A/N: Well, it's been forever since I posted on here, hasn't it? That is a little bit because of writer's block, but mainly due to the fact that I have had noooo time to write lately. Real life got busy!
A huge thanks to poppetrussell for beta reading this for me! No matter how many times I proof read, I always seem to miss something, so her second set of eyes is desperately needed!
"Sasha, this is not what I agreed to," Payson whined.
"Yes it is. It's exactly what you agreed to. It's not my fault that you didn't ask more questions." It was so rare that he pulled one over on Payson and he planned to gloat as much as possible. There was a limit to that, because she would eventually tire of his games and get back at him, but for now he would enjoy his victory.
"You deliberately misled me, Sasha Belov! When you asked me to teach one of Tara's classes tonight you knew I thought you were talking about the level sixes. Not cheerleaders." She curled her lips in distaste at the last word. Sasha felt the exact same way, which is why he foisted the class off on her when Tara called in sick. He would teach the level sixes himself and leave Payson to deal with evil in the form of high school girls.
"As I said, it's not my fault you didn't ask more questions. Besides, what on earth would I do trying to coach a group of cheerleaders? I don't even know what that entails."
"Oh, and I do?" she scathed.
It was true that neither of them had the slightest clue what the class would require. He didn't have a firm grasp on exactly what a cheerleader was other than the trampy dancers that sometimes accompanied football teams, but these girls were high school students. "It's lucky you're so bright, then, isn't it?" he said. "You should have no problem figuring it out on the fly. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a class of sixes to teach and you've got an hour to kill."
She was going to hurt him later, he was sure, but it was worth it to see the indignant look on her face as he left the office. He was actually glad to see her get a little feisty. She'd been very down since the Keelers got back from Liz's funeral in Minnesota, and having something else to think about, even if it was an annoyance, was good for her.
She was getting a little bit better every day, but he knew there would be days that were hard for her. Losing someone that she loved would be difficult no matter what, but it was made much worse by the fact that they so many plans together. Liz was supposed to move to Boulder in June, so Payson and Kelly had entertained themselves during their rare free time by looking for apartments to move into. Payson had sent out a few emails asking to be notified when their favorites became available, and each response she got was going to be a sucker punch. He planned to keep her very busy training for the American Classic during June in order to distract her from the fact that Liz would not be coming as planned.
Not long into his level six class, Payson came downstairs and took half the group to the other side of the floor to spot them. He was only mildly surprised to see her. She often helped him teach his classes, but he rather thought that she might be too irritated with him to help tonight. He caught her gaze and smiled; she narrowed her eyes in response. Still irritated, then.
o-O-o
Kelly looked up toward Sasha's office and said, "If he has time to stand there and smirk at us like that, then he has time to teach the class himself."
"This was never about him being too busy. This is about him not wanting to do it." Payson loved Sasha, but right now she was fighting the urge to smack him. She couldn't blame him much, though, because if she could trick someone else into doing this job, she would. She blamed herself for falling for the trick.
Kelly was a life saver. She left after practice since Payson was going to stay late teaching, but as soon as she found out who she was coaching, Payson called and begged her to come back and help. With Kelly there they could at least share a few jokes at the cheerleaders' expense, even if they did have to be unspoken.
The gaggle of parents and little kids filtering out from the level six class started to mix with teenage girls making their way in. Kelly plastered on a fake smile and said, "It's show time. Let's go lead some cheers."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Payson grumbled. She led the way to a middle-aged woman who looked to be in charge of the team. "Excuse me, are you Coach Lyman?"
The woman took in their appearance—Kelly's jeans, Broncos t-shirt, and bare feet, and Payson's leo, baggy sweatpants, and messy, sweaty hair. Payson was certain that they came up wanting, but the woman condescended to say, "Yes, I'm Mrs. Lyman. Can I help you?"
Payson ignored the rudeness and the weird correction with her name (Mrs. instead of Coach? What was that about?) "It's nice to meet you Mrs. Lyman. I'm Payson Keeler and this is Kelly Parker. Tara is sick so she asked us to fill in for her with your class tonight."
Mrs. Lyman looked distinctly uncomfortable with the suggestion. "I'm not really… she should have… are you students? I'm sure I've heard your names before."
"We're homeschooled," Kelly said. She was using the full force of her 'I'm talking to a complete idiot' brand of charm. "You've probably just heard our names mentioned on the news at some point. Chanel 9 did a story about us last week, so maybe that's why we sound familiar to you."
A story about their win at the America Cup did run on the news the week before, but the woman was sure to have heard their names before that. There had been dozens of headlines about them in the past six months, not to mention that banners for their various titles were plastered all over the gym. Of course she had heard their names before.
Mrs. Lyman's eye flickered to one of those banners as she realized who she was talking to. Her entire demeanor changed. "Oh! You're the girls that are supposed to go to the Olympics!"
"That's certainly the hope," Payson said, putting on a fake smile to match Kelly's. "The Olympics are still more than a year away, but that is our goal."
The woman was flustered. "Well, I… I would be so glad to have you… It would be an honor for my girls to work with Olympic gymnasts!"
Payson didn't bother to correct her again about the Olympics. They were so trumped up in the media that it was hard to convince people that going to the Olympics wasn't a done deal. Sometimes it was better just to ignore their assumptions.
"Are all of your girls here? I'd like to get started on warm ups."
Mrs. Lyman looked around. "All but one, I think, but go ahead and start. She can catch up when she gets here."
Payson glanced at the clock and frowned. It was two after seven. Class was supposed to begin at seven. "I don't allow tardiness in my classes, Mrs. Lyman. If a girl comes in late, she's going to have to be punished."
"Oh, that's really not necessary. We're very laid back on our team."
"As I said, though, I don't allow tardiness in my classes," Payson repeated. She didn't appreciate the woman trying to dodge the rules. A lot of adults had trouble bowing to the authority of a seventeen year old girl, but she was always firm. "If I'm going to work with these girls then they have to follow my rules, and one of those is that all athletes have to be on time and ready to practice. The girl who is late can either follow through with her punishment or sit out the practice."
Payson walked away then, not waiting for Mrs. Lyman to acquiesce. There wasn't a choice, really. It was do as Payson said or leave the Rock. Beside her, Kelly snickered and murmured, "I love it when you put people in their place like that."
"Glad I could entertain you," Payson whispered back. Then she called out for all of the girls to line up on the floor to stretch. While Kelly led the stretches, Payson walked around the room making form corrections or helping some of the cheerleaders get into a deeper stretch. The routine was making her feel a little more comfortable with the situation. Teaching was normal for her. She'd been helping Sasha with his classes for months, and more recently had started taking over some of Tara's classes full time as the other coach scaled back her work hours to be home with her son. During warm ups, Payson could pretend that this was any other class that she might teach at the Rock.
That illusion was shattered when an overly-assured voice called across the room. "Sorry I'm late. My mani/pedi ran over."
Payson was sure that she must be imagining it. There was no way that Morgan Webster was actually standing in front of her at the Rock. But when she looked around, Payson realized that some of the other girls did look vaguely familiar, and there had been some tittering when she introduced herself that indicated that they recognized her, too. She had assumed it was because they knew her as a celebrity, but maybe they remembered the afternoon that Payson, Kelly, and Heather humiliated Morgan during lunch.
Payson had felt guilty about that day for a long while, but Morgan's cocky air indicated that no permanent damage was done to the girl's self-image. She was just as full of herself as she had always been. Payson's old dislike flamed back to life and she got a small amount of enjoyment out of saying, "A mani/pedi is not an adequate excuse for being late, Morgan. If you show up late then you have to pay the price. The suicide run is right over there. Stretch out and then do five runs."
Morgan's voice caught up to her and she said, "Back-brace girl? Seriously, you're telling me what to do? What are you even doing here?"
"This is my gym," Payson said. Was Morgan so much of an idiot that she missed the gigantic sign on the front of the gym proclaiming Payson as the World Champion, the pictures of her hanging in the lobby, and the banners all across the gym with her name on it? Perhaps she was illiterate. "And I am teaching this class, so you can either run your suicides or leave."
Morgan turned to her coach and whined, "Mrs. Lyman! I don't really have to do what she says, do I? You're in charge, not her."
The woman looked distinctly uncomfortable. Morgan probably had her in her back pocket, but Payson had the same kind of natural authority that Sasha possessed, especially inside of the Rock. She caved and said, "Payson is teaching this class tonight, Morgan. Do the punishment."
Kelly stepped forward and said, "I'll show her what to do, Pay, and you can keep working with the other girls." Payson could sense the evil behind those words, and she was fairly certain that Morgan could, too, but Mrs. Lyman didn't notice a thing. The class might be fun after all.
Payson kept a close eye on Kelly and Morgan to make sure that nobody died. Nobody did, but Morgan came pretty close. Payson told her to do five runs, but Kelly made her repeat any that weren't absolutely perfect, so she ended up doing eight, which was enough to kill high school athletes a lot more serious than Morgan Webster. When they rejoined the group, Kelly stuck near Morgan like a shadow.
The last time Morgan went head to head with Payson and Kelly she was far, far on the losing end, but some people never learn. As soon as Payson got close enough so that they could speak without being overheard, Morgan said, "So I heard you're screwing some old guy."
She must have done some research after their last encounter, because the only place she would have heard the rumors about Payson and Sasha was a gym-gossip forum. She didn't look deep enough to figure out that Sasha was young and hot, though, so Payson made a joke that only she and Kelly would find funny. "Yep, that's right. I'm having a passionate affair with Bela Karolyi."
Kelly snorted and Morgan looked confused. The lack of witty response from the cheerleader prompted Kelly to dive in with an attack of her own. "I heard you've been sleeping with your married tennis coach. Is it true love? How do you think you'll like being a stepmom?"
Payson honestly hadn't believed that rumor until that moment. Morgan's incensed reaction verified everything that Heather had passed on to them. It pissed her off a little bit that the trampy girl could get away with sleeping with a married man with children, who was more than twice her age, but people all over the world were judging Payson and Sasha, two people who were both single and only thirteen years apart in age, because of their supposed relationship. Where was the justice in that?
She gave up any attempt to control Kelly. Morgan deserved everything she got, and Kelly gave her plenty. She pointed out every flaw in Morgan's execution, and when Morgan had difficulty with the choreography, Kelly humiliated her by demonstrating it perfectly after having only seen it twice. On top of this public display, Kelly taunted the other girl with whispered insults and innuendos all through practice. When the class ended, Morgan literally ran out of the gym.
At Mrs. Lyman's request, Payson and Kelly posed for pictures with the rest of the team before they left. Payson had a foreboding feeling that the pictures were going to end up in the newspaper with an article about the cheerleading team working with Olympic-bound gymnasts. She was going to kill Sasha.
When the gym was empty again (the way Payson liked it best) she said to Kelly, "I thought you weren't evil anymore?"
"That wasn't evil. That was justice."
Kelly was so sincere that Payson couldn't help but laugh. The noise drew Sasha down from his office with a smug grin on his face. "You sound like you're having fun," he said. "The class must not have been too bad."
She stopped laughing and planted her hands on her hips. "It was awful and I'm going to make you pay for doing that to us."
"Oh, how's that?" he asked.
She did something that half a year ago she would never have dared. She moved in like she was going to hug him, but rather than wrapping her arms around him, she rested her hands at his hips and pressed her body close to his. She stood on her toes so that she could whisper in his ear, "Believe me, Sasha, I have my ways."
He went slack-jawed. For three months she had followed the rules, teasing him only a small amount which he could easily resist, but if he was going to play dirty then so was she.
"Ew," Kelly said. "Don't do that in front of me."
This made Payson laugh again, and Kelly and Sasha joined in with her. She decided that the day hadn't been so bad after all, because no day could be classified as bad when it ended by her laughing with her best friend and the man she loved.
A/N: I toyed around with skipping this chapter because it wasn't essential, but then when I tried the story didn't flow well. The last chapter and the next chapter needed a bumper between them. Next chapter will be LONG. It is 2,300 words already and there is still a ton to write.