roller derby queen ~ j.g.

two

"miss blakely, do you have an excuse for being forty-five minutes late to the first day?" damn it.

dakota turned toward the grey-haired secretary that she was trying to sneak past to get to class, shifting her bags in her hand. "uh, my car broke down. i had to wait for someone to jump it." the secretary just stares at her over her glasses before speaking again.

"i guess that's an appropriate reason to be late. try not to let it happen again." dakota sticks her tongue out at her when she turns back around in her chair. right, like she's going to magically find the money to fix her car anytime soon. she straightens up as the secretary turns back around with some papers in her hand. "all other students are getting their room assignments right now, that top sheet should have your room information and the name of your roommate." dakota takes the papers from her hand.

"thanks," she says, pulling her backpack tighter on on her shoulder as she looks at the paper the secretary gave her.

room number: 413
roommate: julie gaffney

dakota wrinkled her nose as she walked down the hall. julie gaffney? wasn't she a hockey player? if so, there might be an issue.

it's not that dakota didn't like hockey as a sport. she appreciated the physicality of it, how it was possibly the most athletic sport she could think of. and, of course, the skating aspect. it was the players she had a problem with. they seemed to always be stuck up and snobby, especially at eden hall, and last year the varsity hockey team had made her roller derby team's life a living hell. she wasn't particularly interested in reliving that experience.

as she neared her room, she realized that it was at the end of the hall, which meant it was close to the beginning of the guys' dorms. great. now she'd have to deal with a hockey playing roommate and all the frat boy wannabes that eden hall was crawling with. what a great start to the year.

"heads up!" she hears a boy's voice yell from down the hall, and she turns around just in time to get hit in the face with a backpack. pain explodes in her nose and her knees buckle. she hits the floor in a heap, but pops right back up, looking for the person who threw it. her eyes land on a tall boy with long black hair, who's grimacing in her direction. she grabs the backpack and stomps over.

"watch it, you goon! you nearly killed me!" she pushes the backpack into his chest, then steps back and crosses her arms over her chest, glaring at him. he glares back.
"it wasn't me that nearly killed you, so i don't have to watch anything." dakota scoffs.
"yeah, likely story. if you didn't do it then who the hell did?" the boy rolls his eyes and fake-coughs into his fist, turning and glaring at a corner of the hall. a skinny boy with a mop of curly brown hair peeks out from behind it, smiling sheepishly.
"sorry about that." dakota just rolls her eyes until they land on the tall boy's duffel bag, which reads eden hall hockey. of freaking course.

she coughs out a sarcastic laugh before growling, "ugh, hockey players. i'm not surprised." tall boy's eyes narrow.
"what have you got against hockey players?"
dakota throws her hands up in the air.
"everything!" she pulls her duffel bag over her shoulder and mumbles, "stuck up idiots," under her breath.
"hey, i heard that!" she laughs, turning around to finish her walk to her room.
"and what are you going to do about it?" she walks away, angry and tired already. this day just keeps getting better and better.

"sorry about them." she looks up to a blonde girl wearing overalls who's standing in the doorway of room 413. "they're morons."
"i'll say," dakota spits out. "julie, i'm guessing?" the girl smiles.
"yep, and you must be dakota." dakota nods, and julie returns it with a smile. she may play the worst sport on the planet, dakota thinks, but at least she has a nice smile.

julie turns and walks into the room, where her side is already set up and decorated. of course her roommate had to be one of the girls that decorated her dorm. it just made dakota feel worse that she didn't have anything but her school bag, her derby gear, and her clothes. she sets her bags down on the bed and starts to unpack while julie sits down backwards in one of the desk chairs, gripping the backrest as she tilts it forward on two legs.

"hate to break it to you," julie says, flipping her braid off her shoulder, "but you're probably going to be seeing a whole lot more of fulton and charlie. the best advice i can give you is to just try not to kill them."
dakota groans. "just fantastic." julie laughs.
"yeah, believe me, i wanted to kill them when i first met them too. the other boys are just as bad, but you get used to them."
"i don't think i will be." dakota takes her tee shirts and moves them to the dresser, finding a vacant drawer and plopping them in. "no offense, but i'm not planning on hanging out with a whole lot of hockey players anytime soon."
julie shrugs. "say what you want, but you're going to have to get used to them a little bit, because unfortunately for you, they're all i hang out with." she reaches for a book in her backpack and opens it up, and her attention's off dakota in a second.

dakota just blinks at her in surprise. a girl who didn't want a cat fight. huh. that was new. this year might be a little different than she expected.