Half a World Away // Vinnie Hacker

*1*

I moved to La about a week ago and I think I'm really starting to like it here. At first, it was too busy and crowded for me but I'm slowly getting used to it. The people aren't the nicest but hopefully when I start going to uni, I mean CoLlEgE, I will meet some nice people. Uni starts back up again in about two weeks so I have a little bit of time to get familiarised with the area and get settled down.

LA isn't at all what I was expecting but in some ways better and others worse. Concerts are way cheaper and way more frequent here which is a definite bonus but my friends and family are on the other side of the world which kind of sucks.

I've slowly been learning my way around the place and I've memorized my way to my local skatepark, Starbucks and target so far which will definitely come in handy. My next goal is to get a job and make a few friends... we'll see how well that goes.

Today is Saturday so I don't have any school work or anything, not that I would anyway because the year hasn't started, so I'm going down to the skatepark for a little while and I think I might hit the skate shop afterwards to replace my deck because its ground down a lot on the tail.

I'm skating down the street, about to go across a green light to the skatepark then, out of nowhere, a trio of guys came around the corner. I was going too fast to stop in time so I sort of just ended up falling onto one of the guys and my bored got shot in some weird direction, probably the road. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I didn't see you coming," I said frantically. I stopped leaning on the guy and steadied myself and looked up to see a head of dirty blonde curls looking back at me.

"No, it's ok. Are you ok?" the boy said, looking genuinely concerned about me which was a nice change of pace in this foreign city. "Yeah, I'm fine. Can't say the same for my board though," Everyone in the groups' eyes diverted to the skateboard snapped in half lying in the middle of the road.

"Let me get that for you," a blonde behind the dirty blonde haired boy said as he hopped onto the road quickly to grab the board. He picked up the two pieces and handed them to me. "Thank you, well, if it wasn't time for a new deck before it is now," I said, earning a few laughs from the crowd.

"We're actually heading over to the skate shop now, do you want to come?" One of the boys said. I recognised him as Michael Sanzone from the Hype House only because my friend had an obsession with the Hype house for a whole two minutes and I'm almost certain his skating TikToks have popped up on my fyp at some point.

"Yeah, that would be good, thanks," I replied, contemplating whether I should mention that I recognised him. "It's the least we could do, we pretty much caused the destruction of your board"

"Yeah, thanks anyway, Michael," the second it came out of my mouth I realised that I said his name without him having to tell me it. that back and forth in my brain was unnecessary then I guess. "You know who I am?" he asked.

"Yeah, my friend was obsessed with the hype house for a whole two minutes a little while back and your TikToks come up on my for you page sometimes."

"Finally! someone who knows who I am!" he yelled as we walked in the direction of the skate shop... I think. I actually have no idea where we are going. "Do you know who the rest of us are?" the blonde boy from before asked.

"No, I mean you look vaguely familiar," I said referring to the blonde, "But you? I have no idea who you are," I said to the boy who caught me earlier, earning an uproar from the other boys. I was very confused as to why they found that so funny. Was it not normal to have absolutely no idea who he was?

"Well, I'm Vinnie, you know Michael and that's Buck- I mean Jordan," The boy next to me replied.

"You can call me Bucket," Jordan added in. What an odd nickname. What does one have to do to receive a nickname like bucket...? I mean he was currently wearing a bucket hat so maybe that's where it comes from but still a weird nickname. "It's because I wear a lot of bucket hats," he added almost as if he was reading my thoughts. "I'm Madi by the way"

"Are you all TikTokers or whatever?" I asked. Both Jordan and Michael shot a glance at Vinnie before he responded, "Yeah, we all do TikTok and that kinda stuff"

"'We all do TikTok'," Michael started, mocking Vinnie, "Don't act like you're not literally the fa-" Vinnie clasped a hand over Michael's mouth to shut him up but I'm still very intrigued as to what he was going to say. "Don't you dare finish that sentence," Vinnie grumbled. He let Michael go and then Michael veered off the path and into Maccas, with the boys following suit, "Aren't we going to the skate shop?" I asked, confused.

"Yeah, but we need food first," Vinnie responded, sending me a 'duh' look. I should have known. Boys, am I right? But if I'm being honest I am kinda hungry too. "Ok, I could do with some food too"

We headed into Maccas and it immediately dawned on m that they don't have my favourite burger here because it's an Australian special, "Noooo," I cried out. "What? What's wrong?" Vinnie asked.

"They don't have my favourite burger!" I huffed. "How can they not have your favourite burger? Aren't all Mcdonalds the same?" he asked, confusion evident on his face. "No, it's special to Australia. You can't get them anywhere else"

"Oh, so that's where you're from," Vinnie said as if he had been thinking about it the whole time. "Yeah, but back to more important matters; food"

I ended up getting the same as Vinnie, a double quarter pounder with large fries, which is always my second choice anyway. We went and sat down to eat before we went to the skate shop and the second we sat down, all eyes were on me. Let the questioning begin.

a/n

That's the first chapter, just setting the scene up for the rest of the book pretty much. I hoped you like it and I hope you keep reading.

I have written anything in a while so I'm a little rusty but as we go along I should warm up a bit more :)

word count: 1105