"What now?" Adam asked Shane as he was looking at the clip board.
"Easy. When the kids come over, they are wearing name tags. You read the name tag, and then put a check by their name." Shane told him.
"How many kids are in this class?" Adam asked.
"Nine." Shane said.
"Wow." Adam said, sounding scastic, but really wondering what the hell he was in for.
"Yep." Shane said. "And don't worry. You won't have to answer any questions or anything. Just demonstrate maybe. But other than that, just watch me and listen. All right?"
"Okay." Adam said.
Kids wearing the brown rental skates and gloves began to get onto the ice. Adam was getting major flashbacks to when he was just like them. Eager and bursting with energy, wanting nothing more than to get to see his coach and learn how to skate.
Shane smacked the clipboard into Adam's chest. Adam grabbed it and looked at Shane, wanting nothing more than to hit him. "First test, take attendence." He told him.
Adam glared at Shane as he skated off. He went right over to a little girl in a pink skating dress and said, "Hey Janna." He said as he picked her up by her armpits and spun her around.
Adam "passed" his first test. He corrected checked off the names of the nine kids in the class, and then handed the clipboard back to Shane. "I think I passed the test, Yoda." He said.
"Good." He said. "Now come on. We are going to work on stroking."
Adam continued to watch Shane teach the group of ten year old boys and girls. They worked on stroking, forward and backward crossovers, hockey stops, one foot glides, three turns, and lounges. Shane would constantly pick on Adam and make him demonstrate, and then tell the kids what was Adam had done wrong. Adam went to fast, and then he went to slow. Adam had no idea what I three turn was, and he wasn't exactly flexible and could not do a very good lounge. He knew Shane was doing this too get under his skin, and it was working.
"Okay guys. Free skate!" Shane said. "See everyone next week."
The kids all smiled and waved to Shane as they skated off. The lesson was over and now they got to skate around do whatever.
"Nice job." Shane said, obvisously mocking him.
"You're an idiot." Adam mumbled.
Shane looked at him. "You know. I know you hate this whole community service thing...But lighten up. It really isn't that bad." He said.
"Shows how much you know." Adam said.
Shane shrugged. "Okay. But look, if you need any help...I can help you. I've been doing this for the past four years." He said.
"Nice. Do you want an award or something." Adam said.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." Shane said. "Nice meeting you Adam. I'll see you later."Shane then skated off and was swarmed by a group of three girls, who were also coaches there. Obvisously he was Mr. Popular at the rink.
Adam skated over to the barrier, and jumped onto it. His legs daggled off the board and he swung them back and forth. Beth came over to him a few minutes later with another coach who looked a bit younger than him.
"How was the first lesson?" She asked.
"Fine." Adam said, looking at the girl. "Who's that?" He asked, nodding to her.
"Glad you asked." Beth said. She then pushed the girl towards Adam. "Adam, this is Heather."
Adam scarastically smiled and said, "Hi."
Beth continued, "Adam, Heather is going to be your coaching partner for the next set of lessons." She told him.
Heather smiled. "Hi." She said as she blushed lightly.
"Oh great...First I get to coach with a gay guy, and next I get to coach with a little school girl who will giggle at everything I say. Shoot me now!" He thought to himself.
Beth must have read his mind. "Hey Heather, will you go and collect the clipboards for me?" She asked.
"Sure will." Heather said as she turned and skated off. Tripping on her toepick causing her to blush again before she skated out of ear shot.
Beth looked at her former student turned juvenille dilinquint (sp?) and hopped up onto the barrier sitting next to him. "Adam, whats wrong?" She asked.
Adam knew he couldn't lie to Beth, she could practically read his mind. "Beth, I don't like being here." Adam said with a sigh. "Too many memories, too many kids..." he began, and had to swallow.
Beth took over, she knew what he was going to say. "Adam, I know you probably have much better things to be doing right now...But I hate to say it kid, you could be doing some other community service with much worse managers. You are lucky." She told him. "You at least need to try to make the best out of it." She then added with a light laugh, "I mean I know I am going to enjoy this...I've missed seeing you around here."
Adam knew what she was saying was true but didn't want to hear it. "I can't teach. I can't be around kids. I hate kids." He told her. Noticing how much of a five year old her sounded like, but didn't care.
Beth looked straight ahead. "Adam...I know why you hate being here." She said to the air in front of her. "I know kid. I know everything."
Adam blinked and swallowed again. "How?"
Beth chuckled. "I still talk to your family. I know more than you think I do." She told him. "I know I haven't seen you much for the past four years...But I am still here for you, just like I was when you were fourteen and needed a ride home or help with your science homework."
Adam swung his legs around to the other side of the barrier and jumped onto the ground. "I'm sorry. I'm never going to be able to..." He began.
Beth cut him off. "Adam, its okay." She put her hand on his shoulder. "Go to the coach's room and take a break." She told him. "Be back out here at 10:55 and meet up with Heather to teach the next class. We'll talk later , okay?"
"Kay." Adam nodded and jumped off the barrier. "Thanks."
"And remember...I still the same Beth as I was four years ago...Don't hesitate if you need anything." She told him. "I'm still here for you."
Adam nodded and walked off to the coach's room.
Damn. The stupid secret he had been hiding from everyone apparently wasn't so well hidden.
"Why can't I be happy that Beth is my manager?" He asked himself as he walked towards the locker room. "Why am I doing this to myself?"
Adam debated whether or not to go punch Shane so that he would be reassigned another place for community service.
"Can we go to the park today?" Adam heard a little boy's voice.
The boy's father was helping him unlace his rental skates and laughed. "I don't know. We'll see." He told his son.
"Can I stay here and skate all day?" The boy asked.
"No. But we will be back next week."
Adam swallowed hard as he saw the father and son chit-chat going on. He stopped and watched them for a moment, but when the little kid hugged his father, he got a bad feeling in his stomach. He felt phsyically sick and ran to the coach's room. Thankfully it was empty as Adam ran into the bathroom.
Adam spalshed cold water on his face and looked at himself in the mirror. He hated his reflection. He hated himself. He hated the person he had become. And most of all, he hated that he was too weak to do anything about it.
The door opened a minute later. Adam grabbed a paper towel and wiped off his face. He looked in the mirror to see Shane standing in the backround.
"You okay?" Shane asked, noticing how pale Adam's face was.
"Prefectly fine." Adam replied as he thew away the paper towel.
Shane stood in his way. "I saw you run in here...Are you..." He began.
"Look skater boy...I'm not here to make friends. I'm here cause I have to be. So do me a favor and leave me alone." Adam told him firmly. He then pushed Shane out of the way and walked past him.
"Its something called being poliet." Shane yelled after him. "You should try it sometime tough guy."
Adam slammed the door behind him as he left the room. Man, for a gay guy, Shane certainly had a fighting spirit to him.
Adam wandered around until 10:50, at that time, he went and got back on the ice. He saw Heather and skated over to her.
"Hi." He said.
Heather blushed again. "Hi." She said. "You get to help me teach the Basic 8 class."
"Wow. Basic 8." Adam said, humoring her.
Heather gave him a weird look, then asked. "Do you go to Eden Hall?" She asked.
"Yeah." He replied.
"I'm going there next year." She told him. "My sister is a senior this year."
"Nice." Adam said.
"Yeah...You might know her. She skates too...But she is at a competition this weekend..." She went on.
Adam zoned out while Heather talked about her sister. He honestly didn't care. He didn't know any senior girl who was a competitive figure skater. And if he didn't know her, he didn't care to meet her. He had his circle of friends, and rarely ventured into other cliques.
Heather kept talking, and Adam wanted to make her stop. So he picked up the clipboard and looked at it. "Do you want me to take role when the kids get here?" He asked.
"Um...Sure." She said, looking a bit upset he apparently didn't care that she was talking. She then looked at the sheet of paper and pointed to the bullets under the headline of "Skill to Learn." "Do you know what any of those are?" She asked.
Adam looked at the bullet points. "No." He said, looking at the words that looked like they were written in Greek, he had no clue what they meant.
"Okay..." She said, and then paused a moment. "Um...Well...We work on other stuff...like crossovers. But..."
Adam looked at her. "Can't you just show me what they are?" He asked. "We have a few minutes."
Heather's eyes lite up. "Okay." She said, and then skated forward. "A three turn is basically changing from one edge to another..." And then she started to show him how to do everything. Adam sighed, he could never teach this stuff.
"Thanks." Adam said, as she finished. "I don't think I am going to be much help today though." He told her.
"Its okay. I pretty much have a handle on everything." She said.
Adam leaned against the wall. "You figure skate?" He asked.
"Yeah." Heather said, her eyes sparkled when he asked her.
"How long?" He asked.
"Since I was three..." She said. "I've been skating for twelve years. I only started cause my sister skated."
"The same sister that goes to my school?" Adam asked.
"Yep. Riley...I think you were wearing her jacket earlier." She told him. "I can't believe you don't know her! You'll meet her next week."
"Can't wait." Adam lied.
The kids started to come over and the class began. Adam thought it was cool that Heather was so good with the kids. They all seemed to love her. And she did a nice job teaching.
"Okay guys! Free skate!" Heather said as the half hour was up. "See you next week!"
The kids started to skate off. Heather called a couple things out to them as they skated off. Like, "Jenny, be sure to work on that spin!" or "Tommy, remember to work on your waltz jump." and other little reminders.
Adam saw the look of pure joy on her face as she watched the kids skate off, and smiled to himself. "You really like this don't you?" He asked her.
"Yeah, I do." Heather said with a smile.
Adam laughed lightly. "I wish I could feel that way about this coaching thing." Adam said.
Heather shrugged. "Its not for everyone." She said. "I mean, maybe you could file paperwork instead of coach."
"Maybe I can." Adam said, thinking it was actually a good idea. "Well, thanks for letting me sit in on this class."
"No problem. Come sit in on any class." Heather told him, letting the words fly out of her mouth like they were nothing, but Adam heard a sense of nervous-ness in her voice as she said it.
"Will do." Adam said as he then waved a peace sign and skated off.
Adam sighed as he stepped off the ice. Day one of community service was over. So far he had seen someone from the past, and met a gay guy who was the most popular guy at the rink and a shy fifteen year old that had a crush on him. The next several Saturdays were going to be very interesting.
Adam had his hand on the door when he heard someone call his name. He turned to see Beth at the door to the rink, waving at him to come back.
Adam was confused. He thought he was done.
"Yeah?" He asked.
"Adam, I need you to talk to you after this free skate." beth told him. "Meet me in my office after you take off your skates."
Adam nodded. "Will do." he said again.
Adam left the ice again. Was he in trouble already? Man, all he wanted to do was go home.