The backyard

Chapter 1: The day Lincoln died

"What are we playing for?" Lincoln asked as he took the controller.

"Whoever has the highest score by the time they're done making out downstairs wins."

"You're on," Lincoln said. He had spent hours playing this and was in it to win it.

"You ready?" Ronnie Anne asked.

"Always," he replied.

"Three... two... one... go!"

"Come on, come on," Lincoln muttered to himself. He had to jump and dodge only a few more obstacles to beat his high score. After that there would be no way that Ronnie Anne could beat him. He saw an incoming projectile and moved to jump over it when the door suddenly opened. The noise broke his concentration and he landed too early and fell between the floor sections.

"Well there goes my highscore," he said to himself as he turned towards the door. Lori and Bobby were standing at the door frame.

"Are you guys ready to go to the zoo?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah," Ronnie Anne said as she placed the console down on the bed.

"We'll be waiting in the foyer," Lori said as she and Bobby turned and left. Ronnie Anne turned to Lincoln. "What score did you get?"

Lincoln looked at the top right corner of the screen. "I got... 12563478. What about you?"

Ronnie Anne looked down at her console. "No way," she said. "I got the same score."

Lincoln looked at her screen and saw that she had indeed got the same score as he did. "Well, I'll take a tie over a loss."

"Just wait until we have a rematch," Ronnie Anne said with a smile. She placed the consoles back into the drawer under the bed. She then walked over to the other side of the room where her skateboards were hanging.

"Have you ever used a skateboard before?" she asked.

"No, I haven't," he replied.

She pulled her usual turquoise skateboard off the wall and set it down on the floor before pulling off a checkerboard colored skateboard.

"Want to try it out today?"

Lincoln walked over to the checkered skateboard. He stood on and shifted his weight around so the skateboard moved back and forth slightly across the room.

"Is it like riding a bike?" he asked.

"No, not really. You won't be able to pull off any cool stunts or anything like that at first. Just think of it as walking, but better." She stood out of the way and gestured down the hallway. "Try going down the hallway on it."

Lincoln placed a foot onto the rugged floor. He moved his leg back, placed it in front of himself and pulled back again. He was gaining speed and nearing the end of the hallway when he realized he never thought about how to slow down. He tried placing a foot down in front of the skateboard. The skateboard kept going and he was flung onto the floor.

Ronnie Anne chuckled and walked over to Lincoln. "Try not to do that outside. Trust me when I say this, the sidewalk is not as comfy as this carpet." She extended her hand to Lincoln, which he took and she pulled him up.

"When trying to stop, place your foot down behind the board, like this." She put her skateboard down on the floor, stepped onto it and set her foot behind the left of it. "Now you try."

Lincoln got back onto his skateboard which had come to a stop next to the orange armchair. He started to push again and moved down the hallway. He placed his foot behind the board and came to a stop right outside of Ronnie Anne's room.