Flip Turn

Chapter Fifteen: Can So

It was really hard to color on concrete. It was so bumpy and uneven, and it made the paper look messy, like you didn't really know how to draw even if you did. Worse, it was really hard to color at night. The parking lot had lights, but not nearly enough for coloring, and it wasn't quite dark yet, but it was trying to be. Terra was about to decide that she didn't care if her poster wasn't the best, because she'd tried, and it kind of looked like a pool, when you turned your head to the side. She'd just put in too many lanes.

And anyway, she wanted to make her hair green.

Most of the kids Terra's age had looked unsure when a big girl brought out the spray paint, but Gar had immediately declared that it sounded awesome and that he had to be first. So the girl and her friends had him sit in a chair wearing a pair of old goggles that didn't work anymore, told him to cover his face, and a few seconds later, Gar had green hair. They told him not to take a shower before tomorrow. Gar giggled and said that wouldn't be a problem.

After that, everybody had wanted green hair. Except Robin, but he didn't count because he didn't even like candy.

That reminded her, so she tapped Vic on the shoulder when she got in line for spray paint. "Why can't we have sweets again?"

"Because it'll mess up your swimming," he said. "If you eat too much sugar, you'll run out of energy."

"But that doesn't even make any sense; sugar gives you energy," said Jade. "My dad said."

Vic nodded. "Yeah, but then you use it up too fast and then it's all gone."

Normally, it wouldn't have mattered this much, but Divisionals was tomorrow, and they weren't supposed to have candy. Or soda. For a whole day. That would be really hard. Normally, they also didn't have practice so late, but this wasn't practice. There wouldn't be anymore practices, not unless you were fast enough to go to that other meet that Kitten told her about a few days ago (Terra forgot what it was called). That made her kind of sad.

Pacing alongside the line, Gar ran a finger through his hair, grinning when it came back stained with green. "I think you should be able to eat lots of candy right before you swim, as long as you go real fast, then by the time it's gone, you'll be done."

"It doesn't work that way," Vic said apologetically.

"Guess you're gonna be a doctor when you grow up, or something, right?" asked Gar as he stared down into the tip of his marker.

Wally shook his head, interrupting whatever Vic was about to say. "Cyborg's gonna be a superhero."

Gar hadn't looked up from his marker. "Do you guys think that if I colored my hair with this, I could make it more green?"

"Dunno, but I'll help you," said Wally, snatching away the marker. He hadn't been standing in line, because Wally had probably never stood in line for anything in his life. He just kind of went where he wanted to go. "Maybe it won't even wash off, and it'll stay there until you're a hundred years old, and even when you're dead."

"Cool!"

When it was Terra's turn to get her hair sprayed, she adjusted the goggles carefully because she was kind of scared to get it in her eyes. She'd gotten shampoo in her eyes once, and that had hurt a whole lot, and she hadn't even been able to wash it out because she couldn't bring herself to put anything else in there, even if it was just water…

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" she asked the girl with the spray can, twisting around in the chair to glare at her doubtfully.

"Yep," said the girl, stained fingers reaching out to turn Terra's head back around, one hand on top of her head, holding it still. She threw a green-streaked towel around Terra's shoulders, and then there was a cool mist all around her, together with a smell like nail polish.

Terra waited till the spraying sound had stopped, and then cautiously took her hands away from her face—she'd been holding onto the goggles to make sure they were really stuck on her eyes. "…Did it work?"

"Yep," the girl repeated, and when Terra pried one eye open she was staring straight into a mirror. And even though she knew that mirrors were just your reflection, the girl looking back at her didn't look like her. She looked kind of like a space alien. A really shocked space alien.

"Ooo, Terra's hair looks good!" Gar announced, having shuffled around in front of her to look, very carefully because Wally was still coloring him with the marker. "It's 'cos it's so long—do Starfire next; hers is even longer!"

Luckily, Starfire was right behind Terra so it was her turn to go next, even though she'd cut in front of a few people because she didn't really know about lines (Wally knew about lines but pretended that he didn't). "Do people color themselves often on this side of the ocean?" she asked, eyes as green as the spray paint and narrowed in confusion.

"Sometimes, but usually not like this," said Vic.

"And how does the color come out of a can?"

For the first time that Terra could remember, Vic looked a little bit confused. He stared at the can, and at the girl holding it, and finally shrugged. "I'm really not sure, actually."

The girl didn't seem like she knew, either, and everybody looked pretty embarrassed, and just when Terra was about to go find Coach Bruce so she could ask him how spray paint worked, Starfire laughed and shook her head.

"But I want to try it anyway!"

Terra smiled back at her. Starfire was one of those people who reflected smiles, like the mirror that she'd looked into to see her green hair. She didn't know how the can would make your hair green and she didn't know why, but she wanted to do it. And Terra wished that she could be like that: eager and happy and never afraid of anything, even the things she didn't know about. Being near Starfire was like having a light that warmed her all the way down to her toes.

When the big girl had finished spraying Starfire's hair, Terra realized that she'd been wrong about the green: it wasn't the same color as her eyes, because it wasn't quite as good.

"Hey, Raven, can I use the white paint-marker-thing?"

Raven nodded, and handed Terra the thing that looked like a giant crayon that you used to write on cars with. It would wash off as long as you only drew on the glass, and Terra's daddy had said that she could do it as long as she didn't get anything on the paint. Raven's hair was still its usual color; she didn't want it to be green. Either that, or she didn't want to ask if she was allowed.

Terra knew how to write her name: the only hard part was remembering which direction to point the "R"s. She did one in each direction and figured that at least one had to be right.

"That one's the wrong way," said Raven over Terra's shoulder, pointing to one of the letters.

Frowning, Terra stared at it and wondered if anybody else would notice. "I don't think I can fix it."

Raven shuffled from one foot to the other, then held out her hand for the giant crayon. "Maybe I can do it." It was halfway a question and halfway a wish.

"Sure!" She passed it back to Raven, stepping away from the window and watching as Raven colored in the letter so it looked like one, fat line, and then drew the little half-arch in the other direction.

It took her a lot longer than Terra was expecting, but maybe she should have expected it, because Raven always took a long time to do everything. She wanted it to be perfectly right. At practice, she didn't come in first a lot, but she always followed the rules exactly. But finally, she let out her breath and took her hands away from the window, as if she were afraid that moving suddenly would make it break into a million pieces.

"Done," Raven announced, something like a smile glinting across her face, almost too fast for Terra to see it. If there was one thing in the world that Raven did fast, it was smiling.

Terra looked at the window, arms crossed and eyes narrowed. Then she grinned. "Yeah, you couldn't even tell that I drew it wrong. Thanks!"

From the way Raven's eyes looked, you might have been able to use her like a flashlight if you'd wanted to.

"Do you want to write on the other window? I can watch," said Raven, zipping up her jacket. One of the strange things about summer was that you never knew if it was going to be hot or cold; the weather could change practically faster than Wally could swim one lap of freestyle—which was really fast.

Terra slowly shook her head, feeling a secret smile starting to wiggle its way onto her face. "I think I have a better idea," she sang, tugging on Raven's hand and pulling her to another area of the parking lot.

"Terra—wait—what are we doing?"

"Let's go draw on Coach Bruce's car!"

Raven stopped right in the middle of running, planting her feet firmly on the ground, yanking Terra back because she wasn't letting herself be pulled, eyes wide in horror. "Terra Markov, we can not draw on Coach Bruce's car."

"Can so!" said Terra, sticking out her tongue.

"Can not!"

"Can so." But it wasn't Terra who said it, because the voice was way too deep and way too old, and anyway, she would have known if she'd said it.

Raven's eyes were focused on something way above Terra's head, so Terra turned around to look, and she wasn't really all that surprised to see Coach Bruce smiling down at her, handing her another one of the giant crayons.

"Not on the paint, okay, girls?"

After that, Terra's smile was ten times bigger. "Not on the paint, promise!" she yelled, grabbing Raven's hand again.

It was only eight-thirty, and Terra wasn't tired at all—in the summer, she was allowed to stay up later, sometimes even ten-thirty—but maybe going to bed early wouldn't be such a bad idea, because they had to be at the pool tomorrow so early that she didn't think anybody else in the city would even be up yet.

"But we never have to be at practice at seven!" Gar whined, leaning his forearms into his knees. All the eight and unders were supposed to talk to Coach Bruce before they went home. Which meant Vic didn't have to, but he was there anyway, sitting on the ground next to Wally and listening a lot harder than most of the other kids, even though he must have heard it a million times. Terra made sure to sit next to Raven. She looked like she wanted her to.

Kitten snorted. "Duh, you've never had to swim at Divisionals before."

"Thank you, Kitten," said Coach Bruce, in a voice that probably meant he wasn't very thankful. "As I was saying, seven o'clock tomorrow. Check your mailboxes before you come."

"Why?" asked Terra, shooting her hand in the air as soon as she said it.

"Because you might find something interesting."

Terra really, really wanted to know what the 'something interesting' was, but he wouldn't say, not even when Gar clasped his hands together in front of his chest like he was praying. It seemed like Vic knew, though. But he probably wouldn't say, either.

After he'd finally gotten them all to stop asking (and then to stop whispering), Coach Bruce continued, face serious. "I need everyone to remember to drink eight ounces of water after every race."

"That's a lot of water, though," Jade grumbled.

"And if you wait until you're thirsty to drink, you're already dehydrated. Eight ounces after every race. Understood?" He gave them a look, and then everybody had to say that they understood. "And you know this by now, but listen to the Clerk of Course. There will be more kids at Divisionals than at any of the other meets—it will be loud, crowded, and you'll be waiting for a long time. Know when you're supposed to be swimming and listen for your name."

"We can do that!" said Starfire.

"I'm sure you can." Coach Bruce smiled. "And you can show me tomorrow. At what time?"

"Seven!" Terra tried to yell the loudest when everybody said it at once.

"Alright, see me if you have questions. Otherwise, that's all I have for you. I want you all in bed by nine-thirty."

Raven poked Terra with one finger. "Sometimes I'm allowed to stay up till ten," she whispered, grinning.

"Yeah, and on New Year's I'm allowed to stay up till midnight," said Terra, getting excited when she thought about it. "…'Cept I usually fall asleep, but I never mean to."

Looking over her shoulder, Raven made a face, almost as if she wasn't really aware that she did it. "I gotta go now; my mom's calling me. Bye, Terra!"

Terra waved and watched her disappear into a silver car, one that was covered in white drawings—only on the windows, though.

"But what if, like, we're sort of in our rooms and being quiet and stuff, but not really sleeping?"

"Nine-thirty," said Coach Bruce, shaking his head at Roy.

Next to him, Robin yawned, blue eyes drooping as he held onto a lamppost with one hand. Then, he wasn't holding it anymore, because Coach Bruce picked him up, and normally that would have made Robin really mad, but he was probably too tired to care. Robin wasn't quite so mean now. Ever since a couple days ago, you could ask him stuff and he wouldn't snap at you or yell that you should have already known that. And he smiled a lot more.

Then Terra's mommy was saying that she had to go home, and Terra sighed because she'd been hoping to hide from her so maybe she could stay a little bit longer—swim team was almost over and she wanted to drag out every last moment, like how she always scraped the bottom of her ice cream bowl to see if there was any more left. Terra didn't remember going upstairs to her room that night: just tumbling sleepily into the car, the window cool against her cheek, and the funny, bristly way her green hair felt when it tickled her nose.

Some of you may remember me suffering through Chemistry--I forgot to say last time that I made an A, and the lack of Chemistry resulted in me writing a lot. However, I'm leaving for school this morning, so expect me to slow down with all my projects, including this one, as I get settled in. Thanks for understanding and thanks a ton for the responses! I love reading them! --Azelma :)