"What are you wearing?" Kelly pulled out another drawer and poked through the clothes within.
Payson appeared, shrugged, and then retreated back into the bathroom; it was the most answer Kelly was likely to get until her roommate had finished brushing her teeth.
The brunette athlete picked up a denim skirt and held it against herself before shaking her head and putting back in the drawer. She left the drawer half open in case she decided something in there was wearable after all, but moved to the wardrobe and poked through the half which held her clothes.
Eventually Payson came out of the bathroom, "What's going on KP? What are you looking for?"
"Something to wear," sighed the brunette who was standing practically inside the wardrobe.
Payson raised an eyebrow, although she was known for her lack of interest in fashion, preferring comfortable clothes to anything else (although Lauren was striving to change that, and very slowly it was working), Kelly was only slightly more bothered about what she was wearing.
"Why have you rejected the denim skirt?" Payson enquired, picking it up and looking at it.
Kelly turned away from the wardrobe, "Because I'm worried it might rub when I've had the tattoo done. And I'm sure that wouldn't be a good thing".
"Fair point," Payson nodded, "Well, maybe wear something that's soft. How about that grey skirt," she rummaged through the half open drawer before holding up a skirt made from similar material to sweatpants, "It's pretty soft, and it's a bit stretchy, so you could always pull it down, or roll it, a bit if it's too high on your lower back".
Shimmying out of the Team USA tracksuit bottoms she had worn to breakfast, Kelly pulled the skirt on and looked in the mirror with a nod. The skirt had some yellow lettering near the hem, so Kelly added a pale yellow t-shirt, "Thanks Pay, good idea with the skirt".
Payson smiled, "No worries, Lauren must be teaching me well! That top makes you look so brown! I wish I tanned more," she peered at her shoulders, hoping to see some tan lines, but her skin had barely changed colour since the beginning of the summer.
Even though the majority of their training was done inside, the gymnasts spent time outside running or stretching after practice if the evenings were still warm enough.
Kelly caught the sun easily, steadily turning browner every time she spent more than half an hour outside, "You could always fake it," she pointed out, "I'm going to have to do something about my tan lines before we go to the party after competition finishes, my dress is strapless and my training kit really hasn't been!"
Payson laughed, "At least bits of you have colour! I think I'd look weird with fake tan though, I'm hideously pale. And I have no clue what to wear to the party, lets not go there yet!"
"How do you think Lauren stays the same tanned colour all the time?" Kelly enquired as she rummaged in the bottom of the wardrobe for shoes, "She fake tans all the time Pay, I bet she's naturally the same colour as you. We'll find you some fake bake that will look fine".
The blonde shrugged, "We'll see. I don't think Lauren will consider anything I brought with me appropriate for the party anyway, so I'm sure I'll be taken shopping soon enough".
"Are you changing?" Kelly asked, collecting things to put in her handbag and propping her sunglasses on her head.
Payson nodded, "Yeah, I will. Give me a second. Did Kaylie say we would knock for them, or they would for us?"
Kelly filled a water bottle up and screwed the cap on before answering, "They will come here, which gives you at least another fifteen minutes. Should be here now but this is Lauren who's getting ready, so don't panic about time".
The slight digs that Kelly and Lauren exchanged on a frequent basis had lost their bitchiness and had dropped to friendly banter, something that Payson was extremely grateful for.
The blonde gymnast quickly swapped the Team USA emblazoned outfit all the athletes had worn to breakfast for a short, cut-off denim skirt (blame Lauren) and an over-sized blue and white striped t-shirt.
Payson and Kelly were ready and had been perched on the ends of their beds channel surfing for twenty minutes before Kaylie knocked on their door.
"Sorry!" the tiny brunette said cheerfully, "Lo's doing something to her hair, she said she'd meet us in the hallway".
Payson rolled her eyes, "Only Lauren. Come on KP".
The three girls loitered in the hallway for another ten minutes before Lauren deemed her hair acceptable to be seen by the rest of London and joined them.
"We're only going into town Lo," Kelly pointed out, "This isn't a fashion parade".
The blonde flicked her hair as they started to walk towards the stairs, "Whatever KP. It's a chance to get out of spandex and tracksuits for a day. Why shouldn't I wear what I like? Sasha can't have a go at me, it's not like it's hideous or slutty".
Lauren had donned a pair of micro denim shorts and a white top with what Kelly deemed flounces and frills all over the front.
"Come on," Kaylie stopped after going down a few steps, "I'm sure we can find time to do clothes later. Where are we going Pay?"
Payson pulled her phone from her bag and flicked through her messages, "Louis said Selfridges, and here are the directions," she handed her phone to Kaylie, "It seems like the centre of London, so I guess it can't be that hard to get to".
Kaylie methodically picked up one of each map, bus and train timetable and leaflet about sightseeing, "Think I've covered all bases".
"Jeez, I thought Keeler was the organised one," Kelly quipped as she took the stack of papers from Kaylie and flicked through them, "Which one do we need now?"
As the two brunettes searched for Selfridges on a map and studied the transport timetables, Payson and Lauren scoured the shop for a picture of the Olympic rings.
"It just needs to be plain," groaned Payson as she found yet another postcard with the 2012 logo on.
Three aisles to her left, Lauren called, "Hey, what about this? I know it isn't on paper…"
Payson found Lauren holding a t-shirt, "It is just the rings and the London," she offered, "It's all I've found so far".
"I think that might be it," Payson agreed, "Everything I've found has something else on it too. I figure the more plain the picture is the easier it will be".
Lauren nodded, "Ok, t-shirt it is. I kinda wanted one anyway, so I'll buy it," she measured it against herself, "Maybe the next size down?"
"I think so," Payson nodded, "There's a few things I wouldn't mind having another look at here, we can come back another day with the others though".
They made their way to the front of the shop and Lauren grinned as she noticed a poster above the checkout desks, "Look Pay".
Following her friend's line of sight Payson huffed a laugh, looking down on them was a poster of the USA women's gymnastics team, "That's actually a bit creepy".
"Are we going to get a chance to actually go sightseeing?" asked Kaylie as she watched London slide slowly past through the bus window.
The girls had decided that they would see more things going by bus, rather than taking the British version of the Subway.
Payson looked at her phone for the time, "I guess so. It's not like we've got the training time we have at home and Sasha knows we'll go mad if he tries to keep us in the village all the time. We'll have time between finishing competing and going home anyway. We might have a bit of time today. I guess it depends on how long this takes".
Satisfied, Kaylie nodded and pressed her forehead against the glass, partly to cool down and partly to watch the city go by. Payson tugged one of the city guides Kaylie had picked up from her handbag and flicked through it, noting what area they would be in getting their tattoos done (she mentally cringed a little bit at how that sounded) and what else was nearby that they could see before the had to head back to the village.
In the seat behind Payson and Kaylie, Lauren and Kelly were discussing the merits of different tattoo placements.
"But that's like, a tramp stamp!" Lauren protested against Kelly having her tattoo on her lower back.
The brunette gymnast arched an eyebrow at her friend (no, she couldn't quite believe she was calling Lauren that either. But, somehow, somewhere along the road to the Olympics, that was what they had become) and said, "Lo, it's about the most exclusive tattoo anyone can have, and I'm hardly a trampy kind of girl".
Lauren considered this for a moment before nodding, "You're right. Above or below where you pants sit?"
Kelly shrugged, "I haven't decided yet. Maybe half and half. I'm not sure. What about you anyway? You haven't even said yet!"
"Here, I think," Lauren pointed just above the waistband of her (tiny) shorts, "On the right. Basically on my hip".
"Jeez Lo, that's practically on bone," Kelly winced, "Surely that's gonna hurt?"
The blonde shrugged, "I've not really thought about it. Haven't really had time," she pulled out her phone and brought Google to life; her nimble fingers told the Blackberry to search 'tattoo places hip bone'.