Skater Squad

Chapter 4

Evan
After six million trips and falls on the skateboard, Craig and I finally made it to the entrance of the school.

I pant for air as Craig casually pulls out his ear buds. "Not bad, you're getting better."

"Say that to my hands and knees," I groan in pain as my knees were scraped and my palms were cut with dots of blood.

"Ah you'll get used to it," Craig assures, pressing the tip of his sneakers onto my leg scrapes.

"Ow! We don't even have helmets on, I'm not ready to lose a brain cell because you wanted to look cool skating," I snap, nudging his feet away as I place the board under my arm.

"Dude no one ever wears their helmets! It ruins the skater vibe," Craig laughs, clearly amused by my statement as we venture into school grounds.

"So people just skateboard to look cool-?! Why the hell is everyone staring at me?" I squeak, forcing my head down as I passed by curious eyes.

They weren't so oblivious to my existence now.

"Because you look adorable," Craig chuckles nudging my side.

"Adorable? I thought I was meant to look cool."

"Cool? You? Impossible. If you suddenly became emo everyone would pinch your cheek and tell you, "oh aren't you just cute."

"Is that from experience?" I grit my teeth, shyly covering my face as I amble past a group of boys who made kissy noises at my direction.

"I pushed down that part of my life deep down into the void of my mind please don't bring it back," Craig shudders as we skip up the stairs.

Our bodies pause at wild cheers coming from our left.

We glance at each other before venturing into the quite large resting area where kids would normally eat their lunches under benches with umbrellas.

Only, they weren't eating, instead they we skateboarding everywhere.

A boy kick-flips over a line of school bags, where another grinds against the bench seats.

"They must be practising for tryouts," Craig mutters under him breath.

I hum questioningly, he shook his head before answering my call.

"Oh uh, when tryouts for skating competitions are announced, people go nuts about practising," Craig explains, grasping his bag strap tighter as he gandered at David doing multiple twists with his board. "Only a certain number of kids in the fifteen to eighteen group will pass into the competition if you're good enough."

I gape my mouth to respond but another body ran up to us.

It was the same guy who was terrified of being squashed by Tyler yesterday. He was wearing stylish black jeans with his same grey hoodie but with a rabbit print on the front.

"Oh I forgot to introduce you two. Evan this is my friend Ryan, he's going to help you learn to skate," Craig told, forcing our hands to shake.

Ryan's eyes widen as he ogled his sights to his friend. "I am?"

"Now you are cause I'm going to get an iced coffee, toodles," Craig pushes Ryan next to me before skipping to the canteen window just across the square.

"Uhh... okay then.. what did you want to learn," Ryan quizzes, grasping his board and guided us to a empty spot near David and some dark headed male doing impressive tricks with his board.

"Maybe just... I want to learn to get on the board without needing help," I inform, clutching the board to my chest as I heated with embarrassment at how prideful my tone sounded.

Ryan raises his brows but chuckles. "Ah easy! I can help you with that."

Ryan took my board and place it a couple feet away before returning to my side.

"If you were going to run on a slate of ice which foot would you put in front of you first?" He questions out of the blue.

I quirk my brow. What does ice have to do with skateboarding?

"I guess my right foot," I shrug, wiggling my right foot in the air.

"Okay then, I want you to walk up to your board and get on with you right foot and kick off with your left," He instructs before adding. "When you're on the board and not moving keep your right foot straight and when you have kicked off place both of your feet facing the edge and return to square one when you want to kick off again."

"Okay that's a lot of steps just to kick off the board," I giggle sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck.

"It becomes second nature when you get used it, trust me," Ryan assures.

I gave him a curt nod before ambling to the still board. I followed his steps and placed my right foot in front and kicked off with my left foot.

As the board moves, I straighten my feet sideways and off I went.

"Wooow! I did it!" I cheer loudly, leaning my weight to turn around people.

Ryan hands me a thumbs up and rides his own board around with a smaller boy with brunette hair who just arrived.

Over-confidence began to make me giddy as I made the board go faster.

"Evan slow down, we're in a tight space, don't crash into anyone," Ryan warns from afar but my ears to were to clogged with my own bullshit rambling.

I'm fine! I'm practically a pro already.

I made sharp turns around other bodies as I laugh with pure joy as I was finally controlling the board by myself.

I can see why now everyone skates, it's fun. I'm having fun.

My heart suddenly skips a beat as my wheels run over a bump. My feet wobble under the board.

It was like glue had stuck itself on my feet as I tried to stop but my body didn't budge.

I move my sight away from my legs finally only to see a body step out in-front of me.

Oh no...

"Holy... shit..!" The body squeaks in surprise as their strong arms swing me off the board and back onto the ground.

My fingers were stuck in their thick hoodie sleeves as my face was only a few centimetres away from the one named David.

His cheeks grew rosy as he rapidly let go of me but couldn't take his eyes from mine.

Is he mad??

"Uh.. sorry..!" I stammer as he grabs my board silently and shoves it aggressively into my chest while I hissed in pain at the rapid force.

"Learn to control your board or don't ride at all dumbass," David scorns, dusting off his dark green hoodie.

"I'm not used to it yet," I chuckle sheepishly, offering a small smile while I tried to hide my face burning with embarrassment.

"Well try not bump into living things, preferably me or you'll have more trouble on your hands than a faulty board," David spat, placing his board under his feet and rode off without another word.

I pout in defeat, gandering to his shrinking figure as he rides away.

My body seemed limp and small as I glare longingly down at my board.

I was just trying to have fun.