Chương 5: In My Life Part 1
“Whoa!” Halian, a young Native American boy let out. He was 14 years old and wore a red button up plaid shirt and ribbed up blue jeans. He had just made an attempt at a trick with his skateboard but found his balance lost.
“Trying to board?” Another kid named Rick asked, a boarder who was his other boarder friends Alex and Terrance”.
“Yeah, I just got it today”.
“Ever thought of a longboard?”
“What do you mean?”
The three of them began to laugh directly in Halian’s face. Halian, took the board and focused on doing a kick flip in front of them. He began the trick but kept falling down. All the same, he continued to fall onto the ground. Though he continued to put in an effort, he failed each time. The group of boys all started to laugh in unison to his face.
“Hey!” Chelsea, a 14-year-old girl cried out, rushing to Halian’s side. “You guys think that you’re so tough or something?”
“Yeah, why not?” Terrance said.
“Well, I think you three are lame and ugly!”
“Shut up you dumb bitch!” Rick shouted.
“Make me!” Chelsea challenged.
Rick and Alex were frozen in place. However, Terrance charged up to Chelsea, about ready to hit her. As she closed her eyes to brace for the hit as a few seconds passed. She opened her eyes to see Halian standing right in front of her, blocking the hit that Terrance was looking to deliver with his right cheek.
“Leave her alone!” Halian shouted.
“What are you now? Terrance asked. Her white knight?
Halian took a look at Terrance and then went to grab his skateboard. He began to swing it at them as an attempt to scare them off, getting more and more into the action of it, committing to every movement. As the momentum of the skateboard increased, the more that the fear within the boys became visible to the naked eye.
“Hey!” Alex yelled. “Calm down!”
“Go away!” Halian yelled.
“Let’s get the hell out of here!” Rick shouted as the three hoodlums ran away.
“You’re fucking insane!” Terrance cried as they ran off.
“Guess they aren’t so tough after all”. Chelsea said.
“I think they just like to play pretend”.
“Maybe they should stick to cops and robbers”.
“Yeah, maybe”.
“What’s your name?”
“Halian. And yours?”
“Chelsea. Nice to meet you”.
“Yeah, you too”.
“So, you training for a competition or something?”
“I guess or something. I’ve always wanted to do it and finally saved up enough money so I figured that I would give it a go. But so far, it’s harder than I thought”.
“That’s okay! You know what they say, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try, try, and try!”
“What happens after that?”
“You succeed!”
With those last words uttered, Halian and Chelsea looked into each other’s eyes, the two of them lingering a little bit before averting their eyes. Halian looked down before he looked back at her. He caught her looking at him, which caused her to turn her head away. In turn that caused him to turn his head away.
“Do you got anything else going on the rest of the day?” Chelsea asked.
“Just practicing, why?”
Chelsea took Halian to a record store that was called The Leap. The aisles were filled with all kinds of music from contemporary, to classic rock, 80s pop, show tunes, and classical music. The walls were covered in posters of bands, solo artists and movies. There was also a movie selection as well as an anime collection. Chelsea was brimming with jubilee as she and Halian entered the store.
“Oh look!” Chelsea cried out, rushing over to a particular vinyl album. “Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt!”
“No Doubt?” Halian asked.
“You don’t know No Doubt? I’m just a girl? Spiderwebs? Don’t Speak? Classics! All on this album!”
“Never heard those songs”.
“Hold on”.
Chelsea took out of iphone, connected her earbuds, putting one in Halian’s ear and one in her ear. She put on Don’t Speak for the two of them to listen to. Halian looked down his legs and saw that his foot began to tap to the rhythm of the song. His body began to sway left to right like he had lost control. His eyes closed soon thereafter.
“What do you think?” Chelsea asked after taking the ears out once the song was complete.
“That was so cool!” Halian said, his eyes back open. “How did you know about this band?”
“I don’t know, the radio. What music do you listen to?”
“I don’t really listen to music”.
“Anything at all?”
“Not really, just never have”.
“Well, what’s your thing? Outside of skateboarding”.
“I don’t really do many other things”.
“What school do you go to?”
“I don’t go to school”.
“Your parents let you not go to school?”
“…I don’t have parents”.
“Oh…I’m sorry”.
“It’s okay, it’s not your fault”.
“But who do you live with?”
“I live alone”.
“How do you afford it”.
“I sleep wherever I can”.
“Wait, are you homeless?”
Halian nodded his head yes.
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