whatever, I’ll just find my own place.”
When no one jumps to reassure her, Sydney gets a little choked up. “You know,” she says, looking off across the pool. “I’m not really in the mood to celebrate anymore.” She shoves the champagne bottle in her purse. “I guess I’ll go to the country club party after all. Maybe one of them will want to room with me.”
She turns to go, and I think she’s expecting someone to stop her, but no one does.
“Leave it to Sydney to kill the good vibes,” Zora says after she’s out of earshot.
“Okay, I haven’t said anything all summer but… ARGH!” Ellie throws up her hands. “She still drives me crazy. She didn’t really change in her year in New York.”
“I thought she was your best friend in high school?” Jordan asks.
“Yeah,” Lucy says on a long sigh. “She was, but it just kind of ended up that way when we were younger. We became a group, and it stuck.”
“I always figured she’d ditch us for cooler friends. She made it pretty clear we weren’t popular enough for her,” Zora says. “Her family is part of the Newdale Country Club and that crowd is more her scene. I mean, she’s not all bad and I feel like a bitch talking about her in front of everyone, but I just can’t believe she’s transferring here. I could tolerate her when I knew it was temporary, but now what the hell are we supposed to do?”
“Maybe the natural order of things will finally happen,” Ellie says.
“Natural order?” Jordan asks.
“She’ll make friends with people who are more, well, her people.”
“You know, let’s just forget about it for now,” Lucy proposes. “It wasn’t cool her coming in dumping that on us when today’s about Jordan, Beck, Brazen, stuff that has nothing to do with her.” Lucy nods, like she’s made a decision. “It wasn’t cool how she tried to push Jordan out. So, I won’t apologize. Let’s get back to celebrating!”
Jordan jumps on this. “Hey Brie, I never said thank you for asking Griff if I would want your spot at Southskate Fest. I have no idea why you would give that up for me, but it’s so nice of you.”
Brie waves her hand. “Girl, you forget I’ve been competing for years now.”
I know an invite to Southskate is a big deal for Brie though; she’s never gotten one before. I’m sure Jordan knows this too but she doesn’t point that out. “Well, it means a lot to me, thank you.”
“I wasn’t sure you’d take it. I’d heard a rumor you were done with contests, but Beck let me know you have that fire to come back. I figured the right opportunity might get you out there.”
“I almost didn’t but I gave in to peer pressure.”
“I doubt that was it. You’ll have fun. I’ll be watching, cheering you on. I know you went through some shit and people were nasty to you when you first went pro. But when Beck’s ex Kelly tried to turn the pro community against me, I just kept showing up at the contests anyway. I did it for me, not for anyone else. And it really helped.”
Jordan glances over at me. “Huh, someone else told me to do it for me and no one else too. Good advice I guess.”
Brie laughs. “I thought it was Griff who told me that years ago when I was thinking of pulling out of some contests, but it was you, wasn’t it, Beck?”
I give an overdramatic sigh. “Well, in both these situations I’m the reason for the haters, so I’ve got to think of something useful to say to get you out doing what you love.”
Normally it would bum me out to think about the fact that both these awesome women got shit on because of me. But neither one of them holds it against me, so maybe it’s time I stop being so hard on myself. We can’t always help how others react to us. I definitely couldn’t do much to control how Shred Live portrayed me to the world. But these people here on the pool deck with me, their opinions of me matter. If they respect me, then I’ve got no reason to doubt myself.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jordan
With no job and no classes, I feel a little guilty about spending nearly all day every day skateboarding. I tell myself that technically skateboarding is my job since re-signing with Brazen, but it’s hard to think of it that way.
Beck