After stressing out about all the loose ends in the original Right Where You Want Me I decided to try and re-write the story, and if you readers respond well, I'm going to continue re-writing it and delete the original and the Baby Girl one-shots . There will be differences, but hopefully you all enjoy it. I also decided that author notes would only be used for special circumstances, this is one of them.
"Kip up." Daniel Bryan instructed, standing back as he watched her lay flat on her back in the middle of one of the many wrestling rings the WWE Performance Center had to offer. Stormie placed her hands behind her head, arched her back and kicked her legs up, landing cat-like on her feet, only to find herself back on the canvas when Daniel body slammed her.
"Again." He said, looking at her expectantly.
Stormie sighed heavily and let her head drop to the canvas with a dull thud. "Why can't I just lay down and do it?" She whined as she brushed away the damp strands of her dark hair that clung to her neck and forehead.
"Getting up from the body slam builds your endurance." Daniel explained, smiling slightly. "One more and then you can take a five minute break." He promised. With a pained moan passing through her lips, Stormie kipped up once again.
As soon as she got to her feet, she laid back down on the mat on her belly. Daniel kneeled down by her head and gently patted her back, being careful to avoid the bruises in various stages of healing, a souvenir she received when she began her wrestling training two months ago. Properly, at least. Being a second generation Diva meant that Stormie started her wrestling training earlier than she probably should have at the age of 16 under her oldest brother's supervision and against her father's wishes, but after seeing what she knew and how far she'd come with only a few training sessions a year, he agreed to let her have a try-out match and two months later, here she was.
Stormie gratefully accepted her water bottle from Daniel and attached her lips to the spout, sucking in until she drained half the bottle in about five seconds. She closed the spout and sighed as she rested her head against the canvas.
"Working hard?" Stormie opened her eyes and turned her head slightly to the side, smiling when she saw one of the friends she'd made upon arriving in developmental.
"Always." Stormie grinned, pushing herself into a sitting position. "When did you get here?" Chelsey Salvatore pulled herself onto the apron using the middle rope and climbed in, smiling thankfully at Daniel when he held the ropes open for her.
"Like ten minutes ago." She answered, unzipping the black Shield sweater that was about two sizes too big for her, revealing the tight tank top she wore underneath.
"I would have been here sooner if I wasn't stopped by Bayley and had the life hugged out of me." She laughed, draping the sweater over the ropes before she sat down next to Stormie with her legs crossed. Stormie laughed too, she received the same greeting from Bayley when she arrived at the Performance Center at eight o'clock this morning to train.
"Five minutes is up, Stormie." Daniel said, "I'll let you pick what we work on next." Stormie didn't bother resisting the urge to pout. "We've been training for three hours, can't we quit?"
"You know what you have to do if you want to choose when we quit." Daniel said with a small smile.
"I hope it's not what I think it is." Chelsey grinned teasingly.
"It's not." Stormie giggled, knowing what Chelsey thought it was, but it could not be farther from the truth. Chelsey raised her eyebrows at Daniel. "What does she have to do?" She asked curiously.
"She needs to make me tap out to one of her submission holds." Daniel said, shrugging his shoulders. If only it were that easy. Stormie was extremely grateful to have one of the, if not the best Superstar on the main roster taking the time to help her train. Her wrestling style was similar to his. Even when she first began training, it was obvious that she favored submission holds and other things that kept an opponent down to her size, rather than having to lift them over her head.
Unfortunately, all the submission holds she knew were taught to her by Daniel, and he knew a counter to every one of them.
She was just wondering if maybe she could catch him off guard with a submission hold when she heard, "Whoa, you're only smoke and mirrors", a familiar yet muffled ring tone and entrance theme from one of the pockets in her gym bag.
"Saved by the iPhone." Stormie murmured, stepped out of the ring to search through her gym bag for about ten seconds before she finally found the sparkly case that protected her iPhone. She slid her thumb across the screen and held the device near her ear.
"Hey Codes, how you been?" Stormie greeted, pulling at a loose piece of thread on her pink Under Armour tank top. She hadn't spoken to her older brother Cody in a few months, she had been busy with moving from her parents home in Marietta, Georgia to her new and somewhat tiny apartment in Tampa, Florida, and not to mention all the training she was doing, and the fact that Cody had been acting like a major asshat since he began hanging out with Damien Sandow. It reminded her of the time Cody was apart of Legacy with Randy Orton and Ted DiBiase.
Randy was a jerk, but he always had been. At least Ted didn't insult her intelligence and call her an ignoramus.
"I've been good." Cody said almost casually. Things were better between the two, especially since Cody chucked Damien's Money in the Bank briefcase in the Gulf of Mexico, but it still wasn't back to the way things used to be. "I've been doing some thinking and talking to Dad about you..." That little fact made Stormie's hand drop from her side.
"Oh?" She said, her voice raising an octave higher, she was nervous to hear the rest of his sentence. "About what?"
"Well, I know I've been a jerk lately." Cody began and Stormie barely resisted the urge to snort incredulously. That might've been the understatement of the year. He continued, "Brandi suggested that I make it up to my friends and family, and I talked to Dad and he suggested I take you on the road with me so you can gain some on road experience. You up for it?"
Daniel and Chelsey looked up, startled when Stormie's high pitched scream echoed loudly through the Performance Center. "Are you freaking serious?!" She asked, a strangled half-laugh escaping her lips. "Of course I'm up for it!"
Cody chuckled. "Okay, great." He hung up shortly after that but promised to call back in an hour or two to iron out the details. Stormie hung up her phone and turned to her friend and trainer. "I'm going to be traveling with Cody to gain some on road experience!"
Stormie was not focused on the task at hand, and Daniel knew that. He also knew it would be dangerous to try any more wrestling moves when he didn't have Stormie's full attention, so he decided to end the training session right here and now. "I'll train with you on the road." He smiled before he left.
Chelsey was just as excited for Stormie, because she was traveling with her own boyfriend and just last week had be called up to the main roster, but had yet to debut. "I'm so excited for you!" Chelsey exclaimed as they both left the ring and headed towards the gym. They headed to two available treadmills and played around with the speed settings before starting at a brisk jog.
"There is nothing like being on the road, you'll be able to gain so much more experience as opposed to just being in developmental. And you'll get to see me more often!"
Stormie giggled. "That's definitely a plus." Growing up as the only daughter in a family of professional wrestlers wasn't exactly easy. Stormie never had a lot of friends because people who did befriend her eventually just wanted to get to know her father and older brothers, and when Cody found this out, he yelled at a bunch of kids for it.
Eventually everyone was too scared to be friends with Stormie. Thankfully there were some nice people in developmental including Paige, Emma, Cody's fiancé Brandi and, of course, Chelsey.
While Chelsey was busy on the elliptical, Stormie sat down on the leg press machine and worked out while texting on her cell phone, stopping when she reached her boyfriends name in the list of contacts. This was exciting news for Stormie, and she knew that she couldn't tell him through a text, so instead, she texted him asking him to meet her at the tiny coffee shop and bakery down the block from her apartment in an hour, being sure to mention that she had something important to tell him.
Stormie stepped in front of the elliptical that Chelsey was on and waited patiently until Chelsey removed one of the earbuds that was in her ear. "I'm going to head out now." She told her, grinning. "I have a lot to do before I'm on the road."
"Sure, I'll text you later." After exchanging goodbyes, Stormie grabbed her gym bag and toweled off all the sweat on her skin before she left the Performance Center and tossed her gym bag in the back seat of her canary yellow Camaro before she hopped into the driver's seat and buckled her seat belt.
She grabbed her iPhone from the cup holder when it made a ding sound and unlocked the screen.
'It must be important if you can't tell me through a text or with a phone call. I'll meet you there in an hour, love you babe.'
She put the phone back in the cup holder without responding and turned the keys in the ignition before backing out of the parking space. An hour later Stormie walked into the tiny coffee shop and bakery with her hair still damp and curly from her shower and dressed in a pair of torn light blue skinny jeans and a yellow crop top with Pikachu's eyes, nose, mouth and rosy red cheeks on the front, her yellow flip flops making smacking sounds with every step she took, she glanced around the small dining room, smiling brightly when she saw her boyfriend sitting in a booth by the window.
"Hey babe!" Bo Dallas greeted warmly when he saw her walking over to him, he slid out of the booth and greeted Stormie with a hug and a kiss, waiting for her to slid into the booth opposite to him before he returned to his seat.
"I already ordered for you." Bo said when he spotted the waitress coming over to their table
"Earl Grey tea and a slice of cherry cheesecake." The waitress said, placing the China teacup and saucer with a fork down in front of Stormie who thanked her with a smile. "Coffee and a banana chocolate chunk muffin." She set the other cup and muffin down in front of Bo and retreated back behind the counter.
Bo took a sip of his coffee and began peeling the wax paper baking cup off of his muffin, "So what did you want to tell me that was so important it had to be in person?"
Stormie smiled to herself as she dropped four sugar cubes into her teacup and added a bit of milk before stirring it. "I got a call from Cody today. He offered for me to go with him on the road!" Stormie clapped her hands like an excited toddler, but to her surprise, Bo didn't seem to share her enthusiasm.
"Don't you think it's too soon?" Bo asked after a few seconds of silence.
"I'm not being moved up to the main roster." Stormie said frowning, "I'm just traveling with them. This is a big opportunity, I thought you'd be happy for me..."
"I am happy for you, babe." Bo said, taking her hands in his, his thumb rubbing circles on the back of her hand. "But I'm your boyfriend, I'm allowed to be concerned."
Stormie grinned and cupped the back of his head, pulling him in for a kiss. "You know I appreciate that you're concerned, but you have no reason to be, I'll be fine." Bo smiled, Stormie was so excited that she didn't notice the reluctance in his eyes.
Cody called Stormie during her date with Bo and they spent about ten minutes ironing out the details of Stormie's visit. Cody was emailing her a plane ticket for Des Moines, Iowa tomorrow morning and he would pick her up at the airport. Bo drove her back to her apartment and for a minute, they just sat in the parking lot.
Stormie unbuckled her seat belt and leaned over the center console to kiss his cheek. "Are you going to drop me off at the airport tomorrow?" She asked, running her fingers gently through his long hair.
Bo was quiet for a minute before he responded. "Yeah, I guess."
Stormie kissed him again and smiled her thanks before she headed up seven flights of stairs to her apartment. In the short span of half an hour, she threw all the clothes, makeup and toiletries she owned in the Winnie the Pooh luggage set that her parents bought for her as a housewarming gift. She put her last pair of jeans into the suitcase and sat down on the top, pulling the zipper closed.
Stormie set all her luggage by her front door and sat down on her favorite arm chair in the living room, glancing at the time on the cable box, groaning when she realized it was on 2:31 in the afternoon.
This was going to be a long day of waiting.
