Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Make it or Break it. Obviously.

"Hey Payson, how are you…"

"Hang on, I'm about to…ha!" Payson tossed her controller down in victory.

Kristy groaned. "Yeah, well, I beat you the last four times, don't forget it."

"Um, hey there." Kaylie said, raising her eyebrows. Payson actually looked like she was having fun, for the first time since her accident.

"Sorry guys! This is Kristy, my roommate. She's a skier. Back injury too. Kristy, this is Kaylie, Lauren, and Emily, the friends I've been telling you about."

The gymnasts exchanged slightly guilty looks.

"Sorry we haven't been by." Emily said. "We've been really busy at…we've been really busy." She suddenly realized Payson might not want to hear about the Rock.

"Busy at the Rock? I am not going to fall apart from the name, Emily. What's been going on?"

"Well, Sasha upped Kaylie's difficulty on floor and beam. He's making me go back to that lame floor, but at least now I have more time to practice it."

"He let Carter come back today." Kaylie chimed in. "He's still pretty pissed about Nationals, but at least he's got time. But Sasha said he's on probation – he gets caught with any more Rock girls and he's out for good."

"You guys aren't allowed to date each other?" Kristy asked.

"We aren't allowed to have boyfriends at all. The guys don't have that rule, but they aren't allowed to date us because of ours."

"Isn't that sexist?"

"Well, we have different coaches." Payson explained. "And guys don't peak until they are older, so the guys our age aren't really headed for the Olympics yet."

"Do you follow the rules?"

"Payson does." Kaylie grinned. "I used to date this guy Carter, but someone told our coach, Sasha, and he got suspended and couldn't go to Nationals. Carter didn't tell him it was me, so I didn't."

"Which is good, because she won, and otherwise that bitch Kelly Parker would have. Not that you should have broken the rule in the first place." Payson amended.

"Well it's not like I'm the only one. Lauren slept with Carter and Emily totally made out with pizza boy at Nationals."

Emily turned bright red. "He's moving to LA, so it doesn't really count.

"Okay, that sounds more like my team." Kristy laughed.

"Your team?"

"I ski."

"What she means to say is, she's amazing. She got bronze last year at their worlds in the great slalom."

"The giant slalom, but yes. And the national ski team is crazy incestuous. I mean, we all know we should be focused, but we have these training camps where we are all together…at least half the people start hooking up with someone there. It's all fine until someone breaks up or cheats with someone else, and then all hell breaks loose. It's awkward for everyone, and if you are actually part of it…well it's hard to get over someone when you still have to see them all the time."

"See, that's why the rule makes sense." Payson insisted.

"Yeah, but it sure would make camp a lot more fun." Lauren smirked.

"So you never had a boyfriend?" Kristy asked hesitantly.

"No way. I am way too focused on … I was way too focused on gymnastics."

"Were there any guys you wanted to hook up with?"

"No." Payson started picking at her blanket. To tell the truth, she had never understood the obsession with boys and hadn't yet had a first crush. She chalked it up to a combination of her focus and the fact that many gymnasts had screwed up hormones, but she was embarrassed by it. She decided to take the focus off her. "How about you, do you have a boyfriend?"

"No."

"But you've had one, right?"

"No."

"But…it sounded like you had, when you were talking about dating at training camp."

"I know. I did date someone, and it didn't end well."

"But it uh, it wasn't…it wasn't.."

"It wasn't a boy, no."

"Oh. Is that why it didn't end well?"

"Not really. She left me for another girl, not a guy, if that's what you mean." She smiled slightly in a not entirely nice way. "But that girl left her for a guy."