Hey, for my existing readers; I know it's been a while since I updated Sweetie Pie's Bakery, but don't worry! I am definitely continuing it, this is just another littler story on the side. Hope you all enjoy it!
For any new readers, Hi, hope you enjoy!
Okay, so I don't know how I ended up here, but I am going to punch Berry in the tits as soon as we're in the car. I'm sat in a giant sports hall with a bag the size of Rachel, with swarms of girls rushing around me in every direction. Which usually I wouldn't complain about, but today I have to join the swarm, and they're going at like six-thousand miles an hour.
When Berry sent me this roller derby try-out thingy, it seemed pretty cool. I mean, I've seen Whip It, it doesn't look that hard, Bliss picks it up in like a week, and then she's body-checking girls off stairwells and all kinds of shit. But now that I'm actually here, watching these girls skate around…I am terrified. I mean, these girls are really good. They're jumping and shoving and spinning and falling and tripping each other over and hitting walls. This 'sport' is freaking violent.
Basically, Berry came up to me at work last week; we both work at Sam's restaurant now, so I see her pretty much every other day. Anyway, she was just about to start her shift, and she came with this flyer.
-o-
"Look!" she rushed through the door and up to the bar, thrusting the sheet of paper into Santana's face,
"Woah, what am I looking at?!" She recoiled slightly to focus on the flyer, and took the sheet from the small girl. She frowned and read the large words aloud "'Ohio Lime Rollers' what's this?"
"They are our wonderful town's local roller derby team." She announced with a smile, and Santana narrowed her eyes, raising a sceptical eyebrow,
"Youwant to try roller derby? Berry you're like three foot tall, they would crush you." She smirked, and Rachel rolled her eyes,
"Yes! It looks like fun, and it mustbe a good work-out, especially for the legs! You keep complaining that we don't do anything but sit at home watching old re-runs of The OC, and I want to do more sport! We're killing two birds with one stone!"
"And they'll kill two birds," she pointed between them both, "With one skate!" she thrust the flyer back at Rachel, who sighed impatiently as Santana turned back to the glass washer.
"Come on! We can at least go to the try-outs, and if we don't like it or whatever, we don't have to go again!" Rachel shrugged with a smile as she deposited her bag and coat in the small room behind the bar, and Santana rolled her eyes.
"That's if we even make the team."
"Is that a yes?" Rachel raised an eyebrow, and Santana sighed, shaking her head,
"You won't let this go otherwise, will you?" Rachel shook her head with a grin, "Fine. We'll go. But if I get injured, you're paying my medical bills!" she stabbed a finger at the smaller girl, who grinned as she tied her apron around her waist.
"Absolutely fine! So, how many have we got coming in tonight?"
-o-
So here I am. We're the second group to try-out, so I'm actually stood in the viewing area beside Berry, watching the first group. So far they've skated around, done some falls and stuff. It looks fairly simple, but seeing as I haven't been on roller skates since I was about five, I imagine it's going to be a lot harder than it looks. Oh God, the first group are taking their skates off and coming up to the balcony. That means it's our turn. Oh God.
"Can I just go home now?" I ask, wincing as one girl collides headlong with another, and they both go tumbling to the floor,
"No. We're doing this." Rachel's glaring at me "I don't know why you look so scared, it's not like we're even skating with those girls!"
"I know…but what if one of them flies off the track towards me and I die?" Okay, I know I'm being irrational, but they're skating really fast, and I can guarantee that if they come hurtling towards me, I will not be able to move in time.
"Okay, newbie group two, get down there!" The coach, some mohawked guy named Monster Puck, is yelling and pointing towards the stairs. Oh God. And now I just have to strap on some wheels and wait for death. I join everyone in picking up their kit, taking a fair few attempts to carry it all more than two feet, and follow the group down the stairs to the sport hall. Half is cordoned off with tape, and on the other side the team appear to be practicing tactics, while on our half there are two girls and a guy, all on skates and wearing bright green Lime Rollers t-shirts. The guy is huge, well over six feet tall on skates, while the two girls are laughing, skating and weaving around each other, until one of them comes to a halt with a little spin, turning to our nervous-looking group.
She pulls out a bright pink mouth guard before grinning at us "Newbies, hey! So, I'm Sugar and Splice, but you can call me Sugar, and I will be taking today's try-out session with Finn" The boy spun and pointed his thumbs to the name on his back; Knuckleberry Finn, "And Dirty MarTina" the other girl grinned with a small wave before speaking.
"So, if you guys have all been given kit, why don't you get it all on and line up against the wall?" Why don't I run away screaming before I get the chance to embarrass myself or land on my face? No? No. Okay. I pull my kit on quickly, accidentally wearing my wrist guards backwards until Tina comes over and helps me out. Now time for the skates. Christ. I pull them on, and they fit snug, but God, they're so much heavier than I expected them to be. And these knee and elbow pads are seriously cutting off my movements, they're a lot bigger than they looked when I wasn't wearing them. Okay, now I just have to stand up. No biggy. Shit. So standing is actually like four thousand times harder than it looks. Like, all of a sudden, my legs appear to be made of spaghetti, and that shit does not want to hold my legs up. Damn.
So, I've made it to the wall, and managed to stand. I can't resist glaring at Berry, who seems pretty stable. I bet it's because she's short, she's just closer to the ground and like, has a lower centre of gravity and shit. Damn you, hobbit. I kind of want to punch Sugar, Tina and Finn in the face, because they're all acting like it's so easy. They're just stood there without a care in the world, doing little spinny things and showing off. Rude.
"Okay, so first of all we're just gonna skate up and down. Just get used to your skates, get your balance right and everything." Everyone sets off skating, and I attempt to leave the wall until I realize that I'm frozen with fear, and quite frankly, it would probably be easier to prize raw meat out of an alligator's jaw than get me off this wall. So I guess I'll just stay here and watch and try not to fall over while standing still. Tina is coming towards me with a raised eyebrow and she looks amused, but I am definitely not amused, so I scowl back.
"Hey, having trouble?"
"No. I'm just gonna stay here" I nod confidently and she laughs, holding out her hands,
"Come on, take my hands. I won't let you fall." I frown down at her palms "Well, you might fall, but I will drag you down, you will fall forwards, and you have pads on so it won't hurt. Okay?" I'm about to reach off the wall, when Rachel goes clattering to the floor a few metres away. Well, that makes me feel a bit better. Tina can clearly see the relief on my face as she shrugs "See. You won't even be the first to fall. So come on."
I reach off the wall and immediately grab Tina's hands, and she slowly starts to pull me forwards, watching my face carefully. By the time I'm halfway across the hall, I've let go of one hand, and Tina is skating slowly beside me, offering gentle reassurance and encouragement as I go. This, if I had the mental capacity for anything other than not landing on my ass right now, would be really irritating. Everyone else seems a lot more comfortable, and are all picking up their speed; Rachel has now passed me twice, and I can't help but scowl at her every time she does. Eventually we all make it back to the wall, and Sugar skates forwards once again. Finn stands at the side with a clipboard, watching us and occasionally offering tips and advice to the other skaters. I seem to have adopted Tina as my personal coach, but she doesn't seem annoyed, so I'm just going with it.
"Okay, so next up we're going to try sticky skating, or fishes, or lemons, whatever you wanna call them" Sugar grins with an easy shrug, but we're all distracted as a scream echoes through the hall. I turn my head to the existing team members, and see a tall blonde practically body-check another girl before speeding out ahead of the pack with a triumphant smirk, and Sugar nods, impressed, before continuing "So, basically the idea is to constantly keep all eight wheels on the floor. You do this by making lemon shapes. It'll be hard at first, until you work up your thigh muscles, but basically you need to push your legs out with force to push yourself forwards, too, otherwise it just won't work."
"It's easiest if you keep your knees bent; your centre of gravity will be lower and you're less likely to fall. Derby stance, always derby stance!" Tina adds, and Sugar demonstrates while Tina chips in now and then with helpful tips, before we set off again. This time Tina skates between Rachel and me, helping us both as we try. This is a lot harder than they make it look, but I've almost got the hang of it by the time I get back to the wall. If anything, heading back to the wall is possibly the scariest part, I haven't worked out how to stop yet, and that wall looks pretty solid when you're careering towards it.
When we're all back, Sugar skates over to Finn and they talk in low voices, pointing to the clipboard and glancing up at us every now and then, while Tina skates up to address the group "Okay, so now we're going to try falls. First will be a single knee fall. Basically, you just drop onto one knee, either knee, but you make sure your other leg is at a right angle, like this" she skates forwards a few paces before dropping onto her left knee, holding her hands out with a smile "See? Okay, give it a go!"
This one looks fairly simple, so I immediately push off from the wall, skating faster than before. And then it happens. Serves me right for getting too big for my boots I suppose, as I lean too far back whilst skating. My feet slide out from under me, kicking high into the air as I slam down hard onto the floor. My hips and coccyx connect first, and I cry out as a sharp pain shoots up my spine, winding me for a moment. Sugar skates forwards, skidding towards me on one knee with a sympathetic grimace.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"My back." Is all I can manage to croak out, and she bites her lip,
"Yup. Right on the coccyx. I've been there." She helps me to my feet and I regain my balance with shallow breaths until I set off skating once again with a frown.
After single knee falls we run through the rest; two knees, baseball slides, four-point falls. Frankly, I can barely tell the difference between any of them, because I've fallen and landed on my coccyx another three times now, and all of my falls looks exactly the same. AKA; I try not to hit my face off the floor, whilst hitting my face off the floor. It has to be said though; this sport is kind of addictive. Watching them all do these moves so effortlessly kind of makes me ridiculously jealous, and just makes me want to be really good at it so I can be a hot roller derby girl like them.
We've finished try-outs now, after trying some stops and skating around the track, and now we're back in the viewing area, feeling fairly battered and bruised in my case, and watching the team play against each other. "Hey guys, what did you think?" a male skater in a black Lime Rollers t-shirt has joined us, grinning at me as he leans on the railing.
"It was awesome!" Rachel grins back "So much fun, I hope I make the team! I'm Rachel, by the way."
"Yeah I watched your try-outs, you were pretty good!" he smiled "I'm Mike, or Michael J. Rox. Like Michael J. Fox" he smiles and we nod "And I'm a ref and coach." He looks at me expectantly and I smile,
"Santana."
"Nice to meet you, Santana." He grins and I nod politely, "Yeah y guys were pretty good for your first time; ever skated before?"
"Not since I was like five." I shake my head and Rachel shrugs.
"A little, over the years." She beams at Mike and I can't help but shoot her a disgusted grimace. Girl hasn't skated since she was three foot tall, lying little toad.
"Really?" I ask sceptically and she glares.
"Really."
"Cool, you should pick it all up pretty quickly then." Mike smiles and Berry flutters her eyelashes, while I attempt not to bork. It's like a lion taking down an antelope; I don't want to watch but can't look away.
"So how long have you been on the team?" she leans forward on the railing and gazes at Mike, and I roll my eyes before turning away.
"Uh, about a year I think. I joined through my girlfriend, Dirty MarTina?" he smiles and scans the sports hall to point her out, while Rachel visibly deflates. I snigger. "She's been a part of the team since they started three years ago, and I kind of got forced into joining because they needed refs."
Rachel smiles and nods politely, eyes glued to Tina, "Cool."
"Yeah, all of our refs end up hooked up somehow," Mike chortles, "Me and Tina, Rory and Sugar, Puck and every girl possible…which is none of them. Finn and Quinn, although they broke up a month or so back."
"I'm sure that would all be really interesting if I knew who all of those were." I nod in bemusement and he laughs sheepishly,
"Yeah, everyone kind of looks the same in a helmet. But you'll learn who everyone is. If you stay, I mean. And we all have names on our shirts." He smiles self-consciously and I feel Rachel melt a little,
"Yeah we saw them. I can't wait to choose mine." She grins and Mike nods enthusiastically,
"Yeah it was my favourite part. Just don't ever ask Quinn about choosing a name; she hated trying to choose a name, and if it were up to her she would just be called Quinn Fabray. But that's no fun so Brittany forced her into choosing one. She's Harley Quinn, down there." He points again and my eyes follow his finger to a blonde girl with a black and red helmet racing around the track, side stepping around a short girl with bright red hair and ducking around another brunette on the other side of the track. My mouth falls open at her agility and balance as she waves her hands and grins triumphantly as a whistle is blown.
"For a girl who hates her name, she's pretty in character." Rachel raises her eyebrows, looking mildly terrified, as Quinn laughs manically.
"Yeah, Quinn's pretty…uh…prickly." Mike nods with a frown as half the girls in the hall celebrate, and they all skate to the far wall and start to remove their skates and pads, "Anyway, that's it for today so I guess I'll see you soon. Hopefully." He grins and we push back from the railing, accompanying us as we head for the door.
"So when will we find out if we made it?" Rachel asks hopefully and he smiles. He does that a lot. It's off-putting, I don't trust him. He's too happy.
"You should get an e-mail later tonight or tomorrow, but between you and me, I feel like you've got pretty good odds. He winks conspiratorially and Rachel grins. I nod awkwardly, and we say our goodbyes, wandering over to the curb to wait for Sam to arrive and pick us up.