Marley looked at his watch for the hundredth time. He was going to miss it. "Please Mom, faster," he said.

"I'm going as fast as I can," his Mom, Lisa, said as she whipped the van into the Jackson High School parking lot. Cars with bike racks were everywhere as well as cyclists warming up on trainers. A frowning volunteer pointing them towards empty parking spaces. A large banner tied between two trees announced this was the "Jackson Roubaix Road Race." Marley turned to his older sister, Ann, in the back seat, his eyes pleading for hope, she just looked down. Marley's watch beeped, it was officially 9AM, his race was starting. "Now you know these things are usually late, you'll be fine, start getting dressed and I'll run up and see if I can get them to wait for you, Lisa said. She exited the van and took off a dead sprint towards the school. Marley strained to see what was going on but the start area was out of view.

"Come on you heard Mom, get dressed, I'll get your bike," Ann said. Marley crawled into the back seat and began to strip. There were certain benefits to be a slightly built 13 year old, it was no problem for him to squeeze into the back seat. He had his street clothes off and was pulling on his jersey, "Your straps you idiot, you've got to put on your shorts first," Ann said through the window.

"Arghh," Marley said and yanked off his carbon black racing jersey and struggled to pull up his Castelli bib shorts. His sister was laughing hysterically when he pulled the straps over his shoulder and most of his chest was covered. Marley realized he'd put on his shorts backward, in his struggle to get them off he got tangled in the straps and fell against the window.

"Ohh man, let me help you," Ann said with a laugh and opened the door. Marley tried to cover up his boyhood but was too tangled up. "God relax, it's not like I haven't seen you naked," she said as she helped him untangled himself.

Marley was fully dressed and buckling his helmet when he saw his Mom approaching at a pace that spelled trouble. "It's too late," Marley said.

"Yeah, they started right when I showed up, I'm so sorry," Lisa said. For a few moments Marley waited in silence, hoping maybe this was a bad dream and he would wake up, no such luck.

"Damn it," Marley shouted and banged his hands on the handlebars. "Nothing ever goes right, everything we do is messed up," Marley said. He yanked his helmet of off and dropped it and ran his hand through his long blond hair. He'd always wanted to grow his hair out and his Dad wouldn't let him, that wasn't a problem anymore but his hair reminded him. "This wouldn't have happened if Dad was here."

"What did you say," his Mom asked with anger.

"If Dad would have been here we wouldn't have had a dead battery, we would have made it on time, and I would be racing," Marley shot back.

"If your Dad was here!, well he's not is he... He..." Lisa was about to go on a tirade over the man who left them but caught herself, looking over her shoulder she saw a family walking towards the event watching the drama over their shoulders. "I'm sorry the battery went dead, I'm so sorry," Lisa said trying to fight back tears.

Marley went to the front of the van and sat down, he tried so hard to fight back tears that his face shivered. Ann sat down beside him and held him and he began to cry, she teared up as well and soon his Mom was hugging them both crying her eyes out. Ever since their Dad, Tom, had left them a year ago the family seemed to be caught between terrible sadness and terrible anger. Bicycle riding was something that all 3 of them enjoyed and riding brought them together. Focusing on training for this race throughout winter had given them a goal and taking their mind off things, that's why missing it was so devastating to Marley.

"Well at least I'll get to watch you guys race," Marley said with a forced smile. "I'm sorry I said that stuff, it wasn't right. You're doing the best you can," Marley said.

"Thank you honey," Lisa said fighting back tears.

"You know you could just sneak into my race," Ann said with a laugh. "Just pull in behind us and ride the course with us and pull out before the finish line," I doubt anyone would even notice.

"Yeah, but I wouldn't be in the race," Marley said.

"So what, you'll still get to ride," Ann said.

"I can't win if I'm not in the race," Marley said with a smile.

"Heck, just sign up for my race," Ann said with a laugh.

"Yeah right, I'll sign up for junior girls, no one will notice I'm not a girl," Marley replied.

"Wait a minute, you might be on to something," Lisa said.

"I'm not going to race with the girls," Marley said laughing.

"No, they won't let a boy sign up and race with the girls, but they would let you if you were a girl," Lisa said.

"Well I'm not so forget about it," Marley replied.

Lisa got that look in her eye that said she was thinking outside the box, something she'd been doing a lot lately since Tom left. "Listen, all the hours you put in training this winter, all the miles we drove, you’ve worked hard, you should get to race."

"No way, I'm not doing it," Marley replied.

"You could win," Lisa said.

"You think," Marley said, his attitude suddenly more acceptable of his Mom's idea.

“Well you’d have a very good chance, you would be the only boy racing with girls,” Lisa answered.

“This is nuts, even if I wanted to do it, I can’t. People won’t think I’m a girl,” Marley said, though his voice lacked conviction. Marley wasn’t overly masculine, a fact that his Dad had reminded him of any chance he could. Marley wasn’t good at sports, especially the stick and ball sports that his Dad liked. He could run, swim and ride all day, but had little interest in shooting baskets, making tackles, and hitting balls. He didn’t like to hunt, he didn’t like to fish, which was a massive disappointment to his father who wanted his son to be an “outdoorsman” like him. Eventually Tom stopped trying to force his son to like the things he liked and steered clear of him, Marley wondered if it was his father’s disappointment in him that drove him away.

“Of course not honey, it was a stupid idea, I’m sorry I brought it up, you can just watch us race,” Lisa said.

Marley wiped the last bit of moisture from his eyes and cheeks, he watched a small group riding across the parking lot in full cycling gear, a man and his two daughters all three looked fast and sleek, and their shiny Colnago bikes shined in the sun, even the girls had carbon deep section aero wheels on their bikes. Their wheels were probably more than my entire bike, Marley thought. He wanted to race, he didn’t care against who, if he had to race girls then so be it.

“Allright lets do it,” Marley said. Lisa and Ann looked at each other and grinned, this would be fun.