"If I never work another NXT taping again, it'll be too soon," Beth groaned from her corner of the locker room. Eve expressed her assent, and the two continued to groan about how much of an inconvenience it was, and how much they'd rather be getting a day off.

Most of the other female talent had already gone, but Mandy Omega, a 24-year-old up-and-comer who had worked a main event triple threat with the two, was left to change in uncomfortable silence.

She'd introduced herself and shaken their hands when they met earlier in the evening, and they told her which spots she was going to take and what the finish was. Then they asked her if she wanted to do any spots of her own. When she pitched her finishing submission hold, a Lotus Lock variant with a single leg and a crossface which one could break with a rope break, they shrugged her off.

"No, honey," Beth responded condescendingly, "I mean real wrestling moves. Not some shit you made up that no one's ever heard of before."

This stung Mandy. She'd innovated the move herself, and it had proven to be quite successful and popular with the fans of NXT, but Beth and Eve were clearly not avid viewers of the show and didn't even know who she was. She wasn't even on their radar, and as far as they were concerned, she was some green nobody who was just there to put them over. It didn't matter at all to them that she was incredibly proud of the submission, and it was nothing to them to shoot it down. Rather than showing that she was quite upset, she decided to let the insult roll over her, outwardly completely unfazed.

"Oh, all right, then. How about a step-up enzuigiri into a corkscrew Lionsault, but one of you breaks up the pinfall?"

"Which one of us? And what kind of pinfall? You're going to have to be more specific, sweetie" Beth told her, smiling broadly but still using that same condescending tone.

"All right. I hit Eve with the enzuigiri, go for the corkscrew Lionsault, hit it, and then go for a lateral press cover. You break it up at two, and then it's your offense."

"Why don't I just kick out?" Eve chimed in, a challenging edge to her voice. Mandy didn't quite know what to say. She knew that the veterans were always right, to keep her mouth closed, and to speak when spoken to. She also knew that challenging a veteran was a good way to get real-life heat with the front office, and a surefire way to get future endeavored if she made them mad enough. She thought desperately for a way to justify herself without ruffling any feathers, now wishing desperately that she'd just said she was fine with getting completely squashed and didn't have any real spots in mind. Why were they being so hateful to her?

"I...uh...it just seemed like a way to get all three of us involved in the sequence."

"I see," Eve replied tightly, surveying the rookie. Mandy faltered.

"I mean, if that doesn't sound good to you, then we can do something else."

There was a maddeningly long pause, and the younger woman thought she'd royally fucked up. She looked down at her boots, and Eve finally broke the silence.

"That'll be fine. That'll work. Chris said that you had a good enzuigiri, and I guess I'd like to see for myself."

"Jericho?!"

Mandy immediately regretted her excited outburst. Now the two older women were looking at her like she was some vermin that had just crawled out of the sewer, and she didn't feel much more distinguished than that herself. Beth rolled her eyes.

"Yes, Jericho."

"I'm sorry, I...I just didn't know he'd seen me work before." Mandy hated that she was sounding more and more like a pathetic mark who didn't know what in the world she was doing. This had not been a good exchange.

"Anyway," Beth said, picking up her bag, "I'm going to get ready for the match. Remember the spots, and don't do anything stupid."

With that, she and Eve sauntered off, leaving the young NXT Diva to bask in her total humiliation.

The match itself had been something of a nightmare. To all outward appearances, it was a solid Divas main event: It had been paced well, the moves had been executed seamlessly, and there were no glaring holes in their work. Unfortunately for Mandy, Eve and Beth had decided that wrestling stiff was not out of the question at all. The young Diva was covered with welts and bruises from some very stiff chops, and an extremely stiff Glam Slam. Beth had also made sure to perform that one so that the younger girl had to bump near the ropes, on the hardest part of the ring. It wasn't agony, but it certainly hurt more than it should have.

As the Glamazon and Eve discussed their disdain for NXT, the blonde looked over to where Mandy was unlacing her boots and surveying her welts in the mirror.

"Know why I chopped you so hard?" Beth called to her from across the room, and the rookie looked up meekly.

"I needed to smarten up?"

"Yeah!" Beth laughed, "You got it. You're not bad, kid. Just don't sandbag me again."

Mandy knew damn well that she'd not sandbagged the older woman. She had, in fact, been extremely compliant and assisted her quite a lot. She also knew better than to say so.

"Thank you. I'm sorry, and will remember that in the future. I promise it won't happen again. It was an honor to work with both of you."

"Same," Eve said distractedly, and Beth just nodded.

They continued changing, the two WWE Divas chatting, and the younger brunette sitting quietly by herself, trying not to cry in spite of the fact that this had been one of the worst wrestling experiences she'd ever had in her life.

When they finally left, she buried her face in her hands and waited for the tears to come. They would not. It was as if holding them in for so long had stopped up her tear ducts or something, and she felt even worse being unable to cry now that she was alone.

As she stared at the wrap on her left ankle, she heard a female voice from the doorway.

"Got a sec?"

She looked up to see the owner of the voice, and saw a smiling Stephanie McMahon in the doorway. Oh, wonderful, she thought to herself, I'm getting future-endeavored already.

"Yeah, of course," she said, hoping that the smile that accompanied this was sincere enough.

"I just got finished chatting with Beth and Eve," Stephanie told her, sitting down across from her in the locker room, "And they had some interesting things to say."

Mandy's voice was caught in her throat. This was really happening. Her dreams were about to be crushed in an instant, and all because two Divas had taken an immediate dislike to her and had piss poor attitudes themselves. She swallowed hard.

"Uh huh?"

"How do you think the match went?"

This was a test. She knew it. She knew this was how it worked from her initial tryout for the company that landed her on NXT. They had their eyes and ears on you from the moment you stepped into catering, and every single minute thing you did was watched and reported. She also knew exactly how to answer this question.

"I thought it went well. I was extremely grateful for the opportunity, because I really admire Beth and Eve, and am a big fan of their work. I know that I can do even better."

"Uh huh," Stephanie nodded, her eyes never leaving the younger girl, "I know that's what you're supposed to say. But how do you really think it went?"

She knew that the biggest rule in these situations was never to drag anyone else's name down. If there was a problem, it was always YOUR fault. You always owned up to it, even if you knew better. After all, in this situation, you were the nobody, and it was your word against theirs. Not a good place to be. She'd never actually been asked directly for a no-bullshit answer, though, and was a little uneasy to proceed. This was really delicate territory.

"I thought there were a few spots that didn't go over as cleanly as they could have. I'm already planning on running through those bits in workouts so that they look better and I can really nail them."

"Which spots in particular?"

Now she knew Stephanie was toying with her. Why didn't she just tell her that she was going to be let go, and cut out this bit? This was torture.

"I'm not too experienced in taking the bump for the Glam Slam, and really feel like I could do that a lot better. I'm also not completely happy with the way I sold it. I think it felt a little clunky and unnatural, and am going to work on it."

"That's good to hear. It's good that you know that was the one to work on. That was the only complaint, was that you were a little weak on the sell for the Glam Slam."

Mandy's jaw almost dropped. The only complaint? Those girls hadn't completely torn her apart?

"I'll absolutely work on that. I want to get better."

Stephanie smiled warmly.

"That's what I like to hear!" She got to her feet, and continued quickly, in an almost bored and rehearsed fashion, "Anyway, I just stopped in to congratulate you on your match and let you know to work on that bump. And to let you know that you've got a WWE tryout match Tuesday. It'll be in Cleveland, before the SmackDown taping, so get yourself ready for that."

The Diva was struck dumb by this news. A WWE tryout? When she thought she was going to be fired? This was wonderful news!

"Th-thank you," she stammered, smiling broadly and rising to shake Stephanie's hand, "I won't let you down."

"It was nice to meet you."

"Y-you too. Really nice to meet you."

Stephanie walked to the door, and paused before going out, turning back to a still-dumbstruck Mandy.

"Oh, and Mandy?"

"Yeah?"

"You've got some friends in high places. Even if you don't know it yet."

And with that, she was out the door, leaving the awed Diva in her wake.