And so it continues!...
The girl gave him a weird look, almost like to say, "Why are you telling me this?" but she didn't say anything. She typed something into the computer and then looked at him again.
"Right." She said. "Hang on just one second." She then disappeared into the back room, where all the offices were for the managers and coaches and such.
Adam stood there and looked around. That plane was way too far behind schedule for his liking. He was actually going to have to teach kids how to skate.
"I hate kids." Adam thought. "I hate parents. Now I have to deal with both of them today. I hate this."
Adam once counted the number of times he hated something in one day. It was 34, and that was only the times he bothered to keep track.
"Adam?" He suddenly heard a voice behind him. It was a familar voice, and he knew who it was. He turned around to see the girl who taught him to skate, Beth Crawford.
Adam was slow to smile and reply. "Hi Beth." he said.
Beth smiled, the same smile she had when he first met her twelve years ago. Adam had always known how to skate, but when he wanted to play hockey when he was six, his parents began to take him to the arena for real skating lessons. Beth was sixteen at the time, and one of the best skaters at the rink. Despite being twenty eight now, she was still in great shape, and wore her dirty blonde hair in a ponytail.
"So what are you doing back here?" She asked.
Adam hesistated, after all, this was the first girl he ever had a crush on, and the girl who always watched his pee-wee games when his parents weren't there, and had been like a big sister to him his entire life. "I'm...I'm here to help with the learn to skate classes." He told her.
"Yeah I know. Just thought I'd ask." Beth told him, still smiling.
"You knew?" Adam asked.
"Of course. I practically sleep here, you didn't think I wouldn't know about the newest skate coach, would you?" She asked.
"Guess not." He said. "Did you finally put a bed in the locker room?" He asked, it had been an inside joke of theirs for a long time. Beth used to be at the rink for practically eight hours a day (and apparently still was), and she would always joke about putting a bed in one of the locker rooms so she didn't have to drive home at night.
"No..." She said, but then laughed. "I do have a sleeping bag in my office though."
Adam laughed. "You have an office now?" He asked.
"Yep. Director of skating." She said. "Still coaching. But my competitive days are pretty much over."
Beth had gone to Nationals and medaled twice when she was younger. She used to love to compete. But she always said she liked coaching better. So apparently thats all she was doing now.
Adam stared at the ground a second. "So, you're like, my boss or something?" He asked.
"Don't say it like its a bad thing." Beth said. "I know you got into a little trouble, but you're 'punishment won't be as bad as you were thinking it would be."
Adam nodded. He couldn't believe that he suddenly felt extremely guilt about what he had done. Funny how someone he hadn't seen in so long could make him feel so bad. But in a way he was happy that Beth was the one who was his overseer.
"Come on, I'll show you to the coachs room." Beth told him.
Adam followed Beth through the arena, and to the area he had never been allowed to go to when he was younger. The Coach's Room. Of course, when Adam got into the room, it was actually no different than a regular locker room.
"Here's you locker, and combination." Beth said as she handed him a piece of paper. "You change into your skates, I'm going to try to find you an instructors jacket." She said. "Come out to the rink at exactly 9:25. Classes start at 9:30 and coaches are not allowed to be late. Especially you." She said, trying to sound threating.
"Yes ma'am." He said.
"EW!" Beth squealed. "You did not just call me that!"
Adam thought a moment, then laughed. "I'm sorry!" He said. He forgot that Beth hated being called ma'am more than anything else. It made her feel old.
Beth laughed. "Its okay. But next time, you're in trouble." She told him.
"Okay." He said. "I'll be on the ice on time...I promise Beth."
"Thats more like it." Beth said and then left the room.
Adam sat on the bench in the middle of the room and began to put his skates on. He was happy that Beth was there, but he still wished he was picking up trash on the highway, or painting a fence at a park or something.
The door swung open a minute later when Adam was lacing up his skate. He didn't bother to look up, but whoever it was was wearing black figure skates. That meant one thing, a male figure skater.
"Oh joy. I am standing alone in a room with a gay dude." Adam thought bitterly.
Despite the fact that Adam was good friends with Ken, and knew that Ken wasn't gay, every other male figure skater he ever met seemed to be a complete flamer. He did not like male figure skaters in the least bit.
Adam continued to lace up his skates, hoping to avoid eye contact with the other guy. He was almost done lacing up his skate when the guy asked.
"Haven't seen you around here," the figure skater said. "Are you new?"
"Sort of." Adam mumbled. He was relieved that the guy at least didn't sound gay with a high pitched voice.
The guy opened his locker and pulled out a jacket. "Oh, well...Teaching is really easy. So, don't be too worried about it."
"I'm not." Adam said curtly. He then stood up and looked at the guy. He was tall and just as muscular, if not more so, than Adam was. He didn't look gay...In fact, he actually looked really familar. But Adam couldn't remember where he had seen him.
"I'm Shane by the way." The guy said as he closed his locker and extended his hand out to Adam.
Adam looked at his hand, then back at Shane. He smirked, and then turned to walk out of the coach's room. Afterall, he wasn't about to make friends with a person who actually enjoyed waking up early on a Saturday to teach five year olds how to ice skate.
Adam waked over to the ice. He took off his guards and stepped onto the ice at exacly 9:25 like Beth had told him to. He saw he standing over at the barrier while other instructors in blue jackets were setting up cones on the ice.
Beth looked up and smiled at Adam. "Hey Adam." She then handed him a jacket.
Adam looked at it. It was blue with a silver lining on it, like every other instructors jacket. On the back it said, "Mid-Town Ice Arena" in white lettering. On the front in white letter on the upper left side it spelled out the "Riley" on it. Adam put it on, to have it be way too small. Obvisously, Riley was a girl.
"Um...Beth..." Adam started, when he realized there was no way the jacket was going to fit him. Who was Riley? She had to be a size double zero to fit into this jacket.
Beth laughed when she looked at Adam in the extremely small jacket. "I'm sorry. Thats the only one we have right now." She said. "I ordered you one, but it hasn't come in yet."
Suddenly there was the sound of someone skating extremely fast, and it was coming towards them. Adam turned in a nick of time to see the figure skating guy, Shane, skating towards them, and then stop when he was an inch away from Beth.
"Shane! How many times do I have to tell you not to do that!" Beth playfully scolded.
"A lot more times." He flirted back.
A small bit of jealousy overcame Adam. This Shane boy was not supposed to be "flirting" with Beth, he was. But he didn't say anything.
Beth laughed. "Oh Shane. This is going to be your coaching partner today." She pointed to Adam. Shane turned and looked at Adam. "Shane McFarland...meet Adam Banks."
Adam was not sure what to do. He had been extremely rude to Shane not but five minutes before, what was he supposed to say?
"We've met." Shane said, then looked at Adam and chuckled. "Nice jacket."
"Thanks." Adam replied in a smart ass tone.
Shane looked at Beth again. "Riley's jacket was the only one you could find?" He asked.
"Yeah. I ordered one for Adam, but it won't get here till Tuesday." He said.
"Who's Riley?" Adam asked.
Shane looked at him. "The girl who usually helps me coach." He said.
"You don't mind, do you Shane?" Beth asked. "You can either teach by yourself, or with Adam and show him the ropes. Or I can do it."
"Nah, I'll do it." Shane said as he looked at Adam and smirked. "I show him how things go around here."
"Okay." She laughed again. "Adam, its okay...You don't have to wear that." She then handed him something else. It was a name tag that he was supposed to wear around his neck. "Be sure to wear that this week, and then you can wear your own jacket next week. Okay?"
"Okay." Adam said. "And thank you."
Beth looked at the clock. "All right. Its 9:30...Get to work boys." She told the too.
Shane picked up a clip board from the barrier. "Come on hockey boy." He said to Adam and then began to skate towards the other end of the rink.
Adam followed him, wanted to stab him with his own skate. His sensitive temper was fuming, but he couldn't do anything.
How does the first lesson go? Does Adam punch Shane?...I know! And I am writing chapter three right now! RR! Thanks.