Infatuation
"So where are we going again?" asked Jeff through a yawn. He was sitting in the car next to his brother Matt who was driving. Their friends Adam Copeland and Jay Reso were in the backseat wondering the same thing. They had all been woken up early, on their only day off that week to go have a meeting with Vince.
"Vince said that he needed to talk to us about what's going on at the next pay-per-view," said Matt not taking his eyes off the road, "Think he's trying to top the last one?"
"Probably, you know how Vince is, always trying to outdo everything and everyone. That's how he is so he expects us to be the same way too," said Jay shaking his head and wondering what Vince had up his sleeves this time.
"You know ya still haven't answered my question," said Jeff not even trying to hide the annoyance in his voice.
Matt laughed and said, "Sorry little bro, I forgot you were still here." The guys laughed along with Matt while Jeff glared at his older brother.
"Ha fucking ha! Seriously where are we going?"
"Where do you think he would want to meet us? I'll give you a hint, him being in one isn't really normal of him," said Matt while grinning, knowing that he was getting on his brother's nerves.
"It's too early for this Matt; just give me a straight god damn answer!"
"Jeff it's almost one, that's not even close to being early," said Adam who was clearly amused. Jeff groaned, he probably thought it was too early because he had a long night of partying with the others.
After the guys were done laughing at him Matt said, "He said to meet him at some local gym in the area." Jeff nodded and went back to blankly staring out the window and watching the Texas landscape roll by.
"Who else besides us is going to be there?" asked Jay after a moment of comfortable silence.
"I'm guessing everyone that has a belt or that was involved in the last one. Like Paul and his gang, Chris, Mark, Glenn, Dwayne, Rob, and Amy said she'd meet us there too. Hmm…let's see who else..." He trailed of for a second and was about to go on when Adam interrupted.
"Wait. Do you mean that Vince is actually going to have Paul and Chris in the same room as each other? What is he nuts? They're going to kill each other. Chris is still sore about losing last week." Matt shrugged and they all kept quiet for the rest of the ride.
They pulled into the parking lot and got out of the car. They were shocked to see this huge professional looking building in such a rundown town like the one they were in. They walked in and looked around surveying the place. The front desk was empty, that was probably because the place was supposed to be closed down for the day.
Loud music could be heard blasting from the back and the boys decided to follow the sound. They entered a large room with exercise equipment along with a ring in the middle of it. But what really caught their eyes was a girl about 5' 7" with straight shoulder length dark blue hair with electric blue tips pulled back into a high ponytail wearing baggy black pants and a black sports bra, with her back to them working out, throwing punch-kick combos at a punching bag. They were so enthralled with watching her that they didn't even notice when the others started arriving.
"You'd think they never saw a girl before," said Chris while shaking his head. He saw that she was having a similar effect on the others also. 'She's pretty good.' He thought while getting caught up in her motions.
"Anika always seemed to have that affect on people," said Mark with a grin on his face as he caught the knowing glance from his 'brother' Glenn, who was purposely keeping quiet.
This caught the guys' attentions, they turned to look at him and Jeff asked, "How do you know her?"
"She owns this place, I live around here, I have to workout sometime you put it together," he answered half truthfully. He knew he wasn't fully honest in his reply, but he wanted to see what they would say about her before they knew what he knew.
The music turned off as she was in mid-spin kick, she stopped the kick mere inches before it actually connected and turned her head to face the culprit and raised an eyebrow at who she recognized to be the wrestler Steve Blackman current holder of the Hardcore title. "Can I help you?" Anika asked trying to hide the fact that she was a little ticked at being interrupted.
"No not really. I was just a little curious to know why a woman such as yourself would be in here working out like that. Shouldn't you be out waitressing or something and leave this kind of work to the real men."
"That boy's going to get it now," said Mark with an even bigger grin then before. The guys were now even more curious to see what she would do.
"Well Mr. Blackman, not that it's any of your business, but I own this place and if I want to workout in here I will without any snide remarks on your part. And I wouldn't be calling yourself a real man because real men don't need to go around harassing women to make them feel better about themselves. If you want, there's a ring right there, I'll take you on right now, not that I have anything to prove to you, though it would be really fun to kick your ass for that 'waitressing' comment," she said surprisingly keeping her cool through her little speech.
Blackman's response was to laugh at her, "You think you can take me?" She nodded and he said, "Alright then, but don't come crying to me if you get hurt." She shook her head thinking of how much fun it was going to be to put the Lethal Weapon in his place.
They both hadn't noticed the little crowd of WWE wrestlers forming around the ring as they locked up in the middle. Blackman quickly overpowered Anika and roughly pushed her back so she fell to the mat. He started to laugh but she cut him off as she kicked his legs out from under him. She kicked up and landed on her feet (like what HBK does) as he pulled himself up shocked that she actually had some moves.
She smirked and Irish whipped him into a corner. She started throwing chops at his chest making him yelp in pain as they made contact. He countered by kicking her in the stomach pushing her off of him, making her stumble back into the middle of the ring. He ran at her hoping to catch her off guard but she saw him coming and did a spinning back kick that connected with the side of his head, making him stumble backwards into the ropes.
She grabbed his arm and went to throw him into the ropes on the opposite side of the ring but he countered and she went flying into the ropes. She turned around and ran right into a clothesline. While she was lying there he put her into his submission move the Guillotine. "Ah!" she screamed in pain trying desperately to find a way out of it or to the ropes. He asked her if she gave up but she shook her head no. He applied more pressure but still she did not give up.
"Damn, this chick is tough," said Adam impressed that she could actually take on Blackman.
"Not to mention extremely hot," commented Jay with a goofy grin on his face. Agrees went around as Mark thought, 'They won't be saying that after they find out, or at least not where I can hear them.'
Anika was getting drowsy; she knew she had to get out of that hold before she passed out from it. Her being so flexible came in handy at that moment. She arched backwards and kicked Blackman right in the face making him loosen his grip enough for her to break free. She got up quickly while shaking her head to get the blood flowing to it again. She looked over and suppressed a smirk that so badly wanted to show.
Blackman was standing there glaring at her while holding his bleeding nose. She put on an innocent smile before going for another spinning back kick. Blackman caught it and smiled at her 'oh crap' face. He was about to go for an ankle lock when her other foot connected with the side of his head in an Insiguri kick. His vision was a little blurred as he lay there by the turnbuckle.
Anika saw this as the perfect opportunity to go for one of her favorite moves. She got on the top turnbuckle and faced Blackman who was still on the ground. She smirked and jumped forward completing a perfect Shooting Star Press. She pinned him while the staff referee counted one…two…three.
She got up with a victorious look on her face and said, "Next time think before you speak to me or any other woman like that, because there are a lot of them out there that can kick your ass better than me." She turned around and noticed the onlookers shocked faces. She waved and was about to get out of the ring when she screamed, "Daddy!" and jumped off the top turnbuckle into Mark's arms. She hugged him around his neck as he spun her around.
He set her back down on the ground, laughed while she greeted Glenn in a similar way. "It's been five years since the last time I've seen you wrestle and I'm now reminded why I never wanted to get in the ring with you."
"And why's that?" she asked obviously confused at his statement.
"Sweetheart, I just saw you take down one of my fellow co-workers without so much as breaking a sweat, I think that just about says that you can easily kick my ass too if you wanted."
She laughed and said, "Aren't you glad I don't want to kick your ass then?" she smiled as he vigorously nodded. She looked around at everyone and waved, "Ya'll here for the meeting with Vince?" No one answered her, they just looked back and forth between her and Mark. She shot him a questioning look, wondering what was going on. He smiled but said nothing either.
Chris decided to break the silence and said, "Daddy? You're her father? I didn't know you had any kids. Why didn't you tell us instead of letting us go on about her?"
Mark laughed and said, "I don't have any kids. Sara and I adopted Anika here when she was 11. And you all better think twice before talking about my little girl like that again or else you'll have to deal with me."
Anika laughed and said, "Oh really, now what exactly was they saying?"
Mark was all ready to embarrass the heck out of all the guys when Vince interrupted. "Glad to see that everyone's here. Ah, Miss Calloway nice to see you again."
"Likewise," she said unenthused. The guys figured she probably didn't like Vince all too much, which was a safe assumption as she really didn't.
"Did you reconsider my offer?" He asked hopefully.
"Did you change your offer?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No, but—"
"I told you I wouldn't sign that contract unless you took those things out of it. You know this so why do you even bother asking if I've 'reconsidered' it?" They were arguing back and forth completely ignoring the rest of the roster that was present.
"Alright! How about this, I'll let you make your own contract that hopefully we can both agree on," said Vince clearly getting frustrated.
"Fine by me," she said as he handed her his lab top to go write up the contract.
When she was out of earshot Mark turned to Vince and said, "What was that all about?"
"I've been trying to get Anika to sign with us for 4 years now, but every time she turns me down because I won't take out a few gimmick matches, like mud wrestling, from her contract. She has very good storyline ideas that I want to put in motion as soon as possible but I need her on the roster to do it. She's a major part of it and without her it wouldn't work."
Mark laughed and said, "That's a losing battle on your end Vince. She ain't never going to let up on the specifics of her contract, believe me I know."
Vince glared at Mark and said, "I think I've figured that much out." Anika came wandering back to the group and handed Vince back his lab top. She sat on the apron swinging her legs as he read the contract and said, "It's reasonable, but are you sure you wont do any of the diva valet stuff?"
"Well I have an idea for my debut…" she trailed off not knowing if he wanted to hear it or not.
"Go on. I want to hear this," encouraged Vince while the others also listened intently.
"You remember that idea I had about breaking Lita away from the Hardys?" The Hardys and Amy were more interested in this conversation, since it now involved them. He nodded and she continued, "As you know at the last pay-per-view event the Hardys fought with Edge and Christian and were victorious in winning the tag-team belts. Now this Sunday Edge and Christian are both going to be upset at what they call an 'unfair' loss. They end up issuing a challenge to the Hardys for RAW but not for the title, just to prove that they are better then them or more likely since the stipulations to the last match was that they cant ask for another shot at the belts as long as the Hardys still hold the titles.
The Hardys of course accept the challenge. Edge points out that they need someone in their corner incase Lita tries to interfere. Christian says, "I've got the perfect person," and goes to make a call. On Monday night up until the match time, it'll show Edge pacing around the locker room and asking 'Where is she?' and things like that. After the Hardys and Lita are out there Edge and Christian will make there way out there with there newest accomplice.
During the match Lita will try and interfere and I'll stop her. We wont end up having a cat fight or anything. I'll talk to Lita and make a proposition, meanwhile everyone'll be wondering what's going on. The match will end with the Hardys losing because of Lita, and me and her will walk back together. If Coach asks us what happened out there we won't give a reply. The fans'll have to find out when we decide to spill."
Vince had a big smile on his face as he nodded and asked, "And this will lead into that idea you ran by me a while ago?" She nodded and he asked, "But why Lita?"
"There are a lot of reasons that qualify her for it. She's the only other female competitor out there that I actually respect other then Trish and Victoria. I would love to work with her. I think she can handle this type of situation better than most of the women on the roster. An' weren't you tellin' me that you wanted her to go off on her own, instead of bein' with the Hardys all the time?"
He agreed to it and asked Amy if she was up for it. "Up for what exactly? All I know about this little scheme of yours is that I'll be betraying Matt and Jeff and teaming up with her."
Vince nodded and started to explain everything. "This is actually part of the reason I called you all here today. I was hoping to finally get her to sign a contract so we could put this storyline to work. To understand the 'scheme' as you put it you should really understand Anika first. She doesn't wrestle women; she's more skilled than most of the female wrestlers and can take down a male more than three times her size. She refuses to do any gimmick matches like the normal divas do such as: bra and panties, mud wrestling, spanking, and bikini contests—although I've no idea why not..." Vince paused glancing at Anika as he said this.
She spoke up before he got the chance to go on, rolling her eyes at his last statement, "I think it's about time that a female took on a male in the ring where it's not some kind of mixed gender tag-team thing where the females cower before the men."
Vince nodded his head. He really did think this was a good idea, "What's going to be happening is you and Anika will team up during RAW and throughout the next few weeks ruin matches for the Hardys until they confront the two of you about it. You will explain to them that you're sick of helping them win matches while you're getting left behind in the business. Anika will say that she's tired of watching guys get all the glory and different title matches while the women get matches that are just jokes. The guys will laugh at the both of you and make some sexist comment. This gets the both of you angry and that's where you issue the challenge for their belts at the next pay-per-view."
"What?!" screamed Matt and Jeff at the same time. Amy had a huge grin on her face.
She turned to Anika and asked, "You came up with all of this?" She nodded and Amy said, "I think it's awesome. I'm in," before the guys could stop her. Not that they could, they were still too shocked about the whole idea to even comprehend what was going on around them.
Anika jumped off the apron and said, "Great! Now all I need is to sign that contract an' this show will be on the road." Vince handed her a pen to write on the screen with and she signed it.
"Finally," said Vince with a relieved look on his face. Thankful that he had finally gotten her to sign with the WWE. A wave of protest and arguing sprang out from everywhere as Matt and Jeff along with the other guys argued that it was a bad idea. Vince shut them up and said, "This is my final decision and nothing any of you can say is going to change it."
"You've got to be kidding me!" said Jeff. "They could get hurt if they got in the ring with us. Other than that it probably won't be that great of a match since they aren't even on our level."
"Yeah, I agree with Jeff. It wont be much of a match, we'll have to hold back to avoid hurting them."
The gym was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. Anika and Amy faced Jeff and Matt and glared at them. "Like I told Blackman, there's a ring right there, an' I'm sure that Amy's up for kickin' ya'lls asses for those comments, not that we have anythin' to prove to ya'll, although like I said, it would be fun."
Amy nodded in agreement and said to Matt, "Anika and I are going to prove you two wrong. We're going to go through with this whether you like it or not. And we're going to be the next and first female tag-team champions."
"Well now that that's over with, let's get down to the other reasons I called you all here today," said Vince trying to stop another would be fight.
"Ya'll have fun now. Dad I was plannin' on havin' a cookout later you should bring mom up. Ya'll can come too if ya want, just ask Mark where it is. Hope to see ya'll there." Anika gave her dad and Glenn a goodbye hug and strolled out of sight.
After a long tiring meeting consisting of arguing and planning the guys finally left the gym. Mark told the guys where Anika's ranch was and that they should all go because she usually doesn't invite people over.
Back at Anika's home she was running around getting everything setup and making sure her house was decent. She got burgers and hotdogs along with fish and all sorts of other things to throw on the grill. She made salads, fruit salads and deserts along with some nice punch. She still had a while before she expected anyone to be there so she decided to go for a nice ride on her bike that she had been to busy to ride for the past week or so.
She put on her racing practice tights and top then hopped on her black motorcycle with red and orange flames running up the sides. She did a few laps in her backyard and went over a couple jumps before actually getting into some tricks. She flew through the air loving the height she was getting and once again completely oblivious to the crowd that was growing.
She finally saw them and decided to be a brat to Matt and Jeff to get them back for earlier. She sped up and went in their direction, she laughed at the scared 'deer in the headlights' look on their faces. A mere two to three feet away from them she skidded to a stop; throwing up the dirt around them in their faces.
She took off her helmet and got off her bike all while laughing at the death glares she was receiving from them. "So glad ya'll could make it," she said innocently. "Make yourselves at home while I go take a quick shower and change. Dad could you throw a few things on the grill, all the stuff is already out there." He nodded with that grin still on his face. "Where's mom?"
"She couldn't make it, she said she was sorry and that she'd come visit sometime." Anika nodded sadly and ventured into the house.
Mark led the guys through the house and out the side door to the deck that had an in ground pool next to it. There were picnic tables and chairs set up everywhere. Next to the pool and deck was a trampoline; Anika most likely liked to jump into the pool from there.
The guys all took a seat while Mark went to go cook. A little while later Anika came back with her hair down dressed in some blue jean shorts, a blue tank top and flip-flops. She quietly crept up behind Mark with something behind her back and a mischievous grin on her face. Everyone laughed as she jumped on his back and threw a chef's hat on his head.
He turned around shaking his head in amusement. She handed him an apron and he shook his head to tell her no. She pouted and he caved in and put it on. This only made the others laugh even more at the sight of Mark, "The Undertaker", in a chef's hat and a 'Kiss the Cook' apron.
She smiled victoriously and sat down beside Amy and Jeff. She stifled a laugh when she looked at Matt and Jeff's dirt covered clothes and faces thanks to her earlier antics.
"What's so funny?" asked Jeff annoyed. He really didn't like this girl and he only just met her. Usually he waited till he knew a person better before making a decision like that, but with her it was different. He had only met her today and already she's managed to insult and humiliate him and his brother, along with getting him covered in dirt.
"Oh nothin'" she snickered and turned to talk with Amy and the others. Jeff and Matt exchanged looks and nodded their heads towards the pool. They got up and stood behind her. She noticed and tilted her head backwards looking a little nervous. 'She should be,' thought Jeff as he grabbed her arms and Matt grabbed her legs. They picked her up and carried her to the pool. "Ah! Put me down right now."
"Nope not going to happen sorry," said Matt as he grinned at his brother. "On the count of three, one…two…ah!" before they could get three out they felt Anika twist her body and throw the two of them off her and into the pool. They reached the surface gasping for air. They were beyond ticked at this point.
Anika laughed as she saw the looks on their faces. "How's the water down there boys?" The rest of the guys were laughing at them as well, as Anika got up and said, "You might as well give up now because there ain't no way you guys'll ever win." She smiled sweetly and went back into the house.
The guys got out of the pool and glared at everyone who was still laughing at them. They walked over to the table and Matt purposely dripped water over Amy. "You pain!" Amy laughed while wiping the water off of her.
Anika came out with two towels and handed them to Jeff and Matt who warily took them and thanked her. She smiled and went off to help Mark with the grill. "I don't get her," said Jeff suddenly gaining the attention of the rest of the group.
"What's there to get? She seems pretty cool to me," said Amy with a confused look on her face. The others quickly agreed with her but Jeff just looked away from them and over towards Anika. She was joking around with Mark and had a huge grin on her face. Unconsciously a similar grin swept across his face. The others saw this and exchanged knowing glances.
The rest of the cookout went by with everyone laughing and getting to know Anika a little more. They learned her full name was Anika Jaye Calloway and that she would be going by the name Ajaye Wylde. She explained that she was friends with A.J. Styles of TNA and he came up with the nickname for her and it just kind of stuck with her.
They learned that she was Hispanic and was actually born in Puerto Rico. This started up a long conversation, in Spanish, with Amy that got them both giggling uncontrollably. The guys knew they were talking about them from the looks they kept throwing back at them. They ignored it and finally got them to talk in English.
Jeff kept quiet for the most part; every so often he would stare at Anika when she wasn't looking. She didn't seem to notice but he knew the others did. He didn't care what they thought anyway, for right now all he wanted to do was stare at her lost in his thoughts about the upcoming RAW.
He was brought out of his thoughts when Matt waved a hand in front of him and said, "Yo little bro come on it's time to go, we have a big day tomorrow." He looked around and noticed that most of the guys were already gone, the only one's who were still there besides him, Amy, and Matt were Adam and Jay who were off talking to Anika.
To him it looked like the guys were flirting with her but he didn't know for sure. What he did know was that he didn't like what he saw. And to top that off she would have to work with them on Monday. He pushed all those jealous thoughts aside as him and the others said their thanks and goodnights.
The ride back to the hotel was torturous. Apparently he was right in his accusations that the guys noticed his little infatuation with Anika. They would not let it go; they made kissy faces and picked on him the whole way there. He of course denied it all but made them promise not to let this get back to her or Mark, who seemed just as clueless. This of course only made them think they were right, but as long as she didn't know about it he couldn't care less what the others thought.