"Are you sure this is fine?" She sat hanging off the back of the seat of Rina's scooter, hugging her driver with all the strength she could muster.
"Of course! I got passengers on the back of this baby all the time! If Takumin can keep her big ol' booty on, you can too!"
She could barely hear Rina over the wind whipping at her ears. They were practically yelling to be heard.
"No, I mean tagging along with you to the skatepark! I don't want to get in the way of your friends and, to be honest, I don't think I'm really ready for any ramps!"
"It's cool, it's cool! We just had a couple 'a other newbies not that long ago it was chill! They were younger than you too! And you can't be that lame!"
"Uh..."
It started back a few months ago, Christmas of last year when her parents bought her a PlayStation after a considerable amount of begging. Not quite enough begging for the newer and shinier PS2, but any video games at all were considered a success to Riina. She sought one game in particular, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, after she saw a demo video for the game in a shop window.
It was so... cool. So edgy, transgressive even. It was the rock and roll of sports, and she was all about rock. Not that she knew a lot about rock, the only bands she could name were basically the ones on the radio. To her, rock was a mindset. You can't analyze rock, it's a state of being. You just know when something is rock, and when it isn't.
Skateboarding was rock. Definitely. For sure. She played the game, beat all the challenges (or at least as many as she could), memorized the soundtrack, and watched all of the demo tapes. After a few months, it was time to go to the next level.
She was a little bit obsessed, and it came out when she talked to Natsuki about it.
"Skateboarding, huh? Not really my speed, I prefer bikes and the open road. I can respect it, though."
"Have you ever tried it, Natsukichi?"
"Aha, Rina made me try it once. Pretty sure I fell on my a- ...my butt."
Riina's eyes sparkled with revelation. "Rina skateboards!?"
"Think so, yeah. I've seen her with a couple of kids down at the park on the hill."
"Could she teach me!?"
"Probably? I'll ask her when we hang next if you want."
Later that week, Riina heard the telltale chime of AOL Instant Messenger.
HeartbeatRocker84: Rina said it's cool. Meet her after school in the parking lot on Monday.
Sp4rklingGirl: Thanks Natsukichi!
On Sunday, she took the money from her guitar fund and put it towards a new skateboard. One with a sweet sunburst Gibson Les Paul on the bottom.
Rina turned into the park and parked next to the curb right next to the entrance. Next to the sign, she looked positively tiny in her high-waisted shorts and Ciao Kuma T-shirt. Riina didn't see any other bikes or cars in the lot.
"We're probably the last ones here 'cuz we stopped for soda and all." Riina glanced down at the plastic bag of drinks she was holding. In her other hand was the new board she'd just bought. She followed her mentor to the front entrance. Once she was there, she could see the tiny gray park.
To her left was a small building, like a concrete shack. A blonde woman stood behind the counter, above her a sign that said "SKATEBOARD RENTAL + helmets". The woman, probably an employee, looked bored out of her mind.
But to her right was where the real action was. A collection of ramps, rails, and lips all constructed out of plain cement. Almost in the center was a 9 step staircase with a rectangular metal rail running down the middle. It was all surrounded by walls following the grade of the hillside so kids wouldn't launch themselves out of the park and into the dry shrubbery outside.
Everything bathed in the slightly hazy sunlight, with only minimal shade provided by three wispy trees just past the wall opposite the entrance. In the shade, Riina could see four people gathered in a lazy circle.
Rina interrupted her thoughts when she started walking toward the gathering.
"That's my little group of misfits over there. We're kinda the only ones who come here, except for a few little kids on the weekends."
"Who's the woman in the building over there?"
"Oh that's Shin. She smokes," Rina said as if that somehow explained everything.
As they approached the group, they perked up as they noticed a new girl tagging along with Rina.
"Poyooooooo!" Rina greeted.
"Yo," said one with a pitch black jacket.
"Sup!" said another, blonde, girl.
They were all staring at her, with the same question in their minds.
"This is Riina," she put her hands up, "no relation. She's a F.O.N.—Friend of Natsuki—and she wants to learn to shred from us certified pro-fessionals." Rina then glanced at her to say something.
"H-Hi..." She put down the drinks to give a weak wave. She gripped the deck of her board a little tighter.
Rina nudged her with her elbow. Now slightly panicked, she continued, "I'm Riina Tada, junior at Mishiro High School! I like rock music and I met Natsuki when she almost ran me over with her motorcycle before school one time...?"
"Okay, great introduction. This," she starts with the dark-haired girl farthest to Rina's left, "is Rin. She's the cool one and if you're wondering, the uniform is from her Catholic school."
Rin was lanky and intense looking. She stood with one foot resting on her board, head curiously cocked to the side. Long, black hair almost hid her bright blue-green eyes. Lower, she wore a slightly disheveled shirt and tie under a dark blue—nearly black—plain jacket. Curiously, she also had a skirt. Can you skateboard in a skirt? That seems... revealing. Especially one that seemed to be rolled up sinfully high. The only piece of her outfit that wasn't standard uniform fare was her shoes. High-tops didn't accurately describe these shoes. They ran all the way up to her knees, laces and all. They were more like boots than sneakers.
Rin silently nodded in response. Riina timidly nodded back.
Rina pointed to the next girl, sitting on the low wall, with one leg over the other and board on her lap. "That's Asuka, she's a freshy and a goth nerd too." Asuka rolled her eyes.
"Don't you roll your eyes at me, young lady."
Goth seemed like a pretty apt description of Asuka. From the neck down, she was entirely in shades of black. A black tight-fitting jacket with dark gray highlights. Black skinny jeans that ended just above her ankles. Black low-tops with black trim and black laces. She could almost hide away in the shade, if not for her unnaturally orange hair and pink-purple extensions. Or maybe they weren't extensions and she dyed them. Either way, she reminded Riina of a raver she'd seen on the news once.
"Heya. You skate often? I don't think I've seen you here before, or at school either."
"No, I kinda blend in. And there's a lot of people at our school. And we're also in different grades." If Riina had seen her, she would definitely remember.
Rina chimed back in, "Next to her is Mirei, they're basically a package deal. She puts the punk in spunky if you ask moi."
"Sup! Yeah, Asuka and I are both freshmen, been buds for a long time too."
If Asuka's look was unique, Mirei's was downright shocking. She had purple hair with red bangs spilling out from a neon pink hoodie with cat ears. The hoodie looked far too long for her small body, stretching all the way down to her thighs and meeting black leggings. She had also poked holes in the ends of the sleeves for her fingers.
What Riina couldn't get away from, though, was the eyepatch bearing a large pink heart over her left eye. Every time she tried to focus on something else in the garish ensemble, she had to glance back at the eyepatch. It demanded attention.
Mire quirked an eyebrow. "I got something on my face?"
"Uh, no. Sorry. I uh-"
Rina interrupted again, "And finally, my homegirl Yui! Up high!"
Yui reached over and gave her five, then turned to Riina expectantly. She unconfidently gave it up high, then down low, and finally knuckles.
Yui's outfit seemed to be saying "this is the absolute least I could wear without breaking the school dress code". Her white Thrasher tank was cut low enough for a tasteful amount of cleavage to be visible. Her jean short shorts were not just torn denim shorts, but torn denim shorts with a faded American flag printed on them. She also had long white tube socks jetting out of her expensive looking white Nikes. Every piece of the ensemble was framed by wild blonde hair, curling every-which-way, and just barely contained by a crooked white and gold cap.
"Before anything, we have got to work on your high five discipline, girl. Oh yeah, and I'm a junior too!"
"Yui's our resident rich bitch."
"It sounds bad when you say it like that, but you're not wrong."
Rina then pointed at herself and gasped, "And finally me! I'm sure Nat's told you a million stories about her BFF, but you should know that 1. I love lame 80s crap, 2. Yes i wear heels because I'm very short, and 3. Regretfully I am taken so you can't have any of this."
Yui crossed her arms and pouted, "Just because your the only one with a hot girlfriend doesn't mean you need to bring it up at every opportunity."
"But what if I want to?"
Before Yui could respond, they heard the sound of urethane wheels hitting cement. Rin had started cruising around the park in search of a line to practice. She settled on going down a small quarter pipe and tricking off of the pyramid.
"Woah!" It was so different seeing someone skating in person instead of a video game. Even something simple, like a kickflip, looked so much cooler.
Rina crept into the bottom of her vision. "Pretty sick, huh? Rin's all serious bizness most of the time with this stuff."
"Uh huh."
"You wanna get started with your training, or you gonna scope her a little more?"
"No, let's get started!"
Rin had been attempting to perfect her line a few times now. Rina and Riina had walked over to a flat area of the park where they could start out slow. Yui had acquired a boombox seemingly from the blonde lady, Shin, at the shop and had it playing a selection of hip-hop songs Riina wasn't too familiar with. Mirei and Asuka remained in the shade, cracking open their Cokes and chatting just out of earshot.
"Alright, young padawan, show your master what you know."
"Right, what I know..." Riina put her board down on the ground. She took her left foot and planted it on the tail of the board, then her right across the front screws.
"What I know..." She stood there, knees bent for a few seconds, building confidence. She lifted her right foot off to push off the ground...
And promptly fell backward, launching her board into the low wall several feet away from her. Her rear hit the ground hard, but she managed to avoid smacking her head into the pavement, at the expense of her elbows.
Yui yelled from across the park, "Yowch!"
"Ow..." Riina slowly rolled over and stood up to face her senior.
Concern filled her eyes, "We may have to start slower."
Riina now stood on the grass outside the skatepark proper. She could see Yui was working the bowl, going back and forth doing short grinds and occasionally getting enough speed to ollie out. Rina had gotten the helmet she wore on her scooter.
"Put this on."
"Do I have to? No one else here does."
"No one else here is gonna crack their melon open going under five miles an hour."
"Okay."
"So you ever actually ridden this bad boy?" She pointed at the board now immobile in the grass.
"...No. Only in a video game."
"Aight, so we're going to square zero then. Stand on your board." Riina put her left foot on the back and her right on the front screws.
Rina looked at her quizzically. "Actually get off. And turn around."
"Um, okay." She turned her back to Rina. "So what is this suppose-"
Mid-sentence, Rina shoved her. Hard enough that almost fell over. Wow, that girl was stronger than she looked.
She whipped her head around. "What was that for!?"
"Look, you caught yourself with your lefty."
"Huh?" She looked down and saw that she had reflexively put her left foot out to catch herself.
"That means you ride regular, with your left foot in the front. You been trying to do it goofy!"
"Oh. Oh okay, so I'm a righty is what you're saying?"
"Basically, yeah. Get back on the board, switch your feet this time."
Riina stepped onto the board. Immediately there was a difference in her confidence, she felt more stable and firmer in her stance.
Rina noticed too. "Hella, 'kay try moving around a little. Move back and forth, side to side, even try taking your right foot off to push."
She leaned forward, feeling the deck tilt and the joints in the trucks strain a little as she approached their limit. She did the same leaning backward now, putting more effort into not falling on her butt again. She then leaned towards the tail of the board, her right, and panicked a little as the front wheels began to lift off of the grass.
"Don't worry, your board isn't going anywhere in the grass. Try leaning until the tippy-tail is touching the ground."
Riina did as such and the board stayed under her feet. She did the same on the nose side, her left. It was noticeably more difficult to keep her balance with her non-dominant foot. Finally, she put the board down and took her right foot off and placed her toes on the ground, slowly and carefully.
"Dun dundun dun! You completed your first challenge. You have been promoted to Junior Skate Squirt."
"I don't know, I feel kind of silly. I didn't even go anywhere."
"But now, the basics you know, young padawan."
"Can we go back into the park now?"
"Ya, sure."
"Can I take the helmet off?"
"Nope."
She was back in the flat area. It was getting late in the day, the sun would be setting soon, and she hadn't actually ridden an inch on her board. Yui had gotten out of the bowl and was back to relaxing by the staircase with a Mountain Dew. Rin took her place and seemed determined to get some pretty serious air. This girl was like a skating machine. She was glad that Mirei and Asuka, now practicing their ollies and kickflips, seemed considerably less experienced.
"Rina? When am I going to be able to use a ramp?"
"Hm... probably not this week, we still need to beef up your basics. This is still like square 0.5."
"But you can't do anything cool on just boring, flat ground. I wanna catch air like the Birdman! Or just do like, one kickflip!"
Rina crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. "Can't do anything cool on flat ground, eh? Watch this."
Rina stepped onto the board. She didn't do anything for about 30 seconds, simply testing the tension in the trucks and the flexibility of the deck. Then like it was nothing at all, she did a kickflip, then a heelflip, and then spun the board under her, a shove-it. She flipped the board again, so it was now upside-down, balancing on the tail as she used her legs to keep it from falling over.
She looked down at the design on the bottom of Riina's deck. "Ooh, a Les Paul. Cool!"
She flipped the board back onto its wheels, and then so it was sitting on its side, then started moving the two ends forward like she was stiffly walking away from Riina. She turned around and let all four wheels touch the ground again and bent down and rose up into a perfect handstand, stopping perfectly in front of Riina and exiting the handstand.
Riina stood frozen in place, totally speechless. Now right side up, Rina was breathing a little heavier but had barely broken a sweat doing all that.
"That's why we learn our basics."
Rina began the next part of her lesson, "Now let's put that stuff you did on the grass into practice. Put that baby on the ground and plant your feet on top."
She was standing on the board, and when she wasn't moving, it was remarkable how similar it was to the grass. She leaned the same way she did there.
"Careful getting up on two wheels there, pal. If you lean too far, your board's gonna leave you high and dry."
Riina put care into making sure her weight was evenly distributed, her tailbone still hurt from that first fall.
"Now bounce a little! Little baby jumps, your board will flex a little with you!"
Riina bounced the tiniest amount with her toes, then a little bit harder. The wood was surprisingly flexible, even if it did groan a little with each jump.
"It feels good. I feel like I have more of a handle on it now!"
"Yayyyyyyyyyyyy! Okay, now let's get to the real stuff. Take your back foot off and push off the ground. I wanna see those wheels spinning!"
Riina took her right foot off, and turned her left slightly so that she was facing forward, and pushed. She was moving now, but pretty slow. She pushed harder this time, maybe too hard. Oh no, she was going pretty fast now. She was headed for the outer wall. She was freezing, she didn't know what to do.
"Riina, Lean back! You can turn away from the wall!" She leaned back, not too far, just like when she was on the grass and her board gently turned left to avoid the wall.
Now she was moving into another area of the park, it looked like a pool that had been cut in half, all curvy and near vertical. The ground also transitioned from nearly flat to sloped, and she was picking up speed.
Rina was far enough away that she needed to yell to be heard over the music and Riina's own wheels.
"Stop! Drag your right foot on the ground!" Riina took her foot off, but every time it touched pavement, the friction made her feel like she was going to fall off again. She was losing control of her board and going scary fast. She was right in front of the ramp when she heard Rina shout, "Bail!"
One foot hit the ground before her momentum continued her forward as she twisted to not fall head first. She hit the concrete, back, then shoulder, then helmet with a loud crack.
"Ow..."
When she opened her eyes Rin was crouched over her, feeling up and down her arms. She saw Rina round the corner into the pool, her eyes wide.
Rin had now moved over to her shoulders, and Riina heard her speak for the first time that day. "Tell me if anything hurts." Riina had expected her voice to match her appearance, hard and confident. Instead, it was soft and also unsure somehow, like she was uncomfortable with the words that came out.
"What are you doing?" Rin was still poking and prodding at now somewhat sore areas.
"Checking for broken bones. You took a hard fall."
"I'm alright, really. Can you just, uh, help me up?" Rin stood up and extended her hand. Riina took it and slowly stood up, against the wishes of her aching knees.
Rina now walked up, slowly. "You okay? That looked pretty rough..."
"Um, other than a few bruises and scrapes, I think I'm good."
"Sorry 'bout that, I guess I didn't really think the whole training thing all the way through." She gave a sheepish laugh.
"It's okay Rina, I think I learned how to fall. So that counts for something, I guess."
Rina looked up at her helmet, still being worn by Riina. "And to wear a helmet."
"Huh?" Riina unbuckled the helmet and took it off.
"Oh." There was a sizable crack just about where she had hit it on the concrete.
"Hey Rina? I think I've learned enough today."
Right then, Mirei appeared on the upper lip of the pool. "If it's all good with you girls, Asuka and I are going to get going."
Rina answered, "I think we were about to head out too."
Riina and Rin nodded in agreement.
The only one that didn't live far enough to walk home from the skatepark was Rina, but she came with the group as they made their way home before sunset.
"Wait, so you're saying Riina totally ate dirt and we missed it!? After all the times we ate it when we were the new kids, we miss the new new kid's first major bail!?"
Even though she was still aching, Riina was able to laugh about it. "I don't know what you two were so occupied with that you missed both me and Rina shouting."
Asuka quipped, "It takes a lot to pull a pair of teens away from their Pokemon."
That got a laugh from everyone, Riina even saw Rin stifle a giggle.
"I was over talking with Shin and I swear if she saw blood come out of you, she was ready to stuff it back in to avoid more paperwork."
"How come Shin only talks to you, Yui? I'm the oldest and she still treats me like a little munchkin."
"Maybe it's a blonde thing?"
"I am blonde!"
"Not naturally."
"Like you or she've ever seen me au naturale."
"I'm telling you, we have a sixth sense for these things."
"Whatever dude," Rina said, exasperated.
They had arrived at the first breakpoint. They all said goodbye to Yui as she skipped into her upscale neighborhood surrounded by high shrubs.
Mirei started the conversation up again, "So, other than almost going to the hospital, how was your first day?"
"Well, it was pretty fun. The drill instructor here had me doing a bunch of weird testy things so I could actually get on my board without launching it. It felt pretty silly... but I do think it actually worked."
"Yeah, I remember doing that. It wasn't with Rina, but I felt dumb just kind of standing on a patch of carpet with a piece of wood under my feet. And you know, just sorta, pretending to skate."
"Mirei and I both tried when we were like, 11 about? But we never really rode until I happened to meet Rina a few months ago."
Rina looked embarrassed when Asuka mentioned their meeting. "Aha yeah, can you believe a freshy was tutoring me in math? Pretty lame, but I made some new friends so it all worked out, y'know?"
Before there was time for a pause, she changed the subject. "So Riina—huh wow this is going to be confusing with Rina, Riina, and Rin all together isn't it. Anyway, do you want to keep coming back to the park, then?
"Sure, when do you guys meet up?"
"Pretty much most days after school until like sunset-ish. And the occasional Saturday, if I'm not on a ride with Takumin n' the gang."
"Yeah, I think that would be pretty rock."
"Oh my God, you are adorable Rina 2, Rina Jr., Super Rina 64. I gotta work on this whole name confusions thing, but this is where the babies and I jump off!"
"Oh, you three go that way? Alright, see you tomorrow then!"
As Rina's scooter puttered away, she could clearly be heard yelling "Wooh! Rina The Sequel is part of the crew! Stay out of trouble! Don't do drugs!"
That left just her and Rin. In the group, Rin didn't seem very talkative, and it was more pronounced one-on-one.
They continued down the side street in a slightly awkward silence. Rin's loose hair blowing in the cool breeze, occasionally revealing her pierced ears underneath. They were getting further into the suburban tracks.
Riina was observing the way the sunset cut through the trees when Rin said, "I'm going this way."
Riina almost jumped "Oh, okay! It was, uh, nice meeting you!"
"Yeah, nice meeting you. You're... 'pretty rock' too."
Without another word, Rin turned around and walked away. Riina watched her go until she rounded a corner and was out of sight.
Author's notes: If you aren't familiar with some of the lingo used here
deck - the part of the board you stand on
trucks - the metal parts under the deck that connect it to the wheels
ollie - you jump up and the board comes with you
kickflip - you flip the board
heelflip - you flip the board the other way
line - basically a series of tricks (jump off a ramp do a trick and then grind a rail)
goofy - basically riding lefty, your right foot is in front
The sweet tricks Rina does are all real flatland tricks, which I took from videos of Rodney Mullen (though his are much harder). This may actually end up being more than a one-shot! so stay tuned