It was time for Sonya and Mandy to start getting used to the schedule of regular NXT roster members. They would be working TV tapings once every three weeks, on a Wednesday night. In addition to that, there were mini tours of live events most weekends, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Even that busy schedule was nothing like that of main roster talent, who could sometimes go weeks at a time without a chance to go home.
That was a problem in the distant future though, if they were lucky. Right now, they were about to begin their first road trip as a team, traveling with Zelina. To that end, Mandy was driving across Orlando to the address Zelina had given them. They would be picking her up, then heading up to Jacksonville for that night's event.
"It'll be interesting to see how they play things with us this weekend," Mandy commented, keeping her eye on the traffic as they approached where Zelina lived.
"How so?" Sonya asked, looking over at her.
"Well, I was thinking about it, and yeah, we just did a taping as the Golden Gloves, but that episode where we showed up and attacked Bayley doesn't air until next week."
"Hmm, good point. I hadn't thought of that," Sonya said. "I was thinking we'd be working the show tonight with people knowing who we are, but you're right, we've still not been seen on TV apart from in that battle royal. Watch us get there and be told they're not using us this weekend."
Mandy grunted a laugh. "Don't say that, it'll end up coming true."
Although they were nearing Zelina's address, the traffic was heavy and they were making slow progress. To try and stop impatience setting in, Sonya took out her phone and loaded up Twitter. Her routine whenever she went on there was to check her mentions first, just in case she had been tagged in anything worthwhile. She would then move on to checking her timeline, which mainly consisted of news and sports accounts, as well as her fellow NXT wrestlers.
On this occasion, Sonya found in her mentions the usual amount of tweets she had been tagged in by people for no particular reason. Scrolling down the list of mentions, one tweet in particular caught her attention.
'Sonya, are you at the NXT event in Jacksonville tonight? It would be awesome to meet you.'
Sonya saw that the woman who had posted the tweet was named Sarita Lopez. She had added a picture to the message, which showed an attractive Latina with long black hair. She looked to be in her late teens or possibly early twenties, and she was holding a sign with Sonya's name on it in fancy black lettering, along with a rainbow shape in the colours of gay pride.
"Shit, Mand, I have my first fan," Sonya said, overjoyed by the fact.
"Really?" Mandy asked. She was unable to look at the phone as she was currently making a turn into a road that thankfully had a lot less traffic on it.
"I've got a girl on Twitter asking me if I'm at the show tonight and saying she'd love to meet me. She's got gay pride colours on her sign."
"How does she know you're gay?"
"Must have scrolled back through my Twitter or Instagram. It's no secret on there that I support gay pride. I post stuff all the time, as you know."
"Of course," Mandy said with a smile. "It's sweet that you have a fan wanting to meet you. You should make it happen for her."
"You think I can? You think I should?" Sonya asked uncertainly.
"Do I think you can? Sure," Mandy said confidently. "Send her a message and tell her you'll meet her at the entrance to the parking lot or something. As for whether you should, I say why not? You take a couple of minutes out of your day to meet her and shake her hand, you'll probably have a fan for life."
Sonya smiled at that thought, but there was still a concern on her mind. "We're supposed to be heels. Should I be going out of my way to be nice to a fan?"
"Sure," Mandy said, glancing at her and offering a smile. "I see everyone else posting pictures with fans, pictures of fans in their merch, pictures of fan art. It doesn't matter if they're heel or face, they all do it. There's no reason why we should be any different."
"You know what? You're right. Thanks, honey," Sonya said happily. "You always give the best advice."
"Not just a pretty face, huh?" Mandy asked with another smile as she pulled the car up outside a house that the satnav had just informed them was their destination.
Looking out of the window, Sonya saw that they were in what looked like a very recently built housing development. Zelina's house was a two storey affair with an immaculate front lawn. As nice as the place undoubtedly was, it looked rather soulless to Sonya.
While Mandy typed out a text to Zelina to say that they were outside, Sonya went onto the Twitter profile of Sarita Lopez, the fan who had caught her attention. Her bio made Sonya smile.
'I am the first and biggest Sonya Deville stan. The Jersey Devil will be taking NXT by storm.'
Sonya also saw that Sarita had her profile set so that people who didn't follow her were not able to send her direct messages. She figured it would be easy to fix that, and what a nice surprise it would be for Sarita when she saw she had been followed by her favourite wrestler. After tapping the follow icon, the option to send a direct message was now available, since they followed each other. Tapping the direct message icon, Sonya typed out a quick message.
'Hi. Thank you for your support. I will be at the show tonight, and would love to meet you. Wait by the entrance to the parking lot/garage and I'll see you there.'
"I sent a message to that fan," Sonya reported to Mandy. "She refers to me as the Jersey Devil in her bio. The only way she could know about that nickname at this point is if she had looked up my MMA career. She really must be into supporting me."
Mandy chuckled. "I guess we'd better get used to that kind of thing. Once we're on TV, we'll soon pick up diehard fans."
"It's very humbling," Sonya said. It was hard to comprehend that she meant so much to another person. She determined herself to always adopt that attitude, no matter how far she went in WWE. Being down to earth and humble were the best qualities that anyone with a platform like that offered by WWE ought to have, in her opinion.
"Here's Zel," Mandy said, looking out of the window towards their friend's house.
Zelina was on her porch, locking her front door. When that was done, she wheeled her travel case down the driveway as Mandy got out of the car to open the trunk for her.
"Hey, Zel," Mandy said pleasantly.
"Morning," Zelina said with a smile.
Mandy popped the trunk for her and picked up her travel case to store it next to the two that were already in there. "Nice place you've got here."
"Thanks. It's not mine, though. I'm renting it while I save up a deposit to buy a place of my own."
"We were in the same boat," Mandy said, slamming the trunk shut. "We're actually going through the process of purchasing an apartment right now. We should be in within the next few weeks if all goes well. We're going to have a housewarming once we're in, and we're going to invite a bunch of people from NXT, including you. I hope you'll come?"
"Of course I'll come," Zelina said without hesitation as she walked around to get in the back of the car.
"Morning. How are you?" Sonya asked as Zelina got into the car.
"I'm good. You?"
"Great, thanks."
"Mandy was just telling me you're buying an apartment," Zelina said as Mandy got back into the driver's seat.
"Yeah, we're hoping to be in within a month. It takes so long for all the legal crap to go through," Sonya grumbled.
Mandy set about programming the address of the arena in Jacksonville into the satnav.
"I have all that to look forward to when I go for a place of my own," Zelina said. "I'm renting this one. It's nice, but renting is something to avoid if you can."
"Right. It's pretty much wasting money," Mandy said. With the address set, she pulled away.
"I was texting with Lacey just now," Zelina said. "You'll never guess where she is."
"Jamaica," Sonya said, making a deliberately ridiculous guess for comedic effect.
Mandy chuckled and decided to follow her example. "Paris."
"Lucy Thorne's house," Zelina clarified.
"Oh wow. Why is she there?" Sonya asked raising her eyebrows in surprise.
"Signing a new contract, and discussing their angle," Zelina said. "She was originally supposed to go to the office, but Thorne had some other stuff come up with one of her other businesses or something. I don't know the ins and outs of it, but Lacey said her house is stunning beyond words. She described what Lucy's housekeeper called 'the great room', where the meeting was held. She said it has the biggest window she's ever seen, taking up most of one wall and looking out over beautiful rolling hills. She said it was a truly breath-taking sight."
"How the other half live," Sonya thought aloud. "A housekeeper, and room called 'the great room'. How does Thorne have so much money anyway? She can't be more than ten years older than us, surely? It's insane."
"I was reading about her on Wikipedia a while back. Inherited the family business from her dad when he took early retirement," Zelina said. "And then bought WWE with it, as you do."
"And now she's dating Bobby Roode, if the rumours are true," Mandy said. That was more like the kind of conversation, or gossip, that interested her.
"Yes, I heard that too," Zelina said from the back. "Apparently they were at some charity event together not long back, which pretty much confirmed they are seeing each other."
"That'll be glorious for him, no doubt," Sonya said, implying that he would receive a creative push as a result of the relationship.
"That's awful," Mandy giggled, meaning the choice of wording, not the insinuation.
"Sorry, couldn't help it," Sonya smiled.
Three hours later, after a stop for coffee and donuts and a drive full of pleasant conversation and laughter, the Golden Gloves trio arrived at the arena in Jacksonville. They were there well before the designated call time, but Sonya saw that a few fans were lingering around the entrance to the area of the parking lot reserved for talent and staff. One of the fans was Sarita Lopez. Sonya recognised her by the sign she was holding; the same one that had been in the picture she had posted to Twitter that morning. There were a couple of security staff there, wearing high visibility jackets. Their job was clearly to make sure that no one got into areas they where they were not allowed.
While Mandy parked the car, Sonya told Zelina the story of learning that she had her first dedicated fan. As she spoke, Sonya checked her Twitter for the first time since writing the direct message to Sarita. She found a reply in her DMs and showed it to Mandy. "Look how happy she is that I sent her a message."
Mandy read the message, in which Sarita said she had cried when she had seen that Sonya had followed her. "Aww, bless her," she said, smiling as she handed the phone back.
"It's good to remember your day ones," Zelina said, meaning fans who supported a wrestler from the start of their career. "You know they are the real ones. I have a few, and I make sure they know I appreciate them. You're going to go and see her, right?"
"Yeah, I'm going now," Sonya said.
"Okay, I'll take your case inside for you," Mandy said.
"Thanks, honey. I won't be long," Sonya said. She leaned across and exchanged a peck on the lips with her girlfriend, then they all got out of the car.
Walking across the parking lot towards the entrance where the fans were congregating, Sonya found herself feeling nervous. She had never had a fan supporting her before, or at least had never personally encountered one. She felt like she didn't know what to say or do, and that put pressure on her once she considered the fact that for Sarita Lopez the next couple of minutes could be a memory that would last a lifetime.
As she approached the small group of fans, they started cheering and calling out to her. Sonya saw Sarita standing with a hand over her mouth, looking like she was about to cry, overwhelmed by the fact that Sonya was actually there, walking over to her. The reaction humbled Sonya. Not for the first time that day, she found it astounding that she meant that much to someone.
"Hi, guys!" Sonya called out as she neared them.
A bunch of excited greetings came in her direction, but Sonya focused on her fan, who cried, "I can't believe you came!"
"Of course I came," Sonya smiled broadly. Reaching the fans, she leaned over the chest high metal barrier and hugged Sarita. "It's great that I can get to meet you and thank you for your support in person."
"Oh my god. You don't have to thank me," Sarita said, a star struck look on her face. "I'm the one who should thank you for coming to see me. It means the world to meet you that you've done it."
"It's my pleasure," Sonya said honestly as they parted. "We can get a picture together if you like?"
"I would love that," Sarita said, barely able to contain her excitement. She took out her phone, fumbling with it with shaking hands.
"Here, I'll hold your sign," one of the other fans said, taking it from her.
"I'll get the picture for you if you want?" a female fan offered.
"Would you? Thanks," Sarita said, handing over her phone.
Sonya leaned over the fence once more so that they could pose with an arm around each other's shoulders. She put a big smile on her face while the other girl took the picture.
"Got it," the fan reported a moment later.
"Thanks, Sonya," Sarita said as she took her phone back, sounding like she was lost for any other words.
"Sure thing. But I want to get a picture of you with that sign, too. Hold it up," Sonya encouraged.
The guy who was holding the sign handed it back to Sarita and she held it up above her head. Sonya took out her phone and took a picture of her, appreciating the huge smile on her face. There was no doubt that she had made this young woman's day, if not her year.
"Great picture," Sonya smiled. "I'll post it later." She leaned over the barrier and hugged Sarita again. "Thanks for coming to see me, and thanks again for your support. It really does mean a lot."
"You're so welcome," Sarita said as they parted for the second time. "I'm going to be starting a fan club for you. I'm thinking of calling it The Jersey Devils. What do you think?"
"I think that sounds like a wonderful idea," Sonya said, wondering if she felt more excited about it than Sarita did herself.
"Awesome! I'm so excited. I'll tweet you about it when I get it going," Sarita said enthusiastically.
"Please do, and I'll tweet it out," Sonya promised.
"You will? Thanks so much, you're the absolute best. When are we going to see you on TV?"
Sonya smiled, thinking carefully about her answer. She couldn't give an honest one, which would have been to say next week. She decided to go with, "Hopefully real soon."
"I can't wait!" Sarita exclaimed. "You're going to kill it."
"I'm going to do my best," Sonya promised, still smiling. "I'd better get myself inside, but thanks again for coming out. Enjoy the show, guys," she added, speaking to the group as a whole. With a parting wave to them all, she turned and walked towards the entrance to the arena.
"Wow," Sonya muttered to herself, shaking her head in a sense of disbelief as everything that had just happened started to sink in. "This has to be the best job in the world."
A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter.
Next time, Sonya and Mandy will be moving into their new apartment and holding the housewarming party. Who would you like to see coming to the party as a guest? Leave your suggestions in a review and I'll see what I can do!