A/N: Hey, all! I'm having a lot of fun writing this. This is an idea I've been tossing around for a few months and to finally write it feel incredible. I've gotten some great feed back from Screenplay101 and DimondDoggie (who are both great writers, I'd check them out if you've got the time!), so hopefully this story will only continue to grow and get better. I don't own Rocket Power, but I do own Marie. Reggie is 16, the rest of the gang is 15, and Lars and his gang are 17. I forgot to establish that last chapter, my apologies. Enjoy!
Marie wasn't able to recall the last time she slept so soundly. In just one day so much of her anxiety had went away. Of course, that always happened when she went into a new home. It happened often enough that that hope she felt with every new home should have been squashed like it had for so many of her old acquaintances in the system. She felt the sun on her arm and back, and felt the soft pillow case smushed against her face. Suddenly, there was a knock at the front door. She heard one of the Stimpleton's open it.
"Good morning, Mrs. Stimpleton! Is Marie up?" Reggie's voice drifted down the hallway to her slightly cracked door. Her window was still open and she could hear the others goofing off in cul de sac.
"Oh, I don't think she is quite yet. But as soon as she's up and ready, I'll send her out," Violet replied. Marie sat up in bed and tried to shout something to them about being awake, but it came out as a jumbled mess of "him awaaaare." She heard laughing in response, then footsteps and then her door opened. Reggie was standing there, laughing.
"Hey, sleepy head. Ready to skate the day away?" Marie stared at Reggie for a second, rubbing her right eye. She yawned and nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. I've never skated before. Skate board or Roller skates. Not even ice skating. You're gonna have to teach me." At this point, Marie had moved over to her closet. "What should I wear? I don't have a helmet. Do you guys have a spare?"
Reggie chuckled. "Yeah, we can teach you no problem. We had to teach Squid how to do pretty much everything except for be a street hockey goalie. He was a natural at that. As a matter of fact, I've got a few sets of extra padding. And I'd say jeans. It's not supposed to get that hot today, so maybe a long sleeve shirt, too. Meet us out in the street in half an hour, okay?" With that, Reggie left.
Marie hopped in the shower real fast before changing into a pair of black jeans, a dark green long sleeve shirt and her Converse. She through her hair up into a sloppy bun as she walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bagel to munch on.
"You got ready fast. Big plans for today with those other hooligans?" Merv asked, turning the page of the newspaper, the Shore Breeze.
"Yup. I'm going to learn how to skate… something today! Anything good going on in the news?" Marie asked as her bagel finished toasting and she put peanut butter on it.
"Oh, just the same nonsense as always. Nothing too good, nothing too bad. Skating, you say? You know, those hooligans once broke my arm with their skate board!" Merv began to rant. Violet scoffed slightly and gave Merv a little glare.
"They did not, you big faker. You just got it scraped a little," She said before turning to Marie and smiling. "You have fun, but you make sure to be safe, okay?" Violet pulled Marie into a hug before she walked out the door, meeting the other kids.
"Hey, Marie! Good to see you upright and sentient!" Squid shouted, waving enthusiastically.
"Sentient? She's not a rock, Squid!" Twister exclaimed, laughing even harder than he just was. Otto joined in and Reggie just sighed. "Twister, that's sediment! Sentient means she's aware of the world. You really need to pay better attention in school. Anyway, Marie, I dug up my extra padding. These are your elbow pads, these are knee pads, gloves and your helmet. I'm pretty sure these'll fit. You can use this skate board. We'll start off with simple stuff, okay?" Reggie handed everything over and checked that Marie had everything on correctly. They spent hours laughing and practicing. By late afternoon, Marie could successfully tic-tac, and that was pretty much it.
"Wow, Marie, you're almost as bad as the Squid!" Twister laughed, giving her a solid pat on the back.
"Yeah, except she can actually do a simple tic-tac!" Otto joined in, punching her shoulder lightly.
"Aw, c'mon guys, lay off me! I've gotten a lot better!" Squid protested, sighing in defeat. "You're doing a real good job, Marie. Pretty soon, you'll be showing up Otto himself." He stuck his tongue out at Otto, receiving a little shove in the shoulder. Marie laughed and propped her arm on Sam's shoulder.
"Ah, I'm sure you were good to start with. Your goalie reputation proceeds you, by the way. Anyway, I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving!" Marie put a hand over her stomach, which growled in perfect timing. Everyone laughed and agreed.
"Well, our dad owns a burger joint down at the Pier. Have you been down there yet?" Otto asked, picking up his board.
"No, not yet. And a burger does sound incredible. How good are your dad's fries?"
"Oh, Tito makes the best fries in town, trust me," Twister replied, thinking about the fries himself. "Man, I could eat those for every meal of every day and never get sick of them."
"It's decided then! To your dad's restaurant!" Marie exclaimed, putting her helmet back on.
"It's the Shore Shack. And are you sure you want to ride down? I've got a bike you can use if you'd rather take that," Reggie asked cautiously. Marie chewed on the inside of her lip before nodding.
"Yeah, that's probably a better idea! I might crash and burn hardcore, and I'm really not up for a trip to the hospital," Marie laughed, picking up the skate board she had just been using. Reggie led her to their garage, which was right next to the Stimpleton's hedge. Reggie grabbed a red bike that was set up against the left wall and rolled it around the garage to make sure the chains hadn't rusted.
"Yup, this will do just fine!" Reggie passed the bike over to Marie, who hopped on.
"Alright, I think we're ready to go!" Marie shouted to the boys. The boys all hollered and quickly skated off down the road. The girls were about to follow but Marie stopped, looking at the Stimpleton house.
"Hmm… I should probably tell them I'm leaving the block… No, they know I'm with you guys, I think it'll be fine," she reasoned, looking at her companion who nodded in agreement. They both took off down the street, quickly catching up to the boys. They flew down the hill leading towards the Pier and Marie was suddenly at the front of the group.