Survival Of The Fittest

Zero is heading to the skatepark, he is into aggressive inline blading. A dream of his was to go pro, now he just skates for fun. He signs the waver and enters the park. Just then he sees a girl trip on a stick and wipe out.  Zero skates over to her. "Hey are you ok?" Zero asks.  " Are you hurt at all?" he asks again.  "My name's Andy Ripley, but everyone calls me Zero. I got the name after a video game character. What's your name? And could I skate with you, if you still want to skate?"

(OOC: As far as I know, it's not good RP etiquette to make another person's actions for that person unless you have that person's consent. Please to check with Ms. Shimizu to see if she allows that. Thank you. )

Zachary Foreman's been at this park for quite a while today, trying to get his real-life skills at skateboarding to match that of his virtual counterpart in the virtual world. He's been lucky as of late, nailing more tricks than bailing. And it felt good, too, the wind of the mid-air seeping through his helmet onto his earth-brown locks, the sound of the aged Spitfires sliding smoothly onto the concrete.

He comes around the bowl again to try a 360 Nosegrab, launching back into the air like a skeet. As he turns 180 he manages to spot a girl on blades trip backwards over a misplaced stick and onto the pavement.

'Bladers. he thinks condescendingly...

...before landing his nosegrab in a dangerous 270. He's flung off his board and onto the bowl's curved walls, a rather jarring impact that is almost worthy of Jackass airtime. He rolls down onto the base of the bowl, clutching his helmeted head in pain and groaning. It takes him a few seconds from the moment he comes to a standstill to get back onto his feet, and even more to limp to his still-rolling board to pick it up.

So much for karma. As a skateboarder, he and his kind would often look down on bladers. But who was he to brag after what transpired in the last 20 seconds?

Zachary climbs back up the bowl wall, first tossing his board over the rim before clutching it with both hands to prop himself up like he had just finished climbing a rock face. Once he's back on the surface he spots the same girl, only accompanied by another blader. He then sits down on the edge, trying to regain his bearings (no skater-lingo pun intended). Hopefully, neither of the bladers had paid witness to his massive bail.

Sarah looked up to the man tht said his name was Andy Ripley. Sarah nodded as she moved onto her feet and smiled. Sarah caught something in the corner of her eye, It looked as if the skater had fallen off his skateboard.

"Hmmm, Sure.... But first it might be wise to see if that guy is okay..." Sarah said afterwards winking at Zero.

Sarah rollerbladed over to Zachary and smiled "Hey! Are you okay, you looked like you took a nasty fall" Sarah said with some concern. Her eyes wandered over the boys body in search for any ripped clothing or something that would have signalled he was hurt, but she didn't find anything visible.

She nodded and looked over towards Zero waving her hand for him to come over to her. Sarah removed the red ribbon off of her wrist and clutched her hair with her other hand as she held her hair rather high with one hand whilst the other tield a perfect bow with the other. Some people were amazed as to how Sarah was capable of doing that, but with alot of practice Sarah was like a professional at tying bows.

She stretched towards the sky before nodding "So guys..." she said as she moved backwards on her rollerblads stopping several centimetres away "what shall we do now? My names Sarah by the way" she said as she looked towards Zachary smiling.

[[ Hmmm, its ok at the moment... just dont do it all the time! ]]

Zachary's body would definitely have shown some sign of injury, but it would be readily concealed by his tough blue hoodie and olive cargo jeans. The degree of said injury as well as its impact caused him to groan a bit, which oddly attracts the attention of the blading girl that bailed only a split-second before he did. As she blades over to him he quickly wags his head in an attempt to dispel any sign of him being thrown out of balance by the impact.

She introduces herself as Sarah, tying her hair into a bow as if her trip didn't even faze her. At least she didn't look down (not metaphorically anyway) on this fallen 'boarder.

"They call me Zed. Zed Foreman." he says, removing his helmet. He puts one hand to his unkempt hair and tries to massage the impact spot. "And this? It's minor."

((continued from Another Day In Homeroom))

"I'm stuffed," Andrew said, grinning from ear to ear as he and Nich approached the entrance to Major Taylor. Nich made an indescernable gurgling sound and nodded. They had just dusted off four pizzas less than 15 minutes ago, before taking the bus down here to the skatepark. Andrew took a deep breath. He could swear he smelled the pavement. There truly was nothing better than the first whiff of the stuff. It was intoxicating. "I can smell the pavement," Andrew remarked.

"No you can't," Nich snorted. "You're a dumbass." He let the word dumbass out slowly to accentuate that...well...he was a dumbass. He snickered, and Andrew gave him a shot in the arm. Which of course was returned. And again. Once more. Wait, one more time. Ok. Cut it out guys. It's not fun narrating jabs to the arm.

They each signed the waiver and Nich held up his bag when asked about their helmets and other gear, giving the guy at the entrance a look that said 'don't get your knickers in a knot'. They spotted Zed faceplanting on their way in and headed over, cackling with delight. They knew him from previous visits to the park; he was cool. Kind of a grommit, but damn if the guy wasn't like a human bail reel.
"Haha, ahh...what's up Zed, you bastard," Nich grinned as they approached the two. "How's that asphault taste, dude?" He glanced at the blader and tried not to scoff. It was a bit of a habit, but he was able to stifle it.

Andrew, who'd been holding onto the nose of his board with his foot against the tail, let the nose drop and began to fiddle around on the spot, trying to get enough air off of a stationary ollie to kickflip. Miss. He tried again. Miss. "That was pretty nasty there dude. You ok?" He finally landed it, but lost his footing at the last second and ended up planting his foot on the ground so's not to fall flat on his face.

Apparently, Zed's 270-bail hadn't just grabbed the attention of the blader next to him. It also seemed to be the first thing Nich and Andrew noticed as they entered the park. He blushed slightly, as it was clearly embarassing to be caught socializing with a blader in any way, shape or form. He grabs his board and stands up to face the two as they approach him.

"How's that asphault taste, dude?"

Zed winces at the comment, and shoots back a "Kinda like concrete, only more sour." His bail was more like a body-whump than a faceplant, but it was all the same to the guys he found himself trying to impress. "You guys shoulda been here earlier, I was nailing tricks like planks," he adds with a confident smile. It relieved him a bit to notice that these guys weren't natural Muskas, either. "Could've landed the last one too if it weren't for the blader." Zed almost falters with the last word, it'd be even more embarassing for him to get bitch-slapped in front of three guys (including the presumably nearby Zero).

Nich bitch slapped him. "Don't blame other people for your mistakes!" he bellowed in a mock-indignant tone. Of course, this was a common thing for him to do, and he didn't hit Zed hard (he could take it anyway). He had done it countless times before. He hoped the blader chick wouldn't get the wrong idea. "Haha..." he chortled at his own slapstick gesture. "Who's the chick?" he inquired, raising his eyebrows and grinning. She was cute. Perhaps Zed had finally found himself some action. Nich's gesture conveyed this to him.

Andrew thought she was cute, too. He had been trying to impress her the whole time with his stationary kickflip; trying to look cool. It was safe to say that it'd backfired, and he kicked the tail and clutched the nose again in resignation. Normally he probably would've made a crack about inline skaters. So would Nich. But this was a chick. A cute chick. So, like...exemption.

Zed takes the bitchslap full-on, but the pain is obviously insignificant compared to that of his last bail, which still lingers across his side. He comes off it smiling.

"Oh, her? Her name's Sarah." he replies with a hint of cockiness in his voice.

He could definitely read the expression on Nich and Andrew's faces. And you could tell that he knew what they were implying. "Yeah, she's cute."

Zed was one of the dwindling numbers of virgins at his age, and the fact that he was quite the videogame nerd outside of the skatepark was not helping his chances one bit. On the other hand, it wasn't really girls he was trying to impress with his developing skateboarding skills. Not that he was gay in any sense anyway. But yes, pretty girls were a side bonus to respect if you were a good skater.

"Hey," Andrew nodded to Sarah, trying to look cool but coming up with nothing whatsoever. "I'm Andrew."

"Nich," Nich said, not doing anything at all to try and make himself seem suave but still managing to seem twice as cool as Swainson. "Oh hey Zed," he chirped, snapping his fingers as if he'd just remembered something important. "Don't ask me how, but I've figured out a way to get on the roof of Hobbsborough." The roof wasn't neccessarily impossible to get onto with a ladder, but then how the hell would you get the quarterpipes and the rail up? "Pretty soon we'll be able to skate up there whenever the fuck we want." He turned to Sarah. "Pardon my french." Back to Zed. "We could get some sick footage up there. Upload it and like, send it to Thrasher and SBC and shit. Maybe even get shots printed in the photo annuals. And get this: Swainson's gonna acid drop into the parking lot as a finisher." At this Andrew sighed. He wasn't really looking forward to the many tries it was gonna take to land that one, if he did at all. Jamie Thomas never landed the Leap of Faith, and he was a pro for fuck's sake. What chance did he have?

"I need to practise," he mumbled, heading off to the highest ledge he could find. He cast one last glance towards Sarah. She really was cute, he thought. Too bad Zed already scooped her up.

True, Zed had unofficially laid claim to Sarah, if only knowing her name at this point counted as "scooping her up." Seemed to him that in the manly games that boys play, this would be the start of something beautiful if not liberating, in that sense. But what really seemed to interest Zed was the chance to skate on the roof of rival schools. And Nich was definitely luring the Z-boy (as he liked to say) in with the potential for stardom.

The potential for more injurious bails notwithstanding. But he could take it, least he thinks he can in his probably long-since-fractured mind.

"Sounds neat," he says, with a soft yet confident smile on his face - one that he shows to Sarah. "But we gotta find a way to get some stuff up there unless we're gonna try Leaps of Faith..."

"It's cool," Nich grinned as Swainson landed a particularly heavy acid drop off of the stair ledge behind him and skated back up to the group. 'If that didn't impress her, nothing will,' Andrew smirked as he thought. He hoped she'd been looking...

"Suffice to say," Nich continued, hoping he'd used the right phrase, "we'll be able to get anything up there as long as it'll fit through a door." He flattened his hand and made a gliding motion with it.

"I think we could get a funbox or two, or maybe even a couple of rails, long as it's not too awkward," Zed explains with much enthusiasm. By awkward he means that these objects would be long enough to get some good grind or trick time without being too conspicuous that even the most casual observer wouldn't raise a red flag.

He spots Andrew making the acid drop and gets a bright yet obvious idea. "Right now, we gotta start practicing." He gets onto his skateboard and turns to Sarah, smirking confidently. "Check this out."

Zeno rolls the board to the edge of the bowl and plunges right in, blazing toward and up the other side. Once there he executes a well-placed tailgrab, before gravity swings him back to take him to the other side. He grins and ducks slightly as the rim approaches, and he twists midair to land himself properly upright on the surface. Unfortunately the board only lands halfway up the surface, balancing precariously on the rim. After flailing his arms to regain balance, he falls forward (and thankfully onto his hands and knees) while his board slips back into the bowl.

"Ahh, fignuts."

Nich snorted loudly. "Nice. Very nice, Z." He let his nose fall and pushed forcefully, flying down the lip and up to the other side. However, he didn't catch any air; he instead halted his ascent at the opposite lip and managed to plant the board in a nosestall, which looked impressive but was really just a matter of keeping most of his weight on his left foot. His face displayed a critical amount of concentration mixed with fury as he paused to build up a good pop. He reached his right hand down to the tail and with a loud grunt hopped off the nose and rotated the tail with a harsh spin of his wrist, executing a solid fingerflip that lead into a descent down the lip. It was rather impressive, and Andrew let out a loud "wooo!' as he landed it. He did have a bit of a bumpy ride down though; he was picking up a lot of speed and ended up flailing his arms trying to maintain his balance just from the velocity of the whole thing. He managed to come away from it safely though, and he flew back up the first side of the bowl and dismounted ungracefully, kicking the board ahead of him and landing with his feet on the ground. The board clattered along for a couple feet and came to rest after a few seconds. He settled himself from the adrenaline (it was the first time he'd landed that properly) and grinned at Zed and Andrew, the latter of which pounded it with gusto. They both cackled for a second and Nich stooped down to retrieve his board, brushing his long hair off of his face as he came up. He ruffled the collar on his zip-up hoody and brushed his shoulders, letting out a deep breath. It really was its own reward finally nailing that mother, he thought to himself.

(OOC: Sorry for the late and rather inadequate reply, I'm getting all my info on skater/punk culture off my little brother, who is currently obsessed with it.)

Once again, it seemed, Zed was left in awe at Nich's mad skills. Of course, the effect of literal jaw-dropping amazement had worn off, leaving Zed simply staring wide-eyed and somewhat humiliated. The fact that this happened in front of the chick he was with earlier (OOC: Whatever happened to her?!) appears to amplify that effect. The rookie says nothing, treating Nich's trick as if he had done it time and time again, but his embarrassment is evident in his cheeks turning a bit pinkish.

He slips out of sight and down into the bowl to pick up his board, which had long since come to a dead halt at the bottom. After he returns he unknowingly clutches his board close to him, almost in a girlish fashion.