Slumber Party Panic!

"No, this isn't for that." Cassie said as she sorted each 4"x5" picture and made a few neat piles on the table. Judging by the size of the stack, she'd already started printing them earlier in the day. "It's just for fun."

The occupation of her hands with the task seemed to have a calming effect on her, and she remained focused on meticulously cutting and sorting each picture until she had made three piles on the table. Without something to do to fill the time until Taylor arrived, she would only have worried and stressed out, the way she did sometimes. She had learned what things she could do to relax herself, like at home when she would garden with her mother. She loved gardening, but she had no land to plant in here in her Tokyo apartment. But she also enjoyed other things, she liked being organized and thorough, she liked to sort, which is partly why she'd taken up the internship with the magazine. Journalism and writing and research seemed like something she'd be good at, and so far she was.

"Okay." She said, and turned over the three piles one by one. "Friction, Tension, and Tension." She said. Showing were pictures of the glamorous Natalia, the enormous, muscle-bound, white haired Kent Quick, and the equally tall Lisa Giordanni, who was also a giant among the tension girls. "There are some people I left out, and I don't have access to all the materials from home. There are a lot of people on the rosters! I had no idea how many there are, but most of them you've never heard of and they don't have matches often. Like me, eh?" She smiled.

"So." She said, folding her hands and looking up at Talia and Mamouru. "Teams!" She said, and handed the Friction pile to Mamouru. "One at a time."

Mamouru watched as Cassie showed off and sorted her piles. He had an amused look on his face as she explained herself to Talia. She always did everything so zealously, even the little things. It was something he liked a lot about Cassie. One of the many things. Mamouru smiled when Cassie handed him the stack.

"Teams?" He asked. "I don't quite understand Cassie-san. What are we supposed to do?" He asked as he rifled through the stack just getting glimpses of the girls that se had put in the Friction stack. He then smiled. "Where do you put those pesky girls who are in both Friction and Tension?"

Cassie smiled proudly. She'd expected that question. "Easy." She said. "They're in both piles."

Passing through the front door of the apartment, one entered into the left edge of the kitchen. To the left was a long, spacious living room with a couch and a chair and a large TV flanked by massive speakers and two desks on the far wall. The smaller, squarish kitchen expanded to the right, with the stove on the far wall and the fridge opposite it, a small rectangular island in the middle with a stool, and a small table with two chairs on the far right wall. Cassie sat down on the stool at the little island where she'd put her picture piles, next to a small vase that held up a daisy.

"Teams! If you had to pick a Friction team, like three people, who would you pick. Pick one at a time, like a draft. Then I'll tell you why my team would win!" She grinned. She liked theoretical games and things like that. "Then we can each pick a Tension tag team or something. Who's your favorite person in Friction, Mamouru?" She actually already knew the answer.

Mamouru was honestly intrigued by Cassie's little game. It was an interesting exercise for him. He thought about it in terms of beign a manager first. Who would he want on his team if he was managing a stable. A thought he found quite thrilling. After Cassie had fled back home, he had tried to get something going with Heather, but it didn't seem to pan out. As a manager, he felt like he had washed out. He wasn't ready to give up, but he had been quite despirited over it.

Mamouru thumbed through the photos and stopped when he found Megumi. She had been his favorite wrestler coming into the league but now that he knew her on a more personal level. "Yes..." Mamouru said as he pulled out Cassie's own 'flash card' and pushed it forward. "I still firmly believe that as far as raw talent and potential for improvement goes, you are the best in the league, Cassie-san. Obviously you would be my first choice." He said as bowed his head to her.

Cassie blushed and let out a stream of embarrassed giggling. Her first reaction was to push her own picture back toward the pile.

"You can't do that! That's... that's just stupid. Pick someone better!" She said, and then took the pile of pictures from Mamouru. She spent a moment just staring blankly at the top picture, without seeing it, while she waited for her cheeks to cool off. Then she began carefully sifting through the cards, stopping periodically to study one.

She deliberated for a long time. She didn't just want to pick Taylor, that would be too obvious. She began to feel like she was taking too long, and she rested her hands on the table and gave an apologetic smile.

"I, um..." She began to explain. "I was thinking. I'm not sure that, um... I mean, I know that I'm not good and there are so many girls who are really good, but, I, um, I-I..." She stopped for a second and took a breath. "I don't really think any of them are good enough." She blurted. Then an embarrassed smile, and she explained some more. "As good as they should be, I mean. They're professionals, and they don't even have all the skills. I work with Taylor, and she's super talented and she's the best and I love her, but... I can always beat her when we grapple." She said, as if it was a clear indictment of Taylor's abilities.

Finally, she laid down Megumi's card. "She's really good. And she's strong. Mentally, I mean, she's tough."

Mamouru grinned at Cassie's nervous laughter. She was always too cute! When Cassie tried to take her picture back, Mamouru held onto it just long enough to make Cassie tug on it. "Cassie-san, you never give yourself enough credit!" Still, he let her taake the picture and then watched her inability to chose another. "Cassie-san, you hve to make a pick if you want to play your own game!"

But Cassie picked Megumi suddenly and Mamouru turned his head, looking away. "Ahh... I think that she may have hit a wall as far as pogress goes though. Peaked a bit.. Too early. I ouldnt see her being a campion outside of the tag division and it is weak at the moment, admittedly." Mamouru tried to flash a smile to Cassie. "But, uh... Good choice, Cassie-san!"

Mamouru decided to try aagain and looked through the pile. This time he picked out Sarah Gatt. "I'll take Gatt-san then. If she's the champion then she must be the best, right?" He said, hoping that Mamouru picked someone who would help Cassie play the game better.