Passing Glances

The sounds of the arena faded the further into the backstage Angel got. When she entered the locker room she shut the door behind her. Though the distant cheers and jeers could still be heard, they were muffled and incoherent in this room. Angel throw her elbow pads at the locker and nursed her arm. She had only been back in the league for a month now. Already, though, she was feeling the lingering effects of all her matches. It was starting to get irritating having to wake up aching all over day after day. But one thing that kept her going was the knowledge that all her opponents had it worse than her. And just thinking of that then made the masked girl smile.

She opened her locker and pulled out her bag. She dumped it on the bench and threw her Shinto priestess robe into it. She realized her gimmick was getting old but she kept to it. After all, people were starting to fear it. Angel knew it would be useless eventually but for now she was content with making some fear her. The masked girl pulled her boots and knee pads off, and took a moment to relax.

Jamie had a lot of experience sneaking around. She didn't make a sound as she eased open the door to the locker room just enough to slide through. She tip-toed her way through the rows of lockers until she spotted her quarry, sitting on a bench with her back to her. She sidled up behind her.

"Um..." She began. Suddenly she hadn't the faintest idea of what to say. "Hi ohmigodyou'rethebest, canIhaveyourautograph?" She blurted and shoved black marker and a glossy copy of the flyer for the night's event at Dark Angel. Of course, Dark Angel's picture wasn't on the flyer, and her name wasn't listed, but Jamie would know that she was somewhere on the card, even if it was near the bottom.

"I wanna be just like you." She said, wide-eyed in admiration of the murderous masked girl.

Angel had just let out a sigh of relief when a voice suddenly interrupted her relaxation. She turned around with a fist clenched only to see a woman she didn't know. For a moment, she just stared at her. The girl asked for her autograph. She wasn't sure why the girl would say such a thing. So she just assumed she was mocking her like so many others had. Without a word, Angel yanked the marked and flyer out of Jamie's hands. She angrily signed the flyer and handed it back to Jamie. She then tilted her head towards the door to gesture to her to leave her alone. This was not the time to be bothering her, she already had a bad experience in the locker room that she wasn't keen on repeating.

But if Jamie looked at the flyer, she'd see that Angel had signed it "Fuck off."

Jamie grinned, and hardly noticed that Angel treated her like a beggar. She sort of was that, after all.

"Wow!" She gushed. Even the way she signed the flyer was tough! She probably never got picked on by anyone! She wondered if Angel would teach her to be like her. "Hey will you teach me to be-" she was cut short by Angel's terse dismissal. "Okay." You don't say no to someone like that.

She held the flyer in both hands and stared at the signature while she walked away. She almost walked into the wall next to the door, and had to stop and take a step to the right before walking out.