fandomhigh | Danger Shop - Wednesday After Classes (After Cheerleading)

"'M sorry there weren't practice last week," George apologised once everyone had their skates on and was on the ice. "Kyle an' me got stuck, and we didn' get back t' th'school in time." For once, even though it was Fandom, he was not speaking literally. "We'll have an extra practice some week so it'll all work out."

"We're goin' t'be workin' on passin' today. I know tisn't as sexy as shootin', but if ye can ~~dodge a pass, you can shoot a ball~~ pass up th'ice, ye can get t' th'point of shootin'. Passin' maks it a team game. Tisn't jus' one lad skatin' all th' way up th' ice and scoring. Ye have t'be trustin' where yer lads are all th'time."

He gestured over to the row of sticks. "Everyone grab one an' find a partner or two. Ye want t'work on bein' as accurate as possible at gettin' th' puck t'th'man -" he glanced at Alice ~~if she was there~~ "-or lass. Gotta have th'right amount of power too or it'll bounce off their stick and over t'other team."

"If no one has any questions, go to then."

[~~La,~~ OCD! la]

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Zack shook his head a little, working his way up from 'little smile' to 'reassuring grin.'

It fell a little short of 'grin' status, but it was somewhere on the way there. He was hell-bent on that.

"She said horrific things to him. You weren't in control any more than I was, were you?"

"There were ... pieces," she said, frowning. "There were degrees of me, involved. I wasn't a passive observer, I was simply someone else. And I ... was adrift again. Alone. I never deal well with that."

"Between you and me...? I don't do alone well, either."

Never had, never would. It was a Zack thing.

"But she... she was only parts of you, Alice. Like he was only parts of me." Broken, splintered, mutilated parts of him. "She was alone, but that doesn't mean that you have to be."

Alice was absolutely not going to get overwrought in front of an acquaintance she'd been unfortunate enough to traumatize this past weekend.

"Do you ... lose people, as well?" she managed. "I feel terrible for what I did, but since Monday I've felt ... sad. Which is inappropriate but I've never been appropriate, so perhaps I shouldn't bother to try now."

Zack bit his lip for a moment, and then he nodded a little.

"I've had people... Leave," he allowed. "And I'm SOLDIER. You see a lot of good people who just never do come home again. It doesn't get any easier. And being sad because you're lonely? There's nothing wrong with that."

Alice nodded. "It's never fair, it's never right, but it's what is. One can only go forward, not back. And trying to stay still won't work, not unless you retreat entirely."

That, she had tried.

"I ... haven't spoken to Jen," she said carefully. "Nor to your mother that I said rude things to."

"She's not my mother," Zack said, maybe a little too quickly. "I've never seen her before in my life, or even heard of anything like..."

Like?

"Like whatever that was. But I think Ino would understand."

He couldn't speak for Jen. He still hadn't spoken to her, either.

"Ino?" Alice asked, tilting her head. "Is that who it was? I confess, I'm relieved. I was half concerned that perhaps there's always been a strange blue lady in a tube in the boiler room. That could prove dangerous."

Well, she had never exactly been to the boiler room before. Perhaps boiler rooms doubled as Strange Tube Lady Storage.

Zack's head was now going for a quick little shake.

"No, no she's totally not a permanent fixture. I don't think they'd let us stay in a dormitory with a crazy evil blue alien woman trying to get us to destroy the world all of the time, anyhow."

She'd been more than just a little scary. Yes.

"One might not think so," Alice said, "but perhaps no one realized she was there. I don't make a habit of inspecting the boiler room, to be sure no strange alien women have relocated their tubes there."

"The janitor probably would have noticed, I think."

They did have a janitor, right? Zack had heard that the guy was a troll, but he'd never had the express privilege of meeting the guy to be sure.

"Anyhow, she's gone, now. Which... is good."

Really, really, really good. He'd take Ino over 'Mother' any day.

"Unless the tube can turn itself invisible, when it likes," Alice noted. "Which does make it a rather pointless task, inspecting the boiler room for one, so I suppose that's moot."

"I'm not in any big hurry to get down there to check," Zack admitted, fidgeting a little. Which was not the wisest idea, on the ice, because there he went falling on his rear again.

"And ow."

This time, it was Alice reaching her hand out to help him up. "Here," she said. "It's not so hard, once you've got the feel for it. Try talking small steps, like you're marching."

"Like marching?" Zack blinked, accepting the hand that she was offering without any hesitation at all.

This Alice was not that Alice, and that was just how Zack rolled.

"I think I can handle that. Hut-two-three?"

Hey! Look! A bit of movement in a generally 'forward' direction!

"Gently," Alice said, using her hand to help steady him. "Once you get accustomed to what feels like marching in place, you'll learn how to push back and off with each stride. We should have a marching band for this, shouldn't we?"

"With drummers and little monkeys with funny hats and cymbals," Zack decided, turning to Alice with a grin on his face. "I think with the way I'm skating, I'd fit in pretty well with a band like that, huh?"

"I could wear a funny hat, too!" Alice cried excitedly. "I have several. Or I could place something odd on my head and claim it's a hat. A live duck, perhaps."

"And then," Zack said, flailing one arm around wildly as he threatened to lose his balance again, "you could go around pretending you don't notice at all, and get all, 'what duck?' at people when they ask about it?"

"Make them think they're mad," she laughed, tightening her grip on his arm. "Though I think myself, I'd prefer to ask them pointedly how they're so very sure that I'm wearing a hat, and that the duck isn't wearing a lovely pair of boots."

Danger Shop - Wednesday After Classes (After Cheerleading)

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