• Jordan gently glided her board across the sparkling blue ocean. Finally, she could forget the fact that their beautiful island was being overthrown with teenage boy skateboarders.
    “They’re just like you, only they have wheels on their boards,” said her mom as she licked the nacho cheese of her fingers. “Oh, oh-” sensing a joke coming on, Jordan started to leave. Her mom’s jokes were some of the worst in history. It was embarrassing just being related to her when she started cracking her “wise-jokes”. “And they ride ‘wooden waves’ instead of wet ones.” She chuckled at her own joke and stuffed more chips in her mouth.
    It didn’t help that she used to be one of those skateboarders. Once, she loved it, the thrill, the energy and the wind that tousled her hair, all of it. But it didn’t have the one thing she wanted the most; a language to listen to. Her dad had always told her that everything has a soul and a language. If you looked deep in your heart, you will hear it. Of course, Jordan was young back then, and she thought it was all nonsense. But when she rode her first wave, she heard it. It wasn’t some song of violins; it was of a rock concert for her. The thrill and beat of it hummed through her and she took up surfing every since. Of course, there were other reasons why she didn't skateboard, but she rather forget thoughs.
    Jordan sighed. Surfing was an art and a privilege to do. You had to honor it and never go beyond your bearings. Skateboarding was a pig’s game, where snot-nosed boys laughed at each other and nearly killed themselves everyday. They ruined all of the fun for the younger kids and had no consideration for Hawaii’s nature and beauty.
    Jordan dipped her board down and slid under a wave. She looked up with a blurry vision just in time to see white foam crash behind her in a roar. This was the life she always wanted. And she planned to keep it that way, even if it meant facing the skate rats in person.
    ***************************************************************************************************
    After a good hour of surfing, Jordan dried herself off and lifting her board up under her arm, and started towards the new skate park. It was really quite ugly. Black half-pipes and chrome everywhere, it was a dramatic difference to the green jungles and blue oceans. Leaning her black and white surfboard against the metal fence, Jordan walked in with a slight swagger. She couldn’t help it; when she was nervous, she would stuff her hands in her blue trunks and flip her hi-top shoes up and out.
    Looking about her, Jordan noticed that she was the only girl there. Not that you could notice. Her shoulder length copper-brown hair stuck to her head, still damp from earlier, completely blended in with the guy’s. She walked over to one of the many half-pipes and stood off to the side, watching what looked to be the best out of the five up there. Jordan wasn’t convinced. His foot placement was all-wrong, and when he kicked up off the edge, his arms dangled too much, causing him to fall off.
    “You’re doing it all wrong, you know,” Jordan said with half a heart.
    The boy turned to look down at her and said:
    “You think you can do better, little girl?”
    Jordan thought for a second. She wasn’t all surprised; she had expected it the instant she opened her mouth. Jordan wasn’t afraid of messing up, no, what they were doing was amateur stuff, but if her mom found out, they would hold it against her in ways she had yet to know.
    Jordan looked up and smiled.
    “Give me a skateboard and I’ll show you how it’s done.”
    She ran up the half-pipe to the boy. He was a lot taller then she thought; almost a head taller. Brown hair and hazel eyes, he was good-looking, but Jordan hardly noticed. She was more focused on what she was going to do then admiring boys.
    “Ryan, you’re the smallest and probably fit her size, give her your skateboard and helmet.”
    Ryan was a skinny tall boy with bright green eyes and sandy brown hair. He gave her his skateboard and while passing his helmet to Jordan, said: “Safety first, right?”
    Jordan smiled a little and put the helmet on. The boy was right. The helmet was snug on her head. She found some pads for her knees and elbows and started to stretch. All the boys stared.
    “What are you doing? Hurry up and start,” said the boy impatiently.
    Before she could answer, Ryan said, “She’s stretching, duh. Safety first, right?”
    Jordan smiled again and agreed.
    “Yeah, safety first.”
    And she hopped on her board and dove down. For a moment, everything was spinning, and Jordan felt as though just starting to learn, but everything came back to her and she was on fire. Seven years of hard training paid of in this one instant. Up, up she went, and she gripped the board in the air and turned, landing just inches from the edge. Down, up, down again, turn after turn, flip after flip, she nailed everything she tried for. Finally, she kicked down her skateboard at the edge and jumped off it. The boys were all in awe, completely silent. The “best” of the five came up to her and put out his hand.
    “Kevin,”
    Jordan didn’t take it. Instead, she walked to Ryan, handing back his skateboard and helmet saying, “Thanks for the board and helmet. Jordan,”
    “Ryan,” Ryan said as he took them back.
    Jordan turned to Kevin. He had a smug look and didn’t look Jordan in the eye. Jordan smirked a little and slid down the half-pipe on her padded knees. Once she straightened up, Jordan ripped of the pads and flung them up to Kevin, who caught it just in time. Jordan turned on her heels and started out. Faintly, she heard Ryan say he had to leave and the sound of pads against wood. Jordan didn’t turn back. Instead, she continued to stride over to her board.
    “Hey!”
    Jordan turned and nearly collided with Ryan.
    “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to, you know,” Ryan was babbling now.
    “It’s totally OK. You don’t need to say sorry.”
    Jordan reached her board and leaned her back against the fence. Ryan faced her with skateboard in hand. Now that his helmet was off and Jordan took a good look at him, she realized how tan he was. She looked at him with question, not exactly knowing what he wanted from her. Jordan bit her lip.
    “So, is there something you want? Or do you really need to go home?”
    Ryan glanced at Kevin and the boys back behind her and smiled.
    “Yeah, I really need to go home. Mom likes me to be there to help her with dinner. I also kinda wanted to, you know,” he got nervous at this point and put weight on his legs back and forth. “walk you home.”
    Jordan looked at him with surprise but didn’t say anything. She really didn’t know what to say. This was the first time a boy even looked at her with any kind of interest. And now, some good-looking boy was offering to walk her home.
    “I mean, if you don’t want to, it’s OK. I understand.” Ryan started to leave.
    “No, wait!” Jordan zoned back and picking up her surfboard, ran to Ryan. “I’d love it if you walk me home, although I don’t know how far your house is to mine.”
    Ryan just shrugged it off and asked if he could carry her surfboard. Jordan lifted her eyebrow. Now he was offering to carry her board?
    “OK, but I’ll take your skateboard; and your helmet,” Jordan gave him her board in exchange for Ryan’s. Then she gently reached over to his helmet buckle and clicked it opened. Jordan bit her lip as she pulled off his helmet. Ryan’s hair tumbled in short layers. Jordan grinned and plopped the helmet on her own head and kicked off onto the skateboard.
    “Hey!” Ryan ran after Jordan, without much success. “Is this the only reason you said yes to me? To steal my skateboard?”
    Jordan turned her head back to him.
    “You bet!”
    Suddenly, she felt the skateboard stall and her body fall forward.
    “Woah!”
    Jordan toppled onto the grassy edge of the sidewalk in a giggle fit. Ryan ran up to her and looked over her, his eyes full of concern.
    “Are you OK, Jordan?”
    “Yeah-I’m fine-just…” Jordan couldn’t stop laughing. Once Ryan realized she was unhurt, he too started to laugh. For a few minute, they were like old friends, laughing at some “inside joke”. They were both flat on their backs, still laughing, when a silver convertible came rushing past them. It slowed on pasting Jordan and Ryan.
    “Hey! Look who it is! It’s Jordan! And look, she’s finally got a boyfriend!” said a familiar, high-pitched voice.
    Jordan instantly stopped laughing. She sat up and gave a blank stare, with a slight snarl, to the bleach blonde girl.
    “Oh, you don’t have to give me the ‘ugly look’. You already are!” With a cackle like a witch, she sped off in her shiny car.
    Jordan’s face was composed of many emotions. Pain, angry, sadness, and deep down, love. Without a word, she got up and picked up her board.
    “I’m sorry you had to see that. I’m just going to go,” she turned to leave, but Ryan caught her by the arm.
    “You’re just going to leave me in the dirt? Come on, I don’t care what she says about you. I still get to walk you home, right?”
    Jordan was in total shock. Her feelings for Ryan before had been subtle. To her, he had just been a boy with a nice face. But, now… Jordan had never been able to express her feelings well. How was she supposed to tell, show, this guy that she really appreciated what he'd just said.
    Jordan just smiled and gestured with her head to the road.
    “We going or what?”
    When they reached the corner, Jordan turned to Ryan and took a deep breath.
    “Ryan, I am really grateful of you for ignoring what Ashley said and walking me home. It’s the first time someone has ever done it and I just don’t really know what to say. I don’t know, it’s just…”
    Ryan started to laugh and put his hands on Jordan’s shoulders.
    “I got it. You’re welcome.”
    Jordan bit her lip and pointed her thumb to a green house near the corner.
    “I’m just gonna go,” she turned and went. She looked back once, noticing that Ryan was still standing at the corner. Jordan waved, and when she saw Ryan return the wave, she smiled and ran to the garage.