O Challenge #001 foi o segundo concurso lançado no WOA e ele tinha como tema férias. Just Ride é o primeiro conto participante:
JUST RIDE POR LAYSE AMARAL
Sinopse: Lydia Akane vai se casar no primeiro fim de semana de agosto, partindo em seguida de mudança para a Austrália. Como uma espécie de despedida, Autumn Burks, Florence Hardin e Kayla Bell se unem a moça para uma viagem de férias em seu último verão juntas. O que elas não contavam era que a cada curva da estrada encontrassem situações diversas que transformariam sua simples aventura nos dias mais loucos de suas vidas.
Gênero: Romance, comédia
Categoria: Original
Categoria do Challenge: Trailer
Classificação: +16
(This is for Challenge 001: Songs of the Past. Noah’s song is “No Church in the Wild” by Jay Z & Kanye West, so here’s my take on that. It’s character development...in reverse. This got really dark, so it’s under one of those read-mores in case this isn’t your thing.)
Date: November 15th, 2013
Location: Pleasure Island (A club in Seattle)
The club lived up to its name tonight: Pleasure Island. The scholar in Noah told him it was actually a reference to Pinocchio, being named after that island that the boys were taken to to do whatever they wanted, but the joy-seeker in him...well...it was more pleasures of the flesh and senses than anything. And that’s what he was indulging in, up in the safety of the VIP section. With a few lines’ worth of cocaine under his nose and bodies sprawled out on top of his on the couch there, he was living the life.
And so was everyone else.
Noah wasn’t much of a dancer, sober or not - but from his vantage point he could see it all. There were people everywhere, drinking and grinding on each other to the latest song; some top forty hit that was way too loud to recognize. In one corner there was a fight of some sort, with injuries and tears (which Noah watched in amusement). Oh, and was that a drinking competition amongst friends? One that ended halfway through because one of them had to be dragged out of the building. Everything was happening on a weeknight, too. Why live for tomorrow when you can live for today?
“Where the wild things are.” Noah hadn’t realized he said that out loud. Well, he must have, because that one Jeremy guy stirred from his place across his lap and smiled lazily.
“Man, I loved that book.”
“What?”
Jeremy laughed. “Where The Wild Things Are!”
“That’s not a book.” Was it? Noah thought about waking the girl beside him and asking. His memory was too hazy now.
“Uh-huh! My mom used to read it to me all of the time! There was this kid, and there were monsters...”
The word “monsters” made Noah laugh. “You know what? Everyone should dress up as monsters! We could get costumes, and music, and food, and costumes...”
“But what if...what if the real monsters are within?” Jeremy’s eyes were huge and his bottom lip trembled. “Like, in us?”
Noah might’ve been high as a cloud, but there was no such thing as monsters. Literal or figurative. He rolled his eyes. “Shut up.”
“I want to be Cookie Monster. He’s awesome.”
Ugh. Jeremy. He was such a pain! He became Noah’s sidekick once he moved down to Seattle and started making a name for himself as The Richest Kid Ever. And there was something about being a leader to the slacker that made Noah want to keep him around. An ego boost, was what it was. Someone to do the dirty work. Noah took out a roll of money and handed it to his lackey. “Be a weatherman and bring us more snow.” Anything to get rid of him. Just for a second.
“Can I be Superman?”
“Whatever! Just go!”
Jeremy scurried off, oblivious (or too dense to care?) about Noah’s anger, leaving Noah to revel in his own power. He was on top of the world right now. He wasn’t some lowly, “nouveau riche” kid in Beverly Hills. Here, he was a king. He had everything others dreamt about, and everything to be dreamed about. Followers, admirers...Why didn’t he move out here sooner? So this was what it was like to rule. Noah had read so much about the reigns of royalty in school, but to actually experience it? Amazing. He felt like throwing money in the air. And he could. Noah reached into his pocket again for more money...to find out that there was none of it left.
No. No no no no no. This couldn’t be happening.
Maybe he was hallucinating again? Yeah. He had to be. Another search of his pockets told him that he wasn’t. And his world immediately crumbled. He was broke. The Noah Jackson, The Richest Kid Ever, was actually...broke. And to make matters worse, Jeremy returned.
Jeremy strolled over to the couch, biting his lip in what Noah could only guess was contemplation. He sat one of the bodies upright and took a seat next to Noah. “So...guess what, babe?”
Babe. It was a name Noah wasn’t exactly proud of. He hated to admit it, but sometimes his relationship with Jeremy wasn’t always a “hero-sidekick” one. It was one of those mistakes that just kept on happening because Noah loved being needed and was too full of himself to turn someone who was so devoted to him away.
Noah stayed silent; maybe if he acted like he wasn’t here, he’d wake up somewhere rich and not about to freak out.
“Looks like Superman found his Kryptonite.” Jeremy said, holding up the smallest bag of cocaine Noah had ever seen. “Couldn’t get your usual.” He shook the bag, chuckling. “Dude, it’s like Christmas in California, am I right?”
It took everything in Noah not to reach over and choke the life out of Jeremy. This was no laughing matter. Not a game. It was all over, and Noah had to pretend like it wasn’t. He took the bag from Jeremy, turning it over in his hands for a bit, in disbelief that this was where the last of his money went. He should’ve been a little smarter with it all, but validation was expensive. “Here comes the sun.”
“I love that song.”
“It’s not a song.”
“It so is.”
Major deja vu. Noah shook off the feeling and opened the bag. Poured the contents out on the table in front of him. He and Jeremy dove into the drug like hungry animals. It wasn’t until Noah’s second line that his nose began to burn. It never happened to him before, and he figured it was a passing thing. But he wiped at his nose with the backside of his hand, and nearly fainted when his hand came back dripping with blood.
“Yeah...you might want to stop...?” Give it to Jeremy to point out the obvious.
Why was everything falling apart? Noah sprung up from the couch, gave Jeremy that much-needed shove, and ran out of the club. No one could see him like this: Broke. Bloody. Burning with embarrassment. So this was when the inhabitants of Pleasure Island turned into donkeys. This was when the pleasure turned into pain. And it had to be raining outside! It was like salt in the wound, really. Without his money, Noah was lost. Worthless. Another kid on the street. A king without his crown.
He sat on a curb, head in his hands, his blood mixing with the rainfall. Why didn’t he see this coming? Why didn’t he think - for a second - that his money would run out eventually? He grew up with money, and was now going to die without it. The tears fell before he could stop them. He knew others flocked to him because of what he had. And now that he had nothing, he had no one. What was he going to do now? Was there even a next step? Did he even want to take it? The motivation to live was getting less and less by the second. Who was Noah Jackson now without the money and ridiculous title?
It might’ve been another hour or two before Noah had the strength to get back up again. He was going to have to start all over again. Go home. Face his parents. And redefine himself.
That last one was the key: redefining. There was no way Noah would let himself feel this pain again. This disgusting hatred of himself. So he planned from this day forward to make himself a better person. To focus on pursuits of the mind instead of the physical. The new Noah Jackson didn’t believe in kings, or such visions of grandeur. He only believed in himself.
Just Ride por Layse Amaral
Sinopse: Lydia Akane vai se casar no primeiro fim de semana de agosto, partindo em seguida de mudança para a Austrália. Como uma espécie de despedida, Autumn Burks, Florence Hardin e Kayla Bell se unem a moça para uma viagem de férias em seu último verão juntas. O que elas não contavam era que a cada curva da estrada encontrassem situações diversas que transformariam sua simples aventura nos dias mais loucos de suas vidas.
Gênero: Romance, comédia
Categoria: Original
Categoria do Challenge: Trailer
Classificação: +16
Observações: Contém palavras de baixo calão.
