Mountain Bike Mania (6 page)

“Follow me — we’re goin’ down!” Ace shouted, and dipped down with the trail, suddenly disappearing from sight. Behind him,
he threw something small that glinted in the sun. Will passed it, and saw that it was a gum wrapper.

Will was shocked that Ace would just litter the trail like that, but he had no time to think about it. The trail dove steeply
downward, and Will went with it, his feet down on the ground to steady and slow the suddenly careening bike. “Yaaah!” he yelled,
paralyzed with fear as he struggled to control his bike.

Ahead of him, Will saw Ace leap into the air with his bike, coming down ten feet later on the other side of a huge mud puddle.

“Aaaahhh!” Will tried to brake, and when he saw that it was too late, he made a feeble attempt to jump the puddle. He came
down smack in the middle of it!

The next thing he heard was Ace’s roaring laughter.
“Yeah! All right! You’re initiated, kid! Mudface, that’s you!”

He gave Will the club handshake, and Will, who had been steaming with anger only a moment before, suddenly decided he didn’t
want Ace to know how scared he’d been.

“So, what do you think of it?” Ace asked. “This place rules, doesn’t it?”

“It’s amazing,” Will said, not wanting to disagree. The trail had been fun but far too dangerous for a beginner like him,
with its boulders and steep pitch, its roots and crevices and deep mud holes. He was surprised Ace had taken him here, knowing
Will had been riding less than a week. “Does the club ever come here?”

“Are you kidding?” Ace asked with a snort. “They would never come to a place like this! They’re attached to the school, right?
So they have to worry about insurance and stuff, like if somebody got hurt and sued.”

“Yeah, I can see how they might worry about that,” Will agreed.

“It wasn’t too much for you, was it?” Ace asked slyly.

Will quickly shook his head. “Me? Nah.”

“Great!” Ace said, grinning broadly. “A mountain biker is born! Let’s do it again!”

Will had felt the thrill of it, for sure, but he’d also been scared stiff—this trail was far too advanced for him, and he
knew it. “Uh, actually,” Will said, “I should be getting back. I’m supposed to go to the mall with my folks later.”

“Okay,” Ace said. “I’ll see you Monday.”

“You’re not going back?” Will asked, surprised.

“Nah, what for?” Ace asked. “If I show up at the bike store, my dad will just put me to work. It’s my weekend, you know? I’d
rather hang out here, even if it is by myself.”

“What about Steve and Mitch? How come you didn’t ask them to come?” Will asked.

“Them? Mitch’s parents make him and his sister go to their country house every weekend, and Steve used to come, but lately,
his folks…” His voice trailed off.

“What?” Will asked.

Ace frowned. “They don’t like for their baby to ride with the big bad wolf, here,” he said, pointing to
himself. “They think I’m gonna get little Stevie in trouble.”

“Are you?” Will asked, jokingly, but curious about the answer.

“You’re still in one piece, aren’t you?” Ace asked.

“Yeah.” Barely, he added silently.

“You had fun, right?”

“Yeah,” Will said again, only with less certainty.

“So okay,” Ace concluded. “See? Nothing to worry about. See you Monday, huh?”

“Sure thing,” Will said, and kicked off down the dirt track that led toward the main road. “See you.”

As he pedaled, Will thought again about the gum wrapper Ace had deliberately dropped on the trail. Such a small thing, really.
And yet, more than Ace’s poor judgment in taking Will to a trail that was way too advanced for him, it was the gum wrapper
that, for some strange reason, seemed to stick in Will’s mind.

On Monday it rained hard all day, and when Will checked at the gym doors at two-thirty, none of the club members was there.
He figured the meeting
was canceled and just went home. So he was surprised that night when Gail Chen called and asked where he’d been.

“We were meeting in the gym office,” she told him. “That’s where we go when the weather’s just too bad. Sorry, I should have
told you that.”

“It’s okay,” Will said. “Next time I’ll know. Hey, where are we going on Wednesday?”

“To the South Fork Reservation,” Gail said. “There are lots of nice trails there. Not too hilly, in case it’s still soggy
from today.”

“Why, what happens when it’s soggy?” Will asked. “I thought getting dirty was part of the fun.”

“Yeah, up to a point,” Gail agreed with a giggle. “But the trails get bad ruts if you skid on them while they’re wet. Then
the ruts harden as they dry, and the trail gets really messed up.”

“I see,” Will said, thinking of the muddy trail Ace had taken him to. The two of them had dug some ruts for sure. Will almost
mentioned it, but something made him hold back. “Well, sorry I missed you today, anyway,” he said. “See you Wednesday.”

Will hung up and stared out his window at the rain, still coming down hard on the windowpane.
He had already eaten dinner and done his homework, so he took out the book he’d gotten from the library — a novel about mountain
biking, where this bunch of kids gets stranded on a wilderness ride.

Funny, but ever since he’d started it, Will had begun to feel differently about reading. He was actually looking forward to
tomorrow afternoon, sitting at the big library table, reading chapter after chapter of his book.

He was changing so fast that he barely recognized himself!

Across the library table sat Danny, a large volume of the Encyclopedia Brittanica spread out before him. He was copying notes
from one of the pages.

Will peeked up from his novel every once in a while to glance at him. Finally his curiosity overwhelmed him. “What are you
studying up on?” he asked.

“The ancient city of Ur,” Danny replied. “It was in the Fertile Crescent, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, where modern-day
Iraq is.”

“Oh. Iraq,” Will said, nodding, but not really
getting why Danny was so interested in it. “Are you doing a report on it or something?”

“No,” Danny said with a shrug. “It’s just interesting — that’s all.”

“Uh-huh,” Will said noncommittally. That was Danny. He just liked to learn about things, for the sake of knowing. Well, Will
guessed he wasn’t so different. Here he was, reading about mountain biking, and he didn’t have any homework on it, either.

Just then, the library door burst open, and Ace Diamond marched in. He went up to the librarian and asked for something he
had written down on a scrap of paper. He handed it to the librarian, and she went off to find whatever it was.

Meanwhile, Ace looked around and saw Will and Danny. Grinning mischievously, he came over to them. “Hey, kid!” he said, too
loudly for the library. “So this is where you’ve been hiding! Just can’t stay away from the books, huh?”

“I have to stay here on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school,” Will explained. “It’s part of my agreement with my parents,
in exchange for them getting me the bike and letting me be in the club.”

“Letting you?” Ace said, wincing. “Oh, gee, I forgot you were in sixth grade. But couldn’t you just be home alone? I do it
all the time.”

“You do?” Will asked as Danny looked silently on.

“Sure. My mom and dad both work in the cycle shop. So I would have to work, too, if I showed up there. Forget that. I just
go hang out downtown with some kids at the video arcade and the pizza place. You could come with us sometime if you wanted
to chill with us.”

“Sure!” Will said, then felt a sudden stab of guilt, as if he were betraying Danny or something, although of course, that
was ridiculous. He wasn’t doing that, was he?

Ace jerked his chin at Danny. “Is this the friend of yours who can’t stand mountain biking?” he asked.

Will went beet red. Now Danny would know Will had been talking about him with his new friends! Will could feel Danny’s hurt
gaze on him without even looking at him.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Danny said. “I almost got killed by a couple of mountain bikers recently. So did Will, but it seems not
to be bothering him any.”

“That’s because Will’s got guts,” Ace said, leaning
over the table. “Mountain biking is da bomb. You should try it sometime.”

“Yeah, right. That’ll be the day,” Danny said, slamming his book shut.

“Loser,” Ace said. “Don’t reject what you don’t know anything about!”

Will sat there, mortified, wanting to jump to Danny’s defense, yet not wanting to get on Ace’s bad side, either. The silence
seemed to drag on indefinitely.

Just then, the librarian called to Ace. She had his book apparently, and he left to retrieve it. “So long, kid,” he said to
Will. And then he gave a half-smile and added, “So long, loser!”

When Ace had left, Will turned around to find Danny staring at him, white with rage. “Danny,” he said, “I —”

“Never mind,” Danny stopped him. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“Okay, I guess,” Will said sheepishly. “But — are we still friends?”

“Friends?” Danny choked. “Friends stick up for each other, don’t they, Will?”

He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, still shaking
with fury, he walked right past Will and out the library door.

Will bit his lip. He felt like sinking into the floor. He would have given anything to rewind and do over the last five minutes.

But what would he have done differently? Stick up for Danny and lose his friendship with Ace? He wasn’t prepared to do that.

And what about your friendship with Danny? a little voice inside him asked.

Will didn’t have an answer. He picked up his book and tried to concentrate on the words instead.

T
he next morning, Will rode the seven blocks to school just as he always did. But when he pedaled onto the school campus and
locked up his bike on the rack next to the athletic field, he had the strangest feeling that someone was watching him. He
turned around quickly and caught two separate groups of people huddled together, whispering and staring in his direction.
One kid was even pointing at him.

What was going on? Will wasn’t bold enough to go right up to the kids and ask them, but as he went inside by the main entrance,
he saw a large knot of students gathered around a small table that had been set up in the hallway. Will stood patiently at
the back of the crowd, waiting for a chance to get close enough to see what it was all about.

“Are you going to sign it?” one girl was asking another. “Sure, why not? The guy at the table sounds like he almost got creamed
by one of them.”

Just then one of the girls caught Will looking at them and fell silent. Others in the crowd did, too. Will had a sudden premonition
that somehow mountain biking was involved with all the commotion. He jostled his way to the front of the line.

Sure enough, spread out on the table was a petition with the heading
Citizens Against Mountain Biking.
A handwritten sign behind it read
Stop abuses by mountain bikers! Sign to protect citizens’ safety!

Will read the petition in disbelief:

It has come to our attention that mountain bikers are often rude, careless, and dangerous in their use of public paths and
trails. They make a lot of noise and litter; scare animals, old people, and children; ruin paths; and endanger the lives of
everyone else using these public areas. Therefore, we, the undersigned, hereby demand that mountain bikes be banned from all
hiking and riding trails, ski trails, and any other unpaved roads on public lands around town.

Furthermore, so that Hopgood Middle School not be seen as encouraging this dangerous and environmentally disastrous sport,
we demand that this school’s mountain biking club be disbanded at once.

Underneath, there were pages and pages of lines for people to sign on. So far, two of the pages were full.

Will stood there staring at it in utter dismay. Even though there was a girl sitting behind the table, Will knew without a
doubt that Danny had to be behind this fiasco. He recognized his friend’s writing style. And to think, just the day before,
he’d been feeling sorry about how he’d treated Danny!

The traitor! It was one thing for him to be angry and another for him to try to spoil everyone else’s fun! Will felt like
taking the petition and ripping it to shreds, but there were lots of kids behind him still waiting to read it. He moved off
toward his locker, still steaming, and wracking his brain to figure out a way to save the club.

Will had always known that there were some people who didn’t like mountain bikes or the people
who rode them. But he had thought they were just a few cranks, or maybe people who’d been personally affected, like Danny.
But he was totally floored by how many people were lining up to sign the petition.

They just don’t understand how great mountain biking is! he thought miserably. If only he and the others could show them —
maybe make a home video and show it, or give a talk, or — no, that wouldn’t work. The feeling you got when you were riding
the trail couldn’t be put into words, unless you were a good writer like Danny — and Danny was leading the other side!

Will felt like punching Danny, but he knew he wouldn’t do it. How could he have felt sorry for that jerk?

He was still steaming when Ace collared him in the lunch line later that day. “I’ve been looking for you all over!” Ace said,
pulling Will by the shirt. “Come on, I’ve got everybody together out back.”

He led Will outside through a set of side doors to the bike racks, where all the other members of the club were already waiting.
“Okay, everybody’s here,” Ace said. “I guess you all know why I got us together.”

Gail looked uncomfortable. “I don’t understand how this happened,” she said. “We haven’t done anything to offend anybody.”

“Of course we haven’t!” Ace agreed. Will had a momentary flash of Ace dissing Danny in the library, but he didn’t say anything.
Ace was obviously mad, and he wasn’t the kind of guy you wanted angry at you.

“I say we strike back!” Ace was saying as he paced back and forth in front of them. “We could find out who wrote it and trash
their locker!”