Okay guys here's chapter 12. I spent a lot of time on this. it's pretty long. A big thankyou to olderndirtmom for proof reading this chapter.
Previously-With one last punch mark grabbed his helmet and picked up his bike. It started 3rd kick. He sped off. Bobby must’ve gotten hurt when Blake hit him because he had not passed the 2 boys fighting. No one else had passed either because the 3 had pulled so far ahead of the rest of the racers. Mark came across the finish line in first, but he didn’t pump his hand in victory, or do a whip. He was too mad at Blake Gopy!
Chapter 12
Mark walked back to the trailer and took off his gear. He was getting a black eye and a swollen lip. He was pleased to see that Blake was in no better condition as he walked by with his mechanic.
“What happened to you?” Jordan said as he saw Mark. Mark told him all about what had happened with Blake Gopy.
“You can’t lose your temper like that,” said Jordan. “You’re lucky that you were behind that hill or you could be kicked out of the Series.”
“What would you have done in that situation?” Mark asked.
“I would have hurried up and got on my bike, and saved the fighting for later,” he answered.
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Mark walked over to Bobby’s trailer. Bobby was sitting with ice on his knee.
“What happened?” Mark asked immediately.
“When that idiot hit me, I fell on my knee,” Bobby said angrily. “I can barely walk on it.”
“He knocked me down, too,” Mark said. “We started hitting each other.”
“So that’s what happened to your face,” Bobby said.
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As Mark was walking back to the TPA trailer he heard someone shout “PETERSON!”
Mark turned around to see Blake Gopy’s dad yelling his last name. He was a big man who looked like a wrestler who was overweight.
“What?” Mark answered.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing trying to sabotage my kid, huh?”
“You’re kid sabotaged me. He rammed me,” Mark said.
Blake’s dad grabbed the front of Mark’s jersey and said, “If you ever punch my son again I’ll make sure it’s the last thing you ever do. You got it?”
“Let go of me,” Mark said calmly.
“DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!” he yelled. Mark bit his hand hard and ran! He started chasing after Mark yelling “GET BACK HERE KID!” Mark kept running. Mr. Gopy had almost grabbed him when Kasey stuck his foot out which made him trip. Then Jordan got Mr.Gopy in a headlock.
“If you ever touch that boy again, I’ll make sure you go to jail,” said Jordan in low voice. Mark thought this was very brave of him since Mr.Gopy was about 2 feet taller than Jordan and about 100 pounds heavier. Mr.Gopy walked back to his trailer cursing under his breath.
“What was that all about?” Matt asked.
“He grabbed me and I said let go and he didn’t so I bit him and then started running,” Mark said. Jordan laughed.
“He’s always had a bad temper.”
“You mean you know him?” Mark asked.
“Oh yeah, I know him. We raced pro together,” Jordan said.
“He raced?” Matt asked. “He doesn’t look in good enough shape.”
“He used to be,” Jordan said. “And he was a very aggressive racer, and not in a good way. He would take you out on purpose just to win the race.”
“Sounds like his kid,” Mark said.
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“Are you sure you’re okay?” Mrs. Peterson asked.
“I’m fine. Mom, I’ve got to go. Talk to you later,” Mark said.
“Love you,” she said.
“Love you, too. Bye.” Mark hung up the cell phone. He had just got off the phone and told his mom about the fight between him and Blake. She didn’t seem as mad as he thought she would be. She was more worried if he was hurt or not.
“How long is the drive to round 5?” Matt asked Jordan.
“11 or 12 hours,” Jordan said.
“WHAT?!” all 4 teammates yelled.
“Well it is in 2 states away in Washington. But don’t worry, you guys are taking a plane up,” Jordan said.
“So then it will only take a couple of hours?” Keenan asked.
“Yep.”
“Where are we staying? At a hotel?” Matt asked.
“Not this time. At my brother’s house,” said Jordan. “He has a track in his back yard so you can practice on that.”
“Awesome. Does he race?” Mark asked.
“Not anymore. His son races 85a.”
“Is he fast?” Mark asked
“He’s very fast,” answered Jordan.
“When are we leaving?” Matt asked.
“Tuesday,” Jordan said.
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Mark walked with Keenan slightly behind the rest of the team toward the loading platform for the flight to Washington. They sat in the chairs there for a few minutes until they heard the flight was boarding. Mark and Keenan walked to the ticket lady and handed her their tickets.
“Who are you with?” She asked
“They’re with us.” Kasey said.
Jordan had gone to Washington with the semi truck, so he wasn’t with them. Mark and Keenan walked onto the plane. They had two seats together and there was an empty seat closest to the aisle that was soon occupied by a lady in a business suit that looked to be in her early 40s. Keenan had the window seat and Mark was in the middle. Keenan looked a little sick.
“Are you okay?” Mark asked him.
“I’ve never been on an airplane before,” Keenan answered.
“Here,” the lady said, and she handed Keenan the barf bag.
“What am I supposed to do with this?” Keenan asked.
“Throw up in it,” the lady said. “Are you two traveling alone?”
“No were with our racing team.” Mark answered because Keenan didn’t look like he wanted to open his mouth while the plane took off.
“What do you race?”
“85A,” Mark answered.
“What?” the lady asked.
“Oh, you mean what dowe race. Dirt bikes,” Mark answered.
“Kids your age race motorcycles?” the lady asked.
“There are 4 year olds that race,” Mark answered.
“Seriously?” the lady asked. “Are you good?”
“Look at this!” Keenan seemed to be able to talk again. He rifled through a magazine and opened it to the interview with Mark. She read the interview for a minute and then said, “Well you must be good to be in a magazine.” Mark laughed. “Where are you guys going?”
“I don’t know,” Mark said. “Some place in Washington for the next round of the USMXN series.”
“Is it the championship?” she asked.
“No. I think that’s in Florida someplace,” said Mark. “What are you going to Washington for?”
“A meeting” She replied.
They spent the rest of the plane ride explaining motocross to the lady, who’s name was Becky, and listening to music. When they landed Keenan had been sleeping and he screamed because he thought they were crashing which brought half the passengers’ heads looking their way. Mark was just happy that Keenan hadn’t thrown up on his lap.
When they got off the plane Mark laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Keenan asked. Mark pointed to a kid who was holding a pit board that said “TPA Racing”.
“I guess that’s Jordan’s nephew,” Mark said. There was a man beside the boy. He resembled Jordan a little bit. Mark and Keenan walked up to them.
“You must be Mark and Keenan,” Jordan’s brother said.
“Yes, sir,” Mark answered. The man laughed.
“Call me Jim,” Jim said. “And this is my son Landon.” They shook hands and were soon joined by the rest of the team.
They walked out to their truck. There was a YZ85 and a YZ250 in the back.
“We just got back from the track and we didn’t want to take the trailer,” Jim explained.
Kasey sat in the front of the truck with Jim driving while Mark, Matt, Keenan, and Landon sat in the back seat. Keenan had to sit on Matt’s lap.
“Our house is about 20 minutes from here,” Jim said.
They drove in silence for 10 minutes until Mark broke the silence. “So you race 85A?”
“Yeah,” Landon said. “You do, too?”
“Yep,” Mark answered. “How’ve you been doing in the USMXN series?”
“I won round 1, got 3rd in round 2, 2nd in round 3, and 1st in round 4. You?” Landon asked.
“Second in round 1, first in round 2, 1st in round 3, and first in round 4,” Mark answered.
When they drove up the driveway Mark saw the house. It was a big brown house with a big garage out to the side. There were no neighbors and it looked like they had a fair amount of land. They drove over by the large garage.
“Landon, take them in and show them their rooms. I’ll unload the bikes,” Jim said.
“I can help unload the bikes, Jim,” Mark offered.
“Thank you Mark,” Jim said. The team grabbed their bags and followed Landon over to the house. Mark stayed behind and helped get the bikes out of the back of the truck.
“Take Landon’s bike and lean it on the stand by the other 85 in the garage. Mark did as he was told. He flicked on the lights. The garage had black and white checkered floor, a large work bench, and all the tools you could ever ask for. He pushed it over towards the other 85 and put it on the stand. Then Mark and Jim walked inside. Not only was the house one of the nicest Mark had ever been in, but Mark and Keenan got their own bedroom and didn’t have to share with Matt and Kasey. As Mark walked into the living room he saw a large window that overlooked the family’s land. Mark saw a track. It was long and had big doubles and table tops. Matt came out and looked out the window, too.
“Whoa!” he said.
“I can ask my dad if we can go ride it,” Landon said as he walked in. It was only 3:30. “You could ride my dads 250F,” he said to Matt.
“Okay,” Matt said.
“And you could ride one of my 85’s and use my riding gear since yours isn’t here yet.”
20 minutes later, they were walking down to the garage. Kasey had chosen to stay behind, and Keenan was going to watch since they didn’t have a bike to fit him. When they got into the garage Landon said, “Which one do you want?” gesturing at the two 85’s on stands. One was completely stock, while the other one had lots of mods on it.
“I’ll take the stock one,” Mark said.
Then they put on their gear. Mark wore one of Landon’s jerseys and his pants and an extra pair of his boots. Every thing fit him fairly well since Landon and him were almost the same size. Matt wore Jim’s gear. It was a little too big for him. Mark felt a little weird wearing a jersey that said “Styner” on the back as they were pushing the bikes toward the track.
“Take it easy your first couple of laps,” Landon said. “The jumps really launch you high.”
Mark turned the choke and the gas on, on the YZ and then kicked it over. It started right up. It was taller than his CR85 so it felt strange. After the bikes warmed up, Landon took off with Mark and Matt following him. Mark soon found out that Landon hadn’t been lying about the jumps launching you. There was a double that Mark thought looked easy enough, but when Mark did it he found himself high in the air and almost went over the handlebars. Mark rode the rest of the lap without doing any jumps. Then he started to do some table tops but not clearing them. On the 4th lap Mark was doing most of the jumps. There was one triple that looked pretty intimidating, but he was gonna wait a while before doing that.
After a little while, Mark and Landon kind of got into a race. Landon was a bit faster because it was on his track. Mark started to notice a difference in their riding style. Landon would always jump high in the air. Mark would scrub the jumps and stay lower over them, which made him get the landing first. After an hour and a half, the 3 riders headed back to the garage to put the bikes away. They walked up to the house together.
“It’s probably almost dinner,” Landon said as they walked in. They could tell it was because Mark could smell chicken. They washed their hands and then walked into the dining room. Sure enough there was chicken on the table.
“Mark, Matt,” Jim said, “This is my wife Lori.”
They shook hands and sat down to eat. As they ate they ate, Jim would ask the team questions such as, “What do you ride?” and “How long have you been riding?”.
When Mark was asked what he was riding he answered “CR85, and a CRF150R.”
“Oh the new 150?” Jim said, “I’m gonna get Landon the 150 when Yamaha comes out with one. We’ve always been Yamaha people. Do you like it?”
“Yeah, it’s way easier to ride than my 85,” Mark answered.
After dinner Landon helped his mom with the dishes while Mark and Keenan were shown their room. It only had one bed.
“You’re sleeping on the floor,” Mark said.
“Why do I have to?” Keenan whined.
“Because I’m older,” Mark said.
They spent much of the next 2 days practicing on the Styner’s track and playing video games, which Landon had a lot of. On Thursday evening Jordan and the TPA semi arrived. The truck driver dropped Jordan off at his brother’s house, and then headed to the track to find a spot.