Claira St. Sure’s training routine was pretty fanatical to begin with, but ever since the Dan Ryan loss she’d been punishing herself.  She’d done Hindu squats until she fell over, and when Diane had run to help, she hadn’t been able to get Claira’s wrestling boots off.  Somebody else in the gym at the time had had a pocket knife and they’d cut the laces.  Claira’s calves had swollen from the squats until her circulation got cut off.

Her response to this was to find a plank of wood, get up on her tiptoes on it, and do some more hindu squats.

Diane couldn’t keep up with her.

Lisa didn’t even try.

Lisa, it turned out, had been threatened by Eric Dane.

“Don’t you EVER walk out on a match again!” he’d snarled over the phone.  “If you’re in Defiance, and you’re booked to wrestle, then that match is worth your time. And if you don’t believe me, look for the Brittany Fox Faygo incident on Youtube.”

All three of them looked up the incident together.

Whatever else you can say about Jeff Andrews, Diane thought, he never did things like that.

“Fucking typical” was Lisa’s comment.

Claira hadn’t said anything, only narrowed her eyes just a little bit.

The ‘no shrinking flowers’ rule that Dane hung over the door when he first drafted Heidi may have prevented girls from leaving in a rage after having their dignity assaulted, but it lead to other problems.  Like when one of the women on the roster went completely fucking mad.

Speaking of which…

“You’re not going anywhere near the FIST, and we have to wrestle the Untouchables” Lisa said to Claira, as though Diane wasn’t even in the room.  “Straight from the mouth of the boss.”

“We have to wrestle Kai?” Claira asked.

“Well, we get to.” Lisa answered.

“Motherfucker” said Claira.

The next day, Claira tied her wrestling boots a little bit looser so that her circulation didn’t get compressed, and again she did Hindu squats until neither of the other two girls could do another one, and then she kept on going.

Then she hung from the top rope and started doing windshield washers.

Claira was taking care of herself, apparently, and she was in less of a talking mood than usual.

“Look…” Lisa said to Diane, as gently as she could.  “I know we had a really bad disagreement back in the Wrestling Inferno, but that was a long time ago, and I really do think this team can succeed.  We’ve won our only match so far, and we’re getting to wrestle the people I came here to get!”

“We can be nice to each other if you tell me why you’re so obsessed with Kai Scott.” Diane said.  “Because, in the spirit of trying to make this team work and being open with each other, I don’t trust you and I think you’re up to something.”

Lisa stood there for a minute, thinking.  

“Do you remember that time Christian Light tried to call out Kai in front of us and said how he never won anything on his own and he got everything he did by hiding behind better wrestlers?”

Diane nodded, not really liking the direction this was going already.

“That just meant Kai was smarter than everyone else.  Guys like Light call it paying your dues, but I call it the mean old men in the business trying to hold onto their spots, and doing it.  You ever thought about how most athletes retire in their mid 30s and wrestlers usually wrestle into their late 40s?  It’s because of stupid mean old men keeping their place by not letting people into the business.  And I admire Kai Scott because he can turn all that shit right around on them.”

“But are you going to wrestle?” Diane asked.  “We all heard what Dane said to you.”

“He can go to Hell” Lisa answered.  “There’s a difference between wrestling and ‘paying your dues’, and guys like Dane are all about dues paying.  You know why he won’t let Claira go back after the FIST?”

“Because she’s too closely associated with The Untouchables for his comfort and he doesn’t trust her?”

“No, it’s because she hasn’t paid her dues.  And good luck figuring out what anyone considers dues.  They’re all just, ‘do things to make me happy and I’ll let you know when you’ve got it’ and they keep you doing it long enough that you start thinking it’s the status quo, and then when they actually give you an opportunity to do something, you’re grateful enough to suck them off.”

“It’s not that bad.” Diane said.

“Oh yeah? Then why did your sweet little girl next door ass decide to sign up for the Truly Untouchables anyway? Because you were getting too many title shots and wanted some stablemates to share them with, right?”

“No, it was because after I broke up with Jack no one cared about me.”

“See?  And Kai Scott knows how to make sure that never happens to him. Clearly, he’s the best wrestler ever.”

Diane wouldn’t realize that Lisa never actually answered her question until about 15 minutes later, when it was too late.
 

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