Chapter 3.
Everyone was having a great time: Danielle, Sabrina, Tony and Sebastien were going down the huge ramps, Andrew and Greg were bum-boarding, and Leo was practising on the small ramps. Eventually, Tony shooed everyone from the ramps to show off his latest trick. He climbed to the top of the biggest ramp –ten feet, at least- and adjusted his skateboard to the correct position, as with his feet. It was a half ramp, and in front of it had a course of a smaller one that looked like a squared-off hill. Then straight from there was another big half ramp. He quickly tapped his helmet in place and took a deep breath: he has only tried this a few times, so he was not totally comfortable attempting it again in front of his best friends, especially because he is known as the best skater. If he messed up now, there would be enough teasing, right? He shook the negativity away: he didn’t need it. Whatever, man. Bring it on.
He began at full speed: he dropped in and gained pace so rapidly his afro started to blow backwards! When Tony got down the ramp, he got to the smaller one in the middle of the skate park and jumped six feet into the air- The baby jump. Then he travelled straight towards the big slope and zoomed up it and did a flip, then back down and an even bigger jump over the squared-off hill: eight feet. Still not there yet. He did a pop shove-it when he reached the top of the half-ramp and again attempted a jump, only this time it beat his record: ten feet!!! Tony didn’t seem to notice the attention as he was concentrating so much with his jumps and flips up and down the ramps. He felt his heart beat faster and faster, his face screwing up in determination and his legs were tensed afraid of shaking and falling. He felt a huge rush surge through him so powerful he felt like screaming high-pitched like a girl!
Everyone in the skate park, even passersby and skaters that didn’t know him were watching him in awe. Tony repeated his tricks and jumps while Sebastien whipped out his camera phone and fussed with his keypad to record his friend’s amazing skill. Others in the skate park and strangers in the playground and fields rushed over and started to record him skate and take pictures of his jumps.
He ended his course with a sharp turn when he rolled down the ramp, and he screeched to a halt, panting. He lifted his skateboard up and sighed heavily in relief. Everyone around the skate park cheered at him and his best friends ran towards him and commented on how amazing he was and that he’s got to be, like, the best skateboarder around. Tony chuckled and said, ‘Nah, stop it. I’m not THAT good. I’m better.’
They all grew tired by around seven o’clock, with the sun lazily drooping behind the trees. It was getting colder, but still warm. The full, green trees rustled with the breeze. The park was starting to empty out. Everyone went around the back of the skate park and made a bonfire in the middle of the small grass area. They sat around it, the whole gang joking about.
‘So, would you rather get stuck in a prison cell, with NO WAY out, with either Pamela or Kerry, for forty-eight hours?’ Leo asked, smiling.
‘That’s so grim,’ Tony answered, but thought for a while. Pamela or Kerry? The girl who had the world’s most annoying, constant laugh or B.O. to the extreme? ‘Kerry. I would be able to get used to her pheromones.’
Everyone started laughing their heads off.
‘OK, Leo. My turn now,’ he smiled evilly. ‘If you were going to die, along with your family…’ he thought some more. ‘And you had to lick Kerry’s armpits to save everyone’s lives, would you?’
Everyone shouted, ‘Awww, Tony!?!’
Leo was truly disgusted by the thought of licking frickin’ Kerry. Tony got him bad. Real bad. He rolled his eyes and said, ‘Yes.’
Everyone laughed even harder than before; some of them even rolled about on the floor. Sebastien got up, calming down and said, ‘OK guys, ziss has gone too far.’
‘Yeah.’ They all agreed.
‘No, no, you don’t understand. It really has! I mean, we ‘ave all gone down zee road of sinking about licking out Kerry’s bloody…sweat machine!’
‘You mean armpits, Seb?’ Danielle asked, eyebrow raised and smiling.
‘No,’ he shook his head. ‘She isn’t human. No human being can smell zat bad. I mean, seriously, bad to ze point of total isolation from society. Bad to ze point where her touch could burn away ze decent and innocent flesh of zose around her presence. Bad to ze point-‘
‘OK! We get it!’ Danielle snapped back.
The gang decided it was best to lay off that particular game, as they all agreed that it had caused obscene images in their heads that they would rather not have. There was a buzz of conversation from everyone, all talking about different things.
An hour later, the group were still chilling around the bonfire; as Sebastien and Gregory looked old –and tall- enough, they went to buy some alcohol from the nearby off license. Everyone was drinking and chatting about random things, mainly what everyone was going to be doing over the summer- no one had a definite plan yet.
‘I was thinking about all of us taking a trip to Blackpool for the day,’ Andrew suggested.
‘Sounds trés chavvy to me,’ Sebastien snorted. ‘How about going to France wiss me? We can stay at my friend Florien’s house.’
The group responded with thoughtful nods or unsure expressions. They continued talking about their summer plans to reach one final decision, which lasted for another half an hour.
Suddenly, all conversation stopped.
Silence ceased every joy that they previously had.
The atmosphere changed dramatically to an extreme amount of tension.
Gary.
He was alone, but looked quite flustered.
They all glared at him.
He stopped in his tracks when he walked over to the group.
Andrew grew very angry, and felt his temper rising rapidly like a kettle. He didn’t move a muscle, though. Nobody did. The gang didn’t say a word; they kept on glaring.
Sabrina knew this was all her fault. ‘C’mon guys, let’s go…’
Andrew replied coolly, eyes fixed on Gary, ‘No. We’ve been here longer than this joke has been,’ he turned round to look at her. He turned back to Gary, adding, ‘We’ve been here for Sabrina longer than you have too.’
‘Shut it, you cheeky arsehole. This ain’t your-‘
‘DON’T YOU TALK TO MY FRIEND LIKE THAT!!!’ She roared, getting up and stomping over to Gary. ‘He’s right! Me and my best friends are having a great time! WITHOUT YOU! Now PISS OFF!’
The gang, even Gary, were stunned by her rage.
‘Sabrina, you can’t just break up with me so randomly! On the phone!’
‘I DID, THOUGH!!’
Taken aback, Gary said shakily, ‘How can you be like this? I thought you cared about me, about us…can’t we talk about this somewhere else? In private? Please, we can work things out.’
‘I gave up on you ages ago!’
‘Is it someone else?!’ His voice cracked.
Was it someone else? The rest of the gang thought.
‘No.’
‘Can’t we work things out then? In private?!’
‘There’s nothing to work out! You’ve been a complete arsehole, and I’ve given you too many chances to fix yourself up. Now PISS OFF!!’ She concluded this by turning her back to him, starting to walk over to her friends.
The gang were stunned by Sabrina’s responses to Gary.
Impressive…very impressive.
Gary took hold of her arm. ‘Now wait a minute-‘
Repulsed with violent rage, Andrew sprang up, ran over to Gary and whacked his face; Andrew broke his nose. Gary crouched down to the ground, holding his nose and yelling in pain, blood streaming down his face. The whole group rushed over to see what Andrew had done; many were sniggering, but broke apart to put out the bonfire; Danielle and Tony also chucked the empty cans of beer into the bin.
Sabrina looked at Andrew in shock: it was amazing. She didn’t really know what to say. However, she knew that what she had to do now –at least- was call Gary’s friend, Richard, to tell him to come over and take Gary somewhere to fix his nose.
She did precisely that.
Gregory and Sebastien propped Gary on the nearby bench, Gregory sighing, ‘Here you go, Casanova.’
‘Maybe you should ‘ave pissed off when she said to,’ shrugged Sebastien, and they both joined the others out of the park.
