I rode my new bike around the back of the school and onto the field that Fisherman had run across carrying me so he could smash me into the soccer net. I probably wasn’t supposed to ride my bike on the grass, but I didn’t care. I just rode in circles. A couple of times I even put up my middle finger but that didn’t feel right, so I put it back down. I did some not-very-good bunny hops and tried an endo and nearly tipped over onto my face. There was a good chance I was turning into a bad kid. Good thing I already have a juvenile delinquency officer.

Finally, I got tired of wrecking the field, so I rode my new bike to the Stop and Shop. I had never been to a convenience store by myself before. There weren’t any near our old house because it was sort of a fancy neighborhood and you had to drive a long way to buy anything. But all the kids around here go to the Stop and Shop and apparently a lot of them steal stuff. I knew because of all the signs. I went in with my mom when we first moved here, and there was a sign on the front that said no groups were allowed in and kids had to leave their backpacks at the front and be accompanied by an adult and criminals would be prosecuted and another sign saying Your Stealing Costs Everybody. Me and my mom joked about how the signage wasn’t very welcoming.

My mom didn’t give me a lock with my bike, so even though there was no one around, I pushed it into the store.

“NO BIKES!” yelled the guy behind the counter. He had a handlebar moustache and was dressed like a cowboy. Not a real one, but more like a Halloween cowboy. Me and my dad would have had the best laugh about him.

I was going to explain that I didn’t want my new bike to get stolen, but then Ben pulled up outside on his bike. He was in front of pump number one, like he was going to put some gas in his bike.

I left the store and wheeled my bike over. He whistled.

“Nice,” he said.

“My mom got it for me.”

“You need me to watch it while you go in?” he asked.

“Yeah. The guy won’t let me bring it inside. You want anything?”

He nodded. “Purple Slusher.” Then he held my bike by the handlebars with one hand and rode around with it like he was leading a pony while I went into the store.

After I got us each a Slusher, which would have made my mom give me a big lecture about the effect of food dyes on my immune system, I saw the clerk waving out the window to get Ben’s attention.