Good News, Worse Day.

Jocelyn was feeling quite good as she walked towards the locker rooms to get her things and head out the door for the evening. Or, rather, she was doing good until she invariably found a way to sour her mood. She certainly wouldn't let joyous occasions ruin her bad attitude, even if this one was trying really, really hard to.

She had been told she would be in her very first Pay-Per-View, which was great! Finally, she was starting to get somewhere with this wrestling thing. Then, she was informed that she was going to be in a dark match. WHAT!? A dark match was basically a match no one watched. She'd be wrestling some scrub while the janitors cleaned the arenas! That was almost more insulting that getting invited tot he PPV in the FIRST place!

But, THEN she was told that the PPV would be in Hawaii. Such a wonderful tropical paradise!? She'd never been to the United States. her father would never let her go there. That made it that much more awesome! Not only could she enjoy a free vacation to a tropical wonderland, but she'd get to really grind it to her father.

That put a big smile on the Chistralian until she remembered her last encounter with Allison. She'd been avoiding her and Dinah even though she knew she needed to take care of both of them. Was all this 'success' really because of that grizzly old muffin muncher? It left a sour taste in her mouth and her bright grin turned into a dreadful sneer. Her fingers dug into the papers she held in her hand. It was wrong! She was doing well now because of her OWN abilities! What had Allison ever done for her, REALLY!? It's not like she had trained her, or given her advice or even said one fucking kind word to her! All she did was drag her through shit and piss. Quite literally in some instances.

Jocelyn flipped the combo on her locker and pounded her fist into the one next to it. It popped her door open and she looked. She'd left a nice dent in the locker next to hers where she had done this frequently. She just wished that someone had actually owned it. This place was so huge that she barely even saw anyone else around her when she was in the locker room unless it was around match time. But the scenario ran through in her head nonetheless.

'Oi, my locker, what the fuck!?'

'What'ya gonna do about it, mate!?'

'N-n-nothing!'

Jocelyn smiled and nodded at the thought. A menacing look was all she needed to send any stupid girl packing. Maybe for once in her life, she could just enjoy the day and not let Allison, her father, or her miserable wrestling career get the better of her. She sighed and closed her locker gently, smiling as she thought about maybe hitting a nice restaurant, grabbing a six pack and relaxing her apartment. Not such a bad way to spend a day after learning your work was going to pay you to go to Hawaii just to beat up some loser who was probably debuting in the league anyway.

Cassie had a lot on her mind.

Focusing was a skill, and you had to work hard to learn it. That's what her dad had taught her, and she was an excellent student. When she put her mind to something, she drifted miles away. The rest of the world was background noise while her mind churned away, and in this case her stomach as well.

Maybe this was her big break. Summer Splash was a big deal, not nearly as big as Avalanche, but way bigger than anything else she'd done before. The thought of it sent an electric thrill through her body, followed by a wave of dread. Was she ready for that sort of thing?

She did notice that it was a dark match, which was something of a relief. She didn't know the opponent, but she could ask Taylor. Taylor knew everyone. Cassie had even interned with the AFW online magazine, and Taylor still had a knowledge of Friction that dwarfed hers. She'd talk to Taylor and Akashi and Mamouru and everything would be okay.

She'd worked hard. She'd keep working hard. By the time the match rolled around, she'd be ready, and there'd be nothing to-

A bang like a gunshot made her nearly jump out of her skin. She was suddenly jarred back to reality so fast she was slightly dizzy, and when she looked up she was in the locker room. She managed to piece together that a scrappy looking girl had tried to punch a hole through the lockers, and while she hadn't succeeded Cassie definitely wouldn't want to have been that locker.

Which... was... her locker.

She swallowed hard. Nothing to worry about. Everyone was a little on edge, especially since bookings for the Pay Per View were just announced. She was probably really great. Maybe she just needed a little cheering up.

Cassie timidly inched her way to her locker, and had it open before Jocelyn even noticed her. She gave the girl a warm smile.

She had decided to jog home to cool down from the day's training, so she kept her gym shorts and tye-dyed t-shirt on. She and Taylor had made the tye-dye knee socks she was wearing. It was one of the only things they had done together as gym rats at the pro wrestling school back in New York City. Taylor always rolled her eyes when she wore them. That she even still had them was a testament to Cassie's fastidious laundry habits.

She pulled on a bright green zippered hoodie and grabbed her hat, shouldered her backpack. As she turned to leave, she found herself walking shoulder to shoulder with the locker-puncher.

"D-does that locker owe you money?" Cassie said with an earnest smile.

Jocelyn wasn't even aware that she had been walking next to Cassie when she suddenly spoke up. How had she missed the girl, anyway? It startled her enough to snap her head tot he side, stop and look back from their position near the entrance way of the locker room. She then looked back at Cassie with her usual scowl. Did that locker belong to? Jocelyn didn't understand. She thought that thing had been empty. How had the two never even met before!?

She couldn't help but have a wide grin on her face when she turned back and looked at Cassie. Though, it wasn't a very nice grin. "Yeah, that's right. Bummed it a five note a few weeks back and the bugger wouldn't pay up. Said it was hard for him to get work when he's stuck to a wall all day. Imagine that." Jocelyn's Australian accent was thick and seemed odd coming out of someone who clearly looked Chinese. It didn't seem to phase the Chistralian one bit, however as her face melted into an angry scowl.

"Crikey, what a blind mullet..." Jocelyn muttered to herself as she gave Cassie a shove so she could get through the locker room door first. She certainly didn't need some nosy idiot ruining her good day. Or was she ruining her bad day? Jocelyn couldn't quite pin it down.

Cassie's eyes lit up as her nervous grin gave way to unstoppable giggling. This girl was so funny! And Australian! Or... Asian. It had to be a fake accent. Maybe that was part of the joke.

"H-hey!" Cassie stumbled a step when Jocelyn shoved her. Well, she wasn't going to take that lying down!

She put on her best mean face. "Oi, where do you think you're goin'?" She said in an Australian accent that possibly sounded more convincing than Jocelyn's. At her family's jujitsu school, there were always people from other parts of the world who would come through to train, and for as long as she could remember she would always pick up their accents. She had no idea why.

She jumped to keep up and yanked on Jocelyn's shoulder to spin her around, and then gave her a shove to get her out of the way so she could scurry through the door first. She threw up her arms victoriously.

"HaHA! You've got to get up pretty early in the morning, mate." She said with bright eyes and a big smile.

Jocelyn's eyes widened as she was about to step through the door. Did she really just... Was she making fun of her accent!? Jocelyn had a mind to pound this stupid bitch into the ground right then and there. She tried to calm herself down. If there was anyone in the world who wasn't worth it, it was this stupid red headed bitch. That thought even surprised Jocelyn though. Everyone was worth it!

But the Chistralian didn't even have time to think as she felt herself mashed up against the door frame as Cassie squeezed through and declared herself the victor or some race they weren't even having. Who was this girl again? Why wasn't she a stain on the floor!?

"T-Tch..." Jocelyn felt her teeth grind as she clenched them tightly, her hands balling up into fists as fire burned in her gaze. It was only an instant before she had slung her bag off her shoulder and lobbed it in Cassie's direction. Jocelyn wasn't far behind, as she launched herself at the red head, looking to take her down with a clothesline while she was trying to fumble with the knapsack.

Cassie was confused as to why she was now holding Jocelyn's gym bag, but when she looked back up she was like a deer standing on train tracks.

"Uh?" Was all she said before Jocelyn's arm smacked against her throat and sent her crashing down the the floor. She coughed and put a hand to her throat, the back of her head ached where it had bounced off the floor.

"What are you doing?" Her voice came out barely above a whisper. "W-why?"

She'd been here before. She knew what this was.

Jocelyn grabbed Her backpack with one hand and pulled it off Cassie as she stared down at the girl. Her other hand came up and reached for Cassie's collar to pull her up off the floor just enough so their faces were close.

"Listen, you. If I ever see you again, you'll be lucky if all that happens is you eat a little floor, got it?!" Jocelyn growled at Cassie. Frankly, Jocelyn wanted to go further, but all things considered, a 'friendly warning' should be enough to make this girl wet herself and ask for a locker change.

Cassie stared back at Jocelyn with wide, frightened eyes and her chin tucked down. She looked like the complete opposite of Jocelyn, soft, meek, and threatened, especially as she stammered in response to the bully's threats.

"What? I-I don't..."

She wanted to cry. It seemed like everyone was just a bully waiting for someone to push around, and that someone always ended up being Cassie. The masked girl did it before, now this girl... who didn't even know Cassie at all! She was nice to her. There was no reason for her to act this way, and yet there they were, with Cassie again playing the part of the naive, overly trusting little girl. She felt like she must have a "bully me" sign on her back or something.

But she'd been here before, and she'd dealt with it. This thug was out of her league.

Her face hardened. Her eyes narrowed. She was sick of everything about this girl, and she meant to get rid of her for good. She swiftly grabbed Jocelyn's hand, with her fingers around the heel of the girl's thumb, and twisted to peel the arm away. She wrapped her other arm around Jocelyn's body and pushed with one foot flat on the floor to try to use her leverage to roll Jocelyn underneath her.

When Jocelyn saw the defiance on Cassie's face, the Chistralian suddenly grinned. So, she was actually going to try and fight back!? Jocelyn was actually going to show mercy tot he red head, but if this girl wanted to be an idiot,

Jocelyn watched as Cassie grabbed her hand. All she would have to do is slam her back down to the ground and crack her head open on the concrete. Then, she could take her time. Maybe she would even just end this girl's stupid career?

But while she thought about the possibilities, she felt Cassie shift underneath her and try and roll them over into opposite positions. Jocelyn grunted as she looked up at Cassie, her eyes narrowing. She let go of her backpack so she could have a free hand to dig into Cassie's hair. "Get the hell off me!" She snarled in Cassie's face as she tried to tug hard on the girl's hair.

Cassie shrieked out of a mix of surprise and pain as her head was yanked painfully to one side. She was too angry to just give in and roll over so she fought to stay up, her body tucked tightly down against Jocelyn's. She grabbed Jocelyn's wrist with one hand, with a surprisingly strong grip in her grappler's hands, and she shoved her other forearm against Jocelyn's throat.

She grit her teeth to resist Jocelyn's pull and leaned her weight forward to choke her.

"If I ever see you again, I'll... I'll...!" She said, and her voice was anything but intimidating. She couldn't think of anything. "You need to learn to be nice!" She shouted.