The Weekend Before...

“Shoot, I don't even mind the erotic matches that much,” Caroline said, pushing the bottom rope up and rolling underneath it to get back in the ring. “I just don't want to be in one. Don't want my sex life to be someone else's entertainment.”

Caroline stood up in the ring, taking a seat across from Alaina. While she took a moment to let her body rest for the next round, she hoped the Amazon didn't mind if her rookie sparring partner tried chatting with her a little. “My parents were evangelical, so I wasn't allowed to date or play sports growing up. When I found Friction on a foreign broadcast network that they hadn't blocked, I fell in love with it, including the sexy stuff. Everything rural Tennessee had denied me was right here.”

Feeling her eyes glaze over as her memories came back, Caroline shook her head to clear it and smiled at Alaina. “Even though I watched your matches a lot, I don't know much about you. What was your life like before you started wrestling here?”

Alaina sat back and listened to Caroline as she spoke, nodding and looking her in the eye letting her know that she was listening and taking in everything that Caroline told her. Alaina stretched a bit and sighed. "Compared to a lot of the more colorful people around here, and some of the downright nutty women on the roster I am super boring I guess." Alaina said with a shrug.

She paced back and forth a bit and looked over at Caroline. "I grew up in San Diego and lived out there for a long time. I went to nursing school and was a nurse soon after while doing weight lifting and some fitness competition stuff on the side. I saw a local wrestling show and was in love with it after watching it growing up. I showed up in a swimsuit like this one and demanded to get a shot on their tiny roster. They tried to dissuade me and match me up against a big butterball lady. I slammed her silly using a few basic moves i saw in the show and wrestled local for a year before coming out here in... March of 2014." Alaina said with a smile.

“You may not have any weird gimmicks, but you've been in some of the greatest matches I've watched,” Caroline said, speaking genuinely. It sounded like Alaina had led a fulfilling life off camera as well. Nothing like hers...

“San Diego sounds like a great place to live,” Caroline said, staring up at Alaina with a slightly envious glint in her eye. “I grew up in a small town in Tennessee. Religious community, and my parents were especially strict traditionalists. They raised me to be a housewife, and if wrestling doesn't work out, I bet I could make a living as some rich woman's maid,” Caroline remarked with a dry chuckle. She definitely didn't want to wash out of Friction, but it was impossible for her not to joke about being turned into a maid since so many women in Friction were wealthy enough to hire them, including Gwendolyn, one of Alaina's former rivals.

“I never got to practice wrestling officially until Kei adopted me as a student, but I exorcised whenever I could and studied the sport behind my parent's backs,” Caroline said, grinning as she spoke. Her memory of falling in love with wrestling as a teenager was one of the only happy memories she'd managed to hold on to from home.

Alaina nodded as she took in everything Caroline said. "I had it good, I can't imagine what it is like to be funneled into something and not trying to do something because it was what you wanted to do. I mean my mom and dad were happier because nursing was less likely to get me hurt however they saw how happy I was doing this and they backed me all the way." Alaina said before shaking her head.

"I liked competition and athletics way more than anything else growing up. I just did nursing because my dad is sick, I figured it would help me help him. Originally I was just going to wrestle in the tiny promotion part time while nursing would be my main thing. When I got the contract offer I was about to turn it down. I talked to him about it and he said he would feel awful if staying behind for his sake and told me he would be happier if I really loved what I did so here I am." Alaina said with a sigh. Thinking of what brought her over here made her want to go back home at least for a while. She knew she had to see her dad more, but training coupled with a busy match schedule led to visits being more sparse than she cared to admit.

Caroline's lips pursed for a moment when Alaina mentioned her dad. She was tempted to say something, to offer condolences or ask what was he was suffering from, but she decided not to pry. Alaina wasn't a woman to be pitied, and Caroline wanted this to be an enjoyable day for the both of them.

“Well, I bet it makes him happy to see how far you've come,” the rookie said, stirring as she rose to her feet. “And you did it without letting the struggle or the success turn you into someone like...well, any of the heels you've made a career out of challenging.” Caroline stopped at the compliment, not wanting to make Alaina uncomfortable by sucking up to her too much. Whatever struggles Alaina may have faced behind the scenes, she had stayed a role model for girls like her, and Caroline wanted to be a role model for young girls too.

Stepping into the center of the ring, Caroline stretched her arms and legs. “So, you ready to go another round? I still need to practice my submissions on someone,” she said, flashing a cheerful grin. Hopefully she would be able to keep her body inside the ring for this one!

Alaina stretched out her arms and legs, limbering up again as Caroline expressed an interest in another go-round. "Of course! I am ready whenever you are, but if you think I will just sit there without trying to escape whatever you attempt to put me in you are mistaken." Alaina said with a smile and wink before moving to the center of the ring.

She was going to take this seriously, as Caroline had demonstrated ability as well as drive earlier. Alaina owed her a full effort to maximize their training together. Alaina circled around, her arms up at the ready. Once Caroline appeared to be ready to go herself the amazon would lunge in again, reaching out to try to engage Caroline in a grapple once more!

Since the last round with Alaina had gone off the rails so quickly, Caroline was grateful for another chance to test herself against the amazonian combatant. She was determined to find a way to bring the bigger, stronger woman down to the mat so that she could wrench a submission out of her. It was tempting to ask Alaina to fight her for a submission fall, just to see if Alaina could humble her in the style that the rookie was trying to master.

As the two women came face to face, however, Caroline decided to stay quiet. She wasn't going to tell Alaina how to spar, and it would probably be better practice if the veteran surprised her anyway. Once Caroline got her arms around Alaina, and Alaina's around her, the rookie smiled and nodded. The next round was on!

Struggling against the bigger woman, Caroline quickly remembered that she couldn't overpower the Amazon. Alaina had proven that well enough the very first time the two had locked up with each other. Caroline needed to be slippery, to outmaneuver her and stay out of her grasp if at all possible. Shifting her grip to one of Alaina's arms, Caroline tried to duck underneath Alaina's armpit, coming up behind her to twist the held arm behind her back in a hammerlock, a decent maneuver to start with...

Alaina moved in and Caroline adjusted very well, catching Alaina in a hammerlock! Nothing devastating, but a solid move and one that showed a bit of technique coupled with a good ring presence. She seemed to have a good head on her shoulders and also seemed willing to put the work on to do well enough to stand out from the pack. Both very good qualities to have in this place.

Alaina wasn't going to just let her get away with it though. Far from it in fact. Alaina looked behind her and swung an elbow back at Caroline's head to try to get free of the hammerlock! Alaina would try to send another elbow shot or two back at her head if the first one didn't do the trick, although the amazon wanted Caroline to learn she wasn't going to make it easy for her!

Over the last year, Kelly had done an outstanding job of drilling her student in the fundamentals of grappling. Dozens of lockups between them had resulted in Kelly showing her just about every strategy a woman could take to get an opponent under her control from the outset, and as Alaina tried to free herself from the hammerlock Caroline had one her, those skills started showing themselves.

Caroline saw Alaina look back and recognized the preamble to an elbow strike. When Alaina threw her arm back, Caroline ducked to avoid the hit, trembling as a heavy bicep whizzed over her head. The Amazon didn't stop, and when she swung again, the best counter her rookie opponent could manage was to twist her body away from the hit, angling herself to let her shoulder blade take the hit instead – a pyrrhic victory as her arm shuddered under the aching blow.

Alaina wasn't going to stay trapped like this for long. Caroline did her best, probably better than Alaina expected, but her grip on the Amazon's arm was slipping, so she opted to switch up her offensive. Kicking the back of Alaina's knee to force her to kneel, the wily rookie's hands crept up to seize two handfuls of hair. Falling to one knee, Caroline pulled down on the Amazon with the goal of slamming her head into her opponent's outstretched leg!

Alaina swung and missed, then hit bit not very well. This was a poor start on her part. As her knee kicked and hair was grabbed she was about to find out how much worse her start was going to get!

Her head rocketed back and slammed against Carolina's knee leaving Alaina dazed in a heap as she laid on the mat! She groaned and cradled her head in her hands and she rolled onto her side. Alaina was in bad shape and hurting already, wide open for more of Caroline as offense!