Chapter 30.5 – Team Lavender goes roller skating

Chapter 30.5 – Team Lavender goes roller skating

“The castle has a roller rink?”

I felt pretty stupid asking that when I was literally staring at Kebia Castle’s supposed social hotspot “The Royal Skate.” Especially when it looked just like the kinds of roller rinks I’d have back in my old life

I…vaguely remembered what those were like, weirdly enough.

This one in particular had a flashy, rainbow colored carpet decorated with stitched-on swirls, stars, and streamers. The kind of carpet that would probably trap a lot of dirt and food crumbs. The wooden floors that the tens of pokemon here used for skating were freshly waxed and reflected the light of the disco ball spinning above, casting a frantic sight of flashing lights and zooming bodies. That was already an assault on the senses, but my enhanced sense of smell combined with the booming music was lending itself well to giving me a headache.

“What?”

I turned to my right. There was Fenn, visibly wincing from the bright lights and deafening music. The uncomfortable frown on the Quilava’s face told me that he was either having a hard time focusing or he was having a bad time already. “W-what did you say?” he almost shouted over the noise.

I leaned in closer and spoke just as loudly. “I didn’t know this place had a roller rink!”

“You haven’t heard of this place before, Ozzy?” That was Finch’s voice. And if it wasn’t obvious from the sound of it, coming here was his idea. “You know, I wanted to get into this castle for a lot of reasons, but The Royal Skate was at the top of the list. Either of you ever skate?”

Fenn looked between Finch and I before hesitantly—and surprisingly—nodding. I just crossed my arms. “It’s been a while,” I said.

“Ooh! Ooh!” Cosmo sounded out above us, excitedly bouncing up and down. “Cosmo wants to skate! He can shred it suuuuuuuper good!”

Finch grinned. “I bet you can! Let’s get you some skates!”

“Yay!” Cosmo cheered, his bubble jiggling with delight.

I shot the croc a disappointed frown. “Don’t get his hopes up, Finch.”

Still with that smug grin, the Krokorok shrugged his shoulders at me.

At the same time, Fenn looked at Cosmo quizzically. “…Where did you learn what ‘shred it’ means?” he mumbled.

He would never get his answer. Because a split second later, Finch clapped his claws together and led us to the bored Lucario behind the counter by the back wall. “Now,” Finch started, “the first thing you gotta know about the skates is that the best ones have loose wheels…”

The Lucario, who had been resting his chin on his paw, simply sighed as the four of us approached. “What’s your size and footprint type?” he asked in a monotone sounding voice.

Well, I didn’t know, so the next 15 minutes was spent figuring it out. It took quite a bit of trial and error, and the employee was getting more and more despondent as time went on. I had never seen someone wielding a shoe-size measuring tool look so defeated.

Regardless, Finch, Fenn, and I got our skates. Or rollerblades in Finch’s case. “Blades are better for speed,” he said. “Hope you don’t mind. I’ve got a quota to keep up with.” That last comment was accentuated with finger guns and Finch snapping his fingers at me.

Cosmo was sad that he didn’t get any, but he got over it after we told him that he could be the replacement for the disco ball in case it broke. “Cosmo will light up the night like a bright star of hope!” the Solosis declared.

Please don’t actually break tonight, disco ball, I thought pleadingly.

As for me, I’m a “size five” and have “webbed type feet.” I probably could have figured that out on my own if I’m being honest. The skates I got were the ones that work best for beginners and had these blue streaks on them.

Not that I considered myself a beginner or anything like that—it was the opposite, actually. Roller skating was something I swore I was decent at as a human. Which was great because I wanted to make it up to Fenn for dragging him down here by being his helping hand.

“I’ll catch you if you fall!” I told Fenn over the music the Politoed DJ was blasting.

Fenn’s ears were pressed against his head, but he smiled and nodded anyway. His skates were on his feet well before I had my skates on mine, and his had a flame design on them.

And then we were off. Finch didn’t want to be slowed down so he went off ahead while Cosmo was told to stay on the sidelines. So it was just me and Fenn as we made our way to the actual rink.

…Or at least, we tried. I tried. Somehow I managed to vastly underestimate how sensitive these skate wheels would be.

“Whoa- whoa!” I cried out, flailing my arms and struggling to stand in place.

“A-are you okay?” Fenn asked concernedly, holding out his arms to catch me if he needed to.

A hot sensation rushed to my cheeks as I propped myself up against the wall. The realization that this was going to be harder than expected was already starting to sink in. “Uh…yeah, I’m fine,” I reassured him. “Just…give me a second.” Or a minute. Possibly two.

My next attempt to roll myself to the wooden floor was stopped by me almost tripping again. I started to feel the floor slipping out from under me so I leaned forward, leaned back, flailed my arms some more, then repeated the process like three times before I stopped in place.

Fenn was staring at me the whole time. “Do you…do you want some help?” he asked. Unlike me, the Quilava wasn’t having any trouble.

As nice as that sounded, “I’m good, thanks,” was my answer.

My third attempt was a series of me repeating the second attempt several times while slowly waddling over to the rink. I got there eventually, but by that point my ankles were beginning to hurt and I was sweating. “Okay…okay…” I mumbled to myself.

Fenn was still there, patiently waiting to actually do what he came here to do. “A-are you sure you don’t need any help?”

I looked at him over my shoulder. “I told you, Fenn, I’ve done this before. I just need to get back into it…”

Fenn didn’t argue.

So there I was, standing at the edge of the carpet looking down at the floor like I was about to dive into the ocean. Which…you know, maybe I should have approached this situation like how I use water moves, but I was too distracted by all of the other pokemon skating around effortlessly and the DJ’s terrible music choices. After a bit of fearful waiting, I decided to just do it.

I regretted it immediately.

First off, the wooden floors were waxed so vehemently that stepping off the carpet was like going from snow to ice. My feet literally slipped out from under me. But I couldn’t let myself fall that easily, oh no. I had to fight it. Fenn wasn’t about to see me fall on my ass so soon-

Wind rushed past my whiskers for a moment, then my back smacked against the waxed wood below. I fell. I tried to stop it but I just couldn’t. The entire process lasted less than three seconds and I could only imagine how comical it must have looked. I’m pretty sure I said something stupid like “oh Christmas crackers!” Then I fell and landed on my back like a cartoon character.

“Oswald!” Fenn cried out. The fire type appeared in my vision an instant later. Somehow, he hadn’t fallen over as well. “Y-you fell!”

Yep. Sure did. I almost wanted to laugh. Here we were at the castle’s god damn roller rink and I was splayed out on the floor. I wasn’t in much pain—just my tail hurt a little bit. Sitting up didn’t take much effort. “Sorry…about that,” I said while rubbing the back of my head. “Give me a second.”

Standing up was not easy. Every time I would put my foot under me it slipped against the ground and I was back at square one. My embarrassment had reached an all-time high, and I was starting to regret coming along in the first place.

And then Finch showed up and made things even worse.

The croc glided down the rink, jumped into an aerial spin, then landed before skating backwards and circling around me. “Whatadya doing on the ground, Ozzy?” the croc wondered, flowing like water down a stream. “Come on, get up! You’re gonna get run over!” Finch was gone and back to skating like before just as quickly.

This is ridiculous. I bet everyone’s looking at me…

Eventually, I managed to get back onto my feet but only after Fenn offered to help. “We can take it slow if you want…” he offered.

I didn’t really have a choice. If I wanted to not fall again, I needed to figure out how to actually keep my balance. So I tried again-

And I was on my back again. Staring at the ceiling while listening to all the loud music and voices was about what it felt like to be having a fever dream, and it didn’t help that I was so damn hot. This time, I actually did laugh.

Nearly hysterical, I looked up at Fenn. “Fenn, how have you not fallen over yet?”

He frowned. “I-I used to wax the floors here. It would always take a while…so one time I thought about using the skates to make it go faster. A-and…I guess I just got used to it.” Fenn shrugged.

Are you kidding me? Am I the only one here having a hard time?

After the second fall I just gave up. My legs were hurting and I was ready to leave already. Regardless, I stood up again with some difficulty. “Alright, how do you do this? Since you’re so familiar with it.”

While rubbing his arm Fenn looked around for a second. Then, he attempted to explain it the best he could. “You have to…just…give in to your balance. Lean into it.”

“Go with the flow?”

Fenn nodded slowly.

…Worth a shot I guess.

And so I tried again. Emphasis on tried. My third attempt was terrible and stressful, but after doing what Fenn said and watching how some of the other skaters did it, I got into a very messy rhythm. And hey, I didn’t fall over!

SMACK!

…On my own.

A certain Wartortle bumped into me and sent me falling forward onto the ground. “Watch where you’re going, moron!” If the tone of his voice was any indication, Swift enjoyed doing that.

I, however, did not enjoy falling over for the third time that night. I downright hated everything after that.

This time, Fenn helped me up without asking. “I-I’m really sorry this keeps happening, Oswald…” he said.

“I am just…not having a good time, Fenn,” I replied with a sigh. “I thought I had this but apparently I don’t. Now I just feel like an idiot.”

Fenn gazed at me with sadness in his eyes before rubbing his arm again. “Sorry…”

For a moment, I looked out at the tens of pokemon enjoying themselves as they skated around in circles. To my surprise, some were having an easier time than others. Some were going really slow and skating alongside others going just as slow. And hey, some guy fell on his ass just like me.

Huh.

Once more, I turned to Fenn. “So…is that offer for help still open?” I asked sheepishly.

The surprise was evident on his face, and even through the flashing lights I could see his cheeks go red when he held out a paw for me to take.

With a smile, I took his paw in mine. “Just uh…I’ll try not to take you down with me.”

“I-I’ll…catch you…hehe.”

He really is cute when he laughs…

“I might just break the floor this time, so you better,” I said sarcastically.

Fenn laughed at that too.

At the same time, the entire room lit up in an oscillating purple light. Looking at the source—the disco ball—the reason became obvious.

There was Cosmo, bouncing around the disco ball. I couldn’t hear him but I could imagine what he was saying. Something about “being the best disco ball ever” probably.

“Sh-should we…?” Fenn asked me.

“Nah,” I responded. “Let him have his fun.”

I can’t say that I re-learned how to skate that night. I was still wobbling by the time we left an hour later. But hey, Fenn tried his best to keep me from falling over again, even if it wasn’t enough a lot of the time. We had some good laughs on the floor of that roller rink, though.