Young Writers Society

A/N: Hi! This is a flashback to when Madalynn and everyone was twelve. They are going on a field trip to the Mega Rink for the first time. Madalynn’s POV. Enjoy.

Part 5:

Our school is right next to the Mega Rink. I was assigned to sit next to Haley on the bus and she had bet me the Mega Rink was exactly two minutes away from the school, so we counted by the second. And guess what?

It was exactly two minutes away. One hundred twenty seconds away. Funny.

When we got there, Haley and I immediately went to the Rent-Your-Skates area and we were the first ones to step into the rink. Haley talked about her favorite TV show while we skated alongside each other. After a while, we watched everyone gradually skate into the rink.

I wanted to check on my other friends and see how far they were in line or if they were getting their skates on, so I left Haley skating with her other friends. I found Mollie sitting on one of the benches trying to put her skates on.

“Hey. Do you know how to skate?” I asked her. I had to kind of shout over the loud music.

She shook her head and said, “Um… no…”

I nodded and sat down next to her.

“I’ll teach you if you want,” I said. She nodded too.

“Okay, but you have to make sure I don’t fall,” she said. I laughed.

“Okay, okay, I’ll make sure.”

She couldn’t buckle one of her buckles on her skates. It was too loose if you kept it where it was, she had said. So I tried to push the buckle tighter, but it wouldn’t budge. Mollie got a teacher. While the teacher was helping her, I looked around for Jay.

He’s in the basketball court next to the rink; he’s playing with all of the other guys.

I haven’t told Mollie yet about my crush on him because I know she’ll be teasing me relentlessly for a long time if I did tell her. That’s what happened for a lot of the other guys I had crushes on.

Jay has the basketball; he just missed the net. The ball bounced off the rim. He turns and glances in my direction, and I immediately go back to helping Mollie. I don’t want him to see I was staring at him. He doesn’t know I have a crush on him; let’s keep it that way. Mollie’s skates are finally tight enough so I take my thoughts off of Jay and focus on helping Mollie.

We take a few practice runs through the food court, me showing her the right way to use your feet and turn. Soon we step into the rink and Mollie hugs the wall while I slowly skate next to her.

After a while, Mollie tells me she’s fine and says to leave her alone so she could try and skate by herself. I said okay and skated away, keeping a close watch on her anyway. She looks steady. Good.

I skate alone, just enjoying the music and the wind. But while I was skating along all dreamily and happily, someone whizzed past me and almost made me fall. I look up to who just flew by, and it’s a guy in my grade. I think his name is Spencer. He’s skating like he’s a pro skater or something. He stays low, just like those hockey players when they skate really fast.

While I skate, I watch him, fascinated by how fast he’s going. That’s when I notice Mollie isn’t in the rink anymore. I skate out of there, looking for her. I find her sitting on a bench taking her skates off.

“Hey. Are you okay?” I ask.

She bites her lip and shakes her head.

“Oh no. Are you hurt? Did I do something wrong?”

“No… I just…” I sit down next to her, and she starts crying.

“No no no, Mollie, don’t cry,” I say.

“I just”-hiccup-“I hate not being able to do this!”

“What do you mean? You were doing great, and you didn’t even fall once!”

She shakes her head angrily, her blond locks whipping around.

“No, I fell. When you left. I wanted to see if I could do it by myself without you there. But I can’t do it without you there. I fell, Madalynn! Like five times!” She starts to sob, and for a moment, I don’t know what to say.

“Mollie, look at me. It’s your first time skating! Cut yourself some slack; you’re still learning. Not everyone is perfect the first time. Even good skaters who know how to skate fall. Even I fall. Don’t worry; you’re not the only one. You’re totally fine, okay?”

She stops crying and nods. We sit there for a while, me waiting for Mollie to compose herself. While she does, I look around again. Jay is still in the basketball court, but he isn’t playing. He’s in the sidelines, cheering on his other friends. I watch the game. That’s when I notice Jay staring at me. We meet eyes; we gaze at each other for a long time. I break away first, turning to Mollie. I find her smirking at me. Yep. She’s back.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing. I just saw you staring at that guy over there,” she says, a smirk still plastered on her pretty face.

“Don’t you dare say anything, you hear me?” I say, telling her I have a crush on Jay without really telling her.

She understands. She shrugs and stands up.

“You wanna eat? I’m hungry,” she asks. I shrug too.

“Sure.” While we eat, she talks about guys and her crushes. I listen, but I don’t say anything about Jay. Then she says something that gets my attention.

“So, while I was desperately hugging the wall, I saw this guy skating by you, obviously flirting by flying past you.”

I nod with a mouth full of pizza. She waits until I swallow.

“Yeah, I saw. He almost made me fall, like, ten times. But he was flirting with me?”

“Yeah, it was totally obvious!” She answers. I sigh and shake my head. No use trying to argue with her. She knows flirting when she sees it. Oh well.

After we eat, I feel like skating again so I leave her playing her favorite arcade game and step back into the rink. While I skate, I look for Jay. He’s not in the basketball court anymore. Hm. I wonder where he is. I also look for Spencer to see if he’s trying to fly past me again. He isn’t skating anymore. Hm… I wonder where he is too.

Haley comes up next to me and we start talking. While we chat, at the back of my mind, I wonder where they are.

Soon, I get bored skating and go out to search for Mollie. I find her leaning against the wall talking with Jay and Spencer. They are laughing uncontrollably. I narrow my eyes; I feel kind of jealous. Jay doesn’t really talk with me much except for projects because we are assigned partners like, all the time and Spencer never even looked at me until today when Mollie said he was supposedly flirting with me.

They know Mollie and I are best friends. Everyone knows that. So why do they talk to Mollie instead of me when they know me better? No, don’t think like that. Being jealous doesn’t help your reputation. I can just come up to them and talk, right?

I skate up to them and say hi. They stop talking. There’s a brief awkward silence. My cheeks get warm. Then Jay says, “Hi, you’re… Madalynn, right?”

How could you not remember my name? I nod. “Yep.”

“Cool.”

Spencer nods at me and says, “Hey.”

“Hi.” I press my lips together and look at Mollie.Mollie, a little help here?I ask through my eyes.Another silence.

Suddenly I don’t feel so confident anymore. I say bye to them and skate away quickly. I don’t want to listen to them; I’m out of place anyway.

I skate for a while, thinking. I watch everyone skate happily, some girls talking and holding hands with boys, some teachers skating with other teachers and laughing. I feel out of place again.

When it’s time to go back to our teachers, I put away my skates and walk past Mollie without a word.

“Wait! I’m sorry, Madalynn! I just wanted to get to know them!”

I spin around.

“And yet, you didn’t even say anything when you knew how embarrassed I must’ve looked? You know me, Mollie! You know I’m shy and need help talking to boys. You let me embarrass myself in front of him when you were standing right there. You could’ve helped me. I helped you today, and you didn’t even say thank you.”

I spin back around and leave her to think about what I just said. I get my coat and sit down to wait for everyone else to get ready. I cool down a bit.

Mollie sits down next to me silently. I turn to her. Before I could even say anything, she hugs me. “I’m sorry. I know how much you need help with guys. I should’ve helped. I promise I will next time and all the times after that.” I nod. After a second, she adds, “You’re hopeless like that.” I laugh a little at her joke.

“Okay. I forgive you.”

We hug again. But…her hugs and apologies don’t feel real. Why?

……….

When we get back to school, I head for my locker.

“Madalynn?” A voice says. I look up and turn around. Jay is standing right behind me. My heart leaps a little. Oh no, Mollie isn’t here. She’s at her locker.

“Uh… Yeah?” Jay smiles.

“Would you like to, um, go out with me? I’ve been meaning to ask you after that one project we did together, but I was too busy, and then-”

I hold up my hand, stopping him.

“Yeah. Of course," I say, smiling.

*Present, at class after lunch incident*

That’s what happened, I realize. Mollie saw me liking Jay, and I think she liked him too. That’s why she didn’t help me. She wanted me to embarrass myself in front of him so he would like her instead.

When Jay asked me out and I told her, she got jealous. She wanted to pull us apart. She made Jay ask her out to make me stop liking him. Oh God. It’s at times like these I am thankful for being so smart. But… why does it look like Jay likes her if she made him ask her out? I don’t know. Maybe Spencer knows; I’ll tell him.

Well, whatever it is, I can only decide on one thing: Mollie, my former best friend, has changed. Big time.