Chapter 16

"Nice to meet you all," Jess half-muttered. Partly true: it was nice to meet the house's resident and her friend. But she could have gladly gone her whole life without meeting the girl who had Stacy's heart. Up close her lightly tanned skin showed itself to be flawless and her teeth, as she bared them in a brief smile, were straight and white. Jess found herself struggling with the feelings of self-consciousness and inadequacy again. Not that it mattered. Camille had won long ago. End of story.

"Hey, you look kinda familiar. Do you go to Santa Monica College?" Camille queried.

"Yeah, I just started in January," Jess confirmed.

Camille nodded as she raised her eyebrows reflectively. "Cool, thought I'd seen you around there. You got a major picked yet?"

"Not yet, just doing general studies for now. I might go into Art at some point though. My parents are both artists." Oh man, blab your whole stupid life story, why don'tcha? Jess thought disgustedly.

"That's awesome," Camille enthused as she gave another little smile, showing off disgustingly cute dimples. "My dad works in film. I'm thinking of studying that at UCLA, if I can get into the program."

"Oh, great." Hmm, a showbiz kid, Jess thought. I wonder how she and Stacy met. She's definitely not your typical Dogtown girl.
Tiffany's voice cut into their conversation: "Jane and I are going to sit by the pool and watch the guys. You coming?"

"Ok," Camille replied breezily. She turned back to Jess. "Sit with us?"

"Yeah, go sit with them, Jess," Deb advised. "I might go to the store and pick up some refreshments 'cause I'm gettin' a little dry."

At this, Tiffany turned to Deb with a pleading expression on her highly made-up face. "Oh! If I gave you some money would you mind picking up some beer for me? We totally ran out yesterday and nobody's really bringing any."

"Hey, you should make the guys bring the beer in exchange for skating your pool, you know," Deb counseled with a slightly annoyed expression.

"Yeah, I know, but I don't mind. A lot of them are really broke and I'm not, so you know…" Tiffany's voice trailed off as she gazed at the teenage boys crowding her parents' pool. At that moment Biniak was marauding the deep end, his wide mouth set in a furious line as though he'd rather be jackhammering the bowl instead.

"Hey, it's cool," Deb countered smoothly. "What kinda beer you want?"

"Oh, whatever is good. Wait, lemme get my purse," Tiffany answered as she set off for the house at a trot, her high-heeled sandals clacking on the pool deck and platinum mane swinging. Quite a few of the guys turned their heads from the action in the pool to watch her astonishingly round and high shorts-clad backside as it wiggled with every bouncing step. Jess idly wondered if many of the guys there had seen that backside sans shorts, or clothing of any kind. She seemed nice, but it was obvious that more than just her pool and her wallet was wide open.

Camille and Jane were sitting on the grass just beyond the deck at the deep end. Jess joined them, sitting cross-legged next to Jane, just as Tony took a run. Like all the skaters, he wasn't visible to the observers on the deck until he was almost at the coping because the pool was so deep. Jess guessed it had to be 10-12 feet and got a cold, queasy stab in her midsection just thinking about rolling in slowly from the shallow end, never mind zooming up the wall, pivoting on just one back wheel and plunging straight back down again just like Tony did, to the hoots of approval from his fellow Dogtowners.

"He's good, but I think Stacy is the best," Jane told Camille in what sounded like a slightly syncophantic manner, Jess thought sardonically.

"Yeah, Stacy's great, but…I dunno." Camille sighed.

"Dunno about what?" Jane prodded, while Jess pricked up her ears.

Camille sighed again. "He's a a sweet guy and a radical skater, but I'm starting to think he's never going to go anywhere with it." Her voice was slightly high and soft-pitched, but fortunately she was having to talk a little more loudly over the sound of urethane wheels on concrete and the noise of the specators. "I'm kinda getting tired of his trip, always going on about turning pro, turning pro, but never really doing anything about it. He can win all the contests he wants but that's not what he really needs, ya know?"

Jane made a sympathetic noise. "Well, give him time. He's still pretty young."

Camille made a less sympathetic noise. "He's 18. Young, but a lot of these guys getting on pro teams and doing ads are even younger. He needs to get going before it's too late. Either that or come up with something to fall back on…besides surfing. Oh, I dunno," she said a second time.

Red Dog rolled into the deep end and attacked the coping, his strawberry blonde hair flying out in all directions under his yellow headband. From near the house a male voice yelled, "Beer run!"

Jess remained as still and quiet as possible, trying to fade into the background so Camille would keep talking. If she had any idea that I liked her boyfriend I bet she wouldn't say half as much, Jess ruminated.

"Sounds totally frustrating," Jane commiserated. "I can't deal with guys who don't have a solid plan for life, ya know?"

"Yeah," Camille agreed. "I mean, I really like him but I just worry about where it's going to go from here with the skating and all that. He already goes a lot of places without me and if he went pro he'd be going all over the place and I'd probably be stuck right here."

"Oh, that's no good. You should make him bring you along more. I would!" Jane declared self-righteously. In the pool, Baby Paul was getting a good run in, almost hitting the coping with every carve. The shallow end was lauding his every kickturn, no matter how sketchy.

"You can't make Stacy do anything, though. His skating life and his dating life are kinda two separate things. I can accept that. I don't want to get in the way of his dreams…"

Jane cut her off as she smacked the grass with her hand. "But you're there for him, he should appreciate that and include you more."

"Oh, he's included me in a lot of ways. I just feel that if it gets really serious – y'know, the skating – he'll have to concentrate a lot more on that and I just hope everything will be ok, that's all." Now Baby Paul was trudging up into the shallow end, having to bail and knee-slide out of a carve that stalled on the way up.

Jess was starting to feel sympathetic towards Camille as well. It was obvious she was having to walk a fine line with Stacy when it came to his loyalties. For the first time she began to realize that maybe he wasn't the ultimate boyfriend after all. What good was it to be with a beautiful guy if he loved his skateboard more than he loved you?

"Hup, there he goes." Camille's voice brought Jess out of her private reverie and made her focus on the pool again. Stacy had just pushed off for a run, the first one since Jess had gotten there. He barrelled right for the lip at the deepest part and did one of those pivots with three wheels out of the bowl, his back to the coping and the girls watching him. Jess fancied she could see right up his little red shorts and get a glimpse of white boxers, but that was probably her fevered imagination at work.

Stacy then proceeded to glide up and down the sides of the pool, executing perfect kickturns at or close to the coping each time. Now all the spectators were shouting praise and encouragement, Camille among them as she smacked her palms against her jeanclad thighs: "Yeah, go Stacy!"

Jess added her voice to the din as she mentally compared Stacy's style to the other skaters and started to understand why he got so much acclaim: He was a natural. Where the other guys attacked the pool with hostile snarls or sneers as though it was their worst enemy, Stacy seemed to glide effortlessly up the walls, his expression serene, almost zen. But not blank; concentration animated his features as his eyes were actively scanning ahead as he decided where to go next. There was no aggression in his style, just grace and smooth clean lines. He makes it look so easy even though you know it's not, Jess thought, awed.

Stacy came out of a right-hand kickturn almost in the shallow end and crossed to the other wall, intent on doing a simple carve. When he reached the coping on the far end, his line of sight was level with the three girls watching him. As he continued the carve, his gaze swept over Camille, then Jane…then fixed on Jess. For one heart-stopping moment their eyes locked and Stacy gave her a hint of a sly smile, and then he was past them, sailing back down the wall and into the shallow end, where Tony nearly knocked him down as he rolled in to try for an even better run. Unfazed, Stacy hoisted his board in the air and climbed out of the shallow end as several of his fellow skaters slapped him on the back and gave him high-fives.

Jess quickly ducked her head and picked at the grass beside her knee so her hair fell forward and hid her now-crimson face. He probably didn't mean anything by that, but man, I feel awkward right now. God, I hope his girlfriend didn't notice, she thought ruefully, although Stacy's behavior was certainly not her fault. I don't need the Dogtown girls AND her on my case about a guy who's never laid a hand on me.

As she concluded her thoughts, Stacy walked over with Tiffany trailing right behind him.

"Isn't he the awesomest skater ever?" the blonde gushed with a loopy grin.

Stacy gave a slight grimace of embarassment and shook his head as he sat on the grass next to Camille, casually tossing his board to the side. Jess leaned forward a bit to get a better view of the couple and saw Stacy give his girl a tight smile and a brief pat on the knee, but no other demonstration of affection was forthcoming from either party. Jess knew that was no reason to get her hopes up, though. They'd probably been together long enough that they didn't have to do any public displays of affection. She idly wondered if they slept together. Probably. She'd heard Camille say he was 18 and guessed that Camille was around the same age. Plenty old enough to be having sex. They seemed to like each other enough too, but at the same time something seemed lacking. The several times Jess had seen them together they were affectionate but not…passionate. Yeah, that's it. I'm looking for signs of serious chemistry between them and not really seeing it. Or is that just my jealous imagination at work? Anyway, it does no good to speculate. Despite what she says about the skating, she'd be crazy to break up with him. And if she did, I'd be at the end of a long line of girls waiting for their shot at him, if I'm even in it at all.

Fortunately before her train of thought could roll too far down a horribly melancholic track, Deb returned with beer, Kathy, and two new skaters. One of them Jess had never seen before, but upon getting a good look at him he went straight into the #2 Hot Guy spot right after Stacy. The other was the previous occupant of that spot (and of course completely unaware that he'd been instantly demoted): Jay Adams.