Chapter 31

John awoke early the next morning. After showering and dressing for the day, he headed to Lilyana's room. He woke her by gently shaking her.

"Good morning Princess. Rise and shine! Today's a big day." John told his sleepy daughter.

Lily opened her eyes and smiled at her dad. Then she yawned and stretched. She was a little nervous about her match later that night but otherwise happy. John left his daughter to get ready to face the day. She grabbed her things and headed to the bathroom.

Once she was showered and dressed, she went to see what was for breakfast. She found everyone in the dining room waiting for her. They all smiled at her as she took a seat at the table.

"What's for breakfast? I'm starved!" Lily said.

Just then, Sam and Randy both came out of the kitchen carrying platters of food. Sam had a platter heaped with bacon and sausage. Randy's platter was heaped with French toast. After they had both placed the platters down, they headed back to the kitchen to get the rest of the food. Along with the meat and French toast, there were also hash browns, eggs, orange juice, and milk.

Once Sam and Randy took their seats everyone dug in. Lily ate a healthy amount despite her nerves. Everyone enjoyed the meal.

"Thank you Uncle Randy and Aunt Sam, breakfast was great." Lily said.

Sam smiled at Lily calling her aunt for the first time. Everyone was in a pretty good mood it seemed. After eating, they decided to let their food digest before heading to train with Lily. While they were waiting, everyone did their own thing. Anna was busy talking to both Cody and Ted. Phil and AJ were spending some time together.

Lily was sitting on the couch in the living room. Glen noticed and decided to talk to her about her match. When he sat down next to her, she was surprised. He attempted a smile and Lily had to stifle a laugh.

"I thought you might like some pointers about your match. I know this will be your first battle royal." Glen said.

"Um, yeah that would be great. Thanks." Lily replied a little shocked that Glen was talking to her.

Glen then gave her some tips on what to do and what to expect. Soon it was time to head to the gym and then the arena to get some training in. Mike, Cody, Anna, Ted, and Randy helped John prepare Lily for her match. Phil and AJ ended up coming down to the ring to help as well.

Soon it was lunch time. During lunch, Vince called John.

"Hi Vince, what's up?" John said into the phone.

"John, is there anyway Lilyana can be at the signing today with everyone? I think it would be great to get some of our Lil Divas some time with the fans." Vince told him.

John agreed to let Lily be at the signing and hung up.

"Well, looks like Lily will be coming with us to the signing. Vince wants to get the Lil Divas more involved with the public. That was him on the phone just now." He told the group.

Lily just stared at him shocked. She wasn't sure she was ready to meet the fans quite yet. She wondered how she should answer their questions and everything. Randy could tell something was bothering her.

"What's wrong Lils?" Randy asked.

"Well, um, I'm not sure what to say if they ask me questions." She said.

Randy smiled. This was something he could help her with.

"Well, if they ask you about anything storyline related just keep with the storyline, otherwise just be as honest as you can." He told his god daughter.

Lily felt better and smiled. They all headed to get ready and then off to the signing. Lily ended up at a table with Keri, Jessica, and a Lil Diva named Megan. Megan went by the ring name Summer Rayne. Lily liked Megan. Keri was at one end of the table next to Lily. On the other side of Lily was Jessica and Megan was at the other end of the table. To make matters worse, none of the Superstars or Divas that Lily was comfortable with, were anywhere near her. Lily did her best for the next couple hours to just ignore the snide remarks and dirty looks she was getting from Keri and Jessica.

The fans were great and Lily enjoyed talking to them. It was nice to get to interact with them. The questions that they asked hadn't been that bad so far.

"How do you feel about your dad dating Eve Torres?" One little girl asked.

"Well to be honest, I'm not real happy about it. I don't like her and definitely don't want that woman to be my stepmom." Lily answered while rolling her eyes.

Eventually the crowd was gone and the four Lil Divas were alone. Keri and Jessica decided to gang up on Lily thinking that they would keep her from being in the match that night. Megan took Lily's side to help defend her. Thankfully, some of the Superstars walked over before a fight broke out. John and Randy got between the four girls to keep them from fighting while Phil held Lily back. Soon everything was calmed down and the other girls left with family members. Phil turned Lily around so that she was looking at him.

"Kiddo, you need to be careful. Fighting before a match is never a good idea. What if they had injured you? Then you wouldn't have been able to wrestle tonight." Phil told her.

Lily was embarrassed. Her face was almost as red as her hair. Phil felt bad and hugged her.

"There's no need to be embarrassed Kiddo. I wasn't trying to yell at you. I was just trying to give you some friendly advice. You're a talented wrestler and I don't want to see anything stop you from reaching the top." He told her.

Lily smiled and thanked him for the advice. At that point, John collected his daughter and they all headed back to that arena.

The rest of the day went by quickly and soon it was time for SmackDown to start. Lily started getting nervous again. While the others were busy with their matches, John tried to calm her. Soon it was time for her to go to the gorilla area so John walked her down there.

"Just go out there and do your best, Princess. You'll do fine." He told her.

Just then she heard her dad's music and knew it was time for her to go out to the ring. She ran out there and joined the other girls. Once all of the Lil Divas, about 12 girls in all, were in the ring, the bell rang and the match started. Megan was eliminated rather quickly. Lily felt bad for her. Not long into the match, Lily got caught off guard and thrown over the top rope. When she looked to see who had eliminated her she scowled. Standing there grinning was, Jessica. Lily headed back stage and to the locker room without saying a word to anyone. Once there, she watched the rest of the match on the TV in the room. The match ended with Jessica winning. Lily still hadn't spoken a word to anyone. She was mad at herself for getting eliminated so early and upset that Jessica had bested her. She pulled out her iPod and popped in her head phones. John sat down beside her on the couch and pulled her into a hug. Lily just sat there listening to the music and cried.

Eventually, John managed to get her to take the head phones out so he could talk to her.

"Lilyana, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. Yeah, you didn't win, but it's not the end of the world. Plus we have two weeks to get you ready for the next match. You have a good chance of winning it and going on to defeat Jessica for the title. Don't beat yourself up about this. I'm proud of you Princess." He told her and then kissed her forehead.

She smiled at him. His words had helped her to feel a little better. Instead of being mad, she was more determined than ever to win the next battle royal. She was going to put her all into training for the match.

Soon they all went back to Randy's house and the others all told Lily they were proud of her.

"Hey Mini Miz, don't be so down. You were great out there and I just know you will win the next one." Mike said.

"Thanks Mike." She said.

After that she headed to bed. Once she had on her pj's, she cuddled up to her stuffed animals and fell asleep. She dreamed about winning the next battle royal and going on to beat Jessica for the Lil Divas Championship.

Sometime during the night, it started storming. The storm woke Lily up and scared her. She laid there in her bed hugging her stuffed animals. She didn't want to bother anyone, especially since she was almost 13. She kept telling herself that she was too old to be afraid of storms but it didn't seem to help.

John had woken up during the storm as well. He remembered that Lily had always been afraid of storms and decided to go check on her. He wasn't surprised to find her awake.

"Hey Princess, I just thought I'd check on you. You've been afraid of storms since you were a baby. Mind if I lay here with you?" he told his daughter.

Lily smiled and scooted over so he could lay on the bed with her. She snuggled up to her daddy.

"You will always be my hero Daddy." She said.

John smiled at her. It wasn't long before both of them had fallen asleep. With her dad there, Lily forgot about the storm. The two Cenas slept like that for the rest of the night.