Plans & Apologies

Cassie stumbled forward and fidgeted awkwardly.

"Ah, eheh..."


Later, her side smarted, and her shirt was catching on the gauze pad taped to her skin. She stretched uncomfortably and couldn't resist poking at it a little bit, but it was tender to the touch and she wasn't an idiot.

She couldn't go back home yet, though. She parted ways with Akashi and headed off to the Friction building, letting herself in the way she always had and soon never would again, and navigated the familiar halls to the locker room. It was empty, and she took her time getting to her locker, soaking in all the mundane details of the utilitarian, tile-floored room. It smelled of sweat and perfume.

It took her a second try to get the combination right on her lock, and then she popped her locker open and grabbed the pile of neatly folded clothes out of it and set it on the bench behind her. She added her shampoo and conditioner, her body soap, her comb and brush, her small makeup kit, and then grabbed her towel. It was baby blue with a picture of a happy cartoon cat and the words "Life is great!" She laid it down on the bench and began to carefully fold it.

Haley hummed to herself, making her way down the hall towards the locker room. While no matches had been scheduled this day, the former Entropy Champion had been called in to the arena to do a photo shoot backstage of her new attire and face paint, to post official pictures of it on the AFW website.

Finished with that, towel around her neck and a water bottle in her hands, still clad in her paint and fight gear, eager to change clothes and get back home. She got a pleasant surprise however, to find the locker room wasn't empty when she got back.

"Hey! Cassie! Didn't think I'd run into you today!

Cassie looked up from her folding, and it took a moment for her to recognize the girl behind the face paint. That was new...

"Oh, hi Haley," she said with a perfectly nice smile. She finished folding her towel and put the rest of her stuff on top of it. "How are you?"

Haley shrugged, going up to her own locker and using her combination, then pulling a note out of her pocket to re-read said combination before trying it again.

"Eh, I've been alright. Trying a new look and all that, seeing what it gets me. How about you, how you been lately? I haven't seen you since Taylor's last party."

She replied, before motioning towards all of Cassie's stuff on the bench.

"You didn't spill food in there did you? I heard Mighty Yukiko once accidentally left half a sandwich in her locker and forgot to take it out. By the time of her next match, her locker, her ring gear, and the entire locker room smelled of tuna. I was told it took like a week to get the smell out."

"Ew! No, I didn't."

Cassie wrinkled her nose and didn't laugh, but she smiled. She patted the sides of her neat pile of folded clothes and things.

"I'm okay. I was busy with finals and stuff, but those are done. Now I'm just..." She trailed off. "I'm sorry Gwen beat you the way she did. It's... What I expected. The cheating is a big problem. Until people can beat the cheaters without cheating yourself, it's only going to get worse... AFW is so lenient. They like the rule breaking because it's more drama, but... It's just not as respectable a sport as something like jiujitsu." She shook her head.

Haley finally got her locker open, grabbing a pack of moist towelettes, opening and folding the first towelette, starting clean off the paint on her face, using a handheld mirror she put in the locker with the wipes, turning so she could still clean off without having her back to Cassie.

"Thanks. I fucked up, but I appreciate that. You're not wrong though, the higher ups just love the drama and controversy girls like Gwen and Kelly and their type brings. Makes fans tune in, TV ratings and Pay Per View buys go up, and they all make more money off it. Not as respectable as one of the more pure combat sports."

She looked up, giving her friend a smile.

"But it is what it is I guess. So they got you doing a photo thing here today too?"

"Uh huh." Cassie nodded. She picked up her pile and held it in both hands, and glanced down at it with Ace's question.

She shook her head with a smile. "Noooo. Not me. They don't really do that stuff with me. You're a former title-holder, though, and you're so pretty, so of course they'd want you." She smiled, and left out the part about except for the face paint. Why would Ace want to cover up her face like that?

"Um... I was just on my way out. Are you... Do you want to try some makeup remover for that?" She asked, being helpful, gesturing with her pile of clothes toward Ace's face paint.

"Nah, s'alright. It's already coming out..."


She went back at it, the paint coming off a little more with each swipe.

"So I know you said your finals are done...I didn't know you were taking classes. What else you doing? This is like, the first time in almost a year we've been able to chat, ya know? I gotta get your phone number or email or something."

"Yaa," Cassie nodded, shifting her weight from foot to foot like she couldn't decide which way to go. "I take classes online. It was sort of open-ended at first, then I was going to do journalism for a while, but then... I dunno, change of heart, I changed to environmental sciences. Plants and stuff." She swished her hand in the air to brush the topic aside, as if any further explanation would surely bore Ace to tears.

"It's been slow going, because of wrestling. I finished high school a year early, so I've been in university, sort of, for four years, but I've got a year left to finish. All the research stuff that I couldn't do online."

She paused, and looked into space straight ahead for a moment. There was no use in beating around the bush. Everyone who cared would find out eventually, and what would it really matter anyway in a couple more weeks?

"I quit AFW," she said bluntly. "I'm moving back home to Ontario when my brother Bucky is all done with things here."

"Environmental Sciences huh? That's interesting."

Haley replied, not really sure just what environmental sciences was, focused on getting a stubborn bit of paint off her temple, when Cassie dropped her bombshell.

"Wait, what? You quit!?"

She set down her items and faced Cassie directly, paying full attention to her now.

"Why?"