"Bollocks!" Lauren yelled. The door slammed behind her, followed by the sound of a bag of unused gear hitting the floor loudly. Lauren followed this with a round of cursing that might have caused a barful of men to blush for shame.

Penny, home (more or less) over the Christmas holidays, looked up. "What's the matter, love?" she asked gently.

"That little piece of piss, I'm fed up to the back teeth with her."

"We all know she's a problem, Loz, what's the specific one this time?"

"She and the rest of the head-up-the-arse lot finally came to a decision, lame-brained fools. I can play in the States."

Penny grinned. "Well, that's lovely, I'm sure the pedestrians of Seattle are waiting for you to tear down their streets as the only driver going the right way."

Lauren dropped the other shoe, in more ways than one, as she kicked her sneakers under a chair. "She said I was the only one they could afford to let go. No one else. Not Bronds or Tully or Kristi or Vealy-"

"Or me," Penny finished.

"That's the way of it, love."

"I don't have a side anyway, not after Cleveland karked it. I suppose it doesn't matter."

"It matters to me. I can't go there knowing you're here. It's not right, and it's not fair. You deserve to play for someone. And it's not as if she kept her word to Tully and Vealy, anyway; the old chook swore to them that playing back home would, you know, build them up in her eyes, Tully was sure she'd be able to go stateside." Lauren sighed and sat in the general vicinity of the chair she'd put her sneakers under. But she didn't quite make it to the chair, and soon there was a large quantity of Lauren on the floor. "Shite... not my bloody day. Can't it just end already?"

Penny pulled her off the floor and embraced her. "It's all right, love, there's no need for you to chuck a wobbly for me, I can take up my own problems with the hag without you." From the way Lauren's face suddenly went flat and as expressionless as she could make it, Penny realized that she had made a mistake. "Lauren, what did you do?"

Lauren sheepishly looked down at the floor, seemingly fascinated by the weave of the carpet and the lint that was trying to attach itself to her white sock. Penny continued glaring and waiting for an answer. Finally Lauren cracked and mumbled, "tolderiwoulnplaylessyoucoulgostateside."

"You did WHAT?!" Penny cried. "You'd throw away our chance at that gold so I could play in the States? You flaming idiot! I don't have a bloody side, so why should I make a fuss over going there? Do you know what you could've done? Loz, you're the best we've produced, we can't even sniff a medal unless you're in Athens!"

"I don't want a bloody medal unless she gives the lot of youse a fair crack of the whip. It's not like you're going to learn anything from what's left here. Same for Kristi. She's team captain, she's got a place, so why can't she earn a bit of money until the Games start? And you- you're better than the lot of them, better than anyone but me. Any side that can get you should have a fair go at it, so long as they're not in the West." Lauren couldn't bring herself to look straight at Penny, because she knew one of them would be bright red with embarrassment, though she wasn't sure which.

"You still shouldn't have. What's the point? Jan'll do what she wants, she always have. She'll be gone after Athens, they know she can't coach for the life of her. You've been the one pulling her arse out of the fire." Penny pointed at the chair. "Sit. You know how to do that, right?" Lauren stuck her tongue out at Penny and sat in the chair, this time managing to actually sit on it. Penny took a chair behind her and started massaging her shoulders. "How do you get so tense when you're not doing a thing?"

"Because I'm not doing a thing. I need to play, love, even if it means putting on that thing again. If I'm not playing, I don't know what to do with myself. And if you're here while I'm in the States, I'll go mad, I swear I will. Take the car and start mowing down people. Hold someone hostage until they fly you to Seattle or throw Jan off the bridge in Sydney." Little gasps of pain escaped Lauren in between phrases. "Oh, God, how do you do this to me? I can't hold out much longer."

"That's what I was hoping for, love." Penny kissed her on the cheek. "I've got you softened up now so I might be able to handle you."

"Oh?"

Penny gave her a look that no twenty-two-year-old should have been able to fill with so much wickedness. "You know what I mean, love."

"I usually do when you call me love in every sentence, love."

"First one to bed gets the best of the deal?"

"Fuck oath!"