A Steel Town Girl on a Saturday Night...

"Well, yeah." Blossom nodded and almost turned around, but she stopped herself before she could get a full peek. "But it can be a fun place. I've made some good friends, here, seen a lot of matches and people that helped me keep going even when I got low, you know? Me and this girl, Jackpot, we became kind of close. And Death Bunny was really kind to me when I was recovering - she came over and we had a sleepover and everything. Supercool."

Blossom was especially proud of that last one, and she beamed with pride. Who could claim to have been in a sleepover with the universally feared Death Bunny? Only her. Only her.

"So it's weird." She lifted up on her tiptoes, still bouncing with energy. "But it'd be boring if it wasn't. I like it this way."

Jessica shrugged, as if anyone could see it. This girl had a wide support net. Good for her. And she supposed she was right about the weirdos thing. She had fought corn-fed wrestlers all up and down the Midwest and probably couldn't differentiate many of them from each other. Maybe she could embrace weird.

"You can turn around. I have my towel on." Jessica wondered how this girl was still energetic and bouncing. Jessica wondered if this girl was on drugs before deciding that she was probably too naive. She tucked her towel in so it would stay without her holding it.

"Those girls who beat you. You got them back, right?"

"Cool, cool." Blossom spun around and started gathering up Jessica's clothes, getting them up and trying not to stare too much at her toweled body while she did. Typically, the smell would have bothered her, but she'd just spent about a dozen minutes rolling around with these clothes in the ring, and it wasn't like she had a daisy scent herself.

"Get back at them?" Blossom's eyebrow lifted up, her face thoroughly confused. "What, like, revenge? No, never did anything like that. They all won fair and square, they didn't do anything wrong. And it wouldn't change a thing if I did. I'd still have a loss, they'd still have a win."

Jessica thought she caught Blossom looking. "Let's see if I can get this girl in over her head." She stuck out her hip and placed a hand on it. As she moved to the side, her towel hiked up a little but only a little. "Oh, and I forgot my
my towel in there." Jessica ran her fingers through her sweaty hair again.

"Not like beating them in some alleyway, even if that is a decent way to do it. Like training and working your ass off and getting them in the ring again. To show you aren't afraid in front of everyone and upping the stakes if you can. More like pride than revenge."

Blossom blinked a few times as the blush started to grow on her face once again. "Oh. You mean the towel that you're wearing? Because, uh...are you going to take a shower?" She wobbled a bit, unsure whether she should turn around again or not.

"And, yeah, that." She nodded at the idea of fighting her old opponents again - much better than attacking them in dark alleyways , for sure. "That I'm definitely up for. Right now I'm trying to convince Death Bunny to have a fourth match with me, but she can be sort of stubborn about these sort of things. I think if I can impress her enough, she'll go for it."

Jessica had her off kilter again. A broad smile appeared on Jessica' face; she was enjoying this immensely. The woman even blushed. "No. The one I had around my neck when I walked in the sparring area. I am fairly sure where this one is." she said, patting the towel on her hip.

"But anyways, every time I lose I just want to thrash the girl who did it. There's some catharsis in it, and plus it looks good when managers and the like are looking for someone to challenge for a belt. At least it did back home." Jessica sat on the bench and exhaled. Impressing someone after losing a few times was hard. At least she thought it would be, if she had ever done it. Especially if the bout was particularly brutal. Jessica looked Blossom up and down one more time. Well," she said, "if you're looking for someone to job for you, you better look elsewhere, honey."

Blossom was really enjoying Jessica's form. The woman had a regal pose to her that made her intriguing. She was a bit haughty, there was no getting around that, but she going the feeling that she meant a little better than she wanted to let on. It was interesting enough for Blossom to stick around.

Her last comment snapped her out of it, though, and she couldn't help a little scowl. "Job?" She shook her head. "I'd never go for that. I'd rather lose a hundred matches than have someone hand one to me." She sighed and sat down on the bench next to Jessica, laying her clothes to the side. "But yeah - I think it's best to let stuff like that go. You start feuds that way. A lot of the people around here know other people, and they know other people, and they know other people, so on and on and on." She rolled her wrists and let it trail off. "If you don't watch it, you can tick off the wrong people and go to war with half the company. You gotta just let it go, sometimes."

Jessica opened her locker and dug around in it for a second before producing her old beat up cell phone. She handed it to Blossom. "Put your phone number in. I'll call you and tell you where to deliver my stuff. Oh, and we can figure out a way to do this again."

Jessica shrugged. "Feuds are half the fun." She looked over at Blossom and considered putting a hand on her leg. "No," she thought, "This girl might get a bit carried away." "Let them let it go then. I'd rather tick off half of Japan than come out looking like I was a coward. How bad could these girls or any factions be?" Jessica remembered wrestling back home. A girl would beat her and Jessica would remember. Even if it was months later and her opponent had forgotten her, she would remember. And she would throw everything she had at that girl. Jessica looked up and sighed. "Any sign of doubt gets picked up on, in my experience. And all that starts is a downward spiral."

Feuds? Fun? Blossom's face screwed up at the thought of it. She hadn't really been in any feuds herself, but she'd been keeping up with AFW long enough to have seen plenty go down, and she knew they could be long, nasty affairs with no clear winners and losers. It was one aspect of the business she had no interest in participating in. She came to the AFW to wrestle, not get wrapped up in drama.

"They could be pretty bad." She dialed her number into Jessica's granny phone and handed it back. "A lot of the referees and officials don't care what happens after the bell rings, and they'll just let wrestlers do whatever to each other while the crowd watches. It can get pretty nasty, sometimes. Not something you want to be on the receiving end of."

Jessica huffed. She was worried about how bad the feuds could be and it showed a little. Jessica found herself reflecting on Blossom's words. The words pretty nasty stuck out in particular. Jessica wondered what she had gotten herself into for a second. She then shook those thoughts. Blossom was a naive girl, she decided. Jessica would be fine.

"I have seen a few matches since I've been here. It is nothing I can't handle." Jessica boasted. "And I don't intend to be on the receiving end of much."