Skateboard Renegade Read Online Free

Zach knew that it had been an expensive summer and that
     he'd spent most of his earnings. Still, there had to be
something
left over.
    He counted out sixteen measly dollars. Where had all the rest of it gone?
    He thought back. Candy binges, souvenirs when the family went on vacation, and those cool shades he'd bought himself … boy,
     the money sure went fast, now that he was earning his own!
    Well, he could probably get his ear pierced forthat amount.
Or
he could get a regular haircut, without the bleaching or spiking. But no way was sixteen dollars enough for both!
    Zach had no idea how much it would cost to make his hair look like Brian's, but it had to be more than a regular haircut.
     That amount, plus the piercing?
    He needed to borrow some bucks so he could stay down with his crew. He didn't think there was any chance of getting a loan
     from his parents, let alone of their paying for his “new look.” Not after the little incident with the policeman.
    Of course, there was always Zoey—more to the point, there was Zoey's big pink piggy bank!
    A brilliant plan formed in Zach's mind in an instant. He would borrow the money from Zoey's bank, then earn it back baby-sitting
     and return the money before Zoey ever got wise!
    He stared out his door, across the hall, and through the open door of Zoey's room. There was the piggy bank tempting him on
     top of her bureau.
    Where had Zoey and Lorena gone anyway? Zach looked out the window. There they were, in the backyard.
    Good, he thought. At least she wasn't riding his board anymore.
    “I'll pay her back before she even knows the money's gone,” Zach assured himself as he went into Zoey's room and picked up
     her piggy. Turning it over, he opened the plastic twist bottom and took out the bills and change.
    His sister had saved for this money over the course of who knew how long. It looked to Zach as though she'd never spent a
     dime of it on anything.
    “Unbelievable,” Zach said. “There has to be fifty dollars here at least!” He counted out forty in bills, then put the rest
     back in the piggy. The coins would make a nice
ka-ching
if for some bizarre reason Zoey happened to get suspicious and shake her piggy to make sure her money was still there.
    Zach figured he could make up the forty bucks —if he even spent it all—in a couple of nights of baby-sitting. Feeling satisfied
     with himself, he screwed the plastic piece on again and replaced the piggy on the bureau. He tiptoed back to his room, the
     bills snug in his pocket.
    Fifty-six bucks ought to be enough, he figured. Man, he couldn't wait to see his parents' faces when he came home looking
     like a whole new person!
    Zach's parents put up a fuss when he said he wanted to go to the mall, but when he told them he needed a haircut, they took
     one look at his hair and agreed. It had gotten long and unruly over the summer, and he really did need a cut, any way you
     looked at it.
    Besides, he'd just spent fifteen minutes messing it up as badly as he could.
    His mom insisted on driving him, just to make sure he didn't have the pleasure of using his skateboard. Zach got out at the
     mall and said, “You don't have to pick me up. I'll get a lift home with one of the other kids' parents.”
    “What if you can't?” his mom asked.
    “Then I'll walk.”
    “Walk? It's two miles!”
    “It'll be good for me,” he said, an edge of sarcasm in his voice. “I need the exercise,
since I'm not allowed to go skateboarding.”
    His mom glared at him. “Wiseguy,” she muttered.“All right. Walk home.” As she drove off, he heard her mutter, “I can't wait till the school year starts.”
    Zach's first stop was Hair Apparent, where he asked how much it would be to have his hair bleached and done in spikes.
    “For you, cutie? I'll knock five bucks off the price,” the stylist on duty told him. She had two rings in each ear, one in
     each nostril, and one in her tongue. She looked about seventeen years old.
    Zach