What could I tell Vince? That I didn’t see that we’d done anything too wrong? I’ll admit my desire to impress had made me a little sloppy in finding out more about what we were walking into with Ned, and I will also admit that perhaps, just perhaps, there are exceptions to the slay-all-monsters-before-they-slay-you rule. But, darn it, I still wanted to be a monster hunter! If the only way I could pull that off was playing this game of Mom and Dad’s for a bit, I wasn’t going to blow it. The only way out was through. Adults. They hold all the cards.
“Be a normal kid. Stay out of trouble. Go skate,” I said.
“Don’t boss me around,” said Vince.
“I’m looking after you. I promised your mom I would keep you out of trouble. Don’t make my job harder.”
“Like I’m the one who needs looking after,” said Vince under his breath. He skated away.
“I heard that.” Good grief. It had been a trying day.
The skaters moved out to the floor in various states of expertise. I recognized the skate music: Locomotion by Grand Funk Railroad. Mr. Cooper says that every roller skating rink everywhere plays Locomotion, even when he was a boy in ancient times.
I saw a friend who was in need of my aid, fast. Marty went to school with me at Wolcroft. People liked to pick on Marty because she took everything to heart. When I started at Wolcroft in the fourth grade, I stopped it. Marty was brilliant, like every other girl at Wolcroft, but she wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to social stuff. At the same time, it wasn’t cool how the other girls teased her.
Marty stood at the guardrail, except she wasn’t looking cool. I planned to keep working on her about skate lessons.
I realized I should focus on my relationship with Marty to impress my parents. Marty knew nothing of the fringes of society where monsters lurked. She was much too nice for the world of ruthless monsters. Marty was interested in hair and makeup. Instant thirteen-year-old pursuits! Take that, parents! Normal girl problems solved.
Eeuw.
I skated up to her. “Hey, Marty.”
“Hey, Abs.”
That was an eye roller, to be sure, but I didn’t want to shatter Marty’s fragile self-esteem.
“Good weekend?”
“Mmmhmm.”
Vince skated over to us. Marty startled and almost fell. Vince righted her.
“Thanks,” Marty said. Her eyes were full of Vince crush and gratitude.
“No problemo,” said Vince. “Let’s skate.”
I knew the crush was coming. We were in seventh grade, after all, and some of our classmates had hinted that outside of school, they hung out with boys. In seventh grade, relationships, from all I could see, were about your parents driving you to, say the roller rink, so you could pretend to be involved with a boy or girl, have a squabble, text all your friends, get over yourself, and go back to the boy or girl. There were some forward girls who said that there was something really cool about boys and kissing, but I couldn’t see it.
No way was I going to be interested in anyone. I was going to have a career killing monsters all over the world. When they needed it. I was sure I could get my parents to come round.
“We’ll catch up in a sec,” I said. Vince wheeled away to a couple of his school buddies. I shook my head at Marty. “You do not want to have a crush on Vince.”
“You’re not...”
I waved my hands. “Oh no! I mean, me and Vince? No. I’m not about to restrict my freedom like that. With anyone. I have a career to consider.”
“Well, okay.” Her brown eyes twinkled as the lights dimmed and the disco ball lowered from the ceiling. “So why not Vince?”
I couldn’t tell her that he was the target of a blood thirsty, stunted teen I hadn’t decided should live or die yet, regardless of what my parents might think. “Um, Vince is not what he seems.” That was lame. I wondered why all those actors in Dad’s films could say the right thing at the right time. Oh yeah. Scripts again.
“Why? Does he have a girlfriend?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then what’s wrong with him?”
“Well, he’s just...look. It’s just a bad idea. What about that Kevin guy from last month?”
Marty shook her head. “No. I’ve outgrown him.”
“You’re gonna have to trust me on this one. Let’s go.”
I skated ahead of Marty. She pulled herself along the rail, then pulled on the carpet by the wall, fingers digging in like a cat’s claws when kitty didn’t want a bath. It was going to be hard work for her. I’d offer to help her around, but speed scared her. I rolled by a slender redhead, her hair pulled away from her forehead, making her face glow a bit like the moon under the black lights. She smiled at me. Being friendly, I smiled back, and I crossed one skate over the other as I curved around the end of the rink. She did a tricky little thing with her feet and skated backwards on one foot. I gave her a thumbs-up. I could do that, but there were rules about horseplay, and I didn’t want Big Mel upset at me.
I circled two more times. Vince caught up, and I grabbed his elbow to keep him with me. “Marty has made it around once,” I said. “We should stop, get her a drink.”
Vince nodded. He was pretty good at being a gentleman. “I’ll see if Todd or Jaime wants a break.” He rolled away to talk to his friends while I caught up with Marty. “You want something to drink?” I said over the wheels and music.
Marty planted her hands on the carpeted walls and pulled herself to a
