I went through a lot of difficult experiences growing up, and came to a very low time in my life. Believe it or not, it was a young boy wizard helped me through my dark time. It was then, after reading Harry Potter, that I knew I had to write my story down.
I finished it eventually and gave it to a few friends, within a month it had been passed to about 40 people and they all loved it. I tried to get it published but that's much easier said than done. It has sat on the back burner for some time now, but since I have recently gained a following on youtube this past year, I decided I am going to publish it by hook or by crook!
I've went back over it myself, last year, vowing to keep it true to the original story. I literally wrote this book right after going through my difficult latter teenage years. When it eventually reaches printed paper, my goal is that it is true to it's first draft; when I had so little writing experience and so many emotions. So as hard as it was, I didn't rewrite this book as I went through it!
So if you're here right now, it's because you follow me on the internet in one way or another. And I am very thankful for that. If you do read this little preview of my book, please leave me feedback here, on youtube, or on my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/officialandyschrock
Thanks you! Sincerely - Andy
Yesterday Erased is my coming of age story. My life as a skateboarder, dealing with the insanity that is teenage relationships, the party life, and struggling to deal with being different than everyone else.
Yesterday Erased
Prologue: A Link to the Past
Friday night … Friday night is supposed to be the best time of the week. Until now, it always has been. All through elementary school it was Friday night I could spend at a friend’s house and stay up late, playing. In high school, Friday night was the beginning of the weekend. All my friends and I stayed out skating and having fun. But now I’m in college and Friday nights haunt me like the memory of a dead friend. This Friday night, right now, is no different.
My name is Drew Thomas. I’m 19 years old and five foot seven inches tall, with brown eyes, and long jet black hair. Things aren’t going great for me. Everything I think about … everything I look at … all the people around me. All of it gets to me and all of it hurts. I’m sitting at a party right now. Nobody is in the room; they’re all outside around a campfire, gathered together in ignorance. She’s with him right now; she’s with all of them right now. But I’m inside; I’m sitting on this couch, alone. I have three things on the table in front of me: a can of beer, a pistol, and a floppy disk. How did I get to this point in my life? How did things get like this? And why aren’t I like any of them outside?
* * *
Christ Hospital, Cincinnati, January 19, 1984. My mother was in a hospital room watching Magnum P.I. It was 8:45 p.m. and, TV dramas being what they are – usually getting to the climax 45 minutes into the show – my mom didn’t get to watch the end of the show because I decided to be born. However, I was born in the process of dying – I came out blue. You probably know that having a blue tone to your skin isn’t a good thing. I couldn’t breathe. But what’s a better place to be while you are dying than a room full of doctors? They worked their magic and I changed to pink. That’s the first time I didn’t die.
When I was born my dad was very sick and my sister Rachel was almost five. I first lived at my grandparents’ (mother’s side) house near Cincinnati, then I lived in a town called Milford, about 10 miles north. I don’t remember much about the first one or two years of my life. I remember getting stung by a wasp and being bit by an ant. Pretty tragic incidents, huh? I then moved 20 miles further away to nearby Bethel, where I lived until I was five. I had a few friends there, and my dad was the pastor at a local Baptist church. But Bethel wasn’t the best town to raise kids. Or so my parents thought. So we moved 25 minutes closer to Cincinnati to a place called Anderson, which has a nice balance: not too many people, but enough. Anderson is where I grew up; Anderson is where I came to be the person I am today.
I had your average childhood, played with all the cool action figures, had a bunch of friends in the neighborhood, and played sports at my elementary school. I got into my share of trouble. I thought everything my parents told me was right, and if anyone else said differently they were wrong. I grew up with a kid named Brian Wells; we were inseparable, that was, until fifth grade. Back then I didn’t have a care in the world. I was the same as everybody else. I was just like you.
To this day I only have two friends from elementary school: Jake Tanner and Alfred Bames. I met Jake in third grade but didn’t really start hanging out with him until sixth grade. Jake was a tall skinny kid with bright blue eyes. He normally wore his hair short but often changed styles in hopes of attracting a new girl. Calling Jake a ladies’ man was an understatement. Even in his latter years of elementary school he was starting to send clever remarks to his friends’ mothers and sisters. He was always good with words, and he only became more skilled with them as he got older – I learned that the hard way. Once we hit junior high the only thing that seemed to be on his mind was girls, and he literally had a new girlfriend each week. Jake and I got along really well. We really had nothing in common, but we rarely disagreed on anything.
I met Alfred at a camp the school went to during the fifth grade. After three days at that camp, I didn’t see Alfred for three years. By the time I saw him in eighth grade, Alfred was nearly six feet tall, with curly brown hair and lively brown eyes. He was obsessed with bowling and food, and I mean obsessed. Bowling and food were two of many things that my friends and I made fun of him for over the next few years. We joked with him a lot, but it was all in good fun.
My parents divorced when I was in second grade. I took it hard at the time, but I got over it. My mom moved out of our two-story house, but stayed in Cincinnati. Overall things were great for me up until eighth grade. I had the best childhood, though, at the time, I didn’t appreciate how blissful. There wasn’t a care in the world. I had no idea that when I reached Anderson High School my life would begin to melt into what it is now
Seventh grade wasn’t bad. I had a lot of friends from elementary school, plus all the new ones I made at high school – junior high and high school were combined into one big school. Jake was in a few of my classes. We remained friends – not close, but close enough. I spent most of my life at a comic shop playing a Star Wars card game and occasionally other games. I did like girls, but I didn’t go out of my way to chase them around.
The summer after seventh grade was pretty basic. Wake up, go to the comic shop, and play cards until the shop closed. Then I’d go to the house of a friend. We’d play cards all night while watching music videos. Life seemed fine, but slowly it was beginning to grab kids my age, one by one, and change them. They would never think the same way again, and once I started to realize what was happening, I would never think the same way again either.
Eighth grade was the year it all began for me – Two things came into my life that would change me forever.
Chapter 1
Skate or Die
Skate or Die
I had just got done losing to a kid with thick glasses who still squinted a lot. He was always at the shop and thought Magic the gathering was just as important as breathing. After being told way too thoroughly what I should have done to not lose, I decided it was about time to get home and play video games … which kindly did not give a speech of how they’re better than you, when you lost.
I grabbed my bag and started to stroll out of the comic shop. My eyes shifted to the parking lot, where I saw the red and blue lights flashing. A boy named Mike was being pressed face first against the trunk of the black and gold vehicle as the cop kicked a skateboard away from his car. I guessed that the board was Mike’s.
Mike was a regular at the shop. He was 15, a year older than me. He was almost 6 feet tall, with short blond hair and dark brown eyes. He made it a point to ridicule me every time I was in his vicinity. He wasn’t necessarily trying to be mean, but being a jerk came naturally to him. Overall Mike was a nice guy, but he didn’t show his nice side to me at first. He was always sarcastic and half the time you couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. His sense of humor was very different from that of anyone I had ever met. He was odd, yes, mean, sometimes, but he definitely wasn’t a criminal.
“HEY,” I yelled, running toward the scene. “What’s wrong?”
“None of your business, kid. Now get outta here,” the cop ordered.
I stood still. I couldn’t help but notice how stereotypical this officer looked, mustache and all.
“The owner of this shop doesn’t care if people skate here. Why are you arresting him?”
“HEY! I told you this was none of your business. This is private property. This kid shouldn’t be skating here. Now get out of here, NOW!” The cop’s temper had reached its limit.
I started to walk away, but not to my bike. I walked into the shop and went to the front counter where the store owner was reading Silver Surfer.
“They’re arresting Mike for skating outside,” I told him. He didn’t say a thing. The former LAPD cop, who had told us stories from time to time, walked straight to the local deputy, who had already forced Mike into his car.
“Officer, what exactly is the meaning of this?” the owner asked.
“And who are you,” the cop returned rudely.
“I’m the owner of this lot, and I’d like to know why you’re arresting this young man?”
“Oh … Uh, well … He was skateboarding. Not allowed on private property,” the cop became a little more sincere.
“And is this your property?”
“Well, no it isn’t,” the cop said, becoming uneasy
“Well, it is mine, and I allow him to skate here. So assuming that he did nothing illegal, I want him to be released right now. Is that all right with you, officer?”
The owner paced around in front of the cop as the officer turned bright red in the face.
“I’m sure your supervisor wouldn’t want the innocent taken in, after all he’s just a kid with a skateboard. Doesn’t seem that much of a threat to society, does he?”
“Hmm,” the cop muttered. He walked over to where Mike sat and pulled the car door open.
“Oh, and I would like for you to notify your fellow officers that skateboarding IS allowed on my lot. Thank you for understanding, officer. Good day.”
The cop walked to the driver’s side of his car as he cursed under his breath. He sped onto the road in front of the shop and within three seconds his siren was blaring and his lights flashed as he pulled over the first car he could find.
The store owner laughed to himself as he walked back inside his shop. I began to walk away toward my bike when Mike stopped me.
“Hey,” Mike called. “Wait, why did you do that?”
“Because you didn’t deserve to get arrested,” I replied, not looking back.
“Thanks, Drew … I would have gotten in so much trouble.”
“I’m not the one who deserves thanking,” I replied.
“You skate ever?” Mike asked. Why would he ask me this? Just because I helped him didn’t mean he had to be nice all of the sudden. I spun around to face him.
“Not really, why?”
“Well, I used to skate but then quit. I’m not good anymore, and I don’t have anybody to skate with. Just wondering if you wanted to, since you’re always up here? I could bring a board up to you,” he explained.
“I don’t know – never really thought about it,” I replied.
“Just come up tomorrow. I’ll bring a board for you,” Mike turned and walked into the shop with his board at his side. I got on my bike and started for home. I thought about what had happened. Why was he asking me? I could never be good at skating, I thought.
How wrong I was.
* * *
The following school day went by fast and I had no problems with that. I even fell asleep during three classes. Once, I didn’t wake up to the bell and awoke to discover the next class, which found this highly amusing. (It was pretty funny.) School got out and I sped to the comic shop after being home for only five minutes. When I got there I wasn’t even thinking about Mike bringing a skateboard for me, but sure enough when I arrived he was sitting at a table with a bright orange board in front of him. His eyes went wide when I entered, as if he had been waiting all day.
“Hey dude, I brought the board, let’s go skate,” Mike said excitedly. He jumped up and out of his chair. I was really surprised; for a kid who had acted so arrogant and tough he sure was showing a different side now. I thought for a second. … I had all day to play cards. It would be good to do something different. Right?
“Sure, why not,” I replied. Mike shoved the board into my hands almost immediately.
“All right, man. There are some parking curbs outside that you can learn on. Just wait, if you stick with it, it’ll be so fun,” he said in excitement. Mike dashed toward the door and jumped on his wooden toy as soon as he hit the sidewalk. I followed. The comic store shared the newly-paved parking lot with an exercise store, which only attracted customers at certain times of the day. So that gave us plenty of room to skate.
When I got outside, I set the board down on the sidewalk and jumped on. My legs shook under me, not being used to moving on a skateboard. But to my surprise, maintaining control came easily. I put my right leg on the board and with the left, pushed forward. As I pushed, the board sped me forward. Hey, I thought, I should take this thing to a hill! I wasn’t aware but I had already gotten to where Mike had planned on skating.
Just as I got to Mike, my board stopped dead in its tracks. It happened so abruptly; one second I was fine, the next I was thrown to the pavement. I hit with a thud. My hip bashed into the ground and my right arm flew in front, to shield my face. I swung myself upward right away. My face was red with anger.
“What the hell? It just stopped.”
I stood up and stared at Mike, who wasn’t at all surprised.
“You hit a pebble,” he said, after he stopped laughing. “This lot is filled with them even though it’s new. You get used to it after awhile, and you’ll be able to catch yourself before you fall.”
“A pebble?” It sounded really stupid, but when I thought about it, it made sense. “Oh ... under my wheel, gotcha.”
Honestly, right there I had almost stopped caring about skateboarding altogether, especially with what happened next.
“Oh, man you hit hard!” It was the know it all magic player from the shop. He stood ten feet away from us with his bike and it appeared he had seen the whole thing. “So what are you doing out here … and with him especially,” he said, nodding to Mike.
“Hey, why don’t you go play Star Trek or something!”? Mike snapped, as the personality I had known before resurfaced. The kid just glared at us, rode his bike over to the side of the shop, parked his bike, and walked inside.
Mike turned toward me. “So do you know anything about skating? Have you ever skated?”
“No, I haven’t,” I replied.
“Well, you were riding pretty good for never skating. I wanna wax this parking curb to learn some boardslides again. It’s been ages since I have done any tricks. I don’t even think I can ollie anymore,” Mike said.
I did know what an ollie was. It’s where you basically jump with your skateboard. However, that was about all I knew about skateboarding.
“Boardslide? And what do you mean wax the parking curb?” I asked. It all sounded like nonsense to me.
“Boardslide, think about it. BOARD and SLIDE,” he said as if I were in elementary school again. “The bottom of the board slides across the parking curb like this,” he held his board over the parking curb and slid the bottom of the board up and down.
“And of course to be able to slide on it, it’s gotta be smooth. So that’s why you wax it,” Mike explained. It all made sense but still seemed pretty ridiculous.
“Doesn’t that damage the curb?” I asked.
“Well, yeah – to a degree. People can still park here and it just changes the color to black. Not that big of a deal,” Mike replied, as he pulled a skinny white candle out of his pocket and slid it up and down the curb. He did this for about three minutes, sliding his board over the wax every so often. Then finally he popped up and looked at me, holding his board in his hands.
“All right. This is gonna be easier to do than messing with an ollie today. Just watch me and try.”
Mike jumped on his board and pushed 20 feet across the parking lot, stopping parallel to the curb. He pushed off, moving slowly but steadily, basically jumping onto the parking curb. Almost as soon as his board touched the curb, he jumped off. He collected his board, then walked back to his starting point. I just watched, becoming slightly more interested in what he was doing. A couple of attempts later, he was sliding the whole thing, but having some trouble rolling away at the end of the curb.
“Hey why don’t you give it a try?” he suggested. I didn’t think I could even
come close to what he was doing.
“I dunno. I’m just gonna fall,” I answered.
“Just push down on the tail when you go to get on and then jump onto it. You don’t even have to ollie. It’s easy,” Mike explained.
I nodded and went to where Mike stood. Getting on my board, I cautiously pushed toward the obstacle. When I got to the curb, I tried to jump. At first I thought I’d done it right but my board stayed on the ground. I got annoyed. I knew I couldn’t do it. Why was I bothering?
“That’s normal, just keep trying. I betcha you can do it. Try and kick down on your tail a little harder. Then just guide the board onto the curb,” Mike encouraged. It was easy for him to say; he was six feet tall, it had to be easier for him to control the thing.
I tried it a few times more, and about three tries later I managed to get onto the curb. As soon as I hit the wax the board slipped out from under me, but I caught myself before falling to the ground.
“Yeah there you go,” Mike shouted from the other side of the parking lot.
Mike got on his board and attempted to boardslide the parking curb. This time, he succeeded.
“YEAH!” I yelled. Right then, when I saw him pull off the trick, I knew I could do it too. I felt determined, and about five tries later I rolled away from my first boardslide, my first trick.
“WHAT?!??!” Mike screamed. “I can’t believe that. First day of skating?”
I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but I did think it was fun. “Dude, that’s amazing. It takes people so long to learn to boardslide!”
“It’s fun,” I said as an uncontrollable smile spread across my face. I quickly started skating again. I boardslid it several more times until a car eased into the parking spot and ended our session, sending us indoors.
“So what do you think?” Mike asked, as sweat dripped off his face. We were back in the comic shop, sitting at a table in the center of the room.
“It’s fun. I think I wanna get a board,” I replied. I really did. I never did anything like skating. It was always card games and video games. All I ever did was sit inside a building at a table, or in front of a screen.
“I can’t really give you that one. It’s my brother’s,” Mike explained.
“Yeah, I’ll talk to my mom and see if I can do some work around the house for some money. But you think I can use it tomorrow, I mean if you want to skate again, that is?” I suggested.
“Yeah, definitely,” he said eagerly. His eyes drifted toward the ceiling, as if he were thinking. “Didn’t think I would start skating again. This is gonna be so cool, dude.”
His eyes returned to me.
“Yeah, tomorrow. I’ll bring the board up again. Meet up here after school, OK?”
“For sure,” I agreed.
“OK, well I’m gonna get home. My mom makes me be home for dinner every night. Later, Drew.”
“Bye,” I answered as he got up and walked out of the shop with the two skateboards. I sat there thinking how much different that day had been than any normal day. Different, but fun.
I played a few awkward games with the know-it-all which I of course lost. He was still bitter about Mike yelling at him and repeated several times that he never had watched Star Trek. Finally the last game ended. After losing once again, I told him that there was a leak in the warp core and all cadets were to report to engineering. I left, smiling, as he shouted after me.
Seven minutes later I rolled into my driveway. My mom’s car wasn’t there, which meant that she was out running errands or at work a bit late. I noticed the grass once again was getting a bit long. Great, that time of the week again, I thought.
I walked to the front door and dug into my pocket for my keys, which were annoyingly mixed with a bunch of change. I unlocked the door and threw my bag of cards next to the couch in the family room and sat down. I didn’t even feel like playing video games or going through my cards.
I thought about skating. Whenever I wanted something, I tried to think of how I could get what I wanted. That’s exactly what I was doing then. I searched around on the internet and looked at a couple of sites -- the Zero skateboard site was the most impressive. Then I made my way to my bedroom. Resting on my bed, I glanced at my clock.
“Six thirty,” I muttered to myself. Six thirty was fairly late for my mom not to be there. And of course within five minutes I heard her Volkswagen pull into the driveway. Moments later, she was rustling around in the kitchen. My mind was racing, wondering how I would ask for a skateboard. As I’d discovered on the internet, they really weren’t cheap. It was over $100 for complete new setup.
“How was your day?” asked my mother’s voice. My head shot toward the doorway, where she was standing as she took off her suit jacket.
“Oh, hi, Mom,” I replied. “It was all right.”
“Well I’ll have dinner ready in about 20 minutes.” She started to walk away. “Mom … wait,” I called. Her head reappeared in the doorway.
“Yes?”
“I was wondering something. Well … Uh, I went skateboarding with this kid today, and I had a lot of fun … I was wondering if maybe I could work for some money to buy one?” I lost eye contact with her half way through my question, almost positive she would start complaining about how I never work or do chores in the first place. To my surprise, when I looked back up at her, she was smiling.
“I think that’s great. You’re never out getting exercise. A skateboard is a great idea.” I was in shock. She didn’t care.
“In fact I saw a shop that was selling them on Beechmont today.”
“You mean it?” I asked excitedly. “Can we get it tonight?”
My mother stared at me for a moment.
“Maybe after dinner,” she replied.
Immediately my mood improved.
My mother started to turn away then returned to me and said, “That is, if you mow the lawn tonight.”
She smiled at me and walked away.
I immediately stood up and made my way to the lawnmower. On this rare occasion I was happy to be cutting the grass.
* * *
“No way, you got a Zero? That’s Jamie Thomas’s company. Jamie Thomas is the coolest. He’s so crazy. He grinds 20 stairs,” Mike couldn’t stop talking as he gawked at my new board. I had gotten over admiring the new board because I too had been up late the night before gawking at the new board and had had plenty of time to stare at it myself. At first it looked too good. As if I didn’t want to skate it, because it was too pretty to scratch up. But I am a guy, so I got over the looks fast and I couldn’t wait until I could get out onto the streets and learn more.
“Yeah it looks good. Let’s go out and skate. I can’t wait to learn some new stuff. I wanna learn how to ollie. From the looks of it, all the tricks involve it,” I said. I had spent a lot of the time the night before (and maybe a little in computer class earlier that day) watching video clips and had learned quite a bit.
Mike laughed and said, “Yeah, you better believe it. If you wanna learn anything you better start with an ollie.” He handed the board back to me, and picked up his own. “I gotta work on mine too.”
That day didn’t go as well as I’d planned. I found out doing a simple ollie wasn’t simple at all. I tried and tried, but it seemed impossible to get the board off the ground. I went home a little disappointed, but the more I thought about it the more motivated I became, and I had plenty of time to think.
The next week we got slightly better. I became good friends with Mike. We would talk at school about skating when we saw each other in the hall and we would skate every day after school at the shop. By the end of the week we had both ollied over the parking curb and were trying to 50-50 grind on it, which is where you ride on the top edge of the curb on both of your trucks and nothing else. After two days of trying, the curb became very chunky from us jumping on it with our boards, we decided we should find a smoother surface. We picked a curb at the very back of the store, which had very nice smooth concrete. We waxed the edge of it, and it made a world of a difference.
I still played cards each day; I just managed my time better. Mike and I got into a new card game called Overpower, a game based on Marvel and DC comic book characters, and it was a lot of fun.
Within a few weeks Mike and I had progressed a lot; we were constantly thinking of new tricks to learn. We motivated each other. If Mike tried something new, I wanted to try it too and vice versa.
We started getting into flip tricks. A flip trick is where the board flips upside down, but there are many variations. Kickflips and heelflips are what most people start out with and are easiest to learn. After many days of hard work we had each managed to do a heelflip. Kickflips gave us more trouble. We’d attempted hundreds of kickflips every day for a week but neither of us had landed one, but one day at school things started to change.
The bell finally rang after a long history class, where we learned about some dude finding a fountain in Florida. Why would we care about that? What’s so special about a fountain? As I walked out of the room Jake made his way to my side. He wore a very clean t shirt with camouflaged cargo pants(which I promise are cool when you’re in the eighth grade) and a hint of cologne.
“Hey man, I haven’t talked to you in awhile, what’s been up with you?” he asked, as he waved goodbye to a girl in a short skirt, who smiled back.
“Nothing really. Still go to the card shop every day – video games.”
I don’t know why I didn’t want to tell him that I skated. He skated too. You’d think I would want to tell him, but for some reason I didn’t.
“Ah, so you’re still a dork?” he joked.
As Jake and I approached the corner, Mike flew around out of nowhere.
“DREW, dude, God himself came down and touched my board yesterday,” Mike exclaimed. “I did three kickflips in the basement last night.”
I was quite impressed but I really could have been told at a better time.
“Wait … kickflip?” Jake asked. His bright blue eyes narrowed on Mike. “Who’s this?”
“I’m Mike. You’re Jake, right? My brother Joe used to skate with you, like a year ago when he skated, right?”
Learn something new every day, I thought. Mike knew who Jake was.
“Yeah, I’m Jake. You skate?” he asked.
“Yeah, I skate. You know Drew? He didn’t tell you? We’ve been skating for about a month,” Mike turned to me while Jake stood there looking confused. “No, but seriously man, I did three kickflips. THREE!”
“Hey wait … Drew you’ve been skating this whole time and you never told me?” he asked.
“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” I replied.
“Well that’s awesome you skate … shoulda told me, but it’s still cool. A bunch of guys are coming to skate my flat bar today after school. You guys should come,” Jake said.
Mike’s eyes widened.
“Dude, yeah! That would be awesome. We’re there,” Mike said excitedly, speaking for both of us.
“All right, well, gotta go. Math class is next. I sit right next to Jess Lowens … SOO HOT.”
He smiled and began to back away from us.
“After school, my house, you know where it is, Drew. Later.”
We said goodbye and went to our next class. It was the very beginning of an interesting day.
* * *
“So didn’t you think I would want to have anything to say about it? You just spoke for the both of us,” I complained as Mike and I walked up the large hill to Jake’s house.
“What’s the big deal? You’re acting like it’s bad that we’re going to skate something better than parking curbs,” he returned.
“You know all the other skaters are gonna be there. They’re gonna make us look bad,” I said, my eyes locked on the ground.
“Oh no! not other skaters!” he joked. “Who cares? We don’t skate for them. We skate for ourselves.”
Mike was right. I really shouldn’t care what they think, but no matter what I told myself, I really did care. After a couple more minutes of walking up the gigantic hill, we finally reached the top, where Jake’s large white and green house sat.
Mike got to the top and turned around and stared down the road we’d just hiked up and said, “Well at least we’re gonna have one heck of a time going down this thing.”
“Fun if we don’t die,” I muttered. I looked past Jake’s big house and what I saw was something I knew would make Mike flip out in excitement. It did exactly that: Mike’s eyes went wide.
“This is the best place in the world,” he said quietly. In front of us was a large driveway with a flat bar that looked perfect, the one Jake had told us about at school. What he’d forgotten to mention was the launch ramp, and the foot-tall box – exactly what I needed to learn new grinds. And just behind the driveway was a pool, along with a trampoline and a go-kart track. Jake and two other kids were already busy skating, as a NOFX CD blasted in the background.
“Drew …,” Mike managed to choke out as he gawked.
“Yeah?”
“No offense, but you are an idiot for complaining about coming here,” Mike started walking toward the driveway, not waiting for my response. He raised his hand in the air waving and shouted “JAKE!” Jake, about to run and jump on his board, stopped and looked our way. I made my way to catch up with Mike. Jake headed toward us and the other two kids, whom I didn’t know, started over as well.
“What’s up guys?” Jake greeted us. The other two had reached us. “This is Davey, and this is Curtis,” Jake said, motioning to each.
Davey had long wavy dark hair. He was short but looked built, as if he worked out every day. He had a dirty Pennywise shirt on; it looked like a pack of dogs had gotten to it, thinking it was bacon. There were tiny holes up both sides of the shirt – and it looked as if it had been soaked in sweat for years. His jeans weren’t much better. Curtis, on the other hand, looked a little cleaner. He had light brown hair in the form of a bowl cut, and blue eyes. He looked a bit short, which, I think, was because he wore an extra large shirt when he needed a small or medium at most.
“Hey,” Davey grunted. Curtis just nodded toward us.
“Let’s skate. This place rules,” Mike said quickly, as if he had wanted to say it the whole time Jake was talking.
“All right,” Jake agreed. “You guys any good?” he asked
“We’ve only been skating for a little over a month,” I replied, knowing what they were going to think when they saw us skate.
“Everybody starts somewhere,” Jake turned, ran, and jumped on his board. Mike and I followed. We made our way to where everyone stood, waiting to get their chance at the flat bar – the flat bar being about the only thing they were skating. I watched for a few minutes: Jake, Davey, and Curtis all seemed able to boardslide the bar with ease. Mike and I had never skated anything as tall as the rail Jake had set up – it was at least a foot off the ground. With something that tall, you needed to have an ollie higher than ours; at the time, Mike and I could ollie, but not that high.
We’d only skated parking curbs and those were about four inches off the ground. After a minute or two Mike started to attempt a few boardslides but he wasn’t getting anywhere with them. He would just throw his board on the rail while he stayed to the side of it. After a few times of Mike doing the same thing Curtis started to laugh. I felt my anger rise. I had expected ridicule – that was the reason I didn’t want to be there. I would rather have been skating at the comic shop. Mike rolled up next to me.
“Why aren’t you skating man?” he asked.
“Dude, lets get outta here,” I whispered.
“You wanna leave? Why?” he asked, and he wasn’t whispering. Jake rolled up to where we were and overheard Mike.
“You’re leaving?” he asked.
“Yeah, I just remembered I gotta cut the grass before my mom gets home or I’m dead.”
It was the truth, but I could honestly care less. I did want to skate but just not there.
“Yeah, I think it’s because they both suck,” interrupted Curtis, standing behind Jake. Mike’s face turned deep red.
“Hey, what did you say?” Mike shot back.
“You heard me, you guys are just posers,” Curtis replied. Anger filled Mike’s face the instant he heard this.
“Hey. Screw you. Did you just jump on your board with all your skill?” Mike asked as he moved toward Curtis. Curtis was in no way threatened by this, and if anything, I was guessing Curtis was looking forward to a chance to get in a fight. Jake wasn’t gonna let that happen.
“HEY GUYS, CHILL! CHILL,” Jake yelled, trying his best to get between Mike and Curtis. I knew something like this was going to happen, I just knew it. I’d had enough at this point.
“Mike, we’re leaving. Let’s go,” I grabbed my board in one arm and grabbed Mike by the arm in the other. I began to tug him in the direction of the great hill. (We had wasted our time climbing it.) Mike stood for a second, staring at Curtis, who still thought all of this was funny. Curtis started laughing.
“Yeah, go read some comics, losers.”
“Shut up,” Mike said. He continued to glare, then turned toward me, and began to walk away.
“Dude, why do you gotta be a jerk to them? They’re cool,” I heard Jake say as he started to chase after us. “Hey! Guys, I’m sorry. He’s acting like an idiot,” Jake said as he caught up to us.
“Not your fault man,” I replied, not slowing down at all.
Jake had realized that there was no way we were staying. “I’m sorry, dude. I’ll talk to you at school tomorrow.” He turned around back toward his friends, while Mike and I walked toward the huge hill we were about to descend.
“That kid needs a good beating,” Mike said, his face still a deep red.
“That’s why I didn’t want to come here, Mike.”
Mike slowed down, but kept walking and turned toward me.
“You mean you were expecting something like that?”
“Not that bad, but I had an idea that they were gonna make fun of us.”
“Dude, I’m gonna show them. I’m gonna get better than him and shove it in his face.”
When Mike said that I cornered around him and stopped him.
“Then do it,” I said. “I feel the same way, Mike, trust me. Someone needs to prove him wrong and I think we’re the perfect ones to do it. You gotta show them, Mike.”
“I will, dude, seriously –no, we will,” Mike said. We sounded kind of cheesy when we said this, like something from a movie, but we were dead serious. We planned on getting better. We planned on proving people like Curtis wrong, and in time we did exactly that.
So there you go! That's the sneak peak. The entire book has a great balance of issues. I've gotten some really great feedback on the book. Skateboarder or not, you will be able to relate to this book! Now gimme some feedback! Take care - Andy
So there you go! That's the sneak peak. The entire book has a great balance of issues. I've gotten some really great feedback on the book. Skateboarder or not, you will be able to relate to this book! Now gimme some feedback! Take care - Andy
