Free The Only Exception by Abigail Moore Page B

fantastic waves, including the slob air reverse in half of them and laybacks in almost all of them. Mac catches one particularly sick air and few other stellar waves, but the other girls have also upped their game. When we get out of the water, though, it appears they haven’t stepped it up enough. I’m still in the top spot. McKayla’s amazing air showed in her score, pushing her up to second, above Sally. She shoots me that competitively devilish smile and I smirk at her. Sorry, Mac. Love ya, but if this goes as planned, I’ll be the winner, bar none.
    The next two heats are basically useless and tell us what we already know, which is Mac, Kara, Paige, Sally & I are the top surfers. Minutes later, we’re back in the water. Within my first two waves, Sally has cut me off, and Paige should’ve been disqualified for trying to knock me off my board. This just confirms my suspicion: they don’t think they can beat me without sabotaging me. Believe it or not, this is good. You know, as long as I don’t get sabotaged on more than seven waves.
    Sally gets pummeled by the next wave after losing her footing and eventually, Kara goes down too. They both recover quickly, though. I squeeze in two good waves, but the score I need relies on my last scoring ride. Alright, that’s it. I don’t know how to actually say a hail-Mary, but if I did, I’d be saying one right now. I’m going for the Stalefish air reverse. Am I crazy? Undoubtedly. Is it risky? Yeah, you might say that. Will it win me first place and bragging rights to Sawyer if I do it right? Absolutely.
    Let’s do this.
    I wait for the right wave and a minute later, it comes. I ride in with perfect timing and pop as quick as I can. My bottom turn is flawless and sets me in good positioning. I start off with a 360° carve and a big slash off the top. I swerve down, get a little clidro going, then go for the jump. The second my board leaves the wave, I grab the back side with my left hand and spin as fast as I can. I’m too high off the wave to land at 180°, so I go for the full 360° rotation and land smoothly. With a layback to cap it off, I kick out and jump off the board. As I paddle back out to the lineup, Mac stares at me, open-mouthed.
    “Tell me that was not a Stalefish air reverse,” she says. “You’ve only been practicing it for a week! How is it possible that you just perfectly executed a Stalefish air with 360° rotation?”
    “I’ve been practicing that a lot longer than a week,” I reply. “That move won me at least two snowboard competitions.”
    “Unbelievable. I’m best friends with the girl equivalent of Kelly Slater!” she exclaims. Kelly Slater is an eleven-time ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) World Tour champion.
    “I’m not the girl equivalent of Kelly Slater,” I laugh. “Just a snowboarder in a different kind of snow.”
    “Okay, fine. The female version of Shawn White. Happy?” she corrects. I laugh and roll my eyes, paddling into the next wave.
    Just because I’m excited that I can, I pull two more waves with Stalefish airs. From there, I kick back and let the others duke it out, which they do until time is up. I’m receiving dirty looks from everyone but McKayla in the water, but on the shore, everyone’s rushing for me. Thankfully, Papaw gets to me first.
    “That was fantastic. I’m so proud of you,” he says, putting an arm around my wet shoulders. I grin, ecstatic. The only thing that could make me more excited is what comes next.
    “The 15-18 girls division winners are: In third place, McKayla Atwood,” a woman’s voice announces over the loud speaker. “In second place, Paige LeGroe; and in first place, Andrea Maverick.” Papaw squeezes my shoulders as I laugh with glee and turn towards Grammy, who envelopes me in a hug immediately.
    “The 15-18 boys division winners are:” the loud speaker woman begins again. “In third place, Jonathan Stacey; in second place, David Bowen; and in first place,