A/N: I was asked to write this story by DivaliciousDooL, so the idea of the story and Mara belong completely to her!
IMPORTANT: I have a few ideas for my next story, which I'm not going to start until I get at least one of the stories I have going finished, but I want your opinion on which superstar you want to be involved in my next story. I'm not going to tell the ideas for the stories yet, but I do have the superstars already fit into the stories, so I'm just wondering which story you guys would want posted first. I have a story with Wade Barrett, The Miz, and Chris Jericho. Please let me know which story you'd like to have posted first. And please let me know what you think about this chapter (:
All Mara could do for a few seconds, was grin stupidly at Randy. Finally, she snapped out of it. Her face flushed and she looked down to the floor before looking back up at him. "It's nice to meet you, as well. And it's nice to meet all of you guys. Thank you for being so welcoming."
"Like Punky here said, any friend of John's is a friend of ours." Sheamus chuckled. "You're welcome to chill with us whenever you'd like." Mara smiled at his kindness and thanked him once more.
"Well, I guess we're going to head off and let her meet more people. We'll see you around." John started walking away and Mara followed behind. When they were about to turn the corner, she looked back over her shoulder at Randy. He winked at her and she grinned widely back at him. If he weren't married, she could definitely see herself with him. But since he was married, her fantasies were just going to have to stay inside her mind.
John continued to lead Mara around the arena and introduced her to everyone they ran into on the way. By the time they made it to catering, Mara had met all the Divas and most of the Superstars. Most were welcoming, but there were a couple who weren't too fond of her already. She could tell she was going to have problems with Beth Phoenix. But according to John, she wasn't too friendly with anyone.
The pair made it back to John's locker room with five minutes to spare. John had a segment at the beginning of the show, so he was rushing to get his wristbands on before the stagehand knocked on the door to get him to the curtain.
"You can just hang here until I'm back, or you can go walk around. Whichever is fine. I should be back in about fifteen minutes, though." Mara nodded as John rushed out of his locker room and to the curtain. Mara turned the TV on in the locker room and made herself at home on the couch.
As soon as John made it backstage after his segment, AJ walked up to him. "Stephanie needs to speak with you really quick before you run off and we can't find you." A look of confusion swept across John's face, but was gone just about as soon as it appeared. He followed the short brunette in the direction of Stephanie's office. He knocked and heard her muffled voice tell him to come in. He stepped into the office, followed by AJ, and closed the door behind them.
"You needed to see me?" He asked. Stephanie looked up from the papers she was looking at and smiled at him.
"Yes, sir. Now, I know that you were supposed to be the one training the newest Diva, Mara, but something has come up and you won't be able to do that." John's face fell. He had already gotten close to her and promised her that he was going to train her and teach her everything that he could. He couldn't just go back on his promise to her. "You look a little upset by this news."
"Well, yeah, I actually am. I've come to like that girl and I promised her that I was going to train her. I don't like breaking promises. Why exactly can I not train her anymore?"
"Well, I was going to put you in charge of finding the person who was going to train her. I know you'll find someone perfect to train her." John sighed. "But, the reason that you're not going to be able to train her is because we've been asked to have you participate in this season of Dancing with the Stars. I know it sounds silly to have you on there, but it's a great opportunity for our company, as well as for you. We would really like for you to consider it. You'd have to leave Wednesday to start your own training for the show, but you would be back each week for Raw. You wouldn't have time to train Mara with all of this going on. I want you to appoint someone you think is suitable to do the job. Please just let me know your decision by the end of the night."
John stared at Stephanie with a blank expression on her face. He had a million thoughts running through his head, but he knew he didn't need until the end of the night to make a decision. He loved the business that he was in and would do anything to help it out, as well as himself. A slight smile fell upon his face and Stephanie clasped her hands together. "I already know my answer, Stephanie. You know that I love this company and would do anything for it, so of course I'll do Dancing with the Stars." A wide smile spread across her face. "I also already know who I want to train Mara. I just have to go speak with him before I can let you know for sure. I will let you know before the end of the night, though. So, I'll be back to speak with you later."
Stephanie continued to smile in John's direction. "Thank you so much for doing this John. I'm sure Mara will understand when you explain the situation to her. She may be in your shoes one day, as well."
John nodded at the woman across from him before walking out of her office. He walked up and down the corridors before finding the locker room he was looking for. He knew he didn't need to knock, but he decided to anyways. When the door opened, he looked into the face of his confused friend.
"You know you didn't have to knock. You never do."
"I know." John chuckled. "I need to ask you a favor, and it's serious, so I need you to take this seriously."
Randy wiped the smile off of his face and stared at his friend intently. "What's going on? Is everything okay?"
"Everything's completely fine. I just got this offer, and I found out that I'm not going to be able to train Mara. I would really appreciate it if you would take my place in training her. I'm only asking you because I know you'll train her in the way that I was planning to. You're not the type of person to take it easy on her, but you know when enough is enough. You wouldn't let me down, or her. And I know you'd make sure she knew everything she needed to know before she stepped into the ring for her first match." John paused for a second, smiling to himself when he thought of something. "Also, I don't think she'd be too upset with me when she found out it was you taking my place in training her. I really think she took a liking to you earlier."
"Well, we can't have that, Johnny Boy." Randy held up his left hand. "I'm a married man."
"Oh, shut up. She knows you're married, and I know she's not going to try anything with you. That's nothing that you need to worry about."
"I'm not too sure that I wouldn't mind if she did. I took a liking to her earlier, as well." Randy winked at his friend, receiving a punch to the arm. "What was that for?"
"You just flashed your left hand at me. Why don't you flash it to yourself, buddy?"
Randy rolled his eyes. "I know I'm married, and I love my wife. But the answer to what you're asking me is yes. I'll train Mara for you. You're the one that has to break the news to her, though."
Mara was still sitting in John's locker room, wondering what was taking him so long. Four matches had already passed since his segment, and she was getting worried. Of course, she knew nothing would happen to him around here, she didn't really know what she was worrying about. As soon as she was about to open the door to go find John, the door opened and hit her in the face. She backed away, covering her face with her hands, and checking to make sure she wasn't bleeding.
John walked in the room with a horrified look on his face. "Oh shit, I'm so sorry, Mara."
"It's definitely not your fault. There was no way you could have known that I was standing right on the other side of the door." She chuckled. Of course she would get herself in this kind of situation. "Thankfully I'm not bleeding, and nothing seems to be broken. So I think I'm pretty good." Her mind flashed back to what she was doing before she got hit in the face with the door. "Where were you? You said fifteen minutes, and it's clearly been longer than fifteen minutes."
"I'm sorry about that, too. Stephanie needed to talk to me in her office." John looked down at his feet. "There's something I need to talk to you about. How about we sit down?"
Mara took her seat back on the couch, and John followed after her. He looked at her for a few minutes before he started speaking. "You can't hate me, okay?"
"I don't think I could ever hate you, even if I wanted to."
"If you say so, but you might change your mind after you hear what I have to say." She just shook her head, urging him to continue. "Well, Stephanie called me into her office to tell me that they wanted me to participate on the next season of Dancing with the Stars. Not only would it be an amazing opportunity for me, but for the company as well. But, what I'm trying to get at is that I'm not going to be able to train you like I promised. And I'm so sorry. But, I'd really only be here on Mondays for Raw. And in a couple of months I won't be here for a while." John watched as Mara's face fell. Maybe she was going to hate him after all. "Do you hate me?"
"Of course I don't hate you. This is going to be a wonderful experience for you."
John let out the breath that he had apparently been holding and smiled at her. "I've picked out the perfect person to train you, though. And I know that he's not going to let you or me down. He's going to make sure that you know absolutely everything before your first match. He's going to be a wonderful trainer."
"Who is it?" Mara asked excitedly. She was excited when she found out that John was going to be training her, and she didn't think that this new person would make her as excited as she was before. But, maybe she was wrong. She waited patiently for John to answer her question, and her jaw dropped as soon as the name left his lips.
"Randy Orton."