January 2001 is when this chapter takes place just to give you some timeline of the stories events.
At an arena was the WWF wrestlers doing their own things since most currently had free time with only one match at a time in the ring train. Right now scheduled to be in the ring was Edge & Christian, but the two were combining their time with Jericho and Team Xtreme's to hang out. Matt and Adam were working on their takedowns on each other while Jeff, Amy, Jay, and Chris sat in a corner watching. Jeff sat on the top turnbuckle in a purple long sleeve Xtreme shirt with a pair of black cargo pants, and his wrestling boots. A baseball cap was over his multicolored hair to keep it out of his eyes. Being passed around the four sitting in the corner was a container of fruits to snack on.
"I can't believe Hunter and Steve with how they love to torment each other." Jay said to see the others nod as he eats a piece of apple.
"I know. Plus that whole angle with Trish and Vince is kind of disturbing." Amy adds as Chris tries to not make eye contact with the others.
"Remember the whole blame thing with who ran over Austin." Chris tries to change the subject off Trish.
"I was waiting for these two to blame us for it." Matt pointed to Adam and Jay while trapped in an arm lock.
"We had no want to be in that nonsense." Adam defends without letting the dark-haired young man go.
"Lucky you five. I got dragged in and ended up insulting Stephanie." Chris laughs as he pops a piece of banana in his mouth.
"Mark though was awesome." Adam walks over to snatch a grape from the container.
"Except you didn't have to deal with him afterwards." Jeff sighed.
He remembers how the man had non stopped mumbled about how Stephanie had only accused him because she was mad at him for breaking her dad's leg that one time with Kane. They all put their focus from the ring to the rows of seats when voices were heard by the six and in the stairs of the seats was a group of people.
"Great tourist." Jay mumbled with his sunglasses on that covered his eyes.
"Play nice." Amy told the younger wrestler. "Or I'll hurricanrana you in front of them."
"Oh look. We've caught some of the wrestlers busy training." the woman giving the tour said with a finger pointing at those in the ring.
"Looks to me like they're just hanging around instead of training." a young man with badly done dyed blonde hair said a little too loud.
"Can we take a peek at your training?" the tour guide woman asked the six.
"Sure." Amy agreed to see Jay frown at knowing she did it just to annoy him.
"Okay. Everyone gather around the ring."
"Edge, Christian, and I verse you, Chris, and Jeff." Matt suggested to Amy who gave a nod.
The six split into their teams to begin with Edge and Chris wrestling and Lita soon got tagged in to nail Edge square in the jaw. She gave a smirk when he stumbled away from his corner and she was going to strike again when Edge lunged to tag in Christian. A small struggle for control went between them until Lita shoved Christian away. He rushed at her to be sidestepped and didn't have time to stop. Unaware of the charging Christian was Jeff who had turned to face the group watching since one had touched his leg.
"Jeff!"
Jeff turned back to the ring too late as Christian bumped into him and he fell back off the apron unprepared to hit the floor. He though was caught by someone's arms around him to prevent his collision and looked up into dark blue eyes. Randy Orton set Jeff on his feet as the two watched each other for a second before a timer went off loudly.
"Our time's up." Chris announced as the six grabbed their things from under the ring to make their way up the ramp.
"Wait. Can we please ask some questions?" the tour guide woman asked them in a pleading tone.
"Sure ask away." Adam agreed as all six took seats on a padded barricade.
"How old were all of you when getting to the main roster?" was asked by a young woman.
Laughs came from five out of the six as Jeff rolled his eyes at those he considered his wrestling siblings. None of those in the visiting group seemed to understand what was so funny so Jay decided to inform them of it.
"Jeffery here was only fourteen when he began as a jobber."
"Fourteen?"
"His guardian happened to agree to it since most jobbers aren't really wrestling and just get paid to make the main guys look good." Matt explained to the group. "Every wrestle will come up to the roster at different points in their wrestling careers."
"Rumor is he slept with one of the main roster guys."
"Wouldn't shock me. He does have a freaky look."
Jeff bit his tongue and slipped off the barricade to head the rest of his way up the ramp to backstage. The others glared at those who had said what they did and in the back, Randy shoved John Cena who had called Jeff freaky. A confused look was on Cena's face on what his fellow development coworker was mad about.
"Look here. You better learn some things before you come up to this main roster." Chris stood with arms over his chest. "Don't bully others unless you can handle getting your ass kicked around."
"There are groups on the roster and those in them look out for each other. So next time you want to say something completely bullshit about Jeff, I'll be happy to shove my foot up your asses." Amy explained before she with the others went backstage.
From where he stood Randy felt bad on what had been said to Jeff and he followed the others with a frown as they all were heading to catering to have lunch. He got a nudge from Cena who was mad over Orton shoving him before on what he believed to have been for no reason at all.
"You didn't have to join in." Randy told John who rolled his eyes.
"When have you ever cared about others' feelings or others for that matter?"
"What if Jeff is friends with a big time wrestler and that wrestler finds who just said what they did. Most likely that wrestler is going to pound on everyone who said something." Randy explained to see Cena pale.
"I really hope he isn't."
"Not all wrestlers carry the same names as their family." Randy reminded as he went to get something to drink from a cooler.
As he reached in to grab a soda can, his hand was bumped into for him to look up and be face to face with Jeff Hardy. The two twenty-year old men looked at each other for a second before Jeff quickly snatched the soda he wanted to head for the exit. Grabbing his own soda, Randy rushed after Jeff to stop him right outside of catering.
"Hey Jeff." Randy greeted to see Jeff look confused.
"Do we know each other?" Jeff asked.
"Wrestlemania eight." Randy hoped that would be all he needed to remember.
"You must have me confused with someone else. Hope you do good in development and to see you soon on the main roster." Jeff said before leaving.
"He just blew you off." Cena laughed at Randy who was holding back from snapping at the other man.
"We met nine years ago backstage at a mania and I guess he doesn't remember me."
"Hardy at a mania nine years ago. Why would he be there backstage?"
"It's hard to explain. All I know is that he was someone I wanted to stay friends with, but we never saw each other again."
"Dude, everyone knows the young hardy has something wrong with him. Rumor is that he's got a chick's body."
"He doesn't have a chick's body." Orton looked at Cena with annoyance. "Jeff's wrestled shirtless and is more attractive than you."
"Not true. I actually look like a dude and he's too feminine looking."
"Who called Jeff Hardy a freak?" Undertaker's loud voice boomed through catering.
All the visiting development wrestlers looked nervous at how angry he sounded and Randy gave a told you so look to Cena. He decided to go for a walk still liking to have some freedom away from his so called sitter and headed down a hallway. Not many wrestlers were in it so Randy didn't have to deal with too much noise. On his way past a hallway, he heard guitar playing and someone singing and looked down it to see Chris and Jeff sitting on a crate. The younger had a guitar that he was playing to sing along with Jericho to a song.
"Mind if I hang out here? The Undertaker is on a rampage in catering right now." Randy told the two who now had their eyes on him.
"And you are?"
"I'm Randy."
"No way." Jeff's eyes widened in shock.
"I guess you do remember." Randy smirked.
"Jeff?"
"We met at a mania years ago." Jeff told Chris as he slipped off the crate. "I though should make sure Taker doesn't hurt anyone."
"Mind if I walk with you so we can catch up?" Randy asked to see Jeff nod.
"I guess nine years does make people look different." Jeff tried to sound amused.
"You look great and looks like you succeeded in becoming your own unique type of wrestler. Never would have I thought you to be so extreme and death daring."
"It took a lot of work to get where I am. Taker though is still very overprotective and I worry he's going to get involved in one of my matches."
"Is he related to you or something?"
"Long story really and I don't like telling it." Jeff said as they walked.
"You know I've been hoping to see you again and try to be friends."
"What about your fellow development wrestlers? You heard what they said about me."
"Like I believe all that stupid stuff. Cena's a total idiot most of the time and the others believe any rumor they hear."
"Look Randy, I don't want you to get picked on or messed with if we're friends."
"No one dares to do that with me and don't worry about them thinking you'll get me moved you since who my dad is makes them think all that already."
"Your dad?"
"Bob Orton is my old man."
"Does he help you a lot with training?"
"Yeah and-"
Voices heard in the hallway made Jeff freeze up and he looked in the direction they were coming from with worry. He watched as the Radicalz came marching down the hall with each one of the three men glancing at Jeff with amusement. It was Dean Malenko who only stopped and gave a smirked at Jeff while the other two continued down the hallway.
"Hey there, Jeff."
"I'm not going to set you up with Amy." Jeff said crossing his arms.
"You know I've been hearing some talk about you, Jeff." Dean leaned a little forward to try touching the twenty year old's hair.
"Don't." Jeff whispered.
"I heard you are actually a girl wrestling disguised a guy."
"No, I'm not." Jeff said and was about to move.
"Come on Jeff. If you are actually female, how about a little fun in the locker room."
"I said leave me alone." Jeff turned to walk away and had his arm snatched.
"You don't want to be a little slut like you usually are. Stripping in front of everyone." Dean tightened his grip on Jeff's arm and it actually was hurting the younger.
"Get off him." Randy ordered having seen enough.
"Are you Jeff's boyfriend?" Dean asked mockingly.
"No, I'm his friend." Randy corrected and shoved Malenko away.
"See you in the ring." Dean told Jeff before walking off to locate the other Radicalz.
"I can't stand him. All he does is look for someone to sleep with and has this crazy idea I'm a girl." Jeff sighed as he held his arm.
"Did he hurt you?" Randy asked at noticing Jeff holding the arm Malenko had grabbed.
"No. He's done worse to me along with the others in Radicalz."
"Has he ever touched you weirdly in the ring?"
"No. I think he likes to go after Lita more than see if he can get in my pants." Jeff answered and then looked at Randy. "Thanks for helping me."
"We're friends and I don't like seeing people be mean to you for no reason."
"They have a reason and I guess a lot catch on to what they can mock me over."
"Jeff, at the mania we met, you looked to be very protected by Bearer and Undertaker."
"Yeah. Let's just say my family has a dark secret that I really don't like to talk about."
"Okay. How about-" Randy was cut off by Jeff shoving him aside and he saw the younger get tackled to the floor.
Dean Malenko and Perri Saturn began to wrestle him with Jeff unable to really defend himself against the two much bigger men. This struggle ended with Jeff dragged to his feet by Saturn's grip on his hair and Malenko smirking at the young wrestler. He gave a nod to Perri who made the grip tighter on Jeff's hair and a small cry came from the boy as one his arms were pinned behind his back.
"Let's see what you have on under all these clothes." Dean was planning to prove his thinking that Jeff was a girl disguising himself as a boy.
"Stop it." Jeff ordered as he struggled.
"Scared to have your secret revealed." Perri laughed in Jeff's ear.
Jeff felt Dean knock his baseball cap off to free the boy's hair and he smirked as green eyes glared with full rage. A hand then slipped under Jeff's shirt to reveal he was wearing a tank top underneath that Malenko smirked.
"Wearing a lot of clothes." the man said as he moved to Jeff's pants.
"Stop this." Jeff hissed to receive a smack square to his face.
From the strength of the slap, Jeff's face turned to have him looking down at the floor and a metallic taste was in his mouth. Malenko didn't notice the darkness of the shadows growing and Jeff's eyes slipping from green to white. Suddenly a pained look went on Jeff's face as blood slipped from his nose in a neat line. Before Malenko could undo Jeff's pants, the man was tossed in the air by Undertaker as Kane did the same to Perri. The boy fell to his hands with them keeping him from face planting to the floor.
"You ever touch him again and I'll feed you to my dogs." Undertaker threatened Malenko.
"I'd rather punt one of their heads off." Randy snapped about to run at the downed Saturn.
Jeff launched himself to his feet to touch Randy's arm and it was the other boy needed to calm down. The two's eyes met with Randy confused on how Jeff had just made all his anger just disappear when no one has ever done that before. Like the flick of a switch, Jeff's legs gave out for him to collapse and Randy gently caught him in his arms.
"Let's get you to the others." Mark said and took Jeff from Randy.
Him and Glenn helped Jeff stand to guide him down the hallway, but the boy quickly stopped the two men. Randy saw Jeff slowly walk over with a cell phone in his hand and the smaller asked for Orton's cell number. Once both exchanged cell numbers, Jeff went back to where Mark and Glenn were waiting for him to guide him the rest of the way down the hallway. When Randy got outside in the parking lot where the other development wrestlers were loading onto a bus, he saw Cena give him a smirk.
"Randal Orton, we will be informing your father about the fact you wandered away from the group." the tour guide woman told him.
"What am I five or something?" Randy asked as he got on the bus not really caring that his dad was going to be called.
The only thing he thought about was the fact his friendship with Jeff was back and the question of still who Jeff is to Undertaker. He hoped the exchange of phone numbers would keep them close friends and see more of each other. Randy though still doesn't understand how Jeff with a small touch could just could make his anger vanish.
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