by J. Nathan
“How could you concentrate with the music playing so loud next door?” I asked.
“There was no music playing.”
Oh, my God. There hadn’t been. How had I not realized that? I’d heard her sleep-talking. I’d slept soundly. Had they given up torturing me?
Kason
I rushed to the table in the corner of the library hoping I beat Little One there. I hadn’t.
She sat with her arms across her chest glaring at me. “Your time might not be precious, but mine is.”
“Sorry,” I said as I slipped into the chair across from her and dropped my bag to the ground. “Thayer and I went to Winter.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What’s Winter?”
“An indoor slope.”
“There’s such a thing?”
“You must not be from Colorado,” I said.
“Actually I am. I’m just not interested.”
I scoffed. “That’s kind of rude. I find what you do interesting.”
“Such as?” she challenged.
“Um…well…physics.”
She rolled her eyes.
I reached down and grabbed my physics book, knowing I needed to be serious and focused or she’d walk out on me. “Which page?”
Her lips twisted as she appeared to consider something. “I want to try something.”
“Okay.”
“Pull up one of your snowboard videos,” she said.
I smirked. “Couldn’t resist, could you?”
“Stop being an idiot.”
I pulled out my phone and pulled up the highlight reel I’d filmed for Slopes when they needed social media content. I handed the phone to her. “Try not to be too impressed.”
She took the phone and watched intently. How could she not be impressed? I nailed every trick—at least every one that made the highlight reel.
I watched her eyes as they took in my inverted aerials, double grabs, and back twelve doubles. Her features didn’t change. She appeared unfazed by my skills. What the fuck?
She handed me back my phone. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
She nodded, opening her notebook and scribbling something down. She spun it to face me and I could see she’d jotted down some numbers, letters, and symbols. “A snowboarder gains speed by converting gravitational potential energy into kinetic energy of motion. So, the more a snowboarder descends a hill, the faster he goes. There were a bunch of instances where you were going down a hill in that video. Since the side of the mountain was steep, you needed to prevent yourself from going too fast and losing control.”
“I’m a pro. That’s child’s play.”
She rolled her eyes, clearly put off by my unwarranted commentary.
“To stop yourself from skidding on the snow, you used a zig-zag pattern. You probably don’t even realize it, but that creates frictional resistance with the snow and prevents your speed from reaching dangerously high levels. Less experienced snowboarders probably skid around their turns, right?”
I nodded.
“Well, that happens because the snowboard is tilted on its edge and the exposed base of the board plows into the snow head-on.” She showed me with the slant of her hand. “I assume it results in a significant loss in speed.”
“Yeah.”
“This happens because the plowing action generates frictional resistance with the snow by physically pushing it. This resistance is significantly more than the resistance seen if the snowboard were to glide on the snow with the base of the board flat on the snow. The board is pointed in the same direction as its velocity—which is the same as the velocity of the snowboarder. The necessary requirement for minimizing snow resistance and maximizing speed.”
Though I normally struggled to keep up with science “language,” Little One’s snowboarding example helped me relate to the information so I could visualize it.
She tapped the tip of her pen on the notebook, showing me the letters she’d written earlier. “This allows the snowboard to go around the turn without any skidding, since the snowboard is always pointed in the same direction as its velocity.”
“I think I get it,” I said.
Her brows inverted. “You do?”
“More than I did when I got here.”
She nodded, though I couldn’t read her expression. Was she happy she’d helped me or indifferent since she hated me?
“For someone who knows nothing about snowboarding, you sure do know a lot about it.”
She shrugged. “It’s basic science.”
“I think you need to hit the slopes and test your examples for yourself.”
She shook her head. “That would be a disaster. My coordination is what you call lacking.”
“You? I never would’ve thought that.”
She leveled me with her eyes.
I chuckled. “Everyone has to start somewhere, Little One.”
“I’ll be staying on solid ground.”
“Suit yourself. But, you’ll never know what you’re missing out on.”
She shrugged, my challenge not the least bit appealing to her.
“Why don’t you wear contacts?”
She glanced up, her old glasses magnifying her green eyes. “What?”
“You’ve got pretty eyes,” I said, just noticing the dark green ring around her emerald eyes.
“Stop.”
“I’m serious,” I insisted. “Why do you hide them?”
She stared down at the pages in front of her, probably plotting my imminent death. “Contacts cost money which I don’t have.”
“Tuition bleed you dry?”
“I wouldn’t have even been able to afford tuition if it wasn’t for my scholarship.”
“Geez, sorry to hear that.”
She shrugged. “It’s only temporary. I won’t end up like my parents.”
“That bad?”
“Worse.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. I hadn’t expected such honesty from her. But then again, I didn’t really know her.
CHAPTER 9
Kason
Worse.
That word played through my mind as I sat on a crate behind the counter at Blades, my buddy Jesse’s ski shop. It wasn’t busy during the off-season, so Thayer and I usually just chilled there while we weren’t in class or skateboarding.
“McCloud.”
I glanced to Jesse standing in front of me. “What?”
He and Thayer laughed.
I looked between them. “What?”
“You didn’t hear a word I said, did you?” Jesse asked.
“Sorry, bro. What’d you say?”
“We were just saying that if VonBuren doesn’t make it back from rehab by January, it’s only Ousterman you need to worry about.”
“Kason doesn’t worry about anyone,” Thayer said, always having my back, even though he should’ve been competing too. “Right, Kason?”
I shrugged, spinning the wheels on my skateboard.
“I hear Slopes is throwing one hell of a bender next weekend up at the mountain,” Jesse said.
I rolled my eyes. “Just an excuse to get us all in one room wearing their shit disguised as a charity event.”
“Such a hardship,” Jesse laughed. “Hey, if you’re hating on Slopes, I hear Kincaid’s chomping at the bit to sponsor you.”
I frowned and nodded, having heard the same rumor.
“Dude. You know that means you’ve made it if they want to sponsor you,” he said.
I shook my head. “You know I signed an exclusive contract with Slopes. I can’t accept Kincaid’s offer.”
“Their very generous offer,” Thayer added.
“Rookie mistake,” I said, knowing when I first got my Slopes’ offer, I was stoked. The money they offered upfront covered my travel and competition expenses all over the world. But, now I realized that came with a price. I was trapped in a contract that dictated more than I bargained for. I’d felt like a prisoner since Cora started holding my sponsorship ov
er me, and her father started telling me which competitions they’d pay for—which I now had a sneaky suspicion was dictated by said daughter who didn’t want me traipsing across the globe. My boys who signed on with Kincaid from jump had all the freedom in the fucking world.
“You could always piss off Cora so Daddy will kick your ass to the curb,” Jesse said.
My eyes widened. Since a contract was binding, I hadn’t considered trying to get out of my contract. But, if they let me go…
“She is the one holding the sponsorship over your head,” he continued. “Right?”
How had I not thought of that before? I mean, I knew it was a totally shady thing to do.
“There’s got to be another way to get out of it,” Thayer said, always the straight shooter.
“Yeah. Maybe you’re right,” I said.
“Dude, rule number one,” Jesse said. “Don’t mix business with pleasure. Because, if there’s no longer pleasure, get yourself outta there as fast as you can.”
Maybe he was right. Maybe desperate times called for desperate measures.
Shay
Professor Raymond passed test booklets out to each table. The snowboarding examples really seemed to help Kason understand the ins and outs of circular motion and gravitation. We still needed to cover free body diagrams and Newton’s second law. But, he had enough background knowledge to at least put in a fair effort. I never promised an A. It’d be a miracle if he pulled off a D.
I opened the test booklet and checked the questions. Kason would know the first few, though he’d struggle on the last few. I glanced over my shoulder at him. As if he knew I was looking, his eyes shifted to mine. By the look on his face, he had read the questions and knew what I knew. I nodded subtly before turning to my test.
I flew through the questions, finishing my test before most probably even started the second question. I grabbed my backpack and looped my arms through the straps, dropping my test booklet on Professor Raymond’s desk on my way to the door. He smiled, probably because he was sure I aced it. I peeked at Kason before I stepped into the hallway. His pen moved furiously across his page like a man on a mission. Hopefully, he’d pass. That way, we could go our separate ways, and I’d never have to speak to Kason McCloud ever again.
***
I sensed someone hovering over me at my corner table in the library. I yanked off my headphones, letting them hang around my neck as I glanced up. Kason stood there with his hands in his jean pockets, his backpack on his back, and a beanie covering all but the ends of his hair that curled under the back of it.
“What are you listening to?” he asked as he slipped off his backpack.
“Tesla.”
“I thought that was a car.”
“And a rock band.”
He dropped into the seat across from me. “Didn’t take you for a rock fan.”
I shrugged. “I like eighties and nineties rock.”
“Can I listen?”
“Why?”
“Because I’m interested.”
I sighed, wishing I could just tutor him and not have to play nice. I pulled off my headphones and handed them to him. The sooner we got this charade over with the better.
He put them on, his eyes lifting to the ceiling as he listened to the song I’d been listening to. “What’s the song?” he shouted, clearly not realizing how loud he was in the quiet library.
I motioned for him to take them off.
He pulled them off.
“‘What You Give,’” I explained. “It’s my favorite.”
“I like it.”
“Liar.”
“I’m serious. It’s good. It’s slow then it surprises you and gets hard.”
I held out my hand, requesting my headphones back. He passed them to me, and I tucked them into my backpack.
“What are we doing tonight?”
I opened my notebook to a drawing of a snowboarder with different lines and angles labeled with letters. I turned it so he could see it, while I looked at it upside down. “The line passing through points P and G…” I pointed to the diagram with the end of my pen and traced the line from P to G for him. “This is defined here as the angle of lean of the snowboarder.”
“Did you draw this?” Kason asked, leaning over the picture.
“Yes.” I tapped my pen on the drawing, trying to get him to focus. “G is the center of mass of the system which consists of the snowboarder plus the snowboard, which together can be treated as a rigid body.”
“This is really good,” he said, seemingly ignoring everything I just explained. “You’re really talented.”
I pulled in a silent breath begging God for the strength to endure his ADHD which I assumed he had, in addition to his dyslexia. “P is the approximate contact point between the snowboard and the snow. L is the distance between point P and point G which you see is just about the center of the snowboarder’s stomach.”
“Right here?” he pointed to the line running from the board to the snowboarder.
I nodded.
“That looks more like his belly button.”
“What?”
“G.”
“Fine. G can be his belly button.”
Kason smirked, liking that he got his way. Little did he know, I was trying to get this over with and would agree to most things at this point so he’d erase the video.
“Now this is the centripetal acceleration of point G—”
“The belly button?”
I huffed. Did he really think I wanted to be there? Did he really think it was fun for me to be explaining basic physics to someone who was blackmailing me? “This acceleration is in the x-direction and points toward the center of the turn, at a given instant F1 is the contact force in the x-direction, with the snow, acting on the snowboard at point P.”
He stared at the drawing as I traced the area I wanted him focused on.
“N1 is the contact force in the y-direction, with the snow acting on the snowboard at point P.”
“I think my head might explode.”
“It’s not going to explode,” I assured him.
“How do you know?”
“Because, only six people have ever died from their head exploding, so statistically, with over seven billion people in the world, there is a slim chance of it happening to you.”
“You’re lying,” he said.
“I’m not. It happened to a chess player in Russia in the nineties. It’s called Hyper Cerebral Electrosis. Those who’ve suffered from HCE were said to be highly intelligent with great powers of concentration—so no need to worry.”
He laughed. “I still don’t believe you.”
“Look it up. It happens when the circuits of the brain become overloaded by the body’s own electricity. During time of intense mental activity—like a game of chess—when excess currents are surging through the brain, the explosions are said to happen.”
“Wow. You’re not kidding.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s pretty scary.”
“I think you may be a candidate for HCE,” he said.
“You worried about getting my brain bits all over you?”
He grimaced. “That’s disgusting.”
I snickered. “You brought it up.”
“Was that a laugh? Did Little One actually just laugh?”
“It won’t happen again.”
“I hope it does.”
The way his eyes stared into mine made me feel all sorts of weird things. Good-looking guys did not stare at me. And just because this one was a grade A asshole, it didn’t mean it wouldn’t affect me. “Did you pass Raymond’s test?” I asked, swiftly changing the subject.
“I didn’t tell you? I got a D. I think he only gave it to me since I was the last one in class taking the test, and he wanted to go home.”
“Well, you passed. And, you’re going to pass the next one if you focus.” I tapped my pen on the drawing, pulling his attention back to the line my pen was now tracing. “Note that
v is the instantaneous velocity of the center of mass G. This velocity is pointing off the page. The center of mass G has zero acceleration in the y-direction. Therefore, the forces in the y-direction acting on the system must sum to zero.”
“Okay.”
My brows shot up. “You get it?”
“No. I need a break because my head hurts—but we both know my head won’t really explode, so I just need a breather.”
I laughed to myself—which told me I needed a breather too. I did not find guys like Kason McCloud funny. I hated guys like him. Him specifically. I pushed my chair back and stood.
“You’re not leaving, are you?” he asked.
“I’ll be back.” I grabbed my phone and took off for the restroom. If he thought he needed a break, he had no idea how difficult it was to sit with him and not want to beg him to erase that video every five minutes.
I used the restroom then got a drink from the vending machine, taking my time so I could relax. Because any time I thought of the video, my stress level shot through the roof.
When I returned to our table, a pretty brunette was sitting on top of it and laughing at something Kason was saying. I cleared my throat.
She turned to look at me. “Yes?”
“You’re sitting on my assignment.”
She looked down at the papers she was sitting on. “Oops.” She scooted herself off the table with a giggle. “You have my number, Kason.”
“I’ll hit you up this weekend,” he said.
“You better.” She turned and disappeared from our corner of the library.
I straightened the papers on the table, annoyed by the intrusion. “It’s a wonder she found you all the way back here,” I mumbled before sitting back down.
“Why’s that?”
“Well, since we’re hiding back here so no one sees us together—”
“Not true,” he said.
“Totally true. I don’t want people seeing us together.”
“Well, I don’t care if people see us together,” he said.
Yeah, right. “Can we just get back to the physics?”
He laughed. “It’s why we’re here, isn’t it?”
CHAPTER 10
Kason
Thayer spotted for me as I lay on the weight bench lifting in the campus gym. Until it snowed, I needed to increase my workouts. I pressed one more before dropping it into the rack.