ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb [closed]

[lucy]

Joan exhaled deeply, closing her eyes as she leaned against one of the walls surrounding the busy rink. She came here to think, dwelling on the cheesy Seventies atmosphere of The Roller Kingdom. She adored this place, roller skating was one of her favorite pastimes. It was better than sitting at home being beaten over the head by her bible preaching parental figures.

She currently wasn't doing much roller skating though, figuring it was more fun to people watch right now while the rink was busy and no one would notice her. Latching and unlatching a safety pin on her shirt, she quietly observed the numerous couples skating hand in hand, passing her without a second glance. A sharp twang of pain struck her chest when she thought about what it would be like to be happy like them.

She pursed her lips when she stuck herself with the pin, hissing under her breath as she examined the drop of blood pooling on her thumb. She unthinkingly wiped it away on her shirt, leaving a dingy streak of crimson behind.

[Rainbow]

"I'm going to fall." Dianna pointedly looked at her brunette best friend that was currently holding her hand and trying hard to skate slowly so that she didn't accidentally drag Dianna into a pace faster than what she already had. "Jessa, don't worry about me. You go skate some more, I'm gonna get something to eat. Deal?" Unfortunately, she didn't stick around for her friend to argue with her, just barely managing to make it out of the loop of skating people and onto a bench to take off her skates without falling.

Her feet were sore, as was her stomach. Dianna had fallen several times and even though she was intent to learn how to skate, she didn't want to do it with so many people around. Someone had actually rolled over her fingers one of the times that she had fallen. Recalling this, she looked down at her hand to see that there was a streak of ugly purple bruises on her fingers.

Sliding her skates off, Dianna wiggled her toes to make sure that they were all okay before getting up. Like she usually tended to do, she was distracted by wondering what the rink would look like to her if she wasn't colorblind. Was it pretty? To a non-colorblind person seeing through her eyes, the rink was all shades of yellow and blue. Rather weird, actually. But to Dianna, these colors were normal. Wrinkling her nose, Dianna got up and headed towards where she knew the smell of food was coming from, but was distracted by movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked in that direction in time to see a girl wipe at something on her shirt.

"Hey," Dianna hummed casually, walking over to the other girl. "Are you waiting for someone?" She asked curiously, raising her eyebrow. Maybe it wasn't any of her concern, but she figured that if this girl didn't want to answer, she would tell her. Hopefully in a polite manner.

[lucy]

Joan was minding her own company while she analyzed every stranger that passed her. She came to the roller rink enough times that she could pinpoint all the regulars. She had heard every single song they played, and won every arcade game. This was a home away from home to her, but she never made an effort to socialize with anyone. No one had ever made an effort with her. Maybe she just came off as unapproachable.

A feminine voice cut her train of thought and she turned to whoever had addressed her, a little surprised it was a pretty girl from her school. She had seen her around every so often, but never bothered to strike up a conversation with her. She actually wasn't even sure of this girl's name. Did this girl know her name?

Fuck, she's really hot up close! Joan gnawed at her lip, searching for words. "Er..no, just, standing around. Accidentally stabbing my thumb with a safety pin. I don't really come here..with friends. I mean, I'm here all the time." She mentally scolded herself for being so fucking socially awkward. She probably could've sounded like less of a loser if she had thought about what she was saying first.

She had just seen the girl falling all over the place with her friend, she probably had given up and was searching for something else to entertain her. Roller skating was difficult to get a hang of, the rental skates were awful as well. Joan liked roller skating, she was pretty good in terms of keeping her balance, but she never had anyone to skate with. All her friends had busy social lives, boyfriends and dates.

[Rainbow]

Dianna looked towards the smear on this girl's shirt. Figuring out after a moment of thought that this would typically be the color of blood, she looked back at the other girl's face and frowned a bit with worry. Well, it was just a pin prick. It's not like it would get infected, so Dianna shouldn't have any reason to worry.

"This is the first time I've been here," the blonde admitted, glancing towards all the people roller skating for a moment and gave a small wave when Jessalyn noticed her watching everyone and smiled at her. She looked back at the girl. "I'm not all that good. There's too many people here and people don't see to watch where they're going," she laughed, absently rubbing her fiercely bruised fingers.

Dianna could tell that the other girl wasn't all that comfortable with this social situation, so she tried to give her a reassuring smile. "Sorry, I'm Dianna," she introduced herself, offering her hand out for a handshake. Honestly, she had seen this girl around and knew that her name started with J, but didn't want to make an absolute idiot of herself and address her by something like Jennifer or Jessica.

[lucy]

She slowly accepted her outstretched hand, shaking it lightly before returning it to her side. "Joan," She smiled a little, Dianna definitely came across as a newbie to skating. It took practice, and enough guts to push people out of the way when they get in your's. "Yeah, there's some idiots over there all right."

The worn out skates in Dianna's hand caught her eye, "You really should get some new ones, those aren't gonna do you much good. They look kinda..really stiff." Her feet must be killing her from those things! She had also noticed the girl that had waved to someone just recently, "So uhm..you here with your friends?"

[Rainbow]

Dianna looked down at the skates, looking them over for a moment and seemed to remember just how sore her feet were from trying to skate. "Yeah. They're rental ones," she hummed, figuring that she probably wouldn't be putting them back on unless a bunch of people suddenly left the rink. Distracted by her skates, Dianna wondered if they were orange or green. Those two colors were virtually identical to her. That's what she hated, not being able to tell the difference between orange and green. Sometimes yellow was hard to figure out as well.

"Well, just one friend. She needed someone to skate with her because no one else will. None of my friends really know how," Dianna laughed slightly. "We're very clumsy people." She turned to look at Joan again, frowning curiously and raised an eyebrow. "Why aren't you out there skating, anyway? If you're here all the time, you must be pretty good at this kind of thing."

[lucy]

Ugh, rental skates had awful stability and you nearly almost fell when trying to turn. "I just, didn't feel like skating right now. Its not as much fun by yourself..." Sometimes she did skate by herself, but mostly she just hung around the arcade games or something. Dianna was right though, she was probably a much better skater than her friend.

"If you want to learn how to skate properly..I could teach you. You said yourself your friends were clumsy. I'll let you borrow my skates if you want." Even if her skates were too big or a little too small, they'd be better than the rental skates she was using now.

[Rainbow]

Dianna simply nodded, absently toying with her rental skates with her good hand. When Joan spoke again, she snapped herself out of her daydream and looked back at her, smiling gratefully. "Yeah, I'd like that. Your skates are probably a lot better than these..." she trailed off, searching for an appropriate word to describe her skates while holding them up, "...beasts."

Dianna once again looked towards the rink with all of the people crowding it. "Would you be able to manage teaching me with all of these people? I don't wanna be pushed to the ground again," she laughed slightly. Really though, she didn't mind that too much. It was just frustrating that she couldn't seem to get the hang of roller skating and slightly embarrassing when kids several years younger than herself could just fly right past her.

[lucy]

Joan returned the friendly smiled, pushing her fingers through her dark, shaggy hair. "You'll be fine," she chuckled, "I'll catch you if you fall." This girl seemed pretty nice, friendly. Cute. Not like the usual mohawk, tattoo and piercing covered girls and boys she normally went after.

Tonight was shaping up to be better than she expected as she walked over to a bench with Dianna. She sat down, swiftly kicked off her roller skates and handed them to her. "Trade me?" They looked to be custom, with black, blue and red stars dappled along the sides, white matching wheels along with 'Joanie' written on the inside facing panel.

[Rainbow]

"Promise?" Dianna joked, grinning as she followed Joan over to the bench. She was still intimidated by the number of people in the rink, but she tried not to let that get to her. She offered her skates out to Joan and took the other girl's skates. For a moment, she looked them over oddly before finally deciding on what colors they were. "Pretty," she hummed to herself, not entirely realizing how odd that comment could seem, before actually noticing the name on the panel.

"'Joanie'? Cute," Dianna smiled and slid them on, nodding with approval. "They definitely feel a lot better than those things," she gestured to the rental skates, sliding her feet back and forth on the ground once she had finished tying the skates up, though remained sitting down.

[lucy]

"My dad bought them for me on my last birthday," she explained, a little embarrassed by the childish nickname. Joan stuffed her feet in the properly sized, yet still ill fitting skates and stood up, offering Dianna her hand. "Come on," She gently tugged Dianna up from the bench and skated back over to the rink. There were a lot of people today, but Joan had confidence in her.

"Do I have to hold your hand?" she asked playfully, offering her hand to her again. "Or do you think you're okay in those?" They'd skate slowly for a little while until Dianna was used to it and could go a little faster. Then they'd probably part ways and leave Joan to go back to her friend. She didn't mind, really. She was sure she'd see this girl around at school now that they were introduced.

[Rainbow]

Dianna quickly latched onto Joan's hand when she silently offered to help her up, concentrating rather hard on her feet and the ground while she made her way to the rink. She didn't bother to try and find Jessa; honestly, she was enjoying making a new friend. Well, who she hoped would be a new friend.

"Hold my hand," Dianna demanded with a childish smile, grabbing Joan's hand as soon as it was offered to her again. "Just for a bit. I'm kinda used to having to skate with my feet, like...tilted...because those skates hurt. Did that make sense?" She grinned, trying not to pay attention to everyone else. "Okay...talk to me and distract me while I do this. Tell me something about yourself."

[lucy]

What could she say to her? Talk about anything, really.."I think I'll just ask the questions," she smiled, "I've seen you around Rosewood, what subjects are you taking?" From what she knew, Dianna and herself didn't share any of the same classes. She probably would've noticed her if she was in one of her classes.

Joan had absolutely no clue what she was going to do with her life. She was hoping she would get lucky and land a career in a band or something cool. She didn't have a specific career path right now with the subjects she's studying. But..she needed a back up plan if the whole, 'get famous get rich, have a midlife crisis and quit' scheme didn't go as planned.

[Rainbow]

Dianna pursed her lips to hide a displeased frown. Well, this wasn't a very penetrating question, which was a good thing. "Biology, chemistry...gym..." she hummed with thought before laughing slightly. "This is surprisingly hard. Art, french...I'm not in any of your classes, if that's what you're thinking. You're not in my grade." Figuring she might sound a bit odd for knowing that, she quickly explained herself. "I have a friend that's a grade lower than myself and I saw you in one of her classes while I was waiting for her."

Dianna was convinced that she had nearly had a heart attack when she almost slipped backwards, quickly fighting for her balance with a couple flails of her free arm. "I can't imagine ice skating. I think I'd break my neck or something," she joked, making a face afterwards.

[lucy]

Joan grinned, amused by her lack of confidence in herself. "You probably would." she said, adjusting her grip on her hand to her arm in hopes she'd be able to catch her if she fell. "You'll get better," She had to be careful now because she had almost gone down with the ship that time. Stay on your toes, Joan or you'll end up on the floor.

She didn't realize that Dianna was a year older than her, and felt a little silly now. At least she knew so now though. All of Joan's friends were in grade eleven, same as herself. She didn't get along with most people younger than her, most would judge to quickly.