Juvenile Delinquent

Today I've had the first real breakfast I have had in months. Usually my parents are long gone to the office before I get up in the morning, so I almost always grab a granola bar and a piece of toast for the walk to school, occasionaly sitting down and having a bowl of cereal.

But not today! Today I am having stacks of warm chocolate pancakes with hot, thick, maple syrup, fresh strawberries and blueberries, homemade orange juice, and a piece of toast buttered to perfection. Can you say yum? Because I think I have said it several times already this very meal.

Ryan sits across from me at the ancient table but when he glances at me I pretend to be engrossed in the food on my plate; which is a valid excuse since I totally am.

Ellie clears her throat and I look up expectantly. "So, what are you guys planning to do today?" Did I mention that Ellie decided to let her kids off of school a week early because I’m off? No? Well, then now I did, so there.

Chris answers. "We figured we would take Cassie to the skate park and teach her how to ride." He looks at me. "Is that okay?"

Skateboard? I can barely walk without tripping non existant things.

"S-sure."

"Great!"
--

"This was defintely not worth the many bruises I have aquired, Chris!" I yell across the skate park to where he is doing some trick off of what he called the half pipe.

"C'mon Cass, you're doing great. Just push a little harder and you'll go faster." Reese coaches me gently, twirling around on her own skareboard. How she was doing that I had no idea. I hadn't even mastered going in a straight line yet, and we had been here for three hours already.

Reese does a neat little trick around my borrowed board and smiles. "You'll get it don't worry."

"Reese, I don't think this is really me. I mean come on I can barely make this thing go at all."

Her face drops for a second and I consider taking it back but don’t. It’s not my fault I incredibly suck at this.

Ryan squeals by on a bike and hops a couple of times on the front wheel. Pressing on the break he stops by Reese and mutters something I can’t make out. She smiles and hands over her skateboard and he jumps off of his bike, letting her take it.

“Hey, Cassie: ready to learn some real tricks?”

“Oh, Lord no. I’m just fine using it as a chair.” I say from where I am now perched on the skate board. “It’s much more comfortable then falling off of it; believe me.”

He laughs but pulls my skateboard out from under me and I fall with a splat on the ground.

“Hey!” I protest jumping quickly to my feet. “I already have a butt full of bruises that I could show you, but won't." he ducks his head, "So stop giving me more!"

He laughs at my anguish, “Chill, Cass. Just step back on the board. I’m going to teach you how to Ollie. It’s one of the most basic tricks and even you can’t mess it up.”

Half an hour later Ryan is staring at me with a defeated look on his face.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with you.” He says staring at me astonished. He runs his fingers through his hair and his sweat makes it stick up. Resisting the urge to fix it for him, I step around him and kick away the skateboard, frustrated.

“I take that as offensive, and my mom could probably name a few things.” I say gathering up my stuff.

As you could tell, the skate boarding lesson did not go as well as Ryan had originally planned. In fact, it was awful. I fell several more times, my shoe flew off and hit a random biker in the face, knocked Ryan on his butt a couple of times, and had several kids standing around me counting the many times I fell. Apparently, they wanted me to break a record or something. Whatever.

“Chris, that was one of my least favorite and most favorite days of my life.” I say during our long trudge back home.

He grins and gives my shoulder a squeeze.

“We really are happy to have you here, Cass.” He laughs. “But, I promise you don’t have to do that again unless you want to, okay?”

“Okay.” I breathe a sigh of relief. Skateboarding is harder than I thought it would be. I give any skate boarders out there major props for doing what they do. (Oh, and also bikers because they have to put up with unidentified shoes breaking their noses every now and then)

When we get back I relax in a long, hot shower and then take an extended nap, waking up in time for dinner. My hair is still a little bit damp so I toss it up in a messy bun and slip into one of my favorite pair of sweat pants. I finish the look off with a loose t-shirt from Hot Topic and call it done.

Ryan had gone home while I was sleeping so we ate dinner by ourselves. Reese had made the dinner because Ellie was at work at the time. Meaning, we have the house to ourselves in the day.

Dinner was quick, my cell phone had three missed calls from my mom which I ignore, and I head off to sleep.