Marianne watched the kids—probably around ten years old—topple off their skateboards again and again.

“Oh no.” Vi smacked her forehead. “Ha. Now this is just funny. They’re attempting a bomb drop before they’ve mastered the caveman. Hilarious. Anyway”—she turned back to Marianne—“who’s the friend who’s ditching you?”

“Huh?” Marianne was still trying to figure out what a “bomb drop” was.

“You said you knew what it was like.” Vi pulled the end of her ponytail in front of her chest and fiddled with the ends of her hair.

“Yeah. It’s probably nothing. It’s just…” And Marianne found herself telling Vi all about how Skyla was in different classes this year, and how at first it hadn’t seemed like there was any distance between them, but these days she was always with Julie or Zara, whether in person or texting them, and if Marianne didn’t make it to high school, it just felt like she would lose Skyla to those girls forever.

“Hmmm,” Vi said, relaxing against the back of the bench. Normally she sat with perfect posture, Marianne had noticed, even outside of school. “At least you can make new friends, though. I mean, you’ve known Nina and Dan for two seconds and they’d already die for you. Everybody likes you.”

Marianne did her best attempt at raising one eyebrow. “They’re not just laughing at me? I’m not a joke to them?”

“That, too,” Vi admitted, and Marianne couldn’t help but feel a sting, “But they also like you. Both things can be true.”

“Maybe,” Marianne said.

“I can’t take this anymore,” Vi said, and she hopped up and went toward the parking lot.

Marianne scrambled to get all their things together and follow, but Vi hollered out, “Stay there! I’ll be right back!”

From across the soccer field, Marianne watched Vi walk up to the two boys. She pointed to the skateboard. One of them, cowering before her, handed it over. To Marianne’s utter astonishment, Vi jogged, threw the board down to the ground, and, without missing a beat, landed smoothly upon it. Then she did the move in slow motion and put the boys’ hands onto the front of the board, showing them how. After a few unsuccessful attempts, one of the boys seemed to get it right.

“I did it!” Marianne heard him yell.

The boys bumped fists and one of them gave Vi a hug. She saw Vi harden, and then relax into giving him a pat on the back.

She returned to their bench.

“They had to master the caveman first,” Vi said as she caught her breath a bit. “Everything is about building on the next thing, building upon one skill from the last skill. It’s like using training wheels before riding a bike.” She sat back down and adjusted her shirt. “Anyway, where were we?”

“How do you know how to do that?” Marianne asked.

Vi shrugged. “My granddad bought me a skateboard once. I like to learn things.”

Marianne watched the kids in the parking lot figure out the trick and proceed to do it over and over again.