Chapter seven

It was Bam's first full day at his new job. A few young customers came in and wound up staring at him. They stared at him part in awe and part in confusion. One young boy, who looked to be about six and was dressed in clothes that had Bam's name, logo and likeness all over them, froze dead in his tracks with wide fearful eyes. He shook and his voice squeaked as he managed to quietly ask him if he was Bam Margera. Bam sighed and sadly shook his head "no", thus disappointing and yet relieving the boy who thought that his idol had returned from the dead.

Bam felt bad for letting his youngest fans down. Not only did they have to deal with their idol "going to heaven" (as kindly put by their parents) but now they had to deal with the fact that this new guy working at the skate shop looked and sounded quite a bit like their idol. This also gave Bam a bad feeling in his stomach. If these kids noticed how much "Aaron" resembled "Bam Margera", then it would be very possible for other people to recognize him as well. He hoped that he could get away with portraying a whole different person for a long time. But he knew inside that it would be really difficult for that to happen.

Bam continued to work like he was, without having to tell any more people that he wasn't "Bam Margera". Luke, who had a day off, walked in with Q and went up to the counter where Bam stood. Bam looked at them and grinned.

"Whoa…" Q said "Never saw you without sunglasses before. I was beginning to wonder if… if you had eyes."

Bam laughed "Yeah maybe these are actually glass."

"That would be cool."

Luke stood across from Bam at the counter and began to drum with his hands. Bam raised an eyebrow at him before turning away to place something upon the shelf behind him. Luke continued pounding out a random beat with his hands until Bam turned around to look at him.

"Dude what are you doin'?"

"Nothin'." Luke answered

"Yeah ok… so did you want something or are you just here to annoy me?"

"Um… a little of both."

They got distracted by a crash as Q and a skateboard knocked over a display. Q stood up with the skateboard in his hand and "dusted" himself off. He looked at Bam and Luke and then at the mess he made on the floor.

"Whoops." He looked at the knocked over display and then at the board "Yeah… that definitely was not a kickflip." He laughed

"Are ya going to clean that up?" Luke asked

"It ain't my job, man."

Bam and Luke rolled their eyes. Bam looked at Luke before going over to pick up the mess.

"So what did you want Luke?" he began to fix the display

"I was wondering if you would want to come with us after you get out of work."

"Come with you where?"

"Well we're going to the skate park for a little bit and then we were going to meet someone up at Rex's. You in?"

"Yeah sure."

"So do you skate at all?"

"Um… not really. I mean I mess around here and there but I don't think I'm that good. Plus I haven't skated in a long time."

"That's ok. I suck at it. It'll make it better for me knowing that someone else sucks at it too." He grinned, causing Bam to laugh

"So how much longer are you working?"

"I'll be off in about half an hour."

"Great. Hey Q you think we'd run into Angela at the park?"

Q smirked "When is Angela inot/i there?"

"Yeah good question."

"Who's Angela?" Bam asked

"Oh you'll meet her when we get to the skate park."

The three of them stood around at the skate park with boards in their hands and looked around at the place. It seemed like ages since Bam was last at this place, and since he even was able to go out and actually skate. Bam felt nervous like he was there just learning how to skate all over again. He also was scared that once he started skating in front of other people, and if he didn't show that he had been out of practice, that someone would be able to somehow recognize him by his skating. In a way it was kind of a long shot that this possibility would happen, but in another way there might have been someone there who was familiar with Bam's personal style. He managed to shake some of this fear and take a breath before he began skating.

He knew right away just how out of practice he had been. It actually made him glad that he wasn't doing as well as he normally would have done, because of what he told Luke about his skating skills. Luke began skating as well while Q stayed back and made it look as though he was practicing kickflips. Bam and Luke laughed at themselves and together over how bad they were skating.

During a break Bam looked up and saw a girl that he never noticed around any skate park before. He couldn't believe that he never saw her before because she was incredible. Bam could not take his eyes off of her as she skated.

"Hey Luke, who's that girl over there?"

"Oh that's Angela. She's here all the time. Practically lives here." He grinned

"Wow. She's fucking amazing. Is she sponsored?"

"No I really don't think so."

"Damn shame because she should be."

They stood back and watched Angela skate for a while. Once she stopped, Q went up to her and started talking to her. He then brought her over to where Bam and Luke were.

"My lady, I'd like to introduce you to a real cool cat." Q said as he held an arm loosely around her shoulder. He held his hand out toward Bam "Angela Mega, meet Aaron Lewis. He's mine and Luke's new roommate."

"Oh he's the new roommate?" She grinned and shook Bam's hand "Nice to finally meet you. Heard some things about you."

"Like what?" Bam smirked a little

"Oh just that you're a really cool guy and you make Q laugh. Well that's not a hard feat to achieve."

Bam snickered "Yeah I guess not. I've been watching you skate. You're really impressive."

"Thanks. Hey do you skate? I didn't notice if you were or not."

"Well, uh, depends on what you call skating." Bam laughed "I'm not doing so well today. I don't really skate enough to be any good."

"Well we'll work on that. The longer you're around me the better you'll be on the skateboard. I can show you some things if you'd like."

Bam grinned "As good as you are I might have to take you up on your offer."

"Great. We'll start now."

"iNow/i now?"

"You got things to do?"

"No not really. What the hell. We could do this now."

"Great."

Angela and Bam began to skate together. Bam tried hard to make it seem as though he really did need her help learning certain tricks that he already had mastered years ago. He had to dumb himself down enough to where he didn't seem like a complete inept idiot. He also had to try not to improve too much at once as she "taught" him things. While they skated together they also talked and laughed about things. Bam was really glad to be meeting people he felt he could be real close friends with. These new friends made his new life feel much more worthwhile to him.