It was another typical day at Degrassi, and Kendra and Nadia were busy talking to each other in the hallway between classes.
"So, are you going to come watch me skate after school?" Kendra asked.
"Of course, I wouldn't miss it." Nadia replied.
"Okay, then I'll meet you inside the skating rink." Kendra told her.
"Okay." Nadia said as she turned to go to her next class.
In a way, Kendra was grateful that things had turned out the way they did in regards to her part in the holiday show. Since Kyle and his group were going to put on a performance in her place, it meant that she could put more of her time into her skating performance for the Ice Festival. But as her thoughts were wandering, she suddenly realized that she had better hurry up if she wanted to make it to gym class on time.
She rushed through the girls' change room and got dressed, hoping their coach wouldn't count her late. Luckily, Brandy was still getting changed into her gym clothes, which meant that at least Kendra wouldn't be the last one out of the change room.
"You'd better hurry up or coach is going to have both of us running laps." Brandy reminded her.
"I'm ready. Let's go!" Kendra said, heading for the door.
As the girls went through the door, the sun was shining brightly outside on a cool, crisp day. They jogged towards the practice field, but were stopped when they heard a noise coming from some nearby bushes. They were startled to hear a voice come out of the bushes.
"Hey Kendra, come here," the voice said in a rather hushed tone, "I need to ask you something."
"Don't go over there!" Brandy exclaimed, "It could be some weirdo hiding in the bushes."
"It's all right, I know the weirdo." Kendra replied, "Spinner, I know I've told you to get lost before, but this isn't what I meant."
"Look, I can't waste time trading insults with you. I need you to do me a really huge favor. I need you to go and get me a pair of gym shorts from the change room." Spinner begged.
"What do you need with gym shorts and why do you need me to get them?" Kendra asked.
"Because I figured you would be coming this way for gym class and..…," Spinner paused for a moment, "and because I'm not wearing any pants."
"Gross!" Kendra shrieked.
"I still have on underwear, you moron." Spinner pointed out.
"Then why are you hiding in the bushes in your underwear?" Kendra kept probing.
"Fine, you're going to hear it anyways. I got J.T. good this morning with my Ode to Raditch. But he got me right back by ripping off my warm-up pants in the middle of the hallway in front of Paige and everybody. After that happened, I just took off and decided to duck into the bushes here. I hoped you would eventually come by." Spinner confessed.
Brandy couldn't help but giggle a little, but that was only because Kendra was laughing so loudly at Spinner. In between her laughter, Kendra tried to remind Spinner that she had warned him the other day about his practical joke backfiring. Spinner was quick to interrupt her lecture.
"Okay, now that you've gotten that out of your system, can you please go find something for me to put on." Spinner said pleadingly.
"All right, all right, I'll get you something, but only because I don't want to be known as the girl who's brother got arrested for public indecency." Kendra said, walking back into the school.
"Thank you!" Spinner replied in an impatient tone.
After bringing the shorts for her brother, Kendra hurried to the practice field. She expected the coach to make her run for the rest of the class period for being late. Lucky for her, Brandy had made up an excuse for her. She had said that Kendra had to take an important message to her brother from their Mom. Kendra quickly took a spot in the line that was performing kicking drills and tried not to draw any more attention to herself for the rest of the period.
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By the end of the day, Kendra couldn't wait for Ms. Kwan's class to be over. She was so excited to strap on her skates and hit the ice. When the bell finally rang, she got her stuff from her locker and made her way to the Victoria Village Arena. After Kendra had made it inside and had changed into her ice skates, she began gliding around the ice rink in soft, relaxed patterns. On the ice she could let herself go in the moment, each movement an expression of her very being. Time seemed to stand still and she tuned out the world around her. She hadn't noticed that her best friend had arrived, so Nadia called out her name. Kendra came back to reality and went over to talk to her friend.
"Wow, you were incredible!" Nadia said, praising her friend's performance.
"You really think so?" Kendra asked.
"Yeah, you're going to have the best performance of the night." Nadia assured her.
"That was quite impressive." A voice from the entrance tunnel said.
Kendra turned to see that Mrs. Lavonne, the Ice Festival coordinator, was complimenting her performance as well.
"Wow, thank you." Kendra responded.
"You're one of our top skaters, without a doubt. Which is why I've come to make you an important offer." Mrs. Lavonne revealed.
"What is it?" Kendra asked curiously.
"Well, it seems this year that we're short handed on the staff for the Ice Festival because there haven't been as many volunteers as in the years past. So we're asking some of our more experienced skaters to help coach and supervise our younger skaters for the festival." Mrs. Lavonne told her.
"Are you asking me to be a coach?" Kendra asked.
"Yes, we could really use your help. Of course, you know this will take away some practice time from your own performance, but I don't see any other way we can pull the show off. I've already gotten another student to sign up as a coach, your classmate Manny Santos."
Kendra thought about what Mrs. Lavonne was asking her to do. Kendra really enjoyed watching the younger kids on the ice. It would be selfish of her to not help the younger ones who really wanted to skate in the show. Plus Kendra couldn't get one thought out of her mind. If she said no, an entire generation of local skaters would be under the influence of Manny.
"I'll do it Mrs. Lavonne, I'll be one of the coaches." Kendra agreed.
"Thank you so much Kendra, your help will be definitely appreciated." Mrs. Lavonne answered.
The next day at school Kendra was at her locker when she felt somebody stop behind her, so she turned around.
"Hi Manny." Kendra said, sounding less than enthused.
"So, I heard you're going to be one of the junior coaches for the Ice Festival." Manny inquired.
"Yeah, Mrs. Lavonne asked me yesterday." Kendra replied.
"I guess Mrs. Lavonne was right, they really are desperate for help." Manny said, in a condescending tone.
Kendra just gave Manny a 'go to hell' look, and Manny soon disappeared down the hallway. Manny may have been skating longer than Kendra and she might be really graceful on the ice, but this forced Kendra to decide that she wasn't going to be intimidated by Manny. It was hard for Kendra to believe that this was the same girl who used to be so sweet and friendly to everybody. But Kendra came to the conclusion that everybody had to change as they got older. Even though some people may not change for the better.
The rest of the day seemed to fly by, which was fine with Kendra. Nadia had told her during lunch that she wouldn't be able to watch her that day, but with an audience or not, Kendra intended to put her best effort on the ice that afternoon. Kendra was thoroughly enjoying the rush she got from being on the ice when her least favorite person showed up.
Manny stepped onto the ice and immediately started showing off for the younger kids that were being dropped off by their parents. Manny pulled off a front crossover and a double axle, and she had barely warmed up. But Kendra was determined to prove that anything Manny could do, she could do also. As Manny pulled off one maneuver, Kendra immediately countered with a move of her own.
"Well, let's see how good you really are." Manny said, laying down a challenge to Kendra.
"You're on!" Kendra replied, ready to do her best.
The girls continued their duel on the ice for about fifteen minutes, but it seemed to go on a lot longer to it's two participants. They only stopped when the large crowd of kids that had gathered by this time started cheering for both of their coaches. The girls turned and looked at each other.
"You're actually pretty good. I'm impressed." Manny said, complimenting Kendra.
"You're not half bad yourself." Kendra said, returning the compliment.
After their show of mutual respect, the two girls skated over to the crowd to get a list from Mrs. Lavonne, one that stated which kids would be in each of their groups. After locating all of the children that would be under her supervision, Kendra saw an unexpected face in the arena.
"Wow Manny…you were incredible!" Craig said, complimenting Manny.
"Thank you." Manny replied with a huge smile.
Then Craig remembered that Manny wasn't the only skater on the ice that afternoon. "Oh yeah, you were good too..… Kendra."
"Thanks, I think." Kendra answered, "So where's Ashley at?"
Kendra knew Ashley probably wasn't there, but she said it just to remind Manny of Craig's girlfriend.
"Um, she's not here. I brought Angie for practice and I decided to take some pictures for Joey and Sydney." Craig said as he tried to cover for the other reason he was there.
The crowd split into two groups going to opposite ends of the rink. Angela was in Manny's group and Craig spent the afternoon snapping pictures of that end of the arena. Kendra took her group and started showing them how to stay balanced on their ice skates. Most of the kids had some skating experience and didn't need much instruction. There were a few that hadn't skated very much, so Kendra had them hold hands and form a chain, with her at the lead. She moved slowly around the rink with them interlocked, getting them used to the sensation of gliding across the ice. They fell down a couple of times, with the entire chain bursting out into laughter. But eventually they were able to move around the ice rink without falling down. She then started showing them how to turn slowly in a circle on their skates. But soon, it was time for their rehearsal session to end. Kendra told the kids she would see them the next time and they all ran off to tell their parents what they had learned. Kendra was proud that she was able to help them learn so much in such a short amount of time.
It had started turning dark outside when Kendra finally left the arena. She was one of the last people to leave, Manny had disappeared almost immediately after the rehearsal was over. When Kendra started down the sidewalk towards home, she saw Spinner sitting on a bench nearby.
"What are you doing sitting out here, shouldn't you be at work?" Kendra asked.
"I've been walking around for a couple of hours. That jerk J.T. pushed me too far and my boss demoted me." Spinner answered.
"What did you do now?" Kendra continued to inquire, as they walked home.
"Well, I got J.T. this morning by embarrassing him in front of Manny. So he shows up at my job and starts giving me a hard time. He pushed me too far and I grabbed him and threatened to punch him out. My boss saw me and took me into his office where he made it clear about his 'policy' regarding workplace violence. He demoted me to dishwasher and cut my hours. I swear, I'm gonna take J.T. apart for this one!" Spinner confessed.
"Maybe what you need to do is calm down." Kendra advised him.
"Calm down? That's funny coming from you." Spinner answered.
"Then take it as a warning from someone who's messed up her own relationship." Kendra explained, "Instead of worrying about J.T. or about some stupid prank war, maybe you should just concentrate on making sure you don't make things worse at your job or with Paige."
Spinner stopped and thought about what she had said for a moment.
"I suppose you're right. Maybe you should start writing an advice column or something." Spinner said, teasing his sister.
"Yeah, I can see that. The girl who can't express her feelings to her boyfriend without making it some tragic, public event is going to tell other people how to fix their relationship problems. I don't think you're going to see that column anytime soon." Kendra replied, able to finally joke about the situation between her and Toby.
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Next Chapter: Expect the unexpected (Well it's not that unexpected if you've been watching the show).