Sunday, April 14, 2019

A Short History of Pi-Man (by Ethan)

(but not a biography because it doesn't cover his whole life)

      Once, in New York City, there lived a sensational skateboarder called Pi-Man. He could do almost any trick you could name. Say “360 heelflip!” and he would do it without missing a beat. Say “De comply!” and he would do it equally as well. Thousands of fans watched him do his stunts on TV, YouTube, you name it! He was loved by all of NYC and had become almost world-famous. 

     In addition to his fame as a skateboarder, Pi-Man had a wild obsession with pi. No, not the pastry (although he did like that kind of pie too), the number! That is why he was called Pi-Man. In fact, he liked it so much that it had become his icon. His shirt, pants, stockings, skateboard, skateboard wheels, helmet, and elbow and knee pads were all printed with a dark purple pi symbol on an orange background. He had also memorized a thousand digits, so, as he did his exploits, he would recite the digits he’d memorized, all while in midair.

     One day, there was a BIG skateboarding competition in New York City. Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to the arena. And it wasn't just any competition. It was one of the biggest races between the two most iconic skateboarders in NYC: Pi-Man and e-Man! The history of the race went back to the year 1900 and it was important to the people of New York. The winning skateboarder would get a golden trophy emblazoned with his/her symbol on it. In fact, the race had become so important that the government built an arena just for the occasion with a seating capacity of 1 BILLION!

      e-Man was an excellent skateboarder who could do a great number of feats as well. As his name implies, he had an obsession with the number e. His uniform was a green letter e on a blue background. Unfortunately, however, Pi-Man and e-Man were rivals. Although all of New York City loved Pi-Man, there were plenty of people who had traveled far and wide from across the US rooting for e-Man. So, you could tell that the competition could get heated. The supporters of each skateboarder wore their colors. As the two skateboarders walked into the arena, the crowd went wild! Each skateboarder would see who could do the best stunts. Pi-Man really needed to win, more than anything else!

      But, before we get to the exciting part, why did Pi-Man need to win so badly? Not so he could keep his fame, in fact sometimes he disliked being famous. Nor did he want the trophy that much, either. What he did want was to expose e-Man; he knew something that everyone didn’t: e-Man really didn’t know how to do all those stunts that well. He just took a special kind of drug to make him look strong and skilled. Besides, this drug was also harmful. But Pi-Man didn’t do this. He put hard work and dedication into his practicing. So, Pi-Man needed to stop him.

    He waited quietly inside a closet in e-Man’s changing room, then, when e-Man stepped outside to use the restroom, he seized his chance and crept out of the closet, rummaged through e-Man’s bag, and stole the drugs. But, because e-Man’s memory was so poor from the drug, he thought that he had already taken it, when in fact he had not. So, when they were performing, e-Man performed poorly and stumbled many times. Everyone was shocked. They thought e-Man was a natural. Then, when Pi-Man stepped up to claim his award, he asked if he could give the audience a speech. Then, he told everyone about e-Man’s drug business. The audience was even more flabbergasted as Pi-Man rushed into the changing room, brought out e-Man’s bag, and rummaged through it until he found what he was looking for. Then, he held it up high and said, “Look at this! e-Man has been doing drugs to make him look strong!” There was a great murmuring from the crowd. Then an e-Man supporter said “I trusted you! We can’t support a drug lord!” And with a great shout, everyone took off their e-Man colors, produced Pi-Man colors from out of thin air, and put those on instead. e-Man tried to stand up and do his stunts again but was promptly hit in the face with a rotten tomato. Everyone was now clad in orange and purple and throwing tomatoes as hard as they could at e-Man. And that, my friends, was the sad ending of e-Man.