The Daredevils spread out over the grass. They stretched their hands and feet like they were making snow angels. Kenzie studied the sky overhead.
“See any shapes in the clouds?” Tomoko asked.
Kenzie smiled. “I see us looking awesome at the tournament!”
Shelly squeezed a clump of grass. Her hands felt itchy without a pencil.
Zip!
Shelly pulled out her sketchbook. She leaned against the rock and thought about the Labyrinth move again. Maybe there was a way to keep the jammer behind them longer, without having to race ahead over and over. Something to help the blockers stay squeezed together.
She turned to the page with the Kenzilla claws. If Shelly put something sticky on the palms and fingers, Kenzie could stick tight to Shelly whenever they formed a blocker wall. Then the jammer could never get through! Shelly got to work adding sticky dots to her design.
“Another picture?”
Shelly felt a little tap on her elbow. She clutched the drawing tight to her chest.
“Whoa.” Kenzie bounced back on her heels. She looked hurt. “You always show your drawings.”
“Yeah,” Shelly said slowly. Her hands relaxed a little. “But this isn’t just a drawing for fun. It’s for the tournament.”
“Are you leading practice tomorrow?” Kenzie asked.
Shelly shook her head. She needed more time to pull her plan together. “Friday,” she said. “When we meet behind the warehouse. I have a plan. You’ll see.”
The other Daredevils were all looking at Shelly. Bree had an eyebrow raised.
“You don’t usually keep secrets,” Tomoko said.
Shelly paused. Was she keeping a secret? If she was, it didn’t feel like the bad kind of secret. It felt like a good secret, the kind that buzzed through her bones and made her warm just by holding it safe inside her.
“It’s not really a secret,” Shelly said. “It’s more of a . . . surprise!” She squeezed her mouth shut tight before she could say too much. The excitement moved up into her cheeks. It spread down to her toes and made them tap and wiggle.
“Ooh, I love surprises!” Jules said.
Kenzie smiled. “Me too.”
The warm feeling inside Shelly’s chest thrummed.
“Speaking of surprises . . .” Jules jumped on top of their rock, casting a shadow over the grass.
“What?” Bree asked.
“I have a derby name,” Jules announced.
Everyone shifted to look at Jules. Shelly flipped to a blank page in her notebook. Her pencil was at the ready. Jules clutched at the air and slowly folded her arms in front of her.
“What are you doing?” Kenzie said.
Jules narrowed her eyes. “It’s called pantomime. We used to do it all the time in drama club. I’m pant-o-miming an invisible cloak.”
Shelly found a line in her head like the squiggle on her art teacher’s chalkboard. She let her pencil make the swoosh of a cloak blowing in the wind. She looked back up at Jules, who had frozen into a statue.
“Well?” Tomoko said. “Tell us!”
Jules suddenly tossed the invisible cloak behind her shoulder and raised her chin in the air.
“You may call me,” she said in a fake British accent, “Crown Jules.”
“Sweet!” Bree said. “All hail Crown Jules!”
The girls stretched their hands to the sky.
“All hail Crown Jules!”
Jules laughed and jumped back into the grass.
“Smooth,” Tomoko said. “Super regal.”
Shelly didn’t hear anything after that. The page in front of her stretched on and on until it filled up her whole world. She drew Jules posed on the derby track the same way she had posed on the rock. Shelly shaped Jules’s helmet into a crown. Over her derby gear, Shelly made a thick, fuzzy cloak that flew out behind Jules when she skated.
Bruise prevention technology! Shelly wrote under the cloak. That was something else she could design!
“Did you make a drawing for Jules?”
Shelly’s paper world curled in at the edges. She peeked over her sketchbook and saw Kenzie in front of her.
“I’ll show you later,” Shelly said. She bumped Kenzie’s fist. “On Friday.”
Kenzie did the Dynamic Duo handshake with Shelly, though she made a face like she had been hip checked in the gut. Shelly frowned and turned back to her drawing. She wasn’t shutting the others out, she told herself. She was getting the surprise ready. Plus, Shelly didn’t need the other Daredevils poking holes in her ideas before she even finished. She had to see her designs through.
She had to get Star Skater.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Shelly studied her list again.
Kenzilla claws—extra sticky handholds
Crown Jules cloak—to cushion bad falls
Tomonater glasses—for spotting jammers
Bomb Shell . . .
She bit the end of her eraser. What could she do for her own derby name?
Maybe an exploding wrist guard? She could hide confetti packets in little pouches, then release them right when the other team’s jammer came around. She and Kenzie could even make a special game play out of it!
Shelly started to draw herself on the page before she remembered that she wasn’t really good at self-portraits. What did her nose look like again? Shelly picked up the spoon from her cereal bowl and faced it away. She stared at her reflection in the silver.
“My face looks weird,” Shelly said.
Her mom laughed. “Everyone’s face looks weird in a spoon. Want me to grab a hand mirror?”
“No thanks,” Shelly said. She moved her pencil over the page quickly, making a squiggle that turned into a wrist guard with confetti exploding out of one end. That was all she really needed for her derby gear project.
Shelly’s mom set her cup of tea down over the newspaper. “I should have your Kenzilla claw back from the kiln by tonight. Is it a gift for Kenzie?”
Shelly’s pencil froze. “No,” she said.
Her mom seemed surprised. “Oh?”
“It’s a model,” Shelly said. “I’m designing derby gear for the team. That’s my job for the tournament.”
“Your . . . job?” her mom asked.
Shelly nodded. “Everyone has a job. Bree’s is to be fast and Jules taught us about bruises and Tomoko knows how to block and Kenzie’s in charge of the plays.”
Her mom picked up her mug. “I thought you did all those things too.”
Shelly turned back to her drawing. “I do,” she said. She used her careful, explaining voice. “But I’m not the best at them. I’m the best at derby gear designs, so it’s my job.”
Shelly’s mom slurped her tea down. “Hmmm.” At first Shelly thought the sound was just how good the tea was. Then her mom cleared her throat. “You know, whenever I work on an art collaboration with someone, we don’t each do one job.”
Shelly glanced up.
“The other artist and I, we work together. We plan things out together and sketch together and then sculpt side by side. That way the art feels whole to both of us. Not something we each gave half to. Do you know what I mean?”
Shelly smooshed her mouth together. She was trying to decide whether or not she knew what her mom meant. One whole thing was a lot better than two halves. By the time Shelly showed her designs to the Daredevils, she wanted them to see the whole idea, not a bunch of half ideas. That was why she had to finish everything on her own.
“Yeah,” Shelly said. “I know what you mean.”
Her mom smiled.
Shelly’s phone buzzed. A text from Kenzie hovered over the screen.
Pre-practice meeting before school.
“Got to go! Daredevils morning bathroom meeting in thirty minutes!”
“Can’t miss that,” her mom said. She shooed Shelly up from the table. “See you after derby practice.”
Shelly flung her backpack on, kissed her mom, and left her house in a hurry. But she had
only taken a few steps before she forgot about running late to the meeting.
As Shelly turned out of her driveway, two skateboarders zipped past on either side of the sidewalk. Shelly jumped out of the way, her heart racing.
“Hey!” Shelly said. She hated it when other kids got so close to her like that. It was like they were trying to scare her.
Then Shelly remembered what had happened at the Free Skate night last Saturday, when the kids on in-line skates made her lose her balance. Shelly pulled out her sketchbook and started brainstorming.
“Balance,” Shelly murmured. “How to keep balance . . .”
She drew an acrobat holding a stick over a tight rope. A stick would get in the way on the track. She looked ahead at the boys. It took balance to stay on a skateboard. Shelly drew a figure leaning forward. When she tried to balance, she usually made her feet go wide. Was there a way to do that on skates? Another balloon idea suddenly inflated in her head.
Bubble boots!
Shelly drew a derby player with big, wide skates. No one could get knocked over in those! She stomped her feet as she walked, making long, clomping steps as she pretended to wear bubble boots until she got to school. By the time Shelly nudged the bathroom door open, the Daredevils glowered at her like she was a plate of mystery meat.
“Where have you been?” Kenzie asked. “I’m telling everyone the plan for practice today.”
“Sorry,” Shelly said. She shook the invisible boots off her feet.
At some point, Shelly definitely wrote down the notes for Kenzie’s practice. She must have—she always took notes at derby planning meetings. Plus, in the bathroom Kenzie had said something about specific code words, and hand motions the players had to remember, which was exactly the kind of thing that went into Shelly’s notes.
But as Shelly flipped through her sketchbook at lunch, and later on after class, she couldn’t find anything about Kenzie’s game plays. Instead, the pages were overflowing with Shelly’s designs. She had drawn the bubble boots over and over, changing little details each time, trying to get them exactly right. She drew Kenzie’s gloves again, along with Tomoko’s glasses and Jules’s cloak and her own exploding confetti wrist guard.
Shelly wondered what she could design for Bree. Probably something that had to do with being fast.
What could help a jammer . . . Shelly wondered.
“Watch it!”
Shelly jumped back as someone dipped out of the school auditorium. They were carrying a huge stack of folded bedsheets that towered above their head. The top few sheets swayed back and forth.
“Sorry,” Shelly said. She gazed up at the tower, following each fold down until she saw Camila’s face poking out from the side. “What are you doing with all those sheets?”
“They’re not sheets,” Camila said. “They’re costumes. Drama club is putting on a performance in three weeks! I barely have time to put everything together!”
“Three weeks sounds like a long time,” Shelly said. She glanced at her list. “I have to make a bunch of stuff in just one day.”
Camila’s eyebrows went up. “For what?”
“The derby team,” Shelly said. She flinched a moment, worried that Camila would be mad she was talking about roller derby. Camila had nearly joined the Daredevils’ team earlier in the season, up until she put on skates and realized she hated skating.
But Camila didn’t seem mad. She seemed interested. “What kind of stuff?”
Shelly turned her head one way, then the other. The halls were slowly emptying as kids slammed their lockers shut and ran for the doors to go home. The rest of the Daredevils were probably outside on the steps. And since Camila wasn’t technically on the team anymore, that meant she could see the surprise before it was ready.
“I’m designing things for the team to wear,” Shelly said. She rotated her sketchbook and showed Camila her pictures.
“Awesome!” Camila said. “You’re doing costumes too!”
Shelly frowned. “No, I’m not. This is special derby gear.”
Camila shrugged. “OK,” she said. “I was just going to offer some help.” She nodded to a door farther down the hall that said backstage. “Could you get that for me?”
“Sure,” Shelly said. She grabbed the handle. Camila shuffled through the doorway, keeping her tower of costumes steady.
Shelly was about to let the door close. Then she stuck her head down the darkened hall after Camila. “Help with what?”
Camila looked over her shoulder and smiled.
“Come to the crypt and see.”
CHAPTER NINE
Crypt?
Shelly’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “You mean like a grave or something?”
Camila stopped backstage.
“Of course not,” she said. “The crypt is what we call the costume room. It’s in the basement. Come on.”
Shelly was still holding the door open. She glanced toward the front of the school. Today was Kenzie’s practice out at the park. But Shelly still couldn’t find the game play notes. Would it be better to miss and have her surprise ready for tomorrow, or not be ready for either day?
“Wait up!” Shelly called.
She crept into the darkened hall and pulled up the Dynamic Duo message thread on her phone.
Gotta stay after school, Shelly texted Kenzie.
What about practice?
Shelly bit her lip.
Tomorrow, she wrote. Sorry!
Shelly turned her phone around and used her screen as a flashlight.
“Why is it so dark in here?” Shelly asked.
“They’re figuring out how they want to light the stage,” Camila said, “so the other lights have to stay off.” She stopped in front of a metal gate and nodded at the latch.
Shelly swung the gate open. As Camila passed by, Shelly reached up and took the top half of Camila’s stack.
“Thanks,” Camila said. Her nose peeked over the material. “Now I can see!”
They went down a set of metal stairs. Shelly blinked, her eyes adjusting to the darkness. Camila set her things down on a bench and flipped a switch by the bottom step.
“Whoa.”
Warm light filled the room, which Shelly could now see was crammed from corner to corner with racks of clothes. Shelly set her pile next to Camila’s. She wandered through the crypt, touching the clothes as she passed. There were thick, fuzzy coats perfect for Jules’s cloak, and scaly pleather jackets for Kenzie’s gloves.
“This is great,” Shelly said.
“Check out the accessory wall,” Camila said, hitching her thumb. Behind her were huge plastic tubs stacked one on top of the other. Each had a label like SCARVES & HANDKERCHIEFS or GLASSES.
Shelly pointed to the one marked GLASSES. “Can I look in there? I’m making a pair of red laser glasses.”
Camila shook her head. “All the stuff on hangers and in tubs have to stay here,” she said. She pointed to the far corner of the room. “But that’s all free for taking.”
“Hmmm.” Shelly stepped toward the corner, where a giant heap of costumes and accessories were squeezed together like a block of mishmashed clay. Would she be able to see something in the block this time?
She took out her sketchbook and flipped through her pictures, trying to figure out how to match the things in front of her with the sketches on the page.
Shelly reached into the corner and fished out a pair of plain black gloves. The Kenzilla claws in Shelly’s sketchbook had lizard skin and pointy fingertips. Still, the important part of Shelly’s design was to help handholds in blocking moves. If Shelly found a bunch of sticky dots and put them on the fingers and palm, plain gloves could do the job.
“Check this out,” Camila said. She kneeled into the pile, pulling out a green leotard covered in sequins.
“Very . . . sparkly,” Shelly said. She turned back to the gloves.
“It’s ripped at the side,” Camila said, frowning. Her face brightened. “But look! There’
s more!” She fished out another leotard covered in purple sequins, then one in blue, another in red, and a fifth in yellow.
“A whole set! And you could cut out parts of them!”
Shelly squinted at the glittering rainbow. “I guess that could look cool,” she said. She thought about the rest of her derby gear designs. “But they don’t do anything.”
Camila shrugged. She left the leotards bunched up together and went back to the costumes on the bench. “I have to work on this,” she said. “You OK over there?”
Shelly nodded. “Thanks again,” she said. “This will be great.”
Under the gentle buzzing of the crypt lights, Shelly sifted through the pile. She pulled out a giant roll of bubble wrap. She found a scuffed foam head to carve up for Bree’s gear. She found an old fuzzy blanket that could be a queen’s cloak if it really wanted to. She even found a pair of fake glasses for the Tomonater.
“Perfect!” Shelly said. She placed the glasses along with the other things into a giant paper bag Camila found. Camila tucked the sequined leotards at the bottom.
“Just in case,” she said.
Shelly hoisted the bag up. Now she was the one lumbering under a huge mass of clothes. Camila held the metal gate open. “You got it?”
“I got it,” Shelly said. She gave an awkward wave and stumbled down the hall.
The light outside felt a million times brighter after being down in the crypt with Camila. Shelly dragged the giant paper bag behind her as she turned onto the main street. The shops buzzed with people.
Now that Austin was slipping deeper into April, the early summer air swept into the city. Shelly passed teenagers wearing dresses with cowboy boots, tie-dye shorts with denim jackets, and long-sleeved sheer blouses cinched at the waist. She even walked by a woman emerging out of a store wearing a turquoise-sequined dress. Shelly thought about the leotards Camila had stuffed in her bag. But she had to stay focused on designing the gear in her notebook. Sequins weren’t going to earn her Star Skater.
Shelly turned into a store with a sign that said ROUGH DRAFT CRAFTS overhead. She left her bag by the checkout counter and got to work collecting bottles of glue, a set of fabric paint, a paintbrush, sticky strips, confetti, duct tape, and anything else that could be useful for making the things on her list.
Shelly Struggles to Shine Page 4