Roller Boy

by Strykowski, Marcia; Strykowski, Marcia;

  Still, he didn’t think he could ever get through six lessons. Mateo punched Mamá’s crocheted pillow into the arm of the sofa and sighed. “Nah,” he said with a final shake of his head. “You’re on your own.”

  “We’ll see about that,” said Ava.

  Mateo figured it was up to him whether he went or not, since it was his prize, so he decided not to bother. By the time they sat down to dinner, he’d wiped the whole crazy idea from his mind. He’d spend his Saturday doing something else, thank you very much. He hadn’t quite figured out what that something else would be, but he was working on it. Unfortunately, as they say, life happens when you’ve made other plans.

  Chapter 3

  Early Saturday morning, before Mateo had even finished his rice puffs, Ava was all ready to go, wearing her favorite fuzzy blue sweater. A low ponytail squished the life out of her frizzy curls.

  “Come on, Mateo.” She strapped on her bike helmet.

  “Why don’t you invite one of your friends?” he suggested, hoping she’d forget whose name was on the coupon.

  “Nope, too late, let’s go. Besides, remember I went with you to that horror flick last month, even though I had to cover my eyes the whole time?”

  Ava was right; he owed her one. He had forced her to go to that show. Jason had been off with his brothers again that day, so he’d dragged Ava along, since Mamá insisted on the buddy system. “Children by themselves ask for trouble,” she often said. It had been just a stupid monster movie, like the old-fashioned creature features with a lot of fake blood and special effects, but Ava had freaked out big time.

  Unlike a lot of brothers and sisters they knew, Ava and Mateo got along pretty well. They were close enough in age that it seemed they took turns looking out for each other. Mateo glanced around the kitchen and thought about what he’d do if he stayed home. He had already emptied the wastebaskets and washed the pots and pans from the night before. He’d play computer games probably, same as last Saturday. He could play them all day, especially if Ava was away and not hogging the PC. Once he started playing games, it was hard to stop, even after he got bored. He looked out the window. The sun was bright for an early April morning. A bike ride might be cool.

  Mamá rushed about getting ready to leave for work. “Mateo, go with your sister. I do not like her going alone. No more than I like you home by yourself.”

  That settled it. Mateo sighed and stood up. “Okay, Ava, I’ll go down with you, but if I don’t want to skate, I’m not going to.” He grabbed a couple of apples and threw on his bike helmet. Mateo didn’t always wear his dorky-looking helmet, but he made sure to have it on when he left his place—another one of Mamá’s rules.

  Mateo and Ava sped across town. The city was just waking up. They passed by one of those living statues, painted bronze from head to toe. She trudged along carrying her pedestal under one arm, on her way to set up and collect dollars in the marketplace. Mateo swung his bike into the road to get around her and then zoomed past Ava to pull into the lead.

  He had to admit it felt good to be out doing something for a change. Ever since the baseball team had been posted, he’d been drooping around feeling sorry for himself. Besides, Jason never had time to hang out anymore.

  Mateo and Ava circled round to the back of the industrial park and arrived at Roller City, a big gray slab of a building. There were a few families waiting at the door to get in. They locked their bikes up against a rack around back and then joined the line. Mateo figured he’d at least take a look inside.

  The doors opened and in they went. The kids in front of them paid several bills to enter. Ava held up their free coupon and the crumpled little woman at the admission booth nodded them through. Lights flashed and music with a funky beat blared out of the sound system. The rink itself was a huge rectangle, really slick. A couple of kids with big smiles on their faces were already zooming around it, their hair flying out behind them. Mateo watched them a little longer and found himself getting caught up in the mood—skating didn’t look too tricky.

  When the music changed to one of his favorite songs, his feet itched to glide across the smooth floor. Although he wasn’t big on school dances, he did love to move to the music.

  Ava didn’t waste time and soon figured out what the next step was. She and Mateo gave their shoes to a red-headed boy behind the desk and he gave them skates in return. Pale whitish-tan skates.

  Mateo’s eyes got wide and he gave Ava a light punch. “I’m not wearing these,” he said in a low voice.

  “Why not?” Ava plunked down on a bench and then slipped into one of her skates, identical to his.

  Mateo glanced around to see if anyone was about, anyone besides runny-nosed kids and their tired parents. “These are girl skates,” he whispered.

  “Don’t be stupid; of course they aren’t. This is what everybody wears.”

  Mateo looked around again and saw one of the dads putting on the same skates. He took a deep breath and pulled his on. The laces were about a mile long and it took forever to wrap them around each hook. To be clear, these were no roller blades. Nothing like what someone on the street might use. They did have four separate wheels, but not in a row—two in front and two in back. Quads, they called them. More like what people had in the old days, before blades were invented. Mateo yanked the bottom of his jeans down to cover as much of the boots as possible. While he waited for Ava to finish redoing her ponytail, he studied the scene.

  A small group had gathered in the middle of the rink. The wood floor shone and these cool little colored lights kept flashing on and off all around the outer edges. A big, old guy stood in the center of the rink, too. He looked like he would’ve been a real dork when he was a kid. He stood ramrod straight which made his gut stick out. Was he here for beginner lessons? Mateo tried not to snicker. Sure, he was probably a nice guy and all, but Mateo was so nervous his toes were clenched. It wouldn’t have taken much to make him split a rib laughing. Then, believe it or not, this same old dude floated across the floor—fast—as if it were the easiest thing in the world. He backed up, did a full turn with one leg high in the air, flew back across, and came to a sharp halt, back in the middle of the rink.

  “Let’s go.” Ava gave Mateo’s arm a swat. Mateo realized his mouth had been hanging open. He snapped it shut.

  They got up and slowly clunked their way to the center of the floor. “Well, this looks stupid,” Mateo said to himself. He tried to move along a bit faster. “Whoaaa!” He moved along all right. His feet flew out from under him and next thing he knew he’d landed on his butt, looking up at the old guy who had just skated like he was in front of Olympic judges.

  “Hello there,” said the man. “I’m Coach Ted. Looks like you could use a few lessons.” Then he glanced away and said, “Okay, everyone who is taking Beginner Class One, line up here. The rest of you can watch from the benches.”

  Mateo struggled to get up while his wheels spun like crazy. Ava reached out to help, but he knew he’d just pull her down. “Get away,” he snarled.

  Eventually, Mateo was on his feet again. Several parents gave their kids hugs and then went over to sit. Six people were left: Ava, who was about three-quarters of an inch taller than Mateo, four little kids who came up to his knees, and then him. Mateo glanced at the clock. If he could just get through this hour, that would be the end of roller skating.

  “First we’ll learn how to get up,” said Ted. “Everybody take a seat on the floor.”

  Mateo let out a groan and returned to the floor with a thud.

  “Now roll over onto your hands and knees. Get up on one skate. Use your hand and knee if you need to, and then get up on the other skate.” Ted demonstrated as he spoke. “Place that second skate under you and up you get.”

  This getting up was a lot easier than Mateo’s first attempt. He shoved his hair out of his eyes and glanced over at Ava. She looked plea
sed with herself.

  “Let’s see if we can cover some distance,” said Ted. “Try a few little pushes to the side. Keep your knees bent a bit with your weight centered over the other foot—the one that’s not pushing.

  “That’s it: left, right, left, right.” Ted stopped to help one of the little kids who was having trouble. “Don’t push straight back. Skating is different than walking.”

  Mateo thought he was doing pretty well and picked up speed. Within two seconds, Ted appeared beside him. “Slow it down. You should be upright, not leaning over, and your hands should be in front of you, rather than swinging around like an ape.”

  Well, that sounds attractive, thought Mateo. Before he could roll his eyes, he heard Ava shriek. Ted caught her elbow and steadied her. This dude was everywhere. “Whenever you’re about to fall, try to squat down first,” he said. “Even if it doesn’t stop the fall, you won’t have as far to go.” Ted laughed, although Mateo figured he’d probably been saying the same lame joke for umpteen years.

  Despite Ted’s warning, Mateo wanted to skate fast. So he did. He fell and then a minute later, fell again. His shin was throbbing and his elbow stung.

  Just as the class was learning how to use the toe stoppers, this super-cute girl in a skimpy purple get-up—one of those fancy skating costumes—zoomed across the floor to Coach Ted. Mateo stopped breathing as he watched her. She had the yellowest hair he’d ever seen, kind of a buttery-blonde—smooth, no frizz—and she stood straight as a royal princess. Mateo couldn’t swallow and wondered if his face was as red as it felt.

  “You’re late,” said Ted to the girl. Her back was to Mateo, so he couldn’t make out what she said, but he figured she was making excuses. While she talked, Ted pulled a small cloth from his pocket and polished his glasses; then he looked at the rest of the class. “This is Hayley, my assistant.”

  She couldn’t have been much older than Mateo, but he’d never seen her at school and Ava didn’t seem to know her either. As she looked them over, Mateo tried to look cool, but his ears burned. For once he was glad his kinky hair was wild enough to hide them. In fact, he wished he could hide his whole self. He slouched down a bit. Mateo was short for his age, but in this group he felt like Hasheem Thabeet, the gigantic basketball player.

  Somehow he began to breathe again and stumbled through the rest of the lesson. Every once in a while, between falls, Mateo would check to see what Hayley was doing. Her sparkly purple tutu, or whatever those things were called, kept catching his eye. It seemed she could do anything on skates—backward, forward, even spins. Mateo pulled his eyes away. Ava wasn’t getting how to stop, so he focused on helping her out. After that, anytime he started tipping, he followed Coach Ted’s instruction—made his feet into a T-shape and felt solid again.

  When the lesson was finally over, he gave a big push and glided across the floor. It felt good and he was surprised that after just the one lesson, he could move around the rink more smoothly than he had at the beginning.

  “Great job,” said Coach Ted. Mateo turned and found the coach was looking straight at him. “See you next week,” he added. Mateo nodded, and then almost crashed into Ava, who was just ahead of him, and had finally learned to stop. Without realizing how close she’d come to getting wiped-out, Ava moved off the floor in the nick of time. But unfortunately that meant someone else was now suddenly in his way, facing the other direction. He screeched his wheels and willed his toe stopper to do its thing. But, holy guacamole, he was headed straight for Hayley.

  Chapter 4

  Mateo was about to crash when Hayley turned around, threw out her arms to catch him, and tried to keep him from falling. But yep, Mateo crashed anyway, pulling her down with him. No hiding his hot face now as he untangled himself and clambered to his feet.

  Hayley hopped up from the floor and threw her arms in the air. “I’m okay!” Her wide grin revealed flashes of silver braces on her teeth.

  “Real smooth,” said an unfamiliar voice behind them, as Mateo clung to the side railing. He turned and found a kid staring back at him. It was the kid who’d handed him his rental skates. He had red hair and a big smirk. Mateo noticed he wore awesome black skates with red stripes across the front of them. The boy skated away, out of earshot.

  “Punk,” Mateo mumbled. Nothing worse than being told what he already knew.

  Hayley, completely recovered from their accident, floated

  past like an angel on a cloud. “That’s Alex, Coach Ted’s grandson,” she called over her shoulder. “Just ignore him.”

  Mateo watched her skate past Alex. He looked younger than Mateo, maybe only ten or eleven. Oh, well, didn’t matter; he’d never see Alex again. Mateo clomped his way over to the carpeted sitting area where Ava, totally unaware of his downfall, already had one skate off.

  “See, I told you it would be fun,” she said as Mateo flopped down onto the bench beside her.

  “You can find a friend to go with you next time,” he said. “I’ve had enough of this sport.”

  “Why?” Ava’s eyes opened wide in shock. “You were fantastic. I mean, it was fun for me, but I couldn’t do half the stuff as fast as you.”

  Mateo thought about what she said and how Coach Ted had told him he’d done a great job. Had they missed all the times he fell? A crazy image of himself flying across the floor and coming to a sharp impressive halt in front of Hayley flitted through his mind. He continued to untie his skates.

  “Besides,” said Ava. “You’ll get to gawk at Hayley again.”

  Mateo jerked his head up fast. “Knock it off.”

  “Ohh, Mateo,” Ava sang.

  He concentrated on his skate laces. He knew from experience to completely ignore Ava; then she’d get bored and move on to some other subject. It worked and she started chattering about the music coming through the sound system.

  After getting into their shoes, it felt strange and wobbly to walk on flat land. Ava gave a cheerful goodbye to the little lady who guarded the front entrance.

  “I’m Gert,” the woman said. “Anything you need, you just let me know.”

  They thanked her and moved on. Soon they were racing home on their bikes. Mateo had worked up an appetite and was glad to know there was another big serving of last night’s leftovers waiting for him.

  Back home after lunch, he felt antsy, like he was busting out of his skin with energy. Hard as he tried, he couldn’t focus on his video game.

  The following week, he slipped back into a bad mood. I wanna be on the baseball team kept filling his mind while he drooped around mourning the curveball he’d been thrown. He scowled at the TV when the game was on.

  “What is the matter with your arm?” said Mamá on Tuesday.

  He gave a shrug. “Nothing.” Mateo rolled his arm over to see it better. Dark bruises covered the back of his arm from wrist to elbow.

  “Those wild boys giving you a hard time?”

  “No, Mamá.” He continued to look at his arm, puzzled, and then realized it must be from all that falling he’d done at the rink. “Nah, I just fell.” And then to keep Mamá from carrying on, he added. “Looks worse than it is.”

  Mateo thought he had pushed skating from his mind, but there it was again. He wondered if everybody fell a lot when they started, even Coach Ted. Mateo would love to be able to skate as well as Ted did. He wondered if he could get further with this roller-skating thing than he had with baseball.

  Ava came past on her way to the kitchen. She could sometimes be a mind reader. “Didn’t it feel great?” she said.

  “What?”

  “Saturday—all that exercise.”

  Mateo shrugged. “Yeah, right. Look at this.” He showed her his bruised arm.

  Ava grinned. “My leg is pretty beat up, too.”

  But, Ava was right. Again. Even the bike ride had felt good instead of the usual hanging around in
doors doing nothing. Mateo kept picturing how he’d crashed into Hayley, and wondered if there was any chance she’d forgotten about it. Should he try skating again or would it just lead to flunking out of yet another sport? He didn’t know a soul at the skating rink on Saturday mornings, so there were no kids from school to worry about. And he’d get to see Hayley again. If he decided to keep it up.

  When the following Saturday rolled around—ha, literally—Mateo found himself back at the rink. He and Ava whipped on their skates and joined the others in the center of the floor. Then, on shaky legs, he flew back and forth the length of the rink before Ted called them to start. Already it seemed easier to skate compared to his first lesson. Mateo kept up with all the new stuff they learned, all the while watching Hayley flit around on the other side of the room.

  In just one week something had built up inside him. He was definitely still a little scared of crashing, but now he felt something stronger—excitement. Coming back to the rink made him realize he was ready to try, possibly even ace this skating thing. If he wasn’t cut out for baseball, maybe he could be good at skating. They both took speed. He’d learned the hard way that the more practice he gave a sport, the better he’d probably do. And unlike how he used to sometimes feel about baseball, standing out there bored in the hot field, practicing skating didn’t feel like work. Mateo skated hard that day and the hour flew by. He was already lookng forward to the next class.

  The week dragged. Mateo couldn’t wait to skate again. During the third class, Hayley rolled over towards the end of the lesson and stood beside him. “You’re doing pretty good,” she said. “Have you skated before? I mean before coming here for lessons?”

  Mateo’s mouth felt like old cardboard. He shook his head. Duh, where did his voice go?

  “I love to skate,” she said. “There’s something about that swoosh of the wheels and the wind in my face as I go faster and faster.” Hayley did a little twirl with her arms outstretched. Her smile grew wider. “Any problems just melt away when I spin and race across the rink. And it’s a blast to master new tricks.” She shrugged. “Great exercise, too.”