I can't believe it happened to me

• Josh Shawberry, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2005

My name is Ollie and I’m 13 years old. My favourite thing to do is skate, and I’ve been skating since I was 6. I’m a vert skater (doing tricks in the air) and I can do stacks of tricks!
Right now I’m skating in my front yard on my half-pipe and I stop. Because I see a black van driving along the road slowly. The reason why I stop is because it has a logo on it called “Element skateboards.” That’s my favourite brand! When the car got in front of my driveway he stopped and winded his window down. Then he said,
“Hey kid! You any good?”
“Ah, yeah,” I say, “then let’s see what you’ve got!” “All right!” I drop in and launch up into the air do an Indy with a 360 degree spin, land back down and stop.
“Woah! You are AWESOME!”
“Thanks!” I say,
“hey kid, did you hear about the comp this weekend at Adelaide skate park?”
“The one where you get sponsored by
Bam Margera if you win? Yeah I’ve heard of that one, my dad and I have got tickets and I can’t wait to see it!”
“Kid, Give your ticket to ya mum, I’ll sign you up for the contest, see you there.”
“Wicked! I’m Ollie Cooler by the way, Seeya!”
“Bye, oh, in case your parents don’t believe you, you’d better take this.”
He writes a note and give it to me. It says:

To Ollies parents
Your kid is one hell of a skater! I’m going to sign him up for the comp this weekend. He’s got a very good chance of winning!
Signed
Jack Wood

Jack drives off and I go inside and show the note to my parents and…
THEY BELIEVE ME! YES!!!
********************

Three days later, on Saturday, Dad, Mum and I head to Adelaide Skate park, there’s stacks of people there, I look around and see my friend Aaron.
“Hey Ollie! Come and watch the comp with me!” he says
“Sorry Mate! I’m not watching!”
“What do you mean?”
“I’M IN IT!!!”
“Wha-?”
“Seeya later!”

SO far there have been a lot of really cool skaters, and some really bad ones. Finally the last skater in the comp gets ready for his turn, me! The horn blown and I launch off. I Manual for a few meters then launch off a quarter pipe and try a 540 Christ-air and land it, the crowed goes wild! Then I do a kickflip off a ramp then land on a rail then do an
FS Smith grind, land on the ground in a nose manual, and Invert on a lip, and land back on the QP (quarter pipe). That the end of my run! Five minutes later after the judge reads out the scores, BAM MARGERA comes up to me and says,
“congratulations Ollie, you won!” the crowed cheers and I look over at Aaron and he looks really jealous.