The Sisterly Love All-Stars had actually made it to the final match-up, which was simultaneously obvious and astonishing to her. Not only was it her hometown team, three of her own teammates were on it! They’d made it all the way to the top, and this afternoon, they might win. And Mindy had almost been on that team.
Shayna sighed and leaned into Mindy’s side. “I wish I’d been able to get off last weekend. I should have been up here to cheer on the Cherry Blossom Cherry Bombs. I didn’t think to look it up until later, but some of the girls I used to skate with were on that team.”
“You’re from DC?” Tara said.
Shayna nodded. “I grew up there. My parents are both corporate lawyers.”
Mindy put her arm around Shayna, staying quiet to hide her own surprise. She’d known that Shayna had gone to Georgetown and started playing roller derby while she was there, but she hadn’t realized that she’d grown up in the city. Obviously, Shayna hadn’t hidden it from her on purpose—if she’d wanted to hide the information, she wouldn’t have just blurted it out to Tara—but it still made Mindy wonder what else she didn’t know about Shayna.
They needed to spend more time together, and in different contexts. They hung out a couple of times a week, and they had plenty of sex, but ever since those first two dates (and Mindy was not about to repeat the dates, since she didn’t have the money to spend), it had pretty much all been in Mindy’s apartment. And she didn’t have the time to invite Shayna over every day, not and still make a living.
It would be easier if they lived closer together, but Shayna lived a bus and subway ride away. She didn’t seem to mind making the trip so often, but Mindy knew she ought to reciprocate. Or she should just get Shayna to spend the night. Then they would have a lot more time together.
That still wasn’t different enough, though. She thought meeting her family would draw Shayna out a little more—at least her parents would have different questions for Shayna, the ones they asked Mindy on Skype but that she’d never thought to bring up with Shayna, and that evaporated from her mind by the sight of that sexy little figure. They would definitely have to meet. After the tournament.
Finally, Mindy saw a dented blue Volvo pull into the train station’s parking lot. She lifted the arm that wasn’t holding Shayna and waved, then started forward, but Tara’s long legs were already propelling her at speeds rivaled only by skates on a derby track toward the car.
Tara flung herself into the front seat beside a grinning Kristine and slammed the door. Mindy and Shayna followed a little more slowly and snuggled into the back seat. Tara was already complaining about the cold again.
“How was the train up?” Kristine asked. “Everyone buckled?”
Mindy buckled her seatbelt. “Ready to go. It was fine, it wasn’t super crowded or anything.”
“I liked it,” Tara said. “It was nice and leisurely. I could see the countryside, you know?”
“Yeah?” Kristine pulled out onto the street and accelerated. “You want to take the train back down, leave me a little more space in my car?”
“No thanks,” Tara said. “Then I’d have to go out in the cold again.”
“Thanks for the rides, Kristine,” Shayna said.
“Don’t mention it, Manson Girl,” Kristine said with a wink. She’d agreed to pick the three of them up at the train station and then drive them back to Philly on Sunday. They would have all ridden up together, except that Kristine was the only one willing to take the afternoon off to drive up on Friday, and she didn’t want to wait for them on Saturday morning. As a tattoo artist, she had a very flexible schedule, and obviously had a more flexible budget than Mindy, to be able to take extra time off.
Though Mindy’s motivations had been more along the lines of wanting to spend more time with Shayna.
Once at the hotel, they found the rest of Monstrous Regiment—minus, of course, the three players who’d made it onto the Sisterly Love All-Stars, and Shelly, who was probably giving them one of her trademark pep talks—and headed over to the tournament together. Mindy was following them to find seats together when Shayna grabbed her arm.
“Look, there’s Glenna and Robyn,” she said. “Let’s go say hi.”
Mindy, of course, had no idea who she was pointing at, but she wasn’t about to say no. She followed Shayna without a protest.
“Glenna!” Shayna called. A woman with dishwater-blonde curls turned, grinned, and tugged on the arm of a redhead next to her, who also turned. Within moments, they were shrieking and exchanging hugs with Shayna.
“Mindy,” Shayna said when they had let go of one another, “Glenna and Robyn were on my old team in DC. Guys, this is my girlfriend, Mindy.”
Glenna grinned and held out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Mindy.”
“Did she drag you along, or are you a fellow derby enthusiast?” Robyn asked. She had an accent Mindy couldn’t quite place—something European, not too strong.
Glenna’s grip was strong as she and Mindy shook hands. “Derby girl, definitely.”
Mindy laughed and shook Robyn’s hand as well. “Guilty as charged. Three of my teammates are in the Sisterly Love All-Stars.”
“And two of mine,” Shayna added.
“Oh, that’s brilliant,” Robyn said. “Good luck to them, then. I wasn’t sure who to root for, since we got knocked out in the first round and never played either of them.”
“Are you on the DC all-star team?” Mindy asked. She knew it was totally absurd, but she felt jealous of these tall, beautiful women. Not only did they obviously know Shayna well, in a way that made her comfortable with them, but they were good enough roller-derby players to make it onto an all-star team.
Not that Mindy wasn’t just as good as they were, most likely. After all, the DC team had obviously not done as well in the tournament as the Philly team, so maybe someone who hadn’t quite made it onto the Philadelphia team was on the same level as someone who hadn’t quite brought their team to the top two.
Robyn and Glenna raised their fists, brought them together, and then pulled them apart, extending their fingers as they did, in a mime of an explosion. “Cherry Blossom Cherry Bombs,” Glenna said. “That’s our hand sign. Maybe we should have spent less time practicing hand signs and more time practicing blocks.”
“But you still made it to the tournament,” Shayna said. “I mean, I know you were out in the first round, but that’s better than I did.” She sounded wistful.
“I saw you guys play last weekend, and you were great,” Mindy said. She wasn’t being entirely truthful, and she wasn’t sure why she was trying to soothe their egos. But she had seen them play, and they had been great—all the teams last weekend had been.
“Well, we should go sit, the match is going to start soon,” Robyn said. “We’ll definitely be cheering for the Philadelphia team now that we know Shayna’s friends are on it. Want to sit with us?”
“My team is saving us seats,” Mindy said, taking hold of Shayna’s arm. “We’d better go sit with them.”
“Yeah, good to see you, guys,” Shayna said. She allowed Mindy to turn her around and they headed for the seats.
Mindy had a sudden fear that Shayna was going to be upset that she’d dragged her away from her old friends, but Shayna didn’t say anything, so it must have been all right. They found Mindy’s team members and got settled right before the announcement began.
Mindy quickly forgot Glenna and Robyn, and everyone else who had come to the tournament—except Shayna, of course, whom she could never forget. The derby match was definitely the most exciting she had ever seen, and not just because three of her teammates were in it. Every time Megan, Gayle, or Leya was on the track, she cheered her loudest—but she was cheering the rest of the time, too.
The excitement didn’t let up. One team would be up by a point or two, and then the other team. They were tied at halftime. Mindy was too excited to eat.
The second half of the match was just as incredible as the first, every jam
a study in tension and suspense. The crowd was cheering so loudly that Mindy couldn’t even hear herself. Megan was jammer for the Sisterly Love All-Stars in the final jam, and Mindy found herself watching her so closely that she could hardly tell what was going on over the rest of the track.
But she still saw the opposing jammer breaking through. She saw Megan and Mountain Bruise playing their hearts out… but she saw the Big Apple Roller Babes pull ahead.
It was crazy. Mindy kept cheering, even though she saw that her team had lost. Besides, what did she care? She wasn’t on the team.
Maybe if she and Shayna had made it onto the team, they wouldn’t have lost.
Then Shayna grabbed her and kissed her, and she was distracted for several long minutes, feeling Shayna’s soft lips, Shayna’s warm body in her arms. The cheering around them was muted, distant.
“What was that all about?” she whispered when Shayna pulled back.
Shayna gave her a lopsided smile. “It’s exciting. I guess I just like to kiss you when I’m excited.”
Mindy pulled her tight again. “Me, too.”
Chapter 10
Tuesday night brought a new kind of excitement. Mindy was almost whistling as she got her things together for roller derby. The all-star tournament was over, and she was getting the rest of her team back.
The practices had all felt empty and not as fun as usual with a smaller group that was missing Megan and Gayle (Leya had never been much of a source of levity). Mindy was pretty sure she hadn’t been the only one to notice. Even Shelly’s intense practices had calmed down a bit in the last couple of weeks.
When Mindy arrived at the track for practice, there were three cars in the lot, so she knew someone had to be there. At least one of them had to belong to one of the all-star players… though she was pretty sure Megan didn’t have a car.
She flung the door to the locker room open in her excitement, so hard that it clanged against the opposite wall, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. Not when she saw Gayle and realized how much she’d missed that happy, round face. She rushed up to Gayle and flung her arms around her. “Yes! This is wonderful! The whole team is back together!”
Gayle laughed and gave Mindy a brief hug back. “Miss me?”
“Of course. Plus, I saw you guys kill it in the tournament. You must have learned some new stuff that you’ll be teaching us now.” Mindy grinned at her. It was going to be so great to practice with the whole team again.
Mindy hugged Megan and Leya when they arrived, too, unable to contain herself. “So was it awesome?” she asked Megan. “Were you mad when you lost?”
“Not as much as I thought I would be,” Megan said, grinning. “I mean, we did so well. It was actually pretty amazing.”
“Hell yeah it was.” Mindy gave her a high-five. “Next year we’ll do better.”
“Oh, are you going to be on the team next year?” Megan teased.
“Absolutely. They’ll have to see how awesome I am sooner or later.”
“You’ll have to work harder if you want to be on next year’s all-star team,” Shelly said. “They were practicing every day.”
Mindy rolled her eyes, but she made sure to do it where Shelly couldn’t see her. Everyone was always harping on about needing to work hard. Didn’t they see how much of it was luck? If hard work was all you needed, then the Sisterly Love All-Stars would have won the tournament, and the final game would have been against the Cherry Blossom Cherry Bombs.
She finally had to actually start getting changed, though, because everyone had arrived and she didn’t want to be the last one on the track when practice started. She was still lacing on her skates when Shelly said she had a couple of announcements.
“I’m sure you’re expecting me to talk about having Leya, Megan, and Gayle back from the all-stars, and we’re thrilled to have them,” Shelly said. Mindy gave a cheer, hoping a few others would join in, but they just laughed and applauded. Shelly grinned and continued, “But we don’t need to spend time talking about that. This is going to be just like every day, and we’ll be a team the way we were before the tournament. Right now, I have a different announcement.”
Mindy wondered what the announcement could be. Her eyes widened when Gayle stood up and skated to Shelly’s side.
Shelly looked around at the assembled team. “I want to make sure to tell everyone so you don’t think we’re hiding anything from you or keeping secrets. Gayle and I are dating now. We’re together.”
Mindy had definitely not seen that coming. For a moment the whole group was silent, surprised, but then Lisa wolf-whistled. Mindy laughed, then let out a cheer. Thankfully, this time a few others joined her in the cheer.
Gayle looked worried, but Mindy couldn’t understand why. They would be a great pair. She remembered the way Shelly had been looking at Gayle at Shelly’s birthday party. In fact, now that Mindy thought about it, she was surprised it had taken them so long.
When they got out on the track to start their laps, though, she was surprised to find her thoughts sinking into melancholy. She was jealous, and she had no idea why. What was there to be jealous about? She and Shayna had a great relationship, and she certainly didn’t know the specifics of Gayle and Shelly’s relationship to make any comparisons.
Maybe she was just jealous that they were on the same derby team together, so they could see each other all the time—every day, if they wanted. For Mindy and Shayna, there were a few days each week in which they never got a chance to see each other, unless they wanted to make multiple trips and only be together for an hour or so, which they hadn’t yet. Part of that was living in different parts of the city, but part of it was sometimes-conflicting roller-derby schedules.
Mindy shook her head at herself, then suddenly realized that almost everyone was passing her. She wasn’t that slow! She put on an extra burst of speed to catch up, but saw Megan, Gayle, and Leya leading the pack.
Well, there was nothing unusual about that—Margaret Splatwood and Leya Out were their fastest players, and there was a reason they’d made it onto the all-star team. Mindy was proud of them. Gayle wasn’t always the fastest, with her broad frame, but she’d obviously learned some speed preparing for the tournament.
Still, Mindy had to come close to keeping up with them if she was going to have a chance of joining the all-stars next year, and right now she was nowhere near that. Lisa, Tara, Tiffany, Shelly, and even short Kristine and Helen were all beating her.
No matter how hard she tried, though, she never quite caught up; she was able to pace Kristine and Helen, but she didn’t feel much pride in that, even though they were good players. Everyone on Monstrous Regiment was a good player. Being on the all-star team meant you were the best.
When she finished her laps and went to join the faster skaters on the benches, her chest was heaving and she was almost straining for breath. Those laps had been harder than she’d expected. Her legs weren’t tired yet, though. She probably just had to breathe more deeply.
She did fine on the next drills they practiced, turning quickly and jumping over objects. Then again, not as many skaters were on the track at the same time; maybe Shelly had just put her on with other people who were as slow as Mindy was herself.
It was during the scrimmages that she really noticed a difference. This time, she was sure that she wasn’t the only one who was slow. Megan, Gayle, and Leya were clearly outstripping the others in performance. Shelly had been careful not to put them all on the same side in a scrimmage, but when Mindy played jammer in one scrimmage, she could find no way at all past Leya—and Kristine, their opposing jammer, similarly didn’t get past Gayle once.
Megan played jammer in a scrimmage and got past all four opposing blockers before Deirdre even caught up to the pack. And then she got past all four again before Deirdre got past two. It was wild, and Mindy cheered for Megan and looked forward to beating all the other teams next season, but it was also clear that the three of them had picked up serious new skills
in their time away.
And several of the other city teams had players on the all-star team—Shayna’s team had two, but Rolling in the Street had four, and there had to be at least one other team with players on it. How much better were those teams going to be?
Mindy still gave practice her all, but she felt a little discouraged. She put her best face on it, though, after practice in the locker room. Grinning, she shook her head in mock disgust at Megan. “What are we going to do with you? You guys are so good that you’re going to make the rest of us look like turtles out there.”
“Maybe getting laid agrees with her,” said Kristine with a nudge to Megan’s shoulder.
“Yeah? Are you getting laid?”
Megan rolled her eyes, but the corners of her mouth twitched upward. “Yeah, I am. Also, I quit my sucky job, and I start a new awesome one on Friday. You should come to my new skate shop once I’m settled in to work.”
“Ah, that must be the difference,” Mindy said, nodding wisely. “Exposure to the skate shop is getting into your brain, and making you Super-Skater.”
“Are you sure it’s not getting laid?” Kristine asked.
“Well, I’m getting laid, and you don’t see me blasting over the track the way Megan is,” Mindy said. “I mean, I introduced you to Shayna, right? If sex was the issue… I’d have no problem.” She sighed happily as a vision of Shayna, naked, with her curves on full display, floated past her mind’s eye.
“You don’t have a problem,” Megan told her. “You’re a good player. I don’t know why you didn’t make it onto the team.”
“That isn’t the question,” Mindy said. “The three of you were always awesome players, but you seem like you’ve leveled up a lot while you were gone.”
“We worked really hard,” Megan said, raising her eyebrows. “We were practicing every day, sometimes for longer than we practice as Monstrous Regiment. It was intense. It was a lot of fun, but I’m happy to be back to the laid-back practices.”
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