Chapter 8:

"Not all that glitters is gold. Not all who wander are lost." –J.R.R. Tolkien

Jason pulled on his Emericas and grabbed his skateboard, an Enjoi with a panda on the bottom of it. They'd be learning grinds and kick-flips today. At least that's what Carl had said.

"You want to head over for breakfast with me?" asked Patrick.

"Sure," Jason said, heading out the door with his skateboard, followed by Patrick.

They headed towards a large gray building, and they met up with Cazz. Jason, feeling somewhat a third wheel, followed them to the breakfast line, which turned out to be a buffet. After breakfast, which turned out to be scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and a bunch of other stuff, there was an announcement over the loudspeaker.

"Jason Escalante, please come to the front office. You have a phone call."

Jason, his ears bright red, headed for the front office.

"Hey Jason." It was Jorge.

Jason winced inwardly, remembering their last conversation.

"How are you doing?"

"Fine, I guess." Jason flushed, even though he knew that Jorge couldn't see him.

"You're blushing right now, aren't you? Anyway, Jason, I'm really sorry about what happened the other time. You've probably made a whole lot of a better friend than me, right?"

"No." The thing about Jason was that he was always honest and genuine. "No, of course not," there was an amount of worry in his voice.

"Just kidding man, chill out," Jorge laughed from the other end. "Come on, you know I'll always love you."

Jason chuckled nervously. Then, he dropped his voice. "How are you doing Jorge?"

"I'm hanging in ok," Jorge said. "I couldn't believe that Dad would do that to me at first—but since when has he done anything nice for me?"

"Umm…" Jason was doing his best to defend Jorge's dad. He hadn't done anything good as far as Jason could see, but he didn't want to tell his friend that.

"Exactly! Anyway, I have a new step-sister too. Her name's Julie."

There was an awkward silence. Jason tried to break it. "So um… how is she?"

"She's ok. She's not pretty or anything—but I guess she's ok. She's better than her mom at least. She doesn't want to be here either."

"So what's Kathy like?"

"She's weird. She's so rich! Did you know the lady spends two hundred dollars a day just on clothes?"

"That's crazy, Jorge."

"I KNOW!"

Jason listened patiently as Jorge rambled on and on about how much he hated his dad, how mad he was, and everything else he wanted to let out. Finally, he was finished.

"So, you know West wants to come and visit you soon, right?"

"I guess."

"Ok, go skate now. Your parents paid money for this camp, you know."

"Yeah ok. Bye Jorge."

"Love you Jason. Bye."

xxx

"Alek?" It was his mom.

"Yeah?" he yelled from the top of the stairs.

"You have a package!"

Alek leapt down the stairs, taking them two by two, and almost ran over his mother.

"Wow, you're excited…"

Alek grabbed the package and tore it open. There it was! The jacket! Pulling it on, he felt the warm familiarity of his friends. Reading the note and laughing out loud, he considered it. He'd try it. He'd try not to kill Bay.

But he came pretty close to. Opening his door to head off to work, he crashed face to face with her.

"What are you doing here?" he yelped.

"I came to visit you."

"DON'T YOU HAVE ANY FRIENDS?"

"Yeah I do, but they're all in California."

"WELL GO MAKE SOME MORE!"

"I like being with you." She was honestly searching for a friend and not trying to hook up with him or anything. Alek slumped.

"Well, I'm just going to work."

"Can I come with you?"

"NO!" Gary Smith refused to even let Bay enter the store.

Alek walked to his driveway, Bay still trailing him. "GO AWAY!"

"No."

Alek got into his new Porsche, (tribute to Mr. Lohemann), and put the keys in the ignition. Starting to drive away, he suddenly felt a twinge of guilt. Sighing loudly to himself, he backed up. "Get in."

Bay opened the door and climbed in next to him.

"You know I can't spend time with you until I'm done yet, you know."

"Yeah I know. I'll come back and see you later."

Why do I always do things like this? Alek thought to himself. What do I care?

He parked, got out, and indicated that Bay go somewhere by herself, hoping that she wouldn't get run over. He couldn't afford to get a lawyer.

xxx

West grimaced as Taty made him sing the Phantom of the Opera song once again and his voice cracked in the effort, leaving his cheeks as red as newly painted fire-trucks.

Sarah managed to get through three entire scenes without the slightest mess-up. West watched as she passed him, throwing her dark blonde hair in his face again. She wasn't truly beautiful, not in the way as some girls were, but she was attractive enough. Crystal clear blue-eyes, the slight freckles… oh, and she had the hair. It seemed to glow almost, a dark golden glow that looked real and intense, not like the light-bulb type of glow that came from those artificial girls. He noticed that she smelled really nice.

"Your hair looks really pretty," he managed to choke out, wanting to kick himself.

She smiled. Her teeth were perfect in even, straight rows, reminding West somehow of Jason. "Thanks West. Hey, where's that jacket of yours?"

There. She had given him something to talk about.

He started telling her about the jacket, liking the way she laughed and how her eyes lit up. He wasn't quite done with the story yet when practice was over, and he gathered up courage. "So, do you want to go get coffee or something?"

"Sure," she said with a smile. "That would be nice."

xxx

Jorge hung up, feeling relieved. He'd let out some of the emotions bottled up inside of him.

"Jorge!" his dad called. "It's time for dinner!"

Jorge walked slowly down to dinner where Kathy had prepared another amazing meal—this time chicken, biscuits, and potatoes. Jorge couldn't say too much about her, but she was a good cook.

He looked at her as he ate, wondering what on earth had possessed his father to like her. He tried be completely nonbiased, and studied her.

She was pretty. He'd admit that. With an astonishing sheet of dark hair and sparkly dark eyes, he could see where his dad liked the looks.

But otherwise, besides the fact that she was good at cooking, Kathy wasn't any better than his mom. What made his dad leave his mom for this lady?

His mom was charismatic. She laughed easily, and her eyes glowed with happiness. She was sweet, beautiful, everything. And his dad had left.

Suddenly Jorge was aware of everybody's eyes on him. He cleared his throat. "Umm…."

"Kathy was asking you," Connor said, not looking at him, "whether or not everything's ok…"

"Sure, everything's good," Jorge stumbled for words. "I guess. I was a bit shocked."

No, everything's not ok, he thought to himself. Nothing's ever ok with my dad.

xxx

Carl sped through an introduction about how over that summer they would be learning to street skate and to skate vertically. He said that he knew many of them already

"Now," said Carl, "would anybody care to demonstrate a grind or a kick-flip?"

Jason looked around. Nobody was volunteering except for Patrick and some other girl he didn't know—some girl who had been throwing him hopeful glances on the bus.

He knew. He raised his hand hesitantly, and Carl's eyes rested on him. "Ok, Mr. Escalante. Let's see what you can do, ok?"

Jason grinned softly, and launched into a perfect display. He realized everybody's eyes were on him, but he didn't care. He knew who he was when he was skating.