Tokio Derby

“Davon, sit over here with us!” Marissa screamed, gathering the attention of the entire lunchroom. “Why would they want to sit with her?” somebody asked, and Mariah shut them up with her glares.

Davon reluctantly walked over to us and set her lunch tray right next to Claude’s. “Hi,” she mumbled, still staring at her book.

“How are you Davon?” I asked, trying to start a conversation.

“Fine,” she mumbled in response, trying to focus more on the bus than with a friend.

“So did you guys get your slips signed?” Ash was referring to the small slips of paper Lena Doldrums gave our guardians/parents because we’re not allowed to do derby without them; the legal limit for derby is 18. Ariel signed it on her thigh, not caring that she flashed us some of her underwear. I swear I saw Tom take a picture with his phone. Forte asked kindly if she could sign it on Gustav’s back and he almost had a heart attack.”I’ll only let you join this team if Forte is allowed to drive you from there to home,” he said, puffing out his chest in a manly motion to impress her. I sighed loudly, knowing that he just wanted to get Forte’s number for “emergency purposes”.

“Yeppers,” Marissa said. “I just needed to talk to my Mami and Pops about how it was a good way for my anger and they were totally fine.”

Everyone else mumbled that they got their signed; Claude just stayed out of the conversation. I thought he would be glad that he was going to our practices, but instead he was talking to us less and less. Mostly me.

“Claude,” I asked, “what do you think of the whole derby thing?”

He snapped out of his daydream and back to reality. “What?” he stuttered, “I really wasn’t paying attention to a word you just said.”

“How do you feel about the whole derby thing?” I repeated, slowly saying the words in case he didn’t understand.

“I think it’s fine,” he replied calmly, “it seems like you guys are having a lot of fun and I don’t want to stop you. Besides, it doesn’t matter what I think of it; it matters what you think of it.”

I opened my mouth to probably say something sarcastic about that comment but couldn’t say it because the bell rung. Maybe later Claude, I thought.
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I don’t really remember anything about what happened after that; I zoned out through the classes, imagining what was going to happen at our second practice.

“-you coming?” a voice behind me said, and I almost jumped out of my seat. It was Davon, who was standing awfully close to Claude. Instead of a usual book in her hand, she held a sketch pad.

“Oh yeah,” I got out of my seat. We walked to our lockers and I got my stuff slowly, trying to ignore the fact that my mind was working in overtime. Why were Davon and Claude so close together? Are they dating or something? Besides, why do I care?!I’m dating Dominic Cairo for God’s sake!”

I shook my head, trying to erase the thought. Just as I was getting my skates out somebody slammed my head against my locker. My forehead hit the top shelf in the locker with such force it felt like my skull was cracked. My eyes were filled with stars and circles.

“What where you’re going you freak,” a sinister voice sneered behind me. I got up from where I was crumpled-on top of my books on the floor- and looked back at whoever the hell had done this. It was Brown Hair girl and Squeaky along with another girl with dark hair with a purple streak in the front. Brown Hair had her hair up in pigtails, making her look both innocent and sinister at the same time.

“WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM!” I screamed, rubbing my forehead. Squeaky only sneered in reply.

“You were blocking our way,” Purple Streak replied. It was an obvious lie, seeing that there were only at most thirty kids still in the large hallway.

“Are you blind or just too stupid to realize all the space in front of you?” Davon and Claude appeared, Davon holding a pair of dark red roller skates she got from Ariel. Claude was still really close to her.

“What are you doing here?” Squeaky snapped.

“Does the zoo know that three of their animals escaped?” Davon snapped back. She made a shooing motion with her hands. “Now leave before you give us fleas.”

“You don’t want us to leave,” Brown Hair looked over to Claude with huge eyes. “Do you Claude?”

Claude’s body stiffened. He mumbled something nobody could understand. “Just leave,” I snapped, slamming my locker loudly. Squeaky jumped. “Fine,” Brown Hair said, and they stormed off.

“Man,” Claude leaned on my locker. “ I have a feeling this isn’t the first time you’ve met Hansel.”

“Hansel?”

“Yeah,” Davon pointed to Brown Hair. “She’s Hansel. A total bitch since the beginning of time. She has a mad crush on Dominic but could never get him because he’s such a player.”

“But isn’t Hansel a boy’s name?” I snickered.

“Yep. She has all the ferocity of a man trapped in a woman’s body.”

We walked outside and met up with Marissa, Mariah, and Ash. Ash pointed to Forte, who was leaning on the car and being hassled by a bunch of guys, even the teachers. Ms. Doldrums was right next to her, trying to talk to her and avoid the men. Ash yelled them off like a banshee and we were off to the skating rink. I sat in the back with Davon, who was practically sitting in Claude’s lap even though there was space.

“What’s wrong Clarissa?” Ash asked, looking back at me while unbuckling her seatbelt.
“Nothing,” I shook my head, glaring at Davon and Claude when they stepped over me and walked to the building. They didn’t even wait for me. Claude didn’t even wait for me.
Apparently Lena wanted to do something special for our second practice. I was pretty much the only person who had a derby name and knew the drills, but that really didn’t matter. Ms. Doldrums stopped us before any of us got in the elevator, making us wait until she called Forte and told her it was okay for us to go downstairs. We all jammed into the elevator, someone humming along to the weird song that was playing.

“It’s about time you bitches got here!” a woman screamed. A group of older women- not super old, just in their twenties and early thirties- were lined up in the middle of the ghetto circuit track, wearing the same type of outfit. They sort of looked like regular clothes except tattered and worn, the shorts ripped and some of the shirts missing sleeves and ripped, showing off the midriff.

“This is my old team!” Ms. Doldrums voice echoed throughout the place. She was probably in the room with the DJ booth, noticing us and blasting our mistakes for all to hear. “I asked them to come here for practice!”

“This really the team you made?” a beefy girl who was probably the blocker asked.”They better get ready to be destroyed.”

After getting dressed- we still didn’t have a team wardrobe so it was just gym shorts and tank tops- and waited for orders. “Each of you is going to go up there and try your best against the team! By the way you act out there they’ll decide what position you should play.” Doldrums screamed, “I couldn’t think of any good names for you so they’ll choose!”
“We’re going to die,” Ash whispered to us, “aren’t we?”

“First up……….Ash!”

Ash reluctantly skated to the center. The blockers and pivot waited behind the line while Ash waited with the jammer. A sound like a bull horn went through the place and the pack went off. The sound went off again and they started to go. Ash didn’t stand a chance against them; they knocked her down in the first three seconds. Even worse was Doldrums played “Eye of the Tiger” to the entire time. But Ash kept getting up and going for it. After a few falls she got the hang of it, knocking some of the blockers out and even tripping the jammer.
After the song went off one of the members went up to the DJ room and whispered something to Doldrums. Doldrums screeched for Marissa to go next, putting on some random techno song with a loud bass. Marissa was a strange person on the track: she would dance along to the music but whenever somebody got close to her and tried to do anything she bumped them out of the way. And bumping them out of the way was just the nicest term: she would kick them, elbow them in the torso or face, and grab a blocker’s arm and fling them at another member of their team.

“Alright!” Claude screamed, walking on the track and pulling Marissa off a poor victim. “We understand you have anger issues.” The track kind of looked like a duel was fought by Chuck Norris, innocent people lying on the floor in pain while one person stood over them with a smile on her face.

We took a break- or rather the Renegades iced their wounds and we put Marissa in the time-out spot for a while- and then it was Mariah’s turn. I never once heard her skates move and she blended into the background. Her main tactic was to use her silence to go behind a player and knee them in the back, hopping over them as they fell. It took most people a couple of tries to learn how to hop over others but Mariah was doing it like a natural. Doldrums played “Smooth Criminal” as Mariah did a solo lap across the track in victory.
Davon was probably the most inspiring of us all. While “We Are the Champions” played she went across the track and didn’t even mess up once. She moved with absolute grace and only knocked down the players when it felt absolutely necessary. If it were an actual game she would’ve scored a bunch of points. Once I looked over at Claude and he was staring at her too. Even though almost everyone off the track was staring at her, I took it the hardest to see Claude like this. He probably felt me staring at him and looked over; I just looked away with my arms crossed around my chest.

“You’re up next sunshine,” I was snapped out of my daze by a group of hands pushing me into the track. I was a little off balance so I fell flat on my face. After a few minutes of laughter I got up and walked to the jammer line. Apparently instead of epic music I got the My Little Pony theme song. WHO EVEN HAS THAT?!

I took off like lightning, crouching down so I would have more speed and nobody could try to elbow me. With my high velocity that also meant that if I bumped someone it would have a greater impact. I wasn’t exactly as graceful as Davon on the track- I swore every single time I fell down- but it was still pretty good. I didn’t have the time to look over at anyone, but I snuck a peek at Claude when I wasn’t busy kicking ass. He was chatting with Davon and Mariah, completely oblivious to me. I can’t say his ignorance didn’t grind my gears.

After that we all gathered in a circle in the middle of the track, some of us sitting cross-legged while others had their legs out pointing to the center. Doldrums was standing in the middle, holding a clipboard and looking quite serious. “We have decided everyone’s derby names and their position.” I raised my hand but she shot me down. “Even you Clarissa. Everyone is starting with a new slate.”

Doldrums pointed to Mariah. “Mariah, you would make an awesome blocker. Your new derby name will be Twinkle Toes.”

“But I’m wearing skates,” Mariah murmured to herself, trying her hardest not to smile.
Doldrums pointed to Marissa. “You have a lot of anger issues.” Everyone nodded to that. “Since you like hurting people you’re a blocker. Your derby name is Beauty and the Bitch.”
Marissa slapped Mariah on the back, their way of a high-five. Doldrums pointed to Ash. “You’ve now joined the blocker group Ms. Johnnie Knockout.”

After a few congratulations it was time for the most and second most important positions on the team. I silently prayed that I would be the jammer, not Davon. I know it sounds horrible but some part of me didn’t want to lose to her.

Ms. Doldrums coughed. “And now for our new jammer…..” she paused for dramatic effect. She looked back down at the clipboard. “Well it seems that little Miss Roxie Ribcage has somehow become the jammer again. That means that Davon, our shy little Killer Beatrix, is the pivot!”

We cheered for each other, giving out pats on the back and getting cheers. Doldrums shut us up. “I hope that every single one of you will study your positions tonight and we will begin our first actual practice in three days.”

I looked over to Claude, hoping that he would congratulate me, but all he did was talk to Davon. I like Dominic so much more anyway, I thought to myself, pouting and turning back to Doldrums.

“Any questions?” And when nobody answered we packed up our stuff and left.