**side note--fixed the chapter to a more easily read format based on replies, ended up making a few changes, hope it reads better!**

*Chapter 1*

Lauren POV

Lauren was in a great mood as she walked out of her house and down to her car, smiling cheerfully to herself, as she got in. Today was going to be a great day; pretty much the only thing that she wasn't thrilled about was the hour the day was starting at.

It was so early it was still dark and normally that was something she would throw quite a fit, she thought as she glanced into her rearview mirror to check her hair and give herself a satisfied smile. Today the early hour was a bonus, it was the reason her latest plan would work so successfully. She started the engine and flipped on the radio.

As she drove along the dark empty streets to The Rock, she started going through a mental checklist of her latest 'projects'.

Bye-Bye Chloe Kmetko—one tacky tramp detached from her Dad's arm and wallet—Check.

One Carter Anderson as her BF—status, moving away from Kaylie and towards Lauren, added bonus he was currently living with her and Kaylie found out and is pissed at him again, in turn pushing him closer to her—Outlook?—Good.

Reinstatement of Kaylie Cruz as her BFF—Check! She paused giving a rueful shrug, of course Kaylie was a bit peeved with her about the whole Carter thing, but they had promised to never let another guy come between them. So by her reckoning Kaylie couldn't really get all mad and mean over the whole thing.

Getting the Rock-girls placed into their proper place as part the National Team's go-to-girls—Outlook?—Excellent! She was confident that she could get the National Committee to place them on the 'compete' list in exchange for withdrawing from the Chinese invitational.

She shot her reflection another smile for her successful 'projects' as she went back to the reason for today's sunny mood—Seeing Emily Kmetko off her team, out of her life and gone from The Rock—for good!—Outlook?—Confident! Today was going to a huge step forward in getting rid of the current bane of her existence and having order restored.

A scowl crossed over her features as she thought of Emily. Every single problem in her life could be traced straight back to Emily's 'Payless' clad feet. Kaylie, Carter, Marty, Summer—every single problem that she'd had to fix would have been fine if Emily had never come to Boulder. Her good mood souring rapidly at her train of thought, as far as she was concerned, Emily Kmetko's presence at the Rock and in her world was the equivalent of finding a hair in your salad at a 5-star restaurant! Add in Chloe, you also had a finger in your french fries. Lauren forced the anger away; after all, today's project was the beginning of Emily's exit from Lauren's life!

Emily, unlike the rest of The Rock had no car. Since the meeting with the National Committee was so early and Emily's mom was out of town with her brother, she had offered Emily a ride.

Lauren rolled her eyes; of course she had absolutely no intention of picking Emily up, as an added precaution she'd turned the ringers of the house phones off as well as programming her cell to go direct to voicemail.

Lauren pulled into her space at The Rock, thoughts returning to her plan. It was an unbelievably simple strategy. By the time Emily realized that her ride wasn't coming there'd be no way for her to get there in time. There were basically two outcomes, she thought with a shrug, and they both worked for her.

At the very worst, Emily would show up considerably late to the meeting, pissing off everyone with her lack of responsibility and respect; after all the National Girls did need to hold themselves to certain standards. Lauren pursed her lips into fake little pout, "poor little Emily, she just can't cut it," but that's what you get when you shop for champions at outlet stores." Best case scenario, Emily gets kicked out of it all right off for failing to meet her obligations.

Lauren got out of her car, nearly skipping to gym. Pulling open the door she walked in glancing around. This early the gym was almost completely empty, the only people here were those who absolutely had to be and no one looked happy about.

The observation area had been set up a bit like a conference room and was where the rest of the group was gathered. Changing her happy smile into a more neutral expression Lauren headed across the gym entering the room and exchanging greetings with the people already there.

In the background the phone in Sasha's office was ringing but since neither Sasha nor Summer was in yet, so it went unanswered. They all sat silently in the room, eying each other as they waited for everyone to arrive. She'd figured Sasha wouldn't come in until right before the meeting started. Her plan hinged on it, after all it would be hardly be effective if Emily called the gym right off and Sasha picked up. Actually, it would misfire if that happened.

As hoped, Sasha was the last one in, but when you lived literally right outside the gym, it wasn't like you had to give yourself time for delays. As Sasha joined them, he looked around frowning as he noticed Emily's absence. He glanced at her and asked, "Where's Emily, weren't you two riding in together?"

She shrugged and injected a concerned look into her expression and tone, "We were supposed to. She called and said she had some kind of family emergency not to worry about picking her up. That she'd arranged for another ride."

She finished her explanation, cocked her head towards Sasha and adopted a slightly puzzled questioning look. He continued to study her, arms crossed, weighing her answer. Kaylie gave her a disbelieving look rolling her eyes. The silence stretched, she finally glanced around the room before asking, "haven't you heard from her?"

Everyone at the table was looking around with different expressions. Kaylie sat glaring suspiciously at her and looking like she'd like to rip Lauren a new one. Kelly wasn't even trying to hide the gleeful smirk on face. The various Committee members' expression contained various degrees of irritated impatience, as they glanced at watches, tapping fingers.

Ellen Beil, Committee president was the one to finally break the silence, "Beloff, this is unacceptable. It's one of the problems we have with your gymnasts to start with. She was told the time, told to be here, told how important this is and what's at stake."

Beil broke off scanning the room, spreading her hands in a 'and yet look' gesture "Knowing all this, what does she do? She blows it off!" She shot another withering look at Sasha, "Blows it off without even bothering to call her coach!"

This time she glanced over at the other committee members before continuing. "Kmetko's not someone I wanted representing Team USA to begin with and today's actions, 5hey cement that decision."

Keeping her expression appropriately grave, Lauren mentally pumped her fist and smiled, this was turning out even better than she had hoped.

Kaylie, of course immediately jumped to Emily's defense, "I'm sure she'll be here. Her families not even in town, so whatever happened must be really bad!" Kaylie shot another glare over at Lauren before her shooting Sasha and the committee and imploring look, "This is Emily's dream, she wouldn't jeopardize it!"

SHIT!, how did Kaylie know that Emily's family was out of town, she hadn't realized it was common knowledge, Lauren thoughts raced over her options to this latest hurdle, before deciding on nothing more than a shrug. Figures that Emily would find yet another way to screw up Lauren's life, after all, why would she stop something that had been working so well for? But that was soon going to end.

"This isn't like Emi—"Sasha started, only to be interrupted by Marty.

"It's exactly like Emily. She was late the entire time I was her coach. She's an excellent gymnast with amazing talent," he stressed before giving a rueful look and shrug, "but she's got a lot going on, she doesn't have the same background and support the other girls do. She doesn't take direction well and these all affect her performance."

Kaylie looked over at Marty, arching an eyebrow and laughed, muttering under her breath, 'yeah, 'cause you had soo much time to focus on Emily even before your extra 'coaching' duties interfered and sent you to Denver.'

Sasha shot Marty an incredulous look, "the entire time you were her coach?" He paused, spreading his hands expansively before sarcastically adding, "that was what Marty? Two whole days of coaching, before you ran out, with no notice; abandoning your contract and your gymnasts! Yes, I'm sure you formed a strong bond and picture of who she was."

Marty started to reply, but the phone started ringing again.

Sasha pushed off from the wall, "that's probably Emily, I'll find out what's going on," he started towards the door, when Ellen stopped him with a sharp "No!"

Everyone swung their heads towards her in question. Beil looked directly at Sasha and firmly stated, "The meeting was scheduled for 5am, Emily knows that. Her decision to not arrive on time is a clear statement that she doesn't feel the need to follow the rules."

She paused, looking around the room at each person in turn. "We will start the meeting now or we won't be having it at all. Your choice."

Sasha looked around the room sighing. She could see he wanted to get the phone, to find out what was going on, where Emily was, but he couldn't. If he left it would send a clear message to the committee. His actions would affect the other gymnasts at The Rock and The Rock itself, jeopardizing all their chances.

Lauren smiled smugly to herself as Sasha finally sat down, it didn't matter how much Emily the underdog was his pet, he couldn't place her above everyone else.

Someone shut the door and he meeting started. Lauren listened, hearing the ringing stop as the machine finally picked the call up, but she couldn't make out any of the message being left. She turned her attention back to the room, internally smiling in satisfaction; Operations 'Emily-away' was off to a great start.

**Side note**- Okay, completely new at this but I thought what the frak, give it a try, the first chapter isn't really great, I actually started with writing Chapter 2 and bits and pieces of following chapters before bouncing back to write the first, so please at least give chapter 2 try. Let me know what you think, like I said this is my first try, let me know if I should keep going.