Chapter Three
Venice "Dogtown", California; March, 1975
"Hurry up, man!" Jay called back to me as we neared the Zephyr shop.
I sped up on my skateboard, catching up with him. We stopped and kicked our boards up, holding them in our hands as we walked inside. Red Dog, Shogo, Biniak and everyone else was already there and we sat down.
Skip sat on the counter wearing his usual jeans and flip-flops. Chino and Stecyk stood beside him.
"You made it," Skip slurred as we sat down.
Jay didn't look up at him and I just shrugged.
Skip clapped to get everyone's attention. They were all pushing and shoving and conversing. "Shut up," I heard someone say.
"Come on," Skip said.
Chino clapped and we all looked forward, though some still messed around.
"Hey, listen, when you're riding for one of these shops around town- Yeah?- you can have off days," Skip explained.
"You have an off day riding for this shop, it's treason," Stecyk finished.
"Yeah, you gotta approach every day like it's your last. All right?" Skip's gaze looked around to all of us and we watched a bit intently. We couldn't really tell Skip looked at all of us because he wore his sunglasses which hid his eyes.
"Yep!" Jay said beside me.
"Anyone got a problem with that?" Skip questioned. He waited for an answer.
There were scattered "no"s and "nope"s.
"Stecyk?" Skip looked to his colleague and Stecyk held a pile of navy blue t-shirts.
"Heat," he announced. He tossed the t-shirt to me and I caught it, holding it happily.
"You're kidding!" I said. I held it up to look at it. It had "Zephyr" printed on the front.
"Take off your shirt, Heather," one of the guys said.
I turned around and rolled my eyes.
"Wentzle," Stecyk announced next. He went all around the room until we all had t-shirts. The guys were taking their shirts off and slipping their new ones on. I just slipped my "Zephyr" shirt on over my gray shirt.
"Wear 'em with pride, man," Skip told us. I nodded a bit and looked down at the t-shirt smiling.
Jay only had his half on. He laughed a bit and then said in a nasally voice, mocking Skip, "Yeah, wear 'em with pride, man."
Skip stared at him then gave me a glance. He didn't look amused.
The other guys laughed and I chuckled a bit, but stopped immediately as Skip's eyes landed on me again. My cheeks when bright red.
Chino grabbed Jay and said, firmly, "Or we'll rip them off your bony, little backs, you understand?"
"Yeah…" Jay said a bit unsure. He smiled.
"Okay," Skip said. "Now, has everyone seen this?" He held up a skate competition poster and we all gasped and exchanged glances.
One of the guys stood up and grabbed it. He read it over and most of the others huddled around him. "Skateboard competition."
"You can't even read," another teased.
"You have one month to prepare," Skip said. He made sure we were paying attention- this was important to him. "And we're gonna have training starting at 4 every day, all right?"
We all paid good attention to him. "We gotta get serious here. We have to, because there are gonna be hundreds of skaters from all over the country, and we need to shut them down."
We all cheered a bit. "Yeah!"
Skip turned and looked to the back of the shop. "Montoya, come on!" he said. He turned back to us. "We got you guys some gifts- I don't know why…"
Montoya came out with a bag of new skateboards. He began to pull them out and we all crowded around him grabbing for them.
I grabbed a blue one and looked it over, smiling. "Sweet…"
We all rushed to the door of the shop and out.
"Thanks, Skip!" I called.
"Yeah…" he said flatly back.
When Jay didn't follow, I looked back seeing him talking to Skip. Then Skip didn't answer. I shrugged and turned around following Tony and the others. We all started to skateboard down the street.
"Hey, I'm not bailing your asses out of jail!" Skip yelled towards us. I turned around seeing Chino, Stecyk, Skip and Montoya eyeing us.
Then Biniak didn't realize where he was going and ran into a shop window, breaking it.
"Oh shit!" Jay said.
We began to skate back to the shop, so we wouldn't get caught, but Skip and Chino had closed the gate.
"Hey! Hey! Get back here!" the shop owner said.
As se all rushed to the gate, I heard Skip say, "It was supposed to keep 'em out of trouble man!"
We pounded on the gate. "Let us in!"
When he didn't we all ran the other way, getting away from the shop owner.
10 Minutes Later…
We had successfully gotten away and were skateboarding through down, across the streets and down alleys.
At the lead of everyone else, I heard one of the guys yell, "Speed wobble!" and then I heard a crash. I didn't dare look back, but only kept skating.
Jay got to the front and then he went to his house. I followed but soon told most of the guys I was gonna head out. They said 'bye' and I waved to them, skating back to Zephyr.
When I got there the gate was still closed. "Hey c'mon, Skip. Let me in man…"
Skip walked over to the gate and unlocked it. "You guys were in some serious shit back there…"
I walked in. "I paid you twenty yesterday, I want my board."
"Yeah, whatever," Skip slurred. He held a class of orange juice and whiskey.
I went over to some surfboards and looked back at him. "How do you drink that stuff?"
"You're only sixteen, man, you wouldn't know," he answered.
"Whatever," I muttered. I chose a red and blue surfboard. "I'm outta here."
I immediately went home and grabbed my wetsuit. I skated to the pier and suited up, then got my new surfboard to try it out. There were some large waves today and I was going to take them.
I paddled out into the water and then took a wave, doing some hard turns on the water. I made sure I kept my footing and stayed out of the way of monster waves.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
When I had finished, my cheeks were pink from the cold water and my brown and golden blonde hair was drenched and stuck to my skin. I panted and got out of the water.
Then I saw Stacy walk up to the pier. He looked at me and smiled a bit.
I waved. "Hey, Stace," I greeted, breaths separating my words.
He waved back. "So… Jay told me about the team…"
"Oh, yeah. Right." I wasn't really sure what to say to that. Stacy was my friend and he hadn't made it on, but… What should I say?
"Come on, Heather," Stacy laughed. "We all knew I wasn't gonna get on. Skip doesn't like me."
I sighed. "I'm sorry, Stacy… I, er, I have to go." I didn't want to awkwardness of this talk haunt me any longer. I took my board and ran up the hill, getting on my skateboard. I held my converse in my hands, as I skated barefoot.
On the ride home I thought about how Stacy felt. "He must feel like crap…" I muttered.
"Mom's gonna be home any minute!" Patrick yelled at me from the front door as I came up the driveway. I walked in the door and set my skateboard down and then went to my room, putting my surfboard away, and then changing into a dry pair of jeans and a black tank top.
I came down the stairs. "Where's Julia?"
"She's asleep in her room," Patrick said.
"Good," I replied quickly. Then I brought up a heart-warming subject. "Oh yeah! You know my surfboard? The green and blue one? The one you wrecked?"
Patrick swallowed. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Um… whoops?"
"Gimme twenty bucks," I said, holding my hand out. My long hair dripped water on the floor and drenched the back of my tank top.
Patrick groaned. "Why?"
"Because I had to pay for a new one."
He sighed and took a twenty from his pocket, putting it in my hand.
I shoved it in my pocket satisfied. "Thank you… Now get some dinner, before mom and dad get here. They'll think I starved you." I pushed him towards the kitchen and he walked there.
I sat down on the couch, lying my head back taking a few deep breaths.
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Author's Note: Yay for a terrible chapter!
Also… Two chapters in one day? How is this possible? Then again, some are actually reviewing so I want to write more. That may be the reason.
Thank you alicefavcullen for reviewing the most! :D
