What a Life This Is - A Collection of Short Stories

Girls Can't Skateboard

Aiza comes across some boys trying to land a trick at a skatepark.

- - -

Aiza didn't have anything to do. All the club meetings were today, so she'd stayed after school and finished all her homework in the library so she wouldn't have to do it at home. So, when she got home, she decided to go for a walk.

She walked around her neighborhood first, then the chilly ocean air started biting at her skin and she decided to head further inland, towards town. After walking for about ten minutes, she ended up in a park, which was quite empty since it was colder and fewer people were outside.

Aiza sat on a bench and took out her phone, opening the camera app to take a quick picture for Instagram. She took a few photos from various angles, then scrolled through them, examining each one with an experienced eye.

The angle had to be just right, not too high but also not too low, and the lighting couldn't be reflecting off the sunglasses she was wearing.

However, before she could pick a photo, she overheard some boys yelling out a few feet away from her, over at the mini-skatepark in the corner of the park.

"DUDE, YOU ALMOST DID IT THAT TIME!"

Aiza looked up, taking off her sunglasses and putting them on her head. She squinted slightly, leaning forward a bit as one of the boys took his skateboard back to his starting point to do the trick again. He got on the board, bracing his foot on the ground to kick off and get momentum, then he bent his knees..

and he did not succeed in whatever trick he was trying to do.

She couldn't really tell what was wrong from this distance, but she very clearly saw the boy fly forward and hit the ground HARD as his board skirted in another direction, and she cringed instinctively. That one looked like it hurt.

"AUGH- STUPID BOARD." The boy yelled, and one of his friends came over to help him up. After being helped the first boy jogged over to his board to pick it up, and Aiza took this opportunity to walk over to the skatepark area. She stood at the edge, watching the boy try and do the trick a few more times as his friends sat a few feet away and watched.

After about three more tries, Aiza decided that she might as well try and help these guys. After all, she remembered when she was learning her first tricks too. Some of the fondest memories from her life were when she and her Papa were out in the empty pool in the estate's backyard for hours practicing.

The boys were all too invested in the trick to notice her walking up to them, so she spoke up.

"You're positioning your foot wrong."

The boy's heads all swiveled to face her when she spoke, and one of them wrinkled his nose at her.

"What?" He asked, "What are you talking about? His feet are fine!"

"YEAH! My feet are positioned fine!" The other boy, the one doing the trick, agreed. Aiza sighed, and cleared her throat before she spoke again.

"What trick are you trying to do?" She asked, and the boy replied. "It's called a Pop Shove It."

"Then you're front foot is correct, yes. Your back foot is too far back, though, you need to have at least your toes off the side so your foot can curl under the board. It's different than doing an Ollie." Aiza explained calmly, her skateboarding knowledge FINALLY coming into handy for the first time since she moved here.

When she finished, another one of the boys, the third one in the trio, let out a laugh.

"Puh-LEASE, like you know what you're talking about. Girls don't skateboard, you probably don't even know what a Pop Shove It IS."

"Or she googled it to impress some skater guy she's into!" The boy who had tried and failed to do the trick earlier added, and all three of the boys broke out into obnoxious middle school boy laughter.

Aiza stared at them, unimpressed.

"How immature."

"hOw ImMaTuRe." One of the boys mocked her accent before bursting into peals of laughter again, and this time, Aiza felt her blood BOIL. She knew the mature thing would be to walk away (and let these boys continue to struggle).

.. But showing them what's what would be MUCH more satisfying.

She stalked over, snatching the skateboard out of the first boy's hands.

"Wh- HEY! GIVE THAT BACK!"

"Allow me to demonstrate." She said darkly, glaring at the boy, who stared back up at her defiantly as he scoffed. "Pshh, whatever! You probably can't do it anyway and you're just mad we called you out."

"First of all, I don't even like guys." Aiza replied monotonously. "Second of all, I have been skateboarding for nearly ten years now."

The boy stared at her blankly, and Aiza took off her purse and put it on the ground, then took the hair tie on her wrist and tied her hair up before walking to the starting point. As she walked, she picked a trick to do in her head.

She could do a Pop Shove It, but she could also do something more advanced just to rub in the fact that she could in fact skateboard, and skateboard WELL.

The fifteen-(and a quarter)-year-old placed her front foot on the board harder than necessary, and the three boys watched, dumbfounded, as she pushed off quite fast, laser-focused, and did a 360 Flip. Flawless execution, as usual. As she circled back around, she also threw in a Pop Shove It, just because she could.

Aiza skidded to a stop a few feet away from the boys, who were staring at her with expressions that could only be described as a combination of shock, shame, and jealousy. Perfect.

Satisfied with their reactions, she got off the board and stepped on the end to grab it, then walked over and held it out to the first boy, who stared at it blankly for a few moments before he took it. Then Aiza grabbed her purse and put her sunglasses back on.

"Have fun."