This story is a prequel to my other story "Life is Like Tetris". This one covers Ravyn's early years up through her time in NXT. So if you enjoyed that one, please give this one a try! And if you haven't tried that one yet, consider it :)
"Okay guys, good class," Lance Evers, former ECW, WCW and WWE star, says clapping his hands as he ends the days second training session at Storm Wrestling Academy. "I'll see you all back here tomorrow."
Eighteen year old Ravyn Storm pulls her long purple hair from its hair tie and shakes it out. Her thick mop of tresses cascades around her shoulders like a full lions mane. One hand reaches for her water bottle while the other attempts to control the wild locks. She hits the locker room and grabs her gym bag. On her way back through the concrete warehouse style building Lance waves her over.
"We've got a handful of new students starting tomorrow," the head trainer tells her. "Can I count on you to buddy up with one of them? Show them around?"
The young girl nods excitedly, "Sure Lance. I'll come early to get them settled."
"Knew I could count on you," Lance beams like a proud father as he watches Ravyn leave the building for the day.
Two months into her official training at Storm Wrestling Academy Ravyn is excelling in her classes. She spends every moment, that Lance will allow, at the school. Training in the ring and using the basic gym equipment. Over the last few months she's gained muscles and stamina that she hadn't had before. The first week was particularly hard, but now her body had begun to grow accustomed to the abuse.
The sun is going down as she leaves the school and climbs into her little car. She stops at the one small gas station between the school and her apartment building to stock up on protein bars and ramen soups. She waves a greeting to the shop owner as the young man at the counter rings her out. He places her items in a bag and soon she's back in the car on her way to her temporary home. Or is it her permanent home now?
The moment she turned sixteen Ravyn left her parents home in pursuit of her professional wrestling dream. Though at such a young age no one would even consider training her. She bounced around small towns in Ontario, selling shirts or tickets at the door for local promotions, before deciding that she needed to be in Calgary. Any aspiring wrestler knew that Calgary was the unofficial home of professional wrestling. What had once been the home of the world famous Hart Family now houses the Storm Wrestling Academy. A prestigious wrestling school run by Lance Evers, formerly Lance Storm, who has competed all over the world. Most famously in all three of the biggest promotions in the United States.
She pulls into the run down apartment building that she now calls home and parks her car. Trudging up two flights of stairs she's exhausted by the time she manages to unlock the door. She drops the bag of gas station goodies on the corner of the kitchen counter and heads to the bathroom to start the shower. Once she's clean she makes the mistake of sitting on her bed, which is just a stained mattress on the floor of the single bedroom apartment. The brief moment of downtime is just enough for her to close her eyes and fall asleep. Too tired to even eat dinner.
The next morning Ravyn awakes to one of her neighbors slamming their apartment door and stomping down the hallway to the stairwell. She groans and throws her feet over the edge of the bed, knowing that she won't be able to fall back asleep with the buildings paper thin walls. The bag from the gas station calls her name and soon she's fishing out a protein bar for breakfast. When her meal is settled she gets dressed, stuffs some clean clothes in her gym bag and heads off to Storm Wrestling Academy. Class doesn't start for an hour, but that gives her time to get some solid stretching in.
She waves to Lance and his assistant Rachel as she enters the large cement building. Ravyn walks determinedly across the floor to the women's locker room and tosses her bag into her usual locker, number seventeen. Not quite ready to socialize she pops her earbuds in and plugs them into her iPod. Her workout starts with some warmup cardio and evolves into some light weight training. Worrying more about form than personal records she sets herself up in front of the mirrored wall across from the ring. As she works out she sees some new faces enter the building. They're quickly brought into the office to handle their paperwork. Three current students enter the school shortly after, waving to Ravyn on their way to the men's locker room. She sees Lance look her way and tap his wrist where his watch would be, indicating it was almost time for class to start.
She finishes her set and rolls into the ring after taking a long drink from her nearly shattered old thermos. The three other guys in the class join her in the ring while the new guys sit in the chairs at ringside to observe the first class of the day. Lance introduces the two new students to everyone else and pairs them off with some of the guys in the ring. Ravyn looks at him questioningly. He holds up a hand and she can hear him in her head telling her to hold her horses and be patient. Class begins and she soon forgets about it as they're put to work.
The door opens while Lance has them doing bump drills. Rachel pulls the visitor into the office before Ravyn can get her eyes on them. A short while later a pretty redheaded girl emerges from the office with Rachel and takes a seat amongst the other new students. The first session of the day comes to an end forty minutes later. Sweaty and tired, Ravyn bends over to try and catch her breath. When she stands back up Lance calls her over to the ropes in front of where the new students are sitting.
"Ravyn, I haven't forgotten about you," he says seriously. "This is your new training partner, Jenny. Jenny how was that drive?"
The redhead laughs, "Very long. I only just got in and drove straight here."
Ravyn, instantly on the defensive by the appearance of another female student, steps through the ropes and hops down to the floor, "Come on. I'll show you where our locker room is. You can get changed for the afternoon session before we have lunch." Ravyn takes off towards the locker room, not waiting for the redhead to follow. Footsteps fall into place behind her as Jenny jogs to catch up.
"Are we the only female students?" The new girl asks when she sees the almost empty locker room.
"Yep," Ravyn confirms with a twinge of animosity in her voice. "It's been just me for the last two months. Now it's just us.. For now anyways."
Jenny digs through her bag, not looking up at the purple haired girl, "Yeah. I was the only girl at my last place. At least here they will train you. I had to scratch and claw to get any time in the ring. I'm looking forward to finally getting some good training."
Ravyn, realizing she sounds like a complete jerk, unfolds her arms. "Well, you'll get plenty of that here. Lance is the best. He's honest to a fault, he'll make sure you know exactly what he wants from you," she looks at her locker as her stomach grumbles. Two steps across the floor and she grabs a power bar and takes a bite. "You're gonna wanna eat sooner than later if you're hungry. Otherwise you'll puke. The afternoon session is usually blow up drills."
"I'm good, but thanks," the new girl explains. "I grabbed something on the road while I was driving in."
Ravyn nods as she finishes her protein bar, "So where are you from? Lance said something about a long drive."
"I'm from Kansas," Jenny tells her. "It was a twenty-four hour drive."
"That's a hell of a drive," Ravyn doesn't bother to mention her own long drive, just attempts to stay cordial. "First time in Canada?"
Jenny laughs, "First time in anywhere that isn't Kansas or Missouri."
Ravyn cracks a smile for the first time since meeting the redhead, "Well, let me at least give you the tour of the building before we start round two."
Ravyn leads the new girl on a tour of the school, showing her the locations of everything she would need. Two small locker rooms are located on the west wall. The office and storage room are on the eastern wall, with some gym equipment in front of them. The south wall is mirrored and houses the racks of free weights where Ravyn had been working out earlier. The ring takes up most of the north wall with a smattering of steel chairs between the free weights and locker rooms.
Shortly after the tour ends Lance calls everyone to ringside and explains their next round of drills. He starts by sending everyone on a run. Five laps around the outside of the industrial park style complex has everyone sucking wind before they even get back inside. Lance has one of his older students demonstrate their next drill before having everyone take turns executing it on their own. One hour and four drills later both of the new male students have quit after puking from over exertion. Ravyn snickers to herself, always amused when the newbies can't hack it. But much to her chagrin Jenny has endured her first day. The girls hit the showers, too beat to really chat at all. Ravyn grabs her bag and waves goodbye to Lance on her way out to her car.
The next few weeks are much of the same. Class every day, twice a day. Though try as she might Ravyn can't seem to beat Jenny to the school in the mornings. Everyday when the purple haired girl pulls in Jenny's car is already there in the parking lot. Taunting her. Last week Lance had even mentioned it. Noting how Ravyn hasn't been the first one at the school every day lately. Which only makes her disdain of the new girl even worse.
One night after a particularly grueling class Ravyn exits the building. As the last one out the door for the evening she locks the heavy glass door behind herself. She pauses for a second when she turns towards her car and sees Jenny's tucked into the far corner of the lot. Ravyn moves quietly to her own vehicle, assuming Jenny has gone out with some of the guys from class or something. As she inserts her key into the door she sees Jenny's head pop up in the driver's window. Ravyn stands still for a moment, hoping that Jenny hasn't seen her. The redhead's figure disappears seconds after she accidentally makes eye contact with Ravyn. Striding cautiously across the small lot Ravyn approaches Jenny's car. As she nears she notices that the vehicle seems to be packed with the American girl's every worldly possession. Immediately feeling sorry for the redhead she waves meekly at the girl.
Jenny rolls down her manual window sheepishly, "Um.. Hi..."
"Hey.. You uh.. Okay? Car broke down?" Ravyn then half jokingly asks, "Or are you sleeping here?" Jenny blushes and looks down at the blanket in her lap, not saying a word. Ravyn's eyes go wide as she realizes what's going on. "Well, that explains a lot. Come on. Follow me to my place. It's not much, but I've got a couch you can crash on."
"Are you sure?" Jenny asks. "I don't want to impose on you or anything."
"Maybe it's the Canadian in me... But I can't let you stay in this shitty parking lot," Ravyn sighs. "At least my apartment has running water and a kitchen."
Jenny smiles slightly, though she's obviously still embarrassed, "I appreciate it. Thank you."
Ravyn walks back to her car and starts it up. Driving slowly she lets the other girl follow her back to her tiny apartment.