Head Over Wheels

by Diana Morland

  “Oh, I like that,” Shayna said. “I never thought you would pick something so dark. Death and dismemberment and everything.”

  “There’s no dismemberment,” Mindy laughed. “And no one is really dead! I thought the nurses on the team might like that, though. And Lisa, she was a Marine.”

  “I’m sure she’ll love being reminded of all the dead people she had to deal with then,” Shayna said.

  Mindy frowned. “Do you think so? Maybe we could call it something else.”

  Shayna nudged Mindy’s arm. “I’m just teasing. Zombie tag is perfect, since zombies don’t really exist. What else do you have?”

  “Simon Says,” Mindy said. “I’m not exactly sure how it would work, it just seems like one of those kids’ games that would be perfect on the track.”

  “That one’s easy,” Shayna said. “You can alternate through people to call it, though you probably have to go first. Just tell people Simon says skate, Simon says stop, Simon says skate backward, do a jump, and everyone who does a jump is out. When you only have four or five people left on the track, that’s when you pick somebody to call next, otherwise it could stretch on forever.”

  Mindy frantically typed out everything Shayna had said. “That’s perfect. I knew you’d be good at this.”

  “Yeah, I’m good at this because I’ve been working on my roller derby,” Shayna said. “I’ve been looking up drills for me to do on my own. I might suggest one or two of these to Lindsey, our captain, actually. It could be fun to end practices with something silly and relaxing. I don’t know about a whole practice for silly.”

  “Yeah, Shelly may not have known what she was getting into when she told me to lead a practice. She probably just felt bad for me and Helen, not making it onto the all-star team. But it’s cool.”

  “Is Helen leading a practice, too?”

  Mindy shook her head. “She refused. It might be good for her, to build up her confidence, but maybe her confidence just isn’t high enough to start.”

  “You could probably use a dose of that lower confidence.”

  Mindy snorted and grinned at Shayna. “No chance. I need all the confidence I can get to keep me going in my work.”

  “I guess so. How’s that going?”

  “Pretty well. I’ve already made my bare minimum for the month, which is good, especially with the holidays coming up, but I should be able to sock a little more away in savings if I can get another couple of jobs this month.”

  “Don’t you do Black Friday sales or anything?”

  “No, that doesn’t really make sense. I’m performing a service, and it’s individual to each client. There’s nothing to put on sale.” She looked sideways at Shayna. “Does the cupcake shop do Black Friday sales?”

  “If only. It’s not even open on Friday. I plan to burrow in my apartment and hide from the crowds.”

  “Oh, I might go shopping with my sister Abigail.” She put her arm around Shayna’s shoulders. “If you’re not doing anything with your family for Thanksgiving, want to come to my parents’ house? It’s pretty low-key, we just eat ourselves into a coma and then get up at five AM to go hit the sales.”

  Shayna leaned against Mindy. “Mindy, I adore you, but there is nothing on earth that will entice me to brave the Black Friday sales. And I really don’t think Thanksgiving is the right time to meet your family.”

  “Really? They’d be delighted.” Mindy shook her a little, trying to show her how excited she was. “I know they all want to get to know you.”

  Shayna frowned. “This sounds like a scheme to get me in so deep with your family that I’ll never get out. They’ll probably act like we’ve announced our engagement if we come to a holiday dinner together.”

  “What, you don’t want to announce our engagement?” Mindy teased, but inside her stomach twisted. She really liked Shayna, and she wanted this to last. But Shayna had to be so cynical about everything, sometimes it seemed like it was hard to find common ground.

  “Anyway, do you think you have enough for the practice?”

  Mindy tore her eyes reluctantly away from Shayna and looked at her screen. “Drinking game, zombie tag, Simon Says. That seems like plenty, really. Each of those could last a few hours.”

  Shayna pulled herself upright, dislodging Mindy’s arm from her shoulders, and nodded. “Maybe start out with Simon Says, then zombie tag, and save the drinking game for last if you have more time. You’ll have to pick out a few songs and load them on your phone or something, so you can hook them up to speakers. Do you have speakers?”

  “Yeah, we’ll just use the ones for the games. I know how to hook up to them.”

  “And you should have a list of things to use—ideas for both Simon Says and the drinking game.”

  “Right, crossovers, switch directions… toe stops, we can practice different types of toe stops. Do a jump. What else?”

  “Do a fall.”

  “Oh, good one. A fall and stay down, a fall and roll and get back up.” Mindy typed up all the ideas.

  “Stuff with the legs.”

  “Oh, we could do lunges, lift one leg… I’ll have right leg and left leg as options.”

  “Front and back.”

  “Perfect. That seems like enough now, I think.”

  “Yeah, plus you don’t have to be in charge for the whole thing, at least not Simon Says. I’m sure some of your teammates will have some fun ideas. When I get home, I’ll listen to my skating music and see if I can come up with some fun one with repetition for the drinking game.”

  Mindy bent over and kissed the top of Shayna’s head. “You’re so sweet. Thanks for helping me out with this.”

  “I only did it for the massage and the Girl Scout cookies,” Shayna said with a grin. She reached for another cookie.

  “What, the sex counts for nothing?”

  “Oh, that’s just a bonus.” With a cookie in her mouth, Shayna reached over and patted Mindy’s thigh. “I’m glad you’re not turned off by me being schlubby and sweaty.”

  “Are you kidding?” Mindy wrapped her arm around Shayna’s narrow waist and squeezed. “You’re even sexier when you’re more like a real person.”

  Shayna covered her mouth and swallowed. “Are you saying I’m a fake person when my makeup and hair are done and I’m wearing nice clothes?”

  “You’re like a sexy Barbie.”

  “A short, Jewish Barbie.”

  “Like I said, sexy.” Mindy squeezed her breast. “And much softer than a Barbie.”

  “Do you really not like it when I’m dressed nicely? I enjoy the way I dress.”

  The hurt in Shayna’s voice brought Mindy’s teasing up short. “What? No, babe. Shayna maidele.” She kissed Shayna on her temple. “I think you’re absolutely gorgeous either way. But with sweats on and all, you just seem a little more relaxed. I like you better when you aren’t all tense.”

  Shayna grimaced, making a face. “I guess I am trying a little too hard.”

  “No, you’re trying the perfect amount, if it makes you happy.” Mindy guided Shayna’s face toward her and kissed her lips. “Like I said, you’re gorgeous when you’re dressed up. But you’re gorgeous like this, too. It just might not be a beauty other people can see, so it’s all mine.”

  “Your own personal Barbie?” Shayna smirked.

  “I always used to undress my Barbies when I was a kid. Toss their clothes all over the place.” Mindy kept a straight face, running her hand down the inside of Shayna’s thigh. “It would be fun to do that with you.”

  Shayna pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows. “Barbies are just featureless plastic under all those clothes.”

  Mindy got to her feet and reached out for Shayna’s hands. “Well, let’s make sure that you don’t turn into plastic when I’m not checking.”

  Smiling just a little, Shayna allowed Mindy to pull her to her feet and lead her to the bedroom.

  Chapter 8

  “Okay, everybody, listen up,” Shelly called, gett
ing the team to order as she usually did at the beginning of a practice. “Today we’re going to have a fun challenge. Mindy is leading a practice! Mindy, over to you.”

  “I don’t need to tell you guys anything,” Mindy said, grinning at the slightly diminished team. “Just get on the track, and we’ll get started.”

  “How many laps?” Kristine asked.

  “Oh, uh, no laps,” Mindy said, a little thrown. She hadn’t thought of starting her practice the same way Shelly started hers. Should she do it, just to make sure everything felt a little bit the same? No, it was too late now. “Just get on the track and scatter yourselves around. I’ll have the megaphone so you should all be able to hear me, but you might need space between you.”

  Shelly raised her eyebrows, but she didn’t say anything. She was the first to head out to the track, and the rest of the team followed her at a trickle. Mindy watched them all pass, wishing she’d been the first to skate out there, but now she had to make sure everyone else went first. How did Shelly handle the responsibility of leading the practice every time?

  Helen was the last to leave the locker room, but she gave Mindy a thumbs-up. Mindy grinned and followed her out to the track, grabbing the megaphone on the way.

  “Okay,” she said into the megaphone, causing some static feedback. A few girls winced. She moved her mouth a little further away from the mouthpiece and tried again. “Does anyone here not know how to play Simon Says?”

  There were a few groans, but no one said they didn’t. “This should be easy, then,” Mindy continued. “Just start skating!”

  No one moved. She grinned. This might be a challenge. “Good job. Simon says start skating.”

  They all started off, some moving slowly, others more quickly. Mindy let them get about a lap done before she said into the megaphone, “Simon says skate backwards!”

  The switch was a little choppy, and a couple people almost fell, but everyone obeyed the order. Mindy switched them again after a few seconds, then gave the first real Simon-less instruction.

  Three girls were out, and she sent them to the bench. After a few more rounds, she’d narrowed it down to four on the track. Kristine was one of those remaining, so Mindy singled her out to be the next Simon. She had everyone else get back on the track and joined them.

  Now it was getting to be fun, though Kristine looked confused, staring down at the megaphone. Maybe Mindy should have warned them what she was planning to do? Well, they’d pick it up. It wasn’t as though it was complicated.

  Kristine gave a few instructions, but seemed to be having trouble remembering to give them something without Simon at the beginning of it. That was, until Mindy started skating as fast as she could and realized that meant she was out. Laughing, she skated for the benches, giving Kristine a high five on the way.

  But she quickly discovered that waiting on the benches during the practice was even worse than being benched or in the penalty box during a match, because not much was happening on the track, and she didn’t know how long she would have to wait. During a game, she wouldn’t have to wait more than a few jams, and she was always watching the track, seeing how her friends and the opponents were skating. She could watch the others try to obey the instructions, or remember not to obey them, but that just wasn’t as exciting.

  Kristine passed the megaphone on to Tara, who gave the team a bit more of a challenge and consequently had most people out much quicker. She passed it on to Shelly, who refused it and passed it directly on to Lisa, who, predictably, had them doing ridiculously challenging exercises, like pushups. Mindy’s noodle arms couldn’t sustain those.

  As she passed Lisa, she told her to bring the megaphone back when she was done. She’d give them a break, then play zombie tag, and the “drinking game” if they still had time when they were done.

  Zombie tag ended up filling the rest of the practice time; it was fun, but it was also disorganized, especially at first, and she had to keep explaining the rules. Lisa did seem to like it and get it more quickly than the others, so she helped out, but it wasn’t until the last twenty minutes or so that the team really got into it.

  As their time at the track came to and end, Mindy was happy to turn over the megaphone to Shelly. “Your symbol of office. I’m not going to be taking this back anytime soon.”

  Shelly smiled ironically as she took it. “No? You don’t want to learn to be a team captain?”

  Mindy shook her head firmly. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think it went that well.” The women on the team were usually physically dragging, but mentally energized, after a practice—they would talk and laugh and go over their tactics out loud. Tonight everyone was a little quieter than usual, and she saw some legs moving restlessly.

  “It went fine,” Shelly said. “It was certainly fun.”

  “Yeah.” Mindy sat down on the bench in the locker room and started to unlace her skates. “I know you want to keep my morale up, Shelly, but it’s hard to puncture this cheer.” She gave Shelly a falsely manic smile. “What aren’t you saying?”

  Shelly laughed and sat down. “I’m glossing over the fact that it wasn’t much of a workout. And what with skipping Thanksgiving, and maybe Saturday’s practice too, we’re all going to be out of practice on Tuesday. I’ve been trying to whip you guys into better shape for next year’s tournament, so I hope you haven’t undone all my hard work.”

  Mindy groaned. “Shayna keeps talking about that, too. I think we’re in fine shape. We keep winning most of our games, don’t we?”

  “Sure, but can we be certain that’s not because of a few star players? If we played the Bottoms-Up Babes without Gayle, Megan, and Leya on the team, would we still win?”

  Mindy, remembering Shayna’s complaint about Mindy bragging about Megan, stayed silent, pulling her skates off and starting to change back into her street clothes.

  Luckily, Shelly didn’t push her on the question. “So who’s Shayna?”

  Mindy grinned. “My girlfriend.”

  “What?” A hard shove came on Mindy’s shoulder, and she finished pulling her shirt on and turned around to see Kristine, hands on her hips, grinning. “I knew it had been a while since I’d hung out with you. Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “Didn’t I?” Mindy tried to remember whether she’d talked about Shayna at all during practice, but maybe not. She’d only had those two formal dates with Shayna, so she hadn’t had to avoid making plans… not that she’d made plans with anybody for a while. She hadn’t bothered. “I guess I’ve been kind of focused.”

  “That’s great, Mindy,” Shelly said. “Where did you meet?”

  “Oh, at the tournament tryouts. You remember her from the Rittenhouse Rioters. She’s Manson Girl.”

  “I do remember her,” Kristine said, nodding. “Great player. She didn’t make it onto the all-star team?”

  “Nope, but she’s determined to do it next year. She’s been doing extra practice.”

  “Good for her,” Tiffany said, obviously listening in. “I know I should work harder if I want to be competitive.”

  “Ugh, competition.” Mindy threw up her hands. “Can’t we just have fun playing roller derby?”

  “It is fun,” Shelly said, raising her eyebrows. “But it’s more fun when we win, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah, that’s true. Bragging rights and all.” Mindy sighed. She wished they would stop talking about the all-star team and working harder. She couldn’t be perfect at everything, and she already worked hard enough in her life. Making the tournament team would just have to be a dream for the future. The far future.

  “It’s cool, Mindy,” Shelly said, standing up and patting her on the shoulder. “I have some ideas to really get everyone into shape. I’m not sure if I’ll start in on them next week or wait until the others are back from the tournament, though. Not long now. Is everyone going to come up for it?”

  “I can’t get off for the Saturday games, but I’ll try to get train tickets for the one on Su
nday, if they make it that far,” Tiffany said.

  Mindy turned back to her locker, half-listening to the conversation about plans to go up to the all-star tournament in New York. She would have to talk to Shayna and see if she wanted to go see it. But that might just be frustrating, because Shayna would want to talk the whole time about how they could make it if they worked harder…

  “See you guys,” she said when her bag was packed. She wasn’t sure if everyone heard her, but Shelly gave her a one-armed hug and let her go. Mindy walked outside to the bus alone.

  Chapter 9

  Mindy hopped off the train and immediately turned to offer her hand to Shayna. Shayna grinned, taking it, but didn’t lean on her at all as she stepped onto the platform. “You’re so gallant.”

  “Thanks,” Mindy snorted, tugging her out of the way so Tara could get out of the train, too.

  Tara cursed and wrapped her arms around herself, shivering. “It’s way too cold up here.”

  “I’m sure it’ll be warm enough at the tournament,” Mindy said, looking around. “Hot and sweaty, in fact.” It was cold—but then, it was December, and they were in upstate New York. Kristine would be there any minute (she hoped) to pick the three of them up and take them to the hotel, from which they could walk to the track where the all-star tournament was being held.

  The last match of the all-star tournament, in fact. Mindy was riding high with excitement, even though she hadn’t been involved in the matches at all. Watching the games last weekend had been incredible—so much talent, strength, and raw sex appeal on the track.

  Shayna hadn’t been there with them, though, so it could have been a lot more fun.