Free Legend of Mace by Daniel J. Williams Page A

How did I not know about this?”
    “What can I say. They’re kids. They want to keep secrets.”
    “Yeah, but what about Kelly? Why wouldn’t she tell me?”
    “She’s trying to fit in. You’ll figure out how to keep tabs. Trust me.” Mace looked quickly around. The boys were all leaving. “We just need to reset this for later.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You’ll see.”
    Chelsea, Maya and Kelly all gathered at the starting line. “Normally only two people race,” Chelsea said to Kelly, as she pulled her quad back to loosen it up.
    “Then why am I here?”
    “Because we don’t think you’ll be able to keep up anyway,” replied Maya with a grin.
    Kelly smiled back playfully. After the punch, they’d grown closer but still wary of each other.“Hey, I’ve been on the road for months. One thing I can do is run. Besides, I’ve got longer legs.”
    Focused on the race, Chelsea dropped into starting position. “Enough talk already. Let’s get this on. You know I’m gonna beat you both.”
    “Ha,” Maya said as she waited for one of the Rangers to signal the start.
    “Are you tampons ready?” he yelled. They all rolled their eyes and he smiled at their reactions. Kelly and Maya dropped to runner’s formation.
    “Ready, set, go!” He dropped his arm to signal the race was on.
    Kelly pulled out to an immediate lead and Chelsea yelled, “No way!” as she and Maya ran neck and neck behind.
    “We’ve got to make sure she goes for the first rope at the mud pit,” Maya panted as they ran.
    “What?” Chelsea asked as she watched Kelly easily scale the first obstacle, the rope-wall. “Dang, she’s good.”
    “I saw Mace this morning. He was setting up Bowie. There’s a fishing line tied to the first rope.” Maya slowed down a little as she tried to explain.
    “What did you do?” Chelsea asked as she tried to time her jump for the rope-wall up ahead.
    Chelsea came to the wall and jumped for the second knot on the rope. Grabbing it, she hoisted herself up and quickly scaled over. Maya scaled the wall right next to her.
    “It will be awesome,” Maya said as they dropped to the other side, “but we can’t let her get too far ahead. We’ve got to force her to the first rope.”
    “Let’s quit talking then and catch her!” Kelly was ten feet ahead, moving quickly towards the tire run. Kelly’s knees pumped as she reached the gauntlet of tires and started through. Her foot caught on the third tire and she stumbled, falling to one knee.
    “Now’s our chance!” Chelsea yelled as they sprinted harder. Kelly righted herself and looked briefly back before starting through the tires again. Maya hit the tires a half-step ahead of Chelsea and tore through them. By the end of the tires she was neck-and-neck with Kelly.
    As they approached the mud pit, Maya crowded Kelly on the right side, forcing her to run to the left. Chelsea ran a few steps behind. Travis smiled as soon as he spotted Maya appear. He would do anything to get on her good side. He held the fishing line in his hand.
    Mace and Roger stood ten feet back, watching. The crowd of boys yelled as they pulled up and the girls raced towards them.
    “Go Maya!”
    “Beat Jersey!”
    “You can’t let her win!”
    “Run!”
    Mace bumped Roger and nodded towards Travis. They’d watched a few minutes earlier as Travis climbed carefully into the pit to search for the fishing line. He was muddy all over from the effort. With his bad eyesight it took him a while to locate it.
    Kelly pulled a foot ahead of Maya and leapt for the rope as Travis yanked on the string. The first rope didn’t budge. Kelly grabbed it and swung over the mud pit, landing safely on the other side. Maya was mid-air when the second rope suddenly pulled to the left. She squealed as she reached for it and missed. Chelsea, who was right behind her, tried to time her jump behind Maya, but with the rope screwed up she needed to stop. She skidded on the dirt to the edge of the