Rock On
Text copyright © 2004 by Matt Christopher Royalties, Inc. Illustrations copyright © 2004 by Michael Koelsch
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
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First eBook Edition: September 2008
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The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Matt Christopher
®
is a registered trademark of Catherine M. Christopher.
ISBN: 978-0-316-02597-3
Contents
“X! Wait up!”
Xavier McSweeney, or X to his friends and family, turned to see Mark Goldstein hurrying up the snow-covered hill. He stopped so his friend could catch up.
“I’ve been chasing you for five minutes!” Mark gasped. He stuck his snowboard in a snowbank, removed his glasses, and wiped his brow.
“Well, you caught me,” X said. “What’s up?”
“I need your help,” Mark answered. He pointed to his snowboard. “That thing keeps turning sideways when I go downhill. I think there’s something wrong with it. Can you check it out?”
X jammed his own snowboard into the bank. He picked up Mark’s board and looked it over. He handed it back to Mark with a shrug.
“Looks okay to me,” he said. “Are you sure it’s the board that’s causing the trouble?”
Mark frowned. “Whaddya mean?”
X picked up his own board and started up the hill again. “I’m thinking maybe it’s operator error. C’mon, take a run. I’ll watch you, see if you’re doing something wrong.”
Mark sighed. “Okay, but I’m telling you, it’s the board, not me.”
The boys reached the top of the hill. Mark strapped himself on to his board, gave a little hop, and set off down the slope. His run started out smoothly. But halfway down, the tail of the board began sliding forward. Mark pinwheeled his arms to try to stay upright, but he wound up rolling in the snow. X took off down the hill and swooped to a stop next to him.
“See what I mean?” Mark fumed as they hurried out of the way of the other boarders. “This stupid thing has a mind of its own!”
X sat down. “Got some bad news for you, bud,” he said solemnly. “It’s not the board. It’s your technique.”
Mark threw up his hands. “Okay, I give up. What’s wrong with my technique, O Great One?”
“Lots.” X stood up and pretended to ride a snow-board. “When you ride, you’ve got to put more of your weight forward.” Knees bent, he leaned so that his arms dangled a little ahead of his front foot. “If your weight is on the back foot” — he shifted his arms and upper body backward — “then the heavy stuff is on the tail.”
Mark shrugged. “So?”
“So,” X said patiently, “the end of the board that has more weight on it goes down the hill first. It’s, like, the law of gravity or something.”
“But if I put my weight forward, I won’t be able to move my front foot. How will I steer?”
X stared at Mark in disbelief. “Hello? Excuse me?
Where did you learn to board?” When Mark’s face looked blank, X shook his head. “You don’t steer a snowboard with your
front
foot, you steer with your
back
foot!”
“You do?” Mark seemed so amazed that X began to laugh.
“Let’s head back up the hill. I’ll show you what I mean.”
“I got a better idea,” a new voice behind them mocked. “Why don’t you posers get out of the way and let some
real
snowboarders have the slope!”
X and Mark turned to find two boys and a girl standing in front of them. X immediately recognized the boy who had spoken. His name was Frank. X had met him a few months earlier when Frank’s team faced X and his friends in a game of roller hockey. Before the game, Frank had made a bet with X’s friend Belicia “Bizz” Juarez. The winning team would be able to use the skatepark’s roller-hockey rink whenever they wanted. Before X and the others could stop her, Bizz had accepted the challenge.
Frank’s team won the game. He’d been nasty then, full of himself and gloating about the victory. He didn’t seem much better now.
Mark glared at them. “Who are you calling posers?”
Frank smirked. “You, for one. I saw you rollin’ down the windows on that last run.” Frank flailed his arms wildly, imitating Mark trying to keep his balance. His friends guffawed.
Mark flushed. “Okay, I admit I’m not the best boarder in the world,” he said. “But
X
could outrun you in a second!”
Frank raised an eyebrow. “Wanna bet?”
Those were the same words Frank had used to trap Bizz. Before Mark made the same mistake, X stopped him. “No bets,” he said.
“Too chicken?” Frank and his friends flapped their arms and clucked. “I dare you to race me down the hill!”
X narrowed his eyes. He’d seen Frank snowboard a few times before; he was pretty sure he could take him. “You’re on!” he said.
They climbed to the top of the slope and met Alison Lee, the teenager who oversaw the skatepark and the hill. X explained Frank’s challenge and asked for her help in clearing the hill for a few minutes.
Alison shook her head. “X, you know you’re a good snowboarder. You don’t have to race to prove it.”
“I know,” said X. He lowered his voice. “But he dared me. If I didn’t race, he’d think I was a coward.”
“So why do you care what he thinks?”
X didn’t answer. Alison rolled her eyes, but she helped clear the hill. As she did, a small crowd gathered at the top.
“Hey, what’s the holdup?” Jonas Malloy pushed through to where X and Mark were standing.
“Yo, Jonas, you’re just in time. X is going to race Frank down the hill,” Mark said.
“No way!” Jonas threw an arm around X’s shoulders. “Doesn’t Frank know that X is the best boarder around?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say —,” X began.
“And not just the best boarder,” Jonas continued in a loud voice. “He can ride anything on wheels, he rocks in the half-pipe
and
on the rails, and when it comes to jammin’ down a mountain on a bike, he’s the boss! You look up
extreme sports
in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of X!” Jonas and Mark high-fived each other. Some of the kids in the crowd cheered. Frank and his buddies frowned.
X felt his face turn red. He wished Jonas hadn’t said all those things. Now if he lost, he’d look like a total idiot!
It was too late to back out of the race — not that X wanted to. He crouched down, eyes glued to Alison.
“On your mark, get set, go,” Alison said — and the race was on!
X launched himself into a straight downhill ride. His arms were low and forward, steadying him as he shot past the onlookers. His back foot worked to keep the board in line. He didn’t look to see where Frank was. He focused on staying in control and making it down the hill as fast as he could.
Suddenly, a mound of snow appeared in front of him. X didn’t have time to go around it. Instead, he bent his knees and hit the mound at full speed. Airborne, he grabbed his board with one hand. As he started to fall, he let go and shifted his weight to his back foot. The last thing he wanted was for the nose of the board to dig into the snow and send him flying.
Thud!
His landing was hard but clean. Seconds later, he skidded to a stop at the bottom of the hill. Panting, he turned just in time to see Frank finish his run. X gave a
whoop
and pumped his fist in the air. He’d won!
Frank shot X a mean look, unsnapped his bindings, and stalked away. His friends joined him. The girl tried to put an arm around his shoulders, but Frank shook it off angrily.
A spray of snow showered X in the back as first Jonas, then Mark boarded up beside him.
“That was the most beautiful run this hill has ever seen,” Mark said solemnly.
“I could not
believe
how you stuck that jump!” Jonas cried. “I thought for sure you were going to crater. But no, you boosted about five feet into the air instead!”
X grinned. “Thanks, guys. It felt pretty good, I gotta admit. But now that the excitement’s over, let’s go back to normal, okay?”
“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.” Alison joined them. She jerked her thumb at Frank and his friends. “You’ve just made yourself a real enemy, X. And it’s my guess that he’s going to try to find a way to get back at you.” She picked up her board and started up the slope. Then she stopped.
“Hey, I almost forgot. There’s a new rock-climbing wall set up at the mall. It’s two stories high. I’m getting a trip together to check it out. If you guys want to go, sign up at the Community Center. But do it soon because I can only take ten kids.”
“A rock-climbing trip? Totally awesome!” Jonas said after Alison had left. “C’mon, you guys, let’s go sign up.”
“I don’t know,” X said doubtfully. “I’ve never been rock climbing. And in the mall? How do they do that?”
“I’ve seen something like it before,” Mark replied. “The wall is man-made, out of heavy-duty plastic or something, and has handholds and footholds sticking out of it. You get strapped into a safety harness attached to a rope. Then you just, you know, climb as high as you can. When you let go of the wall, the harness takes you to the floor safely.”
“So is it hard to do?” X wanted to know.
Jonas laughed. “What do you care if it’s hard? You’re good at everything! This wall will be a cinch for you!”