Pixie and the Professor

She literally landed in his lap. Certainly not in any sexy way, but with her arms flailing wildly as she tried to regain her balance after having been body checked off the track. Combined with being off balance and getting tripped up by the legs of several of the observers in the danger zone, she careened into the first row of the bleachers. He reacted pretty well, managing to get his arm between her helmet and his face and they ended up sprawled across the bench, her roller skates up in the air and one of her knees dangerously close to his crotch. A blur of brilliant blue spandex and the star on the helmet coming at his face, he didn't have much of a memory of the actual impact.

Hands grabbed a hold of them and pulled them two of them apart and to their feet. Even with her skates on, he was looking down on the top of her head. The helmet had been removed to reveal the raven black hair was severely parted and the long tresses were braided half way down her back. His mouth throbbed and the ambulance team was right there. A cold pack was provided for the swollen lip he was sporting. She was escorted back to the team bench with an ice pack for her shin where it clipped something on the way to the bleachers. And it was only a few minutes later that the match started up again. It was as close to any of the skaters he had been since he arrived.

New to the area he had been pushing himself to look for things to do in the community beyond sitting at home or at the local bar. That had been his standard way of spending an evening when he was in undergrad, though studying was more of a focus as a grad student. He had moved for his first job and was trying to change his standards and get out a bit more. Having spent the last seven years in various universities, he was currently finishing his Doctorate, only the dissertation remaining to be completed. He had landed a job as an assistant professor at a university a few hundred miles away from his alma mater, so he could easily drive down for meetings with his advisor and to defend his dissertation when the time came. It was just as the summer session was going to be starting and he was going to be teaching one class, four days a week. It would give him a chance to learn his way around and he was definitely looking forward to an actual paycheck.

The local park had a big outdoor skating rink that was under a roof. It was used for roller hockey and roller derby in the summer and ice hockey and skating in the winter. It was about a mile from the small bungalow he was renting, an easy bike ride and he made himself take the trek at least three times a week. Sometimes there were picnics and parties going on, once in a while some garage band would be doing a small show and he'd hang around. He debated about getting a dog to join him on his jaunts, but decided against it when he saw one person being yanked into the grass by his rather large dog. He was too afraid he'd run over a small dog. Maybe someday. So when the first match of the season was announced for the Women's Flat Track Derby club, he figured it would be something different.

After the match, she rolled over to him and checked to make sure he was okay. He was still sitting on the second row of the bleachers, and he was only an inch or two higher than she was on skates. Other than a bit of a throbbing on his lip where he'd been holding the ice pack, he was fine.

"Hi, I'm Julie, known around here as Wheel Pixie."

"Hi, Julie, I'm Will, otherwise known as the human mattress."

She giggled. Julie was just under 5 feet tall, certainly small, while he stood just a bit over six feet. But he couldn't refer to her as skinny, just small. She was perfectly proportioned, any picture you took of her without a size reference made her look like a model. The raven black hair was striking by itself, when combined with her piercing gray eyes, she had an ethereal feeling to her. Which made the pairing look really strange.

"Are you okay?"

"I've had a lot worse! I'm just fine, thank you," He said with a smile, a bit crooked from the lip.

He supposed if he saw her on the street he would have assumed she was a young tweenager, other than the prominent bust that was right there in front of him. While he didn't know all the rules and regulations, he did know that to skate you had to be at least 18. The spandex did nothing to hide her figure, though the baggy shorts shielded lower parts from direct observation. She was wearing number 20.

If he had been standing, she wouldn't have been able to do what she did next. She put her hand on his face and pulled down on his lip a bit inspecting the damage she had created. Seemingly satisfied, she placed a single gentle little kiss on his lip.

"There, all better. Now come to the afterparty and I'll buy you a beer!" He watched her skate away and wondered how old she was. He knew she was over 18 and if she was truly going to buy him a beer, that put her over 21. So she couldn't be more than five years younger than he was.

The second match started up and he watched. Fortunately the program had a pretty good summary of the rules, so between that and an occasional question to those sitting around him, he was slowly learning to decipher the moves and the scoring.

The location for the after party was listed in the program, that at least was easy to figure out. He'd have to go back to his place and get his car to get there. He could bike it, but the roads between the park and the bar were a bit dicey and he'd be all sweated out. And then there was always the helmet to worry about, not to mention the helmet hair. A couple of the people around him pointed out that anyone invited by anyone associated with the club could show up and they had never heard of anyone being turned away with or without an invite. So he decided it would be something different.

He took it slow riding back to the house, he didn't want to break into a sweat if he could avoid it. It really wouldn't take more than ten minutes for him to run through a shower, but he figured most of the people at the party wouldn't have had a chance to clean up after their efforts on the track. Blue jeans and a set of tennis shoes were easy, the tough part was always what shirt to wear. He certainly wasn't going to put on a dress shirt, and a t-shirt seemed a bit underdressed. He settled on a polo type shirt, the collar made it a bit more formal, but not too much. It was spring and the weather was warming up. And he went with the school colors for the university, figuring that would be fairly safe, considering they were in the school's city. He debated about a hat, but didn't normally wear one unless expecting to be in the sun.

The venue for the party was easy enough to find. Not a place he had been to before, but from the outside looked pretty typical. It took a bit of time for him to find a place to park, but once he had he walked over to the bar and went inside. He had slid off to the side and moved a bit away from the door and was checking out the lay of the place, looking for Julie. There was a band set-up on the far wall, with a bit of a dance floor. The immediate area around the dance floor was lined up with tables filled with roller derby folks. Most were wearing some sort of team gear, a shirt, ball-caps and team colors. Both the home team and the visitors were well represented.

It was actually one of the visiting team members that first pulled him into the melee. Femauler as her shirt identified her, had been the one that had body checked Pixie and sent her flying across the floor into him. She didn't apologize, it wasn't like she had done anything wrong and hadn't even gotten charged with a foul, but she showed a bit of concern and asked how he was feeling and how bad he had been hurt. His lip was sensitive and was going to sport a bit of swelling for a while, but the majority of the pain was over with, he was just going to have to watch how he bit down when chewing some things. She even poured him a beer from one of the pitchers sitting at their table. With a drink in hand and the ice having definitely been broken, he started working the room.

Everyone was friendly and some asked about his thoughts on the matches. He was honest and explained he didn't know all the rules, but had enjoyed the energy and excitement. The skaters came in all shapes and sizes. There were a couple that were his height and he would be afraid to go one on one with a number of them. Will had already decided he'd trade his ticket in for a season pass at the next match.

It was Saturday night, so he didn't have to worry about work the next day, not that it mattered much, but despite being the junior guy in the department, he had managed to avoid morning classes for the summer session. One class meeting Monday through Thursday for two hours. Essentially, he worked four afternoons a week while he learned the ropes and the university procedures.

Eventually he found Julie, it was just a bit difficult to spot her as she was so short. She had changed into a pair of yoga pants and was also wearing a polo shirt, in the team color of purple. At first look she would definitely be considered cute, just for her size if nothing else. But a second look and anyone would say she was beautiful. Her size intrigued him and certainly made her seem more approachable than some of the taller skaters. If she had been even half a foot taller, he probably would have been intimidated by her beauty.

She spotted him and a big smile crossed her face. That in itself was a bit of a relief, she recognized him and seemed glad to see him. They worked their way toward each other through the crowd.

"I guess I owe you a beer!" She stated with a smile.

"I believe you do! How are you feeling? The leg okay?" He had seen that she had skated a couple of more jams after the accident, so knew things couldn't be too bad.

"I'm good! I expect it will be rather colorful in the morning, it's already started!" She looked into his cup and made a face. "Let's get you a real beer!" She led the way to the bar. There was no doubt she was used to wading through lots of bodies, he had a bit of difficulty trying to keep up. By the time he caught up to her, she had two glasses standing on the bar in front of her. The dark contents with a cream colored head made her choice obvious, and raised his opinion of her a couple of notches. Super attractive and she opted for a Guinness?

Will quickly realized he wanted to know more about this little dynamo. And this bar was not going to be the place. The band was starting up and the noise level made any conversation pretty difficult. Evidently she felt the same way, and motioned him to follow her. She moved to the end of the bar and opened a door there. Inside were stairs and he followed her up, enjoying the view of her petite ass in the tight pants as she climbed them. They reached the door at the top and she turned to look at him. The step ahead of him put her just a couple inches shorter than him. She reached out with her free hand and placed it on his shoulder and looked into his eyes for a moment.

"I'm kinda hoping that it was not just a free beer that brought you here."

"Um, to be honest, following you up the stairs, I forgot I had a beer." It was rather a bold statement to be coming from him, but he was trying to open up a bit.

She smiled, "Good answer! Come on!" and opened the door to reveal a rooftop seating area, pretty full, but a lot quieter than downstairs had been.

"They'd love to have the band up here, but the noise ordinances wouldn't allow it." She scanned the tables looking for an empty spot. A woman waved her over, obviously a teammate from the colors. They joined the other three and a round of introductions followed. He recognized them from the match.

He looked at the four women at the table and figured that the oldest might have entered their thirties, but mid-twenties seemed to be a closer fit. With the exception of Julie, he was figuring they were all within a few years of his own age. And the interrogation began. Outnumbered, it was obvious that they were going to be focusing on him.

"So what do you do for a living, Will?"

"I'm an assistant professor at the university. I teach Asian History." That led to the usual round of questioning about degrees and whens and wheres. One of the others at the table was also teaching at the university, that sort of surprised him. He didn't expect there to be so many well educated individuals in the crowd. All of the ones at the table had at least a college degree, one a masters and Julie was working on a masters. She was in the second year of a master's degree in library science and expected to finish in another year.

Over the next hour he learned a lot about roller derby, and a bit about Julie. She worked part time at a bookstore downtown and had a couple of TA assignments.

The band shut down at midnight, but the crowd had started to thin out around eleven. It was getting a bit chilly on the roof, but the warmth of Julie on his leg more than compensated. She stayed perched there, even when seats started to open up. Once the band was done they moved back inside. Pixie still opted for his leg as a seat when they relocated, fine with him! She seemed to fit there.

The bar shut down at one, it seemed early, but they didn't have much of a choice.

"Okay, can you give me a ride back to my car at the park?" How could he refuse a request being backed up by those beautiful gray eyes?

"Gladly!" Here was an opportunity to spend a few minutes with Julie that wasn't competing with the noise levels of the bar and all of her friends. He wasn't worried about her driving, after finishing her Guinness, she had switched to seltzer water, even with her small size, she should be more than good to go. He liked her, no question there. She wasn't his normal type, but that was more due to her petite size than anything else. Her eyes pretty much hypnotized him everytime he looked at them. Even without having been warned he would have treaded lightly. He figured the only reason he was able to talk with her was the small size, someone that pretty that was a half foot or more taller would have scared him off. Jim almost felt like a protector or bodyguard for this petite armful of woman.

During the ride he learned a bit more about her. She was from the west side of the state, so she got home fairly regularly. She had an older and a younger brother and her dad ran a hardware store in a small farming community. Several times she shifted uncomfortably with a small groan.

"Are you okay?"

"I think the collision is starting to catch up with me. I'm used to being a bit sore after a match, but I'm tightening up in some strange places."

"Unusual impacts can certainly do that!"

"Umm, this might be a bit forward, but, do you have a bathtub at your place?"

"Yeah, a pretty nice one."

"Could I follow you home and use it? I think I need a nice hot soak to help me loosen up. I share an apartment with two other girls and no bathtub. I really don't have the luxury of a long soak."

He laughed, nothing overly subtle with her! She was coming home with him and he hadn't needed to convince her. At this point they hadn't even kissed, unless you counted the soft little peck on his bruised lip. "I think I have what you need. Though you might need a lifeguard as big as my tub is. A bit of Epsom Salt and the massage jets will help you out!"

He had been wondering how to push the relationship forward a bit, having her use his bathtub was not something he had thought of! And he realized he didn't even know her last name, he could probably pull it from the information in the program, but surely she'd exchange phone numbers after this. But to get her back to his place at her suggestion? Other than sitting on his lap with his arm around her for the last few hours, there hadn't been anything one would consider romantic going on.

They got to the park and she directed him to her car. He held out his hand. She looked a bit confused as she reached over and shook it. "No! Give me your phone and I'll put my address in it for you, so if you get lost you can still get to my place." She blushed a bit and handed him her phone after unlocking it. He entered his address, as well as creating a contact for himself, with his full name. And sent himself a quick text while he was at it before returning it to her.

It only took a few minutes to wind their way through the dark streets to his place. She pulled into the driveway behind him. He opened her car door and she popped her trunk. Pixie started to struggle with her gear bag, trying to lift it out of the trunk.

"Here let me get that, though I don't know what you need it for."

"Well, I've got my towel in there."

"I've got lots of towels, so you don't need that. Anything else you need?"

She seemed a little bit out of it, but opened the bag and pulled out a small dopp kit. "I guess not!"

His bungalow was fairly nice, though small. Small yard, not much grass as the sun didn't penetrate the trees. The downstairs had a fair sized kitchen, reasonable living room, a small bedroom/den and a half bath. The basement was usable for some storage and had a laundry area along with space for the other equipment. At least he didn't have to haul his dirty clothes to the laundry. He didn't own much in the way of furniture yet, so it was rather sparse. He'd have to wait until the regular paychecks started coming in the Fall. The living room had a recliner, an old floor lamp and a television sitting on a battered bookshelf stuffed with books. There was nothing on the walls, which were a rather bland light cream color. Not exactly the place of a successful entrepreneur, but a touch better than most of his college digs. And the carpet was not covered in stains like so many other places he'd lived.

The other room had a few boxes in it, but no furniture of any type. It looked pretty sad actually, but he kept the door shut and seldom even went in there. The kitchen had a table and four mis-matched chairs.

He walked her to the door and directed her up the stairs. The upstairs was a fairly large single room to create a very modern en suite, with an ultra modern bathroom connected that included both a shower and a tub with some water jets. There was enough room for his home office desk as well as his king size bed, the two items he had splurged on along with the desk chair. The large flat screen monitor doubled as a television if he wanted to watch tv upstairs. A beat up dresser, a small bedside table and another bookshelf completed the furniture. He started the bathtub filling and dropped a cup of Epsom Salt into the water. He showed her the controls and after handing her a big towel and a washcloth, he left her to it.

"Holler if you need anything!"

He heard the water turn off and the jets turn on. He knew the heater would keep the water warm and the water jets would massage sore muscles. Will finished cleaning up his kitchen and straightened up the living room, not that there was much to do. He was going to have to get a vacuum cleaner to help with the carpets. He even went to the basement and started a load of towels. He had some weight lifting equipment there, just some basics with a pretty utilitarian bench, not even set up for chest presses. The floor in that section was covered in some heavy duty interlocking mats, like you would find in an auto shop. A couple of old mirrors hung on the wall.

Returning to the upper floor, he could still hear the jets running, but it had been almost half an hour. He tapped on the door, "Julie? Are you okay?" Not hearing any reply, he eased the door open a bit. He could see the back of her head in the mirror, so she hadn't drowned. He rapped a bit harder and still got no response. With a deep breath he stepped into the bathroom. "Julie?"