It was early February. An entire month since the list was published through email to the entire ballet crowd. Rehearsals started shortly after the news came out, but since we were still in the early stages of production, my class had yet to start learning the choreography. This meant that there was a little more breathing room for us dancers to hang out somewhere other than the dance studio. Lucy would have preferred to be home, curled up in blankets and catching up of one of her binge worthy shows but ever since the stunt she pulled on new years where her mother walked down to find Lucy and the gang wasted, Rosie decided that she could not leave her daughter alone in the house with out supervision. This is why Lucy was sitting in the stands of one of the gyms inside the town's community center watching of all things, a Roller Derby match today. And to make it worse in Lucy's mind, she was being babysat by Sara and Cody while her mother and Elle were off at another major rehearsal before their second half of the winter tour began. Her father was off with Daniel for the weekend, leaving Lucy to join the Emerson crowd for the day.
Scarlet and Clary were in this particular Derby match; clad in black shorts and royal blue shirts with separate numbers on each other's backs. No matter the team, each girl down in the pit wore wrist, arm, and knee pads alongside helmets to keep from gaining more than their usual injuries.
As Lucy watched the two teams of blue and red rush along the curved tracks, surrounded by refs, she started to question how two ballet dancers could ever join such a sport.
No matter who you played in Roller Derby or what position you held, you were likely to get hit and pushed across the floor, guaranteed to fall. The women in the pit were mostly all buff and tone, such muscles not usually seen defined on a ballet dancer's body. That was what probably caused Scarlet and Clary to stick out in their team of girls.
"Break them Pretty Psychos!" A fan yelled further down the stands causing the rest of us to clap aloud supportingly. The girl's team in blue had won another round and were lining up again to ready themselves for another shot.
"Go uh Lucky Scars and Red Marionette!" Cody called from the back in what sounded to be his most ridiculous attempt yet to yell support for his daughters today. Sara scoffed and turned in time to catch Cody smiling unashamed at her. Sara shook her head slowly while trying to keep her laughter at bay as she turned away from her crazy husband and back to watching her daughters play.
Lucy turned back to the game and experienced a shared look with Aria, who was naturally rolling her eyes at her father once again.
"Clary goes by Little Red now Dad. Not Red Marionette. And for the record, no one shouts out the players names like that." Cody raised his eyes to his youngest daughter staring him down and gave her a passing look.
"Okay then Aria, master of Roller Derby, how do I call to my favorite daughters in the pit?" Aria ignored the jab about favorite daughters and instead focused her attention on what the audience around them were doing before returning to face her amused father.
"You have to be less white suburban dad."
"Oh Jesus," Sara muttered turning away from her husband who immediately looked at his young daughter challengingly .
"Less you say?" Aria dropped the smug look and gave her dad a pleading gaze.
"Don't embarrass us again Dad. If you want to be annoying do it away from us," Aria stated, motioning to the Emerson crowd. Cody shrugged casually and stood up to leave, giving his weary wife a pat on the head before walking off. He disappeared in the moving crowd up above of people coming and going for food as they watched the game. Ben and Sam were walking toward their family seats when Cody passed them by, giving the two confused boys a thumbs up before disappearing indefinitely.
"I wonder if I should ask.." Ben began but Sam shook his head and continued down to where the rest of the family sat. Seeing Lucy watch the game with glassy eyes, Sam waved his brother to follow his lead before setting off to sit down right next to Lucy on one side.
"Fry?" He asked, sending the box of warm potatoes to her. Lucy gave Sam a knowing look before smiling and taking a fry.
Ben went around from behind and pushed his cousin Aria, who sat on Lucy's right, to the side before taking her place next to Lucy and holding out a plate of mozzarella sticks paired with Mariana sauce.
"Cheese?"
"What are you doing Ben? That was my seat!" Aria called after her cousin in annoyance. Ben payed little attention to her as Lucy gingerly took a mozzarella stick and munched down on it happily.
"I didn't realize you two were coming to this," Lucy stated as she finished off the mozzarella stick and went for another. While Ben was swatted away from getting a fry from his brother, Aria muttered something about them not being invited. Ben heard this and was first to comment on how "All Emerson events are open call for any of us. Plus. Uncle Cody told us to come."
"Why did my Dad want you here?" Aria asked unsurely. Ben shrugged unconvinced and turned back to his brother with puppy eyes.
"I told you to get the fries not the cheese, idiot. These are mine," Sam stated while smoothly offering the french fries to Lucy who happily took a handful. Ben gave his brother a dirty look before catching his Aunt's eye.
"Do your parents know you both are here?" For a moment there was silence where both twins paused to look at one another between a smirking Lucy before facing in their Aunt's direction.
"No, but they are both at dance rehearsals so it won't hurt them to not know," Ben said casually. Sara raised and eye brow at them before smirking at the two of them and returning her gaze back to the game.
The boys turned to face the front again but placed their attention again on Lucy.
"So Lucifer," Ben started. "I hear Valentines Day is coming up and.." Lucy scoffed and looked at them both back and forth with a look of disbelief on her face.
"You both must be absolute idiots if you are asking me.."
"What my idiot brother is trying to ask," Sam cut in," is if you know Jade's plans for Valentines Day." Lucy suddenly became very interested in the game and kept her mouth in a hard line. The boys exchanged looks before turning back to their pray.
"Oh Lucy..."
"I'm not telling."
"Why not?" Sam asked innocently, causing Lucy to give him an obnoxious look that border-lined amusement.
"You know why. Jade will murder me if I say anything and I'm her friend. Plus you two will enjoy causing trouble for her which isn't nice." Ben rolled his eyes before wrapping an arm around Lucy's shoulders.
"Lucifer, darling, you've got to think of the bigger picture.."
"Did you just call me darling?" Lucy cut in, raising an eye brow at Ben. Sam pinched his brother's arm, causing Ben to let go, before gaining Lucy's attention.
"Mom and Dad don't want her dating Todd anymore. You know that." Lucy rolled her eyes and turned back to the game.
"Yeah, because Elle saw her daughter kissing Todd. How shocking."
"It was more than kissing, it was.." Ben cut off as he looked in the distance for a moment and flinched. Sam rolled his eyes at his brother's dramatics before turning to Lucy who was watching his brother with sly amusement.
"Making out? Yeah, that's what happens when two people date, Ben. Don't be a hypocrite." Ben returned to reality and stuffed a mozzarella stick in his mouth in a flustered fashion.
"It's different when we think of our sister doing that," Sam said, getting Lucy's attention again.
"Well I am not saying anything so I guess-"
A sound of a microphone being man handled was heard surrounding the gym. Everyone, including the players down below paused and looked around the area, in search of the commotion.
"I just wanted to say.." A familiar voice stated loudly through the microphone that caused Sara to curse quietly and Aria to turn wide eyed at her cousins, "that Lucky Scars and Little Red are the best roller derby girls out there and I just wanted to say, that Daddy loves you."
"I think I might kill him," Aria said in a shockingly quiet voice while her mother stood up a mid the crowd's uproar response and started toward the sound room, leaving the four of us siting in shock at the miracle work of Cody.
The following weekend Lucy found herself sitting once again in the dance studio with Jade sitting on one side and Alice sitting on the other. The three girls sat facing the open rehearsal space where a large dinner table stood facing direct center. On such table lounged Todd who's eyes were darkly lidded by his eye lashes that at the moment seemed to be helping bring out the green mischievous tint to them. He lay there fully embracing his new role as the Mad Hatter while Dan as the rabbit and Andrew as the drunk mouse stood behind him with their hands by their sides and their heads bowed down, giving off a power play led by Todd himself.
Ms. Olive stood center stage talking to the boys about the scene while Allison stood in the corner by the barres, stretching.
"My brothers will never stop looking into my love life now. Just continue to keep tight lipped about me and Todd, okay?" Jade asked, glancing at the two of us closely. Lucy nodded slyly and Alice gave a thumbs up before slowly lowing into her attempt at an over split.
"How do they have all this time to play sleuth, Jade? Don't they have homework and work to focus on?" Lucy asked while keeping her gaze on Olive who started to point from Todd to Andrew in a demanding manner. Jade chuckled softly as Andrew looked from Olive to Todd in what looked like anger.
"They are both trying to keep themselves busy enough to not focus on all their college applications coming back to them." Alice muttered a slew of curses under her breath as she let one of her arms off the ground, thus falling deeper into her over split.
"Where have they applied?" Jade started to count in her head the number of schools before answering with a simple "10."
"Ten schools shared between the two of them? What, have they both applied to five?" Alice asked breathlessly. Jade shook her head, continuing to watch Todd now laugh as he stood up and started to shake his hand out.
"Sam has applied to seven and Ben three." Lucy eyed Jade nervously before watching the center again.
"Why so little from Ben?" Jade shrugged.
"Honestly I don't know. Nor do I care right now. I want to watch what's going on here," Jade motioned her head to the center and the three of us looked out just in time to see Todd grab Andrew by the middle and harshly pushed him down to the ground with a big slam.
"Good boys! Now Andrew roll to the right and rise on your left leg and prepare for your high jumps. Todd, now you have to aim to slap the drunk mouse. And please no brutal take downs or whatever you call it."
Todd gave Ms. Olive an innocent smile while Andrew was red in the face and out of breath.
"What's going on in this scene again?" Alice asked as she squinted at the boys as they executed the choreography.
" It's the start of the tea party with Alice. She walks in to the Mad Hatter slapping the drunk mouse silly while the rabbit watches", a little voice said from behind the three girls. The three turned to find a little boy with shaggy brown hair sitting against the wall surround by dancer bags almost as big as him. His grey eyes were watching us with meek interest and focused finally on Jade who frowned in recognition.
"You're the boy triplet of Todd's scary fan base ." Max smiled sweetly at Jade before looking behind her at Todd who faked slapped Andrew to the floor and started kicking him in the stomach.
"Have you been sitting behind us this whole time?" Alice asked through squinted eyes that were met with the same sweet smile of the boy.
"Technically I was here first. You blocked my way." Alice opened her mouth to respond but Jade cut her to it.
"You can hide well in those bags. Do you hide here often?" Lucy and Alice exchanged looks behind Jade of confusion but Max lost the sweet smile and turned serious.
"You don't know what it's like dealing with two little sisters that are forced to be close to you just because you're triplets!" The boy said this all in a fast paced hushed voice while his eyes darted from around the room as if looking for those little beasts. Jade watched the boy with new found interest that Lucy could only lead on to believe that Jade actually liked this kid.
"I think Jade is really close to understanding what you feel, little boy." Alice stated smugly as she fell out of her split. She sighed in relief and rolled onto her back where she rocked her legs back in forth in circle motions while Max, Jade and Lucy watched her with frowns on their faces.
"Jade has two brothers who are a year older than her and just so happen to be twins," Lucy said sweetly as she turned to smile at Jade. Max turned wide eyed at Jade who sat back to watch this boy as if judging what to do with him.
"Allison come on over. We'll start your doubles on the table." The four stopped what they were doing and quickly turned to face the floor where Allison stood, slow to jump up onto the table that suddenly did not look so sturdy to those watching.
"She has to do doubles on that?" Alice asked, horrified.
"I wouldn't want to do that. Especially in front of a crowd," Jade muttered softly. Lucy stayed quiet and watched with steady eyes as Allison got into preparation for her first set of turns.
"Who's the understudy?" Max asked quietly as he shuffled over to sit next to Jade.
"Me," Lucy muttered softly.
"But if you expect me to try learning this choreography now, that would stupid. I would need to practice on a table to get it right."
Ms. Olivia counted to four and Allison tried her turns, barely going around twice before hastily dropping all the way down to her knees with her hands clutching the sides of the table for dear life, her face had grown pale.
"Learn to get comfortable turning on a table." Lucy gazed down to Max who continued to watch as Todd and Dan helped Allison down from the table.
"Jade, don't let your new friend push Allison off the table." Both Jade and Max looked at me wide eyed before glancing at one another with interest. Alice gave Lucy a knowing look before they broke apart in silent smiles.