Skating Through Life

Anaya Blade did not look like a typical rich girl, and she liked it that way. She wasn't one to flaunt her or her mother's wealth because when she made new friends, she wanted them to like her for her, not her money.
This made making friends a bit difficult.
She was always a bit of a tomboy, and never that good with manners, much to her mother's dismay. She refused to learn proper etiquette, and absolutely never sat, as her mother insisted, "like a lady". Fuck that, life was meant to be enjoyed, not put on display. So Anaya wore torn jeans and a white tank top with wing sauce stains on the lower right of the front, and tied her jacket around her waist. School was out, but her servant, Blake, wasn't going to be there to pick her up for another half hour, so she had some time to kill. She plopped herself onto one of the benches out the front of the school, and untied her roller blades from the side of her backpack. She put them on, as well as her elbow and knee pads. A mischievous grin spread across her face; technically, skating wasn't allowed on school grounds, but it was one of those rules that was only in place to punish someone if they hurt someone else by being stupid, so she was fine so long as she could outskate any teachers who happened to be outside. In a fluid motion, she flung her backpack over her left shoulder, and slowly made her way to her feet. "Let's do this..." With that, she pushed off and began skating around the building; she wanted to see how many laps she could do before Blake showed up, so she needed to get some speed up.

With classes over, Donovan had one goal in mind as he exited the building his last class had taken place in. Namely, getting as far away from the damn school as he possibly could, Donovan found his hand slipping into an invisible space, something new he’d only just learned about in all honesty. He’d been feeling a strangeness at the edge of his awareness for days now, and he’d only discovered exactly what it was this morning when he’d accidentally sent his bag into the pocket dimension. It sure as hell came in handy though, even if it was a bit annoying walking around feeling weighed down by whatever he had in there.

The former street punk pulled his skateboard out, and a moment later he was practically flying down the path, jumping up and grinding on the rail of a staircase. It seemed he’d have a pretty clear landing, with the majority of students having either not gotten out the building yet or taking one of the many other exits of the university sized high school allowing for him to make a clean exit…at least he thought. What he wasn’t counting on was some chick on roller skates to suddenly roll through the path, getting to the end of the staircase at the same time he did.

It was far too late for Donovan to stop his forward momentum and as a result the collision between the two skaters seemed all but inevitable as Donovan’s last-minute attempts to change trajectories did little but making him fly off the skateboard.

The collision was swift and brutal, the skateboard flying off to the side as Donovan practically clotheslined Anaya, knocking both of them to the ground and tumbling together, landing less than a foot apart from each other. "God dammit!" She snapped, raising her hand to look; sure enough a patch of skin was now missing thanks to the scrape with the concrete. She narrowed her eyes at Donovan. "Don'tchya know you're not allowed to skate on school grounds?" She asked aggressively. Her hostile gaze bored into Donovan for a moment before she burst into laughter, laying back down in full on the concrete. "Ahaha! Haaaa... Sorry, that was my bad. Shoulda been watching where I was headin'. That's on me." She laughed again and sat back up. "Y'alright, man?" Anaya's smile was relaxed and friendly as she offered her uninjured hand to help Donovan sit upright.

Donovan was about to snap at the girl with an angry retort, especially given that they had both been breaking that rule to begin with anyways, when she suddenly seemed to shift gears, throwing Donovan for a loop and causing his retort to die off before it could even begin. He wasn’t used to this at all, considering most people he’d called friends would probably turn the whole thing into a fight.Donovan himself was a bit off guard before the girl spoke up taking responsibility for the whole thing when he’d been more than ready for an argument. Or at least for the chick to yell at him about it even if he didn’t feel he was at all responsible.

“yeah well…jus’…don’t let it happen again or nothin’” The punk attempted to snap, though it lacked the normal fire of it just because of how unusual this all felt. He took the hand, standing himself up before really looking himself over. There was a bit of pain in his leg, as it seemed it’d gotten a bit banged up, and his forearm was scraped a bit, but Donovan knew he’d had far worse than that before. When asked if he was alright he gave a scoff, trying to keep up his normal demeanor. “Tch, it’ll take more’n a little fall to keep me down.” He boasted, ignoring the pain coming from his left foot, noting it as likely being a twisted ankle or something similarly mundane, making a bit of bruising.

A wide grin spread across Anaya's face. "Glad to hear it!" She unsteadily got to her feet, a difficult task in roller blades, made slightly harder by the fact she had definitely twisted her own ankle from the fall. She managed to push her way over to the railing Donovan had rode down, using it to keep her on her feet without any momentum on the wheels. "Even so, life's always more fun with some scrapes and bruises, right?" She laughed again, casually leaning on the railing and moving one of her dreads out of her eyes. "Nice moves, by the by. I've seen a lot of guys screw that up and end up hitting the bar with one leg on each side." A snort escaped her as she thought back on previous mishaps. "My name's Anaya. Y'got one?"

Donovan raised an eyebrow, still a bit taken back by the girl’s friendly attitude. She didn’t act like mosta the girls around here, that was obvious ad it looked like he wasn’t the only one to get a bit roughed up by the fall, though Donovan opted to stay standing for now. He couldn’t go lookin’ weak or nothing just from a little fall after all, no matter how banged up he might have been. He went over to grab his skateboard.


Before the girl mentioned his tricks, causing the boy to chuckle a bit. “Yeah well, only a dumbass goes and tries somethin’ he aint ready for.” The boy remarked casually, having seen plenty of “tough guys” put up similar acts. “You sure you aint hurt or nothin?” He asked just before the girl introduced herself. “Donovan, an’ it wasn’t anything really impressive.” He deflected, considering the state of Mocca city, an area he normally HAD to ride through it was really nothing, considering the state of that place most of the time. He glanced at his skateboard, mentally reaching out to the figurative trigger he'd had to learn to locate. The skateboard would seem to have simply disappeared almost as if fading out of frame or something.

Anaya shrugged. "Eh, ankle's twisted a bit, but that's a hazard of the occupation, yeah?" She answered Donovan's question, turning her head just in time to miss him using his power. She sat down on the step and started unlacing the roller blades; her ankle was fine to walk on, sure, but certainly not to skate on anymore. "And it ain't just dumbasses who try stupid shit. People who are testing boundaries do, too. It's how you learn if you are or aren't ready for it." She shrugged again. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Donovan. Donovan." She repeated the name and made a bit of a face. "I'm just gonna call you Donnie. Donovan sounds like some British guy with a thumb up his ass. Oh, Donovan, dear, the maid's gone and scuffed the floor again. Reprimand the wench, would you?" She snorted again at her own terrible joke before flinching slightly as she agitated the scrape on her hand.

Donovan nodded at girl’s answer, though it looked like she was at least ok to walk. He thought about the girl’s response for a minute, half wanting to dismiss it except for the fact that was often his own motivation, One didn’t really know their limits until they’ve tried something. “I guess, hell, I’ve tried that shit enough times…” he noted, and he had enough of the scars to prove that, given his own habit of looking for ways of testing himself.

“Yeah, Old man’s idea…I think.” He replied, not really having a problem, he couldn’t help but laugh at the voice, as it was abnormal a thought for him. Hell he hadn’t even expected to end up returning to high school. “Guess that’s fine, got enough jackasses calling me that anyways.” He responded, thinking back to his old gang. Most had just referred to him by the shortened name.

Anaya raised an eyebrow slightly when Donovan said enough "jackasses" were calling him Donnie as it was. She finished taking off her roller blades, and opted to simply take her socks off too instead of slipping her shoes back on; her ankle wouldn't appreciate her tight-ankled shoes at this particular moment. She glanced up to Donovan as she tied the laces of her blades together so she could hook them back onto her backpack. "Well, I don't want to be just one of those jackasses. Y'got something you'd rather be called?"

“Nah, it’s fine” Donovan said, thinking for a second about it. “Jus’ bad memories, stuff im tryin’ ta get away from.” The boy said, looking upwards briefly. He couldn’t really think of anything he’d rather be called, and there were near as many good times as bad there. Anaya seemed alright, but he didn’t really wanna go into the stuff with the gang considering how people acted towards him.“Side ya don’t seem like a jackass yet.”

Anaya raised an eyebrow and laughed again. "Yeah, 'yet' being the operative term there. Give it a bit, you'll learn." She hefted her bag over her shoulder and pushed off the railing, leaning on her good foot; she liked Donovan. He was chill, and besides, he knew his way around on a skateboard. Sticking around him would be fun, if for no other reason she'd have someone to help push her skills.
"Ms. Blade." A man's voice called, interrupting her about to say something else to Donovan. She turned and let out an annoyed sound.
"Hey, Blake." She groaned.
The man, Blake, narrowed his eyes at Anaya. "You're injured. Were you roller blading on school grounds again?"
She rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah. And?"
"You know your mother disapproves of this."
"Tough shit."
The two held tense eye contact for a short time and he finally sighed. "You really are a handful, Ms. Blake."
"Anaya." She insisted.

The guy that seemed to almost show up out of nowhere was a tad suspicious to Donovan, who was already mistrusting of anyone dressed up all fancy like. Even if he didn’t so much seem superior as those he’d interacted with previously. Still it seemed like Anaya knew him, though how was probably a different question.“Who’s the stiff?” Donovan asked, glaring up at the servant. Something about the guy’s prim and proper routine rubbed Donovan the wrong way.

Blake glanced over at Donovan, but said nothing, turning his gaze back to Anaya, who rolled her eyes. "No one important." She assured Donovan.
"I'm to take you home, Ms. Anaya." Blake announced, ignoring her blatant insult.
"Dammit, Blake, why d'you have to be so formal?" She groaned before turning back to Donovan. "Sorry. Gotta dash." She offered Donovan her uninjured hand to shake. "See ya 'round, yeah?"