Roller Girl

Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2015

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Chapters 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 9 Summary

Astrid arrives at roller derby, and Zoey is happy to see her. Astrid says she is only allowed to keep the blue hair until the end of summer, but she is fine with that for now. Coach Heidi wants to see more fire in the girls and starts them on a drill called Warface. Each girl must weave through the line of players from the back of the line to the front and show each person their warface as they pass. Astrid is up first, and she giggles her way through it. Heidi becomes frustrated and reminds the girls, “I want you to show me fire, or go home” (122). She tells Astrid to show her warface again and again, louder each time, until Astrid becomes frustrated and shouts with a large, emanated “AAAGHH!” (123). She completes the drill properly, and though she’s exhausted, she thinks “it feels…good!” (124). Astrid decides to leave Rainbow Bite another note after practice asking for tips about putting on a warface. The next day, Rainbow Bite writes back telling Astrid to imagine her worst enemies are the players. Astrid imagines Rachel and feels like she now has the key.

Coach Heidi explains the pivot and jammer, two crucial positions on the team. The pivot is the head blocker while the jammer scores the points by skating past the other team’s blockers. The pivots are identified by wearing a striped “panty” (125) on their helmets, and the jammers wear a panty with a star on it. Astrid giggles at the work “panty,” but the other girls give her a stern look, and Heidi continues her explanations. Astrid decides she wants to be a jammer since that seems to be the star of the team, but she finds it is much harder than it looks. Astrid and Zoey volunteer to hand out flyers for roller derby at an event later that evening, so Zoey skates home with Astrid after practice. On the way, Astrid makes her usual stop at the convenience store and asks to put up a flyer in their window. As she puts it up, Astrid notices a flyer for Nicole’s dance recital, which will take place the week after the bout, and Astrid removes the dance recital flyer from the window. Later at the event, Zoey and Astrid have fun giggling and talking to people together as they hand out flyers. Then, Nicole shows up with Rachel and two boys. She approaches Astrid and comments on her hair, and Rachel begins insulting Astrid again. Zoey defends Astrid, and Rachel pulls Nicole away. Astrid feels awkward and taken by surprise and decides to follow Nicole and her group around the park for a bit. When she overhears Rachel talking about Nicole kissing Adam on the Ferris wheel, saying, “unless, of course, that freak show Astrid scared him off. I can’t believe you used to be friends with her” (139). Rachel tells Nicole that she needs to think about her first impression at junior high and encourages her to stop talking to Astrid all together. Nicole asks how a person just ceases a friendship, and Astrid reflects, “This was the same exact question I’d been asking myself for the past few weeks. Maybe it’s one of those great mysteries of the universe” (140). Rachel tells Nicole to just stop talking to Astrid and ignore her if she tries to talk to her, and Astrid waits to hear Nicole disagree or defend her somehow. Instead, Nicole says, “I guess so” (142). Astrid explodes and reveals herself, screaming at Nicole that she does not have to worry about her anymore. Nicole starts to cry, and Rachel makes a remark about Zoey being Astrid’s girlfriend. Astrid becomes completely enraged, and the entire frame is filled with her red eyes. She puts on a real warface and throws her drink at the girls. She screams, “I hate you, Nicole! I hate you, I hate you!” (144) and runs away. Zoey catches up to Astrid and tells her how great it was to see those two girls get what they deserved. She reminds Astrid that she is a roller derby girl now, and nobody can mess with her. Although Astrid has lost Nicole, she has gained a new friend in Zoey.

Chapter 10 Summary

“Something changed” (145) in Astrid since the incident with Nicole and Rachel, and she feels more determined than ever to be chosen for the bout. She feels angry through and through and wants to show the world how tough, strong, and fierce she is. She refers to herself as a “woman possessed” (145), showing that she is growing up and finally happy about that. Rainbow Bite offers Astrid some more advice, saying that if she wants to be in the bout, she needs to work harder than everyone else. So, Astrid does just that. She stays after practice, practices at home, and does extra exercise whenever she can. Astrid is becoming a faster skater, though she still has trouble stopping, and her hitting is getting a bit better as well. Astrid still falls when she is hit, but she sometimes stays up, and she is okay with it because her goal is to be a jammer and avoid being hit anyway. She imagines herself being a successful jammer and being carried by the team after a winning bout, balloons and streamers in the air, and Rachel and Nicole standing by, jealous of her.

Heidi has noticed Astrid’s effort and tells her and Zoey they will probably be in the bout. Zoey is thrilled and invites Astrid over to figure out derby names and watch Xanadu, but Astrid declines because she wants to keep practicing instead. Zoey thinks Astrid is taking things too seriously, but Astrid does not let up. Heidi announces the teams for the bout, and Zoey and Astrid are on the same team. Zoey is chosen to be a jammer, but Astrid is not, and Astrid feels like “somehow…it felt like Nicole and Rachel had won, and I had lost” (157). Zoey is hurt that Astrid is not happy for her and refuses to talk to Astrid for the rest of practice. Astrid feels terrible but cannot seem to snap out of it. When she gets home, her day gets even worse when her mother announces that it is time to go clothes shopping.

Chapter 11 Summary

A splash page of Astrid in a hell-fire-ridden clothing store is shown on the first page of Chapter 11, with devils poking her and telling her to try on clothes. Astrid hates clothes shopping and her mom has her try on a dress Astrid despises. Nicole happens to be at the same store, and since Astrid’s mom has no idea they have been fighting, she calls Nicole over. Astrid’s mom begins asking Nicole how she is enjoying roller derby camp, and Nicole instantly understands what is going on. However, instead of revealing Astrid’s lie, Nicole lies and says she is going to be out of town for the bout. Astrid’s “knees [are] shaking with relief and bottled-up stress” (163), and she is slowly becoming more and more overwhelmed. On the way home from the store, Astrid tries to figure out why Nicole covered for her. She concludes that Nicole and Rachel must be planning some big revenge against her, and she decides she must get them first.

Chapter 12 Summary

Astrid compares the next few weeks to Picasso’s blue period, calling it her Black Period. She has nightmares about costing the team the game or being bullied by Nicole and Rachel. Rather than practicing for the bout, Astrid becomes caught up in plotting revenge. A drawing on loose leaf paper is shown of Rachel and Nicole having eggs and water balloons thrown at them while they perform their recital. Zoey is still angry at Astrid, and Astrid is losing enthusiasm for playing in the bout since she will not be jamming. She feels like her blocking skills are worsening, and she keeps ending up in the penalty box. During the last jam of the day, Astrid is determined to keep the jammer from passing her. When she sees a starred helmet coming toward her, she accidentally hits Zoey and knocks her down instead of the other team’s jammer, and Zoey accuses her of doing it on purpose.

Astrid walks instead of skates home with a dark shadow around her, and when she gets home, her mother reveals that she saw Nicole’s mom at the supermarket and found out that Nicole is not participating in roller derby camp. Astrid tells her mom that she has been roller skating home, which includes crossing a highway, and Astrid is sent to her room until her mother can calm down enough to talk to her. She says to herself, “I was fighting with everyone else in the world, why not my mother too?” (175) and begins punching her teddy bear in rage. Astrid lies down and stares at her ceiling, which has a solar system painted on it. She feels like “a lone golf ball whacked into space by an astronaut. Just floating by [herself]. Forever” (176). Astrid used to imagine that her mother was Mercury, Nicole was Earth, and she was Venus. Nicole and her mother were the two most important things in Astrid’s life at one point. Soon, Astrid’s mom comes into the room and asks Astrid why she lied. Astrid explains that this rift with Nicole is serious and might be the end of their friendship. She tells her mom about the fight with Zoey and not being a jammer for the bout. Astrid’s mom comforts her and gives her a hug and asks her to promise to be honest from now on. In a moment of humor, Astrid breaks the fourth wall by saying directly to the reader, “Take it from me, kids: If you find yourself in hot water with your parents, try talking to them about your ‘crazy mixed-up teenage feelings’. It might get you out of a jam” (181).

Chapters 9-12 Analysis

As the summer passes by, Astrid begins to let go of Nicole and bond with her new friend Zoey. Zoey and Astrid share similar interests and fashion styles, and they also seem to have the same sense of humor. Unfortunately, just when Zoey and Astrid are starting to become close, Astrid overhears Nicole and Rachel talking at the fairground about ditching her. Rachel says things like, “she’s probably on drugs or something” (140) and “the best thing to do is just stop talking to her, cold turkey” (141). Astrid is an emotional person who sometimes gets angry, yells or punches her toys, and she explodes in this moment and throws her drink on Nicole and Rachel. This begins a spiral in which Astrid feels like everything in her life is falling apart, from her relationships with Nicole and her mother to roller derby and her budding friendship with Zoey. As Astrid’s life spirals out of control, she feels like a “lone golf ball” (176) flying through space with no direction or company.

In this stage of Astrid’s life, she begins to learn what it means to be a true friend. When Zoey is chosen for jammer instead of Astrid, Astrid gets upset. This offends Zoey, who professes that Astrid should be happy for her. While Zoey will eventually warm back up to Astrid in later chapters, Astrid must learn how to be a good friend first for that to happen. The development of that lesson starts when Astrid realizes she wants to play the bout even if she is not the jammer. It ripples out to a new pattern of thought for her as she learns to put others before herself and to be a true team player. Astrid’s lie to her mother about attending camp with Nicole is also revealed, and after a long heart-to-heart Astrid feels like she and her mother are on the same side again.

Jamieson stays true to the comic book roots of graphic novel art with the use of motion lines to indicate action, speed, and direction during roller derby and moments where Astrid breaks the fourth wall to address the audience directly and pull the reader into the story. When Astrid and Zoey are racing down the rink as Astrid improves in speed, two clouds of smoke and motion lines are seen trailing behind them. When Astrid makes a successful hit, sharp motion lines and a yellow star indicate the impact. Jamieson also employs motion lines for humor, such as Astrid’s drawing of the direction her drink flies when it hits Nicole and Rachel, illustrated with arrows. Jamieson draws moments where Astrid breaks the fourth wall to make the story feel as if Astrid is the one telling it. Astrid will look directly at the reader, often humorously, and speak to them: “So take it from me, kids: If you ever find yourself in hot water with your parents, try talking to them about your ‘crazy, mixed-up teenage feelings’. It might just get you out of a jam” (181), Astrid notes, winking and giving a thumbs up.