#12

Before I can continue on with my story, I have to rewind to last summer. Summer is usually the time when my closest friends and I hang out and do crazy things. We had a bike gang – like, with bicycles -- and we were dangerous. We had slingshots and BB guns, and with those we terrorized the local neighborhood. Yeah, those were the good times; the time when we were king of the streets.

Now I have to shift the story over to Carl. Like I mentioned before, Carl was a bully. He grew up in a male dominant family. He had three brothers, two are in college and one is on the high school varsity basketball team – and he’s only a sophomore. If you ask me, the family was close to overdosing on testosterone, and I know that’s a little hard to believe since that’s not physically possible, but that’s my whole point. The family lives off steak, raw eggs, and protein shake. And I heard that their house’s second floor is a giant gym. They’re crazy.

Anyways, Carl’s father had a car, but it’s not any ordinary car: it’s a Hummer. You know, those oversized titans that can squash anything in its path. It has eight cylinders, it weighs three metric tons, it holds up to thirty-two gallons of diesel, and it guzzles it down at 10 miles per gallon. You have to refuel the baby at least once a week – depending on how much you drive it around. And it costs a whopping P4,800 to fill her up. I’m telling you, Carl’s family is crazy.

So how does Carl’s massive car have anything to do with my bike gang? Well, you can probably tell where this is heading. Kenneth, Dan and I are aspiring to be X-Game athletes. We were training to join the BMX Flatland, because we didn't have a skatepark in the area. We had a few tricks down and we begun to get the hang of scuffing the back wheel. If I wasn’t so humble I’d probably brag that we were top-notch (cause we were!).

Anyway, one day Carl and his brother Ted “borrowed” their father’s Hummer and took it for a cruise down Madrinas. I think they had one protein shake-too-many, because from the look of their blood-thirsty eyes, and their sweaty faces, and the thumping from their subwoofer that reverberated from their vehicle, you could tell they were itching for something to crush. Unfortunately, the first thing they saw was me . . . well, more specifically me on the ground after tripping on the bike’s handlebars.

We couldn’t see the drivers behind the tinted windows, but you didn’t have to see their faces to realize their intentions. From the revving of the engine you could sense something bad was going to happen.

The Hummer lurched forward, slowing gaining speed. And poor me! I was all bruised from my fall and could barely move – but from the way the vehicle was coming right at me I ignored the pain and just fled for my life. If my bicycle had legs and a brain, it probably would have followed, but instead it just lay their on the street.

The poor thing got flattened.

I was flattened.

So there – that’s my grudge story. Cause today, I got Carl back . . . maybe not as good as he got me last summer. But enough to keep me satisfied for the time being. But that story has to wait till tomorrow, because at the moment I’m hiding in a bathroom stall and if Carl hears me in here, he’ll kill me.