Helping those in need.

The reason that I came back to the realm of the living… Jennie thought to herself, while wandering through the ship’s corridors until she reached the elevator. She was wearing an oversized hoodie, leggings, and flip-flops; a bit overdressed for someone on a cruise ship as she seemed to notice that people were pretty quick to switch into their bathing suits… Jennie scoffed, and while she meant to say these next words in her head, she spoke them aloud, “Probably in a hurry to get to the sun deck. Like you can’t see someone naked on the internet.” She said and rolled her eyes. She stepped into the elevator and tapped the close doors button frantically before letting her finger hover over the buttons. She glanced at the cruise ship’s map which showed where the catering was, and pressed that button.

To wish my sister a happy birthday, and where is she? Probably getting those routine spankings from Jason… Jennie thought again, and rolled her eyes at the mere thought. The elevator stopped on the next floor up, and in walked another person that Jennie was more familiar with; JC Keeton. She smiled, beaming ear to ear upon seeing him… She wasn’t the type of person to get infatuated by any man or woman, and rather did enjoy her freedom, but there was something about JC that just clicked with her.

“Hey, Jennie.” JC said pleasantly.

“JC!” Jennie answered excitedly. Keep it cool. She thought, and then instinctively cupped her hand over her mouth and huffed out a breath to check her own. Shouldn’t have had those pickle chips. She thought again and grumbled. She couldn’t help but notice that JC Keeton appeared dressed and ready to go to the pool… She bit her bottom lip while trying not to make it obvious that she was checking him out. “Going to the pool?” Stupid! Stupid! Of course he’s going to the pool! She hit herself in the head, which caused JC to give her a questionable look.

“Oh, umm. Yeah. I figured before the event kicks off, I can relax there with Dizzie.” JC answered and focused back forward to the doors.

Jennie appeared to frown over the mentioning of Dizzie, but kind of slumped back against the wall while waiting for the elevator to get to the first stop. JC’s stop would be first, as catering was on the top deck with a sky window.

“I think it’s good that you stepped in to help Chelsea out.” JC said.

“I mean… yeah! That’s how I do!” Jennie replied while flashing a few gang signs.

“Good luck.” JC continued.

“You too…” Jennie said with a forced smile, and seemed jittery; as if she had wanted to say something that she just couldn’t say… she wanted to blurt it out. She had no problem blurting out a lot. Why couldn’t she blurt this out? She finally blurted something else out, “I have a title match!”

JC turned back to Jennie, his eyes wide as if to give off an expression that he was impressed, “That’s great! When is it?”

“Oh. It’s coming up. I can't really give you the when or where... but it's pretty much a sure thing.” Jennie said, and pursed her lips together.

“I’ll be rooting for you.” JC said before yet again turning his attention back to the doors in front of him. The elevator skipped the next floor… and the next… JC twiddled his thumbs as the silence was deafening around Jennie before she blurted out what she had intended.

“You never called me.” Jennie said.

JC gave her a questionable look.

“Years ago… I told you to call me, and you never did.” Jennie said with a certain annoyance in her voice that was uncommon with her. She bit her lip nervously as she was truly more concerned that she had insulted JC with that one.

Taken back by what she'd just said JC gave a hesitant response with a bit of a stammer, "It's... complicated." he paused trying to judge her reaction which was one of disappointment, "It's not you, the timing was just never right. I knew you were a little flirty but I didn't realize you still remembered me even saying that. I hope this doesn't affect our friendship ‘cause I truly value that. You're an incredibly cool chick but I've got a baby now and I want to do everything I can to make things work with her Mom. I hope you understand."

Jennie shrugged at JC. Her face had turned a bit red… She still had more to confess to him.

“I mean, I liked you. I thought you were cute. I did want more, but--” Jennie stifled, and kind of leaned back. If the wall wasn’t there, she would fall through it, “--you know what, it’s fine.” The ding is heard indicating they were at the floor where JC was going. “I’m good. You’re good. We’re good. Nothing is changing. You’re still my homie.” She said with a half-hearted smile. “Go make things work with her.” Jennie insisted. She held up the peace sign toward JC, and pursed her lips together again as JC did walk out of the elevator; it seemed as if he wasn’t sure if he should stay or go, but he knew he had a baby and baby mama to make things right with. The doors closed behind him, and Jennie let out a heavy sigh.

She buried her face into her hands for a moment but was careful not to smear her make-up while the elevator began going up again. “Get it together, Jennie! Get it together! You have an image to maintain! A match to win! And a title to win!” She tried to motivate herself and sniffled while trying to keep her composure. But she couldn’t erase the reddened cheeks, or even get rid of her puffy eyes. The door opened and she lowered her head; there was still a skip she had in her step… something she did to try and mask the sadness and just appear to be normal. Fun. Unphased. Cool.

She took a plate while skipping by, and went straight for the mountain of tortilla chips and just as promised: there was a fountain resembling that of a waterfall, but with queso cheese dip running down before circulating back through. Jennie held the plate out over it when a voice came in from behind, “You’re going to want more than that! The trick is to drown the chips!” Vhodka was the one who reached her arm from behind Jennie, and smothered the chips in enough queso that you couldn’t even tell there were any chips. “That’s better!”

“Thanks!” Jennie said with her eyes wide. Her eyes were still puffy, and her face was still red, so she tried not to make eye contact for too long.

The sadness did not go unnoticed by Vhodka, and she put an arm around Jennie’s shoulder to give her a partial hug, and said, “If you eat enough nacho cheese eventually it will fill in all the cracks of your heart, little one.” Jennie nodded her head, and Vhodka seemed to be guiding her along to one of the empty tables. There were a lot of people that had already made their way to check out the buffet. Vhodka sat down across from Jennie. “Do you want to talk about it?” Vhodka finally asked.

Jennie shook her head and dug her finger into the nachos to retrieve one of the chips that had already become soggy from the amount of cheese that had drenched it.

“Not really.” Jennie finally answered before eating the chip, and Vhodka took a chip from her plate to do it. She shrugged in exchange.

“We don’t have to.” Vhodka said while licking her fingers clean from the cheese. “What about your match, though? Do you want to talk about your match?”

About my match… Jennie pondered, as she tapped a finger against her chin. She didn’t realize that it had cheese on it, and only realized it afterward; Vhodka was already handing her a napkin. Jennie accepted and wiped her chin before answering, “I mean, I just heard that Skyeson was on the fritz… again… and Chelsea needed a last minute replacement, and yeah, there were some people that offered to help her out, but I wanted to throw my name in the hat, too! That’s what I did. I threw my name in the hat, and just like in the Goblet of Fire, it came out, and I was Chelsea’s partner! I even came up with a fancy new name for us--” Jennie spoke rather quickly, as if she were rambling, “--SKYE FENIX! That’s so much cooler than Skyeson, don’t you think? Just like… one-hundred COOLER than Skyeson because, well… Duh!” Jennie said and rolled her eyes, while stretching her arms out as if to put herself on display, “I’m part of it! That already makes it cooler. A lot cooler than some guy who thought that mullets were fashionable. What self-respecting person has a mullet in this day and age?”

Vhodka seemed to ponder it for a moment, but before she could answer, Jennie already resumed her own speech, “NOBODY!” She exclaimed and slammed her fists down onto the table causing the silverware to rattle against the table’s surface.

“Not one person has a mullet, and you know why? Because they’re stupid! Stupid! Stupid! STUPID! And can you believe my partner dated that? Like… he didn’t even look good…” She rolled her eyes again, while leaning against her elbows on the table. Vhodka is picking at Jennie’s nachos, and nodding her head in agreement while Jennie isn’t giving her a moment to get a word in.

“And these two people we’re facing? COME ON! They’re hanging out with another one of those loonies that likes to paint her face up, and think that she’s something big! I just beat TWO--” Jennie held two fingers up toward Vhodka, “--of them at PWV with the help of…” There was a brief stutter because of her recent exchange with JC Keeton. She didn't want to share the name of the person that was causing her grief... not his fault; she couldn’t keep herself from pursing her lips together at the thought of JC, but she was able to quickly pick herself back together and resume as if nothing had happened, “Well, who helped me isn’t important! The important part is that WE WON! We beat those two girls that liked to paint up their faces, talk all big and bad, like they’re Samara Morgan or something.

But we’re not facing someone who paints their face up… We’re not facing anyone who has that big bad talk, that big bad face, or the edgelord mentality that most Reaper mains on Overwatch have! We have the lackeys. The people that are taking orders. These two ladies… Danae and Kassandra… they probably only signed up to be a part of this because they wanted to send some deluded message to the rest of the industry! Blah blah blah, we are legion, blah blah blah, for we are many, blah blah blah, my make-up runs, blah blah blah, do my bidding. Okay, PALPATINE! I get it! But it doesn’t matter how many Sith you want to send my way, just like what happened with Queenie and Serena, and I’ll just--” Jennie reached a hand forward, and slapped her other hand against it, “--POW! SMACK! SLAP! Knock them right OUT OF MY WAY!”

Jennie looked down at the nachos and sniffled… She was still saddened, but the conversation was taking her mind away from that, and rather onto the task at hand. But she snatched up a nacho from her plate and popped it into her mouth; you couldn’t even hear the crunch from how soggy the chip had gotten.

“That’s the problem with them. That’s what makes them weak! They answer to someone, and you know-- you know my sister, Vhodka! But you know that I don’t answer to her like some people seem to think… Just because I’m the younger Fenix-- really, it’s Docherty, but we love our stage name! Anyways! That doesn’t make me a FOLLOWER like it does for Danae and Kassie. I answer to myself! Me! I! Muah! Yours truly! The one and only!” Jennie cupped her head under her hands, similar to the way she presented herself when she debuted for Fight, “The younger, quirkier sister, who has a lot more to give this industry than people give me credit for! I look up to my sister. I love my sister. But I am not my sister.”

Vhodka merely nodded again, while still picking away at the nachos.

“I handle my own problems. I fight my own fights! And there was some part of me, some part that just really wanted to come back and enjoy my sister’s birthday with her… no doubt, that was what brought me back. But this is a charity cruise, right? It’s about helping others, right? Right! Well, that’s what I did. That’s what I saw. I saw that I needed to help Chelsea Skye against these two lackeys. Like… Chelsea doesn’t deserve what happened to her. Nobody deserves to go through what she did, and I just thought that she could use some help… Someone in her corner that she knows isn’t going to screw her over like that bastard did. And more importantly, someone to send these two skanks back to the gutter they crawled out of and they can inform that prissy boss of theirs that they failed. And--” Jennie reached forward for another chip, “--It’ll totally get me ready for my…”

Vhodka shot forward, and raised a cheese covered finger to Jennie’s lips before blurting out, “Lalalalala! Shh! HUSH! Ex-nay-on-that-information-nay!” Jennie nodded as if she understood. “Just focus on this match. This one! I know you’re going to make Fight proud and walk out with a big win in the name of charity.”

There was a moment of silence between them, and then Jennie suddenly gasped. "O-M-G! Your beanie is in my room! We have to go get it!"

"Nachos first." Vhodka insisted.

Jennie didn't argue with the statement, and just shared the plate of nachos with Vhodka. Her match for the cruise was coming up in a couple hours, and if she had anything to say about it, Skye Fenix would be walking out with their first victory.