Slow Down, it's all Legit

For a few weeks, it was that simple. I went to school, sat there while the teachers taught material I had already learned, then went home and snowboarded. There was really no variation to my days except with whom I boarded. It varied between Mason, Shaun, and Zander, sometimes a combination of the three.

But then the rumors started. I knew it was too good to last, but I hoped it would be different. Apparently, every girl in the school would suck up to both Emmett and Mr. Hurley because they were attractive and they all wanted to be the one to say that they seduced a teacher. And apparently, I had both teachers wrapped around my finger and the other girls had a problem with the new girl coming in and “taking their property.”

First off: EW. Seriously? What would make them want to do that? And second: Why the hell would I want to seduce a teacher? That was just completely repulsive. And besides, I would never do anything to get either teacher fired; they were too good at what they did.

My side of the story accounted for nothing. I was told that ‘of course I wouldn’t admit it; that would be so totally like not cool.’ What the hell did that even mean? I was pretty sure I needed to learn a whole new language to be able to converse with half the student body. I was super bitter about that situation.

And then I kind of let it slip to Mason and he kind of blew up in my face. He wasn’t mad at me, that anger was directed at them, but I was kind of just the only one he could yell at right then and there.

Once he calmed down, though, I convinced him to let me meet some of the other Burton riders like Shaun White and Luke Mitrani. Even though Mason was my favorite, I absolutely loved Luke, I had always thought he was the cutest guy ever and he was only a few years older than me. He was a little hesitant at first, but then I gave him my puppy dog eyes and he caved. It was a useful tool to have.

The guys were totally cool, as I knew they would be. I had done a little bit of skating behind my dad’s back so I talked with Shaun White about that which was awesome. Luke and I hung out and clicked immediately. I don’t know why Mason hadn’t introduced me to them in the beginning.

We were finally about to start Woman at Point Zero in English class, even though I thought we were supposed to start it when I first transferred into the school. But everyone was dying to know what the book was about because apparently they were not smart enough to just look it up on the internet. That’s what I would have done if my teacher was keeping something like that away from my class.

The first chapter received mixed results. We read it aloud in class so that Mr. Hurley could gauge the reactions of the class. Most everyone thought that it was pretty disturbing, though Mr. Hurley wasn’t a fan of it either. But I just smirked at the remarks that some of the students were putting out there. I knew that they would be way more appalled once they actually started reading. Mr. Hurley noticed my smirks.

“You’ve read this before, haven’t you?” he asked me. I couldn’t tell if he was amused or disappointed.

“Yeah, we were finishing it up when I transferred,” I admitted.

“Well maybe you could enlighten the class about the book then. Give as brief a summary as you can.”

“A woman on death row tells the story of how she was a prostitute that killed her pimp. The end.” The faces were absolutely priceless. They were shocked that they had to read that first of all, and they were also shocked that I had just told them that. I guess they didn’t expect it to come out of my mouth.

“That is the general gist of the novel, yes.” He was trying to hold back his laughs and smirk, but I could tell he wanted to just start laughing at the faces. Apparently it was the first year that he was required to teach it so the reactions were all new to him. But I had gone through faces just like those once that year already.

Zander was a little bitter because I kept “such an awkward book synopsis” from him. I told him that I was impressed he knew the word synopsis and he became offended. Really though, I don’t blame him for that one. Being called incompetent always makes me angry too, even if the person is just joking.

Luke came by after school to take me home because I apparently had a boarding session with him. He liked to randomly decide things like that so I was not surprised, but I was planning on doing something with Zander because it was Friday. Zander assured me that it was okay, though he looked kind of bummed, so I went with Luke promising Zander that I would call him later.

He looked at me funny as we were boarding that night. We were out in the pipe under the lights and he would just watch me for a while without dropping in or critiquing my riding. I needed a lot of critiquing and he wasn’t doing any of it. Trying to shake it off worked for a while, but he just kept doing it and I could not figure him out. Obviously he was not marveling at my skills because I really did not have any. I was not falling all the time anymore, but I still was not good.

I asked him what was wrong with him that night and he told me that I was nice to watch. Apparently, I was a really smooth rider and looked graceful on my board. There were definitely mixed feelings about what he told me because I did not want to resemble a dancer when I should have been shredding up the pipe. Why was dance still following me?

I wasn’t sure who knew that I was a dancer and, frankly, I really hoped that not many-if any- knew about it. Was it wrong that I wanted to forget about that huge a part of my life? Because that’s what I really wanted above everything else. Dance was great for a while, but I didn’t want everyone to think that I was a poser in snowboarding as well as dance. I wanted to be legit at something.