For the second time, Sonya and Mandy were on their way to volunteer a few hours of their time at Orlando Veterans Retreat. It had been a while since their first visit. Back then, work had still be in progress on the dorms, which Ember Moon had wanted built so that the veterans her charity took on had somewhere warm and dry to sleep at night. When Mandy had spoken to Ember and offered their time, she had been informed that the construction and fitting work was now completed.
"I can't wait to see how it all looks now," Sonya said as they neared their destination.
As was often the case, Mandy was in the driving seat. "Neither can I," she said. "I'm looking forward to seeing Ivory, too. That chat we had with her last time was quite something."
"Yes it was," Sonya agreed, thinking back to the couple of hours they had spent sitting at a table with Lisa Moretti, the former Special Forces operative code named Ivory. The thing that had come through most clearly was Ivory's desire not to be a charity case. Handouts were now what she wanted. What she hoped for was a chance to get her life back on track. In time, Orlando Veterans Retreat intended to offer exactly that kind of opportunity to the people they helped.
"Still looks the same from the outside," Mandy commented as the building came into sight.
"They could use a better sign out front," Sonya said, looking at the current one, which was small enough to miss entirely if you were driving past. Exactly that had almost happened the first time she and Mandy had visited.
"We could maybe donate some money for one?" Mandy suggested.
"That's not a bad idea. If we did, we could work it so that we could be here the day it gets put up, and we could get a picture with it. It might encourage fans to donate. Even if they only go a couple of bucks each, it would mount up."
"I'll speak to Ember about it," Mandy said. She pulled into the lot and parked up next to the couple of cars that were already there.
They got out of the car and Sonya waited for Mandy before heading for the building's entrance. "Just so you know, you're not getting me into washing dishes this time," she announced with a grin.
"That's no fun," Mandy grumbled. "But I'll let you off since you'll do them at home after dinner."
"Deal," Sonya said. "At least at home you can obsess over my rubber gloves to your heart's content."
Blushing, Mandy said nothing more as they walked over to the entrance.
Following her girlfriend through the door and into the dining area of the retreat, Sonya saw a few new faces. In addition to the people they had met on their previous visit, there were two more male veterans there, and another woman. The woman was sitting at a table talking to Ivory while they ate lunch. She had long black hair and looked to be a similar age to her dining partner. Looking up when they entered, Ivory gave them a wave, which Sonya returned while Mandy smiled.
"Ivory looks in better health," Mandy observed.
It was an understatement, and it applied to Jim Duggan and AJ Styles as well. They looked well fed, were dressed in better clothes and their hair was no longer greasy. Living at the retreat seemed to have taken five years off their appearances.
Another new face appeared at the serving hatch, having heard the door open and close. Sonya saw a blonde woman, maybe in her early forties, very attractive for her age. She was wearing a plastic apron, presumably having just finished serving the lunch that the veterans were currently digging into.
"Hi. You must be Sonya and Mandy," the blonde said warmly. "Ember told us you were coming to help out today."
Sonya and Mandy walked over to talk to her. "That's right," Sonya said. "I'm Sonya, and this is Mandy."
"I'm Torrie, nice to meet you. Ember said you've been before, so you don't need a tour of the place."
"We have been before, but we'd like to look around," Mandy said. "The dorms were still being constructed the first time we came."
While she was speaking, the man who had been working as a volunteer during their first visit walked over to the serving hatch. Sonya recalled his name. "Hello, Jordan. Good to see you again."
"Hi, Sonya, Mandy," Jordan said. "Come through and I'll show you around."
"Thanks," Mandy said. She led the way down the dining area and through the door that opened into a hallway with the kitchen on the right hand side of it and the entrances to the two dorms down at the far end.
Jordan came out of the kitchen to meet them. "Good of you to come today," he said. "More bodies will be good for the litter picking event this afternoon."
"We're happy to help," Sonya said. Ember had told them about the event, which would see the volunteers and veterans from the retreat head to downtown Orlando and pick up litter, while wearing t-shirts encouraging people to text donations to the dedicated number Ember had managed to set up for the charity. Sonya wasn't sure how effective a way it would be to raise funds, but she was happy to give it a go.
"Anything that gets money coming in for you guys," Mandy said. "How are things going with fundraising?"
"I don't know exact details, obviously that's Ember's responsibility. But from what I gather, it's continuing to go well. It helps a lot with her profile on TV of course. She's also had success getting some local companies involved. They donate in exchange for having their names put on our website."
"Sounds like she's doing an amazing job," Sonya said happily. "We saw some new faces out there," she added, gesturing in the direction of the dining area with her head.
Jordan nodded. "Remind me who was here last time you stopped by?"
"John, Jim and Ivory," Mandy said.
"Okay, so you've not met Victoria, Chavo or Steve. He's another ex-Special Forces guy, would you believe. His code name was Sting."
"Sting. Sounds menacing," Sonya said.
"I'm sure he was menacing for those who came up against him in combat. But he's a nice enough guy," Jordan said. With that, he started in the direction of the dorms.
"Looking forward to meeting them," Sonya said as they followed him down the hallway.
"They're good people. Chavo can be an oddball sometimes, but you get used to it," Jordan said. "He went out for a few hours the other day, then when he came back he was calling himself Kerwin White."
Mandy couldn't help laughing. "What? Kerwin White? What kind of name is that?"
Sonya made a cringing face at her girl, the kind of face that said, 'You shouldn't be saying what you're saying right now.'
Looking at her, Jordan didn't look impressed. "A lot of homeless people have mental health issues. It's something they need to be helped with, not laughed at about."
Mandy's cheeks went bright red, and for a moment she didn't know what to say. "I didn't mean any offense," she floundered. "I was laughing more at the name Kerwin White than anything else. I definitely wouldn't have laughed if Chavo was here. God, I feel awful now."
"No harm done," Jordan said, now that he had made his point. "Just be careful what you say around the guys."
"I will," Mandy assured him.
Moving on, Jordan briefly showed them around the two dorms. Sonya found them to be quite nice, and she was sure they were like heaven on earth to people who had been sleeping rough. Each person had a bed and a chest of drawers, the top of which they could use as a table of sorts. There was a shower room at the end of each dorm, something else the veterans would be incredibly thankful for.
"You have more beds than guests," Mandy observed, remembering the word Ember chose to use for the veterans registered with her shelter.
"There are a couple of applications in progress," Jordan said. "It won't be long before we're full."
"You're doing amazing work for these people," Sonya said with all seriousness.
Jordan nodded his appreciation. "We try our best."
An hour later, everyone from the retreat had walked the relatively short distance to one of the more popular city centre areas of Orlando. They were all wearing bright red t-shirts bearing the name of the charity and the number people could text to make a donation. They each had a large plastic garbage sack and a metal litter picking device.
As the group spread out to get to work, Sonya and Mandy found themselves working near to Victoria, who they hadn't had much of a chance to chat to yet since Torrie had made introductions back at the shelter.
"So, you guys are wrestlers?" Victoria asked as an ice breaker.
Sonya nodded. "We are." She figured saying that was how they knew Ember would have been stating the obvious a bit too much.
"You look too pretty for it," Victoria said to Mandy. "Not that you're not pretty," she quickly added to Sonya.
Mandy chuckled. It was far from the first time she had heard that comment. "You should see me throwing fists. I'm not so pretty then."
"Yes, girl! I love that!" Victoria cried. They spent a couple of minutes picking up litter before she continued the conversation. "I used to watch the WWF. I'm talking like twenty years ago, when it was Stone Cold and The Rock."
"That's awesome," Sonya said, thinking better of letting on that she hadn't been a wrestling fan going up. People understandably found it a strange thing to hear from a professional wrestler.
Victoria picked up a chocolate bar wrapper and deposited it in her garbage sack. "I lost touch with it at some point, but I'm sure I'd enjoy it if I got back into it."
"I saw you have a TV on the wall in the dining area at the retreat now," Mandy said. "You could put WWE shows on there."
Victoria laughed. "I think I might have an issue persuading the other guys on that one. What we have on every night is kind of a democratic decision."
"That makes sense," Sonya said with a smile. Then an idea occurred to her. "Hey, we have TV tapings in Orlando once a month, over at Full Sail University. Mandy and I could probably hook you up with free tickets if you wanted to come to a show one time?"
"That's a great idea!" Mandy exclaimed.
"That's really kind of you," Victoria said. "Could you get one for Ivory too? I feel like it's not something I could enjoy much by myself."
"Shouldn't be a problem," Mandy said. "We could possibly get you ringside seats, and maybe get you on camera and have the retreat mentioned on the show. It's up to you, but I think it might be a way to get some donations in."
Victoria visibly cringed. "I hate the idea of being on TV. But, having said that, I figure it's the least I can do if it helps to raise a bit of money. Ember, Jordan and everyone have been so good to us all."
"We'll try and sort something out and be in touch. We have a big event coming up soon, so it'll be after that."
"Sounds great, thank you," Victoria said. "What's the big event?"
Mandy handled the answer while Sonya picked up a plastic coffee cup and disposed of it. "It's called NXT Takeover: New York. We're going to have the biggest match of our careers as a team, so it's a huge deal for us."
"Then I wish you good luck," Victoria said. "I'm sure you'll do great."
"Thanks," Sonya said. There was a faraway look in her eyes as she thought ahead to everything that was coming up at Wrestlemania weekend. Axxess, Takeover, the Hall of Fame ceremony and Wrestlemania itself. What a week it promised to be!
A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review last time!
Wrestlemania week is coming up fast, and all of the big events will be covered in the story. Let's have some predictions for the Takeover match. Who will win? Will it be the Golden Gloves? Or will it be Bayley and Sasha?