Cracked Skulls

o. mothers and female rage

CHAPTER ZERO.
mothers and female rage.
a short summary

( 🛼☠️💋 )

Ella Jane Slater was always raised to suck it all up, put on her big girl panties, and deal with it. Deal with it meaning teaching people a lesson or putting on loud music or scribbling onto a sad piece of notebook paper. No matter what it was, it was strongly encouraged to show your anger however you pleased in the Slater household.

Her mother told her that her father left them because she was too dramatic and emotional and he couldn't handle that. So she sucked it up, yelled at the man to leave and called him many derogatory names, and raised her daughter to do the same, both living their life thinking the man was a wuss. If you were mad, show it. Ella always thought that making a scene by punching someone or something would probably also classify as dramatic or emotional but she never dared to say anything to her mother. Her mothers logic was to be as loud and dramatic and angry as they wanted but Ella didn't seem to quite grasp that concept. But who cares anyway, when Ella was upset you would know and that made her mother as proud as she could be, which left no complaints from Ella.

And her mother was even prouder when Ella found something useful to channel her anger to; cherry bomb brawlers.

Roller Derby wasn't very popular like basketball or football but god they wished it was. Ella, going by the name bone killer from the amount of bones she had fractured or almost broken, was a blocker. But occasionally, she would be a jammer and she had to admit she loved being the shining star ( pun intended ) of the show. Her mother was her biggest fan and she didn't need anyone else.

But, of course there's a but, there were scouts in the stands one game. The game where she was a blocker but then their jammer got injured and she had to fill in. She suddenly didn't like being the shining star. None of the girls in the pack knew why there were scouts at a game, given there were only two that was still two too many. None of them thought you could get a scholarship or something with Roller Derby. It made them confused sure, but they still came in with that win and they never saw the scouts again. They never brought it up either.

Ella Jane Slater spent her days skating, adding to her scrapbook, and watching corny romance movies whenever her mom was at work. Her mom had practically banned all lovey dovey movies because she was still upset her relationship didn't work out. Which Ella understood but maybe she just wanted to cry whenever there was a rain kiss scene. Maybe she did want a rain kiss scene. But one crying filled Tuesday, a knock on the door made her immediately discard any evidence and wipe her tears.

"My mom isn't here," she spoke as soon as she opened the door. She looked him up and down and scrunched her nose. "I don't think you're her type either."

"You're Ella," he said, laughing nervously at her words.

"Yeah," she replied. "What about it?"

"How do you feel about hockey," he asked.

"Don't care much about it," she said. "Who are you?"

"Don Tibbles," he stuck out his hand but she just stared at it. "How do you feel about being a recruit for Team USA?"

"No thanks," she told him. "I'll stick to Roller Derby."

"You see we watched you," Tibbles said and Ella just raised an eyebrow. Doesn't seem creepy. "Do you remember when you had scouts at one of the games?"

"Yeah we couldn't figure out what it was for," she mumbled.

"Well this is what it's for," he grinned. "You could go far with this. You're strong, good for the team."

"I don't know man," she shrugged, taking note of her mom pulling into the driveway. "Don't know how to play anyway."

"You can learn," he replied.

"Who's this?" Her mother asked, not a smile present on her face when she saw her daughters blotchy cheeks.

"I'm Don Tibbles," he introduced, holding out his hand for her to shake but like her daughter, she stared at it. "I was coming to see if your daughter would like to play hockey for Team USA."

"Hm," the woman hummed. "Let's talk about this inside."

I hate first chapters