Jet moves as fast as the small wheels of his skateboard would allow. His face was set with worry and slight fear. He really hopes that his father wasn’t awake yet, but that hope was needless. Aside from being strict, his dad wasn’t anything if not punctual.
His fears were soon realized when he notices that the garage was open, his father standing behind his truck. Well, so much for sneaking back inside.
Despite this, Jet walks as quietly as he could pass the open garage, hoping to make it to the front door. He had his hand hovering over the doorknob when he heard his father’s voice.
“Jet.” He didn’t say it loud, his voice always stern and holding high authority. The hawk stills his movements. He turns around, head bowed in shame at being caught. “Hand it over.”
Jet sighs, holding out the board dejectedly. He feels it snatched away from his fingers in a rough manner. “Get in the truck.” He drags his feet over and gets in the passenger side, clicking the seatbelt. He crosses his arms, staring out the window, waiting for his dad to get in the driver’s side. He hears the door shut on the other side soon after. The truck starts up, but he doesn’t look over at his father.
The drive to the shop is silent besides the sounds of the engine and the quiet music from the radio. The sun shines through the window, warming the skin under Jet’s feathers. Looks like it’s going to be another hot day. Great.
The truck pulls onto the small parking lot of the auto shop, the tires screeching to a halt. The lights in the shop are already on. Wave and her dad must be inside.
“Jet, get the stuff from the back.” His dad says as they get out of the truck.
The despondent teen does what he’s told, going around to the flatbed of the truck. He opens the door and starts unloading the boxes. They’re pretty heavy and its a struggle to carry only one of them.
“Need some help?”
Jet looks up to see his friend Wave standing to the side. Her violet feathers and clothes were covered in oil and she was holding her toolbox in one hand and a wrench in the other. She wearing a gray t-shirt and jeans, a purple and white jacket tied around her waist.
“Nah, I got it.” Jet replies, hefting up the box with a little grunt. “My dad’s kinda pissed at me…” He starts making his way into the shop with the box.
Wave makes a noise of understanding, following him. “Oh, did he catch you again?”
Jet sighs, setting the box down next to a few others. “Yeah… I don’t know why he cares about that stupid broad so much anyway…”
The swallow shrugs, setting down her tools, she opens the toolbox, retrieving a box cutter. “Did you ever ask?” She goes to open the box Jet brought in.
Jet shakes his head. “Why bother. He never tells me anything. He doesn’t even like talking about mom…”
“Well-”
“Jet, hurry up with those boxes, boy!” They hear Jet’s father’s voice boom from the other side of the shop.
“Alright!” He shouts back. “Geez.” He says a bit quieter.
Wave chuckles. “Better go, before you make him angrier.
“What are you working on?” Jet asks as he walks into the back room. There were many machines, most of them busted, in the room. Wave mostly just tinkered with them, but it looks like she’s actually working on something this time. He sits on a crate next to the table Wave’s working on.
The swallow takes a pause, wiping the sweat from her brow. “It’s supposed to be a communicator.”
Jet peers over to look at her work table. It was covered in small tools and nuts and bolts. A cellphone like device sat amongst the mess. “It kinda just looks like a phone…”
Wave rolls her eyes. “Well duh. But this is even better!” She sounds excited as she starts to explain to the hawk what it was supposed to do.
Jet will admit that he doesn’t understand what Wave’s talking about most of the time. He’s not a very techy kind of guy. But it is nice to hear her be so happy to explain something to him.
“- and the range on this thing is going to be amazing! Isn’t it cool?”
Jet just nods his head. “Yeah, sure.”
Wave goes back to tinkering with the communicator. “Once I get this one working, it’ll be much easier to make more so we can all have one.” by ‘all’ she means her, Jet, and Storm. “That way you won’t have to worry about getting your phone back…” She flicks her eyes up to look at Jet, a mischievous glint in them. “Who knows how long that will take.”
“Hey! Maybe if you’d agree to help me study, my grades wouldn’t be so bad.” Jet huffs and crosses his arms, a bit affronted.
Wave laughs. “Sorry Jet, it’s already hard enough with Strom, adding another is too much.”
Jet sighs. “I guess you’re right. But I still need help though…”
Wave hums. “I know. Maybe you could ask someone when classes start next week. And who knows. Maybe if you get your grades up, your dad will let you use his broad.”
“I doubt it.” Jet says with a scoff. “Speaking of which… Have you ever heard of something called Extreme Gear?”
The girl tilts her head in thought. “I think so? Wasn’t it like some advanced skateboard tech?”
“Hoverboards, Wave! HOVERboards!” Jet throws his arms up in excitement.
Wave looks at him confused. “Why are you so surprised? I mean they have flying car prototypes in Seris after all.”
“You’ve never seen one in person, have you?”
“Well no. But it’s not like that tech is new news.” Wave shrugs, going back to her work. “Plus, it’d be much easier to design a hoverboard than a whole car…”
“While that may be true-”
“It is.”
“-you know how cool it would be to have one?” Jet goes on undeterred.
“Mm-hm” Wave seems to not be paying attention anymore. Jet’s mostly just rambling at the moment. But he does say something that makes her whip around to face him.
“You did what!?” She practically yells.
Jet looks over at her as if just realizing she was still there. There a smug little smile on his face. “I said I got to ride one.”
“How?” Wave sounded very interested now.
“When I was at the park earlier, there was some blue hedgehog there and he was riding one.”
“Blue hedgehog?” The swallow questions.
“Yeah. Though I think he only let me ‘cause I didn’t know what the hell it was in the first place.” He scratches at his cheek. “I almost crash though…” Jet admits a bit embarrassed.
Wave huffs a laugh. “Figures, you clutz.”
Jet softly glares at her for the jab. “I wonder if I’ll run into him again. I want to know more about Extreme Gear…”
“You think he goes to our school?”
“I don’t know, he looks a little younger than us, but I’ve never seen him before.”
“Huh.” Wave has a thoughtful look on her face.
“What?”
“I think I’ve heard of him.” She says after a minute.
Jet raises an eyebrow at her unsure tone. “You think?”
“I’m not really sure…” Before she gets to say more, her watch goes off. “Oh shoot. I forgot I told Storm I’d help him with his homework today.” She wipes her hands off on a rag.
Jet’s blue eyes widen a bit in surprise. “Oh shit. I haven’t even started.” He hops off the crate.
Wave rolls her eyes at his forgetfulness. “You’ll never get your phone back at this rate…”
