Skateboard Renegade
Read Skateboard Renegade Online
Authors: Matt Christopher
To my great-granddaughter
Samantha Jo Howell
Copyright © 2000 by Matt Christopher Royalties, Inc.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Hachette Book Group
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Little, Brown Books for Young Readers is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks
of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
First eBook Edition: December 2009
ISBN: 978-0-316-09428-3
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 Matt Christopher Royalties, Inc.
Contents
THE #1 SPORTS SERIES FOR KIDS: MATT CHRISTOPHER
®
Z
achary!”
Zach Halper was in midair when he heard his mother's voice calling him. The sound threw him off, and he nearly wiped out on
landing, his skateboard sliding out from underneath him.
“What do you want?” he called to her, annoyed, as he got up and dusted himself off.
“Come here, quickly!”
She sounded excited. Zach left his skateboard where it lay, on the strip of grass beside the long, wide driveway, and went
inside to see what the fuss was about.
His mom was in the kitchen. She held a fat envelope in her hand and wore a big smile on her face. “It's from Amherst Academy,”
she announced, handing him the already-opened envelope.
Zach read it out loud. “Congratulations. You have been accepted to Amherst Academy for Technology and Computer Science.…”
His voice faded to a whisper. “Wow … I thought when I got put on the waiting list, that meant 'no'.…”
He wasn't kidding. He really hadn't expected this. After all, it was the very end of August—only a few days till school started.
He'd been on the waiting list since July 6. Now here he was, all set to go back to Brighton Middle for the start of seventh
grade —back with his usual gang in the same old school —and suddenly his whole world was about to change.
“Aren't you excited?” his mom asked, still smiling broadly. “I'd have thought you'd be jumping for joy.”
“Oh. Yeah, it's great!” Zach said, but a little uncertainly. Sure, he was excited—proud of himself for doing well enough on
the entrance exam to get into the exclusive school. Amherst had all the most up-to-date equipment, software, and Internet
connections and offered a superior program in math, science, and technology. “It's just … I'd already given up on going,”
he explained.
“Well, isn't this a wonderful surprise then!” his mom said, giving him a big hug and kiss. “Wait till I
tell your father!” She let him go and went straight for the telephone.
It hadn't been Zach's idea to apply to Amherst Academy. His parents had practically made him do it. “You're not being challenged
enough at Brighton” was what they said. “That school is going downhill fast.”
Zach thought Brighton was okay. He suspected that it was his choice of friends his parents really objected to—though, of course,
they always denied it.
Still, once Zach had decided to apply to Amherst—once he'd gone through the tests, the interview, and all the paperwork—he'd
actually started to get excited about going. When the school had put him on the waiting list, he'd been terribly disappointed.
So part of him really did feel great, now that he'd been accepted.
Zach tucked the envelope into the pocket of his shorts. He couldn't wait to tell the guys he'd made it into Amherst! He ran
out the kitchen door to get his board, then stopped in his tracks. His nine-year-old sister, Zoey, was trying to ride his
skateboard—and was heading right into the street!
“Hey!” he shouted at her. “Get off my board!”
She obeyed, but not on purpose. Zoey's arms flailed out to either side, and suddenly she was airborne!
The board slid out from under her and scooted into the road, where it rolled right between the front and rear wheels of a
delivery truck that was barreling down the road.
Zoey sat on her butt in the driveway, sniffling back tears.
“Zoey, you idiot!” Zach scolded her. “That could have been
you
under that truck!”
“Well, if you'd given me lessons, like you promised all summer, I wouldn't stink so bad at skateboarding,” she said, looking
up at him accusingly.
“Aw, nuts,” he said shaking his head and helping her to her feet. “I told you, I
will
… when I have time.” He looked to make sure the coast was clear, then crossed the street and retrieved his board. It seemed
none the worse for wear.
“You could at least have worn a helmet,” he muttered to Zoey as he came back up the driveway.
“I was just trying to balance on it for one second,” Zoey protested. “But it started rolling downhill.”
“Yeah, well, one second is all it takes sometimes,” Zach told her. “What if you'd landed on your head?”
“Mom would have punished
you,”
Zoey said with a smug smile. “It's your skateboard, and you're supposed to be responsible for me.”
“Now look,” he said, shaking a finger at her, “I'm going over to Moorehead Park to see my friends. If you don't say anything
about what just happened, I won't. That way, neither of us gets into trouble. Okay?”
Zoey scrunched up her face, apparently trying to figure out what kind of trouble
she
could possibly be in.
“You nearly got yourself killed by riding my board without my permission and without a helmet, okay?” Zach explained, reminding
her. “So just keep quiet about it. I'll see you later.”
Strapping his helmet back on and adjusting his knee, wrist, and elbow pads, he pushed off on his skateboard, rolling down
the sidewalk toward Moorehead Park.
“Give my regards to your stupid friends!” Zoey called after him.
Zach smiled, not looking back. Zoey didn't like his friends, and neither did his parents. Well, too bad. They were
his
friends, not theirs.
As he went, he practiced his skateboarding skills, which were pretty good, if Zach could say so himself. He zigzagged down
the gentle slope toward downtown, deftly avoiding the pedestrians he passed. He did a grab over a fire hydrant, then stopped
at the traffic light at Foley and Whitmore by doing a skid stop called the cess slide.
That's the best thing about skateboarding, Zach thought as he waited for the light to change. It's so versatile. You can go
places on your board or you can do tricks and perform with it. You can even slalom or go on a half pipe, just like you were
on the ski slopes.
The light changed, and Zach pushed off into the road. He hopped the curb on the other side and kept on going.
Moorehead City wasn't much of a city, really. It had once been a booming mill town, and now the mills had closed. Even worse,
the new mall out in
Oakmont had drawn shoppers away from downtown, where more and more stores these days were closing.
Still, today was the Friday before Labor Day weekend, and all the stores on Foley Square were having sidewalk sales. Zach
had to skateboard out into the street to avoid all the people and tables on the sidewalk.
Right away he drew the attention of the policeman directing traffic at the corner of Foley and Main. “Hey, you! Kid! Back
on the sidewalk! No skateboarding around here!” the cop yelled at him.
Zach immediately did as he was told, his face flushed with humiliation. Everyone was turning around to look at him! And what
had he done that was so awful?
This town needed more places for kids to skateboard! It just wasn't fair!
Moorehead Park, on the other side of downtown, had seen better days. The rusty swings were old, and the water fountains didn't
work. The whole place was due for renovation as soon as school started.
Meanwhile, the park had been pretty empty all
summer long. No mothers wanted to take their babies there. That should have made it the perfect place to go skateboarding.
Except there was one problem. The park was full of broken pavement, skateboard-stopping rubble, and broken glass! Zach had
to stop, grab his board, and walk through the park entrance. You could really get cut up falling here—especially the palms
of your hands. Zach wished he'd worn his skateboarding gloves instead of just wrist protectors.
He looked over to the far corner of the paved playground area. There were his friends, practicing their boarding skills on
the least-broken-up section of pavement.
“Hey!” Zach called out, waving as he trotted over to join them. He stopped when he saw someone unfamiliar among the others—a
kid with spiked, platinum-blond hair.
Then he realized who it was. “Jeffers? Brian, man, what did you do to your hair?”
“You like the 'do?” Brian asked with a wicked grin. “It's the new me! And hey—check this out!” He turned to show Zach that
he was wearing a sparkly earring in his left ear. “I'm pierced! The first of
many, man. And I'm getting a tattoo soon. The complete look, right? Ha! You should have seen my mom's face when I came home
looking like this!”
“It freaked her right out,” Kareem Walker said. He proudly put a hand on Brian's shoulder and, with the other hand, gave him
a high five. “I was there!”
“She about fainted,” Brian bragged, chuckling as he remembered the golden moment.
“We're all gonna get our hair bleached and ears pierced to match!” little Sam Vasquez announced. “Tattoos, too—right guys?”
“Right,” Kareem agreed. He was tall and very dark, and was going to look awesome with bleached blond hair, Zach thought with
a smile.
Sam was only starting sixth grade, but they let him hang around with them anyway. He was a pretty good boarder and a good
sport, too. He let Brian tease him all day long and never stopped smiling. Besides, as Brian always pointed out when Sam wasn't
around, Sam's parents owned the local sporting-goods store. It didn't hurt to be nice to their kid.
“How about you, Halper?” Brian asked him. “You gonna do it, too? We can be the Brighton Boarding Crew!”
The others all whooped and high-fived each other, liking the idea a lot. But Zach hesitated. He wasn't sure he wanted to bleach
and spike his hair, let alone get his ear pierced. And a tattoo? Forget it!
“I don't know,” Zach said. “I … got some news today, guys.”
“What?” Farrell Simon asked, the first to pay attention.
“I got into Amherst Academy.”
A sudden silence fell on the group like a shadow, darkening their expressions. Nobody said a word, or even breathed, for several
seconds.
“Really?” Sam was the first to break the spell. “Wow. That's great … I guess.”
“I thought you were only on the waiting list,” Farrell said.
“I was,” Zach replied. “Till today. To tell you the truth, I'd forgotten all about it myself.”
“So I guess … you're gonna go there, huh?” Kareem said softly. “I mean, they accept you, you don't say no, right?”
“Guess not,” Zach said, looking at the ground.
Only now did the horrible reality begin to sink in, and it gave Zach a sick feeling inside. They'd all be
going back to Brighton Middle School in a few more days—
all except him.
“So I guess you're not gonna get your hair bleached or any of that stuff,” Farrell said sadly.
“Of course I am!” Zach insisted hotly, choking back the tears that wanted to come.
I'm still one of you guys!
he felt like telling them. But it was no good if you had to say it.
Nobody said anything for a long time.
“You know what?” Brian Jeffers broke the silence. “Moorehead Park really bites. There's nothing good to do here. Let's all
go over to the school steps and ride some rails.”
Zach turned to him, taken aback. “But, Brian, remember what school security said?”
“School security?” Brian repeated, as if Zach had mentioned something disgusting. “Give me a break! Hey, you're going off
to nerd heaven. We've gotta give you a fitting send-off.”
T
he boys boarded together to the middle school. Farrell moved up next to Zach.
“So,” Farrell said, “I can't believe you're not going to be in school with us next week.”
“Uh-huh,” Zach said, without enthusiasm. “Neither can I.”
