PART ONE
JUNE 9, 2003
Michelle Prinston wiped the sweat off of her brow, tucking a strand of hair that had fallen from her ponytail behind her ear. Putting a WWE set together was not an easy job. It was extremely hard work, and it wasn't exactly fun either. Then again, Michelle *was* a WWE employee, and that meant she was one step closer to her *real* dream, being a WWE Superstar. Her job as a ring and set constructor came about around a year ago. She had been working in a law firm and was doing fairly well as an attorney, but then the firm buckled out of nowhere, leaving her jobless. That was when she put in a phone call to her old high school friend Trish Stratus. She told Trish that she didn't want to sound desperate, but she really needed a job. She asked the blonde to approach Vince about possibly hiring her. She had prior ring training, so she knew how to wrestle. Trish put in a word to Vince who, after heavy persuasion on the Canadian diva's part, decided to hire her after all. However, he said that there was no way he would hire her as a wrestler merely on the recommendation of a high school friend. He explained that the only real opening he had was in the ring crew, specifically the Raw ring crew. Though it wasn't what she really wanted, Michelle hadn't expected to be offered a job at all, so she graciously accepted his offer. And now, here she was, assembling a ring she hoped to one day wrestle in.
"Hey Michelle," a voice called, catching her attention.
"Yeah?" she asked, turning to face Tony, another crew member, her supervisor.
"Why don't you take a break? You look exhausted," he suggested, adjusting his baseball cap. Michelle smiled, nodding in agreement as she broke from her work and stood. Tony was the sweetest guy, and a great man to have as a supervisor. He had been putting WWE rings together for over twenty years, and he had rarely seen women working on the crew. He had a huge amount of respect for her for that, and he often checked on her during the course of the day to see if she was alright.
"Okay… thanks Tony," she agreed, heading up the ramp to the backstage area.
As she walked up the ramp, she couldn't help but imagine what it would be like to be doing so during a show. She inhaled deeply, imagining a crowd on its feet, cheering wildly for her. It would be awesome to experience that for real one day. She wiped the sweat off her forehead one more time, stepping back through the curtain. As she made her way through the backstage area, she nodded hello to a few of the wrestlers. Being friends with Trish Stratus had really helped her make friends with some of the WWE Superstars. She had fit right in and with Trish's help had been accepted by all of them as family. She sighed tiredly, thinking of finding a place where she could lay down for a little while. She continued on the down the hall, laughing when Shane Helms walked by her and stuck his tongue out at her. She shook her head, saying hi to him before walking by.
"Hey Chelle, wait up!" a female voice called. Michelle turned around, smiling tiredly when she saw Trish coming towards her, with Stacy Keibler close behind.
"Hey guys," she said, waving to the two blonde women.
"Hey, you done working already?" Trish asked curiously, eyeing her friend. Yawning loudly, Michelle nodded.
"For now… Tony told me to take a break. I'm really wiped out. Hey, do you guys think I could use your locker room to take a nap or something?" she asked hopefully. The two women nodded.
"Sure," Stacy said. "I doubt the other girls would mind. We were just headed there anyway, just come along with us." Michelle nodded, walking along with the two girls. After turning a corner and going down one more hall, they finally reached the Women's Locker Room. They went inside and shut the door, not noticing the three men standing across the hall.
Once they were inside, the three of them said hello to Lisa Moretti and Terri Runnels. Then, they made their way to the back of the room. Trish and Stacy flopped down in arm chairs, while Michelle walked over and took a seat on the leather couch. They sat quietly for a few minutes, the three women talking about nothing in particular. Then, Trish's cell phone rang, and when she answered, it was Vince McMahon. She spoke briefly with the Chairman, and then hung the phone up.
"Shit… Stace, we have to go. We were supposed to be in the ring ten minutes ago. Fit is down there and so are the rest of the girls. Sorry Chelli, but we have to leave. You can just wait here, and take a nap if you want," she said, shaking her head.
"Okay, that's cool. I'll see you in a little while then," Michelle nodded, resting back on the couch. She waved as the two blonde women made their way out of the room, pulling the door closed behind them. Michelle sighed tiredly, laying back and closing her eyes. Within minutes, the exhaustion overcame her, and she was fast asleep.
OUTSIDE THE LOCKER ROOMRandy Orton stood perched up against the wall in the hallway, talking with Shawn Michaels and Andrew Martin. The three men had been standing there for a good twenty minutes talking, mainly about hockey, and Randy's recent return from a foot injury.
"Let's see if you can make it more than a month without hurting anything," Drew said jokingly.
Randy shook his head, laughing quietly. He had been particularly unlucky in the injury department as of late. He had really messed up his shoulder awhile back, an injury he was still rehabbing today. After surgery and months of waiting, he had finally been medically cleared to wrestle again. It seemed as thought he'd be doing great… he was stronger than ever, and Vince decided to put him in a stable with Triple H Ric Flair, and Dave Batista, which would no doubt be good for his career. Everything seemed to be going his way, until one night at a house show. In a match with the Dudley Boys, he, Dave, and Bubba all botched a move, causing them to tumble down to the ring. Dave had suffered the worst injury, tearing a tricep that he later re-tore during rehabilitation. Bubba had only had a minor back injury and returned after a few weeks, but Randy on the other hand had broken a toe. The bone hadn't just snapped, but his whole toe had been completely snapped up into a 90 degree angle from his foot. That injury was agonizing. He couldn't walk for weeks without going through excruciating pain. What was even worse than the physical pain was the mental torture it put him through. He had just returned from that shoulder injury and had been promised a spot in the lead heel group on Raw, only to be placed back on the injured list a few weeks after.
"I'll try," Randy replied. Shawn shook his head and laughed… the kid had a tough couple of months, and it was definitely good to see him back.
"So, did Vince say they're going to put Evolution back together now?" he asked out of curiosity. Randy grinned, nodding proudly.
"Yup… I'm so excited about that, getting the chance to be with those guys, especially Ric. It's awesome," he said happily. The men continued talking for awhile, and after a few minutes, the conversation went kind of dry.
"Okay, now that we're done talking about everything else, I have a question," Randy said.
"What is it?" Drew asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he eyed the younger man curiously.
"Who was that girl that walked into the locker room with Stacy and Trish?" he asked, his glance moving over to the door that the two aforementioned divas had just walked out of.
"What girl?" Shawn asked. Neither he nor Drew had seen the woman, so they had no idea what he was talking about.
"That girl that just went in the locker room with them… she was about 5'7", her hair was pulled back and she had a hat on," he said, trying to think of more. He hadn't gotten a chance to look at her that intently, but he was intrigued by what he saw. She was a very pretty girl, and even though he had only had a moment to look at her, he found himself wondering about her.
"I don't know man," Drew said, shrugging his shoulders.
"You know," Shawn said, a thought occurring to him. "I'll bet it was Michelle… she hangs around with Trish a lot. And Randy's been out so much over the last seven months that he's probably never met her." Drew nodded in agreement.
"You're probably right… Chelli's always with Trish, they go back to like middle school or something like that," he said. Randy raised an eyebrow.
"Chelli?" Randy asked. "You know her too? What is she, a new diva or something?"
"Nah, she works with the ring crew, believe it or not. She could be a diva though, and I think she will be someday," Drew replied. Yeah she could, Randy thought to himself. Then, he wondered why a woman would be working in the ring crew. It had to take a lot of mental and physical toughness to do a thankless job like that. Randy stared at the door to the locker room, thinking of how it was the only real barrier between him and this intriguing new girl.
"I'm gonna head to the catering room, I'm starved. You guys coming?" Shawn said suddenly, rubbing his stomach.
"Yeah, let's go," Drew agreed, following him as he turned away. A few moments later, both men turned back, noticing that Randy was hadn't moved. He was still standing where they had been talking, and he was still staring at the door.
"Yo Randy, let's go!" Drew called, snapping Orton out of his daze. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, following after the two men.
"Okay, I'm coming!" he called back. Randy walked down the hallway after the two men, turning to sneak one last glance at the Women's Locker Room door. He didn't know what it was about this Michelle woman, but he suddenly found himself very interested in finding out.
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