Kenzie Kickstarts a Team

by Kit Rosewater

  The girls found Kenzie’s mom and the rest of the Hazel Nuts team skating laps on the main track. Kenzie’s mom swiveled and stopped in front of Kenzie.

  “Skate time?” she asked.

  Kenzie nodded. Her mom led the group to the rental counter.

  “All right, ladies. You can practice on the court behind the building. Take helmets and pads along with skates. Your skate size is your shoe size. And remember to be careful.”

  Kenzie, Shelly, Tomoko, and Jules all nodded. But Camila raised her hand.

  “What do we have to be careful about?” she asked.

  “Falling correctly,” Kenzie’s mom said. “The skates are plenty sturdy. But they’re heavy, and if you land wrong you could get hurt. Kenzie and Shelly will show you ladies how to fall.”

  Camila’s chin quivered.

  “But I thought this was like fight choreography,” she said. “You’re not supposed to get hurt in fight choreography.”

  Shelly turned to Kenzie and raised an eyebrow.

  “You don’t get hurt if you do things right,” Kenzie said. “I’ll show you how to use your knee pads.”

  Kenzie swung her skates over her shoulder. She grabbed the bundle of elbow and knee pads from the counter and turned for the side door.

  Shelly quickly caught up to her.

  “Hey,” Shelly said. “What was that?”

  “What was what?” Kenzie asked.

  “Why does Camila think roller derby is like fight choreography?”

  Kenzie shrugged. “I have no idea,” she said. “I mean . . . I might have said that derby was a teensy bit like the sword fighting she and Jules did in the cafeteria. I guess that’s all she needed to know.”

  “Huh,” Shelly said. “Well, maybe we should warn her that it will be really different.”

  “She’ll find out in a couple of minutes,” Kenzie said. “Come on, we’re wasting practice time.”

  Kenzie dumped the padding next to a bench and sat down to change into her skates. Jules flew out of the door a minute later, followed by Tomoko. Camila emerged last. She was carrying her skates like they might bite her. Shelly turned to Kenzie, but Kenzie pretended to be busy tying her own skates.

  “OK, guys,” Kenzie said. “Make sure your laces are good and tight.”

  Jules stretched her laces taut as she yanked them over and under each loop.

  “They’re so tight, they might break my foot!” she said proudly.

  “Don’t cut off circulation,” Shelly said. “The point is not to let them get loose.”

  “Oh, they won’t,” Jules assured her.

  Tomoko wrapped her laces around her ankle and knotted them in the front.

  “Whoa,” Shelly said, “it took me months before I figured out how to tie them like that.”

  Tomoko blushed. “I was watching you guys,” she said.

  Kenzie buckled her helmet and stood up. She clapped her hands the way Miss Moss had done at rehearsal. “Fasten your elbow pads and hustle to the court. Places!”

  “These are really heavy,” Camila said. She lifted a foot, then let it clack onto the ground.

  “You get used to it,” Kenzie said. “Your feet will slide more than walk anyway.”

  Camila frowned and tied her laces into a neat bow.

  “You’ll have to tie them a lot tighter than that,” Shelly said. “Or the skates will fly off your feet.”

  “They will?” Camila asked. She looked down at her skates in horror.

  “Leave her alone,” Kenzie said. “You’re scaring her!”

  Shelly threw her hands up. “I’m trying to help!”

  Tomoko pushed off from the bench.

  “Whoa,” she said. She wobbled her arms a moment, then held them out like she was walking on a tightrope. She kicked one of her legs and propelled herself forward.

  “That’s great!” Shelly said. “Make sure your legs go out to the side, not right behind you.”

  “OK,” Tomoko said. She steadied herself and bent her knees, then rolled one skate out, then the other. Kenzie was impressed that Tomoko hadn’t fallen right off the bat. Maybe they really would have a superstar team after all.

  “Hi-yah!” Jules yelled.

  She jumped up on her skates, then collapsed in a jumbled heap. Before anyone could help her, Jules pushed herself back up to standing. She reached out toward Tomoko and lunged again.

  “Hi-yah!”

  Kenzie watched as Jules went down like a stick building that had been blown over by the big bad wolf. Kenzie’s cheeks flushed.

  “I can’t fall like that!” Camila said. “I bruise easily.”

  “That’s OK,” Shelly said. “Bruises are pretty normal here.”

  Camila shot a bewildered look at Kenzie. She kept a death grip on the bench as she stood up.

  “Try letting go,” Shelly said.

  Camila froze. Her hand was firmly wrapped around the back of the bench. She whimpered and sat back down.

  “I can’t!” she cried.

  Kenzie gave a long and low sigh.

  “Well, that’s just great,” Shelly said, rolling her eyes. “We’ll knock ’em dead tomorrow.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  An unusual chill hovered over Austin the next morning. Kenzie pressed a hand to her window, feeling the cold seep into her fingers. It was the kind of morning that made her want to crawl back under the blankets, or get a steamed milk at her favorite coffee shop with her dad.

  But it wasn’t time for blanket nests or hazelnut steamers.

  It was time for derby.

  Kenzie threw on her jacket. She stuffed her extra-thick derby socks and a water bottle into her bag.

  “Greetings and salutations!” Verona said at the table. She leaned close to Kenzie and whispered: “That means ‘good luck.’”

  “Thanks,” Kenzie said. After the practice they had had yesterday, their team needed all the luck they could get.

  As Kenzie and her mom rounded the corner to the warehouse, Kenzie saw Shelly and Tomoko already waiting. Kenzie clutched her bag close to her. Jules jumped out from a red pickup truck. Camila slunk out of a shiny black car and waved toward the window.

  Kenzie’s mom unlocked the side door of the building.

  “Fifteen minutes,” she said to the girls. “Then the main doors open.”

  Kenzie and the others nodded. Fifteen minutes was better than nothing. By the time practice ended yesterday, the most Kenzie and Shelly were able to do was pry Camila off the bench. They still had to go over all the regular derby moves.

  “OK,” Kenzie said once the girls had on their skates. “Let’s get out there.”

  Jules and Tomoko followed Shelly onto the track. Kenzie led Camila behind the group.

  “I need the railing!” Camila yelled.

  “Use my arm. I’m right here,” Kenzie said. She helped Camila to where the others were lined up.

  “So, Tomoko’s already got the hang of this,” Shelly said. “But the way you move forward is by pushing your legs out to the side. Left, right.”

  “Left, right,” Jules echoed. She kicked a leg out and, this time, she didn’t immediately topple over.

  “Exactly!” Shelly said. “You don’t want to push your toe into the ground, because that’s where your brake is, so you’ll end up stomping instead of skating.”

  “How do we brake?” Tomoko asked.

  “You can plow stop, which is when you angle your feet in to slow down. Or . . .” Shelly looked at Kenzie.

  Kenzie sighed. “Derby players usually pivot so they’re skating backward, then they use the toe brake.”

  Camila’s lip trembled. “We’re supposed to spin around in these things?”

  “Spin like this!” Jules said. She whipped her shoulder around and fell to the floor.

  Kenzie could see the hope draining out of Shelly’s face.

  “Let’s try some blocking moves,” Kenzie said. “Jules and Camila, blocking is a lot like sword fighting, so you two will be great. W
henever you’re skating forward, you keep your knees bent and elbows out. Like this, see? That makes it hard for the jammer to weave through.”

  “How was that again?” Tomoko asked. She bent her knees and arms.

  “Oh,” Kenzie said. She waved Tomoko off. “You don’t have to learn this part since you’ll be our jammer.”

  “I thought you were the jammer,” Tomoko murmured. “That’s what Shelly said.”

  Kenzie froze with her elbows out. She turned to Shelly.

  “What?”

  Shelly shrugged. “I figured one of us needed to be jammer,” she said, “since we’re the only two who have actually practiced derby.”

  Kenzie could hardly believe what she was hearing. Shelly was changing around the team now, and she hadn’t even asked Kenzie first?

  “But what about our classic M&M moves?” Kenzie asked.

  “Shelly showed me some moves at the park last night,” Tomoko said. “After we left the warehouse.”

  Kenzie stared hard back and forth between Shelly and Tomoko. Her jaw was set tight. The Dynamic Duo wasn’t crumbling after all, she realized.

  Kenzie just wasn’t a part of it anymore.

  “Kenzilla, wait!” Shelly said.

  Kenzie didn’t listen. She turned away from the others and stomped off the track. Just as she sat down on the bench, the front warehouse doors peeled open. Kenzie prepared herself for the usual burst of kids that flew in during Free Skate. Instead, she was met with a steady line of girls in sweatshirts and leggings. Some of the girls went to the rentals counter. Some swung their bags onto the ground and began taking out their own skates.

  One group of skaters sat on the other side of the rink across from Kenzie. All five girls wore matching shirts with cherries on the front. No one chatted or whispered or laughed as they strapped on their skates and buckled their helmets.

  “Formation!” one of the girls called when they had finished gearing up.

  The entire group slid onto the track, bending low and gathering speed as they took a lap together. Camila ducked as they flew by.

  “Stances!” another girl ordered.

  The group formed a line side by side. They crouched their shoulders in. The tallest girl of the group snarled as her fists went in front of her.

  Kenzie swallowed the lump in her throat. The kids at Free Skate could be annoying, but these derby players were straight-up scary. Plus, they looked way older than fifth graders. Kenzie suddenly remembered the poster for the league announcement.

  GIRLS AGES 10–14

  “Shoot,” she whispered. These girls were definitely closer to fourteen.

  Not far away on the track, Camila clomped like a zombie in her skates. Jules was somehow knocking herself down. And Shelly was still busy helping Tomoko. Kenzie shook her head. She tightened the straps on her knee pads, pulling until the bands dug into her skin.

  “You OK?”

  Kenzie looked up. Mambo Rambo stood in front of her carrying a clipboard.

  Mambo hovered over Kenzie’s knees.

  “I think you have those a little too tight. They might cut off—”

  “Circulation,” Kenzie said. She pulled the knee pads loose. “I know, I know.”

  Mambo squinted at Kenzie for a moment. She glanced over at the others, where Jules was careening toward Camila and Shelly had linked her arm around Tomoko’s.

  “Hmm. Looks like things are a-changin’.”

  Kenzie waited for her to say something else, but Mambo simply tapped on her clipboard and rolled away. Kenzie took a deep breath.

  “Be ready,” she told herself. “Pivot forward. Roll with the punches.”

  She stared at her hands. She felt more like throwing a punch than rolling with one. The team on the track wasn’t what she had imagined at all. So many things were going wrong. Tomoko and Jules weren’t derby stars. Camila was afraid of even standing in skates. Shelly seemed further away than ever. And Kenzie wasn’t ready to be the team’s jammer. She was barely ready for the league as a blocker!

  Kenzie wrung her hands. The splinter pain was back. It pulsed through her.

  There was something else wrong. Something Kenzie didn’t want to admit in her head, let alone out loud.

  As she sat alone on the bleachers, Kenzie thought about the evening in the park. She pictured the way Bree had swerved around the corner on her skateboard. She remembered the warm, fluttery feeling she got in her arms when they were talking. Shelly was right, Kenzie realized. Bree would have made a great skater.

  She wished Bree were a part of the team.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The whistle blew. All the rumbling and chatter in the warehouse came to a halt.

  “Welcome to junior roller derby!” Mambo called out. “I need everyone over here for opening announcements.”

  Shelly and Tomoko skated over together. Kenzie tried not to look at either of them. She watched as Jules and Camila stumbled off the track. Camila’s legs were stiff and she looked a lot like a robot, but at least she wasn’t holding on to the railing anymore.

  Everyone gathered along the bleachers.

  “It’s great to see so many new faces,” Mambo Rambo said, “as well as some faces I already know.” She stole a quick look at Kenzie and Shelly, but Kenzie hardly felt like smiling. Her heart was lodged in her throat.

  “As you may know from our posters or from the website, the junior league initially wanted players to try out on their own. My fellow coaches and I have prepared a series of games, warm-ups, and exercises to see who might be ready to join the league this season. But there are also a small number of players who wanted to join as teams. For those tryouts, we’ve decided to have those teams play a scrimmage against each other.”

  Someone in the crowd gasped.

  “Scrimmages already?” another person said.

  Camila leaned over Kenzie’s shoulder. “You didn’t say we had to try out!” she whispered.

  “We’ll be fine,” Kenzie whispered back. “Don’t worry.”

  But even Kenzie wasn’t totally convinced. She had sort of forgotten about the tryout part of derby league until now. Some of the teams looked really good. Would Kenzie and the other girls even stand a chance?

  Mambo tapped her clipboard.

  “If you don’t know the rules of derby yet,” she said, “you’re not alone. I’m going to explain how a scrimmage works, and I want everyone to pay attention.”

  Jules squirmed. Tomoko sat up tall.

  “First,” Mambo said. “In derby, a game is called a bout. Bouts are made up of two thirty-minute periods. During a playing period, the teams race in short sprints that we call jams. Yes?”

  “Why don’t they call derby games a jam?” one girl asked.

  “Because there are a lot of jams per bout,” Mambo said. “A jam is a race between two teams, and it’s not more than a loop or two around the track. Jams only last two minutes.

  “Now today, our teams aren’t going to play a full bout,” Mambo continued. “Instead, the scrimmage will be a total of six jams, with one break in the middle.”

  “How do you jam?” another girl asked.

  “It’s pretty simple,” Mambo said. “The four blockers from each team line up in one area, and the two jammers—the main racers—set up on the jammer line behind the blockers. The blockers are called a pack, and it’s the jammer’s job to break through the pack and get out in front. With me so far?”

  A bunch of wide-eyed faces nodded.

  “Good. The first jammer to break out is the lead jammer, which means they can call off the jam whenever they want. So say Kenzilla breaks out first, but then falls—”

  Someone in the crowd laughed. Kenzie’s cheeks turned red.

  “She can touch her hip and just like that”—Mambo snapped her fingers—“the jam’s over before either team can score. But of course, the lead jammer doesn’t want to have to call the jam off. The jammer wants to come back around the loop and break through the pack a second time. This
time, every blocker from the opposite team a jammer passes is a point. Points aren’t easy in derby, so it’s a big deal to make it back around. Both jammers can score, but only the lead jammer can end the jam early.”

  Mambo peeked over her clipboard. Uneasy looks were traded across the crowd. Some of the girls had their hair twisted in their fingers.

  “Anyway,” Mambo said, “there are more rules than that, but I’ll stop there so we can get started. We have four teams trying out. The first scrimmage will be . . .”

  Kenzie crossed her fingers tight.

  Please please please don’t put us against the good team, she thought.

  “. . . the Holy Molies versus the Secret Agents.”

  Kenzie looked around. Two other groups of girls sat up straight and stared at one another. None of the girls wearing cherry shirts moved. That had to mean . . .

  “And our second game will be the Cherry Pits versus the . . .” Mambo paused and eyed Kenzie. Kenzie hunched her head down. Maybe if she didn’t give a team name, this would all fade away like one of her daydreams.

  “We’re the Kenzillas!” Shelly called out.

  Mambo smiled. “OK, the Cherry Pits versus the Kenzillas.”

  Now the group in matching shirts started to shift and whisper at one another. So they were the Cherry Pits. And they were about to cream Kenzie and the others right out of their skates.

  Perfect.

  Mambo blew the whistle and the first teams hustled to the track. Eight blockers huddled in one section, with the two jammers a few yards behind them. The jammers looked so alone. Kenzie shivered. She never imagined having to be the main person for her team. That was a lot of pressure.

  Shelly rested her chin on Kenzie’s shoulder. She made a puppy dog face.

  “You’ll be a great jammer,” Shelly whispered. “Out of the two of us, you’re way faster.”

  Kenzie turned around. “Is that why you kicked me out of the Dynamic Duo?”

  Shelly sat back. “What?”

  “I saw you show Tomoko our secret handshake.”

  “We both decided that,” Shelly whispered. “She needed a friend.”

  “We were supposed to find her another friend,” Kenzie hissed. “That’s why I got Jules.”