Skate or Die!

"Hey, out of the way!"

Gum grinned, as she shouted to the people on the streets as she zipped past them on her skates. It had been too long since she had slapped on her skates and went for a spin around the city, and she was enjoying every moment of it. She had gotten so caught up in her wrestling career lately, that she had forgotten to take it easy sometimes and just go out and enjoy herself.

But why shouldn't she get caught up in things? Her AFW career was going great. Sure, she might not have had that many matches yet, but she had won every fight she had been in! She was undefeated! Her career was off to a promising start. Gum had every reason to be caught up in things. She was glad she decided to take a day off though. Getting back out on the streets, getting a free day to just ride around and enjoy herself...it felt pretty awesome. Relaxing, even. She needed to remember to do this more often.

She banked hard around a corner, turning around the side of a building and zipping faster down the sidewalk, weaving in and out of the paths of people along the way. She wasn't worried about running into anyone. She was too good a skater for that (At least, she thought so anyway). Even if she did, a quick apology and a click of her heels, and she'd be on her way again.

Yeah. It was a good day, and it could only get better from here.

"Shousha, shousha."

Jamie tapped the queen of hearts with her finger and looked around at the two guys who had slowed their pace as they passed her wobbly little card table.

"Shousha."

She was pretty sure it meant winner. That's what someone told her. There was another card on either side of the queen, face down. Her Three-Card Monte was unbeatable. She'd got the hang of running it without a shill. The real trick was learning to not get too greedy. The last thing she wanted was for someone to break her poor table again. It had already been through so much.

She had her technique down flat. She could drop top card or bottom card, her double lift was clean, her hands were fast and she never missed a drop. She didn't have to think about the cards when she ran it, so she was able to focus on the mark and measure him up. Figure out how much money he had, and how good he felt about winning. The more he had and the better he felt, the more money went in Jamie's pocket, and that meant better food and new music and more rent money for the hotel.

One of the two men slowed, but didn't turn to face Jamie. He motioned for the second man to keep up. Jamie rocked back and forth on her roller blades behind the table and made eye contact with the second guy to see if he'd stop. A sweet smile from her was enough to ensnare him. He pointed to the queen and looked at Jamie, and she nodded. "Yeah, yeah."

She mixed up the cards and flipped over the queen. "Shousha." The man nodded, and she mixed up the cards again, careful to let him follow the queen while making it look like she was trying. He guessed it easily, and Jamie pulled a crumpled up 500 yen note out of her satchel and put it on the table.

She had just opened her mouth to rope him into another round when her table exploded in a green-and-white blur. "Aieeee!" She shrieked. The cards went flying, the table went down. Her 500 yen went somewhere. She threw up her hands, her mouth gaped in disbelief. Her table!

"Aieee!" She shrieked again.

She bent to inspect it, and two of the legs were broken or bent. Her glare hotly followed the rollerblading perpetrator down the sidewalk, and without a second thought she launched herself after her. She dodged pedestrians, weaved around lamp posts, and was shortly traveling after the green-and-white blur at ramming speed.

She thought she was so tough with her rollerblades and her helmet. She'd show her ALL ABOUT rollerblading.

"HEY!" She screamed at her. "YOU BROKE MY TABLE YOU STUPID IDIOT!"

Gum didn't mean to run into Jamie's poor table. She really didn't. It really was an accident. It's just that she was going so fast when she came around the corner, she really didn't have much time to react. What kind of moron would set up a table right there in the middle of the sidewalk anyway? She really couldn't be blamed for it at all. It was the fault of whatever idiot had decided to put in there in the first place.

She would have stopped to apologize though. Really, she would have. But she had built up so much speed, not even running into the table had slowed her down too much. It felt good to go fast, and see didn't want to lost her momentum by stopping to apologize. It was just a table, right? It should be okay, she figured.

But then Gum heard Jamie's yell, heard her voice cutting through the air towards her. She glanced back behind her, a grin spreading across her face when she realized she was being followed. Was this girl trying to catch up with her? There was no way she could do it! No one could beat Gum when it came to skating! No one!

She stuck her tongue out at Jamie, then laughed loudly towards her. "I'm not the moron that set up a dorky little table on the street!" she fired back at Jamie, before returning her gaze to what was in front of her again. She leaned forward, trying to pick up her speed more. If the girl wanted to try and catch her, then let her try! Gum was more than willing to accept the challenge.

Jamie kept one arm pinned behind her back and swung the other like a speed skater. She bent forward at the waist and low at the knees, for aerodynamical purposes, and tried to focus on dodging people and gaining speed.

"It is NOT a dorky table!" She screamed indignantly. "YOU'RE a dorky little table! Nice helmet, you buttwipe, now COME HERE!" She caused a commotion when she grazed someone and knocked them down, but she was moving fast enough that she quickly left it behind.

"YOU OWE ME FIVE HUNDRED BUCKS!"

Gum could barely believe what she was hearing. Five hundred dollars? This chick had to be out of her mind.

"You're crazy!" she called back, glancing over her shoulder towards her. "I could get a table like that for free out of a dumpster!" She frowned after she spat out her taunt though. It looked like this nutjob was catching up on her. Gum wasn't worried though. She had more than just speed on her side.

She waited until she reached a lesser crowded area on the street, one with fewer people hanging around. As she soon as she hit an open spot, the blonde did a quick U-turn on her skates, spinning around and heading straight towards Jamie! She stuck her tongue out again as she zipped right past her, calling out at her again. "Catch me if you can, dork!" she yelled out, a gleeful tone in her voice. "Maybe if you can catch me, I'll get you a new table~!"

"Then you better get dumpster diving, idiot!"

Jamie sped down the sidewalk after the green and white menace, and she was gaining on her. It was only a matter of time until Jamie avenged her table and dealt swift justice to the rollerblading retard.

She was so utterly focused on zooming up on the girl that she was similarly utterly unprepared when she looped around. She was headed right for her! "Aaiiiieee!" She screamed, and covered her head with her hands, and though Gum didn't technically make physical contact in any way, the emotional distress as she swished past was enough to forcefully send Jamie crashing to the ground.

"Owwww!" She cried. She rolled onto her side and grabbed her ankle and writhed back and forth. "Oww, ohmigod, why did you do that!? I think you broke my ankle, aagh... it hurts..."

Theatrics or not, real tears sprung to her eyes and rolled down her reddened cheeks while she nursed her ankle. She didn't even look up to see if Gum had stopped, that's how badly she was hurt.

Gum didn't even notice that Jamie went down as she zoomed past her. She was having too much fun to worry about whether she had knocked the girl over or anything. It wasn't until a few moments later, when she just happened to notice that no one was yelling at her that she glanced back over her shoulder, spying Jamie lying on the ground way back where Gum had left her.

The blonde did another quick U-turn, zipping back along the sidewalk to where she had left Jamie. She was curious, and a little disappointed. Did this girl really not know how to handle herself on her 'blades?

Once she had made her way back over to Jamie, Gum did a quick circle around her, flashing the chick a grin. "Oh come on," she laughed down at her, shaking her head towards Jamie. "Do you really expect me to believe you're hurt? Come on, stop faking and get back up!"

She watched Jamie closely for a moment, doing a few more tight circles around her, when the realization suddenly hit her. Gum's smile dropped off her face, as she came to a stop beside of her. "H-hey...you really are hurt, aren't you?"

"OF COURSE I'M REALLY HURT, YOU BUTT MONKEY!" Jamie screamed. She writhed so hard to one side that she ended up rolling over. Passersby gave her a wide berth on the sidewalk.

She reached down and fiddled uselessly with the straps of her rollerblade. "Help me get this off, quick, before it swells up and I have to have it amputated!" She shot a look up at Gum, and with a furious flailing of her arms, added "It's the least you could do, don't you think?!"

What a jerk.

Gum knelt down beside of Jamie, reaching to her rollerblade to give her a hand. "S-sorry! Just calm down, alright? Let me give you a hand!" She really didn't know if Jamie was faking or not before. As far as she knew, it was some kind of trick for the girl to get close to Gum. She seemed to be acting sincere about her accident though, so Gum was willing to give her a hand. She wasn't a complete jerk or anything, after all.

She started to undo the straps from the rollerblade, glancing up at Jamie's face before focusing back on the skate. "I'm really sorry about this!" she apologized as she tried to unhook the rollerblade and slide it off of Jamie's foot. "You seemed like you had plenty of experience on your 'blades! I really didn't realize that you were new to them or I wouldn't have gotten so caught up in the chase like I did!"

"Aah! Aah! Aaah!"

Each time Gum touched her rollerblade, the pain sent her into spasms. She slapped away the girl's hands like she was putting out a fire. "Stop it! You're only making it worse!"

She writhed over onto her other side to conceal her face from Gum. Her eye twitched involuntarily at the suggestion that she was anything less than a seasoned pro on her rollerblades. She was catching up to Gum, anyway, so clearly she was better than her.

"Okay. You're going to have to carry me. It's the least you could do, now that you took away my livelihood and broken my ankle. What am I supposed to do now, beg?" She pointed off down the street and crooked her finger to the side. "There's a clinic a block down that way and to the right. Carry me there, but..." She looked down at Gum's feet with dismay. "Take those off. If you drop me and I break my wrist, I'll just die, and then you'll be a murderer."