Dave (trumann) wrote in vaslogs, @ 2016-03-11 21:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | dave trumann, joey schumacher |
WHO: Dave Trumann & Joey Schumacher
WHERE: John's Sporting Good Store
WHEN: Day 95 (Thursday)
WHAT: Dave really wants a skateboard, Jojo is bored, and maybe there will be bikes and teaching. Either way kidtimes!
WARNINGS: Cute overload.
STATUS: Closed/Incomplete
JoJo was excited. She'd only ever seen the big kids back home ride on skateboards and Dave said that maybe she could try if she promised to wear a helmet. That seemed like a pretty good deal to her. It felt like leaving without a grownup was going to get them into trouble, but JoJo thought maybe Miss Felicity and Miss Sara couldn't punish her and Dave because they weren't their parents. So maybe it would be okay. Accustomed to holding hands with a grownup, even though Dave wasn't that much bigger than her, JoJo made sure she took Dave's hand and stayed close the whole walk and even when they got inside. Just in case. “I could really ride on a skateboard like a big kid?” she asked hopefully, tilting her head to look up at him. Dave, despite being a kid, wasn’t totally irresponsible and dumb. He had left Felicity a note before he and JoJo had taken off for the sport’s store. Now, this is definitely something that Dave never would have done to his mother or father. They probably would have gotten mad, and he’d have gotten in trouble with him if he had. Felicity and Sara weren’t his mom, though. And kids, well, they were able to tell what they could and couldn’t get away with. Kids were kind of meant to push the boundaries. And maybe Dave was doing a bit of that now, letting JoJo do the same. Either way, the decision had been made already. “Yeah, I promised you could. So, I’ve got to let you try it.” Dave didn’t have any younger siblings, or even any real cousins, so he didn’t know exactly the way someone was supposed to treat someone as little as JoJo. So, for the moment he was just going by how he’d seen his mom around her friend’s kids, and stuff. He could have done without holding JoJo’s hand as they walked to the store, but he took the responsibility of having her with him seriously. So, he didn’t shake her hand off or anything, just held it carefully, even opened the door for her as they moved inside. And he wasn’t one to break promises, he just wasn’t. “Do you ride a bike a lot?” Dave asked, his head swiveling from side to side as he came to a stop, looking at the signs to figure out exactly where their destination was. He knew what they needed: helmets, pads, skateboard, and a bike if they had one JoJo’s size. HE’d show her how to skateboard, but a bike definitely seemed better for someone little(er) than him. JoJo looked up at Dave, following him dutifully into the store and staying right by his side and doing her best to keep up with him so that he wouldn't get annoyed and leave her behind. He led her further into the store before stopping. “Uh huh, I just got training wheels for my big girl bike!” she exclaimed happily. “These ones’ll have training wheels right, Dave? I don't wanna fall down…” the little girl admitted quietly. Dave wouldn’t actually mind having a younger sibling, he figured. Jojo wasn’t so bad and it’d be much more interesting, for him, than just hanging around with his parents’ friends kids. Plus, the way she looked up at him was kinda cool, when she wasn’t upset or anything. Once Dave found the skateboards he stopped them, studying the options; a long board didn’t seem like a good idea, but a penny board could be good sized for the both of them. Looking over at Jojo, Dave smiled a little bit. “What color’s your big girl bike?” And here was the biggest problem. He had no idea if they’d have training wheels. “I dunno, we’ll just have to see. If they aren’t on it already maybe they’ll have some we can get put on it?” He suggested, hoping Felicity could use tools because he didn’t quite know how they went on or how to put them on himself quite yet. Dad hadn’t taught him how to use tools yet. JoJo watched Dave perusing the skateboard section with interest. They were all kinds of sizes and colors. She found herself wondering if the small ones were for little kids and the longer ones were for grownups or what. Maybe she'd ask him later on. At his display of interest, the little girl beamed back up at him. “It's pink and purple! I love it so, so much,” she gushed. “What color is your skateboard?” “Do you think Felicity will know how? Or Miss Sara? Or maybe one of them gots a husband who could help!” The other option only flashed through the little girl's mind for a split second — that maybe Dave could teach her without training wheels — before she quickly dismissed it because that sounded scary. Dave gave JoJo his attention for the moment, mainly because he was contemplating whether or not he wanted to grab two skateboards, and he was buying some time. “That’s cool, purple’s a cool color.” Dave managed with a smile, not able to say the same for pink, but he knew that what his mom had told him was the best way to go...if you couldn’t say anything nice, don’t say it, plus...he didn’t want to hurt the little girl’s feelings. “My skateboard is black, but I put a bunch of stickers all over the bottom of it too.” Dave explained with a smile. “But it’s also my first one, so I didn’t get anything real fancy to learn on.” Dave said before he reached out and grabbed two penny boards: one pink and one blue. “We’ll just have to see, I know my mom knows how to do that kind of stuff. If they can’t they’ll know who can.” Dave nodded, holding up the boards. “And until we get that done we’ll work on teaching you how to ride this. Now we gotta grab pads and helmets, maybe a backpack too, and then see if there are any bikes.” Dave gestured down to the next aisle before leading the way. “Do you have to wear pads and helmets when you ride your bike? My mom always made me when I was your age.” JoJo was none the wiser. She was too caught up in one of the bigger kids calling her favorite color cool that she didn’t care that he’d omitted her second favorite color entirely; JoJo didn’t even notice. She grinned widely at his description of his skateboard. It wouldn’t have occurred to her, she didn’t think, to put stickers on one, but now when she got home she wanted to put them on her bike, for sure. “What kind of stickers?!” she asked excitably, fishing for ideas of what cool, big kid stuff she could glean from him to take home with her. Dave held up the skateboards and he’d picked a pink one for her. JoJo decided that she liked Dave a lot for listening to her enough to pick one in a color she liked. The little girl beamed up at him. “My mom makes me wear a helmet and pads but Daddy only makes me wear a helmet and he says pads will make me a crybaby,” she said casually. “But I don’t like the pads, anyway, so if I don’t gotta wear ‘em then I don’t wanna,” she went on, “but the helmet’s okay. I know I gotta wear that.” “I dunno...different ones that I had. I got some that are like goofy smiley faces and others that are random cartoon stuff. I just kind of stuck a bunch all over so that it wasn’t just all plain.” Dave explained. “I had to make it more interesting.” His mom hadn’t been all that amused by the stickers, but once dad had explained it to her she’d understood, sort of, as much as a mom could, anyway. Dave was focused on the stuff on the shelves. He was looking for helmets that might actually fit JoJo’s small(er) head, in particular. “Your dad sounds like my grandpa.” Dave laughed, thinking about the fact that her grandpa had said something just like that. “It’s really easy to fall off a skateboard, though. So, I think you might want to wear them until you figure out how to balance. I skinned my knees and elbows a few times after I learned, even though I was supposed to be wearing pads.” Dave pointed to some of the helmets. “Do you like any of these, or think they’ll fit? You got a small head.” Since Dave was the older one, JoJo decided he would know what was best and if he said she needed to wear pads, then she should do that. “Okay,” she agreed in a pleasant little chirp, giving him a big smile. Miss Sara and Felicity wouldn’t get her as well behaved, to be sure, but that was because they were old and Dave wasn’t old, he was just a big kid and big kids were cool. She shrugged in response to his question. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I guess I gotta try ‘em,” she added, but she just kept looking at him rather than attempting to reach for something she knew was up too high to grab. Dave didn’t realize that younger kids were so easy to deal with. Sure, he’d been around some of his mom’s friends’ kids, but they’d been kind of bratty. JoJo he didn’t mind because she was nice. She was even interested in learning to skateboard, instead of trying to make him do something that he didn’t want to do. Putting the penny boards down on the floor, Dave reached out for one of the smaller helmets. It wasn’t pink, but it was small, so there was hope that it might fit on her head. Looking between the helmet and the little girl, Dave gave a nod because it looked right, as far as he could tell. “Try this on, please?” Dave held the small helmet out, already looking at the other small ones that he’d try if this didn’t work. Plus, he could see a couple there that looked a lot like the one that he wore at home. This was definitely a good sign. So far, it’d been a pretty good trip to the sports good store! JoJo took the helmet from Dave and put it on her head, but it was really loose. "This one don't got the foam things like mine," she said, not realizing that she was referring to the little sticky foam inserts that could be stuck into the inside of a helmet to make it fit a child's head better. She shook her head a little and the helmet wobbled around on it freely. Jo laughed and looked up at Dave from under the front of the helmet that sagged just above her eyes. "I don't think it fits," she giggled. Dave couldn’t help the snort that escaped, as he watched the helmet wobble on the little girl’s head. That was definitely not going to work. As his mom would say, it wouldn’t protect her brains from getting scrambled. “I don’t think it fits either, but it looks funny.” Dave shared before grabbing the other two. One seemed to be about the same size, the other slightly smaller. So, Dave kept the smaller of the two. “This one looks smaller, but it still might not fit and it doesn’t have foam….” The child, though he was older than JoJo, studied the shelf a moment with intensity. It was after a minute that he found what they’d been lacking, the foam inserts. “Maybe that’s what these are for? Does this look like the foam from your helmet at home?” Dave really hoped so because if not he wasn’t sure what to do for a helmet for the little girl. And a part of him was pretty sure that if they asked an adult for help….well he might not be able to keep his promise to JoJo. Plus, some of the adults (their current guardian mostly) were kind of….weird and stressed out. Again, JoJo giggled when Dave laughed and she put both of her hands on the helmet to move it out of her eyes to look back up at him as he continued. After a moment, she took it off and gave it back to Dave to put away since she couldn't reach. But when he grabbed the inserts, her face lit up. “That's the things! My mommy put those in my helmet and then it fits better!” Her smile shined brightly at him because she knew that it meant he'd still let her try big kid stuff if she could fit in the helmet right. “Do we do it here or maybe Felicity could put them in there? I don't know if grownups gotta do it cuz it's too hard for kids or what.” Taking the helmet offered, Dave made quick work of sliding it back where it belonged on the shelf, keeping the foamies and slightly smaller helmet in his hand and grinning at how excited JoJo seemed to be that he’d found them. He was glad he did. He really didn’t want to break his promise to her. “Cool! That means we’ve got your helmet stuff.” Dave grinned before grabbing the one that looked exactly like his at home and then looking at the little girl and shrugging. “We’ll try first and if we mess it up we’ll ask for help, okay? Dave was getting himself a little independent streak. Gesturing further down the shelf, Dave pointed out the pads, “Can you grab two of the pads on the bottom shelf?” They were almost good. They needed a bag for the gear, and then to look at bikes, after that, though, they were good! JoJo nodded obediently at Dave's suggestion that they try it themselves first and if they didn't succeed, then they should ask for help. She liked that idea. It meant that, just for this one thing, JoJo would get to kind of be a big girl. “Uh huh!” she chirped happily, crouching just a little bit and reaching for the pads she thought he'd indicated. JoJo picked up two of the packages and lifted them up to show him. “These, right?” she asked to make sure. When he confirmed, the little girl got to back up and bounced on the balls of her feet anxiously. “Now bikes?” “Yeah, those are it!” Dave grinned and gave the little girl a nod. For a little girl, she really wasn’t so bad. Dave kind of liked being around her. With a plan firmly in place, and some y’know possibilities for what to do if they failed, Dave felt pretty good about this. He didn’t know how good he’d be at teaching anybody to skateboard, but he was going to do it anyway. “Now bikes.” Dave moved to lead the way for the last leg(s) of their shopping spree, getting excited about getting out on skateboards and doing something rather than sitting around. Today was definitely shaping up to be a fun day.... |