Black and White- a Shaun White fanfic

Chapter 3- Redemption

APOV

Shaun’s amazing.

Something about him, it’s like we’ve known each other for ages. Honestly, he’s like that best friend that I’ve never had.

We just finished chatting at Starbucks for a bit. It was cool because I got to know Shaun and Kari better and vice versa. Kari talked about her job as an ESPN tech crew person, Shaun raved about how I-Pod lands this YOLO flip thing and now Shaun’s gonna master it. I spoke of meeting Yuna Kim, my idol, and landing my triple-triple combo.

Of course, time never ceases to tick along when you desperately want it to slow. Sure enough, it was time for Kari to go back to her job and Shaun to go back after his break.

“Bye guys, I’ll see you later,” Kari waves as she hugs both Shaun and I before jogging away.

“Sorry Ally, but I gotta ditch too, unless you want to stay and watch me hit a few more runs.” Shaun grimaces while we walk out of the doors of Starbucks.

“If it’s not a problem, I’d love to.”

“Yeah sure, come on,” he beams before dragging me to the halfpipe. I giggle as he shows me where to stand at the bottom before moving to the ski lift.

What a strange boy. In a few hours, not only has he wormed his way into my small list of besties, but he’s also dispelled every notion of being an arrogant dickhead from my mind. Sure I haven’t known him for long, but I don’t think it’s possible for that boy to do something to hurt me.

I turn my head to the top of the halfpipe, watching as he nails jump after spin after jump. Not really knowing much about snowboarding, I’m still pretty sure that changing direction of your flips in mid-air should not be possible. But of course, he’s Shaun White; what would you expect?

He makes it off of the pipe without falling and sprays me with powder, which I, of course, greatly appreciate (note heavy sarcasm).

“Oh my gosh, that was super cool. Your, like, defying the laws of physics. You Isaac Newton hater or something,” I gush, smiling at him.

He chuckles. “Or something.”

“’Yeah whatever Newton, go do it again.”

“So I’m Newton huh? What are you then? I’ll call you a shrimp, cause y’know, you a shrimp.”

“No, I hate seafood!”

“Funny; I hate balding, middle-aged geniuses so I guess we’re even.”

Giggling, I return to the subject. “Wait so was that run good or bad?” I ask, genuinely confused.

Shaun returns with a chuckle, “It’s a decent run and it’d be pretty good for someone else, but not good enough for an Olympic gold medal.” He runs his hands through his helmet-free short hair before continuing, “There’s just so much pressure y’know? I mean I love the pressure, but I don’t know, maybe this is too much.” Poor guy. At 23, he’s expected to break the record of US gold medals. But, he’s literally only 23. Ugh, society.

I give him a reassuring hug before continuing, “So what can you do to get a better score?”

“Well, I could win if I landed this perfect, but I’m scared Iouri’s gonna pull out his move and then the only thing I can do is do it myself.” Oh, this I understand (definitely not because Shaun explained it to me…). This Russian-born Swiss guy landed this trick that’s a switch double with 4 rotations- or at least that’s what my poor snowboarding language understanding got me to. So anyway, Shaun’s pretty decent at landing this, but he claims to look awkward doing it and doesn’t want to have to compete it before mastering it.

“Hey, you know what they say: practice makes perfect.”

“I am perfect,” he winks before heading back up to try the dramatized trick. From the bottom, I see him talk to his coach, Bud Keene, before snapping his boots in.

And down he goes. After a front-side 1080, he throws himself into the air, flipping twice, rotating 4 times, angering the spirit of Isaac Newton, before landing- ish. I wince in pain as his board lands on the deck before flipping him over. After a few moments with his face in the snow, he clamors up, clips off his board, and makes his way towards me, rotating his shoulder as he goes. I recognize the look on his face. It’s the same look I get when wiping out a triple axel- it’s a bit of pain and soreness, humiliation and embarrassment, and a whole lot of determination.

“Hey are you alright?” I ask Shaun, pulling him in for a hug.

“Yeah, just a bit sore. But I’ll be fine in a moment.” I stare at him for a moment before telling him to get back up there.

He looks at me in disbelief.

“I just wiped out on a trick and you want me to do it again?”

“Hey, you said you were fine,” I giggle, “and plus, you don’t have to try again now, just review what went wrong first. After all, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Thanks.”

SPOV

“I just wiped out on a trick and you want me to do it again?”

“Hey, you said you were fine, and plus, you don’t have to try again now, just review what went wrong first. After all, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” Wow. I guess that’s what people mean when they say she’s extremely focused. Honestly, if it was just me, I’d call it quits and spend the rest of the day nursing my ego.

“You’re crazy.”

“Thanks.”

At the top of the slope, we meet Buddy who possibly has the most surprised look on his face, ever.

“Whoa, Shaun, what are you doing back up here after falling? You usually would be gone by now.”

“I don’t know, Ally,” I direct my attention to her, ”why am I here?”

“Do you really want me to answer that?” She asks with her hands on her hips. I shake my head at her.

“Yeah, Bud, can I review the take for that run? I don’t know what happened.”

~*timeskip*~

“Hey, Ally, thanks for today. I would’ve never landed the YOLO without you”

Her small hand is encased in mine as I walk her to her car.

“It’s no problem, really. I’ve honestly wanted to go home so many times after a hard fall but I’ve realized that my problems won’t fix themselves. Redemption is the best prize.”

I look at her in shock. Is this really a fifteen year old standing in front of me? Her wisdom is way beyond her age and I find that very attractive.

Wait, what?

Ugh, this can’t be happening right now. I literally have everything on the line.

“Are you OK?” her innocent voice asks.

“Yeah, fine.”

~*sry guys, I had a dance competition yesterday and got home way later than I expected. But her you go! Poor Shaun :( and he’s starting to have feelings for ally, but she’s basically already friendzoned him… but itll get better… maybe ;) so vote, comment, share… ily*~

xx_LynnieThePooh_