie, what am I going to do with you?” Piper asked, shaking her head at him. “If she nails this run tonight, I expect you to kiss her,” she told him, and Louie just rolled his eyes at Piper before looking back up at the top of the hill to see Daphne scooting to the edge of the pipe. “Okay, shhhh,” Piper ordered, even though Louie wasn’t saying a word. She grabbed a hold of his arm, squeezing tightly, as she nervously watched Daphne. She was praying that she was going to nail this first run, as she knew that Daphne got frustrated if she didn’t get something down the first time.

“Okay, Piper,” Louie began, putting his hand on top of hers. “You’re starting to cut off circulation,” he told her, prying her fingers from around his arm. “Seriously, you’re hurting me,” he added.

“Oh, sorry,” she apologized, not taking her eyes off of Daphne, who had begun her run. She watched as Daphne bent her knees to try to get big air, succeeding when she completed her first trick. She noticed she was going up for her backside nine hundred next, and Piper held her breath as she watched Daphne rotate in the air. Her eyes immediately went wide when she realized Piper wasn’t going to get enough rotation to complete the trick, and she ended up falling. “No!” she cried, throwing her head back and looking up at the sky. She looked over at Louie to see he had his eyes shut, feeling bad for Daphne as well.

“Daphne, you’ll get it next time,” Piper assured her as Daphne saw her score flash across the screen.

“I should have had it this time,” Daphne snapped at her before heading back up the hill, not saying another word to her.

“She’ll be fine,” Louie told Piper, as he could see she was hurt by Daphne’s tone of voice. He put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her in towards her. “You’re a good coach. You’ve taught her well,” he said in a near whisper, trying to keep their conversation as private as possible when thousands of people were surrounding them. He knew that was exactly what Piper was thinking at the moment, that she was a bad coach, and that couldn’t have been further from the truth. “Just wait and see,” he added, and Piper nodded her head, watching as Gretchen Bleiler began her run next.

They continued to watch every female take their run, waiting for it to be Daphne’s turn once again. Piper couldn’t help but feel she had failed Daphne in one way or another as a coach. Was it her fault that Daphne couldn’t land the backside nine hundred? Maybe she should have just convinced her to take it out of her run and try an easier trick instead.

It was finally Daphne’s turn once again. Piper held her breath as she watched her edge her way out to begin her run. “Piper, calm down,” Louie told her, putting his hands on her shoulders. “She’s going to get it,” he assured her.

Piper nodded her head but didn’t say anything as she kept her eyes glued on Daphne. She went into her run perfectly on her line, hitting her first two tricks easily. She went up for a straight air, and Piper saw her bobble in the air. Her breath caught in her throat, as she watched her come down, scared she was going to fall. But, she did the exact opposite, staying on her feet and going up for her backside nine hundred. Piper knew that she hadn’t landed as she needed to after the straight air, and she knew she wasn’t going to be able to complete the backside nine, but she still continued to pray, hoping that she was wrong. When Daphne fell, Piper couldn’t say she was too surprised, but she still put her hand over her mouth, waiting to make sure Daphne stood up just fine on her own to see that she was uninjured.

Daphne immediately stood up, bypassing Piper and Louie completely, and Piper sighed loudly, not knowing what to do about Daphne. She wanted to be there to help her, but she knew that no matter what she would say to Daphne, it wouldn’t help. “I’ll be right back,” she heard Louie say as he trotted off after Daphne, seeing her just as she was starting to make her way back up the hill. “Daph!” he called out, but she continued walking, not even slowing down for him. He quickened his pace, calling out her name again before he grabbed onto the back of her jacket when he got close enough.

“What?” she asked, obviously annoyed right now, as she stopped in her tracks, staring straight into Louie’s eyes. Louie wasn’t the tallest guy, but he was still taller than Daphne by about three inches, and she had to look up at him in order to look into his eyes. Louie put a hand on each of Daphne’s shoulders, and she took a deep breath, knowing she needed to calm herself. “What?” she repeated in a softer tone this time.

“Do you not remember what I told you?” he asked her. “You’ve got to clear your mind,” he stated.

“Louie,” she sighed.

“No,” he shook his head, not wanting to hear anything she was about to say. “Clear your mind. Don’t worry about anyone or anything else. Don’t think about anything. Clear your mind,” he repeated.

Daphne shut her eyes before inhaling deeply. She opened her eyes to see Louie staring down at her. “I’m going to do it your way. And, if this works, you can have anything you want from me,” she told him. “I will owe you my career if this works,” she said.

“No, you owe your career to Piper,” he reminded her. “But, you will owe me, too,” he said with a smile. “Now, clear your mind and win this thing.”

“Thanks,” Daphne smiled back at him before continuing her trek up the hill.

Louie made his way back to Piper, having to push through the crowd of people, who were irritated that someone was going in front of them. Finally, he had managed to make it back to Piper, and she looked over at him, wondering what he had just done. “She’s going to win it,” he told her confidently, and Piper raised an eyebrow at him, wanting a better explanation, but she received nothing else from him as he turned his attention back to the top of the hill where Hannah Teter was getting ready for her run. They watched as she did pretty well, not pulling out all of her tricks, but pulling the run off cleanly nevertheless.

They watched her score flash up on the screen, and they knew that with her score putting her in second place behind Gretchen, Daphne had a legitimate shot at winning the gold medal if she could pull of this last run.

Everyone’s eyes were on Daphne as she got ready for her run. Piper bit down on her bottom lip, praying that everything would go right for Daphne. She watched her begin her run smoothly, and she knew the backside nine hundred was coming up next. She watched her bend her knees and rotate fully around, landing perfectly on the snow below her, going straight into a frontside nine hundred. Piper turned to Louie as Daphne cleanly finished her run, a giant grin on her face. “I don’t know how you did it, but you’re a miracle worker!” Piper exclaimed before beginning to scream for Daphne, who made her way over to Louie and Piper.

As her score flashed up on the screen, and Daphne realized she had just gotten into first place, she looked over at Louie, her eyes wide. “You are amazing,” she said before crashing her lips against his.

She started to pull away, just as she had done after she had first completed her backside nine, but Louie wasn’t going to have a repeat of that night once again. “Oh no you don’t. You’re not going anywhere,” he said, putting his hand on the back of her head, pulling her to him once again, beginning a make-out session for all the ESPN cameras to see.