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Y/N DID UP HER LACES with the same familiarity as breathing, slowly pushing herself to her feet on the teetering rim of the skatepark's half-pipe. Her feet no longer wobbled unsteadily on the slim wheels of her black-and-f/c rollerblades as they used to, and she wore the shoes like a second skin.
Second was her helmet, pulled securely over her h/l, h/c hair safely tucked away from her face, with the same colour scheme as her rollerblades and ... most of her clothes. Y/L/N Y/N was a rollerblader, not an artist.
A final precaution saw her elbow pads pulled on to match her knee pads. She was still scarred by the memory of her first fall on her very first pair of rollerblades, the skin of her knees hanging off in such a gruesome way her seven-year-old self had fainted.
Now, Y/N wasn't so squeamish, though she still had a while to go in the name of pain tolerance.
That's fine, she told herself, pushing her left foot away from her right so she was moved forwards, away from the rim of this new skatepark's half-pipe so she could get a suitable run-up. Just don't fall, if you don't want it to hurt.
The girl took a deep breath, cracking her knuckles and checking her helmet's security for a last time. In truth, she'd never tried skating this particular park's half-pipe, and the high curves appeared ominously steep, even from her higher vantage point.
Y/N speciality on her well-loved blades was more a smooth, artful form of gliding in the middle of an encircling crowd, like ice skating on flower-dotted pavement. She'd only recently begun to train in stunts and tricks harder than leaps and pirouettes, though neither of those were an easy feat, either.
She flinched violently as some young boy on a skateboard whizzed dangerously close to her with an exclaimed, "Sorry!", her lack of balance almost sending her to the ground. Her wobbling ankles steadied with a few calming breaths, though she could hear someone yelling at the silver-haired kid as he flew back down the half-pipe.
Don't be nervous, she chided herself, resting her hands on her knees as she slid back a couple more steps, one leg prepared to push her into motion. You train for this all the time.
A breath later, and Y/N kicked forwards, one foot sliding to the side and then the next, until she hit the beginning of the ramp and she was whizzing downwards. With no time to properly think, and registering that she was quickly losing speed and balance front on, Y/N shifted some of her body to the side with an intricate spin of her feet, smiling as she heard some appreciative 'oohs' from strangers standing by.
The wind caressed her face as she was sent straight up the other side of the half-pipe, safely returned to flat ground.
"Yes!" Y/N cheered to herself, stopping with a skid of her blades and a wide grin across her face, the satisfaction she always felt after a successful trick flooding her body.
Okay. The girl turned herself around again, biting her thumb as she calculated her next move. Do it again.
A rollerblader is constantly evolving, improving, her childhood coach had told her every day. You can never settle for the same trick - you always need to make it better.
Y/N squinted at the swarming skaters, their boards flipping like leaping dolphins in a dangerously high wave. It would be difficult to weave her way through them, the peak hour for moody teenage skater boys having just hit a few minutes ago.
The sun had begun to sink in the sky, shadowing the entire park with a blushing sunset and making the other teens and some kids turn into little more than silhouettes attached to their boards. An unsafe time to be on unstable rollerblades with wheels about as thick as one's finger, but Y/N did nothing if she didn't flirt with danger on a daily basis.
"Alright," she muttered again. "This time, do it twice."
She gave a little jump on her blades, letting a push of her right foot send her speeding forwards and dipping off the edge of the half-pipe. The same speed and euphoria of simply skating freely hit her, curving her lips into a giddy smile as she began to ascend up the steeper wall of the ramp.
Now!
As soon as she crested the edge of the half-pipe, she pulled her feet up to tuck under her butt as a spinning flip sent her spiralling back down the slope. This time, the people who had flocked to watch had a louder reaction, Y/N hearing gasps and even smatterings of applause.
She couldn't stop herself from smiling, wider and wider as she rose back up the ramp she had just descended, until-
Shit - what is that?
Something was slowing her down as she attempted to skate upwards, but this unknown force was pulling her back down. Y/N snuck a glance down at her feet, and her heart just about stopped at the sight that she was met with.
Oh. Well, fuck.
She'd evidently forgotten to double-knot her laces, and one of the pink lengths had caught in the row of four wheels on her left shoe, meaning that at any moment now ...
Y/N jolted forwards sharply, falling forwards with her hands instinctively stretched out in front of her combating the urge to roll onto her back for a less painful impact. She noted the lack of her usual gloves on her hands, remembering that she'd left them at home, and keenly felt the regret of deciding to wear a short top and pants today.
And all Y/L/N Y/N could think, as the half-pipe raced up to meet her rapidly falling form with several people watching, was ...
Well, shit.
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thank you for reading this
book and i hope you enjoy it!
~ jazzi