something about you

Skater Girl

It's the start of summer, school has ended and filming for season one of Stranger Things ended in the fall. Filming for season two will start in August. You are about to go to the dog park in your area when you get a call from the Duffers.

"Hello?" you answer

"Hey! Sorry to be interrupting your summer, but Matt and I have a task for you," Ross starts, "We are adding in some new characters and one of them is going to skateboard."

"Oh, cool!" you comment.

"Yeah, but we need someone to teach her. Would you be able to do that for us?" he asks.

"Yeah, do I have to fly out somewhere?" you ask.

"Nope. She lives in Jersey too. I'll send you her contact information. But just try to keep her character secret from your family okay? We don't want it to get out," he says.

"Okay, got it!" The conversation ends. A second later you get a text from Ross.

Sadie Sink: (***) ***-****

You shrug, not knowing who she is. You send her a text.

me: hey! Matt and Ross sent me your number to help teach you how to skateboard for Stranger Things. They said you live in New Jersey?

You wait for a minute. Then you get a response

Sadie: Yes, when do you want to start? I've never tried riding before.

Me: how about next Saturday? We can meet at the Oakville Park?

Sadie: Yeah, that works!

You close your phone and continue with your day. You wonder who she is, but don't want to look her up. So you just wait until the day you meet her.

That day you wait in the park, with your board. It's pretty empty, just a couple of families over by the actual play sets. You sit at a bench along the sidewalks, where you will be teaching her to skate.

Then you see her. A redhead, walking up to you wearing brand new green vans.

"Sadie?" you ask. She nods, "It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too," she answers. You notice she's empty handed.

"No board?"

"Not yet. The Duffers wanted you to help me pick one out as well," she informs you.

"Oh, okay, fun," you answer. You set your board down, "Okay, so I guess we'll just get right down to it. To skateboard there's a couple fundamental elements involved. The first one is pushing. Now some people push with their front foot, but that makes it more dangerous and it kinda looks dumb. So you're going to push with your back foot."

You place your left foot at the front of the board and push off with your right.

"I push with my right foot but if you feel more comfortable you can push with your left," you say going back to her. You set the board down and put your foot on once again, "To push it's pretty simple. You'll have your lead foot below the screws at the top here. Then you'll just push off with your back foot. You'll want to bend your knee otherwise you won't push right."

You demonstrate the height difference as your foot won't reach the ground if you just swing it while standing on the board.

"Then after you get rolling, you're going to swing your back leg on, while also pivoting your front foot to the side, so both of your feet are sideways on the board," you show this to her a couple times, shuffling your feet back and forth.

"And when you go down to push again, you pivot your front foot back to push," you explain. You get off the board and look up at her. She looks terrified, "Here, hold my hands."

You hold your hands out to the girl, who takes them and squeezes them before she's even on the board.

"Okay, so.... front foot on," she says.

"Yep, now just push a bit," you instruct, still holding her hands. As she pushes herself on the board, you walk with her. She swings her back foot on but when she pivots her foot, it makes the board turn slightly and she loses balance.

"Ahh!" she shrieks as the board shoots out from under her. Luckily you were holding her hands and got in front of her to catch her, "Whoa."

"Not bad for your first try, just have to be a bit more gentler when pivoting. Your feet control the board so you have to be precise with your movements," you tell her. She lets go of your hands so you can retrieve the board. You set it down in front of her and she grabs your hands once again. She pushes off and this time she pivots correctly, "There you go!"

"Yay!" she cheers.

"Okay, now you've got to push more," you instruct. She looks down at her feet and goes to pivot again. She does and pushes more. She gets a bit faster and you have to start jogging to keep up with her.

"Don't let go," she says.

"I won't, just don't push anymore and lean back with your heels to turn," you say as you approach a curve in the sidewalk.

"Lean back?" she questions. It's too late for her to figure it out. You decide to let go of her arms, quickly grabbing her waist and lifting her off of the board as it rolls off the sidewalk. You set her down, with your hands still on her waist. She stares up at you.

"I... I didn't want you to fall off," you explain. She smiles.

"I know, thank you," she replies. You let go of her waist and go to retrieve the board.

"Okay, I forgot to show you how to turn," you laugh, "Stand on the board."

She gets on and grabs your hands for support.

"So lean back with your heels," you tell her, "I won't let you fall, you'll just feel the board tilt underneath you."

She squeezes your hands as she tilts the board to the side.

"Good, now lean forward with your toes," you tell her. She does so, and the board tilts again, "Great, now that's how you turn. Let's try again, push off."

She does so and you begin to walk alongside the redhead, who stands on the board. As you continue down the sidewalk, she builds speed and you're jogging again.

"Okay, get ready to turn," you warn. She sees the curve and leans back with her heels. She stays in the middle of the sidewalk, "Nice!"

"Whooo!" she cheers, smiling.

"Okay, let go with one hand," you tell her. She lets go with her front hand, "if you're comfortable let go with the other one."

"Okay..." she lets go and suddenly she's riding without you. You still jog next to her, "I'm doing it! Whoo!"

"Go Sadie!" you smile. She goes even faster and you're running to keep pace with her. You notice she's starting to wobble from how fast she's going.

"Oh no!" she yells. She jumps from the board and begins to stumble. You get in front of her and she crashes into you, taking you down into the grass. She lies on your chest in the grass after you've fallen, "I'm so sorry, are you okay?"

"I'm okay, are you?" you ask. She nods and you both start laughing, "That was epic."

"It was. It was..." she trails off. Both of you are frozen in time, staring into each other's eyes in the grass, "This was fun."

She gets off and helps you up, "Do it again next week?"

"Sure," you smile.

She leans up and plants a kiss on your cheek, "see you then."