Survival Of The Fittest

((Mercy Ames continued from High-Flying))

Slowly and carefully, Mercy hobbled her way around the outer edge of the rollerskating rink, keeping one hand on the wall at all times.

This was embarrassing. Sure, she'd never really skated before, but she was a cheerleader and martial artist! She had good balance! Why did that all go out the window and leave her clumsier than a newborn giraffe just because she'd strapped some boots with wheels to her feet?

She normally wouldn't have chosen to spend her time somewhere where everyone could watch her so clearly out of her element, but her Mom had promised to do some pictures at a birthday party as a favor to their neighbor. Mercy had volunteered to come along and help out, but she'd ended up being superfluous; her options had been sitting around at the neighbor kid's tenth birthday at the bowling alley, or heading next door to give the skating rink a try. The choice had been deiced by the fact that Mercy knew she was bad at bowling, but skating had been a mystery.

Yeah, at this point she was regretting not just sucking it up and using the bumpers on the bowling row like the rest of the little kids.

Mercy heaved an annoyed sigh and then quickly clutched at the wall as the exaggerated movement shifted her center of gravity enough to make her tilt precariously. Jeez.

Drew was having a good time at the rollerskating rink and he was not really trying to show off or anything like that. He was just minding his own business even if he did get some jealous stares from some people who could not hold up their balance wisely and he was only there to have a fun experience. Even if he was alone without Declyn there. Which pretty much was a bummer for Drew because he would have loved to see his best friend being an adorable klutz by falling over a lot. Drew couldn't help but smile at the thought.

He then noticed someone from his school and he realized that it was Mercy. The girl looked like she was having a bit of struggle and he wondered if he should give her a helping hand. Besides she seemed like a nice girl and he thought that maybe he could hang out with her for the time-being.

"Hey, Mercy!" He called out to her, giving her a friendly wave and he stopped right in front of her. "Hey there. Would you like some help?"

"Whoa hey hello hey hi!!!"

And they zoomed past like the zoomie zoomer they were!

>> Zen Alicea Feliciano continued from Just Dance

Zen wouldn't call skating a hobby or anything cause that would imply it was something they did a lot, or cared a lot about, like sewing or fighting games or not doing homework. It wasn't any of those things, but it was still a fun thing to do every once and a while, like "once every couple of months" once and a while, mostly cause their Auntie liked it and it was nice spending time with her sometimes. Of course This particular time they'd planned this get-together and they had literally been In The Car when Auntie had gotten an emergency call from work. And she asked Zen if they wanted to go back home and they said no because hey if you're gonna Skate you Skate or you Die and so now they were here all by their lonesome doing sick speed laps around the place cause going fast was the whole fun of it!

They didn't expect to spot anyone they knew here cause they didn't, usually, but this time they Did and not only was it someone it was Mercy who was like, more important than most someones! And she was with... a boy whose name was escaping them right now but actually, now that they were thinking about it, they were pretty sure they had seen him here before? They just hadn't recognized him as a student before just now! Maybe they were just kinda oblivious to the rest of the crowd. That seemed pretty right.

On their next lap they slowed to a stop, managing to not topple Mercy over, which was good cause Mercy seemed to be doing a good job of doing that all on her own.

"Hi! Again! What're you doing here, Mercy, I didn't know you could skate, or I guess you kinda can't but you're still here which is something?" They spun and turned to point at Drew. "And... you! What's your name?? I've seen you here before and you're really good??"