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Irena polished her nails on her shirt and then blew on them.
"I've been skating since I was four, thank you very much." She said, sitting down and tugging her shoes off and working her skates onto her feet, their beige color contrasting with the red wheels.
She stood up easily once she got them on and grinned down at them, enjoying the extra inch or two she had on them while it was available.
"I'm gonna skate circles around you." She teased.
"Well, the warning is more for this idiot." Teagan clapped his brother on the back and sat down to put on his skates. Finn huffed, but did the same. Soon, they both had their skates on and were taller than Irena once again. Finn already looked unsteady and unsure what to do with himself with wheels on his feet, which wasn't a great sign.
"Alright, let's get in there." Teagan grinned and headed into the rink. Finn came in behind him, currently just trying his best to stay upright.
Irena carefully took Finn's arm firmly.
She helped him stay upwards, giving him advice and pointers quietly while they made their way into the rink.
She made sure to go extra slowly, still holding onto Finn's arm.
Finn held tightly to Irena, not wanting to move his feet for fear of wiping out and taking her down with him. Teagan, although not an especially experienced skater, was idly going around the rink without too much difficulty. Finn still felt like he was going to fall even though he was pretty much just letting Irena pull him around.
"How do you do this??" He whined, nearly falling again. "It's hard!"
Irena smirked at him, moving in front of him so she was skating backwards and pulling him by the hands slowly.
"It takes experience and balance." She told him and laughed.
"But Teagan's doing fine and he doesn't know what he's doing!" Finn whined. Teagan stuck out his tongue a bit and laughed as he passed by. Finn huffed, but being distracted for a moment only made him slip and fall to his knees. "Ow…"
Irena helped him up carefully and smiled warmly at him.
"Maybe Teagan just has better balance than you." She suggests kindly.
"It takes a lot to be able to skate, Finn."
Finn sighed as Irena helped him get back on his feet, although he wasn't much more steady. "Teagan's just better than me at everything… you'd think we'd be the same as far as physical capabilities, but he's good at everything and I'm not…"
Irena whacked him in the upper arm, careful not to hit him so hard he would fall again.
"Shut up Finn." She said "you shouldn't think like that, there are people who don't like you because you transform into a werewolf, so what? Why can't you think of yourself the way the people that love you do?Funny, sensitive and kind? There are people who are literally in love with you Finn, you are by far one of the best people I know."
"Ow! What was that—…?" Finn trailed off when Irena continued, flushing lightly at her praises. "I… thank you, I-I guess I just… it's hard." He sighed softly, looking down at the floor. "Only you and Teagan and Beatrice like being around me. And I know Teagan still likes me, but y'know… we're mean to each other. We fight. It's fine, I don't mind it, but I don't expect to get much reinforcement from him. And Beatrice and I don't really know each other well enough for that kinda thing, so it's really just you… even my parents hate me. I just wanna have something I'm good at. Something I can be better than Teagan at. That's probably stupid, I dunno…"
Irena looked at him sympathetically.
"No," she said quietly, "It's not stupid, I get it."
She sighed and began to lean him towards the side, so they wouldn't be in the way of skater while they walked.
"Joanna was in law school when she died. She was really smart and so is Beatrice, they've both been on honor roll for as long as I can remember. Me, i'm not that great at anything, not even school, my grades are mediocre, I can't draw like Joanna could and I can't remember things as well as Beatrice does, im just like a ghost to my parents." She explained "so I get it Finn, I really do."
Finn nodded, keeping his eyes on the ground. He couldn't meet Irena's eyes right now. "I don't have a lot of opportunities to try new things to see if I'm good at them." He said softly. "I can't really join clubs or sports or anything like that because of what I am. I'm too scary, it's not fair if I join a team because of the 'dangerous abilities'. I'd like to do sports, but they're all scared of me… I didn't do anything. Nobody wants me around long enough for me to pick up any new skills. If I'm not naturally good at anything like Teagan is, I'm just… useless." He fell quiet for a moment and then shook his head, forcing a smile and a laugh. "Sorry! I don't mean to be such a bummer. We're supposed to be having fun, right?"
Irena looked at him in concern.
"Finn…" she said warily "if you want to sit down and talk, we can sit down and talk."
She gave him a small smile, she wanted to know if Finn knew that she was there for him, but she didn't want to press and ask.
Finn's smile fell and he looked away again. "I don't want to kill the mood any more than I already have. I don't think talking will fix anything, to be honest. I appreciate it, but… it's not really going to get better, you know? It's the hand I've been dealt and I need to just… get over it."
Irena looked at him for a long time, studying his face carefully.
"Okay." She said, at last. "But we are going to have to talk in more depth at some point Finn, carrying around feelings like yours can be not good, it can lead to depression and other mental problems if you bottle up your emotions."
She then pulled him back onto the skating rink and pulled him along slowly.
"I know… I just can't do it right now. Maybe later, I dunno…" Finn shook his head a bit and forced a more normal expression so Teagan wouldn't worry. "Maybe you can give me some pointers on how to do this so I don't fall? We don't go skating very often." He laughed weakly.
Irena smiled and nodded.
"Try to be calm and keep your posture relatively straight." She advised him and then thought for a moment.
"Also the way I personally handle wide turns like this is I keep my left foot in place and I use my left one to push me more to the turn, if that makes sense?"
Finn nodded a bit and tried to follow the instructions, but he still seemed a bit tense and nervous. He held tightly to Irena as he tried to figure out what he was doing, and eventually ended up pushing himself forward a bit more successfully. "Like this? Is that good?" He asked.
Irena smiled and nodded.
"Yes! Much better." She said excitedly, watching Teagan whiz circles around the rink.
"try to push harder with your left foot on the turns though." She instructed "push outwards."
Finn did as he was told, wobbling and floundering at first, but soon righting himself with Irena's help and continuing forward. He was too focused on what he was doing to really notice Teagan. "Alright, is that… is that it? I'm moving forward, so that's something, I think…"
Irena nodded encouragingly.
"yes, just keep focusing like you've been doing." She told him "you're doing great."
She helped him around the ring a few more times and then, slowly let go and skated beside him, to see if he could do it.
Finn looked nervous when Irena let go of him and he whined softly, holding his arms out to his sides to keep his balance. It took him a few seconds to recover before he attempted to move forward, which he was more capable of doing than he expected. He smiled brightly at his small success and continued, doing his best to keep moving forward.
Irena smiled and clapped as she skated next to him.
"Go Finn!" She yelled excitedly "just loosen up, have fun, it makes everything so much easier, especially skating."
She skated to the music playing loudly, which was Willow Smith's "Wait A Minute!" She skated by Finn and turned around quickly, whipping her dark hair around her as she did.
"I knew you could do it!" She said to him over the music.
When Finn relaxed more, he was doing a lot better, and he didn't seem so worried about falling. He was moving more quickly and smoothly, and he didn't have to constantly stare at his feet to avoid wiping out. Teagan cheered for his brother as well as he passed by. The rink was pretty much empty side from the three of them, so they could have as much fun as they wanted.
Irena kept skating and raised her hands in the air, cheering as well.
Pretty soon, Finn was passing her as he made his way around the rink.
"Go Finn!" She said excitedly, skating over to Teagan and grabbing his hands, where she began to spin him in circles.