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The Race


by katniss_66

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"Brush your hair, Halla. I expect they'll get here soon," said my exasperated mother as we were in the middle of our mad dash trying to get the house ready for our annual summer party. (Even though summer technically didn't start until June)

      "Oh, do I have to?" I replied indignantly.

      "Yes. Now go upstairs and don't come back down until that big tangle in your hair is gone."

      Once I was upstairs, I started trying to get the snarl out but to be honest, I didn't see anything wrong with my hair. I am a white Usul and Usuls always look pretty no matter how messy their hair is.

      I don't see what all the fuss is about over these summer parties but they have always been a big tradition in our family. You see, in when the weather gets warm, everyone in our family goes up to Terror Mountain where I live to escape from all the hot weather. The main event of the whole party is a skiing race though. Everyone in my family loves to ski so every year, the race gets more and more competitive.

      It started out as just a small short-distance race down a small part of the mountain but as the years went by, we got more and more into it. Now we have to go from the top of Terror Mountain all the way down to Happy Valley. There's even a trophy involved.

      The worst part about this whole ski race is that everyone has gotten so competitive that they're so mean to each other during "competition season" and no one talks to each other before the race. The best skier in our family is my cousin, Randy the Scorchio. He's won the race three times in a row! Great Aunt Sandra is always giving him these nasty looks before the races just to intimidate him. One year, she tried to sabotage Randy by not serving him enough lunch so that he wouldn't have enough energy for the competition but he always manages to win somehow.

      What's really too bad is that I'm the worst skier in the history of Neopia. Mom is always trying to train me and give me lessons but I just can't ski. That's all.

      Anyway, the first to arrive was great aunt Olga. She's an elderly Aisha. She used to be royal but one day, she had a run-in with Boochi. She was so unhappy as a baby that she painted herself with the first paint brush she could get her hands on. It was elderly. A couple days later, she met Boochi for the second time and what do you know, she's a baby again. But one day she found another paintbrush. Also elderly. She was so desperate to stop being a baby that she painted herself with it. I won't be surprised if she meets that Bruce again. He seems to like zapping her. Poor Olga.

      When you meet her for the first time, you would think that she was too old to be in the race but you would be wrong. She is one of the best skiers and frankly the scariest competitor on this side of Terror Mountain. She and Great Aunt Sandra are always getting into fights about who's the better skier. Usually, it turns into a really loud argument. That's when I leave the room.

      More and more cousins and uncles and aunts started arriving. It would take me hours to describe all of them but I'll tell you about a few.

      Uncle Louis the Skeith arrived shortly after Great Aunt Olga. He lives in a hut in Tyrannia with my cousins, Mary Elenor, a pink Uni who seems to care about her hair and her hair alone, Hyphen, a yellow Hissi who loves the outdoors and is always trying to tell me about all the different types of fungi that live in the Ice Caves and whatnot, and Flower, a mutant Bori who, despite her name hates flowers and is pretty scary. Don't look at me. I didn't name her.

      And then there was Nigel, my little cousin. He is by far the most annoying Krawk I have ever met. Every time he comes to my house, he manages to break something. Last year, it was my favorite usuki and the year before that, it was my skateboard. I have no idea how, but he managed to break the entire thing in half.

      I really wish it was anything but my skateboard though because I loved skateboarding so much and I was actually pretty good. I got a new one but it wasn't the same. Plus, I left it out in the rain one day and it turned green.

      As more relatives started arriving, my yard became harder and harder to walk in without having your paws run over by my cousin Harvey on his snowboard or being caught in the middle of an argument between Dad and Uncle Erwin about where Erwin should park his alabriss.

      "Halla," I heard someone yell. I sighed when I saw it was Randy.

      "Come over here and see what I brought!"

      I walked over to him to see that he was holding a large pair of skis.

      "Aren't they beautiful?"

      "Yah..." I said.

      "They are the newest model from the best company. They are made of fine metal and have a most lovely picture of fire on them. Read the writing on the bottom!"

      He shoved the skis at me.

      ""Do not ingest,'" I read.

      "Not that writing! It says, it's plated with solid gold!"

      "And you're showing them to me because..."

      "I like to intimidate my competition before a big race," he replied.

      See what I mean? He's crazy.

      Later that day, I tried to come up with a way to get out of competing in the race. I have tried so many things there past few years. Pretending to be sick never works. I can't hide in the closet like I did last year. It would be the first place my mom would look for me if I went missing. But just when I thought all hope was lost, a marvelous thing happened.

      I was in the kitchen when I heard this horrible snapping sound. I ran into the living room to see what happened.

      "Nigel!" I yelled.

      He was holding something behind his back.

      "What are you holding?" I asked him.

      "Nothing."

      I slowly walked up to him. He was holding half of a broken ski.

      "You broke my ski!"

      "No, I didn't," he said.

      Suddenly, something occurred to me.

      "If my skis are broken, I don't have to compete!" I said aloud.

      When I told my mom what had happened, she needed a little persuasion but she finally agreed with me that I did not have to ski. I was ecstatic! I felt like a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I was free! Free as a weewoo!

      "Lovely morning, isn't it?" I said to Randy as I watched him get ready to ski while I got ready to watch. I found a nice tree to watch the race from as everyone was lining up at the top of the mountain.

      "On your mark," said Mom. Great Aunt Olga was trying to get in front of the other racers.

      "Get set,"

      Randy glared at Great Aunt Olga.

      "G-"

      "Wait!" yelled Dad.

      Everyone turned to look at him.

      "Halla, I feel so bad for you. You prepared all year for this competition but now you can't ski. You deserve to be in the race."

      He took off his skis and handed them to me. Oh no.

      "No, Dad. You can go. I don't feel very well."

      "Oh. I insist."

      I was going to have to ski.

      "All right, Dad."

      "On your mark," said Mom again. "Get set... GO!"

      I took off down the mountain. Everyone was going so fast you could only see a blur of color. Suddenly, the competitive Uncle Louis "accidentally" collided with Great Aunt Olga and sent her sprawling in the snow. Well, that got Olga really mad and she lunged at him. I don't know what happened after that because I skied past them but I heard that Uncle Louis got blurred vision.

      They were out of the competition but I had my own problems to deal with. The skis Dad had given me were way too big. How could I even get to the finish line in them, let alone win.

      I was an embarrassment to the family.

      Then I saw something that lifted my spirits. Randy seemed to be having trouble getting through the snow. I guess that solid gold plating on his skis was weighing him down.

      But I was too busy looking at him to notice that I was heading right for a ski jump. It was too late to swerve. Before I knew it, I was going up the jump and lifting into the air. I was soaring over my opponents. I was in the lead!

      Then I realized my skis were slipping off. I flexed my feet to keep them from plummeting to the ground but they did.

      When I hit the ground, the only things protecting my feet from the cold snow were my socks. I searched franticly for my skis and found one lying several feet away. I tried to make my way through the snow but it was so hard to walk in it when it was so deep. What a sight I would be. A little Usul stumbling through the snow in just her socks protecting her feet in the middle of a ski race. With great difficulty, I was finally able to find both skis and shove them on my feet.

      As I started to ski again, I watched Mary Eleanor fly past me. Shortly after her came Flower and Hyphen. What was the use? I would surely come in last place now. I fell into the snow. As I watched many others zoom past. I'm a complete failure.

      "Wait a minute," I said aloud, "I can't let one little competition bring me down. I'm not a failure! I'm not so bad at skiing either. I made it this far. Skiing isn't really that hard. Balance is the key."

      I put my most determined look on my face and got up out of the snow, dusted myself off and set off down the mountain again.

      "Just keep your balance like you do when you skateboard," I told myself. "Keep going, Halla. You're almost there."

      I flew past Mary Eleanor. I zoomed past Flower. Hyphen and I were in the lead now. Maybe I could win this. I could see the finish line.

      Hyphen looked at me, smiled, and flew past. She crossed over the line of yellow tape that marked the end of the race. I crossed the finish line shortly after her.

      Hyphen hoisted the trophy into the air. She had won.

      I smiled and pinned my second place ribbon to my jacket. So what if I didn't get first? In my eyes, I had won.

The End

 
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