He's a Wildcard

Chapter 14 - Wildcard

Chapter 14 – Wildcard

I hadn’t before sat down to eat my food when the buzzer went off. “Oh for crying out loud,” I muttered. When I actually wanted to be alone for a while, people couldn’t seem to stop appearing.

“Yeah?”

“Let me up,” Trix’s voice ordered and I did as she told me, leaving the door open I went back to the table.

Trix came in looking fresh in a pair of denim shorts and brown gladiator sandals that went up her legs. “You’re not ready.”

I looked at her as if she’d just lost her mind. “Ready for what?”

“The BMX meet down by Venice beach?” Seeing my blank look she sighed and continued. “You, me and Austin were supposed to go see Chace compete and I was going to pick you up?”

“Oh!” I exclaimed as realisation hit, having completely forgotten this.

“Yes, oh.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I can go.”

“What do you mean you can’t go? It’s going to be fun.”

I wondered if I should tell her about today or not, but I knew that it would take a lot more time to hash through that than what Trix had to spare right now.

“I don’t even like sports,” I tried. My attempt was half hearted just because I didn’t actually have a valid reason not to go without going into details. Judging by the way Chace had sent me off earlier I didn’t actually think he’d want me there today.

“Riley, you promised. It’s going to be fun. Everything is better when there’s a good crowd. You don’t have to actually like the main event. You swallow that food and I’ll go pick out something for you to wear, you’ll die from a heatstroke if you go out in that.”

And so we went. Trix was right of course, because when we got there she took my hand so we wouldn’t loose each other in the crowd and located Austin by one of the rows that were high up.

“There you two are,” he grinned at us and I breathed a sigh of relief that I had some space to actually move again. “Come on, I got you some seats.”

Austin explained how it was an unofficial event so there weren’t any designated seating system, it was first come first serve and apparently people had arrived very early to grab the best seats.

When it all began I had to give it to Trix’s blind faith in a good crowd because she’d been right; just the energy of everyone made it all very fun. I cheered and laughed, and was surprised that I could actually have fun at such an event.

The commentator was an enthusiastic guy to say the least. He’d probably consumed a ton of redbull and espressos beforehand to achieve such a level of erraticness and energy. He may have been all over the place but he had the crowd going mental, so I guessed he’d achieved what he came there for.

One by one people began competing and the tiny blobs that were their bodies in the distance got blown up on several large screens, making it easier for the rest of us to pay attention. I didn’t understand how it all worked, how the contestants got to this and that point score, but they were ranked by four judges from 1-10 which then got blown up on a separate screen and added up to a score total that was the average of all the judges’. There were also a scoring board that showed who was in the lead and not.

The current guy got 7.86 points, which put him in the lead and that made people roar with complimentary cheers.

That was when Chace’s face got blown up on the screen. His large grin was one of mischief and when he threw a fist into the air everyone went crazy. I looked around me in a daze at the effect he had on people. It was very obvious they loved him.