Readers
Something wasn't right, though. Nate Brown was still lying out in the middle of the field. Dr. Stevens was kneeling beside him now, watching him intently and checking his pulse. My chest began to tighten, and I started to sweat. Why wasn't Nate getting up?
I sit up and stare at the tree. It's coming over? Part of me knows I better get out of there, fast, but my body refuses to move. My brain is saying, "go," but my body's just not getting it.
Sure enough, the tree starts rustling, and I think I'm going to faint now, just check out, when a long skinny leg emerges from the leaves. That leg is followed by another. Both legs are clad in striped socks. Seriously, red-and-black-striped socks.
The legs dangle for a moment and then an entire body drops to the ground. There is nothing else for me to do but scream. I close my eyes, throw back my head and howl.
Clearly, any field trip involving manure is not right for a bunch of fourteen-year-olds.
But manure wasn't even the worst part of the stupid field trip.
The worst part was that the farmer grows pigs. And pigs are also called hogs. And there's this poor guy in our class called Dan Hogg who everybody hated.
I don't know why exactly. Maybe it was his hair. Or his teeth. Or his glasses. Or the fact that he answered Mr. Benvie's questions as if he might actually have a brain. Usually he just tried to sort of disappear, but it never worked. Idiots like Shane Coolen or Tyler March wouldn't take their eyes off him. They wouldn't shut up about him. They wouldn't quit laughing at him.
I have to hear the sound, the real sound. It's time for power.
I had to think fast. The 720° wasn't going to happen. I no longer had the speed or the correct angle. I hit the coping on the other side and launched into a 360° cannonball. A 360° cannonball is a full rotation in the air while holding the front and back of the board. I was fully around the 180° when I though of something I shouldn't have.
What if I didn't land this?
"Ohmygod! Is that what it said?"
I wondered what they were whispering about. I walked down the hall. Two girls who had been saying hi recently didn't say anything or even look at me. I suddenly felt invisible again.
I knew something was going on but what?
A crowd was milling around the lockers, talking and laughing, but as soon as I showed up, the noise stopped dead.
A few kids coughed. A few others snapped their lockers shut and left. One girl gave me a strange look, as if I had horns growing out of my head.
