Chapter 3: Shine It On

Summer 1977

Upland Skatepark, Upland CA

"Man, look at all the people here today," Kathy half-muttered, her voice barely audible over the random shouts of the crowd filling the stands and the music blaring over the PA.

Still, Jay heard her and fired a quick grin back over his shoulder in her direction. "You and Blanca try to find someplace to sit and watch the action. I gotta sign in and warm up in the bowl over to the left of this one," he informed them before moving away from the crowd, his favorite yellow Z-Flex board tucked under one arm and a white helmet dangling from his other elbow.

Kathy watched his blue shorts-clad form as he strode off until he was swallowed up by the milling throng of skaters and onlookers, then turned to Blanca. "C'mon, let's find a good spot and kick whoever's already there out of it," she suggested, only half-jokingly.

"Considering that we're with the two most bad-assed skaters here, I say we get to sit where ever we want," Blanca crowed with a smirk.

"You know it," Kathy agreed with a smug smile of her own as they turned to the nearest bleachers. Fortunately they were able to find an open space in the third row with a fine view of the bowl where the contest would be held, and didn't have to send any unsuspecting victims away in disgrace. Blanca almost looked disappointed at not being able to throw her weight around, as though she needed the practice.

Kathy pulled her shades down over her dark eyes as the mid-afternoon sun was starting to descend far enough to shine directly in their faces, then scanned the area. The perimeter of the deep coping-edged bowl was delineated by a narrow walkway, behind which was a tall railing which kept the watching crowd contained. The railing's entire length was festooned with a variety of large advertisement banners for various skate teams and products. Most of the competitors had staked out sections in the first or second rows in order to better scope out the people they were up against. Kathy spotted the G&S team first, resplendent in their bright yellow and orange jerseys. Standing amongst his teammates, Stacy Peralta was particularly easy to pick out thanks to his distinctive straight blonde mane. She thought he might have been looking her way and started to throw him a tentative wave, but dropped her hand as his head suddenly turned the other direction. Several yards away the Alva team was just settling in to their spot but her brother's trademark curly mop wasn't visible. Blanca seemed to notice this at about the same time. "Where's my man at?" she queried, straining to pick him out in the crowd.

"Probably still warming up at the other bowl. Don't get your panties in a bunch," she chided her anxious friend.

"I just don't wanna see him gettin' hit on by any more stupid Val chicks," Blanca growled. "Gettin' sick of that shit."

Kathy shrugged. "Comes with the territory when you get famous. Jay gets his share of groupies coming up to him too. I just laugh it off 'cause I know he's going home with me at the end of the day."

Blanca sneered. "Yeah, bad as it is for Jayboy, it's a million times worse with Tony, especially since he started his own skateboard company, ya know?"

Kathy had to admit Blanca was right. "I think a lot of girls are intimidated by Jay, to be honest."

"But not you," observed Blanca, brows raised suggestively.

"Nah, never me," Kathy murmured as she smiled in Mona Lisa-like fashion. Before she could elucidate further her attention was distracted as she noticed Stacy and one of his teammates walking along the pool deck. Just as they were about to pass the spot where the girls were sitting, the two G&S riders were accosted by a dark-haired younger skater in a navy blue shirt with "Pipeline Skate Team" emblazoned in white across the back. The conversation which ensued was just audible to overhear:

"Awrite, Stacy! Blackhart!" the kid enthused, dropping his skateboard to the deck in order to shake their hands. "How's it goin'?"

"Hey…Steve, right? Local Upland kid," Stacy replied immediately, receiving an enthusiastic nod from the younger guy. "Got on the Pipeline team, huh?" Another nod from the kid. "Right on, I knew you'd make a team sooner or later. So you stoked about the contest today?"

Steve's darkly attractive features suddenly took on a more hangdog expression. "I was…until I saw Jay Adams warming up just now. Jeez, I may as well drop out – he's gonna kick all our asses. I swear, Strople's about to cry right now," the kid concluded despondently as he scowled down at his tennis shoes. Kathy and Blanca shot each other wordless but amused glances.

Without hesitation Stacy threw back his head and laughed at the cloudless sky. "Hey, don't worry about Jay or any other skater here. Just get in that bowl and give it all ya got. And even if you don't place, at least you know you went down swinging. There's no shame in that, man."

Upon hearing this measured counsel Steve brightened a bit. "Yeah, maybe so but…dude, you should see the gnarly moves Jay's pulling off over there! He's getting upside down and shit! Even TA's just standing there watching him. Fuck…" his voice trailed off as his confidence began to flag again.

This time both the G&S members laughed and Stacy clapped Steve on one sagging shoulder. "Like I said, don't sweat it. Just have a good time and if nothing else, watch and learn."

"Yeah, try to have some fun," Blackhart chimed in. "And besides, we saw ya skating those pools last summer and you were great then, so you got nothing to worry about."

Steve's eyes flew open, wide as silver dollars. "You guys remember that?" he asked in amazement.

"'Course we do," Stacy assured him. "How could we not? You showed us where they were. And ya got over the stairs and the lights, so we were impressed. So don't worry, ok?" He cuffed the kid on the shoulder once again and then he and his teammate were off.

Once they were all out of earshot the girls cracked up. "That Stacy, sooo Zen," Kathy observed as her shoulders shook with mirth.

"Yeah, and sooo fine, too. Hey, how come you and him never…?"

"What, dated?" Kathy finished her unspoken question. "Ah, he is hot and all that, but he's always gone for girls who were…not really Dogtown."

Blanca nodded understandingly. "Ya know, you're right. He's always kinda avoided the true DT chicas the whole time we've known him. Especially after his chick got stabbed at the Civic last year, remember that? He hardly hangs out in Dogtown now."

Kathy shook her head disgustedly. "Of course I remember the stabbing. Tony and I helped break it up. Crazy shit, ese. Wonder what happened to that chick anyways?"

"I dunno," Blanca replied with a shrug. "She's not here today anyway, I don't think."

Kathy squinted in the direction of the G&S team's section. "Seems like Stacy never brings his girlfriends out to events like this," she observed in a quiet voice.

"Yeah well, if your girlfriends had a habit of getting knifed in public, you'd keep them under lock and key too," Blanca shot back bitingly. At that quip Kathy merely shook her head again. Then she spotted her brother walking into the Combi-bowl area and quickly stood up to wave him down, glad for a reason to abandon the current line of conversation.

"I can't really talk," Tony shouted to them as he got closer. "They're going to start the contest in a few minutes."

"That's cool, rip it up, bro," Kathy called back.

Blanca pushed her way unheedingly between the two people standing on the front row of their bleacher and leaned over the railing to give Tony a kiss. "For luck, like Leia said in Star Wars," she told her longtime paramour. The film in question had been in theatres less than a month but most of the Dogtown regulars had already been to see it several times and never missed an opportunity to work in a quote whenever it was relevant.

Tony gave her a dismissive half-wave. "Pff, who needs luck? I got this one locked down," he boasted before striding off to meet the rest of his team. Looking a bit put out, Blanca returned to her seat and put her hands on her curvy hips with a small pout.

"Let it go, he's getting into contest mode," Kathy advised her longtime friend. "Hey look, isn't that Craig Stecyk taking pictures over there?" she suddenly blurted out, eager to distract Blanca before she could start to bitch.

The ploy worked, sort of. "Yeah, that's him," Blanca replied, a residual frown still pulling down the corners of her shapely mouth.

"ALL SKATERS NEED TO REPORT TO THE COMBI BOWL IMMEDIATELY" came the announcement over the PA. In no time the pool deck was seething with riders as they hurried to find their teammates and pulled on helmets and pads. Jay hustled past and threw them a quick wave before trading a few high-fives with some younger fans who were about to fall over the railing in their effort to get his attention. A minute later the contest began. First up in the initial heat were the Pipeline team. Kathy noted with satisfaction that Steve, who appeared to be one of the youngest members, really did skate well. "I think maybe Stacy has an eye for talent," she quipped to Blanca as the teenager finished up with a 180 power slide that would have been extremely impressive had he pulled it off.

After him, a few more non-LA riders took their turns, then the first Dogtowner of the day – Tony Alva – got his shot. His run was short but nearly flawless, eliciting a huge roar from the crowd and raising the bar for those who had to follow him. A few riders with Tunnel, Pipeline and Alva went, then Stacy took a run filled with 360s and cess slides, which instantly put him in the top three. Shortly afterward his G&S teammate Rick Blackhart began his run with a roll-in, rather than the usual drop-in, getting the first big standing ovation of the day. The rest of his performance was adequate enough to put him in fourth after Stacy.

And then it was Jay's turn. Word of his amazing practice runs had obviously been making the rounds. As his name was announced the energy around the pool increased palpably as most of the watching crowd instinctively leaned forward a bit more, eager to see what the fiery blonde had up his sleeve. Without even realizing it, Kathy held her breath and dug her nails into the hem of her denim shorts, watching intently as her boyfriend dropped in.

He sailed smoothly down the steep wall then tore across the bottom of the bowl and up the opposite transition like greased lightning. At the top of the far wall he crouched low as though he was about to try something, but merely let his board roll backward back down the wall and back up the side he'd dropped in on. As his back wheels hit the coping, he repeated the entire maneuver again as the tension surrounding the onlookers built exponentially with every second of Jay's run, making Kathy want to scream in frustration instead of hooting and calling out his name like she and everyone else had been doing. "C'mon, do something different," she snarled through gritted teeth.

On his third trip back down the roundwall, Jay granted her request even though there was no way he could have heard her. As he crossed the bottom of the bowl he deliberately, almost casually bailed, causing his board to fly out of the bowl and narrowly miss slamming into the startled Pipeline team, all of whom ducked as they threw up their arms to protect their faces. If Kathy hadn't been so startled herself she would have laughed at their uniform reaction.

Instantly the crowd got silent. Even the announcer, who up to that point had been glibly reporting each skater's every move, seemed too taken aback to say anything at first. Then he composed himself and lifted the microphone to his mustachioed mouth: "Well, looks like an abbreviated run from Jay Adams. Guess the judges will uh…scratch that one. Ok. First run of two will not be scored." As he spoke Jay climbed out of the bowl, collected his board, and slipped away between the bleachers.

"There's no way he can win now," Blanca muttered, her slightly Mexican-accented voice rich with disappointment. Her feeling seemed to be shared by most of the onlookers. The Alva guys, to a man, were frowning. The Pipeline team seemed let down. The G&S team mostly looked either baffled or amused except for Stacy who looked studious. Kathy thought she saw him trade a knowing look with Craig Stecyk but she wasn't sure. She managed to catch her brother's eye and he merely shrugged, then left the bleachers to prepare for his second run. Tony and Stecyk came together for a quick chat just within earshot of the girls.

"Well well, another sublime performance in Jay's Theater of Anything Goes," Stecyk declared in his usual enigmatic tone.

"Yeah. And after all that hype about his warm-up session. Nobody was expecting this, huh?" Kathy couldn't tell if her brother was being sarcastic or not, but his statement raised her hackles just the same.

The older man gave a short bark of a laugh. "He was over it before he even did it."

Unable to stay out of it, Kathy leaned forward and snagged the shoulder of her brother's red Alva t-shirt. "Just what the hell was that anyway?" she demanded.

"That was Jay Adams," Tony and Stecyk replied in unison.

"Not funny, guys," Kathy muttered.

"We weren't trying to be, just stating a fact," Tony blithely shot back.

His sister gave him a dark look. "I gotta find him." She gathered her purse and began to leave.

"I'll hold down our spots," Blanca suggested, and got a vague noise of agreement from Kathy.

It took her a few minutes to make her way around the edge of the Combi-bowl and slip between the bleachers she'd seen Jay go through, but eventually she got away from the people who wanted to chat and found herself alone a few yards from the smaller bowl the skaters had been using to warm up in. Jay was skating there alone, still helmeted and padded up, attempting what Kathy guessed was the upside down move she'd heard the kid Steve rave about. If the judges were able to see what she was seeing, they would have handed him the first-place trophy on the spot. She circumnavigated the lip of the pool and met him on the far side as he rolled back out. For a moment they just stood there without touching, just regarding each other. Jay looked like he expected a reaming. Kathy leveled him a stare that said he was inches away from it. Then her shoulders dropped as she sighed.

"Why'd you blow it off, Jay? The other guys were in total fear of you. That contest could have been yours. Why?"

For a moment Jay stared off into the middle distance behind Kathy's right shoulder as though someone was holding up a team banner with the answer written on its back. Then he pursed his lips and met Kathy's stare with his own piercing blue gaze. "For the same reason why guys climb Mount Everest," he told her. When she merely gave him a baffled look he concluded his cryptic explanation:

"Because I fuckin' can."

And with that, Jay jumped on his board and rode off toward the skatepark's exit, away from the contest, away from his teammates and away from the only female in Dogtown who felt as though she really knew him. As she watched him veer out of sight behind a distant chain-link fence, Kathy Alva realized she knew almost nothing about him anymore, if she ever had at all.

A/N: Thanks to all who have read and reviewed so far. You know it's always appreciated! Sorry updates have been a little slow, I was out of town last week. And um, I know authors are not supposed to address specific reviews here, but let me just say this: If you want a story with lots of graphic Jay/Kathy sex then you'll have to write it yourself. Thank you and good evening.

BTW, if you can guess the last name of the Steve character in this chapter (he's based on a real person whose first name is Steve) then post it in a review so we can all praise you for being a true 70s skateboarder trivia whiz! -)