Maria was woken the next morning with the phone ringing.

"go away"she moaned but the phone kept ringing"fine"she said angrily before picking up the phone.

"hello"she said in her most cheery voice possible.

"hmmm fake cheeriness i just woke you up"said the voice at the other end.

"Christopher Irvine you knew you would be waking me up"she said trying to sound annoyed even thought she was smiling.

"Your smiling and you're not really bothered because you want to tell me all about last night"he said.

Now she was getting annoyed Chris knowing what she was thinking when he was near her was one thing but now he could tell over the phone line.

"I don't want to tell you acctually"she said firmly.

"yes you do"he told her

"ok yes i do"she admitted excitedly.

"so tell me everything then"he said

"come round here first"she told him

"alright give me ten minutes"he replied.

"ok see ya hun"she said hanging up. She smiled and put on her dressing gown. She was still thinking about last night. What's wrong with me she thought to herself, maybe nothing's wrong mayeb it's a good thing. She heard a knock on the door and went to open it.

"well that was quick"she said when she answered it"oh hey Jason i wasn't expecting you"

"Hey Maria sorry it's early but i've been wanting to talk to you for awhile"he said

"well i geuss you should come in"she told him with a smile.

The two of them went and sat down in the small living room.

"so what did you want to talk about?"she asked

"well i heard what happend with Maven and i wanted to see if you were alright"he told her

"aww that's sweet and i'm fine thank you"she replied with a smile.

"oh well that's good"he said"well you were obviously expecting someone so i best get going"

"you don't have to"she told him

"no i kind of have to be somewhere"he replied getting up.

"ok well thanks for stopping by it was really nice of you"she said walking him to the door.

"bye"he said simply before walking off down the corridor.

Strange she thought to herself he's never spoken to me before. She noticed Chris walking towards the door so she left it open knowing that he would just walk in anyway. He probably had his own key.

Sure enough she heard him walk in and close the door.

"Heya honey"she called"i'm in the living room"

"alright"he called back before walking in the room"so tell me everything"

"well we met up for a drink and talked for i don't know how long, we have so much in common and he was really sweet, then we went fora walk and talked some more, then he kissed me and left"she told him

"He just left?"asked Chris

"yep weird i know"she replied"but now i'm confused he kissed me which should mean he likes me but then he left, so what's going on?"

"I don't know i can ask him later"He suggested.

"Don't you dare!"she exclaimed"I don't want him to know i've been talking about him"

"why?"he asked confused"you like him"

"yes and if he thinks i talk about him all the time then it will scare him off"she explained.

"Women"he said rolling his eyes. He laughed when he saw the look on Maria's face.

"I'm gonna tell Jess you said that"she said with a smile

"don't you dare!"he exclaimed

"then don't tell Randy i spoke about him"she said calmly

"ok how about if i bring you up in a conversation and see what he says without saying you spoke about him?"he asked trying to compromise.

"I guess that would be ok.."she started

"great well i best go find him"he said jumping up out of his chair

"what now?"she asked in surprise

"yep"he said running out the door.

"well bye to you to"she called. Suddenly a head popped rounbd the door.

"see ya sweetie"he said before running off again.

Maria shook her head with a smile on her face.

She decided to go and walk about and see if she could find any of her friends.

She headed down to the pool where she found Trish and her friends all sat talking. She remembered that Eric had asked her to pass a message on to Nora so she walked over to them.

"Hey guys sorry to interupt"she said

"what are you doing here none of us need someone to hold a mic for us?"asked Nora raising an eyebrow at her.

"I just had a message to pass on"she said softly"Eric said can you meet him at twelve tomorrow in his office"

She quickly walked off, to go back up to her room when she heard them all laughing again.

"wow"she heard Nora say"she's moved up in the world not only does she hand out mic's now she passes on messages"

Maria carried on walking when she heard some one call her.

"Trish"she said in surprise"can i help you?"

"You know what happend down there reminded me of when i first worked here"Trish told her.

"and you came here to tell me that?"she asked raising an eyebrow at her.

Trish smiled"I'm not here to be horrible i'm trying to be nice"

"alright then"she said warily, Trish had never been the nicest person to her in the past, what was different now"come in"

The two of them walked into her room and sat down.

"Well i've seen you training and you have a lot of talent but you don't get respect round here and well i wanna help because i know what it's like"Trish told her.

"Funny usually you're the first one of the girls to start on me"she said with a humorless laugh.

"Look i'm not a total bitch Maria, this is how i got respect i was always nice to everyone and it got me no where in this business i was just T'n'A, I know what it feels like but then i became the bitch and i got respect from everyone once they knew they couldn't walk all over me, I'm not really a bitch i just act like one"Trish told her"so i'm gonna help you get the respect you deserve, you're a really nice person and i've always thought that it's not fair people look down on you"

"Thanks"she said with a smile.

"I know i've been mean but can we be friends?"asked Trish

"yeah we can"she replied.

"ok well first of all you need to toughen up, don't let people walk all over you if people treat you bad then do the same back"Trish told her

"alright then"she said thinking, Trish was right people did walk all over her, they took advantage because they knew they could.

"you are too trusting of people i used to be the same and you know what happend to me with McMahon"Trish continued.

The two girls talked all afternoon, but Trish had to go to a meeting so they said bye and Maria was left to think about all that had just happend.

Was Trish right? She really did want respect round here, maybe she should at least try it. But she wasn't sure if she could do it, Maria had never been a very bitchy person it just wasn't in her nature.

There was a knock on the door and she knew it was Chris. "Come in"she called

"hey Ria"he said walking in and sitting next to her."well he really like you"

"ok"she said distractedly

"what are you thinking about:?"he asked

" Just somthing that Trish said"she replied

"She's a bitch don't listen to her"he said simply.

"No it's not that she was really nice and we're friends now it's just"she started

"you're what"he interupted"you can't be she's trying to trick you she's just going to use you"

"Chris stop it right now!"she exclaimed"You don't like her and thats fine for you because you've got a reason to not like her i don't, she was really nice to me today and asked if we could be friends. I need i friend like her, she knows exactly what i'm going through"

"Maria i know how you feel and i know you've been down lately but that's no reason to start hanging around with people like her."He exclaimed

"No Chris you don't understand what i'm going through, how could you understand?"She cried"You have always been respected here and had loads of friends, your king of the world, raw is Jericho you will never know what it's like having people talking about you the second you walk off and they make sure you hear every word of it"

"Maria i do know because you've told me all of this and i know it's upsetting you alot and i'm being here for you listening to your problems so i can fix them"

"Chris stop trying to fix things because you can't, sure you can start having a go at people like Maven but what difference does it make, it doesn't make people treat me better it makes them treat you better, i know your trying your best to help and i'm really grateful believe me i am but you can't solve the problem"she told him

"see Trish has done all of this to you in one afternoon"He said

"see you don't listen do you Chris, this isn't listening to me your just waiting for your turn to talk so you can have a go at me for being friends with Trish"She yelled

"Well your like my sister and i love you, i don't want you to get hurt"he yelled back.

"I know"she said in a softer tone"i love you too Chris but just hear me out, Trish told me to be more bitchy and not let people walk over me and i was thinking about it, but i'm not going to do it because i can't, come you know me you know i could never act like a bitch, but i'm still her friend because shes trying to help me just like you are sweetie, she's just a friend you'll always be my best friend"

Chris hugged her tightly, she was like family and he had been scared that Trish would takke her away just like she had taken his best friend away. He could never trust Trish but he could trust Maria not to do somthing stupid. They were friends forever and always.