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 Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 8:53 pm
For most of the population winter was a deterant for outdoor activities. Unless you had snow, most avoided the frigid weather and stayed inside their homes, at least for the most part. But kids, as adaptable as they are, don't always fit that mold. So it wasn't strange to say that Jamie asked his mother to take him to the Liberty Center playground.
His bike had broken earlier that month and, being the little tinkerer that he was, he had been messing with the gears and the chain and putting in a bunch of parts that it probably didn't need at all. Finally deeming his work worth a test run he needed to go someplace with the space for it. And, of course, the tolerance.
So he wheeled it over to one of the many benches othe liberty center provided, bending down quickly to inspect everything first. RICEE perched stoticly on his shoulder, only moving as Jamie did to keep his balance. His mother, on the other hand, had decided to retire somewhere a safer distance away-a small, bare tree with a bit of grass growing stiffly beneath.
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 8:58 pm
Maddy was eyeing the new boy with curiosity from her perch on the swing, not far off.
She'd gone to the Liberty Center for the sole reason of wanting to use their swingset, and hadn't really expected to see anyone else here; usually the playground was packed, but it was winter and people were much more keen on spending time indoors with their family.
"What're you doing?" She inquired, more than a little curious. He seemed to be.. staring intently at his bike?
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:12 pm
Jamie looked up quickly, nearly tossing his poor mechanical lizard off his perch. He hadn't noticed anyone else was here. He must have been really excited about his bike; normally he was pretty observant. It was a skill he learned while helping his mom in his cafe'. Sometimes just watching and listening was a pretty interesting game. Right now the bike was just a little bit more so.
"I'm checking to make sure my bike's all ready to go," he explained with a typical loose smile, "I just fixed it, want to make sure none of the parts are loose." If they were, or something else was wrong, he supposed he'd just find out when he got it rolling.
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:17 pm
She hopped off the swing and drew closer to the other kid. "Really? You know how to fix bikes? That's kind of cool." She informed him. "So, is it fixed?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:26 pm
"I've never fixed one before," He admitted, "But it didn't seem too hard...I think everything's right, maybe even better." He took his helmet, which had been hanging on the handle bars, and wiggled it onto his head. It always took a bit of adjusting to get it to fit right; his hair didn't really like getting stuffed under things. Once he had managed to fasten the strap under his chin he glanced over in her direction.
"I've got to take a test run, see how things go." He took RICEE off his shoulder and held it out the girl, his smile remaining, "Do you wanna hold him til I'm done? If not I can just put him over there..."
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:33 pm
"Oh! I'll hold him." She took the little robot, smiling cheerfully down at it. So cute!
"But you gotta be careful, right? I don't know first aid or anything.." She bit her lip, looking a bit concerned for him as she took a seat on the bench to watch the test run.
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:42 pm
RICEE clicked and settled into her hand. He wobbled a bit, though. His balance sensors were rather primative. Another one of Jamie's projects.
"I'll be okay, I've got my helmet," he replied simply. He'd fallen off his bike before and it had never been too bad. A scraped knee here, a busted lip there...and Jamie was the kind of kid who only had average pain tolerance.
He pulled up his bike from its resting position and swung his leg over so he was on the seat. He waited for a moment and then he said, both to himself and then to the girl, "Ready? Set...go!"
Jamie let go and started peddling. The bike twisted a bit as he got himself going, but then it straightened out. For a while it seemed like he would make it. As the slope of the sidewalk increased, however, he tried to switch gears. Then, with a grinding creak, the wheels jammed and he toppled over into the grass.
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:47 pm
"Crap, are you okay?!" Maddy ran over to him, worriedly looking him over for any serious injuries and nearly dropping RICEE in the process. He seemed to have gotten off easy, but she'd heard that you could never really know for sure in traffic accidents and biking probably qualified as traffic.
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:33 pm
Jamie pushed the bike off his legs with a grunt before crawling on hands and knees a foot or two away. Taking in a few deep breaths he blinked away the dull aches he was feeling and looked himself over. Well, he didn't seem to be bleeding. That was a good sign.
"I think I'm ok," he said as he stood up carefully. He then went right to the bike, lifting it back up and inspecting the chain link and the gears again. Hmmm, something with the switching right? It couldn't be that hard to fix. "I thiiiiink I can fix it. Hmm."
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 7:51 am
She looked on gapingly as he shrugged off his fall and went right back to trying to fix the infernal thing.
"Are you kidding me?! That thing's dangerous!" She was gesturing wildly towards the bicycle. "You got off lucky, but you could get seriously hurt by a bike-fall!"
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 9:56 am
He stopped to look at her, rather baffled. He had never seen anyone so upset about a bike before. It was strange.
"It's just a bike..." Even if it was slightly altered. But hey, the concept and execution was basically the same. He put off repairing the contraption for a moment, focusing his attention on her. "Haven't you ever rode a bike befoe?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 11:36 am
"Bikes can kill you! It doesn't matter if it's just a bike, it's still dangerous and you're practically asking to get hurt by testing out your own reparations like this!" Steam was practically coming off her ears by now, so mad was she. How could he just sweep aside the danger?!
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:36 pm
Jamie blinked mildly at her, his blue eyes only a swirl of wonderment.
"So...you haven't rode a bike, then?" He asked, completely ignoring her rant about death by bicycles.
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 12:00 am
"I.. that's not the point! Totally not the point!" She flailed her arms wildly, looking more comical than anything else.
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 5:10 pm
"Here, I'm going to just make sure this gear's straight and then I'll let you have a go!" Jamie replied cheerfully, finding that to be a fair answer to the problem of this-new-girl-never-having-rode-a-bike-before. He brought the bike back to the path, hopped up and peddled off again. This time the gears switched smoothly, well, they worked anyway and he circled back.
He stopped in front of her and got off with a smile, "Ready?"
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