Adopted By Mean Girls Cast

Chapter 38

"Come on, Tilda! You got this!" someone in my family screeched from the audience. I was too focused on the game to tell who the voice belonged to, though. It was about thirty minutes into the match, and my team was winning by a landslide. Beads of sweat were forming on my forehead and I found myself slowing down every few minutes to catch my breath and make sure my liver wasn't acting up.

But despite the pain, the out-of-breath feeling, and the grief that came with Lex not skating by my side, I was having the time of my life. I could feel bruises form on my thighs and small scrapes on my knees start to bleed, which was typical for derby. I stubbed my toe on a wall but played it off with a vicious smile and kept skating.

I took a quick deep breath to get my heart rate back to a somewhat normal level, smiled a sweet smile to one of my teammates, and like the good jammer I was, pushed past the girls on the other team like my life depended on it.

But in a way, my life did kind of depend on it. My life revolves around skates, and matches, and having to ice my legs every single weekend. Pushing past girls and not making any friends from the other team, just enemies.

I was skating around and around in circles, faster and faster until my family and Eliana and Cat were just blurs of hair and limbs, my eyes laser-focused on the other team until I heard the referee blow his whistle. I brought my skates to a halting stop and wiped some sweat from my forehead.

"Did we win?" I breathed. Grace Khatri nodded from next to me, sweat dripping from her long black hair. The realization hit and I screeched louder than a car alarm.

"WE WON NATIONALS!" I yelled, ripping off my skates and running towards my family.

"No." said the coach. "You won Nationals. Did you know how much the team sucked when you were on medical leave? It took luck to get us this far without you. This," he said as he handed me a massive trophy. "this belongs to you, Matilda Henson. Congratulations."

I smiled and turned towards where my family was, my breath and heart rate finally returning to normal and I was smiling an unhuman smile.

_________

"Well, that was a long car ride. Three days of non-stop skating." Grey said as we were dragging suitcases through the door. Well, he was dragging suitcases through the door. I was hugging my trophy with all my might.

"Congratulations, Tils. You deserve that trophy. I would put it on a shelf, but..." Grey said, looking at the floating shelves in the living room.

"Yeah, this thing is massive. But...it's mine. I've been wanting to win a Nationals trophy since I started derby. When I was eleven." I said. I turned to my dad and said, "I know the perfect place to put this."

I went to my room and managed to move a nightstand a few inches to the right. It was the nightstand that held all of my favorite pictures. The most meaningful ones in fancy frames. The one of Mommy, Rosie, Sloan and I. The one of Grey and I on my adoption day. Me and Eliana.

And the most important one, Lex and I on our first derby meet almost five years ago.

I rearranged the pictures so the one of Lex and I was front and center, and put the trophy right next to it. So the light was shining on it.

I looked down at my leg. Bruises, scabs, cuts, scrapes, stubbed toes, those were all from derby. Those bruises came from my passion. Who I am. Who I want to be and who I'm meant to be.

In derby, it's okay to fall. Rather, it's encouraged. But you can't just lay there on the ground forever hoping someone will pick you up and do the work for you. You're expected to get up and continue the match. Fight the other girls. Sometimes even fight your teammates. And you're expected to do this all on skates, when it's hard to balance.

And in the four years I've been doing derby, I've learned that the morals I've learned from derby are like life. You're expected to fall, it's okay to get scared and break down, but you have to get back up eventually.

Life is roller derby. And to me, derby is life.

I sat on my bed and flopped back, staring at the ceiling as taxis and sirens beeped and honked and blared outside the window. Grey was humming to himself while cooking dinner.

And while the house felt quiet, a strange kind of quiet without my sisters running around, I felt loved. Safe.

Home.

The End

AN: I hate to say it y'all, but this is the end of Matilda's story. Eight months in the making. And I'm so proud of this. All three of my original Adopted by Broadway books are finished. Catlynn, Valerie, and now Matilda. Hope you enjoyed, and see you in Cat's sequel book, Adopted by Falsettos, and Adopted by Superstore! Love you all!