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#Post#: 1410--------------------------------------------------
The Friendship Test - Chapter 21 - The End of the Beginning
By: Dragons Den Date: April 14, 2015, 3:19 am
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The Friendship Test - Chapter 21 - The End of the Beginning
Danni looked hopeful.
Briana looked confident.
Steph looked... Steph-ish.
But, Sophia looked worried.
She hadn't felt this way only a few days before. Her training
had been going well. It hadn't taken very long for her to work
out her issue with the combination. There was something about
Danni repeatedly punching her in the face that helped inspire
her to fix that one quick. Once that was settled, she started
to gain confidence, little by little.
They key to it, surprisingly enough, was Stephanie McMahon. No,
she hadn't magically turned in to Sophia's biggest supporter.
Instead, she remained exactly the same, day after day. McMahon
showed absolutely no interest in bolstering Sophia's confidence.
She focused exclusively on the tangibles... technique, strategy
and execution. When Sophia got things right, Steph told her so.
When she got things wrong, Steph told her so. And she did it
all in the same even-keeled, matter-of-fact manner in which she
did everything else.
At first, Sophia was put off by Steph's seemingly uncaring
approach. Having to stand there and listen as her faults were
methodically diagnosed and enumerated was not an easy thing to
do. As the days went on, however, the wrongs slowly turned to
rights. Each day, Steph seemed more and more satisfied with
what she saw from Sophia.
Meanwhile, with Sophia and Bri focused completely on the primary
goal, Danni often noticed Steph looking the opposite way during
breaks in the action... observing the rest of the Dragon stable
as they trained. The more it happened, the more Danni wondered
what was going on. So, one day she sidled up and asked her
directly.
"Taking in the sights?"
"Just looking around," Steph answered.
"I noticed you've been doing a lot of that."
McMahon shrugged.
"They have quite a bit of talent here."
"You thinking about going to work for Dragon, now?"
Steph didn't bother responding to that.
"What are you doing, Steph?" Danni asked more seriously.
The tone of her voice said she knew McMahon was up to something.
"Just thinking it would be interesting to see how some of our
girls measured up to the likes of McAdams and Wozniacki."
Danni considered that cautiously, still not sure where Steph was
headed.
"I suppose," she said finally.
"I'm glad you agree," Steph said softly.
Right away, Danni knew she'd gotten herself in trouble. After
another moment, she suddenly realized what her friend had in
mind.
"Oh, Steph... no."
"Tell me it's not a good idea."
Danni thought about it, then shook her head and said, "I'm not
going to Richelle with this."
Steph gave her a dismissive look. "Don't be such a chicken."
Danni groaned and walked away.
As for the primary goal, even Sophia knew she was making
progress. She began to take the lack of criticism coming from
Steph as a form of praise. She knew, that if there was a
problem, McMahon would have no qualms about pointing it out. So
no news was definitely good news.
Another important benefit to having Steph on board: it freed
Danni up to be exactly the cheerleader Steph refused to be.
While McMahon took up the role of the demanding taskmaster,
Danni was able to work on Sophia's confidence... helping her see
how close she was and smoothing out the edges to make Steph's
critiques easier to swallow.
Briana had always been the one to support and push Sophia in the
past. Sure, she usually did it in her humorous, mocking style.
But, she had always been there. She was there now. And she
would always be there. Sophia never lost sight of how important
that was, or how much she owed her friend. But, having two more
voices in the room... telling her the same things that Bri had
always said... seemed to drive the point home.
Sophia was starting to buy in.
Did she suddenly believe she was on Danni's level? No. Despite
the fact that Danni and Bri continuously insisted that she was,
she knew it wasn't true. Not yet, anyway. With practice,
though, she thought maybe she could be. That was certainly a
start.
What she did believe was that she could finally beat Elodie
Frege.
Only now, watching her nemesis loosen up on the opposite side of
the cage, she wasn't so sure. She could feel her confidence
slipping away as tension and confusion took hold. She suddenly
felt like couldn't remember anything she'd learned... or
anything at all. The harder she tried to focus, the worse it
got. Only minutes ago, she had felt strong and confident as
Danni and Bri had talked her up in the corner. Now, they were
gone and she stood alone... crumbling like a Christmas cookie.
Danni was the first to recognize the look on Sophia's face.
"You've got this, Soph's," she called through the cage.
Sophia half-turned and nodded weakly, her head bouncing absently
like a bobble-head toy.
"Uh, oh," Danni muttered.
"She's losing it," Steph said.
"What do we do?" Bri said.
"Not much we can do," Steph said.
That didn't stop Danni from trying.
"Sophia, look at me!"
Sophia turned.
"You can do this!"
Sophia nodded again then turned back to the center of the cage.
"She's not listening," Steph said.
Bri pulled at her lower lip with her teeth. If Frege wiped the
mat with Sophia again, that could very well be the end of it
all. Her friend might never recover.
She needed to do something.
"Fighters to the center!" called referee AnnaLynne McCord.
"Sophia!" Bri called out.
Sophia slowly turned again.
"Just remember...if it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have
spent that year in college."
You could actually see Sophia's brain stop functioning for a
second.
"WHAT?" she said finally, looking at Bri as if she were nuts.
Bri didn't say anything.
"I'm not gonna wait all day, Bush!" McCord said.
Sophia spun around to find Frege and the ref staring at her from
the center of the cage.
She slowly stepped forward, literally having to will her feet to
move.
"What are you doing?" Danni asked Briana.
"Trying to hit the reset button."
Danni shook her head... utterly clueless as to what Bri was up
to.
Steph, on the other hand, caught on right away.
"Get behind me," she said to Briana.
Steph was a few inches taller and close to fifteen pounds
heavier than the Dragon fighter. Briana was easily able to
disappear behind her.
McCord sent the fighters back to their corners, and Sophia was
immediately looking for Bri.
"Where the hell did she go?" she asked.
Danni shrugged, having no trouble looking totally bewildered.
As usual, Steph's face registered nothing.
Sophia threw her hands up and turned around just in time to see
McCord signal the start of the fight.
Briana slipped out from behind Steph to watch as Danni turned
and addressed them.
"You two are crazy. You know that, right?"
Neither gave anything more than a shrug.
With no more time to think, Sophia put her guard up and closed
on her opponent. The two had a quick exchange at the center of
the octagon, then backed away to regroup.
The pre-fight confusion had pushed everything out of Sophia's
head. She still couldn't remember her strategy, but the fear
and panic were gone, too. She was running on nothing more than
instinct... reading and reacting to what Frege was doing.
Elodie feinted the jab, then tried to end things quickly with a
high, arching kick. Sophia retreated out of range, then snuck
in behind the kick and landed a hard shot to Frege's body.
Angry, Frege stood her ground and pressed forward again. Sophia
never thought about how she should react. As Elodie advanced,
Sophs saw an angle she could work and she took it. She stepped
right, planted and launched a tremendous right hook that looped
out and around Frege's guard. It landed flush and untouched on
the songstress's cheek. Her head whipped right as her eyes
rolled back in her head. Sophia moved to follow, but there was
no need.
Elodie Frege was already unconscious at her feet.
McCord jumped in and pushed Sophia back. The Dragon team leader
offered no resistance. In fact, she gave no indication that she
even saw McCord at all. She just stood there with her mouth
hanging open as the corner personnel rushed in and tended to
their respective fighters.
Briana and Danni came up to Sophia, both beaming. Steph trailed
close behind.
Even she was smiling.
Sophia was still in shock when Briana slung an arm around her
shoulder. "Nice hit, Cap'n," Bri grinned. "And here I didn't
think you'd listened to a thing the three of us told you."
The words barely seemed to register as a confused looking Sophs
slowly turned to face her friend, her jaw still agape. "Hey,
where'd you come from?" she asked Briana. "And when were you in
college?"
Bri shrugged. "I never went to college."
"Don't own a horse either, do ya?" Danni asked.
"Nope," Bri answered.
Danni laughed and shook her head at Bri as she slung her arm
over Sophia's other shoulder. "Starting to believe yet, Sophs?"
Sophia's head turned to face the RSI leader and she finally
smiled. "I think I might have to check the video footage before
that one sinks in."
Sophia continued turning to find Steph also approaching. The
Dragon stable leader's smile slowly broadened. She couldn't help
it. "Thanks," she finally beamed at Steph. "I'm starting to
think you know what you're doing."
"For the record," Bri offered Steph with a wink, "I always knew
you were a genius."
The small smile stayed on Steph's face as she nodded softly to
the two Dragon teammates. She held on Briana for a moment, but
said nothing. Then she nodded again... almost to herself rather
than Bri... and turned to Sophia.
"I think there's one more thing you need to do," she said,
nodding toward the center of the cage.
Sophia looked in that direction. McCord was there, signaling to
both corners. Behind her, Elodie was back on her feet, looking
groggy but otherwise okay.
As they came to center, Sophia stepped across in front of the
referee and put a hand out to Frege. Elodie shook it with a
respectful nod, but she didn't seem too interested in
conversation.
Sophia took her position beside McCord as the announcer's voice
echoed through the sound system.
"Ladies and gentlemen... at the fifty second mark of round
one... the winner, by knockout... Sophia Bush!"
The words rang in Sophia's ears. She did her best to stay
professional, but there was no hiding the huge smile on her
face.
On paper, this was just another fight... two mid-ranked
contenders battling for little more than a win on their record.
But, to Sophia... it just might be the start of something.
Once the activity in the cage broke up, the quartet gathered for
a little celebration in the locker room. It was then that a
thought dawned on Bri.
"Hey," she said, "doesn't this mean the end of our little
collaboration?"
"Aww, she's right," Sophia said sadly. "I've really gotten used
to this. I'm gonna miss you guys."
Danni sighed and looked at Steph.
"Go ahead and tell them, I guess."
Sophia and Briana looked equally puzzled as they regarded Steph.
"What if this didn't have to be the end?" Steph said.
"What?" Sophia said.
"What are you talking about?" Briana asked.
As Steph explained, Danni's mind moved ahead to the conversation
she and Steph were going to have to have with Richelle tomorrow
morning.
She rubbed her face with both hands and groaned again.
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