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one’s all yours, Jamie,” he says. “I’m happy to watch.” He must still be really sore from yesterday’s fall down those stairs.
    â€œYou’re coming down too, Nolan,” says Mitch from where he’s standing at the bottom of the jump. His words are teasing, but his tone is firm.
    â€œWe’ll see about that,” Nolan replies. He crosses his arms like a pouty two-year-old. “You’re not the boss of me!”
    I laugh at Nolan’s act. I know he’ll eventually cave and come down the drop. He just has to get used to the idea. Map it out in his mind. Nolan can’t stand not being a part of things, even if he sometimes gets in way over his head.
    I wheel my bike back from where I’ve been watching, on the side of the lip. As I turn to start walking it uphill, Chase comes screaming down from another jump higher up on the track. He’s got some serious speed—and a serious grin on his face.
    â€œDon’t try this at home, kids,” he shouts as he launches off the lip. My eyes nearly fall out of my head as I watch him chew through the air. He drops his bike down, below his body. Swings his legs forward. Slaps the soles of his feet together. Whips them back into position. Not a moment too soon, they catch the pedals and absorb his landing.
    Holy hell. The guy’s a machine.
    He skids to a stop a bit farther down from Mitch, who breaks into a full grin.
    â€œNice,” he says. He looks back up the hill. I follow his stare and see Rico hammering off the same jump that Chase just took. He shoots off the lip and gains air. But instead of clapping his feet together, Rico just lifts his feet off the pedals and out to the side, like a jumping jack. His feet come down just in time to catch his landing. It’s a bit rough, but he sticks it.
    Fantastic.
    Seth, Nolan and I cheer. I want to try that.
    I walk my bike up.
    I go slower over the big jumps at first. I don’t get as much air as Rico and Chase, and certainly not as much as Mitch, but my form is good. The more jumps I take, the faster I go, and the more comfortable I feel with it. After a while things seem to slow down a bit, and I can make decisions in midair. It feels like I’ve got time to try different things. I experiment, popping up and turning my handlebars a bit. Sweeping my tail out.
    Rico keeps surprising all of us, pulling out crazy tricks and trying new stuff. He’s fearless, but he’s not stupid. He’s completely focused on what he’s doing. In the zone. He doesn’t think about the other people who are standing around watching. He just drops in, does his shred and pulls off to hear what Mitch has to say. I admire him. Especially when he pops off a jump and twists his bike from side to side before landing it.
    Seth is different. He’s so used to being the center of attention that he can’t focus on just doing his own thing. He hucks himself off jumps with a banshee screech, more intent on making it big than on getting it right. Ironically, he suffers the most runins with the forest floor because he’s so keen on showing off. Whatever. He seems like he’s having a good time.
    I’m fully blown away when, just before lunch, Mitch takes me aside and tells me that I’ve got the makings of a competitive mountain biker. Maybe even a freerider.
    â€œYou think?” I ask.
    Mitch nods. “Yeah. I’ve been watching everyone here. You seem to have an intuitive understanding of when to unleash it and when to rein it in, Jamie.”
    I feel my face growing warm, and I grin under his praise.
    â€œCool,” I say. “What about Rico? He looks pretty great too.” I glance over my shoulder to where Rico and Chase are replacing the tube in a blown tire.
    â€œRico too,” agrees Mitch. “He’s got guts. But your technique is smooth. Doesn’t take you long to get a move dialed.”
    I feel suddenly tall. So tall.