Chapter 15: Assignments

Riley and Kaitlyn ran into Stephanie's office out of breath and laughing hysterically. They had been running throughout the venue trying to get away from Tyler. Stephanie looked at the pair and cleared her throat.

"What has gotten into you two?" Stephanie asked staring at them over her computer screen.

"We're running from...from Tyler," Riley explained sitting on the couch. She stopped laughing and looked at Kaitlyn. "Where is he exactly?"

Kaitlyn shrugged, "he was behind us a second ago."

"So you've met Tyler and lost him in a span of a couple of minutes?"

"We'll find him eventually."

"I just hope he didn't get lost, I know how that feels" Riley said remembering the countless times she had gotten 'lost' in an arena.

"On second thought I think we'd better go and try to find him now." Riley and Kaitlyn headed toward the door until Stephanie stopped them.

"Before you go, I have your assignments. Your first articles are due in a week. You can e-mail them to me or give them to me directly."

She handed them three envelopes, each with their names on it and the third with Tyler's name on it.

"Give Tyler his envelope when you find him. He couldn't have gotten far...I hope."

The two girls left the office and went off in search of their new co-worker.

"Do you think we should open the envelopes now or later?" Kaitlyn asked as they entered one of the locker rooms.

"Let's find Tyler first. It won't be any fun if he accidentally gets himself locked in a janitor's closet." They put the envelopes in their bags and set off to find Tyler.

It had been an hour and the girls had yet to find Tyler. They had looked in the locker rooms, catering, the parking lot, and even the janitor's closet.

"I am DEFINITELY not in the mood for hide and seek. We've looked EVERYWHERE and we haven't found him. Where could he be?" Kaitlyn sat at one of the tables at catering.

"I have no clue. What time is it?"

Kaitlyn looked at her watch. "8:30, the show's going to start soon. Maybe he went to get an interview with one of the wrestlers."

The guys have to be back by now. "I think some of the wrestlers are back from the signing. Let's check to see if he's in the locker room."

They went back to the locker room to find Matt on his cell phone and Chris taping his wrists.

"Hey Chris, who's Matt talking to?" Riley asked as she sat on the bench. Chris looked up and saw Kaitlyn and looked at Riley.

"RyLynn dear one, who's your friend?"

Riley again cringed at the use of her full name. It always sounded funny coming out of his mouth.

"Well Christopher, this is Kaitlyn. She also is working for RAW Magazine." Kaitlyn and Chris shook hands. "Kaitlyn's from Sydney."

"Oh? Where's the chick from L.A. I see two brunettes meaning there must be a blonde," he said with a playful glint in his eye.

The two girls laughed and shook their heads. "The chick is a guy Chris."

Chris' face dropped. "Oh. Well Matt is talking to Rachel," he gave Riley a skeptical eye.

"Don't worry Chris I'm fine with it. Like I care anyway. Where's the guy who could light up Broadway and Mr. 'The Game'?

"Ring. Well I'll see you girls. The King of Bling bling has got to grab something to eat before his match."

"No thanks. You are the next Rock my friend because you're referring to yourself in the third person," Riley laughed.

Chris shrugged and turned to Kaitlyn. "Food?"

"Sure." They both headed out to catering followed by Riley who walked to the guerilla area that led to the ramp. She walked out and saw Jeff talking to Tyler by the ring. She saw that they were laughing and she walked down the ramp toward them.

Jeff and Tyler looked up at the ramp and saw Riley coming toward them and quickly stopped laughing.

"Hey guys, what were you laughing at?" Riley asked looking from Jeff to Tyler and back again.

"Hey RyLynn, uh nothing just telling Tyler about you." Jeff said trying to look as innocent as possible.

"Oh really? All good I hope," she stared at Tyler in hopes of making him crack.

"Yeah all of it was good especially when you..." Jeff interrupted before Tyler could get him in trouble.

"Hey Riley who'd you get for your assignment?" Riley just shook her head and remembered their assignments.

"I have no clue. We wanted to open them but Kaitlyn and I decided to look for you." Riley grabbed Tyler's hand and dragged him toward the back with Jeff following close behind.

"Who's Kaitlyn?" he asked walking next to Riley.

"The other journalist. She's really cool. She's at catering with Chris and Matt's on the phone with Rachel...."she cut Jeff off before he could say anything. "WHICH I don't mind. I love my cousin like the sister I never had."

"And she spilled water all over Test or whatever his name is." Tyler added still being dragged behind Riley.

Jeff's eyebrows rose, "hey Riley that sounds like something you would do."

"Don't tempt me," was her only reply as they entered the locker room.

Riley handed Tyler his envelope and he tore it open right away.

"I have Andrew Martin. Lucky me."

Riley decided to open her envelope instead of letting the torture drag on.

"I have..."

At that moment Chris, John, and Kaitlyn barged into the room super soakers in hand soaking Jeff, Riley, and Tyler with water.

Riley jumped behind Jeff and Tyler to avoid getting wet. The assault lasted only a few seconds but Jeff and Tyler were absolutely drenched. Chris, Kaitlyn, and John high-five and congratulated each other on a job well done while the three 'victims' stared at them with disbelief.

"That just shows you never to let your guard down assclowns." Chris said with a triumphant smirk.

Riley stood beside Jeff, "I thought you two got your revenge by scaring the hell out of me in Atlanta."

"Who said anything about revenge? It was all in good fun...and there's nothing else to do but pick on you," John laughed.

"Sorry guys. You just got caught in the crossfire."

Riley looked down at the now soggy piece of paper in her hand.

"And so did our assignments." She looked at Kaitlyn whose jaw was now on the floor.

"Looks like we'll have to wait until after the show to dry these out" Riley said as she put the papers into her bag.

"Speaking of dry," everyone turned their attention to Tyler, "I think it would be wise if we dried off. Unfortunately I don't have a change of clothes. I didn't think I'd get drenched with water."

"I'm sure one of the guys has something for you to wear though I wouldn't recommend Chris. His wardrobe could light up Vegas."

Tyler smiles at Riley. John volunteers to take Tyler back to his locker room. Jeff and Chris head to their locker rooms since they have matches leaving Riley and Kaitlyn alone.

Kaitlyn laughs at Riley's appearance. Her hair is dripping wet and her once loose t-shirt is clinging to her. "I have a feeling Tyler likes you."

This catches Riley off guard. "Chris has probably corrupted you to the point of delusion. Besides, I'm not really looking for a relationship; it's a LONG story. Let's try to blow dry our assignments. We can borrow one from Trish and I can get out of these clothes."

They go to the diva's locker room and borrow Trish's blow dryer but are careful not to open their assignments until they are totally dry.

Two hours later Riley and Kaitlyn had dried their assignments but didn't have a chance to open them. They were so engrossed in the guys' matches that they totally forgot. RAW had just ended with Paul once again successfully defending his title. Jeff had faced Spike Dudley and won, while Chris had hosted the highlight reel with HBK as his guest. Minutes after RAW ended they heard loud footsteps and then Chris burst into the locker room.

"Hey girlies, enjoy the show?"

Both girls nodded.

"Are you going back to the hotel?"

Kaitlyn nodded. "Our first day on the job has been eventful to say the least"

Riley nodded in agreement and yawned. "Sleep would be the best thing for me right now. Unfortunately my ride didn't come back here after his match."

"Do you want me to hunt him down for you?" Chris offered as he grabbed his gym bag.

"Nah, I think I'll go look for him. I seem to have that kind of luck today."

Riley left the locker room in search of Jeff. She checked catering first but she saw no sign of him. She figured while she was there she'd grab a cup of coffee. As she poured the coffee into the cup she heard a young woman laughing and turned to see who it was. It was a blonde with black streaks in her hair who was a little taller than Riley with green eyes. She wore a black mini skirt and a white sheer shirt. Riley saw that the blonde was talking to none other than Jeff. Not that she cared or anything, its just it seemed a little strange. So strange that Riley didn't even notice the hot coffee overflowing the brim of her coffee cup and onto her hand. She realized she was still pouring and she drew her hand back and dropped her cup in pain. This gained the attention of Jeff and the mysterious blonde. Riley looked at the spilled coffee around her feet in an effort to avoid their eyes but it was too late- they had noticed. Jeff and the blonde came up to her.

"Riley, meet Shay Patterson," Jeff's said completely ignoring his friends folly.

Riley stared from Shay to Jeff and back again completely unaware of what to say.

Riley's eyes freely surveyed the blonde and right away she could tell that there was something about Shay Riley couldn't trust. Riley was processing all of her opinions at once. One word resonated in her head. 'FAKE'. She guessed it echoed so loudly that she didn't hear Chris and Jeff now talking.

"Hey Hardy boy, are you making RyLynn wait or what. Some of us want to get to the hotel before next year."

Jeff and Shay turned around to see the ayatollah of rock-n-rolla behind them. Jeff introduced Shay to Chris and they seemed to hit it off really nicely.

"Is Riley okay?" Chris said pointing to Riley who seemed to be a little out to lunch.

Jeff waved his hand in front of her face. "Riley!"

Riley blinked and looked at Shay again who she could have sworn was glaring at her.

"Jeff, we have to go. Flight tomorrow you know," she said grabbing his hand and leading him away from Shay. Chris said goodbye to Shay and jogged after the two.

"Riley what was the zoning out session about?" Jeff asked as they left the locker room.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Jeff. Look how late it is don't we have a plane to catch tomorrow?"

"Shay is actually traveling with the company too. You two should talk sometime you'd have some stuff in common." Jeff searched Riley's face for a reaction but he got none because Chris with his impeccable timing came in search of the pair.

"What's taking you two so long? You have five seconds to get to the garage or you're both walking to the hotel. Great exercise if you ask me."

Riley walked up to Chris and took the keys out of his hand. "I WASN'T asking you and if it's such great exercise why don't you walk to the hotel. See you in the morning!" Riley ran off in the opposite direction with Chris and Jeff in hot pursuit. They ran past Tyler and Kaitlyn who were talking in the hall way and they did a double take when they saw Riley.

"This job is going to be interesting," Tyler said to Kaitlyn as they ran to catch up to the three.

"You can say that again."

The group got to the hotel 30 minutes later but surprisingly everyone was too tired from that night's events to fight on who was going to drive to the hotel.

"Hey Riley, I didn't have a chance to check in when my flight got in. Could I stay with you?" Kaitlyn asked as they approached the elevator the guys slowly lagging behind.

Riley nodded, "I actually don't mind having to kick Jeff out...I'll actually get some sleep for a change."

Kaitlyn laughed, "Why would you say that?"

"It's a long story." They all filed into the elevator with their luggage and got off on the 9th floor. John and Chris shared a room while Tyler and Paul shared the other. Jeff was about to follow Riley into her room but she stopped him.

"Kaitlyn is sharing my room so you have to share with Matt."

Matt was also in the hallway heard this and his jaw dropped immediately. "Riley you can't do that! I'm looking forward to getting some sleep this month."

Riley just laughed as she waved to Matt and Jeff and shut the door.

Matt slid his card key into the slot but it didn't open.

"Um, Matt maybe you're..."

"Jeff I know how to use a key." Matt tried again but it still didn't work. Jeff walked up to him and took the key from him and slid it in the slot the opposite way.

"You were saying?" Jeff smirked and walked into the room with Matt following.

"So, have you been into wrestling long?" Kaitlyn asked Riley as they flipped through television channels trying to find something to watch.

"Well Jeff was always into it but I was into my bikes and other stuff, but I just started to really follow it a few months ago from when I visited last time. It really takes a lot to put on a great show night after night like these guys do."

Just then the phone rang and Kaitlyn answered to hear Stephanie McMahon on the other end.

"Okay Steph. Thanks again. Bye." Kaitlyn hung up and turned to Riley. "We have a meeting tomorrow at headquarters when we go to Connecticut for Smackdown. She didn't say what it was about though," she said sitting on her bed.

"Maybe about our assignments," Riley paused and jumped to get the two pieces of paper out of her bag.

"I almost forgot about these." She handed Kaitlyn her assignment and they opened them at the same time.

"I got RVD. At least they didn't give me someone as bad as Test" Kaitlyn said cringing at his name.

"And I get to interview Brian Kendrick a.k.a. Spanky. This should make for one of the most exciting weeks of my life," Riley said collapsing on her bed.

"We'd better get some sleep, our flight leaves at 10:30"

Kaitlyn looked at the clock seeing it was now 1:30 a.m. "leaving us some time to sleep." The lights went out and both girls went to sleep imagining how hectic the next week was going to be.