girlfriend, and all I've got is a grotesquely swollen right eye."
Betty took his other hand. "Yeah. So imagine the look on his face when you show up with not one, but two hot chicks on your arm?"
The three of them smiled and stood up. Becker walked with them across the lawn.
Phoebe let go of his hand. "I'll bet you anything that Ian will instantly forgive you for every time you've slammed his head into a locker, once he sees that you've been sufficiently humbled. He's just that sort of guy."
"I'll see you girls tomorrow."
Betty had a final question. "Becker, I just remembered...there's one last thing I wanted to ask you about."
"Yeah?"
"Rita and Ian told me that you mentioned my name while you were jogging with them in phys-ed last Monday...But they wouldn't tell me what exactly it was that you said. Would you like to shed a little light on that?"
"Um, I can't remember what I said," he lied. "I guess it couldn't have been all that important."
9:05 am
As Rita was getting dressed, her phone rang. It was Trish.
"Hello dear, what's up?"
"Just calling to remind you to be at the Hasting Academy over on 15th street in an hour."
"I'm getting dressed as we speak." She pulled up her pants while holding the phone with her shoulder and her cheek. "You know, you always seem to know stuff before everyone else does. By any chance, do you have any idea what this could possibly be about?"
"Well, he's deliberately not being specific about anything. All I could manage to get out of him is that it has something or other to do with his bike." Trish suddenly remembered Ian's admonishment. "Please don't tell him I told you that, though. I'm sure he wants you to be completely surprised."
Rita thought about this for about fifteen seconds, and then put two and two together. On numerous occasions over the last couple of months, she had passed the Hasting school while riding in the back seat of the family car. Occasionally, there would be a bunch of kids on bikes and skateboards messing around on crudely made ramps in the school's yard area. So this was the activity that Ian had been busying himself with last week that accounted for the wide time lapse in between picking up the videos, and arriving at her house with them. Up until now, it never occurred to her that he might've actually been using the pegs on his bike for what they were meant for, and not just giving her rides.
"Uh, Rita, are you still there?" Asked Trish.
"Yeah...I'm sorry. Look Trish, I'll see you in an hour. There's something I've got to do real fast."
"Alright. Bye."
"Bye."
Rita could barely contain her excitement. She also had a secret that she had never told Ian, or for that matter, anybody else at Alamanda middle school. Back at Harrison, her old school, she had actually won ribbons for her skills as a BMX flatlander. She quickly abandoned her plans to put on something nice, and instead, threw on one of Ian's shirts, a pair of torn jeans, and some knee pads. She ran out to the garage, and got out her bike, which she hadn't ridden since the summer. Her reasons for abandoning it were twofold. She didn't really need it, because her new house was within easy walking distance of her new school. Also, gymnastics and softball had both replaced it has her principal athletic focus this year. The thought of having yet something else in common with Ian was making her heart pound. Now the two of them would have something they could do together outdoors.
She grabbed the helmet that was draped over the handlebars and put it on. The instant she got on her bike, all her old skills came back to her as if she had never stopped doing them. This was going to be a great morning. She pedaled out towards 15th Street with her spirits soaring.
9:45 AM
Meanwhile, Steven and Trish had arrived at the schoolyard. There were now bleachers set up on either side of the half-pipe, and they were sitting in the top row. There were lots of other people scattered throughout the six rows of seats, presumably friends and family of the kids riding the bikes and skateboards. Trish and Steven looked at the ramp, and then at each other in a disbelieving manner.
"Is Ian actually going to ride his bike down and up that thing?" Trish was understandably somewhat skeptical of his abilities at anything that might require a lot of physical coordination.
"Apparently." Steven was equally dubious. "Then again, he might just be doing something over there with those guys" He pointed towards another section of the yard, where a group of flatlanders were going through the motions. "Even that would be impressive. I've seen him fall on his face numerous times, just trying to pop a wheelie."
"Hello fellow spectators," Sheila's voice came from the side of the bleachers. She sat down next to Steven, taking his arm in hers.
"Hello dearie," Steven kissed her on the cheek.
Trish was impressed. She never even considered the possibility that owlish Steven might actually have a girlfriend, let alone a pretty one. Sheila was now wearing a somewhat low-cut shirt, and seemed to be completely comfortable dressed that way.
"Believe it or not, it looks like our dear foolish friend Ian is about to try his hand at extreme sports," Steven informed her.
"Well, I wouldn't worry too much about it," Sheila countered. "No matter how hard or often that guy gets beaten up or falls off that bike, he always seems to emerge with very little damage."
"Howdy all," Betty's familiar voice alerted everyone to three arrivals climbing up the bleacher steps. By this time, everyone knew that Phoebe and Ian had become good friends, but seeing Becker came as a shock, even to Trish. It seems that within a week, Ian went from being completely friendless to completely enemy less.
"What on earth happened to you?" Steven asked, eyeing Becker's bandaged face.
"Uh, I had a little accident."
Phoebe, Becker and Betty all took a seat in the next row down, just in time to see four figures carrying their bikes up to the half-pipe's platform. One of them was wearing a familiar long-sleeved striped shirt.
"Holy shit!" Exclaimed Phoebe. "What the hell has he gotten himself into?"
"My thoughts exactly," Trish concurred.
It was then that Steven looked over his shoulder and spotted Rita gliding down the street while actually standing on her bike's handlebars.
"Excuse me, I'll be right back." Steven jumped down off the bleachers and intercepted Rita.
"Hello, Steven."
"Rita, what're you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing? The rumour got around that Ian is secretly a BMX wiz. I can't wait to see the look on his face when he finds out that I'm one too."
"I don't think that it's necessarily going to be a look of elation."
"What're you talking about?"
"Ian really wanted to surprise you with this," He sighed. "And he was also looking forward to teaching you how to do this stuff."
"Well, I'll save him the trouble..."
"Come on Rita!" Steven cut her off. "Have a little respect for the male ego." For once will you at least allow him to think that he might actually be better than you at something?"
Rita took off her helmet, and proceeded to lock her bike under the bleachers. "Look Steven. Obviously I'm not going to be able to keep this a secret, but I'll let him have his moment in the sun. Who knows? Maybe he's actually better than me at this, and really will be able to teach me something."
"I seriously doubt that." Steven shook his head.
The two of them climbed into the top row of the bleachers with Steven resuming his seat next to Sheila. Rita sat down in between Sheila and Trish. It was then that she suddenly noticed the giant vert ramp that had been erected specifically for this occasion, and nearly had a coronary.
"My God, what the hell is that!?" She was horrified. Everyone else was a bit surprised by he
r sudden outburst.
"Um, I believe that in surfing vernacular, that is what is known as a 'big- half-pipe'," answered Steven.
It was at this moment that she and Steven noticed four helmeted figures with bikes at the top of one side of the half-pipe. The one that was wearing a striped rugby shirt waved to them.
Rita started to panic. "There's no way I'm letting him go through this just to impress me. He can barely hit a baseball, and he's going to get himself killed!" She started to get up, but Trish and Sheila both grabbed each arm, and yanked her back down in her seat.
Trish gave her a stern look, "Sometimes, a man's got to do what a man's got to do."
Sheila chimed in, "You're his chick, not his mother. Sit down and behave yourself."
Meanwhile, the conversation taking place between the bikers on the platform also had some trepidation.
"Is that your girlfriend over there?" Freddy noticed Ian waving to Rita.
"Yeah. Up until now, she didn't know anything about this," Ian replied.
Freddy was amused by the panicked look on Rita's face. "If you don't mind my saying so, she doesn't appear to be too happy about it either."
"Yeah, She worries a lot about me."
"She's pretty too. You sure you want to risk giving her a heart attack?"
"I'm just returning the favor," Ian mused. "She's a gymnast, and she's already gotten seriously hurt once. When she gets back on that balance beam in a couple of weeks, I'm going to be a lot more nervous than she is right now."
"Well, you had about a