Roll Playing : With wheels come freedom, so teens don’t need to stay at home for the drama of soap operas. They’re already rolling in it at the Fountain Valley Skating Center.

Friday night couldn’t have rolled around any faster for Pacifica High freshman Kelly Boyd. The Garden Grove teen usually visits the Fountain Valley Skating Center on Saturdays but made an exception last weekend for him .

“I’m hoping to see someone. This guy. I heard he would come here tonight,” Kelly, 15, confides. That explains the continually shifting eyes. Her vision was locked on search mode.

“He doesn’t even know me, but. . .” Kelly’s conversation halts. She’s spotted someone zipping by, but it proves to be a false alarm. It’s two-thirds into the second two-hour session of the evening. Time’s running out. Dad will be by soon to pick up Kelly and her friend.

So unfolds one of dozens of dramas at the roller-skating rink this evening. It’s about the same price as a movie ($4.50 a session, $1.50 for skate rentals) and, considering some of the sequels out, twice as riveting. Besides, if you’re under 21, where else can you go to groove to music?

Packed with a couple of hundred teens on wheels, with a nonstop parade of parents dropping off more kids outside, roller-skating rinks are the weekend hot spots for teens to see and be seen.

Kelly’s case is typical, says Santiago High junior Michele McElroy of Garden Grove. She says she’s heard it all working behind the snack bar at the rink six days a week for the past three years (“I’m trying to pay off a car”).

“Everybody’s checking out everyone else. They’re talking about everybody,” says Michele, 17. “It’s kind of cool working here because you hear all the gossip. It is such a soap opera here.”

As the Wheels Turn.

Friday and Saturday nights are Michele’s busiest and favorite shifts. She can point out who’s who just as easily as she can the newcomers. Roller rinks, apparently, attract as loyal a following as, say, bars or nightclubs do for the older set. Indeed, even if there were any clubs for teens, many say they’d still go roller-skating.

There are hard-core regulars who go every weekend--like Michele’s brother Mike, 14. Others make it two or three times a month. But “once you come here you come all the time,” Michele notes.

“It’s just really easy to fit in here. Everyone’s open and friendly.”

She then reveals the other truth: “Kids get away with a lot of stuff here. It’s like, your parents aren’t here watching you, so you can skate fast, meet guys or girls and not get in trouble.”

Skating fast and slow dancing with someone cute seems so innocent compared with some of the alternatives out there, like high school kegger parties. Even cruising can be dangerous because of drunk drivers. Then again, so is roller-skating, if you’re a klutz.

“Stuff gets started in here,” admits Mike, a freshman at Santiago High in Garden Grove. “But it’s not very often. It feels sort of safer in here. I mean, it’s better than being out on the streets.”

The security team makes sure the crowd keeps cool, as does the crew of referees in black and white shirts. To their credit, they seem to know the difference between a group of young guests knocking each other down for kicks and those who have other intentions.

This isn’t Sunday school, after all. Normal conflicts arise, especially when some groups try to flex their presence. It’s typical to find cliques.

*

A few are caught up in thrift-shop fashion and seek out other eclectic skaters. There are the girls who come more ready for the runway than the roller way, perfectly primped and stylin’ in trendy clothes (if only those rentals weren’t so brown and ugly). Some of the guys show up in packs, dressed alike in hip-hop wear including wide-leg jeans that hide their skates.

Couples hold hands when they skate, when they sit, when they snack--only letting go when they make out. Singles, on the other hand, band in throngs. Girls over here, boys over there--much like a school dance.

Old friends, like Santiago seniors Tiffany Nguyen and Kimberly Tran, visit the rink a couple of times a month to get together, “mess around and dance” the 17-year-olds say in unison. Kimberly doesn’t get to see Tiffany much since Tiffany got a boyfriend. Tonight’s girls’ night out. “We came for the action!” Tiffany yells out. On the agenda? Finding Kimberly a beau.

There are friends who all have the same-colored skates. And there are those who’ve moved on to in-line models.

But popularity isn’t just rated on fashion sense or whether someone owns or rents skates. Skill and technique matter too.

*

Which is why Mike and his friend Fountain Valley freshman Dave Navarro, 14, are the self-appointed hosts. Mike’s been coming every Friday and Saturday for the past five years, and he doesn’t plan to change his weekend gig just because he’s in high school now. Nor does Dave, who met Mike and most of his closest friends since beginning to frequent the rink two years ago.

They say their realm of friends is larger than the average high schooler because of the rink. They know teens from other schools and cities: Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Westminster and Fountain Valley.

“All my good friends I know from skating,” Mike notes. “They’re the ones I talk to on the phone. . .unless I need help on homework. Then I call someone from (my) school.”

Dave agrees. But he’s less reluctant to call the rink his total world. “Skating is, well, half my life,” he says.

“It’s, like, normal just to come here,” Mike adds. “It’s a habit. Everybody who comes here can’t wait till Friday.”

* The Scene is a weekly look at the trends and lifestyles of Orange County high schoolers. If you have a feature idea, please let us know by writing to: The Scene, The Times Life & Style Dept., 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Please include your phone number.