Chapter three

Authors note. Sorry, no flashback in this chapter. I wanted to start every chapter with a brief flashback but due to the lengthy flashbacks in chapters 1 and 2 there won't be one in this chapter.Now on with the story.

Jay eagerly raced forward on his skateboard towards his home. Today was the day, Maddie was coming home. She had called him two nights ago bubbling with joy as she gave him the good news. Thursday morning she'd be back, her plane landed at 10 so she should be home by 10:30. Well today was finally Thursday and Jay couldn't wait until 10:30.

Stacy, Sid, Biniak, Peggy, Wentzle Shogo and Red dog trailed behind Jay. None of them knew why he was so excited and way more hyped up then usual. Jay hadn't told anyone that Maddie was coming back; instead he said that they all had to come over because he had a "surprise". No one knew what to expect. Jay was nearly half a block ahead of them; he wanted to be there the second that Maddie arrived. He didn't notice the lengthy distance between he and his friends. As they followed behind they tried to brainstorm what would get Jay this excited.

"Maybe it's a new spot to skate?" Peggy suggested

"A hot naked lady?" Biniak said hopefully. Everyone turned to him like he was an idiot.

"Weed! It's gotta be weed!" Wentzle stated before anyone could comment on Biniak's guess.

"It'd have to be quite a lot of weed to get him this excited." Stacy pointed out.

"A dead cat." This was Biniak's next thought. Red dog shoved him off his skateboard.

"You are a moron." He exclaimed. And with that everyone stopped guessing and continued skating in the direction of Jay's house. By the time that they had gotten there Jay was already sitting on the railing on the steps outside of his house swinging his legs impatiently.

"Stacy, what time is?" he yelled as everyone took seats on the stairs near him.

"10:27. Why? And where's the surprise?" Stacy replied.

"You'll see, it's coming." Jay couldn't stop grinning as he said this and kept staring down the street at Maddie's house waiting for the taxi to pull up. Everyone else was sitting on the steps impatiently except for Peggy and Wentzle who where skating around near the steps. Everyone thought that there was something going on between them, but they denied it. Idiots. It was obvious that they liked each other.

All of a sudden Jay saw the taxi pull up in front of Maddie's house. He flung himself off the railing knocking Peggy over in the process and darted towards it. Maddie got out of the taxi and handed some money to the driver. As the driver started unloading her luggage she turned and saw Jay running at her.

"Jayboy!" She screamed and started running at him.

"Maddieee!"

Maddie ran to Jay and jumped up into him, wrapping her legs around his waist and hugging him close. Jay wrapped his arms tightly around her too. This served two reasons; number one to help keep her up so she wouldn't fall to the pavement and number two because it had been a over year since he last got to hug her.

"Hi." She said putting her forehead against his. "I missed you so much."

"Don't ever leave me again." Jay said while staring into her eyes.

"Never." Tears started to form in her eyes.

"Are you crying? This isn't the sad part, you're back now."

"Shut up." Maddie responded with a grin as Jay wiped the tears from her eyes and put her down. They finally noticed that everyone who had been at Jay's had come over and was watching their reunion. Suddenly Maddie felt kind of nervous and awkward. She was surrounded by people that she hadn't seen or spoken to in forever, ok it was only a year but it felt like forever. With Jay it was different, they were best friends and had kept in touch the whole time Maddie was gone. But she hadn't communicated at all with anyone else who was now staring at her. "Uh, hey." She said nervously to the crowd around her.

An equally awkward 'Welcome back' and 'We missed you' echoed her uncomfortable hello. The truth was everyone else felt just as uncomfortable as she had. It's not like they were so stricken with her newfound beauty that they couldn't speak. No, Maddie looked the same, aside from the fact that her long hair had been cut to just below her shoulder and her green eyes were now outlined in black eyeliner. And it certainly wasn't because they didn't like her and weren't glad to have her back. It was that they just weren't expecting her and they didn't know how to respond.

The awkward silence over took the crowd again. Maddie didn't know what to say without sounding like an idiot so she looked to Jay for help.

"Why don't we bring Maddie's stuff inside then go to Zephyr, Tony should be there by now." Jay suggested. Everyone mumbled in agreement and either grabbed one of Maddie's bags or just followed them inside of her house. Maddie led the way up to her bedroom. She was so happy to be back in her own room, everything was exactly how she left it. With a running leap she threw herself onto her bed and lay on her stomach. "I missed you bed." She said squeezing her pillow.

"Maddie, no one wants to see you make out with your pillow. Grab your board and let's go." Jay said as he put her suitcase on the floor.

"Shut up jerkface. I've missed this bed so much, if I want to make out with my pillow everyone can wait." Maddie joked. She sat up on her bed and looked at everyone. "And I'm not skateboarding to Zephyr. I can just walk. I haven't ridden in a year and I don't want to make an ass of myself in front of Dogtown's greatest skaters." She said this last part with an embarrassed look on her face.

"Hey, no one cares if you suck. We're not going to make fun of you or anything." This was the first time Sid had spoken to her since she arrived. "Pleaseeee, you can skate with me, we'll go slow." Sid continued to persuade her.

"Plus Stacy will buy you lunch. No, he'll buy everyone lunch." Jay interjected.

"Yea!" everyone, besides Stacy, Jay and Maddie, exclaimed in unison.

"Dude, I'm not making Stacy buy everyone food." Maddie said as she rose from her bed and started searching through her closet.

"Finally, someone with sense. Unlike you idiots who think that just because I have a job I can buy you stuff all of the time." Stacy smiled at Maddie, "I'm glad you're back."

"Me too." She replied as she pulled a blue and white skateboard out of her closet. "Ok, I'll skateboard, but you can't make fun of me if I fall. And someone owes me a beer for this. Let's go!" Everyone followed Maddie out of her house and skated off. She started feeling more comfortable around them. Well at least around Stacy and Sid now, but she figured in time everything would go back to the way it was before she left.

The herd of teens continued to skate in the direction of Zephyr. Jay, Shogo, and Biniak were at the front battling it out for the lead. Peggy and Wentzle followed behind them, they were laughing and flirting and didn't seem to notice or care that everyone else was there. Next was Red Dog and Stacy, this surprised Maddie. They used to not get along at all but Maddie figured that they must have matured while she was gone, Red dog mostly. Then, bringing up the rear was Maddie and Sid. Sid was filling Maddie in on what she had missed here while she was gone and Maddie was just concentrating on not falling.

But it didn't work. She hit a few rocks and her wheels instantly locked up sending her flying right into Red Dog. Next thing she new she had knocked Red off of his skateboard and landed on top of him. "Shit. I'm sorry." Maddie apologized, got up, and then offered him a hand. He took her hand and stood up.

"It's not your fault," He replied, "and it's not like I've never hurt you skating."

"Oh yea, you made me bleed. And scar up." Maddie and Red Dog were skating side by side now. "All I did was knock you over, and this wasn't my fault it was the rock's. When you hit me it was your entire fault."

Maddie and Red Dog were referring to a day two years ago when they were skating. Well, the guys were skating, Maddie was taking pictures. Red dog had noticed some girls coming over to watch them, after impressing them with his moves he tossed his skateboard aside to go talk to them. The tossing of his skateboard was more like chuck and it smacked right into Maddie's head and scrapped across it. The next thing she knew she was gushing blood.

"How long are you gonna keep using that against me?" Red Dog asked.

"Until the scar disappears, after that no one would believe me. I mean, you'd have to be pretty stupid to throw a skateboard at your friend." Maddie joked while lifting up her long bangs to show the scar she was referring to.

"Maddie, you have to stop now." Red Dog said while getting off his board.

"Why, I was just getting the hang of this again?"

"We're here moron." Red dog picked up his board and entered Zephyr. Maddie followed him in.

She scanned around the shop and the first thing she saw was a mop of frizzy hair. It was Tony and he was doing what he did best, flirting and trying to pick up girls. Maddie could tell from a distance by the way that they were standing and their incessant giggling. She knew that things between her and him wouldn't be as awkward as it was between her and some of the others. Tony was good at talking and making someone feel comfortable, which is probably why he got so many girls. She took this as her opportunity; he was distracted so she ran up behind him and jumped on his back. He was startled, but held on to her legs in order to keep her up. Because she was on his back he couldn't who she was, so she decided to have some fun.

"You sleep with me, you tell me that you love me and then I see you throwing yourself at other girls." Maddie screeched. The girls that Tony was talking to threw him a disgusted look, called him a pig and left. Tony still didn't know who was on his back. Jay rushed over to see what all the commotion was, seeing that it was only Maddie he laughed and watched his best friend piss off Tony.

"I don't know you, you psycho." Tony said as he dropped Maddie off of his back. She landed on her butt on the floor and looked up at Tony grinning. Tony turned around to get a good look at who had ruined his chances of picking up those girls.

"Maddie!"

"You know, if some crazy is on your back you really shouldn't call them psycho. It's upsetting." Maddie stated as Tony helped her up and pulled her into a hug.

"That's good advice. Now let's take a look at you, see if you got any fatter." Tony joked as Maddie stood up straight as if she was in the military being inspected. Anyone else would have been insulted by this comment, but Maddie didn't care. Tony would always make fun of the fact that she could eat anything and everything yet never gain a pound. Maddie turned to her side and tried to stick out her stomach. "Nope, you still disappear when you turn sideways." Jay and Tony both laughed at this.

"Ha ha." She said sarcastically, "I challenge you to an eating contest." She said pointing one of her pointer fingers in Tony's face and the other in Jay's.

"Well I accept, fatty." Tony said as he stuck his finger in Maddie's face.

"Yea, me too." Jay said , "Name the food Maddie."

"Tacos!" Maddie exclaimed realizing that Jay and Tony had said it along with her. Maddie frowned, they knew her too well.

"Am I that predictable?" She questioned. Everyone in the shop nodded in reply. "Eh, oh well. Let's go!" Everyone left the shop to go get tacos and to watch Tony, Jay and Maddie compete. They started making bets on who would be the champion.

Next chapter--Maddie and her mom, more Maddie and Jay, Zephyr skate team is formed and maybe I'll talk about the taco eating contest.