Wrestling with equality (for Caroline)

After a bit of not getting a response from Caroline he would poke her to get her attention. If he would get it he would tell her again, though this time he would also add "Let me guess you're thinking about everything you might do here right? Try not to get too carried away. I'm sure you'll do fine, just take things as they come."

While she can't tell what they are talking about Kei would notice Wes talking with Caroline.

It did take some time, but eventually the ring was finished and everyone was on the outside after Kei checked it out and gave it the green light. She then calls Caroline up into the ring, letting her to be the first test the mat. She asks Caroline if she remembers what she learned about landing. "Let's see you apply that knowledge. If you succeed then this will only hurt a little." She will wait for Caroline to tell her that she's ready, though if Caroline feels that she is not ready then Jesse would offer to test it out, even though Kei wants to use this to give Caroline some confidence. If Caroline was good to go she would lift her up and give Caroline a bodyslam.

From the sound the ring made it sounded like every thing is in its place and is in good working order.

“Thanks for the advice,” Caroline replied, blushing and offering a slight bow to Wes as apology for needing to be told twice. Once she had raised her head to him again, she decided to offer a handshake to him as well, since she hadn't formally met him yet. “Uhh, you're Wes, right? Do you just work here, or are you and Kei related?” She had never probed into the exact relationship between the two.

When Kei called for Caroline's presence in the newly assembled wrestling ring, the girl tensed up as she realized that whatever she was about to do would take place in front of all the other students. Trembling with nervous anticipation, the girl joined her sensei on the mat.

Kei's request earned several seconds of silence from the blind girl, as she feverishly contemplated the possibility of failing and embarrassing herself in front of the audience. In her panicking mind, Caroline hadn't really realized that what Kei was asking of her was just the same exact thing she had been feverishly practicing earlier. To her, the presence of potentially disapproving eyes made the prospect of getting slammed down on the mat about ten times scarier for her.

Despite that, Caroline forced herself to agree. “Okay, I'm ready. I won't let you down, ma'am,” she said, her voice wavering nervously. She blushed as Kei grasped her, lifting the small girl off her feet easily. Starstruck as she was to be in the ring practicing with one of her idols, she almost forgot to focus on controlling her fall. Fortunately, the girl snapped back to reality as soon as Kei tossed her forward, and she tucked her head in to avoid a painful collision just in the nick of time. Although she would've said the experience hurt more than a little, she was able to recover quickly as her back evenly distributed the weight of the fall, even as it released a crack from the ring canvas that echoed through the training room.

"It's alright, just glad to help out." He had no problem with shaking her hand too. "You could say we're related in a way. I met her in a place like this when we were in high school, and decades later we've remained married since." revealing that he was in fact married to her.

He was thinking of saying more but didn't because of Kei calling Caroline in the ring.

Kei was impressed with how Caroline took the move. From the sound of her landing Kei knew that Caroline had good form there. She did not notice that Caroline had a temporarily starstruck moment. Wes noticed but didn't mention. At least not yet. Everyone would then resume what they were working on before.

As Kei having Caroline go over everything she learned so far today she received a not from one of the many people there. It was from her friend Jill. She read it and grinned, but when she looked at Caroline she sighed quietly. After what would be some time, her and Jesse helping Caroline understand more about what was done today, which by the time they are wrapping up it it just them in the building, and Wes too. She then tells Caroline that she did good today and is proud of her start, but has something important to ask her.

"I know I said I would help train you and prepare you for the ring, but I still intend on doing that, but as you know I put off vacation plans to work out with you. Well it turns out a friend of mine put those plans back on for me and I leave tomorrow. I'll be gone for a couple of weeks, and Wes here will be coming with me for the second week. Yeah you have no say in it babe." she tells her husband, which he doesn't see to protest. "Would you be ok with working with Wes and Jesse for the rest of the week and Jesse the next? There will be guest trainers that will arrive to help too and I promise we will do more together when I return. But now I want to know if you're ok with this.


Kei didn't want to be selfish, she wanted to be there for Caroline, but at the same time one of her friends seemed to know what was best, and Kei needed the rest. Jesse tells Caroline that Wes and her will do what they can, and she is sure who ever comes to help during the week that Wes is away as well that they'll be fine, but mentions that Kei is asking for Caroline's blessing to do it. Her body wasn't showing visual signs of it right now but some time away from the ring was something she was in dire need of.

Caroline beamed with pride at her first small success in the ring, but when Kei came over to talk with her and laid her cards on the table, her joy faded.

“You put off your vacation to work with me?! I...no one...I didn't know that!” Caroline said, startled by the sudden news. Although Lina had been thinking of telling her about it back at the airport, she had elected to keep it to herself, so the resulting news made Caroline feel horrible. Kei was one of her greatest idols, a person Caroline would never want to cause trouble for. The young girl knew that Kei had been through some stressful times recently, although she hadn't been able to see any of her recent matches for herself.

Even though Caroline would be a bit sad without Kei involved in her training, the truth was that she hadn't even known that Kei had agreed to help her until today. She would be able to last a couple of weeks without her, and sleep better at night knowing that her training didn't have to indirectly hurt anyone.

“Take your vacation,” Caroline said with certainty, bowing her head slightly. “No matter how hard things get in my training, I'll still be here when you get back. I promise.”

Caroline had half a mind to rush up and give Kei a goodbye hug, but she was too polite to try it.

Kei would nod at her with a smile. "I promise we will do more together when I get back. Truth is, after meeting you I hope I can put that thought aside and not think about it. Sure it was your first day and there were some good and bad moments, but you do show a lot of promise. I know this may be hard for you, I know you wanted to work me me as much as you can but don't be afraid to work with new and other people. When I started I didn't just train with one person. Though a more important lesson is, one that I sadly have not applied myself during my career, know when to take a freakin' break."

She was kind of a workaholic when it came to wrestling and sometimes all that work would drain her and when she did get a day or two to herself she would just rest and not do much else, that or injuries would sneak up on her and give her an unwanted extended stay at home vacation.

Caroline released a sigh of relief at having finished her first day of training. No doubt the coming weeks would be even tougher for her, but first Caroline would need a place to bed down for the night, someplace to call her temporary home. That was about the time Caroline frightfully remembered that she hadn't made any solid plans on where she would be staying while she was in Canada. She hadn't been able to plan it out in advance, since she had only learned of where she would be training on the day her flight landed.

“Hey, I don't mean to burden any of you,” Caroline addressed Kei, Wes, and anyone else in earshot, “but is there somewhere that I can sleep for the night? Are there dorms here or something? I can even sleep on the floor if I have to, I packed a small sleeping bag just in case.”

The hopeful young girl waited on a reply, eager to get a good night's rest.

"Wouldn't Lina have sorted that out?" Wes asked her, having heard that Lina was going to be her manager. "Or was that sometimes both of you forgot to look into?" He then thought about it for a moment. "I guess there's room at our place if you really need it." Kei nods in agreement, not seeing too big of a problem with that.

“Lina never mentioned anything to me, but thank you very much,” Caroline replied, face red with humility as she bowed her head to Wes and Kei out of thanks. That night, and in successive nights, Caroline would aim to be as unobtrusive as possible while staying with Wes, making herself available for chores and the like if he needed her help. She hated the thought of relying on Wes for a place to stay without doing something to earn her keep.

Caroline would continue to train over the next few days, relying on the instruction of Wes and Jesse as she moved ever closer to an eventual debut in the AFW.

Over the next little while Wes can see some improvement with Caroline. While it's not enough that would make him say she is ready for active competition he can tell she is making progress. During which he reminds her not to get discouraged that becoming a wrestler doesn't happen over night and that there are some students here who have been working out for at least a year a half before getting their first match. He does believe that she is on the right track though. It it still a few days before he would be catching up with his wife on her vacation time but he does call her up to update her on Caroline's progress.


If this was about anyone else Kei would not want to be disturbed but is glad to hear that Caroline is doing well. She tells him to tell Caroline to keep up the good work before she goes back to what she was doing before Wes got a hold of her. As Wes was talking with her Jesse and Caroline were taking a break and Jesse asked her "You know, there might be a time where you lose those goggles of yours. Some people are pretty mean in the ring. Do you think maybe once you get a bit better you try without them for a little bit? You know, just so you don't feel completely lost if it were to happen for real."

Invigorated by the level of interest that Kei and Wes showed in her progress, Caroline found the energy to take each day's training with unflinching eagerness. Though she occasionally needed to rest during the lessons and workout sessions, she never sat out for long, fearing that it would make her complacent. There was no way Caroline would let any of these people down, not after the kindness they'd shown her.

At least, that's what she thought. So far, she had handled everything, but she had a long way to go, and she still hadn't tasted the full fury of a wrestling match. She was aware of this, but she tried to put it out of her mind, for now. She would cross that bridge when she came to it.

One day during her training, Jesse approached her during a break and asked about the possibility of fighting without her goggles. Caroline knew that she was going to try it at some point, but she was still new to the ring and hadn't even fought a practice match with her goggles on. Her reply to Jesse, which took her a few seconds to form, reflected this. “You're right, someone might try to pull them off of me, or they might get knocked off during a fight. Let's put it off to the future, though. I still haven't gotten a chance to fight for real, at least not for long, and I need to get better with these on before I try fighting with them off.”