As she walked out her front door Payson looked at her phone to see one new text message. She had nearly forgotten she sent Emily a text before going into her shower. Clutching her jacket closer to her that she had thrown on before leaving the house she opened her phone hastily.
Mom making me go... Said it will be good to have a 'fun' night. Cya there.
Payson quickly pulled her hood on as she walked to their garage, feeling rain droplets hit her head. She couldn't help but feel bad for Emily as she stepped into the garage and unlocked their 'emergency car'. Emily had done what she needed to for her brother, and while calling an ambulence would have been the more logical and safer route... Payson had considered if it had been Becca in Brian's place... and truth be told, Payson would have done exactly what Emily did. Part of her wished that Emily could tell the public exactly what happened, they most likely would be more sympathetic if they knew, but felt Emily was incredibly responsible for taking the entire blame with her head held high.
As she slid into the old car (her family having bought a newer more reasonable SUV, leaving this car as an emergency car when Payson needed to go out last minute and her mom needed to use the other one) she noticed something out of place. Her mothers GPS system was sitting on the dashboard when it should have been sitting in the SUV instead. Why in the world would her mom have had it in this car unless... Realization dawned on Paysons face as last weekend flashed through her mind.
Kelly Parker sat on the chair facing Payson and smiled deviously at her. "So I hear Sasha's hiding out in Denver, Marty told me. Can't say I really blame him... Getting outed so publicly for kissing one of his gymnasts, how embarrassing." Payson looked at the conniving girl confused and irritated. "Oh don't tell me you don't even know where your coach is? God Payson, the man kisses you then leaves your life without telling you anything? Must be horrible losing a... what could you even call him... boyfriend?" Kelly snorted at the idea. "Hes so old ugh, I don't know why you'd want to kiss him."
Paysons insides burst as she ran out of the ridiculous party that she'd been forced to attend. She stormed into the parking lot, every intention of using the car to go to Denver tonight and track down Marty to find Sasha. At this point, the thought of not finding Sasha and begging him to come back while knowing he was so close still was unbearable. But suddenly a hand grasped Paysons arm and she was forced to spin around and face her worried mother. "Pay?"
"Mom I need to use the car to go to Denver. Thats where Sasha is." A fire burned in Paysons eyes that Kim had never seen before, it startled her for a moment before she responded.
"Pay, I don't know what you're talking about no one knows where Sa-"
Payson cut her off abruptly. "Kelly Parker just told me that Marty knows where Sasha is and that hes definately in Denver right now. Please mom I need to go find him, I need to bring him back." she silently begged her mother with her eyes, hoping she'd give in. Kim however shook her head.
"You need to go back into that party Pay, whether or not Sasha is in Denver you have responsiblities." Payson opened her mouth, prepared to argue but her mom held a hand up. "Sasha would want you to stay here and do what is expected of you. Hes a grown man now, and hes decided already that he wants to leave I don't want you to go to Denver just to have him tell you that. Go back into the party." With an enraged huff Payson stomped back into the party with no real intention of socializing.
Payson stared at the GPS, a rush of hope filling her entire body. They had used this car that weekend to go to the event because the SUV was in the shop for inspection. She knew her mom took the GPS with them just incase they got lost, but they hadn't so her mom kept it in the glove box on the way there. So why was it on the dash right now? Her fingers slowly reached out and grabbed it from its location and turned it on. Thinking back to it, she hadn't seen her mom the rest of that night and had gotten a ride home from Emily's mom. She quickly punched a few of the buttons making the GPS show the last location that had been programmed into it and there it was. Denver Cage Fighting Arena. Her brows furrowed in confusion, Sasha couldn't possibly...
Suddenly Paysons phone vibrated in her lap and she looked down. New txt from Emily. Glancing at the clock she realized she only had a minute to get to the Rock. Cursing under her breath she hurridly snapped her seat belt in place and turned the car on. Opening her phone as she waiting for the car to warm up a few seconds - it always needed a minute to do so while it was raining or snowing - she groaned loudly at the texts contents.
NGOrge alert. Get here ASAP.
Swearing again she shut her cell phone and shoved it in her back, pulling out of the drive way and speeding to the Rock. At this point she'd be late no matter how fast she drove, but if an NGO official was really there, the later she was the worse it would be for all of them. Especially considering she was one of the co-captians and having Lauren Tanner as the other captian was not exactly a safe guard for Payson at all. Lauren had been finding any way possible to throw Payson under the bus lately and steal the spotlight for herself. Not that she wanted the spotlight honestly, but she did feel the need to be the captain of her team. The girls in the Rock needed someone they could look to for gymnastics advice, and Lauren was certainly not the best person for that.
Glancing at the clock as she pulled into her parking spot at the Rock she sighed. Three minutes late, but it couldn't be helped, they should all be happy she was showing up at all for this stupid 'sleep over'. Everyones eyes flashed towards her as she burst into the gym, her jacket soaked from the rain that had grown into a hard downpour during her drive. Quickly she took it off and threw it to the side along with her bag. An extremely fake cough broke the silence that had formed since Payson had been in the gym and she looked up to see who it was from and enternally groaned as she saw Ellen Beals.
"Would you like to explain to us all why you decided that you didn't need to be on time Miss Keeler?" Ellen asked sarcastically.
Payson was prepared with an excuse for the NGO official but wasn't sure if Beals would buy it as easily. "I wasn't exactly aware I would need to be on call for a slumber party tonight so I turned my phone off in order to be able to concentrate on finishing my English paper. I'm so sorry, I didn't realize me keeping up with my school work on nights I thought were planless was against your wishes." she batted her eyelashes innocently, a challenge in her eyes.
Several of the girls were staring at Payson in shock while others watched Beals for her reaction. Beals seemed frustrated that she couldn't tear Payson apart for this snarky comment, the National Commitee pushed the girls to have the best grades possible and they both knew it. Payson smiled innocently, "Now since we've gotten that cleared, why are you and an NGO official here at night? I wasn't aware anyone but our coach and team mates would be here."
The NGO official seemed to sense trouble brewing and stepped up. "Ms Beals was just dropping paperwork off for the National team members, shes leaving right now." he lookd at her pointedly and she huffed in annoyance at being dismissed in such a fashion. After she stormed out of the gym with one last glare at Payson the man continued. "I on the other hand was sent to make sure Emily really was here, can't have her sneaking off to parties and such! Have a nice team bonding night ladies and please do try to get some training in. Our countries counting on you." He stared pointedly at Emily, Payson and Lauren.
After the door closed behind the NGO official Darby started clapping her hands to get everyones attention. "Well now that the tense moment is over its time tohave fun girls!" she smiled brightly as all the girls stared blankly other than Lauren, who was looking nearly as excited as Darby was. Payson resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Okay you girls stay here and gossip while I go finish getting the popcorn!" Lauren bounced excitedly and went with Darby to the lunch room.
Sighing, Payson walked over to Emily who was sitting on the beam looking agitated. Before Payson could even open her mouth Emily seemed to burst. "I feel like I'm a freaking child being baby sat by that stupid NGO officer. I screwed up I get it, but I'm wearing an ankle moniter already," she automatically lifted her leg with the monitor and glared at it. "I don't need someone to constantly check up on me. I think the fact that I'm here and not at Damon's show proves that throughly."
Payson thought Emily was justified in her anger. She had done nothing but follow every rule perfectly since the arresting mishap. Even now, when the no dating rule had been lifted from the gym, Emily was staying away from Damon even though it was hurting her so much to do it. "Wait a second, I didn't realize Damon had a performance tonight. Where is it at?"
Emily sighed, "Its at the Pizza Shack of course, I'm surprised you didn't hear it from someone today or see the flyers on the board I put up." she slid off the beam and leaned against it. Payson bit her lip softly.
"Em, I know this is hard for you... But its only until the next National meet right? Thats coming up pretty soon, and then you can see Damon as much as you want... Just try to focus and do your best for you and for him if that helps. Your goal is the Olympics, and thats not just any goal. Its a once in a life time goal, the expiration date is set on it already and now you need to be able to make sure you're on the team going there, because if I'm there and you're not... it won't feel right, you're my team mate now." Payson stared at the other girl hoping this would get through to her. Emily was a great gymnast, she just needed to push everything else out of her mind and focus.
After a moment of thought, Emily nodded. "Okay everyone! Lets go to the mat I set up in the corner and sit in a circle. Its time for some truth popcorn!" Darby exclaimed, having come out of the lunch room with Lauren carrying an overly large bowl of plain popcorn. Payson had no idea what truth popcorn was, but she was sure she wasn't going to be thrilled by it. The entire time Darby had been in the gym she had tried to be everyones friend rather than their stable coach who pushed them and held them back when needed. She looked over at Emily who shrugged and went over to the mat that had been placed in the middle of the floor and Payson followed her, sitting next to her in the circle.
A few minutes later everyone was situated, Darby sitting across from Payson with Lauren on her left. Lauren smiled wickedly at Payson as if to say 'have fun being uncomfortable, this is just one more time I get to look better than you'.
"So since I've been here we've been working on becoming a closer team," Darby started, making Payson want to roll her eyes. "when I came here I noticed you were all disjointed and had several personal issues with one another. We need to work on being more open with each other and letting go of everything thats happened so that you can all become a solid team." Payson had to bite her tongue to stop herself from saying that most of their problems wouldn't even be in exsistance if Lauren wasn't a back stabbing, scheming, bitch.
Darby pulled the bowl of popcorn closer to her and looked around at everyone. "Now, to you this might look like a bowl of regular popcorn, but its really truth popcorn. We're going to pass it around the circle and each time it comes to you you're going to take some of it. After you do that you'll tell us something thats bothering you, or something you need to say or want to say. Then you can eat the pop corn and pass the bowl. Pretty simple, and I think it might help clear some of the air around here and help us understand one another."
Several of the girls exchanged nervous glances, clearly not wanting to put their feelings and thoughts out there for everyone to hear. Payson couldn't blame them at all, gymnasts tended to be gossips and sometimes people like Lauren came around and would hold anything discriminating above your head in order to get what they wanted. Opening up was definately a scary and potentially career ruining move.
Lauren rolled her eyes and took the bowl. "Since you're all too scared, I'll start." she grabbed a couple of kernals. "Truth is, I feel like you all don't respect me enough as a gymnast. Everyone fawns over Payson thinking shes the best just because she came back from an injury that should have ended her career."
"Maybe if you weren't such a bitch to everyone we'd like you more..." Emily said under her breath and Payson stifled a laugh. Lauren glared at them as if she had been able to hear what Emily had said. She passed the bowl forcefully to the next girl and the truth telling continued. Most everyone were commenting on mundane things that really couldn't be seen as offensive or get them into trouble in any way. Once the bowl reached Emily, Payson started paying better attention again.
Emily took a kernal in her hand and debated for a moment. "The truth is... I would much rather be at the Pizza Shack right now watching Damon perform... I've never even seen my own boyfriend perform live..." she stared at her kernal sadly before eating it.
"I thought you weren't allowed to have a boyfriend?" Lauren asked with her eyebrow cocked.
Payson glared at Lauren knowing the girl was trying to find a way to get Emily in trouble. "We're not actively dating... but we love each other. That doesn't really count towards me dating right now. I haven't seen him since I gave them the contract back." Emily shoved the bowl to Payson, begging her to take the spotlight off of her before Lauren could dig into her again.
Taking a minute to collect her thoughts Payson took a kernal from the bowl and turn towards Darby. "You really want the truth? I feel like the gym has become a joke. I feel like I'm training for a circus rather than for the Olympics. We waste our time doing stupid routines and projects you come up with to make us closer to each other. We should be working on getting closer to the Olympics, and to do that we need to do well at Nationals, and Worlds, and everything between but you're not helping us with that at all and I'm sick of it. I want Sasha back or just a coach who knows what the hell they're doing. I think tonight is a complete waste of my time and I'd much rather be at home resting in bed. So you know what? Have fun with your stupid sleep over, I'm leaving." having worked herself up into a rage, Payson stormed to the door grabbing her jacket and bag and left the gym.
The rain had lightened slightly but it was now pitch black outdoors but Payson didn't care, suddenly she knew exactly what she was doing tonight. She slammed the car door shut after getting inside and turned the GPS on and set it for the last entry. Tonight, she was going to Denver.
A/N: I feel like this is moving slower than I intended but its kind of needed right now. Next chapter we get our first dose of Sasha/Payson action ;) I'm pretty excited to write it! Thanks for reading!