Snippet #2635433

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The skatepark was almost empty, except for a few skaters who had decided to get an early start in the day. Even then, they were hanging around chatting, eating breakfast or admiring the tag art on the wall, and only one skater, a boy dressed in jeans and a red-trimmed hoodie over a long sleeved white shirt was going at it on the ramp, looking like he'd been at it for a while now.

"Hahaha!" Zeke spun his skateboard in mid-air with a large grin on his face. He gripped the board's handle with one hand as he came to the height of the jump, his other hand reaching up to the black and orange helmet strapped to his head like he was trying to steady a hat. For a moment, he felt time pause as he hung in the air, then it came unstuck and he fell back down to the ramp with his feet back on the skateboard, the grin remaining on his face as he zoomed down the ramp and slowed to a halt.

The few people watching the ramp gave a few congratulatory claps, and Zeke gave them a wide, satisfied smile and a peace sign. He didn't really know them, but hey, they'd exchanged a few greetings before! That had to count for something.

Man, skating was the best thing he'd ever tried. Zeke had met more people than he'd ever thought he would - one of them had given him a free drink; he'd given them some food in exchange and had spent the rest of his time there exchanging cooking tips with a boy and girl who'd turn out to be culinary students from university. That had been pretty fun. And there was that time he'd been trying to get the hang of an Ollie back when he'd been new to the whole thing and some highschool students had taken it upon themselves to teach him how it was done and some other tricks and man, they had been seriously cool. That had been part of the reason he'd stuck to skateboarding, really - they had been so nice! Zeke hadn't wanted to let their teachings go to waste. That and fun, of course.

Ok, so maybe there had been some unfun times too, but that was mitigated by the good ones and besides, the park was reasonably safe! The skaters there knew each other from sight (and mostly only through that), and if anything happened they tend to see if there was anything they could do to help, like offer a handkerchief or something. Or beat people up if they need to, although only the strong ones did that. And there were rarely any fights over who was using the bowl or ramp or pipe so yup, it was pretty cool all around! There was a reason why Zeke stuck to the place, after all.

Too bad he had to leave, though. He needed to get breakfast. Grinning and waving a goodbye (some waved back before turning back to doing whatever they had been doing), Zeke pushed off the ground and rolled across the curb with well practiced ease, pulling out his wallet to check how much he had. Mmmm, more than enough if he wanted to eat Mcdonalds, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to yet.

Well, whatever. It wasn't like he needed to eat yet, right? He had all the time he needed to decide, at least until it was time for lunch. Or brunch, haha. He placed his wallet back into his pocket and rested his hands in his shirt-pockets, manoeuvring his way around the people around with ease. Maybe somewhere which allowed skateboards though, Zeke didn't want anyone to steal his cool-looking board. The black and white lightning and skull design against a flame background was kinda new (beginning of the year new!) and he really, really didn't want to save up for a new board so soon. It costed a lot of money, seriously.

Ah! Spying someone with familiar blue hair, Zeke sped up. "Hey, Yukio! Over here!" He called, giving a wave as he approached the other teen. "What's up? How's life - wait, did you grow taller? I think I grew two cm, wanna go get something to eat?" he chattered friendlily, coming to a stop in front of Yukio.