Viva Las
Christmas!
West Chester, more than 30 miles north-west of
Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania, one of the largest
economy in the United States of America; it is a place where
people are nice with everyone, having so much stillness. In
other words... a beautiful place to live in! But this
peacefulness will be broken by a lot of events during the
Christmas Holydays.
Everything started during the last day’s lessons
in the West Chester High School, an enormous and well equipped
school. It was Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 of course! All the
school was quiet and the students were in their classes for the
lessons except one class that was in the school’s gym, where all
the guys were doing something, like playing basketball , or
playing soccer; but only one guy was doing a little bit
different thing out of the gym; he was skating with his board;
it was his passion, the only thing that he was able to do very
well; skateboarding is an extreme sport started in the 70’s with
a great story behind it and known in all over the world.
The name of that guy was Matthew Novak, he was
18 years old, a funny guy with brown hair always wearing
skater’s clothes and he had a group of crazy friends and they
were 18 years old too and they were in the same class! That day
Matthew was doing practice with his skateboard like every
Wednesday morning out of the gym and the strange thing was that
his teacher, Mr. Rothstein didn’t care if Matthew wasn’t in the
gym for the lessons, but all of a sudden the security door got
opened end another guy went out and started calling Novak:
“Matt! Ehy Matt!” shouted the guy.
“What?? What do you want?” he answered.
“The lesson is over.. let’s go home!”- “Ok!
I’m coming.. wait for me there”.
Matt took his bag and went to the guy on his
skate doing a trick, then they started to walk trough the gym.
“Wooo! Nice trick! Looks
like so hard to do!”
“Well.. I don’t think
so, you know?! I’ve learnt it right now and I’ve..”
“ yeah yeah…whatever
..let’s go! I’m hungry!!”-“Ok Ryan !”
Ryan Rabb was a blonde guy
and he was dressed casual and he was crazy about music; he was
Matt’s best friend and he spent all the time in his house; the
weird thing was that he didn’t live with his parents anymore and
he had his own house but he liked to stay with Novak’s family;
he had even a room in their house!
“ I need to know if one
time in your life you are not going to eat or sleep in my
house..” said Novak “Mmmh..I don’t know....maybe! Who
knows!?”
“For me this is not an
answer..shut up please!”
Before leaving the school
they looked at the notice board for seeing something interesting
but Matt said: “Ryan..what are we doing?? There’s nothing
here!
There’s only a lot of
garbage..and I’m tired..come on..”- “Oh my God!!” said Ryan
with a happy ring.
“What?” said Matt
“I think that today is
your luckiest day EVER!!”
“Why? what did you
find?”
“Check it out!”
Ryan gave the leaflet to Matt
“Let me see..
The West Chester High
School presents the “West Chester Destruction Contest Under The
Snow”, a skate contest that gives the possibility for only one
person that loves skateboarding to make his dreams come true!
The winner of the contest will have a contract with a big skate
sponsor.For futher information apply to Mr.Rothstein the gym
teacher.
“So?”
Said Ryan to Matt
“So what??”
Reply Novak
“Are you
kidding me? Join it!! this is your chance to be someone! You
love skating...so do it!”
“I don’t know
Rabb..looks like so difficult..and I have a lot of school’s
stuff to do during the holidays..” Ryan replied to
Matt in a bad way
“Don’t try to say
another world! I’m sure that you’ll win the contest..I’m
serious..Matt; So? what will you do??”
Matt closed his eyes and
started thinking..
“Ok..All right..I’m
in!”- “Fantastic..Oh..look..there’s Mr.Rothstein over there…tell
him about the contest…”
The two guys went to the
teacher with a big smile on their faces
“Hi
Mr.Rothstein…can I tell you one thing??”
“Sure..hit me..”
“I’ve decided to join
the skate contest..is it possible??” asked Novak
“Hell yeah, sure you
can..I knew that you should come to me and talk about the
contest” said Mr.Rothstein
“So..Am I in??”
“Of course you’re
in..and remember..the contest will be after the Christmas Parade
at West Chester’s Square on December 21st at 4:30
PM!!”
“Thank you so much
Mr.Rothstein! I’ll see you at the contest!”
“Oh Novak..Don’t think
that the contest will be so easy..There’ll be a lot of damn good
guys that are great..So don’t think that you are the <best in
the business> and you’ll be able to beat everyone, just do what
you are able to do.”
“Ok..thank you for the
advice Sir. Bye”
Matt and Ryan went
out of the school and then they met two friends of theirs,
Brandon and Chris. When he was a little kid, Novak had grown up
with these three guys. For him they were part of his family now,
even if he had never told anyone, he felt this about them.
Finally they arrived to Novak’s house just in time for lunch.
His House was situated in the West Chester’s residential area
and it was so huge and full of hanging Christmas’s decorations,
with a lot of rooms, four of which were occupied by Matt’s
friends. So this explained that Novak’s family was well-to-do
but he had never cared about that, he always bought a lot of
things with his own money.
They went into the chicken
and they found Novak’s mother, April, putting the food on the
table. April was 50 years old and she was a quiet and simple
woman. She worked in a restaurant in West Chester’s downtown as
a chef and she always got praises for her dishes,even from
Novak’s friends.
Novak, just after seeing
her mother, said:
“Hi Mom..I’ve brought
this guys for lunch..are you happy?”,
but his mother replied with
a fake smile on her face:
”Oh..that’s not the
first time that you bring here the apocalypse angels..they
have a family too!”-“Come on..it is Christmas..people should be
better to the others.”
“Sit down,lunch is
ready..”
“Thank you, April”all
the guys said in chorus but April cast a threatening glance at
them, then they started to have lunch.
The reason why April was so
cross with Novak and his friends, was that they were so crazy!
They destroyed a lot of things like tables,old cars or even the
house stuff, so that’s why she was always mad with them. During
lunch Novak’s father came in the kitcken, his name was Phil, a
big man with a funny face covered with a beard. During his life
his weight had never given him any problems, he just liked
himself, and talking about his character he was quiet and simple
too and during his son’s foolish things, he always had fun with
Matt, maybe because a part of him still being a child. Anyway,
his parents were so good with him; they were always for him
everytime that he needed help. After greeting his wife and the
guys he started eating the food and after a conversation, then,
came out the skate contest…
“Skate Contest?? What is
that??” they asked Matt.
“Yeah..it is a contest
and the winner will have a contract with a sponsor..amazing
isn’it??” said Novak
“Good for you
honey..but when this contest will be?”asked his mother
“December 21st.I
have only two days to do practice. I think that it will be
enough”-“Ofcourse..anyway you are a good skater..andI’m sure
that you’ll win the contest..” said Brandon
“He’s right,
Novak..skateboarding is your life..who knows..during the
Christmas Holydays maybe your dream will come true..” said
Chris
“I hope so..well..now
I’m going to better my performance skills..let’s go guys.”
After this all the guys
went out with Matt into the Backyard, leaving his parents in the
kitchen.
Two days after, Matt was in
his room, but he wasn’t sleeping, he was seeing his board and
thinking about his future; some minutes later he went out of his
room and he saw a lot of bags in the hall of his house, because
his parents were going to Atlantic City for their anniversary.
Matt went downstairs and saw his mother and asked:
“So…Are you going to
Las Vegas for the anniversary, aren’t you??”
“Yes..and I can’t wait
to go there..I love that city..you can have a lot of fun over
there!” said April with an excited voice.
“That city is a great
place where you can spend a lot of time..unfortunately you’ll be
there for only three days.“
From upstairs came Phil
with Novak’s friends..
“April? Are you ready?”
asked Phil.
“Yes I am, but..before
leaving I want to say one thing to this guys..please and I
repeat please..no parties,no bad surprises and no damages to the
house,do you understand??”
“Yes..no parties, no bad
surprises and no damages to the house..we promise”said the
guys
“Well..good luck for
your Contest, today, I hope that you’ll win, Bye!”said
Novak’s parents
“Yes..and happy
anniversary again! Bye.”
After telling this, his
parents left the house, Brandon took the phone.
“Now I’m going to make a
few…”-“Brandon, no..put down the phone.. I’m sorry but we
can’t..it’s Christmas and I don’t want to make other
problems..so..relax..we’ll do a party someday..now let’s go to
the Contest..”said Novak.
“Hold on a second Matt..
It’s twelve o’clock, the Contest starts in 4 hours.” said
Ryan
“I know but I need to do
a little bit practice..come on, let’s go”
The guys went to West
Chester’s Square; a typical place with a lot of people that were
there to see the Christmas Parade; in other words, to have
fun.They saw a huge place with skate ramps
“Wow, I can’t believe my
eyes..this is heaven..this place is so enormous!” exclaimed
Chris.
“Yeah..I think that I’m
going to pass out.. I’m so nervous..you guys can’t imagine it..”
said Novak
“Come on..you are
nervous right now..but during the contest you’ll not be stressed
anymore...” Said Ryan
“Yeah you’re right..I
can’t wait to get started and try to…Ehy! Look at the sky!”
said Matt to all of his friends
The sky was getting so
white and the wind started to be really strong…
“Oh no..it looks like a
snow storm is coming..no! It can’t be!”
Along the Square’s streets
the people went into the pubs to take shelter or in their cars
to go home. After some hours the snow storm kept persisting and
the contest’s organizers told the participants that the
competition had to be suspended without telling a possible
second date. Matt tried to convince them to do something when
Matt said a crazy thing…
“What about my house??
There’s none and maybe we can use my backyard to build a ramp…a
ramp that doesn’t have the same size as the other..I know a
person that he can fix it ..I must only have the permits to do
this..”
Three days later, December
24th , Christmas Eve, Novak’s backyard was fixed as a
skate park with a round top on the ramp used to cover the
contest ramp from the snow and other things and the snow dumped
apart. At this contest, or a sort of, were always a lot of
people, but less than the failed contest. In the air everybody
felt the Christmas spirit, like the listening of many Christmas
songs; guys dressed up like Santa Claus and the elves having
fun.
“I don’t know what I am
doing..my mother will kill me after this, I’m going to have the
worst Christmas ever..” said Novak with a worried voice.
“You know what? Maybe
you’re so worried right know, because you are next in the
contest. Good luck!!” Said Ryan to his friend.
Matt started breathing so
fast due to the stress of the competition, then he decided to
start his contest turn. After this he began to go up and down on
the ramp leaving all the crowd amazed with his skills; after
that he ended his turn and the people rose for a great standing
ovation to him. The judges chose the winner of the contest and
it was Matt! He was so happy about that, he had realized his
dream.
After the prize-giving he
went to his friends for receiving their compliments and, behind
them, he saw his parents so perplexed about what they were
seeing.
“Matt! what did you do
to the backyard!?!answer me! said his mother
“Hi mom..how are you?Are
you already here!”
“We came right now
because we heard about the snow storm..we were so worried..”
“I imagine
it..anyway..we’ve moved the contest here..because we didn’t have
another place where to do the contest after the storm’s
damages..I’m sorry..we are sorry..but at least I won!” said
Matt laughing
“Don’t’ do it
again..please..” said April
“Ok..but it could be
worse..”-“Worse? Come on!” said April with a strange smile.
“You know what? I’ve
understood one thing…and this is that if you have a dream you
must realize it..you must believe in it..especially if this
happens during the Christmas Holydays! I love Christmas!!!!”
Finally all the guys
started to have more an more fun during the day and enjoyed the
best Christmas ever in their lives.
Matteo Ruggieri
noni_peers