CHAPTER 18
It was Sunday morning at six--daybreak--and Bo and Jimmy were on their bikes, riding to meet Jenny and Melissa and go surfing.
If you could wake up, the early morning was the best time to surf because there was no wind and the sets of waves were spaced apart just right. You didn't have one wave crashing into another and creating whitewater, like you often did in the afternoons when the wind came and the ocean got churned up.
"How'd you sleep?" Bo asked, as they turned left on Palm Avenue toward Melissa's house.
"That air mattress you gave me," Jimmy said. "Dude, that thing needed some serious air."
"I know," said Bo. "Everyone says that. You can only blow it up so far. It feels like rocks underneath you."
"Gee, thanks for telling me now. I would have slept on the couch or something. Or not slept over at all."
"But you love sleeping over at the B-Dog's, because that's where it's all happening, brother!"
Bo was still exhilarated and feeling giddy from last night's performance.
"Guy plays one gig," Jimmy said, "thinks he's Van Halen."
Jenny and Melissa were out front. They looked cold and tired.
"Hey you guys! Thanks for coming!" Bo said. Nobody answered.
They started off toward the beach.
The thing that was nice about modern surfing was surfboards were so small that you could actually ride your board to the beach in a rack on the side of your bike. You had to learn to surf at first on a bigger board because it was more stable, but once you got decent you went to the shortboard which was more fun and maneuverable. Sticking up out of your bike rack, it didn't look all that much bigger than a longboard skateboard.
"What a great morning!" Bo said, as they were crossing Acacia Avenue. "First we hit the surf. Then how about we finish it off with a couple hard sets of paddle tennis? In fact, you're all in luck because I happen to have four paddles right here in my backpack. How's that sound?"
No one responded.
"You can see they're thrilled to be around rock stars," Jimmy said.
"Hey, they're here though, right?" Bo said. "We're lucky, one of them might even smile."
They glanced toward Jenny and Melissa, who were both looking straight ahead as they pedaled, with grim expressions on their faces.
"Or not," Bo said.
They got to the beach and pulled on their wetsuits. In southern California you could boogie board or fool around in the water without a wetsuit on a hot spring afternoon, but to go surfing without one at six thirty in the morning was tough. You saw the occasional person going in with just their swim suit--usually some old guy--but they had to get out pretty fast.
There were a dozen surfers in the water on the north side of the pier. Bo recognized Dirk Lefroni out there with his dad. Lefroni saw Bo and gave him a thumbs up. Bo had to give the guy credit--he had ridden backwards down the stage steps on his unicycle as part of his routine last night.
After a couple of minutes in the ocean, Jenny started to come alive. While Bo and Jimmy and Melissa could catch waves and stand up and basically angle their boards left or right, Jenny was flying all over the place, constantly changing direction to get the maximum propulsion out of each wave.
Her "cut back"--where she'd be low on a wave and turn the board to shoot back up to the crest--was lightning fast, and sometimes her feet were almost higher than her head and you couldn't believe she wasn't falling off. Just at the exact right moment when the wave started losing momentum, she'd end her ride by "kicking out" over the top, and she'd paddle into position for the next one.
They surfed for an hour and a half and then sat on the beach for a while.
"You gonna compete next year, Jen?" Jimmy asked, meaning would she try out for the surf team in high school.
"I've haven't really thought about it," she said. "There's no girls team though, is there? The girls have to surf with the guys, right?"
"Yeah--but so what?" said Bo. "You can out-surf them all, except maybe for Skip Malakai, and he's probably going to turn pro!"
"I'd feel better if they had a girls team, though," Jenny said.
"You guys looking forward to it?" Jimmy said.
"What?" said Bo.
"Next year--going to Del B."
"Oh yeah, big time," said Bo.
"I am SO ready to get out of Huckabee," Melissa said.
"Me to," said Jenny.
"I'm not looking forward to it," Jimmy said..
"You aren't?" said Melissa.
"Lot of changes," Jimmy said. "You know what happens--everyone starts doing different stuff, spreading out in different directions."
"Dude, you're going serious on us now," Bo said.
"Not trying to," said Jimmy.
"Yeah, well, for sure one thing's not gonna change," Bo said. "Melissa and I are going to own you and Jen in paddle tennis today, just like we always have, always will."
"You want to put a little money on that, since you're so full of yourself?" Jimmy said.
"I'd be glad to, except you're broke, remember? In fact--I seem to remember something about 40 bucks.”
Twenty minutes later they were at the 11th Street paddle tennis courts, warming up on Court 3, the same court Hamburg and Arrington had hauled Bo and Jimmy off of last summer before stuffing them into the two garbage cans.
Paddle tennis was easier and more fun than regular tennis. The court looked identical to a tennis court but was about half the size. You used a tennis ball that you stuck a pin into to let out the pressure, and paddles that made a satisfying "thwap!" every time you hit a shot. You didn't have to be very good at paddle tennis to have nice long rallies.
In the first set, Jimmy didn't do anything special but his partner Jenny hit a lot of put-a-way shots from up at the net, and their team won 6-4. Bo and Melissa toughened up in the second set and took it 6-3. Now, whoever won the third set would win the match.
At 4 games apiece, Bo lost the first two points by hitting his serves over the line. Then Melissa hit a ball into the net. The next point, Jimmy mis-hit a forehand that landed low and skidded off the left sideline. Melissa raced over but couldn't get it on one bounce, so Jimmy and Jenny won that game to go ahead 5-4.
Jimmy hit two shots out, giving the first two points of the next game to Bo and Melissa, but Bo then hit one into the net and Jenny hit a soft drop shot that bounced twice for a winner. That made it 30-all. If Jimmy and Jenny could win these next two points, they would win the match and defeat Bo and Melissa for the first time ever.
This next point was suddenly the critical one for both teams.
Jimmy served to Melissa. Jenny was at the net. A long rally took place, the longest of the day. Finally Jenny smashed an overhead into the corner but Melissa was able to anticipate it and angle back a very wide forehand, sending Jimmy almost to the side fence. Jimmy barely got the tip of his paddle on the ball but managed to lob it over Bo's head. Melissa ran back, and her return shot just cleared the top of the net.
Jenny knew she couldn't get to the ball in time from her side of the court so she called out, "Yours!".
Jimmy dug and stretched and with one final lunge he got the ball before the second bounce, popping it up right into the middle of the court for Bo.
With Jenny and Jimmy both at the net now, Bo had a half second to decide what shot to hit. He knew the best choice in a point you absolutely had to win was to go right down the middle of the court in between your two opponents, hitting the ball as hard as you possibly could.
Bo planted his right leg, took the paddle back in a high looping motion like a slingshot loading up, and then accelerated it forward through the ball, as he shifted all his weight from his right leg to his left, creating the loudest "thwap!" sound of the day.
Almost instantly, there was a second, slightly duller "thwap!", and Jenny was laying face down on the court.
It took a second for anyone to react, and then Jimmy and Melissa were bending over Jenny, trying to figure out what to do.
Bo was standing where he'd hit the ball from, frozen in place. Melissa got Jenny to turn onto her side, and then they saw that her mouth was bloody. Jimmy sprinted to the bathroom and got wet paper towels, and by the time he got back Jenny was sitting up.
"It's okay," she said in a weak voice. "Really, I'm okay."
She tried to stand up, but Melissa wouldn't let her.
"Let's clean you up a bit first Jen, and see what's going on."
Miraculously, Jenny had suffered only a cut lip, which was bleeding a lot and was swelling up, but that was it. Her teeth and the inside of her mouth were okay. Melissa and Jimmy kept pressure on her lip with the towels, and after a few minutes the bleeding stopped.
Bo made it to the bench and could only wait and watch and hope. When they got Jenny to her feet, he felt like the luckiest kid alive.
"Jen...," he said.
She waved him off like it was nothing and smiled slightly as Jimmy and Melissa walked her over to the sink.
They were going to call someone's parent to pick Jenny up but she insisted on riding her bike. They decided to go to Bo's since his was the closest house to the park.
"Tell you one thing," said Jimmy as they were packing up, "definitely some kind of bad vibe on Court 3. First we get stuffed in the cans, and now Jen goes down. Next time, B-dog, let's pick a different court--or even a different sport."
"Next time," was all Bo could say.
They had phoned ahead to Adler, and he was waiting in front of Bo's house when they got there, with latex gloves, cotton balls, hydrogen peroxide and a big ice pack.
"Nick, you didn't have to do this," Jenny said.
"Why don't you sit down in kitchen and let me take a look at the injury under the light," Adler said.
Adler had been told over the years by teachers that he had the aptitude to be a doctor, and he was acting like one now.
"Laceration of the lower lip," he said, after he had cleaned the wound. "Not substantial enough to require stitches. Make sure you apply the ice pack for ten minutes every hour."
"Got it," said Jenny.
"Are you experiencing any dizziness, headaches, drowsiness-- anything of that nature?"
"No I'm not," Jenny said, "but if I do you'll be the first to know, Doctor Adler."
Bo saw she was smiling now, not quite back to her old self, but close, thank God.
They microwaved two boxes of frozen chimichangas, mixed a gallon of gatorade, and stood around the kitchen wolfing everything down.
"It's fine, we can go down to The Box now," said Jenny. "I know that's where everyone wants to be."
"You can make it over?" Bo said.
"Piece of cake," Jenny said, and everyone headed downstairs, all except for Bo who phoned Mackie and told him to come over and to bring along his keyboard.
"Jimmy and I have been talking it over," Bo said, after they were all settled in The Box, including Mackie. "We'd like to take the music to a new level."
"Dude, what are you TALKING about?" said Jimmy. "I thought I was retired after last night. That's why we tried to get back to normal stuff today, remember?"
"And we've decided," said Bo, "to add more members to the band."
"We have?" Jimmy said.
"On keyboards, standing 5 foot 2, with black glasses," Bo said, drawing out the words like an announcer, "this musician also excels in chess and cross-country running--Mr. Walter Mackie!"
"Hold on now, Bo--" said Mackie.
"And on vocals, a 5 foot 5 inch 8th grader who is SO ready to get out of Huckabee, and who boys have had a crush on since kindergarten but won't admit to it--Miss Melissa 'Mel' Robinson!"
"Wait a second--who's had a crush?" said Melissa.
"And also on the vocals, a five-six surfer girl who is looking forward to high school but doesn't want to compete against guys--except in paddle tennis--but not anymore after today--Miss Jennifer 'Jen-Jen' McCoy!"
"Two things," said Jenny, taking the icepack off her lip. "First, you should become a sportscaster, you've got the voice for it. Second, no way."
"Right," said Mackie.
"Definitely not," said Melissa.
"So our first practice is tomorrow after school, right here in the basement outside The Box," Bo said. "It'd be nice to have it be in The Box, but it's a pain to get the instruments in and out every time. And the drums, forget it."
"I have to do that washing dishes thing at Fancy Freeze tomorrow," Jimmy said.
"Mel and I have a volleyball game over in Hermosa tomorrow," Jenny said.
"Uh, I'm busy tomorrow too," said Mackie, though Bo would have bet money he didn't have anything going on.
"Fine, so we'll make it Tuesday then."
No one said anything.
Whadda you know, thought Bo.
