by Kelly Oram
Kendrick looked up from where he’d been fixing a shelf. “Hey, that’s not a bad idea.” He glanced at Sean. “Could we do that? Install one as a place for people to try out the boards?”
“I don’t know,” Sean said. “I can ask the insurance people about it.”
Kate whirled around to face Sean. “For real? You’d seriously consider it? Because that would be awesome. If you had a place for people to skate inside the store, you’d be the coolest skate shop ever. You’d totally bring in a ton of business just because of that.”
Sean grinned at Kendrick, who got up and joined us. “See what I mean?”
Kendrick matched his smile and nodded. “Gold. Both of them.” He rubbed his hands together with inexplicable excitement and turned his smile on my sister and me. “Thanks for coming. Let’s eat. I’m starving, and we have a lot to talk about.”
There was no place to eat in the store, so we all got comfortable on the floor. Once we dug in, Sean finally got to the point of this so-called business meeting. “So, my daughter came home with a tattoo this morning. She said your friend Rafe did it.”
I choked on my burrito, and Kate had to pound me on the back a couple times before I could breathe again. “I’ll kill him. I’m so sorry. I had no idea. Rafe is a little enthusiastic. I swear I didn’t encourage it.”
It took me a minute before I noticed Kendrick holding back laughter and the playful glint in Sean’s eyes. I finally understood why Libby complained about Sean torturing her all the time. He was just messing with me and was enjoying watching me freak out.
“Did he really ink her?” Kate asked. When he nodded, she scoffed. “So not fair. I ask him all the time, and he says no.”
On the other hand, I also understood why Sean liked to torture his daughter so much. I grinned at Kate and said, “Because he knows I’ll end his sorry little life if he ever does.”
Kate scowled at me. “Why? You have tattoos.”
“I’m over eighteen.”
“You weren’t when you got your first one.”
“I’m not worried about you getting a tattoo; I’m worried about where you’ll ask him to put it. I’ll kill you both if he ever touches your ass.”
Kate blushed, confirming my suspicions, and I groaned. “Damn it, Kate; I swear you are going kill me.”
Sean and Kendrick both burst out laughing. “I’m sorry I brought it up,” Sean said.
“Why did you?” Kate asked, curious enough to get over her embarrassment.
“Libby showed us her tattoo this morning.”
“Which was, thankfully, not on her ass,” Kendrick added, winking at Kate.
Kate shrank back, looking so mortified that I was sure she was reconsidering the idea of a tattoo. I snickered, and she punched my arm.
“It’s an amazing design,” Sean said.
“Libby said he did all of your ink, too?” Kendrick asked.
“Yeah.” I held my arms out for him to get a better look.
After a thorough examination, he smiled. “Your friend has some talent.”
I nodded. Rafe was awesome. “You looking to get something done? I’m sure he’d love to design something for you.”
“Actually, we’re looking for a good logo,” Sean said.
“Logo?”
Sean nodded and dug back into his food while Kendrick jumped up and went rummaging behind the counter for something. He came back with a few different logo designs. As Kate and I studied the different styles, Sean said, “Kendrick and I are going in as partners with the store, and we’re starting our own board line.”
Kate dropped her burrito and looked at them both with hero worship. “Sweet.”
They grinned at her. “We’re pretty excited about it,” Sean said. “We’re covering all kinds of boards except in the water sports. For now. If the rest take off, we may add that on later. But for now, we’re focusing on skateboards, snowboards, and freeboards.”
Kate interrupted him again. “Awesome.”
“Kate, let him talk.”
“Sorry.” She shoved some food in her mouth.
“We had a graphic designer send us some concepts for our brand logo, but we hate them.”
“Too flashy,” Kendrick said.
I understood what he meant. “Kind of corporate feeling.”
Kate wrinkled her nose. “Poser-ish. They scream wannabes-trying-too-hard.”
“Exactly,” Kendrick said. “None of those concepts would ever fly with the extreme sports crowd. Our line is called Underground. We want something a lot more real. Dirty. Gritty. Sort of a raw graffiti style.”
I grinned, finally understanding where they were going with this. “Like Rafe’s style.”
They nodded. “I saw Libby’s tattoo, and when she told me she got it done by the same guy who did your work as well, I figured I had to ask,” Sean said. “You think he’d mind trying to work with us?”
Kate snorted, and I laughed. “I think he’d sell his soul to the devil for a chance to design a logo for Sean Garrett and Kendrick Abbey.”
“Awesome.” Kendrick handed me a business card. “Tell him to give me a call if he’s interested. We’re kind of in a time crunch now, though.” He looked around at the bare walls and sighed. “We’re supposed to open in three weeks. All our equipment is ready; it’s just waiting for a logo.”
I nodded, grinning. Rafe was going to flip. “I’ll write his number down before I leave, and you can call him today.”
“Thanks.”
Sean pushed his empty plate aside, and after downing the last of his soda, grinned at me with a bigger smile than I’d ever seen on his face. “So, first item of business down; on to the next.”
Kate and I glanced at one another. What else could he possibly want with me? Sean laughed at our confused looks. “Kendrick and I decided that the best way to get publicity for our new line would be to sponsor a few teams—sport our gear at competitions. I’m going to put together and coach a snowboarding team, and Kendrick’s going to do the same with a skateboard team.”
“So awesome,” Kate muttered.
“We’re going to start small and promote the shop locally before we try to expand the line,” Kendrick said. “So we’re thinking mostly local competitions, and we couldn’t pay signing bonuses or anything at first. It’d be a free-equipment-competition-entry-fees-and-travel-expenses type of deal.”
My heart dropped into my stomach. Why were they telling me this? And why were they grinning at me like that? I didn’t realize I was gaping at them until my eyes started to burn from lack of blinking.
Kendrick leaned forward and met my gaze. His face and voice turned serious. “I want you to represent the skateboard half of Underground.”
Kate gasped. “Are you saying you want to sign Adam to skate for you?”
Kendrick nodded, never taking his eyes from me. “Desperately. I’ve been scouting skaters all over the Salt Lake area for weeks. You’re the best I’ve seen. I want you to be my first, and my lead skater. And maybe help me decide on a few other prospectives I’ve found.”
I sat there, completely unable to speak. My brain could hardly process the news. Kendrick Abbey was asking me to skate for him.
“I know how you feel about charity,” Sean jumped in when I didn’t say anything. “I respect that more than you know. But a sponsor isn’t charity. Having a sponsor is how this business works. It’s like being hired for a job—he pays your expenses in exchange for you competing for him.”
He didn’t need to explain. I knew what having a sponsor meant. It meant professional skating. It meant professional competition. It was the dream of almost anyone who learned how to use a skateboard. It was my dream. My unattainable, wildest fantasy.
Kate slipped her hand into mine and squeezed hard, snapping me from my shock. I glanced at her, and she met my gaze with the same overwhelmed expression I knew I had on my face. It was equal parts excitement, and fear that this was somehow not really happening. Kate broke the silence first
. “Is this for real?”
Kendrick answered her with a grave nod. “Dead serious.” His eyes flicked back to me. “Honestly, with talent like yours, if you handled competition well, I’d be hard-pressed to keep you. After a few months on the professional circuit, people like Red Bull and Independent would be knocking on your door. Obviously, I hope that won’t happen, because I’m selfish and I’d want to keep you. So if the line goes well, and the competitions go well, we’d get you a better deal and placed in the bigger competitions against all those guys.”
I blinked at him, knocked breathless again by the things he was telling me. Kate punched me—her way of threatening me on pain of death if I refused him. It brought me back to reality, and I sighed. “It’s not that simple, Kate.”
She glared at me. “What’s not simple about it? Professional skating is your dream. He’s handing you a chance. You have to go for it.”
Sometimes I hated life, hated being an adult. Kate was going to be so mad at me, but I couldn’t just jump at an opportunity because it’s what I wanted. I was responsible for my sister. That meant my dreams came second. Always. “Of course I want to, but what about work? Paying fees and travel expenses for competitions is one thing, but what about the time off I’d have to take from work? And what about you, Katie? I can’t just go off all the time and leave you unsupervised. You’re sixteen.”
As I knew it would, Kate’s face turned red. “Don’t you dare.” Her voice shook with anger. “Don’t even think about using me as an excuse. I’ve been holding you back our entire lives, and if you pass on your dream because of me, I won’t forgive you.”
“Kate—”
“No, Adam. You do so much for me, and I hate that you never let me help. If you try to say no to this, I’ll make Josiah adopt me. I’ll put myself in foster care.”
My stomach dropped. “That’s not funny.”
“No, it’s not!” Kate yelled. Her eyes glossed over with unshed tears. She was so pissed she started to shake. “How could I live with myself? Huh? This life we have is not just about you. It’s not your fault, and it’s not your punishment. We’re in this together. We always have been. You and me. So let me help for once. Let me get a job. Even just a summer job would help make enough difference for you to take a few days off when you had competitions, and you know Josiah would let me stay with him if you had to leave town for a few days every now and then.”
“But—”
“No excuses. Together, we could make this happen for you. Let me help. I want to help. I’ll still pull my grades. I’ll still get my scholarship. But you could have something you want, too. Don’t be stubborn. You don’t have to be a martyr. If you turn this down, I’ll kick your ass, big brother. I promise you, I will.”
Kate and I both learned at a young age not to let things get to us. Crying never did any good. It just made us look weak. We learned to take abuse and brush it off. We became hard, bitter. But through it all, we’d had each other. She was my drive, my motivation for sticking it out when things got hard. Everything I did, I did for her. I always put her first. Always. I never imagined doing that could hurt her, but there she was, swiping at tears.
I had no choice. I had to do this. Yes, part of me wanted to more than anything, but another part of me hated myself for it. In order for it to work, I was going to have to let Kate pick up some of my slack. I couldn’t chase my dream and still provide everything for the both of us all by myself. It nicked at what little pride I had, but there was no way I could let her down.
I looked at Sean and Kendrick. They sat there quietly, letting Kate and me have our moment. Not interrupting, but paying attention. When I met Sean’s gaze, I could tell that he was thinking very hard about our situation, taking it all in. Forming an opinion. I hated that he knew the ugly truth of our lot in life, and now Kendrick was going to know it, too. It was embarrassing. Especially because they were men I admired so much. But at least they didn’t seem to judge me.
Sean cleared his throat, pulling me from my internal struggle. His face stayed smooth as I met his gaze, and his voice was calm. “Just throwing this out there; you can say no if you want. The reason we wanted to talk to you both is that I’m going to need someone in the shop. If Kate’s interested in a summer job, having someone who knows the sports and the equipment always helps, and…” His smile turned a little crooked, and he shot that grin at Kate. “Pretty skater girls are hard to come by. You’d be really good for business.”
My jaw fell open, and he winked at me. “We’d keep an eye on her, of course.”
Kate leaned so far forward she nearly dragged her hair in her lunch. “You want to give me a job? Here?”
The way her face lit up, I knew I’d lost the fight before it even began. Not that I really minded. If it was just a summer job, I couldn’t think of a better place for her to be than in Sean’s care. Sean glanced at me, seeking approval. I nodded, and he grinned at Kate. “If you can handle the responsibility.”
Kate nodded so vigorously it looked painful. “I can. I promise.”
“And if you can work for minimum wage, which is all we can afford to pay you at first.”
“Bring it. That’s minimum wage more than I make now.”
Sean and Kendrick both laughed. “I can’t say no to that kind of optimism,” Sean said. “So I guess this is welcome to the team.” He held his hand out to Kate and she eagerly shook it.
“And you know,” Kendrick added, “if you do a good enough job here, I’m going to need an assistant to come with me to competitions. That could be you whenever they don’t interfere with school. Then you’d be able to go with your brother when he has to leave, and earn some cash at the same time. Sean plans to take Libby with him to the snowboarding competitions, but I don’t have a Libby. I’ll need the help.”
Again, I was stunned speechless. They may as well have been our freaking fairy godfathers. “Kendrick, Sean, I—” I had to swallow back a lump of emotion. “I don’t know how to thank you for this.”
Sean held his hand up. “Nothing to thank us for.”
“You’ll be helping me more than I’ll be helping you,” Kendrick said.
I doubted that, but I wasn’t going to argue.
“And Kate is a smart, responsible girl who gets good grades and knows a lot about skating,” Sean said. “This is the perfect first job for her. I’d hire her even if I didn’t know either of you. But since I do, I’m just that much more confident that she’ll do a good job.”
“Still…” I swallowed back another lump of emotion. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, thanks!” Kate added as she cheerfully scraped the last hint of beans and rice from her plate. “And thanks for lunch. This was awesome.”
Sean laughed. “My pleasure.” His look turned serious once more and he gave me a small smile. “Really, I’m the one indebted to you. What you’ve done with Libby over these last few weeks…” He shook his head. “Sometimes the hardest thing about being a parent is letting your kids make their own mistakes. Her mom and I have watched her struggle recently. We couldn’t help her because she didn’t want our help and she was old enough to refuse it. She may have had a rough night last night, but she’s a different young woman now. I’ve been so worried about her, but I’m not anymore. She’ll get it together, and that’s thanks to you.”
He was going to make me blush. I shook my head and he cut me off the second I opened my mouth to argue. “No. It is. She needed you. I’m so grateful for everything you’ve done for my daughter. You’ve gained a friend for life, and if there’s ever anything I can do for you, you just let me know.”
He held out his hand to me. I accepted it, but shook my head at the same time. “I’d say we’re even.”
Libby
I was bouncing with anticipation when I arrived at Brandon’s house for the end-of-year science club party. I’d spent weeks plotting ways to make amends with my friends, and I had big plans for them all tonight.
I grinned as I made my way
down the steps into Brandon’s basement. For the second year in a row, the party was held in Brandon’s Chem Cave—as we all called it. Though this room was one of the most fabulous places ever built, it was far from a typical basement. It was the perfect blend of science lab and game room. Half of the room was decked up much like a laboratory complete with beakers and Bunsen burners, while the other half had couches, a pool table, a big screen, and a gaming system.
There were science geeks, and then there was Brandon Campbell. Brandon’s a certified genius and gets restless if he doesn’t have something to work on at all times of day. His parents get tired of him making messes in the kitchen.
I was the last to arrive, and as soon as I did, Avery declared it was time to party. Everyone laughed, but before we could turn up the music and dive into the table of snacks Brandon’s mom had provided, Brandon got everyone’s attention. “Hey, guys? Before we get this party officially started, I have some science club news I wanted to share with you.”
It took everything I had in me not to grin. Judging from the way Brandon was blushing, I was certain I knew what his news was, and I was so excited that he’d learned about it in time to announce it at this meeting. It fit into my plans perfectly.
Brandon’s eyes flicked to Aiden then he took a breath and said, “I got a phone call a few days ago from a representative at Science America magazine informing me that the article on my study this year that I’d done with the rats is going to be published with them. They wanted to interview me.”
My heart flipped hard in my chest. I knew they’d publish that study.
After a round of congratulations from our friends, Brandon quieted us again. “The thing is,” he said, “I never sent them my study.”
While the group murmured, Brandon turned to Aiden and surprised him with a hug. “Thanks, Aiden. That was really thoughtful of you.”
Aiden shook his head, confused. “Sorry, Brandon, that wasn’t—”