Norma Jean - By Amanda Heath Page 0,72

soaping up my hair.

“I have a leave of absence. I turned in a letter of intent to the Dean the day after Grammy died. He approved it.” I peek out of the curtain and find her sitting on the toilet in just a towel with full makeup.

“That’s convenient. I don’t have class till tomorrow so I’m all yours.” I turn the shower off and step out accepting the towel Norma holds out for me.

She moves away from the toilet and stands in front of me after I’m dry. “What is your major anyway?” she asks placing her arms around my neck, her hands sliding through my damp hair.

“Accounting. Sounds boring right?” I grin placing a kiss on her nose.

She giggles, “You were always stupidly good at math. I’m honestly not surprised in the least.” My hands wrap around her waist and pull her even closer.

“What’s your major? Let me guess!” I pull a finger up to my chin and tap like I’m actually thinking about it. “Zoology!” I mock exclaim placing my hand back on her hip.

She lightly smacks my chest grinning wide. “Nope. Education.” She giggles again at my shocked expression.

“I thought it would be something to do with Zoos so you could work with Reptiles and Spiders.” She of course rolls her eyes at me.

“That’s not very practical since there is like only one Zoo in Arkansas and that’s in Little Rock. I don’t want to be that far away from my mom. I love kids and I want to teach kindergarten. I can thank Macy for that. She is fun at this age.” She kisses my cheek before stepping out of my arms.

“There’s nothing wrong with that, smalls. Be what you want to be.” I smile at her before moving into the bedroom to get dressed.

*****

“So you’re telling me you have never been skating? Like at all?” I ask Norma who eyes the skates I got for her at the front desk of the skating rink.

“No. Shoes with wheels freak me out. You seriously like to do this?” she questions eyeing me with caution.

I nod my head before sitting down beside her. “It’s fun. I used to be really good, but I haven’t skated in years. After everyone else our age got over it, I didn’t. I even had my own pair. They were styled like converses but of course they had wheels.”

“You are like really excited for this aren’t you?” she asks raising one eyebrow.

“Yeah, skating is totally freeing. The way you can move around the rink weaving in and out of people. The way your hair flys in the breeze.” Norma looks at me like I have lost my mind, but I don’t care. “I don’t know, it was really fun. It was something I was really good at and I enjoyed doing.”

“No I get it. Kind of like my snakes and spiders. Not something everyone does but still something you enjoy that no one else understands.” She grins then, pulling on her skates.

“So you’re going to go out there with me?” I start to get excited. I thought she was going to turn me down.

“Yeah. I got you to hold Rydstorm even though you were scared. Why can’t I do something that scares me for you?” I feel my heart lighten at her words. She truly surprises me sometimes.

I quickly kiss her on the cheek before pulling her up. We slowly skate across the carpet to the opening of the rink. I take her hand in mine and tug her out on the shiny wood floor with me. She looks terrified but since there aren’t but two other people in the rink, she has nothing to worry about. Besides I would never let her fall.

“We will take it slowly, don’t worry. I won’t let you go till you have it down.” I smile encouragingly at her starting to skate backwards holding on to both of her hands.

“You promise?” the terror starts to pass slowly as we gently move around the rink.

“Promise.” I lift her hand up to my lips. I haven’t done this in a while but I still have the hang of it, moving easily backwards.

“You’re really good at this.” She says like she thought I was pulling her leg.

“I told you smalls.” I start moving faster and let go of one of her hands moving to skate forwards. Her legs move easily with mine and I don’t think she has anything to worry about. “You ready to go on your own?” I