Chapter 1: New Kid in Town
By Xavier W. Niz
Skip didn’t hear his mother calling from downstairs. His Ramones record was playing too loudly in his room. Not that he would have heard her anyway. Skip’s attention was focused on the pages of the latest issue of SkateBoarder magazine. Skip flipped the pages slowly. He was lost among the photographs of his heroes, the Z-Boys, performing their newest skating tricks.
“Skip!” his mother yelled again.
Skip turned another page and stared in disbelief at the photo. It was a photo of Tony Alva, one hand gripping the lip of a drained pool, the other holding onto the edge of his board. Skip daydreamed of being back in California. A drought had hit his former home in Santa Monica, California. All of the swimming pools were empty because of a water shortage. He used to spend all day practicing the moves that he saw the Z-Boys do in the big, empty swimming pools.
“Skip Wilson Archer!” Skip’s mother said. “Didn’t you hear me yelling your name?”
Skip looked up to see his mother standing in the doorway of his room. She looked very annoyed. She walked over to the record player and lifted the needle off his Ramones album.
“You know I don’t like it when you play this kind of music so loud,” she said. “The neighbors have already complained.”
“Um, yeah, sorry,” Skip answered. He rolled up his magazine and shoved it into his back pocket.
“Honey, look,” Skip’s mom said, her tone changing from anger to concern. “I know this move has been hard on you. But we have to try and make the best of it.”
“Yeah, Mom, it’s cool. I get it.”
“Oh, and don’t forget your lunch. Try to be good today, dear.”
Out on the street Skip kicked hard behind his skateboard. His new house sat at the bottom of a steep hill. It was so steep that it would be simpler just to walk to the top. But Skip never walked anywhere if he could skate there instead.
Back in California he and his friends used to skate hills all the time. Skip missed his friends. He missed his old school. He’d been in Dayton, Ohio, for almost a month, and the city still didn’t feel like home. He hadn’t made any friends yet. Skip tried not to think too much about his old life as he sped down the hill . . .
___
Adapted from Drop In To the Deep End: Skateboarding With the Z-Boys, by Xavier W. Niz, ©️ by Capstone. Reprinted with permission.
how does skips opinion about California compare to the narrators
Skip thinks California was boring, but the narrator misses it.
Skip misses California, but the narrator enjoys Ohio.
Skip misses California, but the narrator does not share their own opinion.
They both miss their friends in California.