Skateboard Renegade (3 page)

Zach thought of Amherst Academy. It didn't have bars on the windows, but if he didn't have any friends there, it was going
to feel like jail all right.

“Thoey theth you promithed to give her thkateboarding lethonth,” Lorena said.

“I did,” Zach told her. “I will, okay? Soon.”

“When?” Zoey asked.

“I don't know! Soon! Now leave me alone!”

Zach went into his room and shut the door behind him to get away from those two little pests. He sat on his bed, bitter but
determined. He would show his parents they couldn't push him around and tell him what to do. He would be friends with whomever
he wanted!

“Yo, Zach!”

Through his window, he could hear Jerry's harsh whisper coming from the driveway below.

Zach got off the bed and looked down. It was after dark now, but by the light of the porch lamp, Zach could see that Jerry
was on his bike, not his board. He waved at Zach, motioning for him to come down and talk.

Zach went down the stairs quietly. His dad was watching the ballgame intently. From the sound of
the stadium crowd, it seemed like something exciting was happening. Good. Zach got past his dad easily, without his even noticing,
and slipped out the side door to the driveway.

“Guess what? Brian's dad let him have it with the belt!” Jerry told him.

“Shhh! Not so loud. How's your ear?” Zach asked.

“Sore,” Jerry admitted. “What'd you get?”

“Just a lecture,” Zach said. “And a grounding. I can't go boarding between now and when school starts.”

“That bites,” Jerry said. “Listen—we're all going tomorrow to get our ears pierced and our hair bleached. Wanna come?”

“If I'm allowed,” Zach said. And then he thought,
Wait a minute! “If I'm allowed?”

“Oh, what the hey? I'm there, no matter what!” he told Jerry. The boys exchanged an elaborate handshake, and Jerry took off
on his bike.

“There,” Zach said under his breath. He would spend his last days of freedom any way he felt like it! He would get his hair
bleached like the rest of his friends! And he'd get his ear pierced, too! Hey —maybe he'd even get a tattoo!

B
ack in his room, Zach checked his wallet and his money box. He'd done some baby-sitting over the summer, for kids whose parents
both worked. He'd even sat for Lorena once or twice, even though it meant putting up with Zoey, too.

With all his trips to the mall and to the movies with his buddies, Zach knew that it had been an expensive summer and that
he'd spent most of his earnings. Still, there had to be
something
left over.

He counted out sixteen measly dollars. Where had all the rest of it gone?

He thought back. Candy binges, souvenirs when the family went on vacation, and those cool shades he'd bought himself … boy,
the money sure went fast, now that he was earning his own!

Well, he could probably get his ear pierced for
that amount.
Or
he could get a regular haircut, without the bleaching or spiking. But no way was sixteen dollars enough for both!

Zach had no idea how much it would cost to make his hair look like Brian's, but it had to be more than a regular haircut.
That amount, plus the piercing?

He needed to borrow some bucks so he could stay down with his crew. He didn't think there was any chance of getting a loan
from his parents, let alone of their paying for his “new look.” Not after the little incident with the policeman.

Of course, there was always Zoey—more to the point, there was Zoey's big pink piggy bank!

A brilliant plan formed in Zach's mind in an instant. He would borrow the money from Zoey's bank, then earn it back baby-sitting
and return the money before Zoey ever got wise!

He stared out his door, across the hall, and through the open door of Zoey's room. There was the piggy bank tempting him on
top of her bureau.

Where had Zoey and Lorena gone anyway? Zach looked out the window. There they were, in the backyard.

Good, he thought. At least she wasn't riding his board anymore.

“I'll pay her back before she even knows the money's gone,” Zach assured himself as he went into Zoey's room and picked up
her piggy. Turning it over, he opened the plastic twist bottom and took out the bills and change.

His sister had saved for this money over the course of who knew how long. It looked to Zach as though she'd never spent a
dime of it on anything.

“Unbelievable,” Zach said. “There has to be fifty dollars here at least!” He counted out forty in bills, then put the rest
back in the piggy. The coins would make a nice
ka-ching
if for some bizarre reason Zoey happened to get suspicious and shake her piggy to make sure her money was still there.

Zach figured he could make up the forty bucks —if he even spent it all—in a couple of nights of baby-sitting. Feeling satisfied
with himself, he screwed the plastic piece on again and replaced the piggy on the bureau. He tiptoed back to his room, the
bills snug in his pocket.

Fifty-six bucks ought to be enough, he figured. Man, he couldn't wait to see his parents' faces when he came home looking
like a whole new person!

Zach's parents put up a fuss when he said he wanted to go to the mall, but when he told them he needed a haircut, they took
one look at his hair and agreed. It had gotten long and unruly over the summer, and he really did need a cut, any way you
looked at it.

Besides, he'd just spent fifteen minutes messing it up as badly as he could.

His mom insisted on driving him, just to make sure he didn't have the pleasure of using his skateboard. Zach got out at the
mall and said, “You don't have to pick me up. I'll get a lift home with one of the other kids' parents.”

“What if you can't?” his mom asked.

“Then I'll walk.”

“Walk? It's two miles!”

“It'll be good for me,” he said, an edge of sarcasm in his voice. “I need the exercise,
since I'm not allowed to go skateboarding.”

His mom glared at him. “Wiseguy,” she muttered.
“All right. Walk home.” As she drove off, he heard her mutter, “I can't wait till the school year starts.”

Zach's first stop was Hair Apparent, where he asked how much it would be to have his hair bleached and done in spikes.

“For you, cutie? I'll knock five bucks off the price,” the stylist on duty told him. She had two rings in each ear, one in
each nostril, and one in her tongue. She looked about seventeen years old.

Zach found himself staring at the rings.
Man,
he thought,
it must have hurt to get pierced all those times!
The idea of doing it even once was already giving him the shivers.

“You like 'em?” she asked, guessing what he was looking at.

“Um, yeah,” he said, embarrassed that he'd been caught. “Did it … I mean, did it —”

“Did it hurt? You
bet
it did,” she said with a smile. “Thinking of getting pierced yourself?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I recommend Hot-Cha, down at the other end of the mall. They give you a free earring with each piercing.”

Hey, that was probably how Brian Jeffers had got his diamond stud earring. It was probably fake and came with the piercing.
That had to be it—nobody would have bought Brian a diamond, and he sure didn't have the money to buy one himself.

“Cool,” Zach said, fighting down the feeling of panic that was slowly rising inside him. “Urn, how much is it?”

She quoted him a price.

“Thanks,” Zach said. He did some quick mental arithmetic. He figured he had just enough money for everything, even including
sales tax.

Zach felt his knees go weak. Was he really going to go through with this? He needed time to think.

Where are the guys?
he wondered. Maybe he'd wait till they arrived, and they'd all do it together. Jerry hadn't said what time they were coming.
Zach sure hoped they hadn't already been and gone.

“You wanna get bleached or not?” the girl asked as he turned to go.

“In a while.”

“I've got an opening now. Later, you might have to wait.”

“Oh.” Zach hesitated. “I'm kind of waiting for
some friends of mine. We're all gonna get it done together,” he explained to the stylist.

“Oh, honey, I've already done three or four of these cuts today. Some boys were in here earlier —it's a very popular style
right now.”

“Oh. That must have been them.” Zach said, recovering some of his courage. “In that case, let's do it.”

Forty-five minutes later he looked at himself in the mirror and nearly screamed out loud. He looked
awful!

No, wait a minute,
he told himself.
It's just the shock of seeing myself like this. It really looks okay. I mean, it's not that bad
—
I think.

“How do you like it?” the girl asked.

“Awesome,” he lied. He
hated
it.

“Okay, then, that'll be thirty-eight, including tax,” she said, taking the towel off him and shaking it out.

Zach fished for the bills he'd stuffed in his pockets. He wondered if there was any way to put his hair back the way it had
been before. But of course, even if there was a way, he couldn't afford it anymore.

“Here you go,” he said, giving the stylist a two-dollar
tip, just to show her he was pleased with the haircut.

“Gee, thanks!” she chirped happily. “Enjoy!”

Zach gave her a little wave as he turned in the direction of Hot-Cha. As he walked through the mall, he suddenly felt sick
to his stomach.

“You're my twenty-fourth piercing today, so don't worry about a thing,” the bearded man at Hot-Cha told Zach. “It only hurts
for a year or so. Ha-ha! Just kidding.” He laughed long and hard as he sterilized his instrument.

The blood was pounding in Zach's ears. He wondered if it would come spurting out when the guy stuck him.
Hey, what if they can't stop the bleeding?
he wondered.

“Did a bunch of kids with hair like mine come in here before?” he asked, his voice quivering a little.

“Not that I can remember,” the guy said with a crooked-tooth smile. “There were a bunch of guys in here before, but I don't
remember them having hair like yours.”

Zach shrugged. Okay, maybe they'd come in here first, and
then
gotten their hair done. He'd probably just missed them.

“I can't remember much anymore,” the bearded man was saying. “Not since my second breakdown. Ha-ha!” When Zach didn't laugh
along with him, the man said, “Don't get nervous, kid—I'm just tryin' to loosen you up, get you laughing a little.”

“Oh. Ha! Yeah,” Zach said, trying his best. “Should I close my eyes? I guess I should close my eyes.”

“Honest, this'll only hurt for a minute.”

“Am I gonna bleed?”

“Just a little.”

“Oww!”

“There. See? Beautiful. I never miss.” The guy put down the instrument, which was kind of like a hole puncher for putting
holes in paper. He took a little steel bolt and fastened it into Zach's ear. “It'll keep the hole open while it heals,” he
explained, dabbing it with a disinfectant that made Zach wince.

“Don't you have a little diamond stud or something?” Zach asked hopefully.

“I've got 'em for sixty-five dollars,” the man said.

“Sixty-five dollars?!”

“Oh, you probably want one of the cut-glass kind. I'm all out of those. Sorry.”

Great. Just great.

“Have a look at yourself, kid.” The man turned Zach's chair to face the mirror.

Zach contemplated himself. Okay, he looked like a freak—but at least the hair looked a little better with the earring to match.
All he needed now was a tattoo to complete the whole image.

The trouble was, Zach still didn't
feel
like the guy in the mirror. It was more like putting on a Halloween costume or something. Like a disguise.

“Man, I've still gotta get used to it,” he told the bearded guy.

“It takes a while,” the man agreed, nodding wisely and taking Zach's last fifteen dollars. “See you next time.”

“Sure,” Zach said with a little wave. Under his breath, he muttered. “Not if I see you first.”

He came out of the shop and checked himself out in the mirrored pillars that flanked the mall's promenade. Yeah, the look
was startling, all right. Spiky blond hair, big metal bolt in his ear, the new pair of wide-leg skateboard jeans his parents
had bought him last month, and his huge designer T-shirt. All he needed to top if off was one of those tattoos Brian said
he was going to get.

“Ha! Yeah, that'll be the day. He'd never go that far …” Suddenly, a horrifying possibility entered Zach's mind—what if he
did? The thought of getting all the needles it took for a tattoo made Zach get goose bumps all over. He hated needles worse
than anything!

Zach headed for the mall exit. He guessed he'd missed his buddies, but he didn't mind walking home alone. It would give him
a chance to check out the reactions of the people he passed on the street.

He took one last look at himself in the mall's plate-glass windows. Overall, he thought he looked pretty silly. The one thing
he kind of liked was the earring—and even that should have been a diamond, not a steel bolt. The bolt was just for widening
the hole. It didn't really look like jewelry.

Oh, well, it was too late to turn back now. And at least he'd be down with his friends.

“Besides,” he told himself, “it'll all be worth it, just to see the looks on Mom and Dad's faces!”

H
is mother and father did not give Zach the exaggerated reaction he was hoping for. His mom raised one eyebrow and said, “Well,
well.” His dad just shook his head in disgust, muttering something Zach couldn't make out.

“You like it?” Zach asked, taunting them to tease a reaction out of them. For once in his life, he actually
wanted
to get yelled at, and they wouldn't even give him the satisfaction of acting annoyed!

“It's not important whether your father and I like it,” his mother said calmly. “It's whether
you're
happy with it. You're the one who's going to have to show up at Amherst Academy looking like that.”