TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1: NEW KIDS

  CHAPTER 2: CLOSE CALL

  CHAPTER 3: THE OLD PARK

  CHAPTER 4: SLIM’S GAMES

  CHAPTER 5: PUSHED AROUND

  CHAPTER 6: THE PLAN TO PRACTICE

  CHAPTER 7: THE GAMES BEGIN

  CHAPTER 8: THE HALF-PIPE

  CHAPTER 9: STREET COURSE

  CHAPTER 10: EJECTED!

  Author Bio

  Illustrator Bio

  Glossary

  Discussion Questions

  Writing Prompts

  More About Skateboarding

  Copyright

  Back Cover

  CHAPTER 1

  NEW KIDS

  Conner Klout was on his back. He could hear his skateboard rolling back and forth along the bottom of the half-pipe next to him.

  “Fail!” his friend Hannah Lowery shouted. She stood at the top of the half-pipe, ten feet above him.

  Conner waited for his board to roll to a stop against his thigh. Then he grabbed it and sat up.

  “You have to admit,” he said, “I came pretty close that time.”

  “Close to ending up with a concussion?” Hannah replied with a smirk.

  “Very funny,” Conner said, climbing to his feet.

  “Watch out,” Hannah said. “I’ll show you how it’s done.”

  Conner dropped his board and rolled off the half-pipe to make room for Hannah. Before he’d even turned to watch, Hannah dropped in. She took a few passes back and forth to pick up speed.

  On the third pass, Hannah got some air off the far side of the pipe. She flew straight up from the ramp, pulled up her knees, grabbed her skateboard, and spun around completely. A perfect Indy 360.

  “Yes!” Conner shouted.

  For pros, an Indy 360 was a basic trick. But for Conner and Hannah, it was a pretty big deal. Conner still couldn’t do it, which is why he had ended up flat on his back at the bottom of the ramp at the end of his turn.

  Hannah took another pass and then rolled to a stop at the bottom. She pulled off her helmet, and Conner gave her a high five.

  “Not bad, huh?” Hannah said.

  “Amazing,” Conner said. He wasn’t ashamed to admit that Hannah was better than he was on the half-pipe. “I’ll get it eventually, though.”

  “Definitely,” Hannah agreed. “And for now, you wreck me on the street course anyway.”

  Slim’s Skate Park, the only indoor skate park in Hilltop, had a full street course. Hannah and Conner had raced through it many times, and Conner always won. The park also had lots of ramps of different sizes. It only had one half-pipe, though.

  The park opened at 8:00 on Saturdays, and Conner and Hannah were always the first ones there. Usually no one else showed up until almost lunchtime.

  “I’m going to take another shot at it,” Conner said. He stood up and hopped onto the bottom of the ramp.

  “Watch out, newbie,” called a voice from the top.

  Conner squinted up the pipe. The bright lights mounted on the high ceiling shined in his eyes.

  “Where’d you come from?” Hannah said, glaring up at the top of the ramp.

  Conner shaded his eyes. A big guy, not much older than they were, stood at the top of the ramp, ready to drop in.

  “Doesn’t matter,” the guy said. “Tell your friend to snap out of it and get out of my way before I run him over.” Without waiting for a response, he dropped in.

  Conner hurried off the ramp and stood next to Hannah. Two other boys came up behind them.

  “Watch this,” one of them said. “Hank will show you what good skating really is.”

  The other boy laughed as Hank picked up some speed on the pipe. “Yeah,” he said. “We sure got a kick out of watching you two celebrate that lame Indy.”

  Both boys cracked up as Hank started his tricks on the pipe. He did an Indy 360 easily. On the next pass he added a rotation to make it a 540 and did the next pass backwards.

  After he got some speed, Hank went for the big one — a 720. He landed it easily. Behind Conner and Hannah, his friends cheered and hollered.

  Even Conner clapped. He’s really good, he thought. Even if his friends are kind of annoying.

  Hank rolled off the ramp and came to a stop in front of them.

  “That was really great,” Hannah said. “I’ve never seen you at the park before, though. Did you just move here or something?”

  Hank grinned at her, but he didn’t answer. He just stood there with his hands on his hips and looked back and forth from Hannah to Conner.

  “Yeah,” Conner said, trying to break the silence. “Really impressive. I can’t even pull off that 360 yet.”

  Hank stepped aside. “Take your turn,” he said. “Drew, Jay, and I want to skate.”

  Conner stepped onto his board to enter the pipe. Just as his foot hit the skateboard, Hank took a menacing step toward him, like he was going to knock him off.

  Conner flinched. His board shot out from under him, and he fell to the floor.

  “Wow,” said Hank as his friends laughed at Conner on the floor. “I wasn’t going to hit you, dork.”

  Conner looked up at Hank, but he didn’t say anything.

  “That was pretty mean,” Hannah said. She helped Conner to his feet.

  “Whatever,” Hank said. He turned to his friends. “Let’s run the street course until the babies are done on the half-pipe.”

  Hannah crossed her arms and stared at Conner as Hank, Drew, and Jay rolled off.

  “What?” Conner said.

  “I can’t believe you let him do that!” Hannah said.

  “What was I supposed to do?” Conner said. “Fight him? He’s huge! Besides, I didn’t come here to fight. I came here to skate.”

  “So you’re just going to let him get away with it?” Hannah said.

  Conner watched as Hank started running the street course. The big new kid did a grind across a rail followed by a kick-flip. Then he turned and coasted up and over some ramps.

  “You’re really not going to do anything?” Hannah asked.

  Conner took a deep breath and shook his head. “No way,” he said.

  CHAPTER 2

  CLOSE CALL

  The following Saturday, Conner and Hannah were back at Slim’s. They were only on the half-pipe for fifteen minutes before the three new kids slammed through the skate park’s heavy double doors.

  “Those three guys are back,” Hannah warned. “And they’re coming over here.”

  Conner stood at the top of the pipe next to Hannah and watched Hank, Drew, and Jay stomp toward them.

  “I bet they’ll try to kick us off the half-pipe,” Hannah said. “They’re such bullies.”

  But when the three kids reached the pipe, Hank just stood at the bottom with his fists on his hips. “Well, come on,” he said, looking irritated. “We’re not going to wait all day. Hurry up and take your turn so I can go.”

  Hannah glanced and shrugged. “You go first,” she said.

  Conner nodded and dropped in. He picked up speed and went up the far side. At the top, he let his board come back down and picked up more speed on the way back.

  When he crossed the pipe again, he was going fast enough to clear the lip just a tiny bit. Then, on his next pass, he was really zooming. He decided to go for the 360.

  But as Conner crossed the bottom of the ramp at top speed, he spotted Hank out of the corner of his eye. The new kid’s helmet was off, and he tossed it across the floor of the half-pipe.

  Conner watched the helmet roll into his path. He struggled to control his board and just managed to miss crashing into the helmet. But the trick was blown, and Conner lost his balance. To avoid a wipeout, he dropped from the board onto his knee pads and slid to a stop.

  For a second, the whole park was silent.

  “Are you crazy?” Hannah shouted from the top of the ramp. She stuck her board under her arm and slid to the bottom of the half-pipe on her knees. Then she jumped to her feet and got right in Hank’s face, holding her board like a weapon.

  “Whoa!” Conner said. He grabbed Hannah’s shoulders and pulled her away from the bully. “Calm down!”

  Hank and his friends, who had looked terrified for a moment, started laughing.

  “Yeah, you’d better hold back your girlfriend, newbie,” Hank said. “She’s going to get herself in trouble with that temper.”

  “I’m not his girlfriend!” Hannah snapped, yanking out of Conner’s grip. “And what you did was really dumb. Conner could have been seriously hurt.”

  “He’s fine,” Hank said. “Now are you going to take a turn, or are you going to back off so we can finally use the pipe?”

  Hannah glared at Hank for a moment. Then she threw her board to the floor and skated off.

  “Wait up!” Conner hollered. He had to hurry to catch her before she left the park. “Where are you going?”

  “I don’t know,” Hannah said. Her face was red. Conner didn’t know if she was about to cry or scream in anger.

  “You weren’t really going to hit someone with your board, Hannah,” Conner said. “Right?”

  “I guess not,” she said. “But what are we supposed to do? Just put up with them?”

  Conner turned around and watched one of Hank’s friends on the pipe. He was good, but not as good as Hank.

  “I don’t know,” Conner said. “We’ll find someplace else to skate.”

  CHAPTER 3

  THE OLD PARK

  An hour later, Conner and Hannah were across town at the old outdoor skate park. Hannah leaned against the chain-link fence surrounding the park and shook her head.

  “I don’t like this park,” she said.

  “Why not?” Conner asked. “It was good enough for kids before Slim’s opened. It’ll be good enough for us.”

  Hannah sighed. “Fine. We’ll try it,” she said.

  Hannah dropped her board and pushed into the park to start the street course. But her wheels caught a chunk of cement on the first ramp. The board stopped, and Hannah kept going. She fell flat on her face.

  Hannah groaned and climbed to her feet. “This is not working for me,” she said, rubbing the scratches on her cheek.

  “Think of it as a challenge,” Conner said. “It’ll make us better skaters.”

  Conner skated toward the first rail and went for the grind. As soon as his board hit it, though, the rail pulled away from its anchors in the concrete. The railing and Conner both slammed into the ground.

  Conner rolled onto his back, holding his left shoulder with his right hand. He gritted his teeth against the pain.

  “Are you okay?” Hannah shouted, running to his side.

  “I’m fine,” Conner grunted. “It hurt, but it’s not serious.”

  “This isn’t working, Con,” Hannah said. “This park isn’t used for a reason. It’s falling apart. Let’s go back to Slim’s. We can’t just let them bully us out of there.”

  “I know,” Conner said. He climbed to his feet, wincing at the pain in his sore shoulder. “But I’m not going to fight anyone.”

  “I respect that,” Hannah said as they skated out of the run-down park. “But we still have to draw the line someplace.”

  Conner knew she was right. He just didn’t know how to draw the line.

  CHAPTER 4

  SLIM’S GAMES

  The next Saturday, Hannah and Conner were at Slim’s before even Slim arrived.

  “You two sure are committed,” Slim said as he walked up to the front doors.

  “We just want to get better,” Conner said.

  Slim fumbled with his coffee cup and keys. After a few moments, he got the doors unlocked and pushed them open. “Well then, I hope you’ll both enter Slim’s Games next month,” he said, heading for his office.

  “I forgot about that,” Conner said as he and Hannah headed for the half-pipe. “Are you going to enter? I bet you’d have a shot in our age group on the half-pipe.”

  “Correction,” Hannah said, pulling on her helmet. “I would have had a shot if Hank hadn’t shown up. He’s got it locked.”

  Conner sighed. “And his friends are pretty good too,” he said.

  Hannah nodded and rolled onto the ramp. Then she kicked off, rolling up one side to pick up speed.

  “Whoa, whoa!” a voice echoed through the high ceilings of the park.

  Conner didn’t have to turn around to know Hank and his friends had arrived. Conner looked at Hannah, who’d stopped at the top of the pipe to glare at them.

  “I thought we’d worked this out last Saturday,” Hank said as he reached the pipe. “When we’re here, you two are not.”

  “I guess you thought wrong,” Hannah snapped.

  “Come on,” said Conner. “We’re not bothering anyone.”

  Hank’s friends laughed. “Come on,” Drew repeated in a whiny, mocking voice. Then he gave Conner a shove.

  Conner put his hands up and backed away. “Come on, Hannah,” he said. “Let’s just go practice the street course.”

  Hannah growled in frustration. “Fine,” she snapped. “Let’s go.”

  She dropped into the pipe and skated right off it, toward the street course. Conner stepped onto his board and followed her.

  Hannah stopped at the start of the street course and stepped on her board. She grabbed the nose and banged it on a rail.

  “Calm down,” Conner said quietly when he reached her. He pointed toward Slim, who was watching them from across the park.

  “Whatever,” Hannah muttered under her breath. “If anyone gets in trouble here, it should be those guys.”

  “I know,” said Conner.

  Hannah sighed. “Let’s just practice, okay?” she said.

  CHAPTER 5

  PUSHED AROUND

  Hannah and Conner hadn’t been skating for long before Hank and his friends rolled over from the half-pipe.

  “Okay, nerds,” Hank said as he stopped and flipped his board into his hand. “Time for you to go back to the half-pipe. We want to practice on the street course now.”

  Conner forced himself to relax and smile. “We’re almost done,” he said. “We’ll be out of your way in ten minutes.”

  Hannah’s eyes went wide. She looked at Conner. He raised his eyebrows at her.

  It might work, he thought.

  But it didn’t.

  Hank’s obnoxious grin turned into a frown. “Maybe I wasn’t clear,” he said, getting right in Conner’s face. “It’s time for you two to leave the street course. Right now.”

  Hank put a hand on Conner’s chest and gave him a light shove. Conner didn’t fall, but he did back off.

  “Let’s just go, Han,” Conner said as he skated off.

  Hannah skated up alongside him. “Are you kidding?” she said in an urgent whisper. “You’re really just going to let that jerk push you around?”

  “I’m not going to get into a fight over it,” Conner said. “It’s not worth it.”

  As they reached the half-pipe, Conner heard wheels rolling up behind them. He turned around and saw Jay coming toward them.

  “Hey,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

  Conner glanced at Hannah. Her mouth dropped open in shock.

  “It’s okay,” Conner said. “I guess Hank’s just kind of —”

  But the other kid cut him off. “Sorry because I decided I need some more time on the pipe,” he finished.

  With a mean grin on his face, Jay pushed off his board and skated right between Hannah and Conner, knocking them both out of the way.

  “That’s it,” Hannah said. She flipped up her board and ran at the kid, holding the board over her head like a giant sword.

  “Wait!” Conner called after her. But before he could do anything, Slim ran over.

  “Hold it!” he shouted. He grabbed Hannah’s board. “Are you insane?”

  “But —” Hannah started to say.

  Slim wouldn’t let her finish. “Out,” he said, pointing at the exit. “Come back when you’ve calmed down.”

  Hannah glared at him, stomped one foot, and then skated at top speed for the exit.

  “She’s having a bad day,” Conner said, trying to explain. He glared at Hank’s friend and hurried after Hannah. They got to the doors at the same time.

  “Leave me alone,” Hannah said.

  “No way,” said Conner. “Slim will get over it.”

  “It’s not fair!” Hannah said. She spun around to face Conner as they reached the sidewalk outside. “Those jerks treat us like that, and I’m the one who gets in trouble?”

  “I know,” Conner said. “It’s not fair.”

  Just then, a big black SUV pulled up to the curb. The window rolled down, and the driver leaned over.

  “Hey, kid,” he said, looking right at Conner. “Is Hank Redwing in there?”

  “Hank?” Conner said. “Uh, yeah. I think so.”

  “Tell him to get out here right now,” the man snapped, rolling the window up.

  Just then, the doors slammed open and Hank and his friends came out, laughing and shouting. They shoved past Conner and Hannah and climbed into the SUV. Hank got into the front passenger seat.

  “You’re late,” the driver snapped as the door slammed shut. “I told you I didn’t want to wait for you.”

  “Sorry,” Hank said quietly. Then the truck drove off.

  “They’re gone now,” Conner said. “We have the place to ourselves again.”

  Hannah checked the time on her phone. “It’s 9:30,” she said. “Maybe they quit at this time every Saturday.”

  They headed back inside, and Hannah went right up to Slim’s desk. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m calm now.”

  “I see that,” said Slim. “Maybe because Hank, Drew, and Jay left?”

 

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