Your name is Andie, and skateboarding is yours. In second grade, you stole your brother’s skateboard and learned to Ollie, so your dad bought you your own board.
In your last three competitions, you’ve placed first, second, and first again, and today, you’re hoping to add another medal to your collection to hang right next to your poster of the Empire Fish Face, a band that your mom sort of disapproves of.
Today, you’re meeting your best friend, Paige, who is the only local skater known to (sometimes) beat you in competition, and right now you’re headed to the closest skatepark to warm up before the competition. You love skating! You’re even doing it to celebrate your birthday, which just happens to be tomorrow.
As you drop your board on the ground and head toward the park, you run over the list of tricks in your head.You text Paige to let her know you’re on your way, but she doesn’t answer. No big deal, you’ll meet her there. You’re both so excited for the competition today. They’ll be a half-pipe and rails, and skaters from out of town are driving in to compete. Today, Burnbridge, tomorrow, the X games!
When you arrive at the park, you scan your normal hangs but don’t see Paige anywhere. Hmmm. This is strange. You decide to ask around to see if anyone has seen your friend.You drop by the Juicy Bee, a cute little Smoothie Shop off of 4th. You scan the shop. Paige isn’t there, so you join the line to order. You might as well get a Blueberry yogurt smoothie (your favorite) while you’re there!
When you reach the counter, you see Reaghan, a friend from school, is working. She starts making your blueberry yogurt smoothie without even asking–you’re a regular.
“Have you seen Paige?” you ask.
She shakes her head. “Nope. Sorry.” You pay and decide to wander around the shop. You take a look at your journal where you’ve drawn a map of the town. Where could Paige be?
Out of habit, you stop to check out a bulletin board, filled with community notices, for sale postings, and…wait, what is that?ou drop your board on the ground and head straight to Paige’s favorite place to grind rails. There are some old ones behind the town recycling center, left over from a building that was torn down because the people doing the demolition swore it was haunted. Burnbridge has a lot of history like that: partially run-down buildings, little landmarks that have strange stories behind them.
You call Paige’s mom on the way, and tell her you can’t find Paige.
“I don’t know, Andie. She left an hour ago to meet you. Have you tried calling her phone?” her mother says, but before you can explain, she hangs up, explaining she has to be at a PTA meeting. You sigh. It’s totally up to you to find her. What if something’s really wrong and you can’t even get her mom to pay attention?
You arrive by the rails, but there’s no sign of Paige. You try her phone again, but she still doesn’t pick up. What’s going on? Maybe look around and see if you can find anything?When you arrive back at the Skatepark, you realize that there are actually…fewer people here than before. Huh. This is kind of…spooky, actually. Maybe you’d better explore more thoroughly to see if you can see if you can discover any clues.
When you enter Larry’s Sporting Goods, a little bell above the door jingles, but there’s no one there to welcome you. In fact, there’s no one to be seen at all.
You spot a phone charger plugged in near the register, so you decide to plug your phone in and browse the store while you wait for Larry to show up. If anyone has seen Paige today, it has to be Larry. He never misses a day in his store.
You walk around, checking out some of the new boards. Larry’s might be off the beaten path, but it definitely has the best skating stuff. Next to the shoes, there’s also a stack of SK8BOARDER’S WEEKLY, dated today. Yep, Paige was definitely here.
Larry finally comes out of the back room, balancing a huge stack of shoe boxes. He puts them on the floor and wipes his hands on his hips. “Hey, Andie! Can I help you?”
“Yeah. I’m looking for Paige. I can’t find her anywhere.”
He looks away for a moment. “Yeah, uh, I think she dropped by early. She said something about heading over to Crooked Creek Park.”
“Crooked Creek Park?” You frown. “Why would she go there?”
“She said something about a five-stair heel flip,” Larry replies, and then heads back to the supply room. Hmmm. You get the sneaking suspicion there’s something he’s not telling you.As you approach Crooked Creek Park, you begin to hear it before you even enter the park: music. Really loud music, actually. Weird.
As you skate closer, you realize it’s not just Paige there…there are a lot of people. More than a lot of people. The park is packed. Is it possible that they moved the competition here and no one bothered to tell you?
As you draw closer, Paige bursts out of the middle of the crowd, a huge smile on her face. “Everyone, go!” she shouts.
And suddenly, everyone turns around all at once and shouts, “Surprise!”
You almost fall off your skateboard. You manage to jump off of it and tuck it under your elbow.
“Did you forget? It’s basically your birthday, so we’re throwing you a surprise party!” Paige says, still grinning. “Took you long enough to get here. I thought you’d pick up on my clues a little faster!” she laughs.
Look around.You walk into the park, and everyone starts hugging you. Suddenly, you realize that everyone’s here: Pedro and Jojo, Amalia, and all of the skateboarders you’re used to competing against. There’s even Jamal from school, and Reaghan must have left her shift at the Juicy Bee, because even she’s here! She brought smoothies, and Paige even brought cupcakes with little candy skateboards on them!
You were worried for nothing! Whew, that was a close one. Usually, when things go wrong in Burnbridge, there’s something much creepier behind it. At least this time, it was something great. You decide to relax and enjoy your birthday party.
(Congratulations!) Write an objective summery