The sound of the skateboard up and down the hallway is driving Ella insane. She sits at her desk, trying to read a book. All she hears is: scraaaape, scraaaape, thud! She pokes her head out of her bedroom door. “Mom said not to skateboard in the house!” she yells at her brother. “It’s Saturday afternoon, Nerd! Take a break!” Ella slams her bedroom door. How dare he!
Then, she opens the bedroom door again and watches quietly. It does seem like fun, actually. “Hey,” she calls after him. “Let me try.” “No way, Nerd! Not after you just yelled at me to stop.” Ugh! Ella slams the door again and goes back to her desk. She hears Joseph pick up the board and run down the stairs. Outside, his friends are all waiting for him. They all have their skateboards.
Maybe I spend too much time indoors, Ella thinks. Closing the book on her desk, she puts on a jacket and follows her brother outside. He’s skating up and down the block now, showing off for all his friends. She walks up behind him, waving her hands. He sees her, but pretends not to. “Hey, Joseph! Hey!” “Get lost,” he says. “Can I skate with you?” “I said get lost,” he says. “Girls can’t skate.” All his friends start laughing. “Girls can’t skate,” they repeat, sneering. Ella feels tears well up in her eyes, but she won’t let the boys see her cry. Girls can’t skate? Maybe that’s because you won’t even let me try!
She’s about halfway up the block when she hears a voice call out after her. “Hey Ella! Wait up!” It’s one of Joseph’s friends. He looks sheepish and a bit frightened. She spins around angrily. “What do you want from me?” “I…I… just thought…” “You just thought that girls can’t skate, so you wanted to come and make fun of me?” The boy looks at the ground. “No, I just thought maybe you’d like to try out my board a little bit. I can show you how to use it.” Ella wonders if maybe it’s a trick, but the boy seems so sincere. He holds out the board to her, and she takes it.
“My name is Jake,” he says. “Let me show you how to ride.” “What about my brother?” she asks. They both turn to look for Joseph. At the end of the street, he grabs one end of his board and flips around in the air. He’s busy impressing his friends. “Come on,” Jake says, “He can’t notice anyone but himself right now.” Jake takes her by the hand and leads her to a small patch of concrete next to the lawn. “This way if you fall, you’ll fall on the grass,” he says. “I’m afraid to fall,” Ella says. “You can’t learn if you’re afraid to fall,” Jake says. “But what if I hurt myself?”
Jake hands her a helmet. It’s covered with stickers from all his favorite skate punk bands. “But if you do fall, this way, you won’t end up in the hospital with a concussion.” He shows her how to stand on the board, how to place her feet in a comfortable position, and how to shove off with one foot. Ella stands on the board and feels herself wobble back and forth. It looks so easy when Jake does it. She isn’t sure what to do with her hands and waves them around wildly in the air. Suddenly, she feels the earth move from her feet to her head. WOAAAH! Her head hits the grass with a clunk. “Good thing you had that helmet on,” Jake says. Ella is lying on the ground. She looks at her arm and gasps. Her elbow is bleeding a little. “Hey, we’d better stop now. You’re hurt!” Jake says. “I can take it,” Ella tells him. “I can’t learn if I’m afraid to fall, right?”
They keep practicing until it starts to get dark. They both have so much fun, they completely lose track of time. “Oh no! I missed dinner!” Jake says, finally noticing the time. “Oh no!” Ella says. “Well, I guess you’d better take your board and go home.” She is trying to disguise the hurt in her voice, but she cannot. “You were better at hiding your pain when you fell on your elbow, Ella.” Ella laughs. “Yeah,” she says, looking down at her feet. “I guess I’m kind of sad about it ending.” “Tell you what, Ella. Why don’t you keep the board for a week?” “Really? Do you mean it?” “Absolutely. I mean it!” Jake says. “I…uh.” Jake stutters and gives her a big hug. She hates to admit it, but the hug feels really nice. “I promise to give it back in good condition!” “Hey, maybe it’s just an excuse to see you again,” he says.
The next day, Ella wakes up early and takes the board outside. She practices everything Jake taught her and only falls a few times. The scrape on her elbow is already almost completely healed. When Saturday comes around again, she wakes up extra early. She wants to have as much time as possible with the board. She’s even taught herself a new trick, one she learned herself by watching a video online. It’s called an Ollie. She does it 10 times and falls. She does it 10 more times and almost completes it. After 10 more tries, she is finally successful.
When Jake comes around the corner, she’s jumping in the air, the board flying right along with her. She sees Jake smile and start to applaud, and she’s down in the grass again.
“That was amazing!” Jake says. “Yeah, well, you didn’t see me fall about 50 times before I actually did it!” she says. In the distance, they hear someone calling Jake’s name. It’s her brother. He comes skating around the corner along with the rest of his friends. “Jake, we’ve been looking for you everywhere!” he says. And then he sees his sister lying in the grass. “I told you!” he says, holding his sides and doubling over. “I told you girls can’t skate!” “I can!” Ella yells. “I’ll prove it to you!”
Ella gets up and starts to do the trick, but Jake runs over and stops her. “You don’t owe anybody an explanation,” he says. “Are you crazy?” Ella asks him. Joseph and his friends are walking away now, still laughing and saying she can’t skate. “You and I both know you can do it, and we know how hard you’ve been working. No matter what you do, they’ll find a way to make fun of you.” “I guess you’re right,” Ella says.
She puts the board down and executes a perfect Ollie. “I saw that,” Jake says. “You’re capable of a lot of great things.” At that exact moment, Ella loses her balance and goes tumbling to the ground. Jake reaches into the grass to take her hand. “It’s a good thing I’m not afraid to fall...” Ella says. “Or I’d never know I had good friends there to help me back up again.” They hug each other for what seems like a very long time. “Same time next week?” Jake asks. “I’ll see you then,” Ella says. She heads home knowing she has a lot more practice ahead of her, but that’s okay.
Colofon
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Auteur
Patricia Termeer
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Laatst gewijzigd
2016-02-15 19:57:24
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