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#Post#: 1070--------------------------------------------------
The Friendship Test - Chapter 14 - No Holding Back
By: RampageSports Date: February 9, 2015, 9:54 pm
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The Friendship Test - Chapter 14 - No Holding Back
Later that evening, Danni met up with Briana and told her what
Steph had said. Bri's first reaction was concern for Sophia.
"I think she's gone over the edge," Briana said. "Her
confidence was pretty shaky before. But, now..."
"I know," Danni said. "But, if she wants to continue the
training, we'll know there's still hope... that she's still in
it."
"Yeah," Briana answered, "but how long will that last if you
start knocking her around?"
"I don't know," Danni said, "but Steph is right. We need to
push her and see what happens. Sophia needs to figure it out."
Briana gave a worried look.
"I'm afraid that if she can't figure it out, she'll probably
pack it in. I know she's as far from the quitting type as you
can get, but I don't know how much further she can be pushed
before she breaks. It's not like we're putting her up against
just anybody. We're putting her in against you. Danneel Harris,
RSI. She may well not figure it out."
Despite the situation they were in, Danni raised an eyebrow at
the way Bri had said, 'Danneel Harris, RSI.' She wondered again
what other people saw in her that she was missing.
Whatever it was, it hadn't done Sophia much good so far.
"I understand," she said, "but she's out of time. It's time to
stop babying her, and find out what she's got."
In fact, Danni shared Briana's concerns. After thinking over
what Steph had said, Danni started to realize she'd done this
sort of thing before. She'd done it with Julianne Hough to get
her ready for that first title fight. She'd done it with
Tiffany Mulheron, in the hopes of helping her get past Nadine
Coyle. But, Julianne had known what the goal was, and she was
ready to see it through. Tiffany had been way past the point of
desperation when she'd come to RSI. Getting hammered by Danni
had actually made her stronger, somehow.
Sophia's situation was different. She had gone into Vegas happy
and full of confidence. She had left more dejected and
miserable than ever. So, Danni didn't know what version of
Sophia to expect at the next session... if she showed at all.
She only knew that she planned to force things until something
gave. There was no more time for trying. The phrase 'make or
break' had never been more appropriate. Sophia was either going
to prove to herself that she could win, or she was going to give
up for good.
Either way, they would have their answer.
"She's not going to like it," Danni continued with a sigh, "and
neither am I."
Briana still didn't look very happy, but she nodded in
agreement. Danni was right. It was now or never.
Despite the earlier worries, Sophia did decide to stay with the
training. And when she found Danni and Briana already standing
together by one of the cages, she was immediately sorry she had.
Sophia stopped in the doorway of the training room and dropped
her bag dejectedly. "You two look serious," Sophia said tiredly.
"Is this an intervention?"
Briana shrugged. "Do you need one?"
Sophia's eyes narrowed. "Save the cute jokes for Dragon. I'm not
in the mood."
With a raised eyebrow, Briana shot a look at Danni that said
that was very un-Sophia-like. Danni got it straight away. It
wasn't like Sophia to throw around that kind of attitude, but
the duo suddenly realised that was exactly what Sophia needed; a
bit of fire under her.
Danni gave things a little push. "You ready to get serious,
today?"
Sophia took the bait, hook, line and sinker. "Why, so you can
prove I'm not worthy to be here? You don't think Elodie did a
good enough job the other night?"
Briana decided to call Danni's push and raise the stakes with a
good firm shove. "I think she took pity on you," she quipped.
She was clearly starting to get into this a little too much.
The shot seemed to hurt Sophia a little, but mostly it just
incited her. "Maybe I'll take pity on Danni's ears and shut your
mouth myself."
Bri's eyes went wide and she wasn't sure whether to be offended
or relieved. Neither she nor Danni had expected the Den's leader
to be happy, but while solemn and disinterested was the worst
case scenario, uninterested but fiery was realistically the best
they could have hoped for. And while she was clearly in the mood
to rebel against everything, Sophia at least still had some life
to her.
Danni caught on to what Briana was doing, and decided she liked
it. A p*ssed off Sophia probably wasn't going to make for the
best pupil, but it might be a good place to start. She decided
to play along.
"As much fun as that might be, why don't you just get your ass
in the cage?" she said. "And maybe I'll take pity on you."
Sophia huffed like a spoilt toddler. "If you want to take pity
on me, just go home and let me get in some cardio... alone."
Danni was having none of it. "Are we gonna do this, or not?"
she snapped. "I thought the idea was for you to learn to win.
Based on what I saw the other night, we're clearly not there,
yet."
This time the shot did seem to hit Sophia and she got a little
defensive. Her face reddened and her hands went to her hips,
visibly agitated. "You want to kick the sh*t out of me? Fine.
Let's do it." She stomped towards the cage and slammed the door
open before trudging in and taking herself to the center of the
mat. "Come on then," she said impatiently with a half-glazed
look in her eye as she stared out at Danni, "teach me how to
take a beating."
Danni shared a quick look with Briana. Not exactly their plan,
but at least Sophia was in the cage.
She casually made her way inside the octagon, letting the metal
door swing closed behind her as she entered. "Is that what I've
been teaching you?" she said as she calmly adjusted her right
glove. "How to lose?"
"Pretty sure I don't need any more lessons in that," Sophia
responded flatly. She was seemingly too exhausted to produce
anymore traces of emotion. Instead she stepped forward, hands
raised, eyes fixed steadily on Danni. "Ready?"
Danni didn't like the way this was going. She wasn't sure what
Sophia was expecting today, but she certainly didn't sound ready
for what was coming.
She raised her gloved fists in front of her, and offered her
friend a word of warning. "Don't sleepwalk your way through
this, Sophs."
Sophia was barely listening. She may have heard what Danni had
said, but she was too caught up wallowing in her own self-pity
again to really pay attention and heed the warning. She didn't
even respond. She had taken Danni's words as an invitation and
stepped in to swing a casual cross at Danni's right shoulder.
Danni slipped left, snapped a jab into Sophia's face, then
pivoted right and buried her right fist in Sophia's gut. The
Dragon leader doubled-over and collapsed to the canvas.
While Sophia caught her breath, Danni looked sadly over to
Briana and shook her head.
THAT had sucked.
She refused to give in, though, and she refused to show Sophia
any sympathy. She waited for her friend to look at her before
she spoke.
"Get up," she said coldly as their eyes met.
Sophia frowned and grimaced and slowly got to her feet. She
never broke eye contact with Danni. "The hell was that?" Sophia
asked, still steadying her breathing. There were sparring
punches, and then there were real punches... and then there was
whatever Danni had just laid into the shaky brunette's stomach.
Outside the cage, Briana looked on nervously. It was obvious
Danni wasn't happy with the situation, but they both knew it was
necessary. Now she just hoped Sophia could step it up enough to
avoid getting herself hurt.
Danni shrugged at Sophia. "That was nothing," she said. "Just
imagine what would have happened if you were fighting Elodie."
She brought her hands up in front of her once more as she set
her stance. Again, she tried to warn Sophia that things were
going to be different, today. "Pay attention to what you're
doing, and stop half-assing it. You're going to get hurt."
Sophia slowly reset herself as visions of Elodie Frege knocking
her lights out flashed through her memory. She tried to shake
those images from her head and focused on Danni once more. "The
way you punch, Bri's gonna get hurt just watching. Try not to
kill me, yeah?"
She was a little more cautious this time, not shifting her gaze
from Danni and keeping her guard up and ready. She was
tentative, half waiting for Danni to move so she had something
to react to. But, she looked incredibly unsure.
Danni shook her head lightly, angry that Sophia had even hinted
to her that she was going to hard.
She peeked over her guard and saw that her sparring partner was
waiting. Waiting for her to make a move. Waiting to respond to
whatever she was expecting. Just as she had with Frege.
So, she went unconventional. She shot out her jab to bring
Sophia's guard up, then bull-rushed underneath it. Sophia
lazily caught the jab, but was totally upended as Danni grabbed
her around the waist. Caught flat-footed, she was helpless as
Danni lifted her up and slammed her down on her back. The
impact left Sophia stunned. Before she knew what was happening,
Danni was kneeling astride her. She tried to throw her opponent
off, but it was useless. Danni had all the leverage, and there
was no way Sophia could unseat her. Danni used her left hand to
occupy Sophia's, then slung her right at the Chicago P.D. star's
unprotected head. She stopped the blow mere inches from
Sophia's face.
Sophia's eyes went wide as she realized how close Danni had come
to striking her.
Danni got back to her feet and glared angrily at her fallen
friend. "That's not how it works," she spat. "I'm not supposed
to go easy on you. You're supposed to stop me."
Sophia still lay on the mat, wide-eyed and shocked. "Are we
sparring or are you p*ssed at me?" She asked, gawking up at
Danni, who certainly wasn't smiling. "'Cause this isn't feeling
like much of a training session." She moodily started to drag
herself back to her feet, stretching her back briefly where she
had hit the mat hard. "More like a beating."
Danni took a deep breath... her shoulders sagging a little as
she let it out. Sophs had a point. Going easy on her hadn't
been the answer, but just beating the sh*t out of her probably
wasn't going to help much, either. She needed to know what was
happening and why.
#Post#: 1071--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Friendship Test - Chapter 14 - No Holding Back
By: RampageSports Date: February 9, 2015, 9:56 pm
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"I'm not p*ssed at you," she said, measuring her words. "I
just... what we've been doing hasn't been helping. Teaching you
techniques and strategies... you know that stuff. And trying to
train you to beat Elodie wasn't the right way, either. You
never what you're opponent's going to do... you can't make a
plan the way we did."
She glanced over at Briana before continuing. Bri nodded
softly, and Danni decided to just lay it out there.
"You need to stop focusing on Elodie or Lyen Wong or whoever,"
she said. "You need to learn to beat me."
Sophia finished stretching her back out and pulled a sour face.
"You expect me to beat you? Danni f*cking Harris?" Her gaze
slipped outside the cage and Briana gave her a quick wink. She
could hear Briana's voice in her head. It was a wink that said,
'just trust us and get the hell on with it.' She looked at Danni
again and raised an eyebrow. "I don't know. Why do I feel this
is going to end in tears?"
Once again, Danni rolled her eyes at the way Sophia elevated
her. If she wasn't careful, "Danni 'f*cking' Harris" was going
to make it into the UMMA promo material.
Still... if that's how Sophia wanted to look at it...
"Look," she said, putting a little swagger in her voice, "I know
you're not on my level."
She caught a glimpse of the knowing look on Bri's face. She
paused a moment, before pushing the knife a little deeper.
"And I'm not worried about my title or anything," she said. "I
just want to see if pushing you a little will make you better
than the 'middle of the road' fighter you are now."
Sophia clearly hadn't expected that response. Her eyes were wide
again, as if trying to take all that in. "Middle of the road?
You think that's what I am?"
Bri chirped from outside the cage. "I've been waiting months for
you to prove otherwise."
Sophia shot her a glare that said 'stay out of it', and then
turned her reddening face back at Danni. "I'm... I'm better than
that." She glanced nervously between Danni and Briana, but it
was difficult to tell whether she was trying to convince them or
herself. "I'm not middle of the road. I'm not!"
Briana pretended to scoff. "Ha! I could beat your ass at this
point."
"Just saying it doesn't make it true," Danni added. "Come over
here and show me."
She brought her guard up and readied herself once more.
Sophia shot another disapproving look outside the cage, then
stood up straight, stretched her fingers and assumed her
fighting stance, this time, a little less lazily.
"I'll show you b*tches middle of the f*cking road. Bring it!"
The two friends circled each other, but Sophia still seemed
unwilling to make the first move. She was still trying to
anticipate what Danni was going to do, and the Rampage fighter
decided to break her of that habit the hard way.
Danni shot her jab out again, then ducked low as she had
previously. Sophia immediately backpedaled and spread her feet,
expecting that Danni would try the takedown move again. But
Danni never did. Sophia threw a right hook to Sophia's body as
she came back upright. With her feet out wide, Sophia was
literally glued to the canvas. The blow landed squarely,
thudding into her side. Danni snapped her jab. Sophia just
managed to get her glove in front of it. Danni turned smoothly
into a straight right. Sophia caught a piece of it, but not
enough to spare herself the impact as hit her flush on the
cheek. She knew she needed to move, but Danni didn't give her
the chance. The DEF champion pressed forward, forcing Sophia
off balance. She stumbled awkwardly as she retreated, and Danni
kept the pressure on all the way to the side of the cage.
Trapped, Sophia did her best to cover up, but Danni easily found
the holes in her defense. Sophia started to wilt as Danni
picked her apart. But then, she surprised Danni by fighting
back... driving a right hook into her side. It was a solid
shot, and Danni had to will herself through it. She continued
her assault, snapping another jab into Sophia's face before
finally dropping her with another body blow.
Overall, it had been another poor showing for Sophia. But,
something about that hook... Danni got the sense that Sophia was
finally starting to respond. So, she pushed a little harder.
"Sorry," she mocked. "Did I not do what you guessed I was going
to do? My bad."
Sophia was crouched, puffing loudly as she tried to get her
breath back. She grimaced up at Danni. Those body shots were
starting to smart and she raised a hand to rub softly at her
left cheek. Then, she gave a faint smirk.
"What, kick my ass? Kind of what I guessed you'd do."
Sophia pushed herself back up and, following a rub of a rib and
a stretch of her neck, readied herself once more. "Okay. Again.
But if you break something this time, I'm setting Bri on you."
The girls glanced outside to see Briana's head defiantly shaking
side-to-side a mile a minute. "Nope. That's not happening."
Danni gave her friend a long look... surprised and a little
impressed with what was happening. She had hit Sophia hard...
no different than she would hit any other opponent. She had
"finished" her three times in rapid succession, literally
knocking her to the canvas twice. Yet, here she stood... back
and looking for more. What had started as whining and moping
had morphed into something a lot harder. Maybe... just
maybe... Sophia was starting to rise to the challenge.
Or, maybe she just liked getting her ass kicked. It was hard to
tell.
The women met again in the middle of the ring, but this time,
Sophia took the quick initiative and led with a jab. It was met
easily by Danni, as were the second and third. So, Sophia threw
a hook. Danni caught enough of it, and then, decided to hit
back.
She ducked low as the punch hung on her guard, pounding another
hook into Sophia's left side. The Dragon fighter winced, but
fought through it... catching Danni with her jab as she came
back up. Danni was forced to retreat out of range. Sophia
tried to follow, but Danni was quick with a jab of her own to
keep the Dragon girl at bay. Sophia stayed focused... resetting
herself and coming again. She threw a jab, then slipped to her
left and jabbed again. Danni caught the first punch easily, but
the change in position let Sophia get outside her guard. Danni
couldn't react quickly enough, and the follow-up jab came more
from her side than in front of her... the impact snapping her
head to the left. She went with the blow, shuffling left to
gain space as she turned to square up with her adversary.
Again, Sophia tried to follow, but she was a step slow and Danni
stopped her with the jab once more.
Both fighters regrouped as they circled back toward the center
of the cage. Determined, Sophia attacked again... flashing a
crisp jab-cross-hook combination. Danni caught the first two
cleanly on her guard, but had no hope of stopping the hook as
Sophia pivoted low and drove it home. And that's where Danni's
experience paid off again. She instinctively knew Sophia had
her, so she didn't give away her position to protect herself.
She took the punch... a powerful, crushing shot the likes of
which she hadn't previously seen from her friend... and
surprised Sophia with a sneaky jab as she came back up. It
didn't do much damage, but Sophia hadn't seen it coming. The
shock of it threw her off balance, and Danni hit her with
another jab and a straight right before she even knew what the
hell had happened. Sophia scrambled away to gain space, but
Danni stayed with her... driving her toward the side of the
cage. Sophia was in trouble, and Danni patiently looked for her
chance to finish. But, Sophs wasn't done yet...
She knew Danni was looking to pin her against the fence again,
and she wasn't going to let it happen. Though her eyes were
focused on Danni, she could also judge the distance from the far
side of the cage. She let Danni come at her, careful to stay
out of range. Then, just as her heel brushed the mesh, she
kicked out to her left... sliding away from the cage wall. She
snapped the jab again. Danni gloved it away, but it stopped her
from following. The move gave Sophia the time she needed to
reset.
Danni couldn't help but be impressed.
She peeked over the top of her guard and gave Sophia a little
"not bad" nod. Then, she turned it up a notch.
Sophia attacked again with the jab, expecting more of the same.
But Danni blocked the punch much more aggressively and countered
with a straight right that smacked into the center of Sophia's
face. Danni pulled her hand back and rolled left, scoring with
another hook to the body. She pivoted back to the right,
putting her weight behind an uppercut that slipped between
Sophia's guard and damn near lifted her off the floor. Though
she stayed upright, the blow scrambled Sophia's head pretty
good, and she stumbled back into the fence. Danni did not
pursue her. After a moment, Sophia realized Danni had stopped,
then slid down to her ass and took a well-earned recovery
period.
As Sophia worked to gather herself, Danni turned to Bri and gave
a look that said "where the hell did THAT come from?" Neither
of them had seen Sophs fight as hard... or as smart... as she
just had.
She turned back to Sophia just as the Dragon fighter stood
upright.
"Did you see what happened there?" she asked.
Sophia shook her head as she fought to clear the cobwebs.
"Yeah," she said, "you knocked me on my ass again."
Danni smiled. "That's true," she said, "but that's not quite
what I meant."
She squatted down in front of Sophia, and looked her friend in
the eye.
"Just by attacking first," she said, "you had more success.
When you wait, you let me do whatever I want. By coming at me,
you forced my hand. You made me respond."
"A lot of good it did me," Sophia lamented.
Danni spun herself and sat down next to her Dragon's Den
counterpart.
"Well, you can't make the first move all the time, either," she
said. "You went from waiting all the time to attacking all the
time. You have to mix it up."
Then, she cupped a hand under Sophia's chin and gently turned
her so they were face to face.
"And you HAVE to stop guessing," she said firmly. "You were
expecting me to go low again on that last exchange. I changed
it up, and now you're sitting here nursing a headache."
"Plus," interjected Bri's voice from outside the cage, "you're
the sh*tiest guesser I've ever met in my life. I'm never taking
you to the Casino. Ever."
Sophia rolled her eyes at her friend. "Are you done being
cheeky? We're doing some real work over here."
"Cheeky IS my real work," shrugged Bri. "But, by all means, do
continue."
Sophia just shook her head and turned back to Danni, who was
smiling at the two teammates.
"You two are quite the act," she said.
"Thanks," Bri said. "We're actually thinking of taking the show
on the road."
Danni laughed and looked back to Sophia. "Don't jump ahead of
me... you can't be focusing on what you think my strategy is.
In a real fight, that's what your corner people do. You have to
focus on me. React to what I do. Find your openings and take
your shots. Force your strategy when you can."
Sophia nodded. "You're right," she said. "I know you are.
It's just..."
She let the thought hang, and Danni picked it up.
"When you get in trouble, you panic and start to guess," she
said. "You're hoping to get lucky, and get things back under
control. But, that's not the way. When you're in trouble, you
need to attack. Give your opponent something to think about,
other than smashing your head in."
"You're right," Sophia said again. Then, she rolled her eyes
and added, "As always."
Danni shrugged. "I have some real bad news for you, too," she
said. "Everything I know, I learned by getting punched in the
face. And your lesson has only just begun."
Sophia sighed and started massaging her forehead lightly.
"Speaking of which, you have given me a headache," she added
sarcastically. "You could at least remind me to leave boxes of
aspirin in my corner."
Bri felt it necessary to chirp again, shouting out to Danni,
"Just punch her in the ribs, it'll dull the headache."
Danni laughed once more before addressing Sophia again.
"What do you think?" she said. "Had enough for today?"
"Uggh," Sophia groaned, still holding her temple. "You know I
wouldn't hear the end of it from Bri. Let's keep going. I want
to get this right."
Danni's eyes narrowed.
"Who are you?" she asked. "And what did you do with Sophia?"
#Post#: 1072--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Friendship Test - Chapter 14 - No Holding Back
By: RampageSports Date: February 9, 2015, 9:57 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Both women stood and squared off once more. Within minutes,
Sophia was down again. A minute or so later, she was up and
ready for another round. And so it went... time after time,
Sophia kept coming back for more. For the first time since
they'd started this, she felt like she was learning something.
Every second she kept Danni at bay... every punch she landed...
reminded her she could do this. She just wished the lessons
didn't have to be so painful.
Danni could see the improvement in her friend, as well. After
landing on her ass a few more times, Sophs finally started to
get away from the guessing games. Danni wasn't sure if that was
from actual learning, or if Sophia's head was so scrambled she
just couldn't think ahead anymore. Either way, the change was
immense. It turned out Sophia was quite a bit faster than she
thought she was. She didn't need to guess... she could react to
whatever Danni threw at her, and stuff it, most of the time. On
top of that, not guessing meant she kept her stance tighter and
her positioning better. Danni had a lot more trouble getting
through Sophia's defenses, and the extra effort took away from
her own ability to defend herself.
Suddenly, the lesson wasn't painful for Sophia alone.
The longer they went at it, the more Sophia picked up on
something: Danni didn't like to grapple. She could... make no
mistake about that. But, it wasn't what she preferred. She
wanted to stay outside and use her range to chip away at
Sophia's defenses. When Sophia fought her way inside, Danni's
power was muted, and she couldn't do the things she wanted. She
could scramble and find position, working her way back to
freedom. But, she couldn't attack. And Sophia was definitely
happier when Danni wasn't attacking.
Sophia pressed her way inside again, flustering her more
experienced friend. Danni pushed her low, but Sophia held
firm... continuing to advance as she pressed Danni back against
the fence. She tried to work inside, underneath Danni's guard,
but Danni was able to lock onto her neck, keeping the Dragon
fighter bottled up as she continued to squirm her way off the
mesh. So, Sophia abandoned the plan and worked with what she
had. Pulling her hands down, she grabbed onto to Danni's leg
and lifted, throwing the RSI stable leader off balance. Danni
tried to spread her other leg out and stay upright, but Sophia's
move had caught her off-guard. She toppled over and landed with
a thud. Immediately, she rolled onto her back and tried to
skitter away. But, Sophia was on her before she had the chance.
Danni brought her arms up in front of her, preparing to fend
off the onslaught she knew was coming.
Suddenly, Sophia grabbed hold of her left wrist, wrenching it
upward as she tried to straighten Danni's arm out. Danni knew
what was happening, but it was far too late to do anything about
it. Sophia spun to her right... passing the entangled arm
between her legs as she seated herself beside Danni. With her
legs extend over Danni's body, she simultaneously pulled the arm
away while flexing the elbow over her right thigh.
Within seconds, Danni reached up with her free hand and tapped
Sophia on the leg.
Confused, Sophia let herself go slack and c*cked her head at her
friend.
Danni smiled as she saw the look on Sophia's face.
She doesn't even know what she did.
"Let go of my arm, stupid," she said finally.
That's when Sophia realized what had just happened.
She released Danni's arm as quickly as she could and sat up.
"Holy sh*t, did you just tap out?"
Briana was possibly as stunned as Sophia. "I think she had a
nervous twitch and accidentally whacked you on the leg."
Danni sat up, a bemused grin stuck on her face. She couldn't
ever remember being happy to have lost before, and the feeling
was hard to get used to.
"She told me to let go," Sophia shouted behind her to Briana, to
confirm the submission as much to herself as to Bri.
"Oh," Bri offered with a little giggle. "Well, we'll mark that
one down to you then. Want me to get the scoreboard out?"
Sophia turned to give her friend another shake of her head and a
roll of her eyes.
She turned back to Danni, looking a little stunned still. "Um...
how did I do that?"
Bri's voice rang out again. "I think you finally got out of
Danni's head and paid some f*cking attention. Either that, or
Danni got tired of winning."
Sophia gave a thoughtful look to the welterweight champ. "Bri's
right, huh? I did what felt right instead of what I expected to
be right."
"Not only that," Danni said with a wry smile, "you caught me
guessing, you little b*tch."
The Den leader seemed to zone out a little, thinking deeply as
everything Danni had said started to clarify in her mind. And
then, things started to make sense. All the little things she
had done wrong in matches past, in the previous bouts with
Danni, she could see where they had all gone wrong.
She switched back to Danni abruptly and smiled. "Thanks. You
don't know how much I owe you for this."
"Good lord," came Bri's voice again. "Should I get the violins
and tissues out?"
Danni leaned to her left, looking around Sophia and setting her
gaze on Briana.
"You wanna come in here and give me a shot?" she asked.
Briana shrugged and smirked. "Nah, I wouldn't want to embarrass
you."
Danni laughed out loud, then turned back to Sophia.
"I like her," she said, plenty loud enough for Bri to hear.
"She's got a lot of... something."
"Charisma? Charm?" Bri shouted through the cage.
"Cheek," Sophia shouted back. "Probably cheek."
"I spend most my days with you. Someone's gotta be the life of
the party," Briana said, poking out her tongue.
Laughing, Danni stood and stretched her exhausted frame.
"That's enough for today," she said.
"Awww," Sophia teased. "Don't be a sore loser."
Danni shot her a disdainful look. "Don't push it," she said.
Then she put on a big, toothy smile and added, "After all...
you've still got tomorrow to look forward to."
"Oh, right," Sophia said.
"And I'm bringing the scoreboard along," Bri chirped, poking out
her tongue again. "It might be harder being c*cky when you can
see the single digits next to the triples."
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