Episode XLVII

Every time Luke thought about Kira or Brad, he got angry and upset. So, in order to stay sane until Saturday, he avoided both of them, and poured all his energy into skateboarding. The upcoming competition was to have three events. The first two involved skating a prescribed routine: Everyone did the same tricks in the same order, and points were awarded based on how well each trick was executed. More difficult tricks were worth more points. The third was a “best trick” contest: Each skater did one trick, the best he could land, and the highest scoring trick won.

Luke wasn’t worried about the first two events. None of the tricks were too hard for him, and if he practiced both routines enough times before Saturday, he was confident he could pull them off flawlessly. The hard part was deciding what to do for the third event. It was tempting to try and learn something really hard; if he could land a heelflip McTwist, it would be a guaranteed win. Then again, if he were that good, he would have a decent chance of winning at the next X Games. A compromise, then. He knew he couldn’t learn to do a McTwist before Saturday; he couldn’t get enough height to spin the full 540 degrees. But he had managed to do a backflip and land fakie, so maybe if he worked at it he could learn to do a 180 inverted aerial. Maybe even a kickflip 180 inverted aerial. That would be truly awesome.

Late Thursday morning found Luke practicing on the halfpipe as usual. In order to avoid a confrontation, he had waited to go to the skate park until after Brad left for lunch. After practicing the two preset routines several times, he was once again trying to land a 180. He had managed to make the full twist several times, but had not yet landed on his board without falling. He resisted the urge to become frustrated and kept at it, confident that he would succeed if he kept trying. This was how he had learned all his tricks; not so much innate skill as relentless determination.

The key thing was not to be afraid of getting hurt. Luke’s friends called him the Loon, partly because he skated without any helmet or pads – even without a shirt, more often than not, despite his propensity as a redhead to sunburn – but mostly because he would try any jump for the first time with as much confidence as if he’d been doing it for years. It was as if he didn’t know how much it was going to hurt when he fell. He suffered a lot of scrapes and bruises this way, but he also learned a lot of tricks. Luke’s description of his own technique sounded a lot like the Nike slogan: “I don’t think about it; I just do it.”

Nearly two hours and countless falls later, the Loon’s craziness paid off: He landed three 180’s in a row, to the delight of the local kids who were watching. Not too soon, either; the competition was in just two days. Now at least he had something to show, but it might not be better than whatever Brad was planning. What he needed to do was spice it up a little by adding a kickflip. No problem – just two tricks he knew how to do, both at the same time. Enough thinking; time to do it. He rode back and forth on the halfpipe a couple of times to pick up speed, then launched into the inverted aerial the same as before. To complete the trick, he had to rotate 90 degrees while upside-down, then another 90 after turning right-side up but before landing. But this time, while still in the air, he had to kick his board so that it also spun 360 degrees on an axis running lengthwise. He could do this while ollying over flat ground easily, but doing it while completing a jump he’d barely learned was more complicated.

As was typical for his first time trying a trick, he failed to land it. Not so typical was his failure to get up afterwards. The boys who were watching ran up and asked if he was alright, then started to panic when he didn’t answer. One of them was already running to go call 911 when he opened his eyes and said weakly, “Get…help…my leg…”