Skateboard Renegade (7 page)

Zach grabbed the three pairs of jeans and went downstairs. In the laundry room he put them into the washing machine, set the
water temperature for extra hot, and started the washer.

There. That and about two hours in the dryer on high heat should just about do it, he figured. He'd have three brand new pairs
of narrow-leg jeans, just right for Amherst Academy.

“Zachary! What in the world did you do to your new jeans?!” His mom looked horrified as she held up pair after pair, now shrunken
pitifully, way beyond even tight-leg size.

“I … I guess I messed up doing the laundry,” Zach said. “I thought they were pre-shrunken, so I put them in on high heat.”

“Oh, my goodness …” His mom shook her head in dismay. “I don't know what is the matter with you, Zachary Halper. But your
father is going to go ballistic when I tell him you need new jeans again. We just bought these for you.”

“But I
need
new ones, Mom!” Zach begged, feeling guilty now. “Even you can see that!”

“I don't see why I shouldn't just make you wear
these,” his mother said, frowning. “You could probably still wear them, if you fastened them with a big safety pin.”

“Mom!” Zach shouted, his voice cracking pathetically. “Give those to Zoey! You have to buy me new clothes!”

“I don't have to do anything, young man, and neither does your father. I'll speak with him, and we'll see what he says. Meanwhile,
you just wait in your room.”

Zach stormed upstairs, furious at his parents and at himself. If they didn't cave in, he was going to be down to a single
pair of skateboarding jeans: the pair he had on right now—in fact, the ones he'd worn yesterday, too. How many days in a row
could he wear one pair of jeans? Good grief!

His mom knocked on the door of his room, then came in without his permission.

“Your father says you can have one new pair of pants and that's it,” she told him. “Considering the way you've been behaving,
I think that's more than fair.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Zach murmured, barely audible. “Sorry I ruined my jeans.”

And he was, too. He was sorry about everything: sorry he'd bleached and spiked his hair, sorry he'd taken his sister's money,
sorry he'd lost her earring, sorry he'd stolen the other one, sorry he'd ruined his jeans, sorry he'd gone to Amherst—sorry
he'd ever been born!

In the end, he went for a pair of khakis. It was what the kids at Amherst mostly wore anyway. Besides, they were on sale,
leaving him enough money for a bottle of hair-coloring rinse.

He still had his one pair of wide-leg jeans to go skateboarding with. Plus all his sweatpants. It would have to last him until
Christmas. But at least he could get his hair back to normal.

When he got home, he went straight into the bathroom and locked the door. He followed the instructions on the bottle, and
fifteen minutes later his hair was something like its usual brown color. Zach then took a big scissors, and cut the spikes
out of his hair as best he could.

In the end, it didn't look too bad. Kind of uneven on top where the spikes had been, but all things considered, it could have
been much worse. Zach
got dressed in his wide-legs and T-shirt. It was time to give Zoey her second skateboarding lesson.

But first, he returned the second earring to the nightstand where it had been before he “borrowed” it. Even though he liked
the way it looked on him, he didn't need it for school anymore. Besides, the last thing he needed was for Zoey to see it in
his ear, notice the resemblance to her own earrings, and then go looking for them.

“There,” he said, putting the earring back just the way he'd found it. “That's one thing I won't have to worry about anymore.”

“Okay, kick—turn!” Zach instructed. “Good!”

Zoey beamed a brilliant smile back at him. For the last hour, he'd been teaching her and Lorena how to do different kinds
of turns. He'd set up a series of obstacles for them to zigzag around. When he'd paid Zoey back for everything, he'd go out
and buy some real cones, he told himself. It would be worth it to make a real skateboarding course right here in the driveway.
Maybe he could even scare up some plywood for a ramp!

“My turn, Thack!” Lorena called out.

“Okay, Lorena. Zoey, take off the pads and stuff.”

“I'm not done practicing yet!” Zoey protested.

“Come on, Zoey, give her a turn. She's your friend.”

“Oh, okay.” Zoey turned over the gear to Lorena and sat next to Zach on the steps.

“You look much better this way,” she offered.

“Yeah, right,” Zach said, scowling.

“You do. I don't care what you think,” she said. “And you know what else? You're a good teacher.”

He looked up at her, just to make sure she was serious. “Thanks,” he said, smiling.

“By the time two months is over, I'm going to be a better skateboarder than you and your friends,” Zoey bragged.

“We'll see about that,” Zach said with a laugh. “Whoa, Lorena! Remember to tuck your head under when you fall!”

“I'm okay,” Lorena said, picking herself up off the pavement. “How do you do that kick turn again?

Just then, Zach saw a sight that chilled his blood. His friends were skateboarding around the corner, calling his name and
whooping loudly. If they caught him giving his little sister skateboarding lessons, they'd never let him hear the end of it.

“Quick, Lorena—give me all the gear!”

“Why, Thack?”

“Never mind why, just give it to me!”

“Halper!”

“Hey, guys!” Zach turned and waved to his friends as they approached. At the same time, he grabbed the board, and turned his
back on Zoey and Lorena, hoping they'd have the good sense to get lost in a hurry.

The smile vanished from Zach's face as he got a good look at his buddies. They had all bleached and spiked their hair!

“Oh, no!” he groaned.

“We did it!” Sam crowed. “I told you we'd do it! Hey, how come you got rid of it, Zach?”

“I got tired of it,” Zach muttered weakly. “I figured you guys chickened out, so …”

“Yeah, well now you're gonna have to go get it done again,” Kareem said. “Gotta look like a crew.”

“I'm not getting it done again,” Zach said. “Sorry. You all should have done it when you said you would. So too bad.”

“You all look stupid,” Zoey piped up, stepping forward. “Why do you all want to look so freaky?”

“This your sister?” Brian Jeffers asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Zach said, wishing he could make Zoey disappear—and Lorena along with her. “Yeah, this is Zoey. She's nine. And
that's her friend Lorena. I'm … I'm baby-sitting them,” he fibbed.

“Oh. Gotta make some ducats, huh?” Brian said with a wink and a nod.

“He's not baby-sitting us!” Zoey contradicted. “We're not babies!”

“Quiet, Zoey!” Zach said through gritted teeth. But it was too late. All the guys cracked up.

“Yeah, we're big girlth,” Lorena added. “Thack's giving uth thkateboarding lethonth.”

Oh brother,
Zach thought.
That's all I need. Now they're gonna be imitating poor Lorena's lisp all afternoon.

“Oh, that'th tho thweet!” Brian mimicked, drawing a huge roar from the other boys.

“Shut up, Brian,” Zach scolded him, putting his arm around Lorena's shoulder to comfort her. He could see the tears already
forming in her eyes.

“Thack'th nithe,” she told Brian. “Not like you. You're not nithe at all!”

“Tho thorry,” Brian joked, starting another round of laughter.

Lorena, bawling, broke free of Zach and ran into the house.

“There. Are you happy now?” Zach said to Brian. “You made her cry. Nice going.”

“Oh, Thack!” Brian said, still not done. “You're tho thenthitive!”

Zach gave him a little shove. “Cut it out,” he warned.

Brian smirked. “It must be the Amherst Academy effect,” he said. “Makes you all soft and gooey and nerdy inside, so you want
to spend all your time with little girls.”

“Shut up, I said,” Zach muttered threateningly. “I had to give them lessons, okay? I had no choice.”

“Oh? And why not?” Brian wondered.

“I … borrowed some money from Zoey,” Zach said, motioning with his eyes toward Zoey, who was still there in the driveway watching
the confrontation. “For the haircut and the ear piercing.”

“Yeah, right,” Brian said. “Don't give me that baloney. You didn't even get your ear pierced.”

Zach drew back, surprised. “I did too,” he said. “Here—see?”

Brian examined the hole in Zach's ear. “Oh,” he said. “So you did. My mistake.”

“That's right,” Zach said, nodding to show he was righteously offended.

“See, I just figured since you were using a clip-on earring, you hadn't done the dirty deed.”

“A-a clip-on earring?” Zach stammered.

“Yeah. You dropped it at Moorehead Park. Here. I kept it for you.” He handed Zach the diamond stud.

Zoey's eyes went wide, and she came closer to get a better look. “Hey!” she cried. “That's
my
earring! Zach, you thief! You stole my earring, too!”

“Whoa, dude!” Brian said laughing so hard, he could barely stand. “You're wearing your little sister's jewelry now?” He backed
up, exchanging humorous glances with the other guys. “Okay, I'm outie. Come on guys. See you sometime, Zach, huh?” They all
skateboarded off, leaving Zach there in a state of total humiliation.

But the worst was yet to come.

“I'm telling!” Zoey shrieked, running inside before Zach could stop her. “Mommy! Daddy! Zach stole my money and my earring!
He let the other boys make fun of me! Mommy! Daddy!”

Zach sank to the pavement and sat there, his head in his hands. “This is it,” he said to himself. “This is what they mean
when they say, 'You've hit rock bottom.'”

I
t was the beginning of a long, painful month for Zach. His parents grounded him until he repaid Zoey all the money he'd taken
from her piggy bank. They forbade him to go skateboarding without Zoey, which pretty much meant he was confined to the driveway
and the sidewalk of their block.

Kareem called once, to say the boys were hanging out in back of the A&P, whose parking lot was so big that part of it was
always empty. It wasn't as good a layout as Moorehead Park; aside from some curbs and a couple of speed bumps, there wasn't
much in the way of obstacles. But at least the pavement was better, and until they fixed Moorehead Park, it was the only game
in town.

Zach explained why he couldn't go. Kareem sympathized, but after that, there wasn't much to talk
about, so they hung up quickly. And that was the last he'd heard from any of them—three weeks ago.

He'd done a lot of baby-sitting in that time. Lorena's parents had given his name to some friends of theirs who needed help
Friday and Saturday nights. He'd spent the afternoons giving the girls lessons. They could now actually ride their boards.

Zoey had already extracted a skateboard from their parents as an early birthday present. Lorena was working on her parents
to do the same for her, and it seemed that she wouldn't have too hard a time getting one, even though her birthday wasn't
till just before Thanksgiving.

Zach had splurged on some cones for them to work with. It had set him back a day of baby-sitting wages, but he didn't care
anymore. It gave him a chance to set up different slalom courses in the driveway.

His skills were actually getting better with all this practice. Even though most of the tricks he tried were really easy,
he was getting so good at them that he could put together a few at a time, which enabled him to create routines on the board.

One day he brought his boom box outside and
gave his routine some background music. Zoey and Lorena really enjoyed the addition of a sound track to their boarding activities.
They were each improving steadily and were certainly no longer embarrassing.

Outside of giving the girls lessons, the only good things in Zach's life were his technology classes and Computer Club at
Amherst. They were really interesting, and he'd learned a lot. And with his hair and clothing close to what Amherst kids considered
normal, he was slowly making friends, although none as close as Benny Santangelo.

One day Benny and he were sitting next to each other in computer engineering class, when the teacher handed out a series of
sheets detailing their big end-of-semester assignment.

“You'll be working in teams,” Mr. Schmidt said. “You'll have to come up with a detailed computer design of a structure with
moving parts.”

“What kind of structure?” one of the kids asked.

“That's entirely up to you,” the teacher said. “It could be a drawbridge or an elevator for a building. Try to be creative.
But I'll expect a two-page written report explaining how you came up with it and how it works.”

“Cool!” Benny said, turning to powwow with Zach. “Got any good ideas?”

Zach shrugged. “You're the idea man,” he said. “Just one request.”

“What?”

“We work at your house. I need to get away,” Zach said, rolling his eyes. “I'm in prison at my house.”

“No problem,” Benny assured him. “I'll have my mom call your mom and set it up.” He winked at Zach, and they shook on it.

That evening Zach's mom was about to drive him to Benny's for a brainstorming session on their big project when the phone
rang. His mom went into the kitchen to answer it.

“Skeeter, hi!” Zach heard her say, greeting his uncle. “How are you? How's the weather out in sunny California?” She listened,
and then said, “Well, I'm just driving Zach over to a friend's house.”

There was a pause. Zach tapped on the back of the sofa impatiently.

Then he heard his mom say, “Oh, we're surviving, I guess. Things have been tense with us. …”

Zach knew she was talking about him. He could
tell by the hush that came into her voice. He edged over to the open kitchen door, to hear better.

“He just doesn't seem to want to play by the rules,” his mom was complaining. “We can't do anything with him. Do you know
the police brought him home one night? And Zoey caught him stealing from her piggy bank, can you believe it? Oh, Skeeter,
you have such a way with kids. Maybe if you had a little talk with him? Everything we say just goes in one ear and out the
other.”