Chapter 12: Strange Ways

Riley and Jeff had grabbed some coffee and were now standing against the wall talking about her and her new job.

"So, interviewing and tech stuff huh? Do you know who you have first?" Jeff said.

"No but I do know I'll have to work with two other girls from L.A. and Sydney," Riley said as she put more crème in her coffee.

"I talked to Stephanie when I was in the hallway. I tried to cover for the guys but she didn't believe me. They're probably getting an earful now."

"You know where the dressing room is right? I got to go and take care of something."

"Ugh, what is with everyone abandoning me?" she asked sighing.

Jeff just smiled at her amused and left in the opposite direction. Riley was all alone in the area but she felt like she was being watched. She looked around the room and saw no one. Then again she couldn't help but to have that feeling.

Riley headed to the dressing room and could feel eyes following her as she walked.

'RyLynn you're REALLY being paranoid. Stop it.'

She would tell this to herself over and over but she couldn't shake the feeling no matter how hard she tried.

Riley was reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for her English Lit Class. She had read it once for a report in high school but it was a classic. Her final exam paper was due while she was on the road so she was going to e-mail it to her professor. She yawned and fell asleep.

Riley checked her watch. 10:50p.m.She wondered where Jeff was. She'd been back here and hour and a half and he still hadn't returned. She was still lost in thought when there was a knock on the door.

Reluctantly, Riley got off of the couch and turned the knob. Instead of finding a person on the other side she found a vase of flowers. They were white entwined with thin stems of Babies Breath. She picked up the vase and flowers and closed the door.

"I wonder whom these are for," Riley thought aloud as she set the vase on a small table. She picked up the note that had her name on it.

She opened the card and red the note:

White - Purity

Symbolizing purity, the white rose conveys similar qualities such as innocence and youthfulness, as well as spiritual love, reverence, loyalty and humility. You possess all of these qualities. A white rose untainted, not jaded. Sweet dreams Angel.

ME

"Sweet," she smiled softly to herself as she replaced the card and went to look for Jeff.

Riley re-entered the catering area, which was busy considering the show was almost over. The feeling she had earlier had snuck up on her all the sudden making her spine tingle.

"Someone's watching me," she thought to herself. Her conscience spoke to her again

'Of course people are watching you. They're probably wondering who the heck you are.' She still couldn't shake the feeling.

'No someone is WATCHING me. I really need to get some sleep.' She sat a table with a cup of coffee in hand looking around for Jeff. She couldn't help but wonder where he was.

She had finished her second cup of coffee and a lot of people had left. She concluded there was no sign of Jeff and she got really irritated. She looked around and that was the first time she noticed. Triple H was staring at her. Not casually glancing, but intently STARING. They both made eye contact and he came over to the table.

"Hi, I'm..."

"Paul. I know. Do you ALWAYS stare at people like that in the semi- stalker type way?"

"Only when they're really pretty girls," he said with a grin. Riley couldn't help but laugh out loud. She could smell the pick-up line a mile away.

"Well I assume that was a compliment, but I'm not interested. Have you seen Jeff anywhere?"

"No I haven't, I've seen you two together..." Paul was interrupted by a loud crash. They both turned around to see two shadows disappear from around the corner. Riley got up from the table and ran to see whom it was. Paul was about to protest but he followed her anyways incase anything happened.

Riley jogged along the deserted twisting hallway looking for whoever could have made that noise. She came to the end of the hallway and to a door. She stops and heard footsteps behind her. Before she knew it she felt a hand on her shoulder. She reacted by grabbing the offensive hand, stepping on the person's foot, and sliding her foot behind their calf causing them to fall backwards. She whirled around and put her boot on the person's chest. When she looked, she saw it was Paul.

"DON'T EVER SNEAK UP ON A PERSON LIKE THAT," she scolded reaching a hand down to help him up.

"Guess I deserve that. You're strong," he said taking her hand and pulling himself up.

"You're going to say for a girl right?" she added sarcastically.

"No, actually for anyone," he smiled at her.

"You've given two compliments in such a short amount of time Mr. Levesque? Have you tried flowers?" she laughed.

"No, but thanks for the idea, let's go find Hardy."

They turned the corner and found Chris and John standing there holding their hands behind their backs and smiling. Riley got really nervous.

"Hi guys, what's up?" Riley said preparing to run.

"Oh nothing RYLYNN, we just had some of the best cake in the world. It was pure CHOCOLATE." Cena pulled a bottle of chocolate sauce and began to spray it all over Riley.

"And it was covered in WHIPPED CREAM" Chris whipped out the can of whipped cream and sprayed her with it. Paul just stood there staring at her resisting the urge to laugh. It was pretty funny. He didn't know what this was all about but it was funny.

They expected her to scream or to run after them with every intention of killing them but they weren't prepared for her to start I think...I might have whipped cream stuck in my nose!" She managed between laughs.

Chris responded by saying, "welcome to the WWE RyLynn. Jeff is waiting for you in the locker room. He went back to your house to get you a change of clothes."

Riley stopped in her tracks. "He KNEW! Okay he's dead." She turned to Paul, "you knew too?"

Paul saw the angry look on her face. "NO! Innocent bystander"

"Well you DID try and hit on me."

"Did it work?"

"Don't hold your breath."

"A guy can hope."

"Right..." Riley shook her head as she headed back to the locker room.