CHAPTER 2

Bo was not having a good weekend.

It seemed like everyone was going to the beach, and kids were knocking on his door asking him if he wanted to come.

But all Saturday afternoon he stayed in his room and tried to come up with something--anything--on his guitar, that might actually work for the dang talent show without making him look like an idiot.
  
Sunday morning, he was lying in his bed enjoying a nice peaceful sleep when he was jolted awake by a booming voice outside, followed by a girl giggling.

"Hey B-dog, get up!" Jimmy was calling. "On your feet--now!"

Bo scrambled out of bed and opened the window. Jenny was there in the driveway with Jimmy, both of them on their bikes holding their boogie boards.

"What the heck time is it?" Bo said, rubbing his eyes.

"Quarter to twelve, you doufus," said Jimmy. "What's your problem? You feeling all right?"

Bo couldn't believe he'd slept that late.

He felt like saying: "No, everything sucks, because you're right that I should be in the stupid talent show, but I can't figure out anything to play that doesn't suck, so all I want to do is sleep all day!"

Instead he said: "I'm great, just relaxing! Be right there!"

Twenty minutes later, the three of them were in the water catching waves at Manhattan Beach.

One thing was for sure: when you had a chance to do something with Jenny, you didn't want to screw it up. Jimmy was one thing, but Jenny...maybe the prettiest girl in the 8th grade, and smart and nice and just about perfect all around.

When Bo and Jimmy would sleep over at each other's houses, they'd spend a lot of time discussing the girl population at Huckabee. Often they'd disagree and make fun of the other guy for liking so and so.

But when Jenny's name came up, things got serious. Bo could see himself marrying her, no problem. He couldn't understand why she'd want to spend much time with Jimmy.

The water was crowded. It was a hot spring weekend in Southern California. They had to let a lot of waves go because there was too much competition, with people cutting each other off all over the place.

"Let's try the south side," Jimmy said, meaning down the beach toward Hermosa,
and they got out.

Just past the first lifeguard station they saw two surfers heading into the water and recognized them both.

"Hey, that's Scott Hamburg and Stick Arrington!" said Jenny. "Wow!"

"Oh," said Bo.

"Ah," said Jimmy.

Hamburg and Arrington were football stars at Del Blarney High School, and they were also good beach volleyball players. They were in the newspaper a lot.

Jimmy and Bo hated both of them, all because of a little incident one Saturday last summer.

What had happened was Bo and Jimmy were down in the park on 11th Street, playing some paddle tennis. Hamburg and Arrington showed up with their girlfriends, ready to play doubles. The courts were filled, so Hamburg ordered Bo and Jimmy to give them their court.

They told Hamburg they'd hurry up and finish their set, which should only take about ten minutes.

Next thing they knew, Hamburg marched into the court and grabbed Bo, and Arrington got Jimmy, and they picked them up and stuffed them both head first into the two garbage cans in the waiting area outside the courts.

As a finishing touch, they took their paddles and flung them over the fence into the duck pond.

The four of them--Hamburg, Arrington and the girlfriends--got a huge laugh out of the whole thing. Then they started playing doubles as though nothing had happened.

What Bo wanted to do was tie them all to the fence with a giant rope and leave them there overnight.

Jimmy wanted to take a sledgehammer and smash them in the knees.

But they knew you couldn't do those things in real life, only in the movies and on TV. They realized there was nothing they could do.

"Okay it's them, you see them around, so what?" Bo was saying now.

"Yeah, you don't want to make a big deal out of it," Jimmy said.

"Wow!" said Jenny again, and she stood still watching them get set to take off on their first wave.

The wave was a left break and pretty big. Arrington controlled it okay and got a decent ride out of it, but Hamburg went flying as he tried to get up. Jimmy and Bo laughed.

They watched some more. Each time it was the same pattern--Arrington worked a ride, though not that great a ride, while Hamburg never got up. Usually he went down off the back of the board, and once he tried to stand up too fast and shot head first over the nose.

"Big stud athlete, he lives near the beach, guy can't even stand up!" Jimmy said, winking at Jenny, who could out-surf a lot of guys. "You should give him some lessons, Jen. Charge him! Heck, even Bo or I could give him lessons--at least we can get up."

"Maybe he has an injury or something," said Jenny, not quite as interested now.
"Anyway, I'll beat you into the water!"

An hour went by. There was hardly any afternoon wind, and the sets were clean, and they each got a dozen good rides. When Jenny said she was starting to get cold, they came out.

They sat on the warm sand drying off and watched the surfers again.

"I can't believe it," Jimmy said. "That clown is still out there and still wiping out!"

"I have to admit," said Jenny, "it is kind of surprising to watch."

"B-dog, you ever see a dude wipe out that many times, that hard, and keep coming back for more?"

Bo didn't answer. He was thinking about something else now.

"I mean, if you were going to make a surf video showing people what you DON'T want to be doing--how NOT to eat it--all you need is to film this guy wiping out! Ooh, he's down again--excellent!"

"You're funny," Jenny said.

"Right, B?" Jimmy said. "What's the matter? You're not laughing."

"Isn't there a song called 'Wipeout'? " Bo said.