College Relationships

Training Sasha

As we skateboarded to find PJ and Bobby, Sasha showed me more of her incredible skateboarding skills. Doing this with her reminded me of the day after the one my friends and I arrived at Spoonerville College and we got settled into our dorm rooms. That was the day we explored the area around the college after we arrived and we showed off our skateboarding and rollerblading skills and impressing everyone (not trying to blow my own trumpet, but mostly me) and that was where we went to The Bean Scene for the first time ever and that was when we met Lucy and Bradley Uppercrust III and the Gammas for the first time. As I skateboarded with Sasha, she was showing off her amazing skills, yet no one else was noticing her. This area did have a lot of skateboarders going on around, but I thought maybe there were more males doing it and not enough females and that was why no one was noticing Sasha, despite her unique skills.

Sasha and I found PJ, Bobby and Lucy hanging outside The Bean Scene. I introduced Sasha to them. I explained everything about finding her at the skateboarding ramps and her impressing me with her incredible skateboarding skills.

"Are you suggesting that she could join our team, Max?" PJ asked.

"No offence, Max, Sasha," Bobby said, "but there ain't been a female student ever allowed to enter the College X Games in the history of this college, no matter how talented they are."

"Well, we already changed the College X Games not only by beating the Gammas fair and square," I said, "but also by revealing that they cheated to win ever since the beginning. I'm sure that if we welcome Sasha on our team, we can show the college that women can do the College X Games as well as men. Now, she's showed me how well she can skateboard. If she can borrow your bike, Peej, and your rollerblades, Bobby, we can see how she can do on those things and if she's successful, she can join us. Also, remember in our first College X Games, how we also never even beat the Gammas and we nearly had to forfeit to them because Bradley blasted PJ away and we didn't have a backup member until I asked my dad to join us? I'm trying not to repeat that experience again."

"Look, Max, we don't want to go through that ever again either," PJ said, "but what about the other two games we did after? We didn't have another student as a backup and we did well, didn't we?"

"Well, we're starting to take on backups this year," I said. "Now, come on. The sooner Sasha shows us what's capable off, the better chance we have of winning more College X Games."

Sasha first tried Bobby's rollerblades and she was great with them. Then she next tried PJ's bike and she was great at that as well. And I was glad that PJ and Bobby were pleased with her skills as much as I was and that they decided to accept her as a backup teammate.

The next day, I decided to take Sasha on a rough full run practice of the final stage of a College X Games championship. The day before, she showed me in different stages that she could skateboard, rollerblade and ride a bike. On this day, my goal was to see if she can do rollerblade, ride a bike and finally skateboard nonstop as she was ready for the final stage if she did manage to get into the College X Games. And she did very well. As I did it with her, I felt like she didn't really much coaching. All she needed to do was practice as much as she could every day, like how my friends and I did every day. I knew there were more events for Sasha to try for the championships like rock climbing among them, but I was really impressed with what she succeeded to show me that day.

After we finished our full practice run, Sasha and I went into the college's park, sat down on a wooden bench and we ate some food, which was cheese sandwiches I made, an apple and a small bag of potato chips. Sasha didn't have any food of her own and so I offered her some of my food, which she gladly accepted.

"Thanks for the food, Max," Sasha said. "And thank you for being a great coach."

"No problem, Sasha," I said. "You were really great. I think you're ready for the College X Games."

"You really think so?"

"Well, I'm no coach and I'm not the principal of this college, but, in my opinion, yes."

"Maybe, when you graduate, you can be the next College X Games coach," Sasha told me. "I mean, you're great at coaching me."

"Thanks." What she said really made me feel very good about myself.

"And the way you managed to beat those cheating Gammas."

"But I thought you liked Bradley Uppercrust III. Last year, I saw you hanging near him and being impressed with his skills."

"Well, I used to," Sasha said, "but ever since he and the Gammas had been discovered that they only won their first games by cheating, I'm totally over him. I like a real winner. Like you."

"Thanks, Sasha," I said.

"Oh, and also I saw you in West Side Story earlier this year. You were very good in that."

"Thanks," I said. "So, anyway, tell me more about yourself, Sasha. What other hobbies do you have and what are you studying here?"

Sasha told me that she was studying horticulture and floristry and she joined the college's cheerleading and swimming clubs and she had two paid jobs to pay for college, her dorm room and to help her look good on her resume.

"Wow," I said. "I must come and see you do those things."

Then she told me had always been interested in sports and did a lot of sport activities ever since kindergarten. It was all she ever good at in school. She wasn't good in any other subjects, despite her very best efforts. I knew how she felt. She hoped that she would be an athlete or a coach in the future.

"I bet you were very popular in school," I said. "What, with your beautiful looks and your amazing sports skills. I bet you had a lot of boyfriends."

"Yeah, I was very popular in school," Sasha said, "but I didn't really have true friends. Some people from my school have held reunions and parties, but for some reason I've never been invited to them. I never felt I had any real true friends until I met you, Max."

Wow! I didn't know what to say, think or feel.

"Now, tell me more about yourself, Max," Sasha said. "What do you do when you're not practicing or doing the College X Games?"

I told her what I was studying and I was going to be in another college drama production as I was still a student in the drama department as well as working behind the scenes as well. And that I also had another paid job of being a cleaner for the college gyms.

"Now, tell me more about your before you joined college," Sasha said.

I told her everything as we skateboarded back to our dorm rooms. I told her about everything in my life, including how I wasn't popular in the ninth grade, but that all changed after I did a fake Powerline dance and then when I danced with the real Powerline at his L.A. concert in Summer 1995.

"That was you?" Sasha asked. "You were that young kid that danced with Powerline in his most famous concert ever?"

"That's me, I'm afraid," I said.

As we continued to skateboard, Sasha told me that she was a massive Powerline fan and as if she wasn't impressed with my incredible athlete and acting skills, she was amazed to know the youngest dancer to ever dance with the real Powerline and in his most famous concert ever.

Little did I realize that as I was bonding with Sasha, both as a coach and a friend (and future boyfriend), I was getting over my forced breakup with Lola more often than I did during the summer vacation. Maybe it was because I was starting a new relationship with Sasha. But that didn't mean I completely forgot about Lola. I still remembered her and the wonderful relationship we had. We still kept in contact with each other like we promised and she kept telling me how much she was enjoying her life in Duckberg and learning from there and she also kept telling me that she still missed me and she kept thinking of me as much as I kept thinking of her.