Rock On

by Matt Christopher

  Text copyright © 2004 by Matt Christopher Royalties, Inc. Illustrations copyright © 2004 by Michael Koelsch

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  Little, Brown and Company

  Time Warner Book Group

  Hachette Book Group

  237 Park Avenue

  New York, NY 10017

  Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

  First eBook Edition: September 2008

  The Hachette Book Group Publishing name and logo is a trademark of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Matt Christopher® is a registered trademark of Catherine M. Christopher.

  ISBN: 978-0-316-02597-3

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  How to Start “Rockin’ On”!

  The eXtreme Team

  CHAPTER ONE

  “X! Wait up!”

  Xavier McSweeney, or X to his friends and family, turned to see Mark Goldstein hurrying up the snow-covered hill. He stopped so his friend could catch up.

  “I’ve been chasing you for five minutes!” Mark gasped. He stuck his snowboard in a snowbank, removed his glasses, and wiped his brow.

  “Well, you caught me,” X said. “What’s up?”

  “I need your help,” Mark answered. He pointed to his snowboard. “That thing keeps turning sideways when I go downhill. I think there’s something wrong with it. Can you check it out?”

  X jammed his own snowboard into the bank. He picked up Mark’s board and looked it over. He handed it back to Mark with a shrug.

  “Looks okay to me,” he said. “Are you sure it’s the board that’s causing the trouble?”

  Mark frowned. “Whaddya mean?”

  X picked up his own board and started up the hill again. “I’m thinking maybe it’s operator error. C’mon, take a run. I’ll watch you, see if you’re doing something wrong.”

  Mark sighed. “Okay, but I’m telling you, it’s the board, not me.”

  The boys reached the top of the hill. Mark strapped himself on to his board, gave a little hop, and set off down the slope. His run started out smoothly. But halfway down, the tail of the board began sliding forward. Mark pinwheeled his arms to try to stay upright, but he wound up rolling in the snow. X took off down the hill and swooped to a stop next to him.

  “See what I mean?” Mark fumed as they hurried out of the way of the other boarders. “This stupid thing has a mind of its own!”

  X sat down. “Got some bad news for you, bud,” he said solemnly. “It’s not the board. It’s your technique.”

  Mark threw up his hands. “Okay, I give up. What’s wrong with my technique, O Great One?”

  “Lots.” X stood up and pretended to ride a snow-board. “When you ride, you’ve got to put more of your weight forward.” Knees bent, he leaned so that his arms dangled a little ahead of his front foot. “If your weight is on the back foot” — he shifted his arms and upper body backward — “then the heavy stuff is on the tail.”

  Mark shrugged. “So?”

  “So,” X said patiently, “the end of the board that has more weight on it goes down the hill first. It’s, like, the law of gravity or something.”

  “But if I put my weight forward, I won’t be able to move my front foot. How will I steer?”

  X stared at Mark in disbelief. “Hello? Excuse me?

  Where did you learn to board?” When Mark’s face looked blank, X shook his head. “You don’t steer a snowboard with your front foot, you steer with your back foot!”

  “You do?” Mark seemed so amazed that X began to laugh.

  “Let’s head back up the hill. I’ll show you what I mean.”

  “I got a better idea,” a new voice behind them mocked. “Why don’t you posers get out of the way and let some real snowboarders have the slope!”

  CHAPTER TWO

  X and Mark turned to find two boys and a girl standing in front of them. X immediately recognized the boy who had spoken. His name was Frank. X had met him a few months earlier when Frank’s team faced X and his friends in a game of roller hockey. Before the game, Frank had made a bet with X’s friend Belicia “Bizz” Juarez. The winning team would be able to use the skatepark’s roller-hockey rink whenever they wanted. Before X and the others could stop her, Bizz had accepted the challenge.

  Frank’s team won the game. He’d been nasty then, full of himself and gloating about the victory. He didn’t seem much better now.

  Mark glared at them. “Who are you calling posers?”

  Frank smirked. “You, for one. I saw you rollin’ down the windows on that last run.” Frank flailed his arms wildly, imitating Mark trying to keep his balance. His friends guffawed.

  Mark flushed. “Okay, I admit I’m not the best boarder in the world,” he said. “But X could outrun you in a second!”

  Frank raised an eyebrow. “Wanna bet?”

  Those were the same words Frank had used to trap Bizz. Before Mark made the same mistake, X stopped him. “No bets,” he said.

  “Too chicken?” Frank and his friends flapped their arms and clucked. “I dare you to race me down the hill!”

  X narrowed his eyes. He’d seen Frank snowboard a few times before; he was pretty sure he could take him. “You’re on!” he said.

  They climbed to the top of the slope and met Alison Lee, the teenager who oversaw the skatepark and the hill. X explained Frank’s challenge and asked for her help in clearing the hill for a few minutes.

  Alison shook her head. “X, you know you’re a good snowboarder. You don’t have to race to prove it.”

  “I know,” said X. He lowered his voice. “But he dared me. If I didn’t race, he’d think I was a coward.”

  “So why do you care what he thinks?”

  X didn’t answer. Alison rolled her eyes, but she helped clear the hill. As she did, a small crowd gathered at the top.

  “Hey, what’s the holdup?” Jonas Malloy pushed through to where X and Mark were standing.

  “Yo, Jonas, you’re just in time. X is going to race Frank down the hill,” Mark said.

  “No way!” Jonas threw an arm around X’s shoulders. “Doesn’t Frank know that X is the best boarder around?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t say —,” X began.

  “And not just the best boarder,” Jonas continued in a loud voice. “He can ride anything on wheels, he rocks in the half-pipe and on the rails, and when it comes to jammin’ down a mountain on a bike, he’s the boss! You look up extreme sports in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of X!” Jonas and Mark high-fived each other. Some of the kids in the crowd cheered. Frank and his buddies frowned.

  X felt his face turn red. He wished Jonas hadn’t said all those things. Now if he lost, he’d look like a total idiot!

  CHAPTER THREE

  It was too late to back out of the race — not that X wanted to. He crouched down, eyes glued to Alison.

  “On your mark, get set, go,” Alison said — and the race was on!

  X launched himself into a straight downhill ride. His arms were low and forward, steadying him as he shot past the onlookers. His back foot wor
ked to keep the board in line. He didn’t look to see where Frank was. He focused on staying in control and making it down the hill as fast as he could.

  Suddenly, a mound of snow appeared in front of him. X didn’t have time to go around it. Instead, he bent his knees and hit the mound at full speed. Airborne, he grabbed his board with one hand. As he started to fall, he let go and shifted his weight to his back foot. The last thing he wanted was for the nose of the board to dig into the snow and send him flying.

  Thud! His landing was hard but clean. Seconds later, he skidded to a stop at the bottom of the hill. Panting, he turned just in time to see Frank finish his run. X gave a whoop and pumped his fist in the air. He’d won!

  Frank shot X a mean look, unsnapped his bindings, and stalked away. His friends joined him. The girl tried to put an arm around his shoulders, but Frank shook it off angrily.

  A spray of snow showered X in the back as first Jonas, then Mark boarded up beside him.

  “That was the most beautiful run this hill has ever seen,” Mark said solemnly.

  “I could not believe how you stuck that jump!” Jonas cried. “I thought for sure you were going to crater. But no, you boosted about five feet into the air instead!”

  X grinned. “Thanks, guys. It felt pretty good, I gotta admit. But now that the excitement’s over, let’s go back to normal, okay?”

  “I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.” Alison joined them. She jerked her thumb at Frank and his friends. “You’ve just made yourself a real enemy, X. And it’s my guess that he’s going to try to find a way to get back at you.” She picked up her board and started up the slope. Then she stopped.

  “Hey, I almost forgot. There’s a new rock-climbing wall set up at the mall. It’s two stories high. I’m getting a trip together to check it out. If you guys want to go, sign up at the Community Center. But do it soon because I can only take ten kids.”

  “A rock-climbing trip? Totally awesome!” Jonas said after Alison had left. “C’mon, you guys, let’s go sign up.”

  “I don’t know,” X said doubtfully. “I’ve never been rock climbing. And in the mall? How do they do that?”

  “I’ve seen something like it before,” Mark replied. “The wall is man-made, out of heavy-duty plastic or something, and has handholds and footholds sticking out of it. You get strapped into a safety harness attached to a rope. Then you just, you know, climb as high as you can. When you let go of the wall, the harness takes you to the floor safely.”

  “So is it hard to do?” X wanted to know.

  Jonas laughed. “What do you care if it’s hard? You’re good at everything! This wall will be a cinch for you!”

  “Yeah, right,” X replied. Despite Jonas’s confidence, he wasn’t so sure.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  There were only two names on the sign-up sheet so far: Bizz Juarez and Savannah Smith. Mark laughed when he saw them.

  “Looks like Alison already told Bizz and Savannah about the trip!” he said. He added his own name beneath theirs, then handed the pen to Jonas. Jonas scrawled his name and stepped away so X could do the same.

  X hesitated. “You know, it doesn’t seem fair for us to take up all the spaces. What if some other kid wants to go but can’t because I signed up instead? My mom could always take me some other time.” He started to put the pen down.

  Jonas wouldn’t let him. “It won’t be as much fun if you don’t go with us,” he said. “Besides, these trips are always first come, first served.”

  So X signed his name underneath Jonas’s and laid the pen aside. They all took copies of the permission slip for their parents to sign and started to leave.

  “Hold on. What about Charlie?” Mark asked. Charlie Abbott was another friend. “Should we put his name down, too?”

  “I don’t think we’re allowed to,” Jonas said. “I’ll call him later, tell him to get his keister over here pronto.”

  “He could always take my place if he doesn’t get on the list,” X said.

  Jonas gave him a puzzled look. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you didn’t want to go on this trip!”

  X was saved from having to answer by a cry from Mark.

  “Hey, it’s almost three-thirty! Alison’s going to close the hill soon. If we want to get in any more runs, we better get a move on!”

  The boys snowboarded for another half hour before the sun set and Alison had to shut down the hill. X waved good-bye to his friends and trudged home with his snowboard under his arm. He was tired and aching, but he barely noticed. He was too busy thinking about what Jonas had said — that he, X, didn’t want to go on the trip.

  X was as mystified by his reluctance as Jonas was. Usually, he was ready and raring to try new things, especially new sports. But every time he thought of climbing straight up a wall, his insides felt funny.

  He dumped his snowboard in the garage when he got home, then pushed open the door to the kitchen. Delicious smells tickled his nose. His favorite meal, spaghetti with meatballs, was warming on the stove. X’s older sister, Ruth, was setting the table like she did every night. X’s job was to make sure each place had a glass of milk by it. He pulled the milk from the refrigerator, then stopped short.

  “Hey, where are the glasses?” he asked Ruth.

  “In the dishwasher,” she replied. “Mom forgot to run it again. She was too busy playing with Sarah and Kyle.”

  X laughed. His mother would rather play with her kids than do housework. It meant that their house was messy sometimes, but X didn’t care. What fun was a mom who just cleaned all day?

  “So what should I use for the milk?” X asked. Ruth pointed to a small cupboard above the refrigerator. “I think there are some plastic cups up there,” she said.

  X pulled himself onto the counter. He couldn’t quite reach the cupboard, so he climbed up on top of the refrigerator.

  “Careful you don’t fall!”

  X glanced down — and froze. Suddenly, the floor seemed to be very far away.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Panic washed over X. A wave of dizziness struck him. He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping to make it stop. It didn’t. He lost his balance and started to fall.

  “X! Watch out!” Ruth screamed.

  X braced himself for the pain. But instead of hitting hard tile, he landed in his father’s strong arms.

  “Gotcha!” Mr. McSweeney held X in a tight hug for a moment, then helped him to a chair. “What happened?”

  “I — I don’t know,” X croaked, still shaky. “One minute I was reaching for the cupboard, the next it was like I couldn’t breathe!”

  X’s father looked at him thoughtfully. “Have you ever felt that way before?” he asked.

  X probed his memory. “Well, there was the time the Ferris wheel stopped and I was in the top car. I was a little scared then, too, but just because the car wouldn’t stop rocking.”

  “How about the time we were sitting in the balcony at the theater?” Ruth put in. “Jonas was sitting down below, calling and waving like crazy up at X. But X just sat there, staring straight ahead with his hands white-knuckling the arms of the seat. What does it mean, Dad?”

  “I’m not one hundred percent sure,” Mr. Mc-Sweeney replied, “but I think X was experiencing acrophobia.”

  “Acro-what? ” X said.

  “Acrophobia. The fear of heights. Lots of people have it.”

  X frowned. “Hold on a second. If I’ve got this acro-whatever thing, why don’t I feel it when I’m up on a hill or waiting on deck at the half-pipe?”

  His father shrugged. “Maybe it’s because you’re too busy thinking about the run you’re about to take or the jumps you’re going to do. Or maybe you’re so familiar with those places the fear doesn’t hit you.” He patted X on the back. “Don’t worry. If you stay away from unfamiliar heights, you shouldn’t be bothered by it.” He left to call the rest of the family to dinner.

  When everyone was together, Ruth told the others about X’s near
accident. “If it hadn’t been for Dad, X’s brains would be splashed all over this very floor.”

  “Ew!” squealed Kyle and Sarah together.

  “Ruth!” X’s mother said. “That’s not a very nice image for the dinner table.”

  Ruth grinned at X. “Sorry, Mom,” she said.

  X grinned back, but weakly. Ruth had meant to be funny, but what she’d said had made X uneasy. After all, his brains really could have been splashed all over the floor if not for his dad. He decided then and there to stay away from strange high places, just to be safe.

  At that moment, the phone rang. X answered it. “Hey, buddy!” Jonas said. “Good news. Charlie got the last spot on the sign-up sheet. So mark your calendar, get your permission slip signed, and get ready to climb that rock wall next week!”

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Who was that?” X’s mother wanted to know after X hung up. He told her it was Jonas and explained about the trip. Then he pulled the permission slip out of his pocket and asked her to sign it.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know, X. Given your fear of heights, do you really think it’s a good idea to try to climb the wall?”

  X looked at his feet. “I’ve got to, Mom,” he mumbled.

  She lifted his chin with her hand and gazed into his eyes. “Why?” she asked softly.

  “Because if I don’t go, my friends will think I’m a coward!” he blurted out.

  His mother continued to look at him. Then she released his chin and signed the slip.

  “There are different kinds of bravery, you know,” she said as she handed him the paper.

  X folded the slip in half. “What do you mean?” His mother stood up and ruffled his hair. “You’ll figure it out. Now go hop in the shower and get ready for bed.”

  X did as he was told. But even though he was tired from snowboarding all day, he had trouble getting to sleep that night. Every time he closed his eyes, he remembered how scared he’d been on top of the refrigerator, a place that wasn’t even all that high!