Who: Nate (Cable) + Deryn (Derpy Hooves) When: Saturday Where: Rollerskating rink! What: Rollerskating! Rating: As low as it goes, baby. Status: Complete
Nate had gotten his mother’s okay to go rollerskating with Deryn and to learn how to do it, at all! He was glad of the chance to meet a new friend, especially one like Deryn who seemed awesome! He bounced as he walked, completely and utterly ready for fun! He was let off by his mom outside the rollerskating center he had arranged to meet Deryn at, and headed inside immediately. He was supposed to meet her in the lobby, so here he was! Yay!!
Yay! Deryn arrived just a few minutes later, a skip in her step and her own neon green skates hung over a shoulder. She had absolutely no problem hanging out with a younger person than herself -- she liked kids. They were always a lot of fun, and they didn’t think she was too weird. Anyway. Everyone should know the wonders of roller skating, and so she was determined to teach him.
” She greeted, “You must be Nate!”
"I am! You're Deryn! "
He was hopeful that she would teach him, and that he'd be able to show off to his mom. She was awesome.
“I am!” She agreed with a cheerful smile that showed off all her teeth. “Ready? Let’s get you skates. This is going to be so fun!”
"Definitely! I want to learn it all! Lead on! " Nate was just as bouncy in person as he was online.
She lead the way up to the service counter of the place, pulling out some mangled wads of money (Deryn was not terribly organized), and purchased a skating session and skates for the boy. Once they figured out his size and got what they needed, they found a little bench to sit on. Luckily, this place didn’t get very busy until late afternoon or early evening, so they had the majority of it to themselves. Perfect for learning!
“Lace ‘em up as tight as you can!” She said, even as she put her own skates on, fairly expertly. “Tripping over the shoes laces really isn’t fun.” She spoke from experience, there.
Nate was bouncing up and down and following her around to the skate rental counter.. With skates in hand he followed her again to find a space to do as she said. Soon he was bouncing in skates. "Ready!!! "
“Yesss,” said Deryn, finishing up her laces and standing -- with only a tiny moment of unsteadiness. It always took her a moment to find her balance on wheels. She offered the small boy her hands to help him stand.
He took her hands and stood, slowly, and wobbled, and nearly fell, twice, quickly, before clinging to her. “Ack! This is a little harder than it looks!” He wanted to be good at this, darn it!
Deryn giggled, smiling wide. “Noo, it just takes a minute! Really! If I can do you, you can definitely do it!” She patted his head, and slowly detached his arms from around her waist. “Okay. Just stand still, right? Just don’t move your legs for a second.” This boy. Was SO CUTE.
Nate nodded, listening, and wobbled when she detached, but tried to stay still. “Still?” Oh Boy, He wasn’t great at still.
He wobbled more as he tried to resist moving, but it was HARD! “H-how long?” It had been thirty seconds...
Deryn laughed, skating backward to look at him. “Not that long. Just until you don’t wobble!” She completely understood the dread of having to stay still, she wasn’t exactly a poster-girl for calmness or serenity in any way shape or form herself. “You can move a little -- you know, to learn where your balance is.”
Nate grumbled and eyed her and breathed, trying to balance, and slowly managed to not wobble so much. “Okay... I think I found my balance, but it keeps moving.”
“Well, yeah,” Deryn said, laughing again. She laughed a lot. She loved laughing. “You’re on wheels. Okay, ready? Just go forward. Pretend you’re sliding, not walking.” It was all about sliding!
“Okay!” Nate slowly moved forward, carefully. He thought about her words, and tried it and he grinned as he managed to slide forward slowly. “Yay!” A thrill of excitement hit him as he realized how she did it and he moved a little more, skating to her. “Yes! I can do it!” He hugged her, bouncing.
“Yes you can!” Deryn said, ever encouraging. She bounced a little too, because his energy was pretty infectious. “Okay! Practice more! And then we’ll go on the actual skating circle!” Which was a little harder, because it was much smoother.
“OKay! Practice!” He shuffled, awkwardly trying to slide across carpet, falling once, but slowly getting the hang of it. At a short 3’8”, he was low enough that the fall didn’t really hurt. Well, except his pride. But slowly he got it, and came back to her.
“OKay. Ready for the scary part.”
“You’ve got this,” the blonde girl told him with as solemn a nod as she could muster (it was not very solemn, because she could not manage to not be smiling for that long). She offered her hand. “Stepping onto it is the hardest part. Then it’s fun! You can go really fast!”
Nate smiled at her as he followed her, and took her hand, swallowing. “Yeah? Cool! Lead on!” He wanted to know and he bounced a little. “I wanna learn and show off to my mom next time I come.” He nodded, then sighed, because his mom would probably be busy. It wasn’t her fault. Her work schedule blew.
The step onto the actual rink was, as stated, the hardest. Even Deryn wobbled about for a bit (then, that was nothing new), but she satisfactorily kept Nate from falling again. “Ta-daaa,” she said. “Now it’s all easy!”
Nate almost fell, clutching first her then the wall of the rink, but then stabilized and swallowed. He slid out a little onto the rink and did, indeed, find it easier.
“Wow! This is cool!” With a few strokes of his legs, he was moving slow, but moving, and what she had showed him worked. He wobbled a lot, but didn’t fall down until he tried to turn to look at her. And he laughed. he had fallen a lot harder in martial arts classes.
There was no shame in falling -- Deryn did it all the time, even without the excuse of rollerskates. She giggled as he got back up, skating little circles around him. “You’re getting it,” she said, encouragingly.
Nate stuck his tongue out at her and started skating longer, smiling as he felt himself stretching and getting used to this new exercise and bouncing.
“This is awesome! Thank you!” He zoooomed up to her to hug her.
Of course, zooming up to hug someone was the easiest way to fall over -- which they did, Deryn’s hair flew up in an instant mess, even as she fell -- and when they were a silly mess of pointy bones to untangle, all she could do was laugh.
He laughed as well, as they landed and poked her and tickled her, or tried to, and then tried to get up, laughing. This was fun! He had not had this much fun in a very long time. Wow!
Once Deryn managed to get back to her feet, she helped Nate up as well. It was fun to have met someone who was as high energy as she was -- even if he was probably a good ten years younger. So what, anyway? Friends were friends.
“Let’s race ‘round once, okay?”
And that was right! Fun and friends were fun and friends! Awesome! Nate nodded. “Let’s go!”