Falling In

A couple of days have passed, and I was still staying with Deegan. It wasn’t hard living with him at all. It’s just like living with my brother. I’ve been spending the past two days with the Frends crew and just shredding with them. Today was the last day to practice a competition that I was going to be participating in tomorrow.

Mt. Rose was going to be the one hosting the event, so I decided to do my practice run over there so that I would be familiar with the terrain. The guys decided to pick me up because they were staying over at Truckee, not far from Reno, where I was staying at.

It’s been a tiring day, and man the terrain was challenging my riding skills. Only lunch and I had fallen over 20 times. We decided to take an early break so while everyone was eating we can get the run for ourselves.

I leaned back on my seat as I propped my foot up on Luke’s lap to ease the pain that I was feeling.

“Grab me an advil from my backpack please?” I asked the guy,

“Stells, don’t push yourself. You might not be able to compete tomorrow,” he sighed as he handed me over my best friend. I popped the cap open and grabbed a pill as I popped it into my mouth and gulped down water.

“I’ll be fine. Give me 5 minutes,” I told him as I just sat back and breathed, waiting for the medication to work. I stood up and put my boots on lightly as I grabbed my backpack. “I’m gonna go practice for a bit,” I told them and headed off to the lockers and put my bag in.

“Stella Grace?” I heard behind me.

I spun around at the familiar voice and I began racing towards him. “Gerald! What are you doing here?!” I asked him as I inspected the changes that had occurred in the past three years.

“What are you doing here?! You don’t seem to be here when we visit!” he pouted. It snapped at me that this was the usual weekend that they came annually to snowboard. I doubt that Ethan would come though. That’s what Deegan said.

“I’m uhhh… I’m off work for the next couple of weeks,” I smiled as I gave him a half hug because of the snowboard that was between us.

“What the hell was that?” he asked.

“The what?”

“You don’t just give me a fucking half hug. You owe me a full on bear hug!” he scoffed as he put my board aside and picked me up off the ground by the super tight hug.

“Put me down,” I struggled to say. “Can’t breathe. You’re too strong,” I choked as he finally put me down and I gasped for Oxygen. “Have you been working out?” I asked him when I was certain I was going to live.

He flexed his arm muscles as he looked at me. “Was it obvious?” he asked.

I shrugged. “No, I was just being nice,” I grinned cheekily.

“You dork,” he smiled. “So, what are you doing out here? Aren’t you supposed to be eating?”

“I’m gonna go for a run. I’m competing tomorrow, so I’m taking the terrain for a test run,” I smiled. “And right now, this slopestyle terrain isn’t treating me well. I’m not landing tricks,” I frowned.

“Well then, be glad that your lucky charm is here,” he smiled sheepishly. “Let’s go! I wanna go try that boardslide you tried to teach me three years ago,” he laughed.

“You still haven’t landed that trick?!” I asked horrified.

“I was just kidding. I landed it,” he defended. “Once,” he mumbled.

“How about you take videos?” I suggested.

“Good call,” he nodded.

An hour and a half later, I was making progress. I started landing my tricks and even learned a new one on the second jump.

“Are you doing the pipe comp?” he asked me

I nodded at him. “I’m focusing more on this though. I did pipe last year, so balancing it out,” I smiled.

“You competed last year and you didn’t call me?” he frowned.

“Sorry G,” I smiled. “You received my video of my train jump last year, right?” I asked as I took a swig of my red bull that was in my pocket.

“You did the train jump?! Are you crazy?!” he asked, eyes wide. “Don’t answer that. You are.”

“Can we just do one more run then we’ll meet up with the crew?” I sighed as I popped off my back leg and started the last run.

“Eyes on the terrain!” I heard the warning, but I pushed it aside and hit the first jump with a McTwist, then hitting off the next one with a Michaelchuck. I landed a frontflip handstand on the jib that came before the rail that I did a backside lipslide and did a backflip coming out of it. I was to approach the biggest jump on the terrain, and was in mid air before I saw a familiar board on the snow. I know, I know. It’s creepy, but never could I mistake that board for anybody else’s. Even from 50 feet up in the air.

“Stella Grace! Land it!” Gerald screamed out to me.

I spotted my landing which was only a couple of feet below me before I had a mini-heart attack thinking of what injury I was going to get this time. I let out a sigh of relief when I landed the trick safely.

“That was close,” Gerald shook his head at me.

“Who’s here with you?” I asked him cautiously

He tilted his head, probably confused that I asked that particular question out of nowhere. “The usual crew,” he shrugged talking about the people that usually came up here. My mouth opened to say something, but the Frends crew was starting to approach us.

“Sick run,” Jack told me.

“Thanks,” I smiled.

“They’re closing early because the winds are getting crazy. We’re gonna head off to the park near Deegan’s place and set up the snow over there so we can snowboard there, you down?” Scotty asked me.

“Totally,” I smiled. “I’ll go get my backpack and I’ll meet you at the car,” I told them. They nodded and walked away.

“We’ll meet at Deegan’s place?” I asked Gerald. He nodded at me as I jumped off my back leg and quickly made my way towards the “Chutes” and raced down the terrain and towards the parking.

“I still can’t keep up with you, Stella Grace,” the voice haunted me.

I spun around as fast as I could with one foot strapped in as I faced it. “Face it, Versace. You’ll never be as good as I am,” I smirked as I strapped out of my board completely and took it into my hands and walked towards the building.

“Is that a challenge, Descenzo?” he asked keeping in pace with me. It was easy for him and his long legs.

“No, because I’ll save you from humiliation,” I said as I punched in the numbers for my locker and took my backpack out.

“I take on that challenge,” he said.

I turned to him, a serious look on my face. “Look Ethan, I don’t wanna deal with you at all. So can you just please leave me alone,” I told him and walked away.

I got into the car with the crew, being squished between the two Mitrani’s. We made our way over to my temporary home as I opened the door for them to let them in.

“Where’s Deegan?” Luke asked as he made himself comfortable on the couch.

“Work. He’ll be back around 6ish,” I told them as I opened the fridge and pulled out a Vitamin Water. “Want some drinks?” I asked as they made their way over to me and grabbed their own drinks.

We locked up the condo as we made our way back down to the car and gathered our ‘street kit’ as we called it. It consisted of all the materials we need to make our own urban snowboarding park.

We got to work right away and were sweating by the end of it.

“Why do we do this?” Luke asked as he plopped down on the snow making his own seat like my snow version of a bean bag chair.

“I ask myself that everyday,” I smiled at Luke.

Stella Grace Descenzo ; December 2010

“Hey Stellsy. We’re gonna go jump over a train, you wanna come?” Luke asked me when I got back to the lodge for lunch.

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Sure, I’m gonna go commit suicide,” I said sarcastically.

He furrowed his eyebrows when he looked back up at me. “I’m serious Stella.”

My eyes widened. “What do you mean jump over a train?” I asked.

“Jump over a train,” he shrugged. “My brother and Scotty are working on the ramp right now. Louie’s helping them, and Torstein’s coming in a little bit,” he said.

“You’re not serious,” I stated hesitantly.

“I’m serious,” he said and pulled out his phone. “Let’s go. We have to test out the ramp before the train comes. There won’t be room for any mistakes by then,” he shrugged.

I followed him to the car as we drove the short 10 minutes near the train tracks. We parked behind the familiar Dodge Ram that was on the side of the freeway. We climbed up the small hill with our snowboards behind us and came to a clearing that the three guys were working on.

“Good to know that Stella’s crazy enough to try this,” Louie Vito smiled as he made his way over to me to give me a hug. “Good to see you Stella,” he smiled.

“Likewise LV,” I grinned. “So, what kind of suicidal actions are we doing today?” I asked as I clapped my hands.

“Well, we’re going to try out this platform if it gives us enough air and enough distance,” Scotty told me.

“Danny and Mason are making the platform down there for the snowmobile,” Jack said.

“Who’s getting all this on video?” I laughed, since Jack was always the one with the camera.

“Me!” I heard from the top of the hill.

“Hey Kev! What are you doing up there?!” I asked him.

“Taking your place as our photographer for now,” he smiled waving the camera around. “Oops. Sorry,” he mumbled when he realized that whoever would see the video would get nauseated because of such movement.

About half an hour later, we were all done with the set up and decided to take it for a test run before the train was scheduled to pass through in an hour.

“I’ll go first,” Luke volunteered. We cleared the way for him as he ascended the small hill to give him the speed to jump over it. “Here goes nothing,” he mumbled to himself as he popped off his back leg and made his way towards the ramp. We watched as he jumped over the tracks, and landed on the other side successfully.

“How is it?” Scotty shouted out to him.

“It’s good. Need a little bit more air. I think Stella and I are the only ones that would get enough air with that height,” he shouted back.

Scotty nodded and asked me to help him pile more snow onto the ramp we’ve been working on. Mason brought Luke back up to where we were and jumped off. “I didn’t get to say hi to you yet,” he laughed as he gave me a hug.

“Hi Mase,” I smiled as I returned it.

“How are you coping?” he asked me.

I looked at him and tilted my head to the side. “Coping about?”

He furrowed his eyebrows at me. “Jeremy and Ana,” he said.

“Oh…,” I shrugged. “I don’t really care.”

“Wait, so you mean you’re doing this willingly?” he asked me.

“Of course,” I laughed. I had the tendency to do the crazy stuff when I’m mad or depressed. They knew that. But Jeremy didn’t have anything to do with this. Hell, I didn’t even remember Jeremy ‘til today.

“Get back down there Aguirre!” Louie shouted out. “Stop flirting with Descenzo,” he teased.

“Gross,” we both mumbled.

“Jack’s gonna go first so he can get another angle down there. So, get the angles Kev!” Scotty shouted out.

“Hey! Don’t start without me!” we heard a voice form behind the bush.

“Hey Stein!” I grinned as I waved.

He looked taken aback. “You’re here, Stells,” he smiled. “Did somebody piss you off?”

I laughed. “No, I wanted to see if Luke was kidding that they were gonna jump over a train,” I chuckled.

“You’re becoming such a bad ass,” he shook his head at me.

“Everyone, take a jump and we’ll see how it is. The train’s scheduled in 15 minutes,” Louie said as he put his iPhone back in his pocket. Scotty took his jump, followed by Jack then Luke, which was then followed by Torstein and Mason then went Louie.

“Get down here you bad ass,” Luke laughed.

I rolled my eyes at him as I popped off my back leg and came full speed at the ramp and jumped, doing a quick Indy and landed it in front of the guys, spraying them with the snow.

“Nice,” they complimented.

“Okay, let’s get back up there and wait for the train,” Jack said and we did just that.

Jack went first, along with his camera and waited for the train to come. The adrenaline that was going through my veins were undeniably crazy. My heartbeat even was racing, probably faster than that train that was coming into view.

“Do you wanna do the third jump?” Jack asked me. I just nodded, looking at the train that was coming towards us. Fast.

I suddenly asked myself. What the fuck am I doing?