Louis pinned his ribbon on the cork board in his and Harry's room. It sat up there with the athletics ribbons he'd earned; firsts in the school competition, thirds in the interschool competition. Louis' growth spurt meant that he was now of average height, no longer the small boy he'd been. He was taller than Liam, now. He was the tallest of them all. Harry was still the shortest.
On the next Saturday, the gang took the bus to Skate Pro. Louis brought the voucher, and the money he'd saved. Hopefully it would be enough to get a quality board. Harry brought all of his money, too. He didn't know why, he just did.
It was exciting, going to a new skateboarding shop. Skate Pro was situated just near a shopping mall and was much busier than Mick's. It was divided into two sections; gear, and boards. To get to the boards you had to bypass all of the skateboarding gear; cool stuff like shirts and jackets and cargo trousers. Harry wanted a pair of cargo trousers. Right now, he could afford them, but was it really wise to spend all of his savings on a pair of trousers?
They went into the second room, where the boards were. The middle wall was in Louis' price range. The boys enthusiastically helped Louis with his choice. Names like Toy Machine, Element, and Plan B were thrown about. Louis checked out a few but wasn't content. He looked with longing at the right wall.
"I want a Blitz deck," he said. "That's Tony Hawk's brand." He pulled a board off the wall and examined it.
"Once you add the trucks and wheels, that's out of your price range," said Darren.
"Maybe I can bargain the guy down."
"May as well give it a go."
Louis took the deck over to the counter. "How much for this?" he asked.
"Like it says on the price tag," said the shop assistant.
Louis fished out his voucher. "I won this. I want to use it as part-payment, but I don't have enough money for trucks and stuff if I have to pay that much for the board."
The shop assistant looked interested at his voucher, but said, "Are your friends buying anything?"
"Yeah, I want this shirt," said Darren, pulling a shirt off the rack.
"I'm gonna get this hoodie," said Cameron.
"Look, I can knock it down by ten percent," said the shop assistant. "That's as good a deal as I can do."
Louis conferred with the others. Now he could afford the deck, but didn't have enough money to cover the trucks and wheels.
"I'll pay the difference," said Harry.
"Harry, what? You can't do that. It's your allowance."
"You can pay me back," said Harry. "I have the money right here."
Louis' eyes fixated as Harry drew his money out of his pocket. "But Haz, that's all your savings."
"You're only borrowing it."
"I'll have to get a part-time job. I'm nearly old enough to."
"Whatever. Take what you need," said Harry, pushing the money at him.
Louis looked deeply into Harry's eyes. Realising he was sincere, he took twenty-five pounds from Harry's hand. "This'll be enough."
"You're not compromising on quality?"
"No." He approached the shop assistant once again. The shop assistant collected trucks and bearings and wheels and offered to put the board together for him. Soon, Louis had a brand-new board.
