All About Bikes

I have a new roommate. Her name is Bayan, which means 'rich with beauty and goodness', and is from I Rode a Horse of Milk-White Jade. She's a beautiful white and black road bike, a Trek Pilot 2.1.

The Principal has been excited about biking since early this year, but I wasn't really all that wild about it myself. A month and a half ago, he rented a bike for me to ride and see what it's like to ride something that's the right size, and honestly, it was like riding music. This morning the Teacher took me to the park to learn how to shift, which moved my opinion of biking from about a four to a seven.

And then about two hours ago I met Bayan (I hadn't named her that yet) and after three laps around the parking lot, seven became a nine, and then after six more laps it became a nine and a half. (I would say I'm at a ten, but I'm still an extremely inexperienced cyclist and there's always more room to love something even more.) Bayan weighs fourteen pounds. (At a guess.) Bayan goes fast (I can already tell she doesn't believe in speed limits- you can break the speed limit on a bike- especially this one).

Bayan is my graduation/birthday present. She's beautiful.

When the Principal was strapping Bayan into the back of the truck I told him he had to treat her nice because she's a lady, and after that, I had to pick a name for her. It was that or have everyone calling her Lady, which is okay, but really not original, and I value originality.

I'm not usually the type to name inanimate objects (calling the Teacher's purse the Purse of Authority doesn't count), but it didn't seem right to call Bayan it. She's definitely a her, and moreover she's definitely a high-class her. But after I started talking about naming her, the Principal decided he needed to name his bikes too.

He declared that his road bike was now Old Busted and his recumbent was New Hotness. The Teacher also has a bike (acquired yesterday in Houston) which is red and yellow and cute but she's just calling it the trike.

I kept looking over my shoulder to admire Bayan on the way home. It was twilight and she seemed to shine out in the darkness, but I'll stop this sentence before I humiliate myself. On the way we went over a rough low water crossing that rattled the truck hard. I whipped around to check on the bikes (okay- really just on mine) and breathed again when I saw that Bayan was still there.

The Principal said "The bikes are still there."

I said, "I know, I just checked."

And then they laughed at me. Some people have no respect for a girl and her bike.