Dan woke up alone again that morning, and this time Jack wasn’t outside practicing. A note scribbled on a scrap of paper told him she was at school and wouldn’t be returning until around one that afternoon. He looked over at the clock to see that it was a quarter past twelve. Dan took his time getting ready. He was still in the shower when Jack got home.
“Danny, I’m home!” she called out.
“I’m in the shower!” he yelled back.
“Okay. I’ve got lunch. Is Chinese good with you?”
“Yeah, just fine.”
After Dan got out of the shower, they ate their lunch in absolute silence. Jack seemed particularly irritated about something and wasn’t talking about it. Dan finally spoke up and asked, “What happened?”
“Seth,” she simply replied with a disgusted look on her face. “He’s an asshole. We are the two biggest contenders at the X-Games this year, and he happens to be my ex-boyfriend. I ran into him today and, of course, got into a shouting match. I really wish he wasn’t so confrontational, but NO, he has to come up to me every time he sees me and brag about how many wins he has against me, which, frankly, isn’t that many. That boy just wants to grow his ego to the size of Jupiter, especially in the presence of his friends. I try to ignore him, but he seems to be everywhere!”
“Don’t worry about him,” Dan said. He patted her shoulder and added, “You’re gonna kick his ass at the X-Games this weekend.”
“I know,” Jack confidently answered. She finished her lunch and threw out her plastic plate. “I’m going to practice. You know where I’ll be.”
“Hold up, Jack.” She turned around just as she was about to hop down the fire escape.
“What?”
“Wear a helmet,” Dan ordered.
“Oh, come on, Danny!” Jack began to protest.
“I don’t give a damn about your reasons. I saw that fall you took yesterday, and frankly, I don’t want to see you get killed out there because of not wearing a helmet,” he sternly replied.
Jack rolled her eyes and went back to the living room. She dug through the closet by the door until she found her old black helmet and placed it on top of her head to show Dan it was too small for her. He made a face then she took it off and threw it back into the closet.
“Find me a new helmet and I’ll wear it,” she retorted. Jack walked down the fire escape with her skateboard beneath her arm and climbed the ramp. She began with the easy moves first and gradually worked her way up to the more complicated stuff. She was much better on her skateboard than she was on the roller blades. Dan could see by the rarity of her falls that she had much better coordination on the board than on the blades.
After about an hour, Jack quit and went back upstairs. “Lets go to the beach,” she said, pulling Dan inside with her out of the midday heat. “Do you have your wet suit?”
“Yeah, why?” Dan asked.
“I wanna go surfing,” Jack replied as she rummaged through her closet to find her wet suit and sapphire bikini. She closed the door to change and stepped out minutes later to find that Dan was already waiting for her.
“You got an extra board?” he asked.
“Always have a spare,” Jack said, pulling her white and green flame board out of the front closet along with a pale blue and red striped board that used to be Nadia’s. “I know the perfect place to catch the best waves,” she said as they walked down the fire escape and out onto the beach behind the apartment complex. About a mile down, they reached a secluded spot behind an outcropping of jagged rocks. The waves reached heights between six and seven feet, perfect for the novice surfer.
Jack paddled out as far as she could and waited for the perfect wave to catch. Dan followed, watching her as she carefully picked the best wave that would carry her safely back to shore. He followed her again and concentrated on trying not to wipe out. He had never been as good at these types of sports as Jack.
Dan flew into the water seconds later. ‘Damn, I hope she didn’t see that,’ he prayed, swimming to the surface and towards the beach. Jack was already standing there laughing and holding her stomach.
“I can’t believe you! I picked the easiest wave and you manage to wipe out on it,” she giggled. Jack swam back out into the water and caught another wave as Dan laid out on the beach, exhausted. He extended his arms and let the sun warm his cold body as he waited for Jack to come back.
Dan could hear her feet plodding down the beach and said, “This is a great day.”
Jack flopped down next to him and replied, “Yeah, even though the waves suck out here compared to the ones out in Hawaii.”
“Jack, is there any time during the day that you don’t think about sports?” he questioned. “And don’t tell me school because I know when you zone out, that’s the only thing you tend to think about.”
“Damn,” she answered. “Danny, I can honestly say that I think about sports 24/7. I don’t remember the last time I didn’t think about them. No, wait, yeah, I do. The last time I didn’t have my mind on sports was when I dated Seth. He screwed me over in competitions because I always thought about him and never about how I was doing. I think that’s why I haven’t gone out on a date in four years.”
“Four years!” came Dan’s surprised reply. “Have you even had a crush on anyone?”
Jack thought for a moment and said, “No. It’s always sports, sports, and more sports.”
‘No wonder she’s so hostile towards Darren,’ Dan thought. “I should set you up with one of my friends that don’t do sports. Maybe then…” he said aloud, but stopped short of telling her what was on his mind.
“Maybe then what?” she asked.
“Nothing, nothing at all,” Dan tried to cover up.
Jack jumped on top of him and said, “You’re telling me no matter what because of you don’t, I’m gonna tickle you to death.”
“Okay! Okay!” he finally gave up as he hands fell upon his stomach. “I was going to say maybe then you wouldn’t be so hostile towards 99.9% of the male population.”
“I’m not hostile towards 99.9% of the male population!” Jack shouted back. “You might get the idea that I am because of the way I’ve been acting the last few days, but I’m really not like that. And how can you make such an assumption based upon the last few days you’ve spent with me? You’ve missed out on six years of my life.”
“If you’re not usually that hostile, then why don’t you give Darren a chance to apologize?” Dan reasoned.
Jack rolled off his body and stared at him thoughtfully. “Maybe you’re right,” she finally mumbled as she stood up and walked back up the beach towards the apartment complex.