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Chapter Twelve of Our Days As Friends
On with 12! WARNING: This chapter is a major cliff hanger! Chapter Twelve
The Travel Up
On Friday, as promised, we had a sleep over party at Brittany and Destiny’s house. When I got there, Dez was up her favorite tree, and Brit was playing her DS outside. They smiled and waved as I pulled up on my bike. Brit and Dezy’s house wasn’t far, but I liked to take my bike so the three of us could ride. Dez had a bike and Brit had a scooter. There was an enormous hill near Brit and Dezy’s house. It was steep at the end, but one side was almost level, leading up the mountain-like hill. Sometimes, we would walk our bikes or scooters up the flat side to go down the steep side, that brought us right back to Brittany and Destiny’s house. Today was one of those days.
“Hey, you wanna ask if we can go down the hill?” Dez asked. She loved riding her bike, and so did I.
“Yeah! That’ll be awesome!” I responded.
“Let me change out of my flip-flops first.” Brit said. She almost always wore flip-flops, since she had large feet that usually didn’t fit into sneakers. We all went inside and asked Gloria, Brit and Dez’s mom, if we could go down the hill.
“Wear helmets! Dez, do you have your phone on you incase one of you gets hurt?” Gloria asked.
“We all have helmets.” I said. “And I have a cell phone as well if something goes wrong.” Little did I know that today was my turn to get hurt. Evan had, he broke his ankle. Jane had, she was ignored by Mike for two whole months before he accepted her apologies. And now, it was my turn.
We all put on our helmets and grabbed our bikes and Brits scooter. I had let Brit borrow my cell, because I was more likely to crash than she was, and since Dez left her phone on the charger, it was the only way for us to contact Gloria if one of us was hurt, and if it was me, I didn’t want it crushed in my pocket. That was a smart move on my part.
“Brit, you got my cell?” I asked.
“Yup!” She yelled back.
I made a check list in my mind. “Cells, check. Helmets, check. Vehicles...” I turned to Dez, who was checking both the bikes and the scooter over to report any damage.
“Liz, your left brake is loose. Can you fix that? I don’t know how.” She said. I looked for the small cord that controlled my left brake, which was the one for my back tire. Without it functioning properly, if I squeezed my brakes, I would go flying over my handle bars. So I tightened the brake cord, and checked vehicles off the imaginary check list.
“And signals...” I thought. We had established signals, so if one of us didn’t notice a car or if we were to get hurt, the others would stop. The car signal was our right hand raised over our heads, so it appeared as though there was a car behind the person giving the signal. If someone was hurt, the signal was to put our left hand on our knee cap, so it appeared as if we were saying “ouch”. The leader would give signals in front and the followers would give signals from behind us or next to us. We had a set of mirrors set up on each bike and the scooter so we could see the person behind us if they gave a signal or got hurt. Today, it was Brits turn to lead. We had a pattern to follow. The first time, we were in order from fastest to slowest. This meant that the order was me, Dez, then Brit. The second time, the order was switched up: Dez, Brit, then me. Then, on the third time, the order was Brit, me, then Dez. Today was the third time. We always kept track so that we would know who was next. Today, I was in the middle, so I thought I was safe. I was wrong. New chapters to be added soon!
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