Extreme!
Page 15
Mr Lark stood like a soldier, pleased to have confirmed what he’d begun to suspect, that indeed his dog tags had gone missing. Admiring Mio for her tenacity and bravery in retrieving the dog tags, he raised his hand in a half-salute. Mio smiled. She would have liked to respond but she was in too much pain. She did, however, notice the placard and with stiff movements held it up. Then she leant towards the microphone and announced, ‘Literally, this means ten persons, ten colours.’ Her voice was raspy but everyone could still hear what she said. ‘To all of you it would translate as, “To each their own”.’
Bryce couldn’t resist. ‘You mean different strokes for different folks?’
‘Something like that. It means BMXers, skateboarders and skaters are different, but the same.’ She turned to her father and bowed. ‘We are all different, but the same. We must respect that.’ She looked at her father and bowed.
Mr Shinozaki bowed back.
‘Just one more thing.’ Mio waited for silence. ‘Dunk Dog? Are you Cinderella?’
Some kids laughed, thinking she must be concussed.
But Dunk Dog did not. He stood there, weighing up the price of a public confession. His nerves were already mangled. Only a few minutes ago he’d felt like a murderer.
Mio continued to wait with all the patience of a true samurai.
Finally, after all he’d put her through, Dunk Dog decided he owed it to her to be honest. His voice rang out, ‘Yes, I am.’
‘So you’re the one who pretended to be me on the internet?’
‘Not exactly.’
‘Who sent the nasty emails then?’
‘Not me.’ Dunk Dog looked down at his board. ‘Leks. He’s the computer whiz of us two. Can’t get him off it. Even fooled your friend Sachi.’
‘All this just to bring me down?’
Dunk Dog gave a wry grin. ‘Not just you. Your bike friends, too. I thought with your fancy petition and council submission you’d be sure to win over the skate park. Another place to dominate.’
Mio should have been jubliant at such a public confession but her body was screaming in pain in too many places for her to enjoy the moment.
‘We wanted to keep BMXers banned from the park. You’ve got the roads as well, but we’ve got nothing else.’
‘Seems a bit extreme,’ said Bronwyn Lindsay, and stepping up to the mike she announced, ‘I’ll be looking into this further on Monday.’ Her eyes twinkled as she added, ‘Now, how did that song go? Ridin’ together will be a big relief.’
Mio beamed up at her.
Dunk Dog scuffed his feet.
Lots of kids at the skate park began to clap, relieved that the feud was over. The claps started soft and slow, then erupted. Councillors clapped along with skateboarders, who clapped along with the police. The Freewheelers clapped loudest of them all.
Mission accomplished, Mio allowed herself to sink to the ground where the Freewheelers and her family fussed about her waiting for the amublance to come.
After a thorough examination and some X-rays, a lucky Mio was told that her bones weren’t broken and she headed home for some rest and cuddles with Yuki.
One week later and the Freewheelers met at the Van. Once again, five bikes were chained to the bumper bar and once again, a beagle was sniffing for food.
As Tong arranged spring rolls stuffed with crab meat on a plate, Mio passed round a bowl of papaya called đu đ’u in Vietnamese. ‘Things are back to normal at school and home, thank goodness, but the jury’s still out on the bike park,’ she said.
‘Guess we have to be patient,’ said Darcy as he ate some papaya, enjoying the smooth sweetness with musky undertones.
‘Not one of your strong points,’ said Clem, watching as he reached for Tong’s plate of spring rolls with his free hand.
‘Skateboarders have fun for now. Our turn later,’ said Tong.
Bryce laughed. ‘Now, that rap song takes on a whole new meaning:
Ev’ry dent, ev’ry dint
Ev’ry scratch, ev’ry crack
Let’s not be jealous
’Cause that’s where they at.’
‘Well, I know a way to learn patience,’ said Mio getting to her feet. ‘Let’s have a slowest bike race. Winner is the last one to reach the finish line without dabbing.’
‘Boring!’ shouted Darcy.
‘I know,’ said Mio, then went on. ‘There’s these storm pipes ready for laying at Wilson’s Corner. Huge ones, stacked side by side like rolling waves.’
‘Let me guess,’ said Darcy. ‘Wavedancing here we come?’
And with that the Freewheelers grabbed their bikes and took off, riding the dips with the crests.
Concrete conquerors.
Acknowledgements
With thanks to Patrick Mangan, who does more for me than he probably realises.
About the Author
Jeni (J.A.) Mawter lives in Lane Cove, Sydney with her family and her beagle, Bella. She works as a writer and as a teacher of creative writing. She knows you have to pop, jump and slide but she still can’t ollie. To her, an ollie should be a character in a book!
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Books by J.A. Mawter
The ‘So!’ series
So Stinky!
So Grotty!
So Festy!
So Sick!
So Feral!
So Gross!
The Freewheelers series
Unleashed!
Launched!
Extreme!
Copyright
Angus&Robertson
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Australia
First published in 2008
This edition published in 2010
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
www.harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © J. A. Mawter 2008
The right of J. A. Mawter to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Author: Mawter, J. A. (Jeni A.)
Title: Extreme! / J.A. Mawter.
Publisher: Pymble, N.S.W.: HarperCollins, 2008.
ISBN: 978 07322 8531 9 (pbk.)
ISBN: 978 0 7304 4366 7 (epub)
Series: Mawter, J. A. (Jeni A.) Freewheelers; 3.
Target Audience: For children.
Dewey Number: A823.4
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