Red, White and New

"Me too." Allie said and yawned suddenly, barely covering it with a faintly hand. "Let's go check out the room." Allie had a lot of stuff and she had arranged for it to be sent once she found an apartment for them. For now, she had booked a room and had her essentials brought from the airport so she could go drink with Syd.

A short, but frustrating cab ride brought them to their hotel. Allie got the key and her luggage and headed to their room with Syd, ready to bed down for the evening.

"Take whichever bed you want, I'm going to get ready for bed." She said as she flopped her luggage bag onto a bed and opened it up, pulling out her nighttime things.

"Fuck Japan, I just want to fuckin' smoke," Syd grumbled under her breath.

She kicked off her boots and left them where they fell, and went straight to the bathroom. She emerged moments later minus her contacts. Her icy blue eyes made her look less like a creature of the night and more like a twenty-two year old girl.

She pulled her arms inside her t-shirt to take off her bra while keeping her shirt on, and then wriggled out of her tight jeans. She flopped onto the first bed and laid on top of the covers with bare legs crossed and her hands behind her head while she stared up at the ceiling.

"Turn off the light," she said, even though Allie wasn't done getting ready.

Unlike Syd, Allie's bedtime ritual was a bit more of a process. She was pulling out her nighttime clothes when Syd came out of the bathroom and casually pulled off her bra and pants.

"You shouldn't be smoking. Aside from being nasty, it'll affect your wrestling. It's bad for you."

Allie grabbed her things and went into the bathroom. "I'll turn the lights out when I'm done. Almost a half hour later, she reemerged in a large T-shirt and pajama pants. She looked over Syd and sighed.The girl just seemed hopeless.

Allie turned off the lights and crawled under the covers. She snuggled pleasantly under the covers and sighed happily.

"Hey, Syd, you awake?" She asked sheepishly. "Aren't you... happy to be here? You know... like a normal person?"

"Mm hm."

Syd was awake and staring at the ceiling. Her eyes had adjusted to the near-darkness, and she watched the little shapes that played across the walls from the shadows cast from the window. It made her think of evil spirits that you could only just see at night when everything else was still, lurking just far enough away, always patient, always waiting, and always hungry. She imagined that they watched her soul from the ceiling like vultures wheeling above a dying animal.

She grumbled at Allie's question, and didn't answer right away.

"Idiots invented happiness, and it makes you weak," she recited from her collection of nihilistic sound-bites. "Who cares if anyone is happy anywhere? Why is that so important?"

"No one invented happiness. That's just dumb." Allie said, frowning as she tried to relax. "And no one cares if anyone is happy. I just care if I'M happy. You should try it sometime. You might see what all the fuss is about."

Allie rolled onto her side and sighed. "It's not like there's only one way to be happy anyways. Aren't you happy when you're caving a girl's face in? That counts, you know. Or are you so into being miss 'super emo hate the world' that you can't even admit you get off on hurting stupid bitches? Now THAT'S messed up." Allie added right before her mouth squeaked out a yawn.

Syd could've caved Allie's face in, had she the will to get off of her plush and sterile hotel bed. She brought one hand up to her face and put her fingertips to her brow.

"Don't make fun of me. I haven't talked about you like that at all," Syd croaked. A pause followed, and then s heavy sigh. "Don't worry about how I feel. Just be glad you're in my corner, instead of across the ring from me. Now shut up and go to sleep."

She finally closed her eyes, and laid flat on her back while she waited for morning.

"Yeah, yeah." Allie muttered. She smiled at the white haired girl's words. Syd threatened her but Allie seemed to have her ways of getting at Syd too. She was suddenly feeling good and snuggled into her blanket. "Goodnight Syd."

Allie wasn't expecting to be Syd's friend. Even if the girl wasn't a complete weirdo and WANTED to be Allie's friend. But whatever their relationship was, and Allie couldn't say what yet, maybe it could be better than a friendship. Once she learned how to translate Syd's cryptic nature. The process was almost intriguing.

Allie quickly drifted off to sleep with a pleasant smile on her face.

Syd slept for a few hours. She was never one to sleep through the night, and she almost never slept eight hours. Usually, four hours was more like it. She woke up, her brain still slightly fuzzy from drinking, to the still dark hotel room, and for a moment she forgot where she was. In the pause just after waking, she was back in Chicago, with her alarm set for a shift at the gas station, with a match coming up that weekend. Within the confines of the nondescript hotel room, she might as well have been anywhere.

She rose silently, her eyes still adjusted to the near-darkness, though without her contacts she was a bit nearsighted. The sun had not yet shown itself on the horizon. She walked around her bed to the foot of Allie's, and for a minute she only stood there, perfectly still in statuesque observation of the sleeping redhead. This was who she was stuck with for a while, though that might not have been the right term.

By the time morning came, Syd had been out of the hotel for several hours. She had explored the surrounding area and had two cups of tea and a bun from a shop on the corner. She had done a lot of thinking about how to make a good first impression on the league, and she had a great idea.

Allie was normally a cheerful morning person. She didn't mind getting up early and starting the day on a fresh note. However, as the sun poured into her hotel room, Allie groaned.

"Nnnnnnnnn....."

She pulled her blanket over her head and huffed hotly against it. Jet lag combined with her impromptu decision to drink left her with a throbbing morning headache. As her brain slowly processed the need for her to rise from bed, Allie dreaded what she figured would be the constant whining from Syd about a match. For a tough guy, Syd sure was a crybaby.

Allie pulled off her blankets and looked around. It looked like Syd was gone. Good. Allie plopped back into her bed and pulled the sheets back over her.

Syd, by contrast, was not a bright or chipper morning person. She wasn't bright or chipper any time of the day, and mornings were no different to her than anything else. She threw open the door and stomped back into the hotel room carrying a paper bag of rolls from a nearby bakery in one hand and a bottle of mango juice in the other. She threw both on top of the dresser.

"I have an idea," she said, without introduction. Also unlike Allie, she seemed no worse for the wear from the night before. Despite drinking much more than the teenager and sleeping much less, she appeared to be exactly the same as she was the day before, red contacts and all.

"There's a big show coming up in Atlanta. I want to pick the meanest bitch on the card, and kill her."