"Great. What's this all about?" Zelina grumbled, bringing the Golden Gloves trio's car to a stop. Ahead of them, all three lanes of interstate traffic were gridlocked. The sea of glowing red brake lights was a very depressing sight.
"I guess someone had an accident," Mandy sighed, looking through the windshield from the back seat.
Whatever the reason was for the delay, it was apparent that they wouldn't be moving any time soon. So much for a quick journey from the town where they had just worked a live event to the location of the following night's event. Usually it was easier to travel at night, but not on this occasion.
"I have candy," Sonya offered, feeling as annoyed as the others about the impending long hold up.
"I'll take some," Mandy said. "It's a shame we don't have donuts."
"You two and your donuts," Zelina laughed.
"Hey, don't mock donuts!" Sonya said with faux sternness as she passed the candy around. Zelina declined with a polite hand gesture.
"Son, I don't think we told Z about the show," Mandy said. She was referring to the YouTube show that they had first had the idea for more than a year earlier. They had never done anything with the idea, and indeed it had been forgotten about for a long time. However, Mandy had recently brought it back up, and they had decided that now they were members of the active NXT roster, there was half a chance of people actually wanting to check out videos they published.
"What show?" Zelina asked, looking at Mandy.
"We're going to start a series on YouTube where we eat and review donuts. We'd like to have guests on, too," Mandy said.
"We'd have you on, but obviously you're vegan," Sonya said.
Zelina found the comment amusing. "You can get vegan donuts," she informed them.
"Great, then you can be on the show," Mandy said excitedly. "All we need to do is find somewhere to get vegan donuts."
"So, the show us going to be three people sitting in a room, eating donuts?" Zelina queried, clearly not entirely sold on the idea.
"Eating and reviewing donuts," Mandy clarified. "And we're planning to do it in the car."
Sonya said, "And maybe we'll ask the guests other questions too. It could be like a chat show. With donuts."
Now Zelina smiled broadly. "A chat show with donuts, where people get to know more about wrestlers. You might actually be on to something with that. What are you going to call it?"
"We put quite a bit of thought into that," Sonya said. "Our names don't combine very well, so the best we could come up with was Damandyz Donutz, with a Z at the end of each word."
"Okay, but where does the 'Da' part come from?" Zelina asked.
"My middle name is Daria," Sonya said, hiding her satisfaction at the way she saw Mandy's cheeks redden a little at the mention of the name.
"I like it. It also sounds like you demand donuts."
"We do demand donuts," Mandy said with a laugh. "We demand lots of them."
Silence descended on the car for a minute, with Mandy and Sonya eating their candy and Zelina scowling out at the traffic. "We haven't moved a fucking inch since we got here," she grumbled. "And why do some many people sit with their foot on their brakes? Don't they know what a handbrake is for? Next thing they'll be complaining about is why their brake lights are burned out."
Sonya had to laugh. "You're funny when you're grumpy, Zel. But there's no point getting worked up, it won't get us anywhere any faster."
Zelina looked unimpressed, and didn't say anything for a few moments. "I guess there is something I should tell you guys," she said eventually, changing the subject.
"What's that?" Mandy asked.
"This is only for the two of you to know, so keep it to yourselves," Zelina said. "I'm dating someone from NXT."
"We won't say anything," Sonya assured her, an eager look on her face. "Come on then, who is it? Wait, shall we guess?"
Zelina laughed, shaking her head.
"What?" Sonya objected. "I'm trying to find something to pass the time here."
"Alright, if you want to, you can guess who I'm dating. Be careful with your guesses though, or we might be falling out real soon."
"Is it a man or a woman?" Mandy asked. "I feel like we should at least get that much info."
As there was no sign of the traffic moving any time soon, Zelina killed the engine and turned around in her seat so that she could look at them both properly. "Okay, but this is the only clue I'm giving you. It's a man."
"Roman Reigns," Mandy guessed with barely a second of pause.
"No," Zelina said.
With Reigns ruled out, Sonya couldn't see it being any of the other recruits, especially since Seth and Dean were taken. That left the more established roster members to consider. She decided to guess the first name that came to mind. "Aleister Black."
Zelina shook her head, a noncommittal expression on her face.
"Jesus, you could play poker with that face," Sonya said.
"I do, frequently," Zelina revealed. "I've made some money at it over the years."
"Adam Cole," Mandy guessed, sticking to the original subject.
Zelina clicked her fingers and pointed at her, acknowledging the correct answer.
"Woah, really? Yeah, Zel, I can see you as a couple," Sonya said with a smile. "I'm really happy for you."
"Thank you," Zelina smiled. "It's early days yet, but so far it's going great. He's a real gentleman; kind, funny, just great to be with."
"That's awesome to hear," Mandy said with a smile of her own. "I hope you're very happy together.
"Thanks. I did wonder if he might want to start traveling with us, but no, he's happy with the rest of the Undisputed Era guys."
"Right. We don't want any men in this car anyway," Sonya said, playfully feigning indigence.
Chuckling, Zelina's attention was drawn to the road ahead. Engines were firing up, and cars were beginning to move slowly forwards. "Finally, here we go," she said, starting their car.
They crawled forward for less than a minute before the traffic completely stopped moving again.
"What a waste of time that was," Mandy said dryly.
To avoid getting too irritable over the situation they were in, Zelina opted to make conversation. "So, I was talking to Ember Moon on the phone the other day. She was telling me about some charity work she's involved in."
"Wait, you know Ember Moon?" Sonya asked with raised eyebrows, picturing the popular and unquestionably talented member of the Raw roster. Moon was in fact a two time Raw Women's Champion. For Zelina to casually slip into conversation that they were friends came as a surprise.
"Know her? She's a good friend of mine. We go way back. I can't tell you how many times I've wrestled her for various independent promotions. I even wrestled her in Japan."
"That's awesome," Mandy said. "But what were you going to say about charity work?"
"Ember was telling me she's been involved with a charity looking after homeless people. Volunteering there has made her want to start up her own homeless charity in Orlando, and she wanted to toss ideas around with me."
"And what did you say?" Sonya asked. Finishing the last of the candy, she stuffed the packet into the holder on the side of the door. "Personally, I think homeless charities are something we need more of. I was nearly homeless myself a couple of times. It was awful enough living in my car, working two jobs tending bars just to try and make that work. That was bad enough, so it must be indescribably terrible to actually be on the streets. Anyway, enough about me, tell us what Ember's idea is."
Zelina was looking at Sonya with surprise and newfound respect in her eyes. "You lived in your car?"
Sonya nodded. It wasn't a period of her life she looked back on fondly by any means, but she wasn't ashamed of it. "For a while I did, in LA. I went there to train in MMA. I got into one of the best programs, but it cost a lot of money. It was either give up and go back home to my mom, or live in my car, work my two jobs and train in whatever time I could. It was a shitty way to live, but damn it, I did it. I never gave up on making it in MMA until the WWE offer came."
"I'm so proud of you for that," Mandy said in a heartfelt manner.
"Thank you, honey," Sonya said, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze. "I'm sure you'd do the same if you had to. You didn't make it to WWE without fighting battles and working hard. No one in that locker room did."
"Such a good story though, Son," Zelina said. "I have nothing but respect for that."
"Thank you. We still didn't hear about Ember's idea," Sonya pointed out.
"Right, sorry," Zelina said, glancing out of the windshield in the vague hope that the traffic might be moving. There was no such luck, so she turned back to face Sonya. "Ember wants to start a charity for homeless veterans, or veterans who are struggling. The point being it'll be exclusive for veterans."
"I think that's a fantastic idea," Mandy said passionately. "It's appalling how people are treated after they fight for our country. They give so much, and get nothing back once they come home. For them to be left on the streets is a national embarrassment in my opinion."
Sonya hadn't expected the fire from Mandy, but she loved it. "I couldn't agree more. Zel, if it means anything, please tell Ember that we totally support her project."
"I will," Zelina nodded. "I'm sure she'll appreciate that. Maybe you could help her with it? I'm sure she will need volunteers once she gets it going. I already told her I'd be willing to help out if I could."
Sonya liked the sound of that. She would be more than willing to volunteer, even if it wouldn't be often because of the busy NXT schedule. She looked at Mandy. "I'd volunteer. Mand?"
"Hell yeah," Mandy said without hesitation.
The traffic had begun crawling forward again. Zelina got their car moving and said, "I'll tell Ember that next time I speak to her. I'll give her your numbers, and maybe she'll be in touch."
Sonya's thoughts turned to work. Over the past couple of months, the Golden Gloves had continued to make sporadic appearance on the pre-taped NXT episodes, always to attack and beat down one or more members of the women's division. Sonya had hoped that their attack on Trish and Clementine would lead to something huge for them, but the Women's Tag Team Champions hadn't been seen on NXT since, despite creative having them out there to say that they would defend their titles on the brand. To Sonya, it was starting to get frustrating. It felt like the Golden Gloves had arrived with a lot of momentum and had made some big statements, but now the attacks were getting a bit stale. She imagined the fans now had an 'Oh, it's them again' reaction when they showed up.
"Do you think we're ever going to wrestle a match on TV?" Sonya asked the others, sounding bitterer about it than she had intended.
"Sure," Zelina said. "Hunter made it clear they've got plans for us. I know it's getting a bit repetitive with all of these attacks we keep doing, but it won't go on forever. We're just getting started on TV. I'd make a bet we'll start having matches after the next Takeover. They use them almost as cycles. Look at the last one, Lacey lost and then got called up straight away. This time, it'll be our turn to step up and feature more prominently."
The traffic ground back to a halt, having not moved far at all. "Great," Zelina sighed, bringing the car to a stop again.
"I really hope so," Mandy said in response to her on-screen manager's prediction. "I'm so hyped to wrestle. I just want them to let us do it already. Hopefully we won't have to wait much longer."
"Have faith," Zelina said. "We'll be getting matches soon, and then there will be no stopping us."
A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter. Adam Cole's name came up several times for the person you guys wanted to see dating Zelina, so I went with that!
Mandy and Sonya offered to volunteer at Ember's veteran's charity once she gets it up and running. Who would like to see working with some homeless veterans?
Next time, we're going to see the first Golden Gloves match! Who would you like to see Sonya or Mandy face? Leave your ideas in a review!