Magic Board

• Sam Fary, Grade 5, Penleigh & Essendon Grammar School
• Short Story
• 2001

Finalist in the 'Zapped! 2001' competition

“Wwwwwwwwwwwwwowhowhow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!,” said the commentator, “that’s the New World champion. He’s the youngest world champ in skateboarding history.” I had just done my biggest and best jumps in history to win the Worlds Championship of Tony Hawk. That was all because of my “Magic Board”. My first trick was to grind down my staircase handle.
A few weeks later my family and I went to Canada with the prize money. Me, my little sister and my big brother went snow boarding and my Mum and Dad went skiing.
My brother was good, my sister was okay but I sucked!
The next day I had an idea.
I took the trucks and wheels off my skateboard and glued my runners on. I carried my board to the top of the slopes. I was feeling lucky already. This was the curse that they used in the X-treme games. I took my snow boots off and put the runners and board on. I jumped off the top, I did a huge jump and did a magical run. We went back to Australia the next day.
Everyone cheered when I went into my class. I felt myself going red in the face.
They did that every day of the term. We had a school fete and there was a skateboarding competition. I was going to enrol but I saw a little sign saying “NO WORLD CHAMPIONS.” I got really mad and pulled down a ramp. A teacher gave me ten weeks detention.
A few months later I went back to the world championship. I went first. I jumped on a grind pole and my board snapped. That was it, I was going to lose. The commentator said. “It was the magic board not me.” “Well,” I said to myself, “everything that goes up must go down.”
My family and I went back the next day. I asked my dad where he’d got my skateboard from. He said I’d got it from the birthday fairy. I said “Dad I don’t believe in the birthday fairy.” He gave in and drove me there. It was an old looking place, maybe it was a 1,000,000 years old. We went inside. It was a skaters heaven. They had long boards, grass boards, skate boards, surf boards and basically every type of board you could think of. “Can I have something,” I said.
“No” he said, “we’re here to complain not to buy.”
I heard a sound behind me. I jumped so high that I would have got a gold medal in the high jump. There was an old man behind us. He said he would return our money but said we would be cursed. I felt someone shaking me and found myself in my bed at home. Was all a dream? Then I saw something I didn’t want to see. A broken skateboard in the corner.AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!