Brandon hugged her and left, returning to his silver Dodge Dart in the parking lot. He thought about his future on his short drive back to Glendale and smiled broadly.
“High school graduation, a summer internship with Adidas and college in New York,” he mumbled to himself, grinning. “And Natasha Avery.”
>>>
The following week at Glendale High School’s graduation ceremony, Brandon stood on an elevated stage on the football field with Leon and Simba in their green and gold caps and gowns, not far from Cynthia Wallace in hers. The graduating class of 2013 smiled for their loved ones as hundreds of cameras flashed to capture the historical event from the bleachers. And on a count of three, the gleeful classmates tossed their caps into the air with excitable mayhem. But Brandon and his guys faked it instead, not wanting their caps to be lost in the storm.
Cynthia Wallace tossed her cap. She didn’t care about finding it. She was moving on to Arizona State University in Tempe and could care less about her cap. It was all about the maroon and gold of the ASU Sun Devils now.
“Hey, Brandon, are you gonna get that last picture with her?” Simba teased as Cynthia descended from the stage. It was Brandon’s last chance to lock her in on camera before they moved on with their lives. But as the family members and loved ones rushed onto the football field for hugs, screams, tears and close-up pictures, Brandon paused and contemplated taking one with Cynthia.
I really need to move on from her, he thought. She never gave me the time in eight years. Why would I want a final picture to remember that?
So he shook it off. “Nah, that’s all right. I still have all my old pictures of her.”
“Yeah, but this one is the updated full-body version,” Leon joked. “You got her baby body pictures. You gotta get the senior body now before she gains those fifteen pounds in college and messes it all up.
Leon continued, “Come on, man, this is our graduation. Let’s go do it.”
Brandon still hesitated.
“If you won’t do it, I’ll go ask her for you myself,” Leon warned him. “At least you’ll have a fresh picture to compare her and Natasha with.”
Leon was not going to be denied. So he marched up to Cynthia in front of her family to ask her to take a few pictures with them.
Brandon watched it all apprehensively.
Cynthia turned, her long, dark waves and curls swishing over the back of her shiny green graduation gown, and responded to Leon’s request immediately. “Yeah, where’s Brandon and his shoes? I’ll take a picture with him. What did he wear under his gown today?”
Brandon smiled in the short distance as he approached them, wearing a pair of green and white Kevin Garnetts from Adidas. He had pulled them out of his closet of sneakers boxes just for the occasion. Leon wore a pair of green, black and white Retro Jordans from his own closet, and Simba had ordered an old-school pair of white and green Converse Larry Birds.
“If you’re gonna take a picture with me, you guys have to raise up your feet to show off your sneakers,” Cynthia said.
She spoke fast, comfortably and exploded with confidence as usual. That was Cynthia’s way. No moment was too big for her. She treated it all like a walk in the park. So the guys all obliged and gathered around her, lifting up their right shoes. Brandon stood in the middle with Cynthia, while Leon stood beside her and Simba next to Brandon. And Cynthia smelled as if heaven had come to down to earth and kissed her on the neck.
The gleeful photo session ended when Cynthia’s football-playing boyfriend arrived to take pictures with her for his family.
“All right, Brandon, good luck out there,” Cynthia said as she was whisked away.
She barely knows I exist. She didn’t even ask where I was going to school, Brandon thought. She’s gonna know I exist someday.
OFF TO COLUMBUS
AS BRANDON PACKED up his luggage to travel on his first week of the internship for Adidas in the skateboard-loving state of Ohio, he had a hard time figuring out which two or three pairs of sneakers to take along. He dug through his mountain of shoe boxes in the closet and found the perfect statement items. He smiled.
“These’ll work.”
Michael Avery had already told him he and his friends would be wearing Adidas at work, but Brandon and his crew all agreed to bring their own sneakers for their personal downtime.
“We have our Beast Team name and image to protect,” Brandon had advised them.
“Yeah, and thousands of skateboard people to introduce ourselves to,” Leon had added.
They had all agreed to use the opportunity to continue branding themselves, and Michael Avery didn’t discourage them from doing that.
“As long as you guys wear and push our Adidas gear during the different skateboard events, I’m fine with you being who you are,” he had told them.
Paul caught Brandon searching through the closet and asked what he was doing.
“I’m picking out my shoes.”
“I thought Adidas was gonna give you guys shoes.”
“They are, but we can still wear our own when we’re not pushing Adidas.”
Paul shook his head. “That sounds like a conflict of interest waiting to happen. And you guys are taking your Beast Team gear too?”
“He said we could.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you have to take him up on it,” Paul suggested.
“Well, you’re the one who said that we could use this as a springboard for other opportunities.”
Paul sighed. He couldn’t believe the audacity. “Okay, look at it this way, Brandon. If I had a tryout to play for the Chicago Bulls, and I also had interest from the Indiana Pacers, would I wear a Pacers T-shirt to a Bulls workout and a Bulls T-shirt to a Pacers workout? I mean, that’s ridiculous.”
“But we’re not gonna do anything like that during the events.”
“Well, when are you gonna wear it?”
“I don’t know, at the movies or something afterward.”
“Where people will still see you, right?”
“Yeah, but they’ll see us in the Adidas gear too.”
“Brandon, I think it’s a bad idea. But if you insist on doing that, then at least pick some Adidas shoes, like the D Roses and the Kevin Garnetts. Please. And tell Leon and Simba to do the same. I’m just trying to make sure that you’re respectful to Michael and Adidas.”
Brandon stopped and thought about it. He did have a pair of the first D Roses and a pair of black and white D Rose Zebra 4.5s that he hadn’t worn yet.
They would be perfect for a skateboard crowd, Brandon thought. So he finally agreed with his uncle. “I’ll call and tell the guys.”
“Thank you.”
Brandon called up Leon and Simba to give them the new game plan.
“Yeah, my dad talked about that too,” Leon said. “I’ll pull out what I have from Adidas. I still got those D Rose icy-blue metallic 3.5s.”
“Yeah, bring those,” Brandon said.
Simba agreed to stick with Adidas too. “I got those D Rose Year of The Snakes—black and turquoise with gold heels. What do you have?”
Brandon often refused to reveal his sneakers. He never wanted his guys to copy him. And he advised Leon and Simba to do the same with him. So he smiled slyly and answered, “You’ll see when I wear them.”
Brandon pulled out his boxes of Adidas and felt satisfied. He stretched out across his bed for a minute while looking up at the many posters of himself posing with NBA stars that hung on his walls. Inspired by the company called Fathead, he had taken dozens of pictures with popular basketball players while wearing his many pairs of sneakers. Other posters featured him sitting on exotic cars and even standing on the steps of a G-IV jet plane. He had blown the pictures up extra large at the local mall. He even printed the names of his sneakers as the poster headings. Then he shared the posters with his friends and followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Eyeing the posters motivated Brandon to take the idea even furthe
r. “We should have had Beast Team posters a long time ago,” he mumbled to himself. “It’s time.”
>>>
At the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, the guys took several pictures for their parents on a Thursday morning as each of them wore a different color Beast Team T-shirt.
“Have a bunch of fun, guys,” Simba’s dad told them with a slight Filipino accent.
“And eat healthy food, not all junk food,” his wife added.
Simba cringed, embarrassed. “Mom, I always eat healthy. I’m the one who keeps them in line.”
“He sure does,” Leon admitted. “I would eat Big Macs three times a day if Simba wasn’t with us.”
Leon’s father shook his head. At six foot four, he stood taller than everyone but Paul. “I still can’t believe they got an internship for this,” he commented.
Paul chuckled. “Believe it. Adidas has some catching up to do in the shoe department. So this is a good move for them.”
“You guys make sure to call when you get in,” said Leon’s mother. “And don’t stay up all night getting into trouble out there either. I’m gonna call to check in with you at midnight.”
“Well, don’t be mad if I don’t answer the phone, Mom,” Leon quipped.
“Leon, I’m serious; you answer that phone,” his mother barked.
“If we have a good connection,” he joked.
His mother pointed, incensed. “You keep playing with me, and I’ll get your luggage and take you back home.”
“Come on, Mom, we just graduated from high school. Are you gonna check in every night when we go away to college too?”
His dad exhaled, tired of all the back and forth. “Leon, just answer the damn phone. Okay?”
Leon’s mother looked at Paul. “Are you sure you can’t take this trip with them?”
Paul laughed. “It’s about time for these guys to learn how to travel on their own and handle themselves. But it’s not like they’re gonna be unsupervised. Michael Avery’s a good guy with a tight-knit family, and he’s traveled all around the world. So, I’m quite sure he can handle a small crew of teenagers. These guys’ll be just fine.”
Leon’s mother took a deep breath and reached out to rub her son’s low-cut head. “Yup, they grow up so fast, and then they’re off to college.”
Leon pulled back from her, but once they gave their final hugs and kisses and made their way to the gates with their carry-on bags, he couldn’t wait to talk about her.
“You see my mom showing off for y’all? She goin’ try to act all parenty now, like I’m a kid again. She knows what time it is with me. I do what I want out here,” Leon boasted.
Simba joked. “Awww, my sweet baby’s going away without a chaperone.” He even tried to rub Leon’s head, like his mother had.
Leon shoved him away. “Get off of me, man. That’s why your mom packed you Ramen Noodles. ‘Make sure you eat your noodles, Simba,’ ” he joked back.
“I’m not Japanese,” Simba barked.
“Whatever.”
Brandon laughed at both of them. “Come on, guys, the line is moving,” he said.
And I can’t wait to see Natasha when we get out there.
>>>
Sure enough, when the guys arrived in Columbus, Ohio, at eight that evening, Natasha and her friend Adrienne had accompanied Michael to pick them up from the airport.
“Keep your cool, Brandon, keep your cool,” Leon teased his friend at the baggage claim.
“Stop it,” Brandon warned him as he checked through their shoe boxes again. They only brought a few boxes each for Columbus. They weren’t selling anything there.
Simba chuckled and said nothing while checking his own luggage.
“Hey, guys, how was your flight?” Michael Avery asked. He wore Adidas gear from head to toe again. The three-frond Adidas leaf was everywhere.
“It was smooth, boss, real smooth,” Leon answered.
Brandon looked Natasha over and complimented her sneakers. “Nice shoes.”
“Oh, so you like these?” she responded, grinning. “I wore ’em just for you.” She wore a pair of shiny, gold Adidas high tops and a headband with her ponytail sticking out the back. Adrienne wore a pair of metallic red Adidas with no headband and short-styled hair.
The guys looked at Brandon to see how he would respond to it all.
Brandon smiled back at Natasha. “You didn’t wear those for me, but we all wore our D Roses for your father though.”
“Yeah, I see that. Thanks,” Michael said. “Well, I got a big white van parked outside in the lot. There’s about twelve of us out here together, including you guys. You three don’t mind sharing a couple of twin beds in a room, do you? If not, I can put one of you in another room.”
Brandon shook it off. “Nah, we’re good with that. We’re guys.”
Adrienne looked and frowned at him. “What does that mean? Girls can’t share a room?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“I didn’t hear him say that either,” Leon butted in.
“Well, he insinuated it,” Adrienne teased.
“No, you insinuated it,” Leon argued. “Brandon was just trying to be low maintenance. But me, I want a whole king-sized bed to myself. So you can move me out of that little room and give me your room, Mr. Avery.”
Everyone laughed, including Michael. “I don’t have a king-sized bed either. I’m rooming with another Adidas rep myself.”
Brandon grinned and watched Natasha to make sure she wasn’t warming up to Leon. He had a way of getting under a girl’s skin with his rambunctious mouth.
“So, is this a pretty big skateboard event?” Brandon asked Michael. They spotted quite a few teenagers and young adults at the airport who were all around them with skateboards. Most of them had carried their boards on the plane instead of checking them as luggage.
“Man, is it ever,” Michael confirmed. “You have kids driving in with their families from all over the Midwest and flying in from New York, California and Florida.”
Simba nodded and spoke up. “Yeah, we saw a few of them on the plane from Phoenix.”
“They have a bunch of camera crews out here too,” Natasha added. “ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS and other local reporters.”
Brandon nodded, feeling at peace with every word Natasha spoke. He was really glad to be there with her. Her presence alone would make the internship worthwhile.
“We have some Adidas gear back at the hotel for you guys to choose from as well,” Michael said. “It may not be what you expect, but you have to remember that it’s all about the skateboard nation out here. They wear sneakers too, just different kinds of sneakers.”
Brandon didn’t care anymore as long as Natasha was with them. And as he expected, she wore no makeup and still looked awesome.
“We’ll work with it,” he commented to her father with a shrug.
Simba gave Leon a knowing eye and smirked, thinking that Brandon must have bumped his head on the plane. Leon smiled back at him and kept the joke between them.
>>>
They all arrived in a large white Toyota at an Applebee’s restaurant directly across the road from the hotel. Skateboarders and their families jam-packed the place. However, the Adidas staff members had already secured a table for twelve, where Brandon and his guys walked into a barrage of introductions.
“Haaay, Brandon, Leon and Simba. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I’m Daniel Baker, events coordinator,” an older white man in glasses greeted them. He pushed himself from the table and stood up. He shook each of their hands excitedly before introducing the rest of the Adidas staff, consisting mostly of young reps and interns in their early twenties.
“So, I checked you guys out online. Your marketing ideas are impressive. And I love the self-made posters and everything. I guess it was only a matter of time before ESPN found you.”
Brandon and his guys took their seats at the table with Michael, Natasha and Adrienne.
“I did it al
l for fun at first,” Brandon said. “But then my guys told me to keep doing it, so we did. And this is what it led to—an internship with Adidas.”
Natasha eyed him across the table and took note of his spin. Her father had told her that Brandon had been very skeptical of Adidas in the beginning, but now he suddenly viewed it as a blessing. So Natasha reminded herself to ask him later about his change of heart.
“Yeah, they’ve been quite busy negotiating deals at national Sneaker Con conventions,” Michael commented as he grabbed a menu.
Getting right down to business, Daniel pulled out a folder of pictures and immediately passed them over to Brandon and his guys.
“That’s the kid we’re all here to see—Jay Stewart. He’s fifteen years old, five-eleven, a hundred and fifty pounds and a young heartthrob from right down the road in Middletown. He’s ranked as one of the top ten skateboarders in the country and number one in his age group.”
Brandon opened up the folder and eyed a long and lanky white kid with floppy, long hair. They had several headshots and various skateboard action pictures. Then Brandon looked at the kid’s sneakers, a pair of nondescript low tops.
Simba looked too and grimaced. “What kind of shoes is he wearing?”
Michael chuckled. “Skateboarders are not as hip about wearing basketball high tops like you guys. They like to wear Vans, Airwalks and other low-top shoes.”
“Yeah, and they’re butt ugly too,” Leon barked and laughed.
Brandon only smiled while studying the pictures. “If they’re only gonna scrape up their shoes anyway, then what’s the point in wearing something nice?”
“Yeah, but they still have to wear something, and we want to get in on it in a major way,” Daniel explained. “So, we’ve targeted Jay as our main entry. And if you guys could somehow get close to him to see what he likes …”
He stopped and never finished his sentence. It was obvious what they wanted. They had brought The Beast Team in to see if they could work their magic in swaying another young phenom—this time in the skateboard world.
Brandon thought immediately, That sounds like a lot more than an internship to me. “Can I ask you guys a question?” he said. “Why do skateboarders wear low tops instead of high tops? Wouldn’t high top sneakers protect their ankles more?”
The Sneaker Kings Page 7