Skateboard Renegade Read Online Free Page B

Zach said, trying his best. “Should I close my eyes? I guess I should close my eyes.”
    “Honest, this'll only hurt for a minute.”
    “Am I gonna bleed?”
    “Just a little.”
    “Oww!”
    “There. See? Beautiful. I never miss.” The guy put down the instrument, which was kind of like a hole puncher for putting
     holes in paper. He took a little steel bolt and fastened it into Zach's ear. “It'll keep the hole open while it heals,” he
     explained, dabbing it with a disinfectant that made Zach wince.
    “Don't you have a little diamond stud or something?” Zach asked hopefully.
    “I've got 'em for sixty-five dollars,” the man said.
    “Sixty-five dollars?!”
    “Oh, you probably want one of the cut-glass kind. I'm all out of those. Sorry.”
    Great. Just great.
    “Have a look at yourself, kid.” The man turned Zach's chair to face the mirror.
    Zach contemplated himself. Okay, he looked like a freak—but at least the hair looked a little better with the earring to match.
     All he needed now was a tattoo to complete the whole image.
    The trouble was, Zach still didn't
feel
like the guy in the mirror. It was more like putting on a Halloween costume or something. Like a disguise.
    “Man, I've still gotta get used to it,” he told the bearded guy.
    “It takes a while,” the man agreed, nodding wisely and taking Zach's last fifteen dollars. “See you next time.”
    “Sure,” Zach said with a little wave. Under his breath, he muttered. “Not if I see you first.”
    He came out of the shop and checked himself out in the mirrored pillars that flanked the mall's promenade. Yeah, the look
     was startling, all right. Spiky blond hair, big metal bolt in his ear, the new pair of wide-leg skateboard jeans his parents
     had bought him last month, and his huge designer T-shirt. All he needed to top if off was one of those tattoos Brian said
     he was going to get.
    “Ha! Yeah, that'll be the day. He'd never go that far …” Suddenly, a horrifying possibility entered Zach's mind—what if he
     did? The thought of getting all the needles it took for a tattoo made Zach get goose bumps all over. He hated needles worse
     than anything!
    Zach headed for the mall exit. He guessed he'd missed his buddies, but he didn't mind walking home alone. It would give him
     a chance to check out the reactions of the people he passed on the street.
    He took one last look at himself in the mall's plate-glass windows. Overall, he thought he looked pretty silly. The one thing
     he kind of liked was the earring—and even that should have been a diamond, not a steel bolt. The bolt was just for widening
     the hole. It didn't really look like jewelry.
    Oh, well, it was too late to turn back now. And at least he'd be down with his friends.
    “Besides,” he told himself, “it'll all be worth it, just to see the looks on Mom and Dad's faces!”

5
    H is mother and father did not give Zach the exaggerated reaction he was hoping for. His mom raised one eyebrow and said, “Well,
     well.” His dad just shook his head in disgust, muttering something Zach couldn't make out.
    “You like it?” Zach asked, taunting them to tease a reaction out of them. For once in his life, he actually
wanted
to get yelled at, and they wouldn't even give him the satisfaction of acting annoyed!
    “It's not important whether your father and I like it,” his mother said calmly. “It's whether
you're
happy with it. You're the one who's going to have to show up at Amherst Academy looking like that.”
    “Like
what?”
Zach demanded.
    “Zachary,” his father warned. “Don't push it.”
    “Why don't you tell me I have to get rid of it?” Zach asked, half hoping they would.
    “Of what? The hairdo?” his father said. “Oh, no. You chose it, now you can live with it. It doesn't bother us one bit.”
    “Not one bit,” his mom echoed.
    Cheese whiz!
Zach thought, sighing.
Thanks a lot!
He turned and went upstairs, shaking his head.
    As he got to the top step,