“I’m supposed to stay at the library this afternoon,” Will said truthfully.
“You know,” Ace said, making a face, “that is the dumbest deal I have ever heard of. I mean, what do your folks think, that you’re going to magically fall in love with reading all of a sudden if they force you to go to the library? That is so lame!”
“Yeah,” Will said, just to avoid talking about it. He didn’t want to tell Ace he was reading his third book in the past two weeks. In fact, ever since he’d been hanging out at the library, Will had been reading every night for at least half an hour before bed. His grades had improved a bit, too. Getting a head start on his homework didn’t hurt, and neither did the extra studying he’d started doing.
“You wouldn’t catch me in there unless I absolutely had to be. I wouldn’t care what my parents said.” Ace snorted in disgust. “Look, let’s just go for a ride, huh? Just you and me. The two latchkey kids. Rebels, that’s us! Come on. Your parents don’t have to know.”
“Okay… I guess… ,” Will agreed tentatively. “As long as I’m back home by six.”
“Sure, I’ll get you back by then,” Ace said, strapping on his helmet. “Hey, I’ve never shown you the ramps! Follow me!”
“The ramps? What are they?” Will called after him, hopping on his bike and taking off in pursuit.
Ace headed straight for Brookfield Park. It was a big county park, with ball fields, tennis courts, playgrounds, and wooded areas with picnic tables and horse trails. Ace sped straight down the paved pedestrian paths. He slowed at one point, pulled something out of his backpack, and launched it into a garbage can. Will passed the same can a moment later, and tried to see what it was Ace had thrown out. But he only caught a glimpse of red and something that looked like a can.
Musta been soda pop or a sport drink, Will figured as he pedaled harder to try to catch up with the speedy Ace.
“Beep! Beep!” Ace called out.
Ace shot past two startled mothers, who whisked their toddlers out of harm’s way. When Will rode by a moment later, they yelled some nasty things at him.
Will barely had time to say “Sorry!” to the women, because Ace was already racing toward the wooded part of the park, and Will didn’t want to lose sight of him.
Will felt a prickle of annoyance at Ace. Why did he have to do the things he did? If he hadn’t made such a fuss about “Biker Pride Day,” the petition thing probably would have just blown over. And why did he have to litter and scare walkers? It was people like Ace who gave mountain biking a bad reputation, Will was beginning to realize.
Still, Ace had clearly accepted Will as his new, close friend. And Ace was popular. Will didn’t feel like he could afford to refuse that friendship. If he did, he could kiss his new status at school good-bye. And besides, now that Danny, his ex–best friend, hated his guts, Will didn’t have anyone to hang out with. Since joining the bike club, he hadn’t spent much time with his few other pals. If he made Ace angry at him, too, he was sure he’d lose all his friends in the club. Then where would he be? In a social loser land — that’s where.
Ace led him to a path that was hidden from the rest of the park by low-hanging branches of the surrounding trees. Here, a series of natural ramps had been worn into the ground by mountain bikers over the years. There were bumps, jumps, ruts, and dangerous turns — a great practice course!
“Follow me!” Ace told him. “And watch out for the first turn — it’s a killer!” Ace took the ramp at full speed, and Will followed at a more cautious pace.
The ramp was really fun — just hard enough to provide some good thrills without actually endangering your health. It was the kind of place where you could become a really good mountain biker without risk of running into nonbikers. Right now, that was important to Will.
After about twenty minutes, the two boys paused to drink some water and catch their breath.
“Great place!” Will commented truthfully. “It’s cool to have a spot just for mountain bikers.”
Ace shook his head. “Mountain bikers can go anywhere, kiddo — that’s what these babies are built for!” He patted his bike.
“Yeah, but Ace, you nearly killed those ladies and their kids back there. You really ought to watch out.”
“Get real,” Ace said, scowling. “Those people ought to pay attention to the world around them. It’s like, wake up!” He laughed, then took a long gulp of water.
“Yeah, but that’s what gets people mad at bikers,” Will said, trying not to sound argumentative.
But Ace’s mind was on something else. “Do you realize,” he said, “that those mothers do not go to work? There they are, spending their whole entire day with their kids. All day, every day.”
“Yeah, well, those kids are little,” Will pointed out.
“My mom went back to work eight weeks after I was born,” Ace said grimly. “My real mother was the TV”
Will swallowed hard, not sure how to react. “My mom just went back to work full-time last summer,” he ventured. “I watched a lot of TV, too, for a while. Till I started mountain biking.”
Ace emptied his water bottle slowly onto the ground. “I’m telling you, if your mother really cared about you, she wouldn’t work full-time. It’s totally selfish.”
“Well —”
“It’s all about ‘me, me, me and how much money can I make,’ right?” Ace demanded.
“I guess —”
“Do your parents really need all that money?” Ace asked. “Tell the truth. I mean, you’re the one who told me your dad works till eight at night.”
“Seven, actually,” Will corrected him.
“Seven, eight, whatever.” Ace waved him off. “And he drives a nice car, right? And look at the house you live in. Your parents have plenty of money, but your mom would rather work than be with you.” He poked a finger at Will’s bike. “And to top it all off, they were too cheap to spend some of that dough on new goods for you.” He shook his head. “Take it from me, kid. It’s pure selfishness.”
Will didn’t say anything. Part of him felt like sticking up for his mom. Yet another, angry part of him suddenly realized that what Ace was saying was something he himself had been feeling for months. It came as a big shock to Will to realize that he had such feelings. But he knew it was true, and the knowledge left him feeling hollow.
They rode some more, but Will’s heart wasn’t in it. He mostly kept silent, thinking back again and again to the day in June when his mom had first told him about her new job. And he felt his anger rising inside him, like a great, hot, black blob that had been kept down too long.
Will checked his watch. Dang! He was late for dinner. And he still had to stop at school to pick up his backpack. His mother was going to be mad. She knew the library closed at five-thirty. It was already six-thirty. She was going to let him have it, all right.
Well, so what if she’s mad? Will asked himself. He was mad, too! He was madder than her, and had been for a long time. She and his father didn’t care about him. So why should he obey their rules? And if they wanted to fight about it, that was fine with him!
8
By the time Will came home, he was steaming mad. He came in, slammed the door behind him, and dropped his backpack right there in the front hall, where he knew he wasn’t supposed to leave it.
He could hear his mom in the kitchen, taking out plates to set the table. Even from here, he could smell the Chinese food. He remembered when she used to cook meals, back before she went to work full-time. It seemed like years ago. The good old days.
“Will? Is that you?” she called. When he didn’t answer, she repeated, “Will? Come in here, please. I want to talk with you about something.”
Great. Just great. Now what? Was she going to tell him she was working late at the office all next month? He shuffled off to the kitchen with a big chip on his shoulder.
“Yeah? What is it?” he asked in a sour tone of voice as he entered the room and sat down on one of the breakf
ast stools.
What she said took him totally by surprise. “I just got a call from Mr. Rivera,” she said. “He said you were involved in some trouble today. Do you want to tell me about it?”
Will couldn’t believe it! If the principal had called his house, he must also have called the houses of all the other club members. This was not good news. It meant that Mr. Rivera felt they had done something really bad.
“What did he say?” Will asked.
“Never mind that,” his mother said. “I want your version first.”
“Well,” Will began, shifting uncomfortably in his chair, “these other kids were having a petition to ban mountain biking around Montwood and disband the mountain biking club, so we all thought we’d fight back.”
“By disrupting the school recess and vandalizing the school?” she asked, looking dismayed. “Will, I thought you had better sense than to get involved in this kind of thing!”
“But Mom, all we did was make noise and chant slogans and sort of ride around the basketball courts so kids couldn’t just play and ignore us.”
“And spray graffiti on the school walls?” his mother added pointedly.
“What? We did not! That’s a lie!”
“Well, someone did,” she shot back. “Someone sprayed ‘Mountain Bike Mania,’ in big red letters. It’s going to cost the school quite a bit to get it cleaned, too. Mr. Rivera warned me that if you were found to have done it, or even knew about it, you’d be suspended. So I want the truth, and I want it now.”
She sat there across from him, her arms crossed. Will found himself fuming. “I didn’t do it, Mom, and neither did any of the others!” he said hotly. Almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth, though, the image of the object Ace had tossed into the garbage can came back to him. Could it have been a can of spray paint? Will wouldn’t have put it past Ace to have snuck outside during lunch period to spray the message.
“All right,” his mother said. “But I don’t want you going off on your mountain bike until this whole thing has been settled.”
“What?!”
“Look, I can see that you’ve been out biking this afternoon. And don’t try to tell me you haven’t. I can tell by the dirt on your shoes.”
“Okay, so I did. I didn’t feel like going to the library today.”
“Oh, you didn’t feel like it? What about your agreement with us? Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
Will gave a shrug.
“I suppose you’ve already heard that your biking club is under temporary suspension.”
“No, duh,” Will said, rolling his eyes.
“Will Matthews! Are you mocking me?” his mother asked incredulously. “What’s gotten into you, young man?”
“Nothing,” Will said, getting up off the stool to get away from her. He felt like she could see right through him, and he didn’t want her to. “I’m just sticking up for myself, that’s all. Just like you and Dad always do.”
“What do you mean by that?” his mom asked. “And please turn around and look at me when we talk.”
Will turned around, sighing deeply. “I mean, you wanted to make more money, even though we’re not poor, so you went and got a job, even though we have to eat Chinese food every single night now. But that’s okay, because it made you happy. Well, what about me? I finally found something that makes me happy, and now you won’t let me do it!”
“Will, of course I want you to be happy!” she protested. “But I also expect you to act like a responsible person. If you expect to be allowed to go off mountain biking, you’ve got to abide by your agreements and stay out of trouble!” Her lower lip began to tremble. “And I’m sorry if I’ve been selfish, but having a career happens to mean a lot to me.”
Will was torn between his anger and the shame he felt at upsetting his mother. He stormed out of the room, ran up the stairs, and slammed his bedroom door behind him. Collapsing onto the bed, he felt hot tears sting his cheeks.
His life was a total wreck! His best friend hated him, the principal thought he was a juvenile delinquent, he’d driven his own mother to near tears, and worst of all, his parents were never going to let him go mountain biking again!
Will and his parents didn’t talk much for the next couple of days. A few times, Will was about to apologize, but just as he was about to say he was sorry, his dad or his mom would say something to get him all angry again. The family barely managed to have meals together, and the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
The worst time was Friday after school. With no biking club, there was nothing to do except read and watch TV. Will didn’t feel like reading today — it was something his parents would have approved of — so he just watched TV nonstop, before dinner and after, until he fell asleep in front of the tube around midnight.
The next morning, he had just eaten breakfast and was about to go flip on the TV again, when he saw Ace Diamond outside the kitchen window, signaling for Will to meet him outside.
Will’s dad’s face was hidden behind his newspaper. His mom was flipping through a magazine, eating her cereal. Neither one of them made any move to talk to him. What were they doing? he wondered. Waiting for him to make the first move? And they accused him of being immature!
Well, if he was angry, that was his business. He nodded through the window at Ace, then signaled for him to come around to the front of the house.
Will went into the living room and quietly opened the front door. “Hi,” he said.
“Hey, I’m going riding,” Ace said. “Wanna come?”
“Can’t. I’m grounded, at least on my bike. Want to come in for a while?”
“Nah.” Ace glanced around. “I can’t believe this. Nobody’s parents are letting them bike! It’s all because Mr. Rivera called people’s houses.” Ace made a bitter face. “I hate that guy.”
“Hey, Ace,” Will asked, coming outside and closing the door behind him. “Do you know anything about some graffiti that got sprayed on the school walls?”
“Huh? Oh, that. No. What about it?”
Something in Ace’s reaction told Will he knew more than he was telling, but Will let it pass. He figured it was pointless to argue with Ace Diamond. Ace wasn’t the kind of person you could convince of anything, and if you didn’t watch yourself, before you knew it, he’d have convinced you of his point of view.
“Come on,” Ace said. “My folks don’t know I’m out either. I’m supposed to show up at the shop at ten.”
“Won’t they notice you’re not there?” Will wondered.
“You think they care?” Ace retorted. “You think your parents care? You think they’ll even notice you’re gone?”
Will thought about it. His mom and dad would probably think he was up in his room on the computer. “Maybe not,” he admitted.
“There, what did I tell you? Nobody really cares what we do. Come on, let’s go. I’ve saved my favorite ride for today. We’re gonna go for the gold, kid!”
Will nodded and opened the door a bit to see if his parents had noticed him go out. Nothing had changed. He shut the door again. “How far is this place?” he asked.
“In Morton State Forest,” Ace told him. “The canyon trail. It’s da bomb, I’m telling you. Better than the best roller coaster!”
“Okay!” Will said in a whisper. The thrill of sneaking off and doing something forbidden crept over him. This would show his parents he couldn’t be locked up in the house like some six-year-old!
The garage door was open. He got his bike and gear and backed out into the driveway. There, he straddled his bike while he put on his pads, gloves, and helmet. “I sure hope I don’t get in trouble for this,” he couldn’t help saying as he gave his house one last backward glance.
“You’re already in trouble,” Ace shot back with a grin. “What’s a little more gonna matter?”
All the way there — and it must have been a good seventeen miles — Ace talked to Will and Will listened. All about trails he’d rid
den, and dares he’d taken, and bikes he’d tried, and maneuvers he’d perfected.
It seemed to Will that Ace knew everything there was to know about mountain biking. And hadn’t Julian at the bike shop said so? Will soaked in the information, storing it away for future use.
At last, they arrived at the trail into the forest. Will checked his watch. They’d been gone just about an hour. With the ride, and the trip back, his parents were sure to notice that he was missing. What would they think? And what would they say when they learned the truth?
Will tried to put the thought out of his mind. The state forest was a fantastic place, with giant old trees soaring hundreds of feet into the air. There was very little undergrowth — just the carpet of needles and a few shrubs — and as they climbed higher into the hills, Ace led Will off the trail and into the heart of the woods!
“Wow!” Will gasped as they took air to leapfrog a small ravine that stood in their way. “This is unbelievable! But are you sure we’re not damaging the forest floor?”
Ace turned to him in disbelief. His bike wobbled under him as he waited for Will to catch up. “Damaging the forest floor?” he repeated mockingly. “Is that what you said?” He laughed derisively. “Give me a break! You’re not one of those tree-hugging enviro-fanatics, are you?”
“Well, no, I’ve, never actually hugged any trees, but —”
“Whatever’s growing on the forest floor will grow back, or it won’t,” Ace said with a shrug, and pushed on ahead. “Plants don’t have feelings, so who cares?”
They crested a hill, and before them, the slope took a steep dive down into a dark ravine. “Ya-hoooo!” Ace yelled. Will opened his mouth to yell, too. But nothing came out.
The steep grade and the lack of rocks or ruts made this a perfect place to practice downhill riding. Ahead of him, Will saw Ace deliberately spin out, creating a terrible scar in the soft earth at the bottom of the slope.
“Man, you’re going to ruin the run!” Will complained.
“Shut up! You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Ace retorted. “I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you, and I know a lot more about it. So don’t tell me what to do, okay? Not ever!”
Mountain Bike Mania Page 6