Fourteen hours... They had been switched for fourteen hours. At least ten were left, and Stella thought they would be switched longer. Maybe they had thirty hours left... or more...
Dawn sat on the bus. Not the school bus, but a white public transportation bus. Since it was a Friday, Dicky had skateboard practice right after school. And unlucky Dawn now had to go there for him, since she was in his body.
The annoying, black skateboard took up both her lap and the seat beside her, making her seem like a seat hoarder. Almost three people had given her death glares as they had to stand up on the bus. Then Dawn decided to just ignore them, by looking out the window instead.
Dicky had told her to get off at Marine Street, and then walk down the road until she saw the park. A bunch of people would probably be there, so it would be easy to spot where they were gathering. Dawn still felt nervous though. She couldn't skate if her life depended on it, and now she was going to be in the skate park with twelve skaters.
She did have a pretty good excuse to not skate as much, and be horrible when she actually would skate. The perfect excuse was that she had tripped at school, and her knees hurt too much.
Impatiently, Dawn looked up at the little screen on the bus wall, displaying the next couple of bus stops. On the top of the list, the words 'Marine Street' were displayed. '
Shoot! This was where she was getting off. Dawn pushed the stop button last second, and the bus started slowing down a second later. Clumsily, she started figuring her way out, struggling with the skateboard. Totally, it took her almost fifteen seconds to get off, and she could just feel everyone's eyes falling on her like a blanket.
Well, that was embarrassing. Dawn started hurrying down the street in the direction Dicky had told her to. After a few seconds, she could see the skate park around the corner. A grownup man, five boys and two girls were standing at the highest point of the place.
Thank gosh, finding them wasn't hard at all. Dawn sprinted the last bit, down the street, over the road, and into the park. Now how was she gonna get up to them? It was just a slope up to the platform. No stairs, a ladder, anything.
Luckily for Dawn, one of the boys had spotted her.
"Heeey, Dicky!" The boy jumped onto his skateboard and skated down the slope.
He stopped right by Dawn, by leaning his foot on the end of the board, and jumping off. Dawn had no idea who he was. She had never seen him before, or even heard Dicky mention anyone at skateboarding.
"Hi!" Dawn smiled, but the boy snorted.
"I don't think I've ever heard you say hi before"
Something popped inside of Dawn, and she realized that was not how Dicky greeted someone.
"I.. I mean... Heyyy, dude"
The boy still looked a little weirded out, but seemed to just shake it off, as he held out one fist. Dawn looked at his clenched hand, confused. She looked up at the boy.
"Uuuuh, Dicky. Is everything cool?"
Dawn nodded.
"Then why aren't we doing the handshake?"
A handshake!? Dicky didn't tell her about any handshake? What was she gonna do? She didn't know the handshake, she didn't even know who she was talking to!
"I... Cause I... My arm hurts, and I don't want to bother it"
"Bother it?"
Dawn slowly nodded. Still looking confused, the boy turned around again, and ran straight up the ramp! How was that possible? Was Dawn supposed to do that now?
The boy looked down at her.
"You coming, Dicky?"
"Uuuuuuh, I don't know. My legs kinda hurt too"
Dawn could just see the boy rolling his eyes and he turned around to his other skating friends.
Ten minutes later, the group had gathered at the lowest point of the park. The late-arriving skaters were there, and so was Dawn (there was a staircase leading down there).
"Okay, skaters" The leader of the group, a tall brown haired man, with a short beard, stood up in front of the class. "You all know what we're doing today, I told you last time. Get to it!"
The other eleven kids went off in different directions, all swiftly carrying their heavy boards. Dawn on the other hand, was still in place, stiff and still. The leader gave her an annoyed stare.
"What are you waiting for Dicky?"
Dawn opened her mouth, but she was still silent.
"I-... My knees hurt, and so I can't really skate"
The leader thought for a second.
"You don't need a lot of knees to skate forward and back. You gotta do something" He strictly pointed to the opposite ends of the lowest point.
Dawn felt already that there was no point in arguing. All she would probably do would be getting yelled at, so she sprinted over to one end, dragging the skateboard behind her. She dropped it in front of her, and slowly put one foot on it.
She almost got a heart attack when the board slowly rolled an inch, and she pulled her foot back, like the board was about to attack her. Looking up, she could see the leader still looking at her with killing, dead serious eyes. Okay, she could do this. No problem, she was just gonna ride a skateboard a few meters. Totally not a challenge.
Trying to look as confident, chill and comfortable as possible, Dawn put her foot back on, and kept it there when the force from her foot made the skateboard roll away a bit. Not as laid back at all, she quickly threw her other foot onto the board. She was not successfully on it. How did she move?
Well... she had seen Dicky doing this before. He would just like kick the ground, and the skateboard would go off. Couldn't be that hard, right?
Dawn put her foot down on the concrete, and pushed away. The skateboard rolled off, waaaayyyyy too fast. Dawn felt like she was going to fall off, and so she started flailing her arms around, searching for balance. Then she found it. She was standing on the moving board, and it felt incredible.
Until she reached the other end... How did she slow down? Couldn't Dicky have explained how to do the basics at least!? Dawn went up a meter on the slope, and then rolled down even faster than before. She quickly jumped off the skateboard, and tripped as she stopped moving. Her ground was only an inch from the ground as she hit it.
Once again, eyes fell on her. But this time it was the leader, and the other skaters. They all looked disappointed. The leader pointed to the entrance gate of the park.
"Leave. And fix your hurting legs and behavior 'til the next time"
Dawn quickly got on her feet, and almost ran out of the park (she couldn't run, carrying the heavy board). She screwed up. Got Dicky in trouble. This was not good.
Hey, everyone, I'm here again, can you guess why?
Well, it's because I felt like writing. And 90% of this, I wrote during a class where I had nothing to do.
Anyway I have something to tell you. Recently, I have been absolutely obsessed with A Series of Unfortunate Events, and I will most definitely write some fanfics on the series. But first I have to finish watching the series. I'm halfway into season 2, and I watch 3-5 episodes a week with my family.
So some time soon, I'll write ASOUE fanfiction.
