Slowly peddling her way down the Venice streets in a black Led Zeppelin T-shirt and a pair of acid washed jean shorts, Tovah actually took in the view of the place she called home for the first time in a while. Sometimes you just got so used to seeing the same buildings, graffiti, and people it all became mundane. But if you looked, I mean really looked you could find some specials things in this place some call Dogtown.
"Hey baby, how about you hop off that bike and take a ride on me instead!" Wentzle yelled and completely took Tovah out of her daze, and thank god that he did or she would have ridden right past the Zephyr shop.
"Hey Wentzle, how about you take a ride on this," Tovah said with a smile as she walked past him into the shop with her middle finger up in the air
"Well, if it isn't everyone's favorite surf bunny, toe jam," Stecyk said once Tovah had walked through the door
Tovah rolled her eyes at the photographer and hopped onto the counter "So where's Skip and Jeff? They leave you here to man the fort?"
"Nah those two are in the back toking up, I already waked and baked so I think I'll be flying for a quite some time," Stecyk said with a lazy high smile on his face
Tovah laughed finally noticing the red glassy appearance of his eyes, if there was anything that she approved of that these guys did, it was smoking. Because when you smoke you don't become aggressive, or angry, you just get relaxed and you chill. And trust me when Skip Engblom drinks he gets a bit feisty. With a smile on her face Tovah looked around the shop, it was clean, for the most part, although it's employees weren't the most friendly of people. They gave her, and her friends somewhere to chill during the weekends, and after school so it was all right with her.
"Toe jam, today is your lucky day!" Skip said to Tovah as he came walking out from the back room
"Oh yeah? Why's that Skip?"
"Today, is the day, you learn to roll a perfect blunt,"
Laughing harder than she had a Stecyk, Tovah just looked at Skip and shook her head "Skip, I've known how to roll the perfect blunt since I was 15, so I guess today isn't too lucky now is it?"
"I always knew you were a lady toe, only a lady could carve a wave like you do," Skip said as he began to mix his orange drink for the day
"My ass, if Tovah is a lady than I am a fucking duke or somethin," Jay came busting through the doors of the Zephyr shop talking loudly. Jay strode up to the counter lifting Tovah off of it by grabbing her hips and placing her on the ground next to him.
Tovah looked up at Jay and said: "What I am some fucking doll you can just throw around, who do you think you are coming in here and taking me of my throne? I am a lady after all,"
"Yeah you sure are a lady, my lady, my little lady," Jay laughed putting an emphasis on the word little
"In your dreams Jay baby, in your dreams, and don't call me little you punk," Tovah said turning her back to Jay. Yeah fine, she was short, five feet three inches if were going to be exact.
"You wanna know what happens in my dreams Tov?" Jay came up behind her and began to grind his hips against her rear and then whispered in her ear "This is pretty much it except in my dreams we're both naked and you are great at sucking cock, but something's we can only dream about, right?"
Tovah laughed as she tried to get away from Jay "Jay boy! You nasty son of a bitch, and you know that I give great head!"
"I don't think Jay would know, but I sure do know for a fact that you do give great head," Tony said as he winked at Tovah and walked into the shop, curly hair resting haphazardly on his head.
"Quit it! You horny little freaks, where the hell is everyone else?" Skip said from his position behind the counter
Jay shrugged his shoulders, and Tovah took this opportunity to get out of Jay's arms and make her way back onto the top of the counter. About five minutes or so passed and the rest of Dogtown crew showed up. Well everyone except for Stacy, he had work today, still trying to save up for that car.
"Listen up you little maggots, there is a skating competition in one month, so I am going to need all of you to be on top of your game at Del Mar. So were gonna have practice everyday after school, and you all better show up,"
After Skip had said all of this he began to pass out shirts, navy blue shirts with the words Zephyr on the front. Tovah wasn't a skater, never had been, and probably never will be. The ocean was her home, not the concrete, but she defiantly appreciated the dedication it took to skate, but it just wasn't for her.
"Hey Tovah, since you can't skate for shit are you gonna be are cheerleader, you don't even need a skirt or nothing, you can just come to the competitions naked and jump around!" Biniak said loudly while Jay patted him on the back
"Biniak shut the hell up, and nothing wants to be naked around you," Peggy Oki, my girl, literally my only girl. Of course there are other girls in Dogtown they just aren't the crowd I found myself hanging out with. Peggy is the only girl in town who will actually surf with me, and she is one of the only girls I can actually tolerate in this town.
"We got you guys one more thing," Skip said interrupting the small talk that was happening between everyone. With his foot he pushed forward a cardboard box, Tovah tried to take a look inside but he has moved it away too quickly. Skip reached his arm into the box and pulled out a brand new skateboard equipped with urethane wheels.
All at once everyone jumped up from where they were seated and grabbed at the boards mercilessly, Tovah was almost positive that Biniak got slapped at one point or another. Tovah looked into the box seeing if there was one left for Stacy since he was at work, she looked down into and saw nothing. She looked over at Jay sending him a concerned look, hopping of the counter she walked over to Jay and whispered in his ear
"Jay you don't think that Stace didn't make it on the team, do you?"
Jay just lightly pushed her out of the shop while he stayed behind and said something to Skip that she couldn't make out from outside. She really hoped that Stacey would make it onto the team, he was so excited when he had heard that Skip was thinking about putting a skate team together, she knew it would crush him if he hadn't made it. Once she heard the door open Tovah looked over to see Jay with a somber look on his face, and he just shook his head.
"You can't be serious? Stace is a pretty decent skater, I mean c'mon if Sid made it why didn't Stacy?" Tovah asked Jay as she got on her bike and began to ride down the street
On his skateboard Jay began to slowly ride next to her "I don't fucking know Tov, and don't worry about it, Stacy is a big boy he'll be able to handle it," Jay looked over at her still seeing that same look in her eyes, she felt bad for Stacy.
Yo, everyone is coming to my house right now so come over and just stop worrying about Stace, he'll be fine,"
"Jay you know I would, but I kind of told my Mom I'd be in early tonight, she said she had something to show me or something like that,"
"No it's cool, i'll see you later,"
Jay turned corner onto his street as Tovah kept riding straight to get home, sometimes Jay could be really confusing, one minute is sensitive, nice, and understanding, and then a second later he is normal, cocky, horny, Jay boy. But she guessed that was just something that made Jay who he was; you could never guess what he was going to do next. Once she arrived at home she pushed the bike onto the side of the house and headed inside, her house was fairly average for their area, not big, but not at all too small. Different shades of color filled every room with it's own unique light, although to some it may just seem like a run-of-the-mill house, in her eyes it was perfect.
"Tovah is that you?" her Mom called out from one of the rooms in the house
"Yeah Mom it's me, where are you?"
"Im in my bedroom, i'll be in the kitchen in a second,"
Tovah sat down at one of the chairs in the kitchen and looked around a bit, her mom had bought bananas, sweet, she loved bananas. Suddenly she heard the chair across from her squeak, she hadn't even noticed that her Mom had walked into the room.
"Alright Tovah, there are some things we need to discuss," Her mom said with her hands folded neatly on the table "Now, you are graduating this year, which I am so proud of by the way, but have you given any thought to your plans after high school?" For a couple seconds Tovah sat there blankly staring at her Mom's hands, she didn't know what to say. I mean sure she had thought about college but she hadn't put much though into it.
"I mean sure I've thought about it. But I can't see myself going to college next year, if that's what you're asking me,"
"Oh really Tovah? Then what are you going to do? Because I honestly do not see you going where with your surfing hobby,"
Tovah's mom hated surfing, mostly because it reminded her of her ex-husband, and also because once Tovah started to surf, she stopped doing beauty pageants. Yes, beauty pageants, full glitz from the moment she popped out of the womb. Her mom loved it, getting to dress her up in frilly little dresses, and make her look like a bonafide Barbie doll was one of her mom's favorite things. That was, until Tovah picked up a surf board for the first time, after that her pageant life was over.
"Jesus Tovah, with pageants you had a future ahead of you! You could have been Miss America for Christ sake, now look at you!" her mom said while slamming her palms down on the table
"Yeah look at me! I am happy, happier than I ever was when I was strutting my ass across a stage for those nobody judges!"
"You watch your fucking tone with me Tovah, because I will send you right to San Francisco with your good for nothing dad,"
"Yeah right, you would never give him the satisfaction of having type of contact with me," right there she hit a nerve with her Mom
"Tovah I am sick of your attitude, sometimes I swear you don't appreciate the things I do for you!" tantrums, her Mom was full of them
"The things you do for me? You don't do shit for me MaryAnne! All the money you get is from Bubby and Saba, and all you do with that money is spend it on bullshit stuff we don't need. Like that new couch you bought, why the hell did we need that, the old one was fine! We live in fucking Dogtown Mom, stop trying to make yourself feel like you live somewhere else!"
With that Tovah got up and left the house, they fought often and it usually resulted in Tovah storming out of the house and going to the beach. And that's exactly what she did, she grabbed her board and hopped on her bike and rode towards the beach. The sun was starting to set so the air was getting cooler, and of course Tovah hadn't brought a jacket and was still wearing the same T-shirt and shorts she had been earlier. Once she reached the beach she hastily threw her bike onto the sand, not noticing the person sitting on the cool sand as she headed towards the water.