Chapter Two

Venice "Dogtown", California; March, 1975; 4:00 P.M.

I kicked my skateboard up as I got into the Zephyr surf shop. I saw Sid with a broom and Skip and Chino messing with him, yelling.

"Sid!" Chino yelled as Skip hit a hammer on the counter. I saw Sid fall to the floor. Chino cracked up.

"That- That was good," Sid said, not meaning it at all.

I walked in with my board in my hands. "What's up, Baby Sid?" I patted his shoulder and said, "Hey Skip."

Skip gave me a glace and flashed a meaningless smile, but then looked back to Sid. "Oh, man, I'm sorry, Sid."

Sid looked at me with a look that said "aren't you going to do anything?"

I shrugged at him, raising my eyebrows a bit.

"Hey, why do I pay you, when I should have you arrested for loitering?" Skip said.

"But you don't pay me," Sid retorted, a small smile on his face.

"Well, now you know why, Sid."

Sid rolled his eyes and I walked over to the counter, standing in front of Skip. He mixed orange juice and whiskey together.

"What do you need, girlie?" Skip said. He didn't look up at me. And he always called me 'girlie'. Never Heat, Heath, not even Heather!

"New board," I answered simply. "My brother took mine out today and wrecked it."

Skip looked up at me, his messy, golden-blonde hair falling around his face. He chuckled. "You got 20 bucks?"

"Damn it, Skip," I muttered. I pulled a twenty dollar bill out of my back pocket and put it on the counter. "You happy?"

Skip took it and shoved it in his pocket. "Very."

Soon, an older man shoved me out of the way holding a brown, paper bag. Skip didn't look at him, at first, only at the man in the back of the store.

"Uh, yeah. Hi," he said, waving.

The man looked up and returned the greeting.

"Yeah… This isn't a library," Skip explained. "So…it's ten bucks to browse. You got ten bucks?"

"Didn't bring any money with me today…" the man said rather timidly.

"Yeah, well, why'd you come into my store, then, asshole?" Skip said. He didn't sound real angry- just annoyed.

"Go browse in the Valley, kook!" Chino said as the man walked out of Zephyr.

Skip watched, and then turned to the man who had pushed me out of the way. "Okay, so, what? You got cash, or…? What?" he muttered to the man. He passed glance to me that said "go away".

I rolled my eyes and walked over to Sid, but still tried to listen to them.

"Man, I got something better than cash," the man said. He put the brown bag on the counter and poured out four golden-yellow skateboard wheels. "These are urethane skateboard wheels."

Skip picked up two, studying them and Sid rushed over grabbing the other two.

"They're ure-what?" Skip chuckled harshly with a smile on his face.

"Urethane, man. It comes from oil," the man explained.

"From oil?" Skip questioned.

"Yep. With these, you can do the same hard turns you do on your surfboard."

"Yeah?"

"Yep. You can even climb walls, man, because they grip," the man said, smiling.

"They grip?" Skip said. Sid echoed him.

"They grip," he repeated.

"Shit…" Sid whispered, amazed.

Then Tony, Jay and Stacy came in the store. "Sid, Heat! You should've seen us man!"

"Check it out!" I said, tossing a wheel to Stacy.

"They're urethane. They come from oil," Sid said. Then he added quickly, "And they grip!"

Tony took the other wheel from Sid.

"Wow…" Stacy said in amazement, looking at it.

15 Minutes Later…

We all climbed the fence to the skate-park. Skip was already there, standing on a table holding a skateboard with the new wheels. "Who's got bad karma?" he asked loudly. "I said, who's got bad karma?"

There were many "me"s and "I do"s, but Skip held the board higher in the air when people tried to grab it.

"Dude, right here, Skip!" someone yelled.

"Oh, no, no! Uh-uh-uh!" Skip said. He sounded almost like a kid as he kept it out of the reach of everyone.

"That's my board. Give me that!" Tony said, reaching for it. But before he could grab it, I pushed him aside ripping it from Skip's grip.

"Next time, T.A.," I teased. I took it and stepped on it, pushing off the ground, starting to skateboard, doing some S turns.

When I stopped, Skip gave a holler of praise and said, "Nice job, man! Nice job."

I stepped off the skateboard and Tony grabbed it from me, quickly getting on. He did some low 360s and we all cheered. "Nice, Tony!"

Jay took the board next, obviously trying to show off to Kathy- Tony's sister- who'd just arrived.

"Yeah, Jay-boy!" I yelled.

After Jay messed up and fell, Stacy grabbed the board and walked up next to the fence, starting from there.

Soon enough we were all skating.

To tease me, Tony skated circles around me, smirking.

"Cut it out, Alva," I said, annoyed.

He shook his head and skated away from me.

I rolled my eyes and skated around doing some low 360s and then a 180 Power Slide.

We all heard a loud whistle from Skip with Chino, Montoya and Stecyk sitting by him. Most of us turned to look at him, but he only pointed at me. "Heat!" he called, using my nickname. He waved a hand telling me to come over to him.

My eyes widened and I looked at him. I pointed my index finger at myself, asking him if he meant me.

"Yes, you," Skip said. "C'mere!"

I swallowed and walked over to him, with my board in my hand. "Yeah, Skip?"

"Where'd you learn to skate like that?" he asked.

"Stacy's been giving me tips-" Skip then interrupted me.

"Peralta?" he said, not believing me.

"Well, T.A. and Jay helped too," I added.

He nodded. I knew he wasn't too fond of Stacy, because he wasn't as good as the rest of us.

"Why?" I asked.

"You were shit on the waves this morning." Skip shrugged.

"Thanks…" I muttered sarcastically. I turned and stepped on my skateboard, skating down the slope of the skate-park, joining everyone else.

"Hey! Heather!" Jay called over to me.

I skated over to him. "Yep?"

"What'd Skip say?"

"He wanted to know where I learned to skate," I answered truthfully.

Jay nodded. "What'd you say?"

"That you, Tony and Stace gave me some tips."

He nodded again and then skated away.

I turned around on my skateboard and saw Stacy leaving on his bike, looking back at Skip with a look of annoyance on his face.

"Yeah, get a haircut, man!" Skip yelled after him.

Suddenly Sid rushed over to me and Tony came over.

"Heather! Tony!" Sid said excitedly. "Dude. Skip's starting a skate team!"

I chuckled. "You're kidding."

"No. Skip said so," Sid said. He looked at Tony and Tony just nodded.

"Skip would," he said.

I nodded. "What else?"

"Nothing. I didn't hear anything else," Sid said.

I shrugged. "Well, see if you figure anything else out. Now, I gotta go before my parents kill me."

Tony said bye and so did Sid when I began to skate away and back to my house. I was supposed to be baby-sitting my younger brother and sister tonight.

When I got home, I walked inside and my mom gave me a stern look from the couch. "Where have you been, young lady?"

"At the skate-park with Skip and everyone," I answered.

"You were supposed to be home sooner!"

"Jeez, I'm sorry. I lost track of time."

My dad walked out from the kitchen. He and my mom were going out of town for the night. "Hey, squirt," he greeted.

"Hi, dad," I said with a smile. "Hey, dad. Skip's putting together a skateboard team?"

"You sure?" He didn't seem to believe me.

"Yeah dad. Sid heard Skip say so himself."

"Well, if money's involved, Skip's there," my dad chuckled. He ruffled my hair as he passed by me. "'Kay. See you three tomorrow night."

I nodded. "Bye dad! By mom!"

My brother and sister looked at me. My brother was 13 and my sister was 10. I was 16, myself. "Okay… Patrick, take care of Julia. I'm going over to Stacy's."

Patrick nodded. He didn't really care. Besides, Julia knew how to take care of herself.

I walked out of the house with the skateboard. I stepped on it and skated down the street towards Stacy's house.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

When I got there, Stacy was outside on his skateboard practicing. He did some turns and then he groaned a bit.

"Hey, Stace," I said.

Stacy turned and smiled a bit. "What's up, Heather?"

"Nothing," I said with a shrug. I stepped off the skateboard and walked over to him. "Hey. Why were you so angry when you left the skate-park earlier?"

"Skip," he said quickly.

I nodded. I didn't want to ask him what happened. "Did you hear Skip's putting a skate team together?"

"Yeah. Jay and Sid told me," Stacy said.

"Who d'you think Skip's gonna put on?"

"Let's just hope everyone."

I nodded. "Yeah…"

I stayed there talking and skating with him for about an hour before going back home to find Patrick and Julia in their rooms sleeping. I sighed and walked up to my room, falling asleep myself.

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Author's Note: How was Chapter Two? Better than the first, I hope…

Please read and review!