Chapter 12

A/N Thanks again to all who read and reviewed. Your kind words are becoming more and more addictive! As always I don't have any rights to the real people mentioned, only the made up ones you don't recognize.

Meanwhile back at Alex's….

She awoke to the sound of something pinging against her window pane. Why would anyone be throwing things at her window she thought sleepily? Learning from her past rude awakenings, Alex tugged on a pair of yellow terrycloth shorts and a light green halter top she found near her bed. She headed for the front door figuring she would probably find Jay Adams throwing things at her house, since Stacy had so definitely had to go surfing today.

"Did you ever hear of knocking on the door? Why are you throwing things at my house, Jay?" Alex yelled testily as she opened the door.

"Nope, not Jay, chica, better than that radical little rat you get the Mad Dog. Trust me you won't be disappointed!" Tony beamed an excited smile in her direction. He put down the handful of pebbles he had been flicking at her window and picked up a carton of eggs by his Vans' clad feet. "Jayboy told us you had a pool that needs to be ridden, so here we are."

Alex noticed a handful of kids milling around behind Tony, some of whom looked vaguely familiar from the Zephyr shop. He introduced them as they filed through her door: "this is Bob, we call him Bullet 'cause he's so fast;" he said of a blond boy with a grin that practically split his face.

"Hey Alex, digging the wheels, pool's straight through out the back?" Bob was focused on skating, not socializing this morning.

"This here is Red Dog, 'cause of, well, his hair," Tony waved his hand in the direction of a tall red head.

"You can call me Red Dog or Jim, whatever you like. Thanks for letting us skate your pool," Jim nodded and smiled in a friendly way as he passed through.

Alex returned the smile and waved him through, realizing there was no way to stem this tide. The next person heading for the door was a bit of a revelation- a skater girl among Z-Boyz.

"Hi, I'm Peggy," she said smiling broadly, "Sorry about invading so early!"

"Peggy here is our one and only chick Dogtowner on the team, wait'll you see her rip!" Tony said obviously bestowing his highest compliment on Peggy.

"Hi Peggy, I'm Alex, nice to meet you. Please tell me they didn't tag you with a "dog" nickname. Cause like I'm thinking Red Dog, Mad Dog, female dog …that would make you a bitch, I think, and you sure don't look like one!" Alex caught Peggy's eye and hoped she would get the joke she intended.

Thankfully Peggy was on the same wavelength and cracked up saying, "No, but thanks for thinking it up for them, now I'll never hear the end of it."

"I'm Wentzle Ruml and my name's funny enough not to need a nickname," deadpanned yet another cute blond boy heading for the pool.

"OK then, Wentzle Ruml, enjoy the pool" Alex said to his passing figure.

There was just one person left standing with Tony, a pretty Latina girl that seemed to be the only person more interested in Alex than her pool. She stood on the stoop doing the classic girl to girl size up and said in just a slightly brittle voice, "Hi, I'm Blanca, Tony's girlfriend," slipping her arm through his for emphasis.

"Hi, Blanca, welcome!" Alex said warmly, having learned long ago not to stir up the possessive jealousies of the local womenfolk, so to speak. "I see you're not carrying a skateboard, does this mean I'm lucky enough to have somebody to hang out with while they're rippin' it up?"

"Hell yeah," answered Blanca, anxious to check out the new girl in Dogtown. "Come on Tony" she tugged his arm towards the back of the house.

"Easy girl, you're bouncing the eggs around," groused Tony, handing the carton to Alex. "Jayboy said definitely to bring you eggs. So, umm enjoy!" Tony looked at her confusedly. "Whatever!" he shrugged, "Gonna hit that pool."

His departure left Alex and Blanca standing by the door looking at the carton of eggs.

"You've been hanging out with Jay?" quizzed Blanca.

Simultaneously Alex offered, "how about some breakfast? I seem to have some fresh eggs. Maybe you can help me figure out why."

The two girls walked into the kitchen and started both breakfast and the slow tango of trying to find out about each other while working through their suspicions. Alex volunteered: "I'm guessing these eggs must be Jay's idea of a joke. He scared the hell out of me the other day by showing up uninvited to skate my pool first thing in the morning. Then he had the nerve to ask me to make him breakfast – eggs specifically." Alex spread her hands out helplessly, raised her eyebrows and quizzed Blanca, "is he always busting chops like that?"

"Yeah, Jay's pretty radical in everything he does, but you know a lot of girls dig that shit." Blanca opined looking Alex over trying to judge if she was one of those girls. "My boyfriend Tony, doesn't need to be like that, he let's his skating do his talking."

OK, thought Alex, I got the concept that Tony's your boyfriend; you don't need to show me your tattoo. Still it would be nice to have girl friends to hang with here in Dogtown, and so far she hadn't even seen many. So she decided to make the effort; "Yeah, I thought you two make a cute couple."

That simple compliment put Blanca at ease and the two girls settled into your standard gossipy get-to- know-you. Blanca seemed to be putting Jay forward as a good candidate to get with, probably because she knew none of her homegirls were that interested in him. She detailed his love life and all the girls who came and went.

Alex listened with interest but really felt she didn't need Jay's whole scorecard. "Jay brought over another guy, Stacy, the other morning, is he a friend of yours too?" she tried to sound nonchalant.

"Ay, yeah Peralta's another story altogether chica! He's so shy he's probably still a virgin!" Blanca laughed.

"He's a virgin?" Alex's jaw dropped despite her effort at nonchalance.

"Nah not really, but I think some girl must have tied him down to get the job done." Blanca chuckled conspiratorially. "I mean, you met him, anything cooking? Like you know it would with Jay? No way. Stacy's not like the other Z-boys, never uses the fact that lots of girls drool over his hair, his blushes. Doesn't seem to close the deal whenever he can, ya know what I mean?" Blanca looked positively baffled.

"Um, maybe he's a gentleman?" Alex put forth tentatively, not exactly liking where this conversation was going. "Maybe he doesn't like girls to, you know, hit on him, take the lead?" She thought back to last night, worried she really might have blown her chances with Stacy.

"Then he's not really from Dogtown, girl," she snorted dismissively.

"Not a pirate" Alex muttered, then put on a happy face and continued in a louder voice, "Thanks for the info, Blanca, why don't we head out back and watch everybody skate?"

Just then the phone rang. Alex's heart jumped, but she wasn't at all sure she even expected Stacy to call after Blanca's revelations. "Let me get that and I'll catch up with you outside."

"Hello?" she answered, hoping to sound more positive than she felt.

"Hey Alex, it's Stacy"