Rev Girl (18 page)

Dallas's roommate took off for the service station to get some ice creams, leaving her and Dallas with a small window of time together.

The hotel room was equally divided between neat order and haphazard mess, with hockey gear, clothes and drink bottles strewn over one half of the room, but similar items placed neatly and folded on the table beside the bed Dallas was lying on. The TV was on, but muted: players skating around a familiar looking rink she assumed a game from the tourney.

Dallas didn't object when Clover switched the TV off. He really didn't object when she stripped him of his jacket, flipped him onto his stomach, and got to work massaging his tense neck and back muscles. She kneaded, sliding up and down his back, for a good five minutes before she dared speak.

‘You played well today,' she said hopefully.

‘If by well you mean missing two goals,' he mumbled into the duvet. ‘Then, yeah, I'm a real champ.'

‘Come on, Dallas, you've gotta try and be positive you're the one who told me that we're in control of our own feelings!' She slipped her hand down over his mouth when he went to interject.

This made him laugh, then he shook his head, as if to dispel his negative thoughts, pushed her off, sat up, and pulled her into his arms. ‘Thanks,' he said, attempting a smile. ‘I'm glad you're here. I promise I'll try to be a bit, sunnier.'

‘That's totally cool.' She ran a hand through his still-damp hair. ‘I understand what it feels like, believe me. Down in Florida, I could have let that track beat me, the broken ankle turn me away from racing forever, but you can't let setbacks like this keep you down.'

Dallas stiffened away from her, his eyebrows creasing together, and it was as if, for those few moments, he was looking straight through her. ‘But after your crash,' he said, finally focusing on her face. ‘You still aren't considering the World's?'

‘I've told you I'm still going.' Her tone darkened at the shift in topic, felt she needed to be defensive.

‘You might still reconsider?'

‘It's not about me right now,' she said, keen to turn the attention back on him. ‘Besides, the World's are a long ways off. We have to focus on you and making sure you shine your best out there on the ice, like I know you can, like I've seen you play so many times. You looked lightning fast today, like the announcer said at one point, “Cash has jet fuel in his legs!” I'm sure the other guys will pick up the intensity, now it's urgent that they do.'

‘I really looked good?'

‘The best by far! You just need a team behind you, like those big Arrowhead guys. I saw the scouts watching you, too.'

‘Really?'

‘The guy from New York didn't take his eyes off you practically the whole game.'

‘He's talked to me a few times. Thanks, Clover. It means a lot that you're here.'

‘I'll always be here for you.' She pecked him on the cheek. ‘I might travel for racing, but I'm never gone too long. Even if New York offers you a scholarship, I'm sure there's some kind of racing around there, and if not, I could always spend a month there, a month at home, or something like that. And you could come visit me. Or, we might even get lucky, you might get picked by a team in California or Florida, or somewhere like that, where there's lots of racing.' Clover knew the chances of this happening were slim to none, but she was addicted to her own enthusiasm, to the way her words were softening Dallas's face, making him hug her more tightly.

‘It would be great if you came with me, after we graduate,' he said.

‘I would be so honoured if you asked me!'

‘Of course I would, I mean, will.'

‘Well, that sounds great! And I know you would be travelling with your team a lot, and that. But we could make something work.'

Clover had only allowed herself to think a few times about what would happen to her and Dallas at the end of their senior year. She realised their relationship was likely to turn into a long-distance, complicated arrangement for them both, as she would never consider giving up her racing, and he had to go where he could get a gig on the ice. But she loved how his eyes were shining now, how his mood had shifted. They would make it work. She would make it work. Even if it meant becoming a part-time stewardess to get free flights to go and see him. And besides all that, it was just too far into the future for her to take too seriously. They still had an entire year to enjoy together, at Silvertown High, before she had to worry about what came next.

The next day, Dallas's game improved, but not enough for The Crusaders to avoid defeat by the team from Cheyenne. Denver's season was still celebrated, though. And the scouts were still very impressed with the vice-captain, Dallas Cash.

Clover was sad to have to leave Cheyenne. To leave Dallas. But she was itching to ride, as the weather had been pleasant and warm since they had arrived in the capital of Wyoming. It was as if her track was calling to her, ‘I'm melting, Clover! I'm lush and loamy come and ride me!' She didn't mention this to Dallas, though. Neither did she mention her training plans when he asked what she would be up to for the rest of the week, simply replying ‘School, and stuff.' Clover wasn't sure why, but speaking about her racing with Dallas now felt uncomfortable, as if she had something to defend.

Reflecting on this, that night, during their drive back home, Clover decided her thinking on the matter was childish. She was sure that Dallas was cool with her racing, he'd always seemed supportive. She considered that she probably shouldn't have spoken to him about the World's when he'd been in such a fragile state, and that any animosity she'd sensed must just have been from his bad mood at his team's defeat. Nothing more. She decided to take him out for dinner the following week, to show him her summer racing calendar and invite him along to the Enduro races. All he needed was to come along, to be a part of it, as she had been with his hockey. Then he would understand.

The day after Clover got home from Dallas's tournament, rain set in. Thick, black clouds. Water fell in drenching sheets, shrouding everything but the scenery closest to the house. The rain was forecast for two solid weeks, but it only kept Clover off her WR250F for two days. The weather hadn't let up, not by one drop or fraction of reprieve in the icy cold wind. But Clover couldn't take any more. After school on Wednesday, she pulled on her gear and a rain jacket to at least try and keep herself warm, and rode out into the deluge.

At first, her body convulsed from the cold and the damp. But once she was saturated, it didn't seem to matter. It was as if she'd turned into one big goose bump, numbed completely from everything but the revving of her bike, the movement of the suspension, vibration of the motor. The ground was ridiculously slick. It was all she could do not to slide straight into the water, or down the cliff on the opposite side, as she made her way around the pond. But her bike's soft terrain tyres dug in, beneath the slop and puddles of water.
This is good practice,
she told herself. If her teeth hadn't been chattering, she would have even said it aloud to be more convincing.
Tough it out here, and Czecho will be a breeze
.

She'd been messaging back and forth on Facebook with Kerry, and apparently conditions at the WSEC were expected to be wet. Cold. Just like now.
So grit your teeth, buttercup, and get your ass out on that practice track! Rain, hail or shine. If you wanna finish the World's, let alone in a podium spot, you're gonna have to train. And train freakin' hard!

Through spring, Clover rode. She practiced in two-hour, intensive sessions, consisting mainly of lapping on her new practice track and frequent trips to the MX park, on the outskirts of Denver, to practice for the final motocross event of the WSEC. It took no time at all to shave fifteen seconds off her fastest lap time, but she still wanted more. To go faster. This was her speed training, for the special tests. But there was still the endurance element of the sport to train for. She needed to go on a few riding trips and decided on dates she thought would work well with school, and also coincide with Dallas's hockey training camps, so he would be away, too.

On these excursions, Clover would trail ride for at least six hours a day, for six days, to emulate the kind of exertion she'd experience at the World Six-Day Enduro Championship.

Clover ended up going on two such trips, to the vast and stunning Moab, in Utah. Ernie had made friends with his arch-rival from ice racing, Arik, and the German brought his wife and young daughter, Pippa who he'd just bought a TTR-125. Leslie had promised to bring Jasmine, but pulled out at the last minute. Arik, who was a great rider in his own right, and Ernie, who was a champion back in his day, took Clover on the toughest trails they could find. Clover came back sore, tired, and with a wide smile on her sandy face. Her hands had developed calluses, so she no longer got blisters.

Clover only broke her training routine a few times all summer, mostly to hang with Sydney and Dallas.

The first really exciting event in Clover's summer was the first Rocky Mountain Enduro Championship race, in northern Texas. Clover finished just shy of the podium in the Pro Ladies Class, in fourth place, behind the reigning Pro Ladies champion and member of the infamous, rough-talking and ample-breasted, ‘Banger Sisters', from Nebraska. A lady from New Mexico got third. Lasha finished second.

Clover was hot on their tails for the second and third rounds, even taking a win at her home state race, at Highstone Lake, the place she'd lost her junior title, the very same venue she'd won at in ice racing. She and Lasha were hailed as the fastest girls to ever come from the junior ranks the future of the series in the Pro Ladies division.

Even more exciting was the penultimate round, which was held just outside the city of Las Vegas, when Dallas finally took up her invitation to come and watch.

She found it mildly irritating, however, how he stuck to her side and made sure to introduce himself as ‘Clover's boyfriend' at every possible opportunity. But she didn't mind too much. It was just so awesome to have him there. And it obviously helped her riding she got second, and even beat the reigning champ.

It was an unreal weekend, topped off by a party on the Sunday night not on the famous Las Vegas Strip, but out in the desert. Dallas stayed (albeit, in his own tent Ernie insisted) and they shared a campfire and made ‘S'mores'.

Once the parents had mostly drunk themselves tired, or headed to the ‘oldies' parties, the rest of the campsite really came alive. All the ‘young'uns' snuck out, under the light of the stars, away from the motorhomes, travel trailers and tents, and made a huge bonfire down by the edge of the lake. The group cracked beers and sat up bench racing and swapping stories from the weekend. Once Dallas had polished off most of a six-pack without Clover's help, as Ernie was only a few campsites away he was even having a laugh. Everyone ended up in their underwear, squished into a hot tub that somebody had set up on the water's edge.

Going into the final round of the series, Clover was tied for second and just a few points off leader, Lasha Moore. The race was to be held back at Highstone Lake, the weekend before she would start her senior year at Silvertown High School.

Thick clouds of dust billowed from the back of Clover's truck as she belted along the gravel road towards Silvertown. She brought her truck to a stop at the ‘T'-intersection. School was right, down passed the Silvertown reservoir. But she looked left, up at the tallest of the mountain peaks.

The forest surrounding and running to the mountain's base was already speckled with colour, as the aspen and poplar trees changed their leaves in preparation for another stunning autumn. She squinted against the early morning rays, as the sun reflected off the face of the Rockies some still tipped with a sliver of white, even after at least two months of warm, dry weather. These mountains would always take her breath away.

On to the bitumen and, just as Clover got up to speed, her mobile revved from under her new books.

‘Syd!' she said, plugging in her earphones. ‘What's happenin'? Sorry I didn't ring last night, got home from the race super late.'

‘That's okay,' Sydney said. ‘So, how'd ya go?'

Clover smiled at the warm enthusiasm in her friend's voice. ‘Real good,' she said. ‘I got third in the championship, in the Pro Ladies Class! You should have seen this track seriously gnarly! One evil trail section was called the Husky Highway 'cos it was made with a Husky chainsaw with all these big logs you had to pull your bike over. I got through on my own, but, some of the other girls actually got help!'

‘Is that against the rules?'

Clover hesitated. ‘Normally they do make an exception when the trail's that hard but, as if you would. I mean, if you need help, you shouldn't even be racing.'