All That Still Matters

Daphne stared at her suitcases, trying to figure out what else she needed to pack. She had more than she could ever need in the two weeks for the Olympics, but she wanted to be ready for any situation. Louie walked into her room, laughing when he saw all of her luggage. "Planning on moving to Vancouver?" he inquired.

"Shut up," Daphne told him. "I just don’t want to leave anything important behind," she explained.

"Daph, all you need is your snowboard and yourself. You don't really need anything else," he told her.

"Is it bad that I'm this nervous right now?" she asked him, pushing her bangs out of her eyes. "What happens if I'm terrible?"

"Well, the whole country will hate you," Louie began, not able to keep from laughing. "But, I'd still love you," he added, putting an arm around her. It'd been months since Louie had first told her he loved her, and Daphne still got butterflies in her stomach when she heard him say it to her.

"Well, you're the only one that matters," she said sarcastically. "Have you seen Piper today?" she asked, changing subjects. "She seems to be in one of her moods again. I have no idea why, but it seems worse than she has been," she said, closing her suitcase and zipping it up.

"Did she see Mase?" Louie asked, knowing that Piper always seemed to be moody after a run-in with Mason. Daphne shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I'd go with that because you know that's how she gets after seeing him."

"It's weird," Daphne mumbled. "They were so happy when they were together. And, now it's like they can't stand each other. I just wish she'd tell me what happened between the two of them this time."

"You can't worry about that now," Louie said, looking at the pictures of Daphne with her friends that lined her walls. "You've got more important things to be concerned about right now, like the fact you're going to the Olympics," he told her with a smile.

"What happens if I mess up?" she asked.

"Are we back to this, Barbie?" he asked as Daphne glared at him for the use of that nickname. "You'll do great, I promise," he said, giving her a kiss.

***

Daphne sat on the airplane headed for Vancouver with Piper sitting to the left of her. Louie sat in the row behind her next to Scotty Lago, who was currently taking random pictures that he planned to post on the internet later. Daphne was listening to his ridiculous conversation with Louie about how the world would be better off if clouds were made of cotton candy when she heard Piper call her name. She turned her head to look at her, wondering what she wanted.

"There's something you might want to know before we get to Vancouver," Piper began, and Daphne's stomach immediately dropped, knowing that whatever Piper was going to say wasn't going to be good news. She stared at her, waiting on her to continue. "Katrina's going to be at the Olympics," she finished rather quickly, rushing her words together.

"What?" Daphne cried, not wanting to see Katrina. She had hoped that she could get by the rest of her life without ever seeing Katrina again, after she had caused Daphne to nearly ruin her relationships with both Piper and Louie. "Why?"

"What's going on, Barbie?" she heard Louie ask from behind her.

Daphne craned her neck around to look at her boyfriend. "Katrina's going to be at the Olympics," she told him, and Louie said nothing in reply. "You knew?" she questioned, knowing exactly what his silence meant.

"Sorry, Barbie, but is it really that big of a surprise that she's competing for Finland? She's probably the best female snowboarder the country has," he told her.

Daphne leaned her head back against the seat, groaning. "I just didn't want to see her ever again in my entire life," she whined.

"You'll be fine," Piper assured her. "I just wanted to give you the heads up."

***

As they made their way towards the Olympic Village, getting ready to find out where they would be staying for the next few days, Daphne slung her bag over her shoulder once again, sighing because it kept falling. "What time is that interview at?" she asked Piper.

"Three," she answered. "You've got plenty of time. It's barely even noon right now. You can go eat lunch, relax a little, and then go to the interview," she told Daphne, who appeared to be extremely stressed out at the moment. "Just calm down."

"Yeah, calm down, enjoy the moment," Louie interjected. "If you stress out too much about everything, you're not going to get to enjoy the time you have here. Remember, Barbie, you're here to do what you love. No need in worrying about that," he told her with a smile, putting his arm around her shoulders.

She glanced up at him. "Can you please stop calling me Barbie?" she asked.

Louie shook his head. "Nope, sorry. But as long as you have that color hair, you'll be Barbie. Hell, even after you don’t have that hair color anymore, you'll still be Barbie," he grinned.

"I hate you," Daphne muttered.

"Love you, too," he told her, kissing her on the cheek before speeding up to catch up to Scotty.

"He's right, you know?" Piper said. "About worrying too much. You can't do that to yourself. You'll burn yourself out before you even compete. Just have fun while you're here," she smiled at her, just as they reached where they were going to be staying.

"Yeah, I know," Daphne nodded her head, waiting to figure out which room she was in.

Twenty minutes later, Daphne was sitting in her room that she was sharing with Kelly Clark. Piper was in some other part of the housing area since she was there as a coach and not an athlete. Kelly wasn't there right now, and Daphne was digging through her clothes, trying to figure out what to wear to her interview. She heard a knock on the door, and she abandoned her suitcase for the moment to go answer it. "Wanna go eat?" Louie asked as soon as the door was opened. He and Scotty walked inside, and Louie bounced around like a little kid, and Daphne couldn't help but smile at him.

"I need to change first," she said, motioning down towards the clothes she had on, the same ones she had been wearing all day while they had been travelling.

"Okay, well change, and let's go eat," Scotty told her.

"I don't know what I want to wear," Daphne groaned, going back to her suitcase.

"Barbie, seriously?" Louie asked with a laugh. "You're now stressing about what to wear? Where's my girlfriend, the one that didn't care this much about the way she looked every second of every day? Did the dye take her away?" he joked, playing with Daphne's hair.

"Shut up!" Daphne swatted his hand away. "I just want to make a good impression."

"You'll make the impression on the pipe. Not by what you wear to an interview. Just throw some Team USA clothes on, and let's go. I'm starving!" Louie whined.

Daphne grabbed a USA Snowboarding t-shirt out of her suitcase, along with a pair of jeans, as she travelled to the bathroom to change. "I need to call Piper, too," she called out, speaking loud enough to make sure both Louie and Scotty could hear her through the closed bathroom door. "See if she wants to come to lunch."

"I already did that," Louie informed her. "She said to go without her."

"Really?" Daphne asked. "Why?"

"No idea. She must have better plans!" Louie replied. "Maybe she met some guy and wants to have lunch with him instead," he added jokingly as the bathroom door opened and Daphne came back out.

"Unless that guy's Mason then I don't care," Daphne told him.

"Whatever happened between those two?" Scotty asked as the three of them began walking out of Daphne's room.

"Your guess is as good as ours," Louie told him.

"Yeah, we have no idea what happened this last time, but it seems to have broken them up for good," Daphne agreed.

"Good, maybe I've got a chance with her now," Scotty joked.

"Nah, dude, no way," Louie shook his head. "She's still in love with him. Same with Mase. He loves her. They're just too stubborn to admit they're wrong and just get back together."

"Where are we going to eat?" Daphne asked suddenly, realizing they were walking down the street but hadn't actually determined where they were going yet.

"Where do you want to go?" Scotty asked, looking at the other two.

"McDonalds?" Louie suggested, that being the only place he knew around there to eat. The other two nodded, not knowing where else to go either, and the three headed towards that restaurant.

By the time they had reached McDonalds, their conversation had turned to some up-and-coming rapper who Louie had taken a liking to. "He is not going to be the next Jay-Z!" Daphne exclaimed, having heard the person's demo a few days ago when Louie had forced her to listen to him.

"Yes he is!" Louie exclaimed.

Daphne opened her mouth to argue when a familiar face appeared in front of her. "Oh my God!" she yelled. "What are you doing here?"