Saturday, Performance Center, 10:14 A.M...
"Come on! 2 more reps! You can do it, Cash! Let's go!" Seth barked, trying to will his friend on to finish his set.
Shane was struggling like crazy with the amount of weight he was lifting. He was trying to prove that he was capable of benching 135 pounds, and so far, he was successful. Although, it wouldn't be a true victory in his or Seth's eyes if he didn't finish his reps.
"AAAHHHH, this shit hurts! Fuck!" He yelled out while lifting the bar up and down once again.
"I know man, but ya gotta fight through the pain! Fight through it! Come on, one more and you're done! One more, man!"
With one last primal yell, Shane hoisted up the bar for the final time. Seth was right behind him to help rack it back up, and he laid on the bench, breathing heavily. Price weakly chuckled while wiping the sweat off of his face and out of his hair.
"I... I told you... I could do it... damn it."
He slowly raised arm above him for a fist bump, and Rollins gladly returned the favor. The quarterback then grabbed a bottle of water and handed it to his friend.
"Here, you deserve it. Also, I don't want you to pass out from exhaustion and dehydration."
Shane sat up and gladly accepted the beverage, chugging the whole bottle in seconds and unceremoniously dropping it on the floor.
"Fuck. Thanks man. I needed that." Price told him, still trying to recover from his vigorous workout.
"Ya know, we didn't have to go that hard today. We usually just use the PC for getting a little exercise here and there."
"Nah man, no more of that. I need to get bigger. I need to get stronger. Next year the kids we face are only gonna keep growing in size, and I need to train my body to be able to handle that. We're tryna repeat aren't we?"
Seth nodded, proud of his teammate's determination.
"That we are, Cash. That we are. Still, don't overwork yourself. It ain't healthy."
"You're right. But you know what else isn't healthy? The way we fuckin smell right now. Jesus Christ, I smell like I've been living in a barn for three weeks." Shane joked.
Rollins laughed.
"Same, dude. We need showers, ASAP. Imma head home to do just that, actually. Anytime you wanna workout or just chill, give me a call okay?"
"Got you, amigo. I'd hug you, but as I pointed out earlier, we smell like absolute garbage right now."
The team captain grabbed his gym bag, put on a clean sweatshirt he had packed, and left. Now Shane was all alone in the abandoned warehouse.
"Welp, I should get going as well. I'm not putting on a shirt though. Screw that, I'm sweating too much." He thought to himself.
So he too, got his stuff, and started to make his way back home. Now keep in mind... It's December. Meaning it's like 30 degrees outside. In other words, Shane got more than his fair share of perplexed from people who couldn't understand why this boy was walking around bare chested in the winter. But you already know he was completely oblivious to all of them. The only thing he was thinking about was how tired he was and how much he was gonna enjoy this shower. So, as he got closer to his house, he became happier. Price was soon at his front door. He pulled his keys out of his sweatpants, unlocked the door, and entered.
"Yo, dad! I'm home! Please tell me you're not in the bath...room."
The reason for the awkward pause was, Shane realized that he had two surprise guests in his home, sitting on his couch. Two guests that he had no recollection of inviting, or even telling them where he lived.
"Uhhh... Liv, Ruby... Hi."
"Hey there, sweetie. Surprise!" Liv happily exclaimed.
Ruby gave a calm wave, although she had a question.
"Dude, why aren't you wearing a shirt?"
"Oh, um... sorry about that. I just c-came from working out with Seth and I'm all sweaty.. and stuff."
"No need to apologize. Hell, I'm not complainin'. You've got a nice bod goin' on over here if I do say so myself."
Ruby gave Liv a light slap on the shoulder.
"Owwuh! What was that for?" Morgan whined.
"You're embarrassing the guy, stop it. He has a girlfriend, Liv."
The blonde chick with the blue tongue pouted and folded her arms.
"You're no fun."
"And Shane? Next time put on a shirt okay? It's cold out there, and we can't have you all sick before the big day."
Shane nodded. Ruby was playing the mother figure, something that as Liv's best friend, the blonde haired boy assumed she had to do a lot. Part of Shane was glad Ruby was there to curve Liv, because she seemed like the flirty type. The flirty type that liked to tease, and God knows he had to deal with that enough thanks to Paige. He didn't need Liv doing it too. As he's said in the past, a guy can only take so much before he loses his mind. Meanwhile, another part of him was screaming, "HOW THE HELL DID THEY GET HERE?!" Of course, he didn't say that out loud.
"So... when did you guys get here exactly? And how?"
"About 20 minutes ago. Alexa told me a while ago that you two lived across the street from each other, and we've been to her house a few times before so. Also, your dad let us in."
"Yeah... your dad." Ruby said while blushing, which is not something she did often.
Shane noticed this, and a feeling of dread overtook his very soul.
"Ruby... come on. Not you too."
Liv chimed in.
"I don't blame you, Rue Rue. Shane's dad is a straight up hunk. Shame he went to sleep. I would love to spend some quality time with him. Hubba Hubba."
Price groaned in disgust.
"I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. Anyway, what brings you two here?"
Riott regained her composure before explaining the reasoning behind them showing up.
"Well, we've got a few things to talk about when it comes to the band, and we didn't wanna leave you out of the conversation since you're our frontman and all. We figured today would be as good as any other to come over and start with one of the tasks and hand."
"Okay, that's fine. You're always welcome here. Just, give a bro a heads up next time before you come. I wouldn't have gone to exercise if I'd known you were gonna be here. Sorry about the smell by the way. I went really hard today." Shane let them know.
"No worries, hon. It's our fault for being here with no warning. That one's on us. It's not that bad though, honestly." Liv comforted him.
"Nothing we can't handle. So yeah, the first thing we wanted to talk about was our name. To actually enter into the competition, we have to have a band name. Any ideas?"
Morgan was slightly annoyed.
"I still don't understand why we couldn't go with the name I came up with."
"Because, Liv. No one's gonna take us seriously, if our band name is friggin, "Daddy." You know that."
"But it sounds so cool! We could go on stage and our catchphrase could be, "Who's Yo Daddy?!" Liv pressed on.
"No, Liv. We're not Daddy, and that's final."
Once again, the mischievous girl pouted.
"I mean, I think it's pretty cool." Shane chimed in, feeling bad for Liv.
"Ha! See?! Shane thinks so too!"
Ruby gave him a questioning look.
"Do you really? Do you really think it sounds like a cool band name?"
Price tried to stand his ground, but the piercing gaze of Ruby was too powerful for him to withstand. He sighed.
"Okay, no. No I don't. Sorry, Liv. I just didn't want you to feel left out."
"Hmph. You squares have no idea what you're talking about." She vented.
"Okay, ignoring the Daddy thing, what do you say, Shane?"
"Honestly, the second you mentioned band names I thought of one. It's kinda dumb though."
"Trust me, whatever you came up with will be 100 times better than Daddy... ugh."
"Well I'd say it would be cool if we were called... The Riott Squad?"
Ruby was taken aback by his suggestion.
"You wanna name the band after me? Why?"
"Cause you have the coolest name out of all us. I mean yeah, that's not your real name, but who calls you Ruby Prange? We have Mr. Kidd's class together, and even he says Riott instead of Prange. Plus, I assume the whole starting a band thing was originally your idea to begin with." Price explained.
"Hey, I resent that last statement. How do you know it wasn't my idea?" Liv piped up.
"Morgan, my choices are between the blonde cheerleader who dyes her tongue blue with popsicles everyday, and the badass punk rocker chick with the left side of her head shaved. Can you really blame me for assuming that the latter wanted to start a band?"
Liv shrugged.
"Eh, Touché."
"So, what do y'all think? The Riott Squad, or no."
Ruby smiled.
"Yeah. The Riott Squad. I like that."
"As much as I would like to be called Daddy... Riott Squad sounds a little cooler I admit."
Shane walked over the two girls on his couch. He put his fist out.
"Squad Up?"
They both returned the favor.
"Squad Up."
"Nice! You know, you guys don't have to leave yet. I was gonna go jump in the shower real quick and then whip up some breakfast. You want some?" He offered.
"Sure, I could eat." Ruby accepted.
"Sounds nice. You can cook?" Liv asked.
In response to that question, Shane started to chuckle.
"Can I cook? Ha ha ha ha. You two just wait here. Ha ha ha."
As he walked to his room to get a change of clothes he continued laughing and talking to himself.
"She asked me if I could cook! Ha! Oh, she has no idea."
Ruby and Liv looked at each other with smiles on their faces.
"I think we made the right decision by having him join us. Right, Rue Rue?"
"Liv, you are absolutely correct."
AN: I notice that it looks like they're actually gonna give Liv something to do finally on SmackDown soon. I hope so, man. That match against Charlotte on Tuesday wasn't bad at all. I enjoyed it. Also, on an unrelated note, I'm happy Cedric Alexander and Buddy Murphy are actually getting TV time now. Those guys are super talented and deserve a chance. Anyway, as always, let me know what you all thought of this chapter in the review section, and I will see you in the next one. Sorry for the wait again. Peace. You guys are the best.
