Mom Stuff
The book opens with the narrator and her best friend in the car. Suddenly, she writes, "mom uttered the words that never failed to strike fear and dread into my heart." This metaphorical phrase gains its power from overstatement. The words that symbolically strike fear and dread are simply an assertion that the mother is taking both girls out for an evening of cultural education as entertainment.
The Arena
The two girls cannot figure out what this cultural enlightenment that the narrator's mom speaks of when she drives the car into what looks like a spooky amusement park. "We went into this huge building that looked like an airplane hangar." After previous outings that included a poetry reading, a night at the opera, and a trip to a modern art museum, the girls are prepared for just about anything except being led into a huge building in a fairground at night. The comparison to an airplane hangar conveys a sense of enormous space in which the last thing the girls are expecting to see is a roller derby tournament.
The Skaters
Roller derby is a brand-new experience for the young narrator and she is at first taken aback by the skaters with nicknames like Scald Eagle and Scrappy Go Lucky. "They all looked really tough—sort of like the inmates in that documentary about women's prisons mom made me watch." The comparison of the skaters to tough prison inmates enhances the idea of their appearance. The reference to a documentary about women in prison also serves to further delineate the active involvement of the narrator's mother in attempting to expand her daughter's experience and engagement with society.
The Daredevil
That trip to the roller derby changes the narrator's life as she decides to try becoming a competitive skater herself. Early on in the development of her skills, she takes a wild ride down a steep hill that results in a crash landing at the bombing. "She was like Evel Knievel going down that hill." The legend of Astrid begins with that out-of-control ride. Onlookers call her a "speed demon" as well as using a simile to compare her to the most famous American daredevil all time. Robert "Evel" Knievel was the 20th century man who gained fame landing—and infamy sometimes spectacularly crashing—a motorcycle after jumping it over increasingly longer lengths.
Word of Mouth
The narrator and her new roller derby friend attempt to advertise an upcoming match through word of mouth. "Zoey started shouting like a carnival barker." The comparison being made here is to an old-fashioned carny worker who attracts potential audiences to a sideshow by shouting loudly and directly enticing people in the crowd. Zoey is illustrated as being more extroverted and exhibitionistic than the narrator.
