Tokio Derby

Three years later

I made my way around the track with record speed. The other beginners watched me with awe and inspiration. Even though I was the shortest member of the team, I still made the 20 laps around the track in record time.

We were all crammed into the busy abandoned building that someone had bought and used as a derby track. The circular track was in the middle of the room, all other stadium like seats were around the area. They really cleaned this place up, getting rid of all the cobwebs and homeless guys that were here originally and turning it into this weird retro underground building. The walls were painted a dark set of purple and they set up two different concession stands on either side of the place- one of them sold sweets and the other sold food you would find at a baseball game. Not like I had ever been to one. Derby was my thing. There was only one stand that really mattered to me- the merchandise stand. It had posters, shirts, hats, and any other thing associated with roller derby there. And every month they would set a different member of each team as the poster child. Others would stand in awe and look at the pictures; I was determined to get my face on there.

I finished around the track and skated a few more times over it. The derby track looked like it did at every other skating rink, except the sides were elevated for a faster skate. My other teammates watched with smirks on their faces as I skated off the track and sat down next to them.

“And that’s how you do it!” our manager Rob screamed to the beginners. His black hair was slicked back and his grey eyes looked fierce in the black tracksuit he was wearing. “Okay beginners, take a few laps around the track. Sour,” he pointed to me, “and Tech,” he pointed to Gloria. “will show you the ropes.”

My official derby name was Sweet n’ Sour Punch. I didn’t get the name myself- they gave it to me because on the first day of practice I was acting sweet until someone pulled my pants down and I sent her to the hospital. It wasn’t my fault; the police didn’t see it that way. I had actually kind of liked the name, it looked well on the uniform.

You could easily tell who was a member of the team and who wasn’t. The beginners fumbled around with the skates and some of them fell flat on their faces the minute their skates met the laminated wooden floor. We had always made sure there were no bumps or mistakes in the rink; it was needed to make sure we didn’t fall over the mistake and break a bone. We followed them around the rink, some of the strongest members keeping them up. There were only a few who knew what to do; I noticed them because they had come to every single one of our games.

The age range to the roller derby games was from spoiled twelve year olds to old ladies in their 80s who wanted to prove they still had it. And they really did. Some of the best players we went against were 40 year old to somewhere around that range. Young people almost never played roller derby; it was left to the adults to play. I was only a freshman now, the warm summer sky greeting me as I walked across the sky. That was the weird thing about weather North of Chicago; the weatherman could say it would be sunny all day, but it starts raining out of the blue. It was only spring and we had gotten more rain than most countries had in while.

Each person slowly made their way across the circuit track- that the skating track for all those who don’t know- 30 times, lagging along with the team members who easily circled the track.

Rob blew his whistle and we all raced slowly in the middle of the circuit track where the team members who weren’t playing would sit and wait to be called. We all sat on the benches and waited for his next order.

“You guys are going to learn some stops,” Rob yelled. “Ivana the Terrible, show them how it’s done.”

Eva walked happily to where Rob was standing. I hated her. With her amazingly perfect good looks- her blond hair so light it almost looked white, her lip pierced as well as her nose, and her face in a constant smirk, she was the kind of beautiful that meant trouble. She was another one of the young members of the team- there was only me, Carmen, and Ivana (her real name was Selma-she was from Germany) - and she always wanted to be number one in everything. She didn’t care if it meant pushing her teammates out of the way to earn points, she always wanted to be on top. But that wasn’t the reason I hated her. I hated her because the Women’s Flat Track Derby League noticed her as one “of the best players in America” and she was put on almost every poster made.

“Alright bitches,” her German accent made the swear sound even worse. “Being a derby girl isn’t just about wearing the outfit.” She pointed down to the team outfit- a black and red tutu and a black shirt with a turtle eating flowers. The turtle eating the flowers symbolizes our team name- The Pushin’ Daisies. The turtle was just there because our team mascot was a turtle named Jimmy who belonged to Rob. We all wore knee pads and shoulder pads; the game of roller derby was tough and you could get seriously injured if you didn’t wear them.“You have to have true grit.”

“Like the movie?” a young girl asked. It was followed my murmur by the people, the conversation stirring from true grit to cowboys. Ivana made a hissing sound from her mouth, meaning she was mad, and the whole crowd silenced. “As I was saying,” she snapped, “it’s also about knowing the stuff. So we’re going to practice stops.”

“Show them the t-stop first!” Rob yelled, walking over to the open concession stand and hopping inside. The attention whipped back from Rob to an angry looking Ivana.

“What’s the t-stop?” a girl asked, and Ivana sighed as she demonstrated. She started skating around the track at lightning speed, and then putting her right foot sideways behind the left skate. That was the t-stop, and you would actually use it a lot in derby.

“And that is the t-stop,” Ivana snapped, her tone harsh. “Now PRACTICE!” The noobs took to the track, their bodies moving a little faster than before. One of them fell while trying to make the stop, but the others followed through. After that we all hurried back to the center to wait for our next instructions.

“Now the next stop,” Gloria said, taking charge. Her derby name was Tech Bytes, a name that suited her because of her love technology and all other things about it. “Is called the snow plow.” She took to the track, circling it slowly. “You see for this you need to move your legs slowly together until they,” she demonstrated it, spreading her legs farther apart and slowly moving them back together. The skates made a weird clicking noise as they got together. “And that’s how it’s done,” she replied, smiling to us like a star smiles to the camera. “Now do you guys want to practice?”

They followed her orders swiftly; they actually understood it. We still had one more stop to go, and it was kind of hard to do, the Tomahawk stop.

“Now this next stop is a little different than the others,” Gloria said after the beginners got off the track. “It’s kind of complex but if you practice enough it’s very easy.”

“Can you just demonstrate it already?” a girl with a dyke spike asked, making the crowd laugh as Gloria put on a pained expression.

“Fine,” Gloria replied, and she was off like a rocket. I watched with awe like the rest of the girls and Gloria slowed down, turned around on her skates, and lifted the bottom skates so she was on her heels. Not everyone could do the Tomahawk stop with such ease. “Do you understand?!” she squealed, looking out to the crowd.

After they finished failing at the Tomahawk stop it was Gretel Grudge’s turn to introduce new things to the group. She taught them how to do a barrel roll, which was a stop to protect yourself from falling face first on the track. It started like regular skating, but you would get down on your knee and roll like your body was on fire. Then you would get back up and keep on skating. When you fall on a track you would do a barrel roll to protect your body and to get back up faster. The audience listened and watched intently as Gretel showed them how.

The next thing we taught them was how to actually play roller derby. The team members got up and skated slowly to their lines. The pivots and the blockers moved to the pivot line, where they would start skating, and the jammers- those who could score points- started at their line 20 feet back. A pivot was someone who could later become a jammer in what was called a bout, the official name for the game. The bouts lasted about two minutes, the points only scored when the jammers made one lap around the track and passed the pivots and blockers once again. Ivana and I were the two jammers in the practice game, the rest of the team were the blockers and pivots. The only way you could tell who was who was by the star on the jammers helmet, the line on the two pivots helmets, and nothing on the blockers helmet.

A beginner blew the whistle, meaning the pivots and blockers started off around the track. When the last blocker in the pack made it past the line, the whistle blew again and it was time for the jammers to start. I skated like lightning, the others eating my dust. I was the shortest one of any of the players, meaning I could go so much faster than the others. Ivana was one of the tallest, and even though her legs could stretch farther than most of the teams, the shortest person would always go the fastest.

I made my way around the track, an open space for me to move until I made my way to the pack again. I tried effortlessly to move around the pack, but some of them blocked me with their hips and butts. You were never allowed to use your elbows to block another person, the only way you could stop a jammer was using anything above your thighs.

A blocker bumped me with her butt, pushing me almost off the circuit track. I quickly picked myself up off the ground and started skating again, using a barrel roll to protect myself from the harsh ground. I quickly avoided every member of the team and made my way towards Ivana, who was skating around the rink like it was the easiest thing in the world. If this were a real game she would’ve gotten a lot of points by now. I ignored my thought and kept on going, pushing the others out of my way by using my body and not my elbows. I might’ve pushed them a little too hard with my hips, some of them falling to the ground and quickly pulling them up.

I quickly made my way towards Ivana, a smirk forming on my face as I made her eat my dust. The whistle blew way too quickly, but everyone knew that I would’ve won if this was a real game. I had made my way around all of the pack at least five times. We slowly made our way towards the beginners, getting high-fives from the crowd and whoops and applause.

“Did you see what they did?!” Rob screamed with a mouth full of food. “They used their bodies to block the others. Now that’s what you do when you want to stop the opposing team from scoring any points!”

I smiled at Rob, batting my eyelashes and pretending to look like a movie star. “Now if you thought about it and you decided that you would rather play a safer sport in which you would look good, like maybe ice skating, that’s totally fine. Just get your asses out of our way.” Rob then blew the whistle and the team and I watched the beginners try to copy our moves.