All School Roller Skating Party

The clocked seemed to be ticking by at half normal speed. Seven minutes and the bell was set to ring. Seven, no six, minutes and then I would be free. School would be over for the day.  I could hardly stand it anymore. This afternoon was the all school roller skating party. People had been talking about this for weeks.

Five minutes.

The plan was that Stacy’s mom would pick us up from school, take us to her house for something to eat and then she would drive us all to the rink. My mom was the one to pick us up after the party. My mom always did the picking up because she had to work.  My friends never came to my house to eat.

Three minutes.

I knew that the whole school was going to be there and the talk was that Melissa and Ryan were going to sneak off and make out. I couldn’t believe that Melissa was going to let a boy kiss her. A real kiss from a boy. But she did have that reputation. I wonder what was would be like? I am pretty sure it would be all wet and sloppy.

One minute.

Is Mr Admiral still talking? I can’t believe these teachers. Don’t they know that no one is paying attention to them? I think that on party days last period should be let out 10 minutes early.

*RING*

As if set to the clock, the whole room stood up and filed out of the door like a school of fish swimming down river.

“Jenny  Jenny” Stacy called to me from down the hall, “My mom is already here. Let’s go.”

I picked up the pace to meet my best friends. Stacy, Jill, Kelly and I had known each other since second grade. We did everything together. We were not the most popular girls in school but we were at the bottom of the social ladder either.  I liked our place in the school hierarchy. Because of Stacy’s older brother’s bullies left us alone and because of Kelly’s swimming pool people wanted to hang out with us. It was the best that any middle school could ask for.

“You guys!?” Jill said in a hushed tone while we rode to the skating rink. “I heard from Pete, who heard it from Andrea, who heard it from John that Ryan is bringing a condom to the party.”

“No way!” We all said in unison as shock and horror oozed from our tone.

“Yeah,” Jill continued. “I guess he has big plans with Melissa.”

“Does she know?” Kelly asked? “And what are they going to do with that?”

“Who knows and really who cares.” Stacy chimed in. “Do you know what I heard? I heard that Craig is going to ask Jenny to skate.”

As those words hit the air, all three of their heads turned to look in my direction. It was just in enough time to see me turn three different shades of red.

I really, really liked Craig. But I didn’t know if he knew that I existed. I just kept hoping that some day he would notice me or talk to me. But if this was true, it was more than I could have ever hoped for. Only established couples actually skated together while holding hands at skating parties. This meant that he liked me, he really, really liked me.

“Stacy, you are a liar.” I snapped at her, not wanting to seem to eager. “Why would you say such things. You know how much I like him.”

I wanted to cry. What if she was lying? But what if she wasn’t lying? What would I do? I had never touched a boy. What would I say to him? What would we talk about? What if I fell?

“Jenny, Dan told me. Dan told me that Craig was going to ask you and he might even ask you to go steady.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to vomit.  But before I could really do anything, we had arrived and my friends were pulling me out of the car and into the rink.

When we walked into the rink, the music and lights soon made me forget the conversations in the car. People were out on the rink staking. People were eating popcorn and other snacks. Jokes were being told. We were being laughed at for falling. And sure enough, Melissa and Ryan were in a corner kissing.

“Take a picture, Jenny. It will last longer.” Stacy said to me after I had been staring at the kissing couple for too long. “Let’s go skate.”

The afternoon seemed to fly by. Things were going well. We were having fun and I had almost forgotten about Craig and the changes there going to happen to my ‘love’ life until the DJ came on the loud speaker and said, “Alright, guys and gals. Let’s slow things down a little bit. Grab that special someone for a couples only skate.”

The rink seems to clear as if some one had let an atomic fart rip. The disco lights stopped flashing and the known five couples entered the rink to skate hand in hand.

I nervously scanned the room but the dim lighting made it impossible to see. My heart was in my throat. There was one part of me that was aching for Craig to come over to me and ask me to skate but there was another part that was terrified. I didn’t know what to hope for.

The first song ended and I still didn’t see Craig any where. I let out a sigh and turned my attention to my friends who were sharing more juicy gossip about what Melissa and Ryan were doing. Stacy looked over and me and smiled. Her smile told me that she understood. I started to smile back at her when I noticed her eyes widen and in that same moment silence surround me as I felt a ever so light tap on my shoulder.

I turned around in my seat to see Craig standing in front of me. I looked up into his baby blue eyes and the world seemed to melt away.

“Jenny, wanna skate?” He said as he held out his hand.

Instinctively, my body reached out and took his hand. My hand felt small in his and I was surprised to feel how warm and wet his palms were. He was just as nervous as me. I smiled at him as I stood. I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. I looked to my girl friends for support and was met with silent cheers and smiles. I was dizzy with excitement. I couldn’t believe that this was actually happening.

Bryan Adams blared through the speakers as we silently skated hand in hand. We stole looks at each other and smiled nervously as the music began to end.

“That’s enough lovey dovey. Let’s get this party going again.” The DJ announced. And from all corners of the rink, people flocked back on the rink to skate. Craig and I exited the first place we could, knowing that soon we would be force to go back to our friends.

Craig looked at me with his baby blue eyes and whispered in a voice so quiet I had to strain to hear over the noise, “Wanna go steady?”

With my hand still in his, I smiled and spoke my first word to him all afternoon, “Yes.”

“Cool. See you next couple skate.” He said and with that he left go of my hand and skated off.

I was left with a big cheesy grin on my face because now Creekside Middle School had officially six couples.

This is a fictional story based upon true events in my past. It was inspired by a post on a roller skating that I read in my travels around the blogosphere. I think that we all have some stories similar to this.

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4. More Than a Mother
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Tagged as: Fiction, First boy crush, Middle School, Roller Skating Party