Grind (5 page)

I tried not to say anything. Having Lisa even angrier wasn't part of the plan.

“Why don't you skate the next run?” I suggested.

“Since you've already skated and now Wally is skating, I guess it would be my turn.” She dropped her board to the ground, put a foot down and pushed herself away.

If part of my plan was to get her to talk to me, it really wasn't working out so far.

“We should call it soon,” Wally said.

I had to agree. “Maybe make another run or two. There's not much light left anyway.”

“Or memory,” Nevin said. “I've shot a whole bunch of video and more than a hundred pictures.”

“Do you still have some room left?”

“A few minutes.”

“Then let's use it up and go home.” I started to skate to the top of the slope.

A car came squealing around the corner.

“Security!” Wally screamed.

I did a quick flip turn and headed back toward Wally and Lisa, who were heading for the hole in the fence.

Just then, out of nowhere, another security car came spinning around the other corner, heading straight toward me. It was going to hit me!

The car slammed on its brakes and I leaped up into the air, landing on the hood of the stopped car! My momentum carried me forward and I ran up the windshield, over the roof, down the trunk and leaped to the ground just as my board, which had rolled under the car, came out from the back.

I jumped onto the board and kept going.

I got to the edge of the grass, grabbed my board and started for the hole in the fence.

Wally and Lisa were already waiting. They both looked shocked.

“That was incredible!” Wally xclaimed.

“You just gypsy hopped a security car!” Lisa yelled.

“Where's Nevin?” I turned around. He was still over by the wall, partially hidden behind some crates. I didn't think the security guards had noticed him because they were so focused on me. If they turned around and saw him, they had him trapped.

The guards — one in each car — had climbed out of their vehicles.

“Did you like that trick?” I yelled at them. “Come over here and I'll climb up and down the two of you!”

“What are you doing?” Lisa demanded.

“We have to have them look this way…
come
this way, so Niven can get away.”

I popped back through the hole so I was on the same side of the fence as the guards.

“Come on you losers!” I yelled. “Come on over—or are you too scared?”

The two men started toward me. They were both big — one fat and the other just plain big. I looked past them to Nevin. He wasn't moving. Why wasn't he moving?
Was he too scared or — he was still taping! Unbelievable. He was either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. Maybe both.

I backed away as the two guards closed in. Suddenly the big guy started to run. He moved incredibly fast for somebody his size.

I ducked back through the hole and started running. Wally and Lisa were already off. I looked behind me. The security guard hadn't stopped at the hole—he was still coming, still running after me! I dug down deeper and started to run as fast as my legs would carry me.

“Keep running!” I yelled to Wally and Lisa. I spied them waiting up ahead by the underpass. They started running again. I kept gaining until I finally caught up. At that point I risked a look over my shoulder. The path behind us was empty.

“What happened to Nevin … did any-body see?” I asked, straining to catch my breath.

“He got away,” Wally said. “He got up and ran just after you started back for the hole.”

“Good, then we're all okay.”

“I'll call him when I get home,” Wally said, “just to make sure.”

“That's very considerate,” Lisa said, “but of course that's what I expect of
you
.”

“Let's just go home,” Wally said, jumping in before I could say anything.

I was getting tired of her comments, but what choice did I have?

“I'll see you two tomorrow,” I said.

Wally and Lisa lived close together while my house was in the other direction. I watched them walk away. It was strange. It used to be me walking with Lisa.

The PA crackled to life. “Could Phillip Falcone please report to the computer lab.”

The computer lab? The only times my name had ever been called over the PA were to get me to go to the office. This made no sense. I wasn't even
taking
computer science this term. Maybe the vice-principal was giving detentions there because there was space for more kids. Then again, what had I even done to deserve a detention?

I had a sense of dread. What if I just left? Nobody would even know if I'd heard the announcement or not. I could just leave…but I couldn't. My curiosity won out.

I opened the door to the computer lab. It looked to be deserted. Row upon row of machines sitting on tables and —

“Phil!” Wally yelled out.

He was standing, partially hunched over a computer. Sitting at the monitor was Nevin. Lisa was sitting beside him. I guessed I wasn't in trouble.

“We had them page you,” Wally said. “You have to see this.”

“Nevin finished the web site,” Lisa said.

“A web site is never really finished,” Nevin said. “It's a constantly growing and changing thing, almost like it's alive.”

“It may not be finished, but it's perfect,” Wally said.

“Not perfect, but good enough to park on the web,” Nevin said. His fingers started to fly across the keyboard. “It is now on the web and anybody, anywhere in the entire world, can see it.”

“How about somebody right here?” I asked. “Could I see it?”

“Sure.” His fingers started dancing on the keys. Red flames filled the screen. The flames faded away and outlines of skaters shot across the page, accompanied by the sound of wheels rolling on pavement.

“Beautiful opening,” Wally said.

The skateboards all started coming together, forming some sort of pattern—letters — they were making letters! Then the letters became words: HOGTOWN TRIO!

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“That's you three,” Nevin explained. “My research showed that all the skating groups had a name. You know, like the Bones Brigade or Dogtown or Warped. I liked the sound of the Hogtown Trio.”

“It sounds like a musical group,” Lisa said.

“Like a polka band,” I added.

“And what would be wrong with that?” Wally asked. “You got something against polka bands?”

“Wally, we know you're Polish and that you used to play the accordion, but still.”

“We can change the name if you want,” Nevin offered. “But first look at the rest of the site.”

He scrolled down. There was a big box with birds, like hawks or eagles, flying around. The text said PHILLY FALCON.

“Philly Falcon?” I gasped. “You changed my name?”

“I wanted something more catchy. I thought Falcon seemed more exciting. What do you think?”

“I think a guy named Nevin shouldn't be picking on anybody else's name,” I said.

“Nevin is a good name. Besides, it's not me who wants to be a skating star. I'm just the webmaster. Do you want me to click in and show your tricks?”

“No,” Lisa said. “First let him see the whole page. Once he starts looking at himself he won't even realize there are two other people on the site.”

Nevin scrolled down and there was a picture of Lisa in full skating gear.

“How come you get to keep your name?” I asked.

“Look again,” she said, pointing at the screen.

“What ? You're still Lisa and …” I looked harder. Lisa was spelled L I I S A.

“There's a typo,” I said.

“No there isn't. I spelled it that way to make it different,” Nevin said. “I wrote a line on Lisa's page that says, ‘Whenever she skates she attracts eyes.' Clever, huh?”

“I'm not sure about that. It just looks like she can't spell or her parents stutter.”

Lisa laughed. That sounded so good. It had been a long time since I'd made her laugh.

“Now show him mine,” Wally suggested.

Nevin scrolled down some more. There was a picture of Wally that looked like he was completely upside down.

“When did you take that picture?” I asked.

“Yesterday. It looks like he's inverted because I tipped the camera,” Nevin explained.

“Do you like my name?” Wally asked.

Big letters said Wally the Wall Waltniski.

“Not bad,” I admitted.

“And there's still one more section you should look at before you look at the shots of you three skating,” Nevin said.

He moved the mouse to scroll down to the bottom of the page. The final section was called SKATEBOARDING ISN'T A CRIME. He clicked the mouse and the screen faded and then opened up again. It was a shot of me skating. Then the security car came into view, skidded to a stop, and I leaped onto the hood and raced over the top of the car, jumping down off the back.

“I didn't know you'd filmed that!” I exclaimed.

“I kept going. But wait, watch, the best part is still to come!”

As I skated away, the door of the car popped open and the security guard jumped out and started to run—wait, the guard had a pig's head! And as he ran after me, little cartoon balloons came out of his mouth saying “oink,” and the whole computer started making pig sounds!

Wally and Lisa and I all exploded into laughter.

“Nevin, you are a genius!” Wally yelled, slapping him on the back.

“This was nothing. I could teach a monkey how to do that. So, do you like it?”

“It's amazing,” Lisa said.

“Can we go into our pages and look at the skating now?” I asked.

“Definitely,” Nevin agreed. “And after that we only have two things to do.”

“What two things?” I asked.

“The first one's easy,” he said. “I'm going to register the site on all the major search engines so they can start directing people to our page.”

“And the second thing?” I asked.

“This one is a little more time consuming, but it could be fun. We're going to go to a few dozen skater sites and chat rooms and talk to people about this incredible new web site we just saw—our web site.” He paused. “Of course we're not going to use our names or tell them it's our web site.”

“Nevin, that is really, truly, sneaky and devious,” I said.

“Thank you,” he said.

“That's some compliment,” Lisa said, “when you consider that you're talking to a person who's an expert on sneaky and devious.”

“So how do we get started?” Wally said, jumping in to break the tension.

“I've already set the lab computers up so they're connected to the different sites and chat rooms.”

“Which computers?” I asked.

“All the computers,” Nevin said, gesturing around the room.

“There have to be a hundred computers in here,” I said.

“Eighty-seven that work, so that's how many I've connected.”

“You want us to visit eighty-seven sites?” I questioned.

“No, I want you to visit one fourth of the sites. If you want to attract sponsors you have to get hits,” Nevin said. “I've put a counter on the very bottom of our page.”

He scrolled down again. There was a little wheel that read 1234 visitors.

“We've had that many visitors already?” I asked.

Nevin laughed. “Of course not. I just didn't want anybody to think that nobody had visited. Everybody wants to go to a site that's popular.”

“Makes sense,” Wally agreed.

“And I've added a place where they post comments and talk to us,” Nevin said. “Sort of like an interactive guest book.”

“Excellent. This looks like it could be fun. Let's hit the chat rooms and get some interest started,” Wally said.

“First things first. Let's explore the site fully to see your tricks,” Nevin said. “Then we'll start spreading the word…around the whole world.”

“Phillip, get up.”

I rolled over. It was my mother, standing in the doorway. It was dark.

“Wally's on the phone for you,” she said.

“Wally? Why is he calling…what time is it?”

“It's six in the morning and I have no idea why he's calling so early. Pick up the phone and ask him yourself.”

I rolled over and grabbed the phone from the night table. “Hello.”

“Phil, have you seen it?” he asked excitedly.

“I was sleeping. All I've been seeing is the inside of my eyelids.”

“The web site! You have to log on to our site!”

“I saw it yesterday. I don't think it's changed much overnight.”

“Wanna bet? Just look at it.”

“All right, but this better be good.” I rolled out of bed, keeping the mobile phone in my hand and walking over to my desk. I tapped the computer and the screen came to life. Our web site was already on the screen. I'd left it there last night when I went to sleep.

“Looks the same to me,” I said.

“Scroll down.”

I moved down the page. It all looked the same.

“What is it I'm supposed to see?” I asked.

“The bottom. Look at the visitor count.”

I could only imagine that Wally was so excited because a few people had looked at our site. I scrolled to the visitor counter and—“Oh my god…that can't be right.” It read 11 924. “Nevin must have gone back in and set the numbers higher,” I said.

“He didn't,” Wally said. “I already talked to him this morning.”

As I watched, amazed, shocked, the visitor count began flipping over, getting higher and higher as more people logged on.

“That can't be right,” I said. “How could that many people be visiting our site, especially in the middle of the night?”