Free Falling

The last few days of my life have been really exciting to say the least. I just kicked some major ass in a huge race, and then I come home from doing interviews to realize I had a message Travis fucking Pastrana asking me to come out to Maryland so he could help me with my freestyle. For those of you who don't know, that's kinda a big deal. Although, my sponsors are making a very big deal and say that it's going to be basicaly extreme training for the next couple months.

So here I am at the airport waiting for Travis or someone from his clan to come pick me up. I had been here for a while. I felt like a total loser sitting all by myself with several bags surrounding me. After looking at my phone for the hundredth time, I looked up to see someone standing in front of me.

"Dyan Johnson?" he asked.

"Um, yeah. You are?"

"Jim DeChamp. Travis sent me to pick you up. He got a little distracted," he said smiling. He grabbed two of my bags while I took the other one. We put them in the back of his truck and then got in.

"You're a pro mountainbiker, right?" I asked as we started driving.

"Mostly. I do freestyle and other stuff."

"Cool," I said simply.

"Just so you know, Travis hasn't been able to shut up about you since he saw you at some race a while back," Jim said laughing. "I'm pretty sure he has read and watched everything that there is about you."

"Great," I said sarcastically. "That isn't creepy at all."

"Yeah, I guess that is kinda creepy," Jim said. "He's not some stalker. He's just has taken an interest in you."

"More like an interest in my ass." Jim looked over at me strangly. "I'm kidding. I'm flattered, but I'm here cause my sponsors thought it would be a good idea for me to come out here so Travis could whip me into shape."

"So you don't really want to be here?"

"No, I think it's awesome being here, but the way they were talking, it's going to be some extreme training." Jim started laughing really hard. "What?"

"Knowing Travis it's going to be far from that. He probably just said that stuff so your sponsors would let you come out here."

I looked out the window to see were pulling up to a set of very large gates. Jim rolled down his window and entered the code on the key pad. The gates slowly opened and then we drove through. A massive house soon came into view.

"Welcome to Pastranaland," Jim said smiling as he parked in front of the smaller garage.

"Sweet," I said looking around. Then we heard a whole bunch of yelling coming from the other side of the house. I curiously followed the sounds.

Now, I've seen pictures of Travis' house so I knew everything was going to be big but I din't it was going to be this big.

They had a ramp set up to the foam pit and were trying to get a bigger guy to do some stunt.

"Hey Trav," Jim yelled. A shirtless guy that was sitting on a 4-wheeler turned around with a huge grin on his face.

"Hey Dylan, nice to finally have you here," Travis said extending his hand out for me to shake.

"You too," I said shaking his hand.

"Travis, hurry up or Tommy's gonna chicken out," someone yelled. Travis looked down at our hands, that were still together, and then back up to me.

"Hold that thought," he said before letting go of my hand and jumping back onto the 4-wheeler. Tommy, with lots of protective gear on, was now duct taped to a rolling chair. Travis made him grab a hold of the back of the 4-wheeler and basically tired flinging him into the foam pit. While we were watching, Jim was telling me the names of everybody there. They tired it and finally got Tommy into the foam pit multiple times before Tommy call it quits.

"So I'm sorry I didn't pick you up. Things get crazy around here," Travis said as we walked into the house.

"Its all good," I said smiling.

"Would you like for me to show you around?" he asked.

"Can I take a shower first?" I asked smiling.

"What, you don't want to be all dirty like the rest of us?" he said shoving me a little.

"Hey, I don't mind being dirty," I said pushing him back. "Its just when I'm dirty because I was stuck on a plane between two very sweaty guys that I didn't know."

"Yeah, that is kind of disgusting," Travis said thinking about it. "Hey Andy," he yelled. "Could you help me with Dylan's bags?"

"We got it covered, Andy." I turned back to Travis. "Unless you don't think you're man enough."

"Finally a girl who can hold her own with Travis," Andy said laughing.

"Hey, I heard that!" Jolene yelled from the kitchen.

"Maybe you should go help them, Andy, before Jolene kicks your ass," Jim said. Andy flipped Jim off, but then stood up and followed outside. He quickly went out to the truck, grabbed a bag, and then went strait back into the house. While Travis and I took our time walking to the truck.

"So what made you get into motocross?" Travis asked.

"My brother-in-law's family is really into dirt biking so my parents got me a bike so I could go with them. I loved riding up in the mountains and I still do, but I wanted to get into something a little more competitive. But what really made me want to get into moto was when I saw you race when I was about 14," I told him.

"Wow, I didn't know that."

"Yep, so here I am all thanks to you," I said poking him in his chest. We each grabbed a bag and then headed up to my room.

"So this is your room. If it doesn't bother you, me and you will be sharing a bathroom since there is a conjoining one between our rooms," he explained as I looked around the room.

"Awesome. You can't be as bad as some of the guys I've had for roommates."

"Well, I'll leave you to it," he said grinning. He left and then I got into the shower. After I got out and dressed, I went downstairs to where everyone was. I came into the room, and they were all sitting around , drinking beer and talking about stunts they could do.

"For those of you who haven't figured it out, this is Dylan Johnson," Travis said pulling me in front of everyone.

"Yes, Travis we know!" Jolene said rolling her eyes.Travis chuckled and the pulled me outside. He took me inside his shop and basically gloated about all his trophy bikes. Then showed me the slip-n-bleed, and all the other awesome things.

"So that's pretty much everything," Travis said as sat down in some chairs that were by the pool.

"Well, its all pretty sweet," I said looking around.