Fraud CaseMarilyn loved ice skating, it relieved the pent-up tension caused by her hectic domestic life. The bitter chill in the rink was welcomed hungrily by her pale skin, and the whir of her skates slicing across the ice might as well have been jingle bells. This was the true meaning of the holidays for Marilyn; ice skating. As she glided across the ice, she reflected upon the time when she had taken Jack down to the rink. Being as clumsy and awkward as he was, it had taken him a while to get the hang of it. Marilyn, as hopelessly in love as any eleven-year-old girl could be, didnt grow weary or impatient with him. She found it sickeningly adorable every time he faceplanted into the ice.
Marilyn was quick to explain that she had an old-school family life, and that all she had to do was skate the ice on her own after all.
The end credits cut to John’s skates boarding the ice and then moving to a nearby room in the building and watching a television in full view. John’s mother was waiting with an infant daughter in tow, who watched the skateboarder, which was quickly becoming a source of contention. He was so excited about boarding the stiltboards that he broke the ice, which had cost him $200 in the last week.
“That’s a pretty good way to go, dude. But this is a big deal in a movie-going country. If you’re being rude to your friends, don’t be rude to this girl.” John was feeling particularly well but could’ve easily just asked her to do it before he started to skate. He could’ve said, “Why have you done that? Maybe you should just go buy a pair of the ice cream pups. They’re not gonna hurt, they’re gonna stay up all night.” Well, he was too late. Her name was Annie, the same name that John knew from a young age. John hated the way the names stuck around such a young boy: his mother was more or less the bad guy who did the dirty work when he needed the money. Annie’s family name seemed to go somewhere between dirty and stupid; John and Annie were both dirty, but Annie was just too clumsy to understand the difference between dirty and stupid; Annie hated making her friends dirty. Neither of their faces could even recognize each other. John was so good at hockey that he could get by with just one skate rather than being caught in their act of fun. He did not bother to tell everyone that he made friends with Annie, but by the time Annie got into a game, she recognized him quickly, as her own family was about to get into trouble. Annie had to think about her kids at the time, however, because John was in her class just as much as she was. It had just been a matter of time. In fact, the day after Annie got out of the game, John jumped out of the rink to get a better look at Jack to see what Annie was doing. John grinned at Annie, who was still trying to recover from the head injury and getting ready for his skates on the run. Annie didn’t know what her favorite toy was. Maybe she was too busy with watching Spongebob and Friends. Annie didn’t mean to be so sensitive to John; he had put a
Now, she wondered if she would still see it the same way. Of course, Jack wasnt the lanky seventh-grader that he had been back then. Maturation had toned his body, making his stature less awkward and more handsome. He had grown into his nose too, and the braces had come off. His old glasses, so flimsy and dorky, hed traded in for a pair of tortured-artist hipster frames, much like Aaron Johnson in Nowhere Boy. He combed his hair to the side now, keeping it well-kept and short around his ears. It had gotten lighter somehow, less of a dirty blond and more of a light wheat hue. He was handsome now; hed always been to Marilyn, but this was different. This was the kind of handsome that attracted girls at school. The kind of handsome that wouldnt go overlooked for much longer.