Troll Or Derby, A Fairy Wicked Tale Read Online Free Page A

body. The more obnoxious, the better.
    Mom was a shining spectacle of shellac and sequins from coif to mani-pedi as she stood solo in her matching dress. The school, and the spotlight, waited for Gennifer, as the Homecoming Court waited on the other side of the gym floor with their own parents and escorts. Mom looked embarrassed and confused, craning her head around every few seconds to look for Gennifer. I couldn’t help but pity her. Telling her about the accident wasn’t going to be easy, either.
    The band dug into a country pop hit that didn’t make a damned lick of sense unless you were semi-retarded, and the whole school went nuts, singing along from the bleachers. As they danced arm-in-arm and belted out the chorus, I ran across the gym, nearly fitting in for once in my cowboy hat. I could almost hear my imaginary cowboy boots clicking up noise despite the din. The spotlight operator must have thought I was part of the show, because I could feel the spot train on me.
    All eyes were on me, and for a few moments, the music continued. Then Mom looked at me and screamed, and the singing stopped. I could feel the eyes of hundreds, as everyone in the gym stared at us.
    “Where is your sister?!” She looked crazed, like something from a John Waters movie, with all that big hair and sparkle. She looked like Gennifer, fifteen years older, with the eyes of an old lady.
    “Hospital,” I said. “There was a fire.”
    I remember Mom yanking my hat off my head, and slapping me with it hard, right where I was bandaged. I don’t remember hitting the gym floor.
    Derek held the cowboy hat, and his was the first in a ring of faces staring down at me. “Deb, Deb, wake up!”
    My eyes were open, but I felt trapped in a dream, unable to move or speak.
    The faces cleared, and there was Coach, lifting me up gently by the shoulders, as my Mom searched the crowd furtively for her important daughter. I hoped my message about Gennifer would eventually sink in through the layers of makeup and humiliation.
    Thankfully there wasn’t anything else to entertain Coach in town that night. If the rink had actually been filled with kids, maybe no one but Derek would have been there.
    Coach wasn’t actually my coach—he’d tried to recruit me to skate on his in-line skating speed team at the rink, but I wasn’t willing to make the switch from quads. He didn’t hold that against me, though.
    “You just can’t wait for roller derby to get yourself all banged up, can ya, kid?” he asked. He smiled, as if passing out in the middle of the Homecoming ceremony was the funniest gag he’d ever seen. Maybe it was. I laughed, too.
    Once it was clear I wasn’t going to choke on my own vomit, go into an epileptic fit, or anything else that might have entertained the ruffians, the crowd around me dispersed, and the Homecoming ritual went on. Since Gennifer wasn’t there, someone else was crowned Queen.
    Mom cried, as the spotlight honed in on second-place beauty queen Confectionary Schmidt, the heavily tattooed daughter of Mom’s high school rival, Confession Eckart-Schmidt. I knew Mom was going to be impossible to live with—talk about adding insult to injury. I liked Confectionary “Call me Candy one more time and I’ll punch you in the throat” Schmidt. She was pretty, and cool.
    Coach and Derek supported me, despite the fact that I told them repeatedly I was fine. They loaded me into Derek’s car, and Coach instructed Derek to take me home. “And as for you, little lady—you need to learn when to quit sometimes. You can’t push yourself forever.” He laughed again, and pushed the door shut.
    Something about Coach, when he laughs—his underbite makes his face look kind of funny. Not exactly human. Not really scary—but it’s not right.
    When I opened my eyes again, the police cars lit up the trailer park.
    “Somebody’s busted,” Derek said.
    I sat up as we pulled onto our street. The police were at my house.
    “How’d you get