It takes her a couple of minutes to cross over to us, which is sort of awkward, since she already greeted us and now we’re forced to watch her or ignore her.
“I heard we’re celebrating!” She pulls out a bottle of champagne from her purse and waves it around. “I’m Sydney by the way, for those of you I haven’t met.” She gives a little wave to Moses, Taylor, Brie and Griff.
“Hey Syd. Thought you had something at the country club today. Glad you could join us,” Lucy says.
“Well,” she drawls out. “I have something to celebrate too.” She beams at us, and I feel awkward again for some reason. Probably because I don’t know her and I feel like she’s about to share something personal. “I’m transferring to Summerside!”
Her smile holds firm for a couple seconds but when no one says anything right away, it starts to fade.
Finally Lucy gets up and hugs her. “That’s great, Syd! I didn’t even know you were thinking about it.”
Ellie gets up too and gives Zora a look that says, come on, get with the program. “Yeah, whoa, that came out of nowhere. I’m just really surprised. You applied already and didn’t even tell us?”
“Sorry, I just wanted to make sure I got accepted before I said anything.”
Zora gets up too and squeezes her friend’s shoulder. “That’s cool, Syd. I thought you wanted out of California but I guess you missed it, huh?”
Sydney’s back to beaming. “Maybe I can room with you guys? I know it’s last minute, but since Beck won the house, Jordan could live there and I can take her room.”
My eyes move to Jordan. She starts to open her mouth but Zora responds. “Whoa whoa whoa, we aren’t kicking out Jordan. Beck’s house in Jay Beach is almost an hour away. That wouldn’t really work since she’s a full-time student and doesn’t have a car.”
“I mean, I’ll stay there sometimes,” Jordan explains. “But I’ll need somewhere near campus most of the time. Maybe I can get a schedule with classes all compressed into two or three days in the week so I’m not around as much?”
“No,” Lucy snaps, which seems to surprise everyone. “You aren’t getting pushed out of the condo, Jordan. I mean, if you told us you were ditching us to live with Beck I’d be pissed, so I’m not about to go make you do it.”
“I’d be pissed too,” Ellie chimes in. “I’d get over it, but I’d be like uh, come on, it won’t be the same without you. We’ve been looking forward to it and we missed you last semester. So, sorry, you’re stuck with us.”
“Okay, sorry,” Sydney huffs, sounding annoyed. “Jeez. It was just an idea. I thought you guys would want me to live with you. I could share a room or something. But 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 will be officially starting as Vice President at Brazen after Southskate Fest, around the same time when I start classes. So, we’re in this weird dream life together for a couple of weeks. Maybe I should feel nervous we’re back in a bubble like that first semester of college, and eventually it will burst. But I’m beginning to see that’s just the way it is with Beck. Long distance was a bubble too, and things will keep on changing.