Skater Girls

By Carole Lander

Ten-year-old Jessie’s overriding goal is to become an expert skateboarder. First she has to find the money to buy a board – when she doesn’t get one as a Christmas present. She overcomes this hurdle by doing jobs to earn the money. Then she has to learn to ride the board. To achieve this, Jessie has to choose between her new friendship with KC and loyalty to her younger brother Ned. Her main obstacle comes with her efforts to bring Ned along with her on the journey to being a skateboarder. He’s on the autism spectrum and holds her back.
While Jessie’s loyalty to Ned is tested, she ultimately learns how important he is to her and then she comes up with a new goal – to raise the money to send him to a private school.
KC comes into Jessie’s life at the right moment and offers to teach the younger girl to skate. Her goal is to train another girl so that she won’t be the only one among the boys on the skate ramps. In doing this she learns a few things about nerdie Ned – she discovers that a child on the autism spectrum can be clever, community-spirited and brave.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Checkword Publishing
• Release date: Jan 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005612467

Book preview

Skater Girls

Copyright 2022 Carole Lander

Published by Carole Lander at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

About Carole Lander

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Chapter 1

Christmas Day Surprise

I stood at the top of the ramp, settled myself on the skateboard and prepared to sail down to the bottom. My stomach turned a somersault. I kept my eyes on the slope ahead of me and tried to ignore the voice in my head saying it was too scary. The crowd went silent, waiting for the starting gun. Bang! Off we went. I was determined to show those teenage boys that a ten-year-old girl can skate as well as them. I had a lot to lose if I fell off. At the bottom of the slope, I pushed with my right foot to get up enough speed to go up the other side of the ramp. Suddenly the ground shuddered like there was an earthquake. I woke up to find my little brother Ned shaking me.

‘Wake up, Jessie. It’s Christmas!’ he said. His eyes were like saucers. He must have been awake all night.

‘There’s two big boxes under the tree,’ he said.

‘Hey, that sounds like we could be getting skateboards,’ I told him.

‘Definitely looks like it,’ he grinned and yawned.

‘How many times did you go and look, Ned?’ I asked him.

‘Well, I waited till I heard Mum and Dad go to bed and then I checked the time and went to look on the hour every hour. It was weird ’cause there was nothing all night but when I woke up the presents were under the tree,’ he said.

He hates getting things wrong. I tried to cheer him up. ‘Ned, you must have fallen asleep at some point and that’s when they put out the presents.’

I heard Mum singing her made-up song to the tune of ‘London’s Burning’.

Breakfast’s ready, breakfast’s ready,

Eggs and bacon, eggs and bacon,

Yum yum, yum yum,

Happy Christmas, Happy Christmas.

‘Come on, let’s go look under the tree, Ned,’ I said, pulling on my dressing gown. We snuck into the lounge room but Dad caught us.

‘Sneaky, peaky, you have to wait,’ he said with a laugh. ‘No presents until after breakfast.’

I looked at the boxes and whispered to Ned, ‘Could be what we think they are, not sure though.’

Mum and Dad took forever to finish breakfast. Then they phoned everyone in our family to wish them a happy Christmas, for what seemed like ages. Finally we