Grind (4 page)

I looked up at the clock at the end of the cafeteria. It was almost a quarter after. Maybe he was right. She hadn't told me she wasn't going to come, but she hadn't said yes either.

“I've got to go soon,” Nevin said.

“We have plenty of time until first bell, and even if you are late it's no big deal.”

“Why don't you just tell us a bit of the plan while we're waiting?” Wally suggested.

“I'd rather wait until—” I stopped as I saw Lisa enter the cafeteria. “Here she is,” I said. I watched her walk across the room. I noticed other guys watching her as well, turning their heads to follow her as she passed. I really was an idiot.

“Hey, Lisa, this is Nevin,” Wally said.

She smiled and nodded. He looked down at the table like he was embarrassed to be around her.

“Let's hear it. You've got two minutes,” Lisa said. She sat down and folded her arms across her chest.

I felt the hairs on the back of my neck bristle. I had the urge to just sit there and wait her out, not say a word for two minutes, but I thought she'd just get up and leave. I knew her well enough to know when she said two minutes, that's how long I had. She had to be in charge, just like me.

I took a deep breath. “Here's my plan. The three of us are the best skaters in the entire school, maybe in the entire area.”

“You brought us here to say that?” Lisa questioned.

I ignored her. “And we can make money, lots of money, because we are such good skaters.”

“I think I've heard enough,” Lisa said and started to get up.

“You promised me two minutes,” I said.

“Gee, I wouldn't want to break a promise or a commitment!” she snapped, glaring at me angrily.

“Come on, Lisa, just listen for another minute,” Wally said. “Aren't you curious? I am.”

“You mean you don't know what he's going to say either?”

Wally shook his head.

“You said Wally was in. That was one of the only reasons I agreed to come here this morning.”

“I didn't say that!” I protested. I certainly had
implied
it, but I never
said
it. “Besides, he will be in as soon as he hears my plan.”

Her face softened, her shoulders relaxed
and she slid back down into her seat. “Fine. You have one minute left.”

“In the old days, skaters didn't make money, they just skated. Then there were contests and the prize money started small and got bigger. The best skaters also got sponsored to ride certain boards or trucks or wheels, or wear the right clothes. Then videos started and the money was even bigger. And now the way to make money, lots and lots of money, is to video tricks and have a web site.”

“Thanks for the history lesson,” Lisa said.

“Don't you see?” I asked.

“No.”

“Me neither,” Wally said.

“I do,” Nevin said. Everybody looked at him. “You want to create your own web page, fill it with things other skaters want to see and then have pop-up and standard ads on the page to generate money.”

“Exactly! That's exactly what I want to do!” This Nevin guy really was smart. “Does everybody understand?”

“I understand completely,” Lisa said.
“I understand that this is probably the stupidest thing you've ever suggested.” She started to stand up again.

“And just what's so stupid about it?” I barked.

“How about
everything
.”

“Could you be a little more specific?”

“For starters, do you know how hard it is to create a web page?”

“It's easy,” Nevin said, answering for me. “I've made lots.”

“But it would still cost money to do that,” she said.

“No, it wouldn't,” Nevin disagreed. “Not a cent. I already have all the software, graphics and enough space to park a dozen more pages on the net.”

“Well…we still have to get the stuff to put on the web,” Lisa continued.

“We'll do our best tricks on video, have a few still pictures, put up information about the three of us,” I said.

“Then we still need to get a video camera and…” Lisa stopped mid-sentence and looked at Nevin. “Well?”

“I have state-of-the-art digital camera and video equipment,” he said.

I tried hard to keep a smirk off my face. “Any other questions?”

Lisa didn't say anything, but I knew she was thinking it through some more. If there was some fault, she'd find it and bail. She really didn't want to be involved with me right now.

“And there's money to be made doing this?” she asked.

“Big money,” I said.

She turned to Nevin. “Is he telling the truth?”

“Of course I'm telling the truth!” I protested.

“Excuse me for doubting your word.” She turned back to Nevin. “Well?”

He nodded. “Lots of money if the site has things people want to see and there are sponsors.”

“Do you have sponsors?” she asked me.

“No, not yet.”

“Then how are we supposed to make money?” she demanded.

“If we have a site and enough people go on it, then we can attract sponsors. That's the way it works.”

Nevin nodded in agreement, and she didn't argue.

“And just how will all this money be split?” Lisa asked.

“We'd all have a share,” I said.

“Since there's four of us, I guess that share is twenty-five percent each,” Lisa suggested.

“I was thinking that since it was my idea, and I am the best skater, that I should get a bigger share.”

“That is so typical of you!” Lisa exclaimed.

“But it
is
my idea.”

“Tell you what. Now that we all know about the idea, how about the three of us, me and Nevin and Wally, do it without you, and we can get one third of the money each.”

“You can't do that!”

“Of course we could. Wally and me can do the tricks, and Nevin here is the one who knows all the computer stuff. I don't know
why we need you!” She paused. “I know I've certainly found out that
I
don't need you.”

“That's not fair!” I protested.

“Lots of things aren't fair! I've learned that the hard way!”

“Come on, Lisa,” Wally said. “He's right…this time.”

Lisa stood up. “Split it into quarters or
I
split.”

“So you're in?”

She nodded. “For twenty-five percent.”

I nodded. A quarter of something was better than half of nothing.

“Then I'm in,” she said.

“Me too,” Wally agreed.

“I'd do it for nothing,” Nevin said.

“You'll do it for a quarter share of the profits,” Lisa barked. “So when do we start.”

“How about right after school?” I asked.

“I have to go home and change. We'll meet at five behind the Super Save.”

I wanted to protest. Who did she think she was, acting like she was the leader? “Sure,” I agreed.

Lisa's lips curled into a little smirk. She turned and walked away. We all watched her cross the cafeteria and disappear out the door.

“She really must have liked you at one time,” Nevin said.

“What?”

“She really must have liked you before.”

“Why would you think that?” I asked. There was nothing she'd done that would make any-body think that she had ever liked me.

“For somebody to hate you that much she must have really cared for you, and then you did something bad.”

I turned to Wally.

“Don't look at me!” he said, holding up his hands. “I didn't tell him anything. I told you the guy's a genius.”

“We had a misunderstanding,” I said to Nevin. “That's all. It's nothing.”

“Sure…nothing,” Nevin said, although it was obvious he didn't believe me either.

“If we're all done, we better get to class,” Wally said.

“I'm not going to class,” Nevin said.

I was really starting to like this guy.

“What are you going to do?” Wally asked.

“I'm going to spend the day in the computer lab researching skating web sites to see what works and what doesn't, and then I'll set up the framework for our site.”

“They'll catch you if you cut the whole day and hang around,” I said. I knew that from first-hand experience.

“You don't understand,” Nevin said. “I won't be
cutting
classes. I'm
allowed
to spend my time that way if I want.”

“You're allowed to cut classes?” I asked.

“Yeah. I'm so far ahead in everything that they let me do pretty much anything I want.”

“Anything?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Anything. I'm not even supposed to be in this school.”

“What school are you supposed to be in?” I asked.

“Homelands.”

“But Homelands is a middle school.”

“And I'm supposed to be in middle school… grade seven.”

That would explain why he was so small and looked so young. “Then what are you doing in high school?” I asked.

“It's like people say. I'm really,
really
smart. I'll see you guys after school.”

I tapped my foot against the board. I stopped myself. I was trying hard not to look as nervous as I actually felt. It was a quarter past five—fifteen minutes later than we'd agreed to meet. I was here on time. Wally was early. Nevin, equipped with a fancy, expensive, digital video camera and another digital still camera, had arrived right on the dot. He'd excitedly tried to explain all the
features of the cameras, but I couldn't follow his techno-geek speak and just nodded as if I understood.

“She should be here by now,” I said.

“She's not usually on time for things. Did you think that cheating on her would make her start arriving on time?” Wally asked.

“I didn't cheat on her!” I protested.

Wally looked shocked. “What would you call taking another girl to a movie and making out with her?”

“First off, I didn't
take
her to the movie. We just sort of met there.”

“I believe that about as much as Lisa did,” Wally said.

I ignored him. “And second, we didn't make out. We kissed a couple of times. And really, it was more like
she
kissed
me
.”

“You poor baby. Did that mean old girl overpower you and get you in a liplock?”

I fought the urge to say that at least
I
could get a girl to kiss me. I was learning when it was smart to keep my mouth shut—a painful lesson that had taken a lot of years to figure out.

“Are we going to get started?” Wally asked.

“Soon, she'll be here soon.”

“We can do this without Lisa. You and I are both better skaters than she is,” Wally said.

“We're better skaters, but she's a better
girl
skater,” I said. “Having a girl on the site might get us more hits from girls who are skaters and from guys who like seeing girl skaters.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Wally said. “I just thought that you might want her involved for another reason.”

“What other reason?” I asked, trying to sound innocent.

“Like maybe if you could get her to spend some time with you, she might forget what happened,” Wally said.

“How about if we just skate and stop talking?” I suggested.

“We can do that.” Wally turned around. “Hey, Nevin, you ready?”

“Yeah…sure…I guess.”

Nevin had worked to cram himself in the gap between the rail and the wall. He had
his head and one hand—holding the digital camera — sticking up above the railing. The plan was for us to grind the railing and he'd duck down just before we got there. If he timed it right, he'd get some great shots. If he timed it wrong, he'd
take
a great shot—to the side of his head.

“You want to go first?” I asked.

“How about if Lisa goes first instead?”

He gestured behind me and I turned around. Lisa had just rolled around the corner and was skating toward us.

“You want to do something smart?” Wally said.

“What do you mean?”

“Just say hello and don't ask her why she's late.”

“I wasn't going to do that,” I said. Actually that was exactly what I was going to do. “I'm going to make my first run.”

I dropped the board to the ground, put a foot on it and starting pumping. I needed enough speed to get up on the rail. This first run was going to set the tone for the whole day—for the whole project.

Closing in on the rail I looked up and saw Nevin, staring through the lens of the camera. I had to just hope he ducked in time. I ollied onto the rail and five-o'ed. I slid the length, hit the end and fell off the board, plowing into the pavement.

“Fantastic!” Nevin said. “That was fantastic!”

I pushed myself up onto my knees. The skin and scabs were torn and I was bleeding. What was a session without a little blood?

“That wasn't the way that trick was supposed to end, so it wasn't that fantastic.”

“It doesn't matter how it ended. You have to see how it started. Here, have a look.”

I walked over to Nevin. Wally and Lisa came over too. He rewound the scene.

“Here, look,” Nevin said.

The screen showed me skating, then jumping up on the rail, grinding toward the camera at breakneck speed, getting bigger and bigger until the camera dropped and the board blotted everything out. Nevin was right. That was amazing!

“Let me go next,” Wally said.

He skated over to take up position, and Nevin wedged himself back under the rail. Lisa and I retreated out of the way.

“Nice of you to show up,” I said.

“I was thinking about not coming,” she said, “but I didn't want to let
Wally
down. After all, he's never let me down.”