“You’re a natural,” I tell her. “Next time, I’ll show you some easy tricks.”
With that, I ride into the park to rip up and down the volcano. The half-pipe stands a short distance away, snarling at me, mocking me. It’s a surly, ugly dragon that’ll attack me if I don’t attack it first. I may be crazy, but I have to go for it.
I start from my comfort zone—the middle. After a few runs where, shock of all shockers, I don’t do a faceplant into the vert, I get up the nerve to crawl closer and closer to the top before dropping in. But the higher I go, the more afraid I become. When fear shuts down my lungs, I stomp off the pipe. I wonder if Wyatt has a trick for the Lawrence County Skate-Off that’s suitable for a wuss like me.
Cheers come from the bleachers. “Go, Bernice! Way to go, Bernice!” It’s the kids from Smile Academy! They’re sitting with Miss Robyn.
I skate over to find out why they’re here.
“Field trip,” Miss Robyn explains. “Our first time to the park. We never expected you to be here. Nellie is beyond excited that her new BFF is a star skateboarder.” Miss Robyn shoots a glance to Nellie, and Nellie uses this opportunity to charge at me and bowl me over with a crushing hug.
Robbie and Claire, two other camp kids, join in. Soon all eight munchkins want hug time, and I’m surrounded. When the kids spot Odelia, a new hug-a-thon begins. Like me, Odelia is overwhelmed. At first, we don’t hug back, but it’s impossible to resist a bunch of cheery huggers.
“Don’t let us interrupt your skating,” Miss Robyn says. “I hope the kids aren’t bothering you. We can go if we’re causing too much of a commotion.”
It’s both nice and completely uncomfortable to have the Smile Academy kids as my personal cheerleaders. The hardcore skaters might think it’s not cool, but the park is still pretty empty. So, for now, I want them to hang around. “Don’t go,” I tell her.
“Odelia,” Miss Robyn calls, “care to sit with us?”
Before Odelia can answer, Angelo and Joe take Odelia’s hands and pull her to the bleachers. Both boys fight to see who gets to sit on her lap. In the end, Odelia gives up and balances a nine-year-old on each knee, and is smooshed under their weight. I can’t tell if she’s upset or not. She’s hidden behind bobs of black and brown hair.
I cruise away and roll up and down the mini-ramp, getting enough air to do a tail grab. Nothing special. But from the cheers you would’ve thought I did a varial flip—rotating my board from nose to tail, flipping it from top to bottom. Sort of like a combo of a pop shove-it and a kick flip. I haven’t mastered that stupid kick flip, so a varial is totally out of my league.
Next, because I’m feeling cocky, I flip my board into my hands and walk over to the half-pipe. I do the caveman crawl. To. The. Top.
Before I overthink it and chicken out, I jump on, and drop in. I’m a warrior in battle against this dragon. My balance rocks as I find my sweet spot on the vert and sail across the bottom. The whole time I’m thinking: I did it. I dropped in! But what I didn’t think about was what would happen next. I start to fly up the other side of the U, but there’s no way I can pull off a turn and get back down in one piece. Halfway up I stop, drop, and roll like Fireman Fred taught us in first grade. I was so close!
I leave the half-pipe and practice my other tricks. For a half-hour straight, my cheerleaders go ballistic any time I do anything. They make me feel like a superstar.
When Miss Robyn leads the campers to the gate, I skate over quickly and give each kid a subtle, low high-five. “See you tomorrow, mighty munchkins. You are made of awesome.”
They leave shouting, “Made of awesome! Made of awesome! Mighty munchkins are made of awesome!”
So much for subtle.
I head for the low rail in the back corner of the park, and suddenly catch an earful of laughter. I pick out one boy’s laugh, and my skin turns to ice. Wyatt. He’s outside the fence on the pool side. He must’ve seen me talking to the Smile Academy kids, and thinks it’s hysterical. Oh, no!
There’s a lump in my throat the size of a cantaloupe. I skate to the far side of the park, and when I look over my shoulder I see Wyatt pulling his friends away.
All the crafty conversation in the world won’t fix this.
***
Once Upon a Style
Roxanne is on another Big Apple trip. She texted me to complain about it. Mother Nature decided to hike up the temperature and the newscasters make it sound like it’s the end of the world: “Ninety-two degrees with a real-feel temperature of one-hundred-five. Heat advisory. Drink plenty of water. Stay indoors. Dangerous ozone levels. Safe sun time is ten minutes.” We live in Pennsylvania, not on Mars. It’s hot. Get over it. It’s summer.
Mom insists I’ll get heat exhaustion at the skate park, so she’s forcing me to stay home. She has no idea how much I love her for that. I can’t show my face there. What if Wyatt’s found out that I not only talk to the campers from Smile Academy, but I volunteer there? No way will he want to hang with me. No way will he keep helping me with skate tricks.
Mom finds inside chores for me like
