==Hello, and thanks for stopping by! This is an original take on the concept behind the JSR games. You don't know any of these characters yet, but here's hoping that they grow on you. Also, a quick note. The story is told in first-person past tense. I'm trying something kind of new with the speaker's unspoken thoughts; I'm just shifting them into present tense, without the use of italics or quotes. It flows pretty well from my end, but tell me what you think! Feedback will encourage me to continue with this project!==

Ch. 1: The World Away

"Bored?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, me too."

The two of us sat and stared at a huge roller rink, on the inside of the only entertainment center for a bunch of miles in any direction.

"Entertainment center. I am very. entertained. right now." my friend teased the air. Her name was Trixie, and she had a pixie cut because pixie rhymed with Trixie. She was a damned poet, if you asked me. Her hair was brown.

"My little brother's soccer matches are entertaining by these standards. Pretty similar, actually." I said and shifted on the carpet (where we were sitting) because my left butt cheek was numb. She asked,

"How so, Miss Penelope?"

That's my name, and so you know, I've always been corny as hell. Any chance I get.

"Because, it's a whole lot of kids running around in circles," I smiled big, "and nobody ever scores." I nodded at some hot and bothered kid by the token machine getting the cold shoulder to drive my point home.

Trixie just stared forward with that mopey look she always had. I loved when people got pissed at my corniness, and she NEVER DID. It's a wonder why I hung out with her all the time.

"All of us are just running around in circles, if you think about it." If I were someone else, I honestly don't know which of us I would've hated more.

I narrowed my eyes at her and I swear I couldn't tell if she knew we were in the same room. Fine. Cool. I'll just direct my attention toward the elegant display of pubescent self-consciousness before me.

Most of the people were teens; twelve seemed to be the youngest, probably. In the swirling green and yellow lights and dim atmosphere, though, you didn't think about that too much. It was still probably kind of weird for Trixie and me to be there since the crowd was mostly 12-15, but there really wasn't much more to do in this area after school. The two of us were mostly there for the race, anyway.

Yeah. There weren't many out on the floor that could really cut it in the race. None that could win, definitely—there was even a kid in pads and a helmet. I just… okay. The pace was slow, coasting beside the pop music that was pulsing loud through the walls. I didn't know the song that was playing all too well, but the chorus kept saying "We gon' be alright." It was deliberate and comforting. I was sort of envious of the gentle rolling that was going on, actually. Moving steady like that, you sort of go into a meditative drone of motor skills and either get lost in whatever or really start to focus on one thing. The kids probably didn't think about stuff like that.

But anyway, the lights eventually flickered and suddenly you saw the mass of churning skaters in the middle of the building roll to a sober halt. The song that had been going faded out; I heard "We gon' be…" last, and wished that they would have given it another second. I rubbed an eye and snapped out of whatever sleepy-eyed stupor I had been in.

"Time to shine," Trixie nearly whispered as she stood up and stretched. Her dark green shirt had baggy sleeves that fell to her elbows as she reached her arms up and over her head. The crowd had started to disperse, and some people who were stationed at tables, arcade games, or on the floor sifted into the ring. The lights were up, and now the dreamy looking rink was just a gross green-gray floor under fluorescents. There was one kid who didn't leave the rink when the older skaters moved in; they just stood there grinning like an idiot. Wait… oh my god.

"Nice pads, kid," Trixie smiled and scooted past. I slid up, incredulous, and gave them a once over.

Light blue helmet, light blue pads, and light blue… quad skates. My eye twitched. T-shirt and shorts, skinny, and about 5'3''. A light curl of hair flared between their eyes, and it bobbed as the kid nodded up to speak.

"Good luck!" the little germ squeaked and swirled over to the starting line like a baby blue butterfly. On skates. A skating butterfly. They stopped beside Trixie, and I sandwiched the twerp between us. Trixie shot me a smile over the blue dome, so brightly colored that it made me want to vomit. I must have been making a face because she laughed at me and turned back.

I felt someone pull up to my other side. "Admiring your reflection in that helmet, ginger? There's a race on, you know." Wait that's?!

I 180'd so fast that I almost fell over, then I screeched and hugged him and let go before he had a chance to do anything. "How've you been, you nerd?!" Traius towered over me. He had deep, dark skin, tight dreads pulled back into a long ponytail, and kind eyes that brightened at my reaction. "You're wearing the jacket that I bought you forever ago!" I said as I tugged at the sleeves. It was a dark red jacket with a collar and a white zipper that ran up the middle.

"What can I say—you know what looks good." We both faced forward as people continued lining up and he rested his elbow on my shoulder. "I see that you've still got the whole Denim Fireball 1-2 punch thing goin' on."

"Of course, no sense in messing with a classic." I usually ended up thinking more about how other people looked than how I did, so I never really changed my appearance. Here's what I had to work with, in case you were wondering: frizzy orange hair with frizzy fringe and a kinda long frizzy ponytail with my signature denim jacket (I rolled up the sleeves because it made me feel cool) over some graphic T. Oh, and pants. And roller blades. I've always had freckles, too, even during the winter. I still wasn't over the fact that Traius was there. It had been at least six months since I had seen him last, following his high school graduation and going off to college somewhere on the other side of Almega. He was literally the world away.

"Trixie!" he turned his head to her, still leaning on my shoulder. "How've you been?" She actually jumped at him calling her name, for some reason. Her expression quickly reset to gentle indifference as she replied.

"I'm not bad! What brings you aro-"

"Welcome!" She was cut off by an overly-enthusiastic girl with a microphone standing in the center of the rink. The center was elevated by a few inches, and solid black. "We still have some open spots, if anyone else is interested! Don't be shy, it's free entry! Beta district's Roller Rampage only comes around once a month!" What a lame name.

Most of us knew the drill, and those that didn't just followed the crowd. We were all lined up back from the white finish line, which was rolled out in the middle of the straightaway. The rink was actually pretty huge; about 8 seconds worth of skating lay between the starting point and the turn. There were two straightaways between two turns, moving counter-clockwise. I looked left and right: 10 skaters total. Trixie had nabbed a spot third from the center. Might've been a plus, but not much of one.

"I hope you've been practicing." I teased Traius. "Flexing your brain isn't gonna keep you from getting stomped here." He had started stretching a few moments before.

"Don't worry. I'm sure we'll both just end up eating Trixie's dust, per usual." He pulled his arms behind him. "I'll just make sure to give you plenty of hell in the meantime." His grin was barely discernable as he looked forward confidently. He straightened up and looked around, then spoke quietly. "So who are the rest of these fools, anyway?"

"Um, well…" I really hadn't been paying much attention to them. "The two guys by Trixie are in my grade at our school. Don't know their names, but they've raced here before." They were pretty cocky for how bad they were, but I left that part out. "The ones to your right are new to me, though." We glanced over at them discreetly. Two guys and two girls. They seemed older than us, and the girl on the far end kind of stood out. She was really disheveled, with messy not-quite-shoulder-length hair and a pink hoodie with different color stains all over it. The other three were all wearing red chokers.

"And that one?" He nodded down and past me while holding back laughter. I grimaced.

"Just…" I pinched the bridge of my nose. "…try not to step on anything blue." I looked down at them. The little germ was literally bouncing with excitement.

"No promises."

The chirpy announcer girl chimed in again. "All right, everyone, I hope you're ready! It's two laps! A free pizza coupon and a month of bragging rights are on the line here!" I smiled because Trixie always let me eat most of her pizza, and she always won these things (though I'd probably have to share with Traius this time). Honestly it was a shame that homegirl was only able to cut loose and race in a kids' roller rink, but it worked out well for me. I've always been pretty easy to please… with cheese. HAH! I should remember that one.

We were all lined up with about an arm's length of space between us. Chirpy girl said "Get ready," and we all toed the gray starting line, but I still wasn't over my joke. Fucking easy to please… "Get set,"…with cheese. Holy hell I'm brillia- "Go!" SHIT WAIT.

Everyone exploded out in front of me while I almost tripped over my own feet trying to get started. "Wake up, ginger!" Honestly I probably had this coming.

Okay, game face! Game time! I got my momentum going with some violent sideways gnashes of skate against concrete and was underway. By the time that I had caught up to the pack, they were almost headlong into the first turn. Trixie was just barely holding the lead—the three wearing red chokers were right on top of her. Traius was a bit behind them, and the back pack consisted of the two kids from school, the germ, pink hoodie girl, and then me. We hit the turn and I saw Trixie drop low and hug the inside so that the older guys couldn't overtake her. Traius was having trouble catching up to the front group, but for the love of god all I wanted to do was NOT be in last place. I gunned it through the second half of the turn and passed Pink Hoodie (okay thank god), but the asshats from school were forming a wall to keep me or the germ from getting through. The kid was surprisingly quick—on quads, even.

The second turn came up. The asshats weren't too fast, so I figured that I could pass them on the outside. They walled me, but as soon as they did, the germ went for the inside. Asshat 1 veered off to cover them, but the germ pulled off some kind of crazy whirlwind spin thing and shot between the two of them instead. Asshat 2 lost his focus and I managed to slip past as well. The germ threw a huge smile back at me as we rounded out the first lap, their front curl of hair fluttering wildly. What in the world is this kid?

Two seconds later you just heard (and felt) a big KLACK—THUMP and some groaning. I glanced back and saw Pink Hoodie coasting toward me, leaving a pile of asshats sprawled out in her wake. My heart sank a little when I met those blank, tired eyes of hers, so I quickly made it a point to get far away from her. The two groups had formed into one (minus two achy schoolboys) as Traius closed in on the front four and the three of us in the back finally caught up to him. Trixie still had the lead, somehow, but two of the chokers were almost literally breathing down her neck. I could've sworn that the temperature in the building was like 8 billion degrees at that point; my feet in my socks felt like a couple of overcooked, soggy burritos. Or something like that.

The germ and I were neck and neck; I would almost pass them on straightaways, but that crazy agility in the turns kept me from overtaking them. In the last turn, they whipped behind me, around me, and overtook Traius and one rather winded choker dude in all of about 1.5 seconds from the inside. The next second, I saw a blur of pink shoot from around the outside to pass all of us, slowing up right before it reached the germ. Traius and I looked at each other in disbelief. Trixie won, with the two of us tying for last. I then began to notice that my legs had been reduced to jelly, and that my chest felt a bit too on fire for me to have landed in last place.

"Well I guess we weren't technically last, since there were two who didn't even finish." Traius said with his hands on his hips, trying to catch his breath. I felt my face flush as I clenched my knees. Okay, the jacket's coming off. To hell with aesthetic.

"And here's—our winner… oh are you… uhm, okay." The announcer girl was coming over the speakers but I couldn't find her. "Whoa." Traius chimed. "Check Trixie out." He pointed over to the wall of the rink. It was supporting her as she sat, her whole body laid limp and drenched in sweat. Chirpy girl was standing around awkwardly, having a difficult time celebrating the blob of Trixie at her feet. Traius shuffled over to them. I followed, very slowly and groaning the whole way.

"I guess she needs to compose herself a bit," he told Chirpy with a big smile. I decided that Trixie had the right idea, so I planted my butt beside her.

"Ugh, well that's fine I guess," she complained after turning her mic off. Apparently she fell right out of character the second her voice stopped screeching over the sound system. "I can't let you all keep sitting in the rink, though. Go over to a table." There was some heavy dissonance between her current demeanor and the outfit that went with her persona. If you're wondering, the outfit consisted of a frilly green top with no sleeves, high-waisted white shorts, and shiny chrome skates. Her hair was light brown, shoulder length with bangs, and it swooped out at the tips. Glitter had been liberally applied to her cheeks and shoulders. Trixie and I nodded pathetically in response to her request.

"Anyways, you guys are her friends so here's her pizza coupon." She handed it to Traius, since he was the only one of us who hadn't melted into a puddle on the floor.

"Thanks, Teri. You're the best," he said, winking big and pointing finger guns at her like a ginormous nerd.

"I'm aware." She offered a deadpan stare and shot a finger gun back at him. "And I'm serious about you sitting at a table." She swerved around and away as the lights started to come back down and the free skate resumed, then yelled back "Y'all've got fifteen seconds. You don't want to get me mad." She smirked with half-shut eyes and faded into the newly formed crowd. She was right. I really didn't want to get her mad.

"You heard her, let's get you all up." Traius offered each of us a hand, and it looked like Trixie's breathing had finally slowed down to normal. I was actually cold with sweat by then, so I wrestled my jacket back on before taking Traius's hand.

"Wait." A question popped into my head as he helped us to our feet. "Her name is Teri?" Both of them looked at me quizzically while I fixed my sleeves back to how I liked them.

"…Yes." Traius answered. "She's worked here forever. She literally always announces these things. How many times have you raced here?" Something somehow seemed to imply that he was maybe sorta judging me a little bit perhaps.

"I don't know. Maybe… thirty times?" I hadn't missed a race day for the last two-and-a-half years, but so what?

"Then how do you not—"

"It stands for Tericia. It's a wonderful name." Holy hell, our champion speaks! Traius looked over at Trixie with some concern in his eyes. I wasn't sure why.

We had wobbled our way over to a square, teal-colored table near some of the less noisy arcade games. I went to sit down and I felt one of my front wheels bump into a soft lump of… something. I fit a rather impressive number of "please don't be gum" prayers into the following three seconds, only to be mercilessly spurned by the god of gross and annoying shit. I said something, probably "fuck", and proceeded to pick at the pink glob with a plastic fork that had been sitting on the table.

I was making progress against the gum, so I diverted my gaze back over to homegirl. Her bangs were still wet and kinda plastered to her forehead, but she didn't seem to mind. Honestly she seemed even spacier than before, which I really didn't think was possible. Traius was fiddling with the coupon by drumming with it against the table, and I remembered that I still wanted pizza.

"Hey, we should cash in your prize, Trixie. I'm starving over here!" The atmosphere was weird and I wanted to liven things up. Also, I was hungry. I gave my newly cleaned wheel a spin.

Trixie looked me in the eyes and gave me some kind of wimpy smile. "You two can share it, Miss Penelope. I'm not hungry at all." Okay, she never really ate a lot, but that was odd. I looked over to Traius for help.

"Yeah…" He hesitated, but in a cool way. "So there were some crazy fast people in that race, huh?" I swear it's like sometimes he could read my mind.

"Yeah, Trix," I picked it up. "I've never seen someone make you work so hard." She ran her fingers up through her bangs and mussed up her hair some, then leaned forward and rested her face in her hands.

"Yup." She was often sulky, but right then I didn't feel irritated or anything. I just really wanted to know what was up with her. She was hard to pin down when it came to asking personal stuff, though.

I scanned the room for the choker trio, but they must've already left. There were some people running down the street outside for some reason, but that was probably nothing to worry about. Pink hoodie girl was sitting over near a wall with the germ; they seemed to be talking about something over sports drinks. I wouldn't have believed it, but Pink Hoodie was actually laughing and smiling. It was almost as if the top and bottom halves of her face didn't match, what with her world-weary eyes and all.

Blah, enough distractions! I have another desperate soul to worry about! I didn't really want to pry into what was on her mind, so I decided to go a different route.

"Traius, do you have any money or tokens?" I asked and slowly stood up, my legs still shaking a bit from exhaustion. He and homegirl looked up at me.

"Uhm, I've got about eight tokens… and five bucks to spare," he answered, fumbling around in his pocket.

"I need all of that. I will pay you back." I stretched my hand out to him and he looked at me like I was crazy. Trixie just stared at me, blankly.

"Why in the world do you need seven dollars' worth of tokens?" he asked, but he was getting the money out so I knew that he'd cave.

"Trixie likes spider rings," I said plainly.

Old mister miser objected. "Those are the cheapest things here! You don't need seven bucks worth of tokens to win one." I narrowed my eyes at him. He was really making an issue of it.

"Trixie, show me both of your hands, please." She did as I asked. "Traius, how many digits do you see?"

"Ten," he answered, and Trixie laid her hands down and smiled a smile that would lull sweet little babies to sleep with its good vibes. I reasserted my outstretched hand.

"She's getting ten of 'em. Keep it up and I'll make it twenty."