Chapter Text
“What do you mean you recruited a freestyler to be flow?” Jack half-shouted at Hall, the team’s manager. He dropped the end of his board down and held it lightly with one hand. “He doesn’t even do any street skating in the video. Just a bunch of old school outdated tricks. It’s all flat.”
Behind his desk full of haphazardly stacked papers Hall dropped his head into his hands for a moment to let Jack continue his rant. When there was a pause for breath he interrupted, “I’ve never seen anyone do a nose 360 that long or that fast then come out of it like nothing happened. He might be limited now but he shows crazy potential.”
“Fine.”
“And on top of that, it’s not like he’s going to be a paid member of the team. We just want him as flow right now, see how he does. He’ll live with you guys and skate with you guys, but he’s not on the team.”
“I said fine.”
“Good, because he comes in tomorrow. Shitty is picking him up from the airport in the morning.”
“Oh that’ll make a good impression.” Jack pulled his board up to his chest and went to walk out the door of the office into the park.
“Give him a chance.”
“We’ll see.”
Faber Park was full of sound; boards hitting ledges, decks grinding rails, wheels and bodies smacking the ground. A half dozen people all practicing their own tricks determined to land them no matter what it did to them.
Jack cruised the length of the indoor park stopping in front of a small woman laying on her stomach with a camera in hand and a GoPro set up beside her. He walked off his board stepping hard with the last one to kick his board up behind him and tuck it under his arm. Jack ran his free hand through his hair then flopped to the ground. He pulled a beanie out from his back pocket and pulled it haphazardly onto his head.
“Bro you’re gonna shake the shot!”
“Sorry, Lards.” He shifted more carefully to maneuver his board under himself.
“Nah, it’s good. Just messing with you.” Lardo switched off the cameras sitting up to face Jack. She kicked her feet out; holographic rollerblades unbuckled. “The new kid comes tomorrow.”
“Yeah. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay.”
The pair sat quietly for several minutes, the rhythmic pounding and metallic clanking of their friends around them. Lardo moved her blades in and out sending rainbow reflections across Jack’s face and against the wall. Jack caved.
“It’s just I was finally starting to feel really good about the team and they want to come in and change the whole dynamic. I don’t understand.”
“They? You mean your dad.”
“He owns the brand but that doesn’t mean anything.”
“Bullshit. It means something. I think it means a lot to you.”
Jack huffed picking at the dark gray beanie on his head. “I don’t really want to talk about that either.”
Lardo seemed to know not to push that topic any further because she adjusted the straps on her blades and stood, offering out a hand. “Well let’s just skate then.”
“Good plan.” He reached up to her.
He followed her lead to the short handrails and small sets of stairs. She stopped just short turning to look up at him. “Did you want to work some tricks and get it out or do you want to hold onto the gear?”
“My knees are iffy today so I think I take the gear this time. Thanks, though.” He pulled at his beanie again before taking the camera from her.
“Sure thing, dude.” Lardo clipped the GoPro onto her helmet mount, followed by a quick pat-down of her elbow and knee pads.
Jack moved his board off to the side and watched as Lardo talked out the line she had been practicing for the better part of a week. Grind the handrail, crossing over halfway down, 540 spin jumping over the mound, carve back, then up onto a ledge to grind it on one skate before dropping into the bowl for several more aerial tricks that seemed to change each time like she was still trying to figure out what she wanted. He crouched next to the mound and readied the camera to get the best shot.
Thirty feet back Lardo paused took a breath then skated as hard and fast as she could, pushing down and up to get the best lift onto the rail. She’d practiced this enough that it looked easy. She stuck her tongue out at the camera in the air when she turned to skate backward off the mound. A few crossover steps put her at the ledge and a small pop up put her on it. She wavered a little, balanced on one foot, before popping off the end. A quick barrel roll was tacked on before she dropped into the bowl.
Jack lost sight of her and heard her swear from where he was fifty feet away. He jogged lightly to where she was skating out of the shallow end of the bowl. “What happened?”
“I thought I would get cute with the barrel roll but it put my weight on the wrong foot so I wiped out on the drop in.” She offered up her hands that had taken some of the impact from the fall. They were red and a few spots had tiny specks of blood welling up on them.
“That was gnarly. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
“Good plan.”
🛹
The crew was scattered around the living room on couches and pillows. Ransom and Holster were on the floor in a heavily competitive Mario Kart battle, trying to play with the controller in one hand while fighting shoves off with the other. Lardo was tucked into the corner of the old green couch. Jack sat turned to her on one of several patches that had been put to cover and reinforce around holes that had been worn out over time.
"How are the hands?"
"They're fine," she lifted them up to show him her bandages.
"You bled through them."
"It's fine, really."
"Will you at least change them before you go to sleep? For me?"
"Just for you bro," she rolled her eyes.
Shitty tumbled over the couch in a weird somersault frontflip combo that ended with his legs hooked over the back. By some miracle, he managed to only spill beer on himself. He offered the can up to Jack, who shook his head, then to Lardo who took and drained the rest of the can.
“Lards, my best bro --”
“Hey, I thought I was your best bro!” Jack interrupted with a teasing jab at Shitty’s leg.
“No fair! He told me I was his best bro earlier today when we were trying a doubles run,” Ransom laughed without turning away from the TV.
Holster stopped and set down the controller and faced Ransom, sending Princess Peach careening off Rainbow Road. “Dude. I thought you were my best bro.”
“Holtzy of course I am,” Ransom had tossed his controller off to the side and gave Holster an affirming squeeze on his forearm.
“ANYWAY,” Shitty wiggled on his back bumping into Lardo and Jack. “Lardo, I heard you had like, a fantastically wicked slam today.”
“It wasn’t that bad guys seriously. Barely any blood.”
“You up to try it again tomorrow?”
“Hell yeah!”
“Shitty.”
“Yes, Jack-o?”
“You have to go to the airport tomorrow.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Really. The new kid is coming in.”
“THAT’S RIGHT.”
“You had no idea.”
“Nope, not a clue. Do you know when? Because ya know I kinda had plans.”
“I’ll do it,” Jack grumbled out. He wasn’t on the team so he had no obligation to practice. Shitty did and the team was going to need all the practice they could get if they were going to enter Samwell Skate Series at the end of the summer.
“Brah, I was kidding.”
“I know, but it’s fine. I’ll go.”
“Only if you’re sure. I don’t want to, like, overstep and make you go.”
“Shitty it’s fine really.”
“Okay, dude thanks,” Shitty nudged Jack with his elbow.
They settled back into a comfortable silence. Jack knew they liked having him around but he couldn’t always push out the thoughts that he was an outsider that didn’t belong. His dad owned the team and he wasn’t even on it. He just hung out and skated with them sometimes. He scrubbed his hands over his face sighing deeply.
“You good?”
“I think I just need to go to sleep. The new kid gets in at something like 7 am and I still want to go for a run in the morning.”
“Fair enough my man. Sleep tight, dream of big air.”
Jack chuckled, “I’ll try, Shitty.”