Disclaimer: Don't own it.

Hello! Here is where the official story begins… The way I write the story makes it detailed and different from the movie and obviously real life. It's actually very unrealistic I admit but it's a fictional story so anything goes I guess… In the story, Micky won the title in 1992 (even though in real life he won it in 2000). The story begins in 1993, Dicky is 33 and Micky is 28. They still live in Lowell and Micky still boxes. Dicky has been clean for three years and still trains his brother with O'Keefe. Dicky's son, Dicky Jr., is going to be known as DJ, who is going to be 4. I think that's all the major information that I need to point out for now…

Dicky leisurely walked along a crowded Lowell street on a warm, mid August day around noon. He was in no hurry to meet his mother and younger brother for brunch at the local Club Diner, although he was already running late. It was about a twenty minute walk from his house to Club Diner. He had enough money to buy his own small house after Micky's big win, and even had enough for a car. He had a 1990 Honda Accord that ran well, but he would rather walk than drive any day.

The past year had been great for Dicky—he got a small house, he got custody of his four year old son for every other weekend, he had money, and he felt healthier and more alive than he had felt in the past ten years. He actually felt happy, his life was balanced.

He approached the door of the diner and spotted Alice and Micky sitting in a booth in the corner. He walked over to them with a relaxed smile as they noticed he had finally shown.

"There you are, we've been waiting a half hour for you, Dick. Where the hell were you?" Alice asked her oldest son. She had seven daughters and only two sons, so she was always looking out for them the most.

"I had a busy morning." He said simply. His morning honestly wasn't too busy—he woke up around 7 and cleaned up his house. Then, he went for a long run and showered. He loved started his day like this whenever he could. Then, Micky spoke.

"Busy as in lost track of the time?" Micky said with a little smile.

"Don't let it happen again when you have plans with your family, Dicky. I told you to meet us here at 11:30." Alice nagged.

"I know, I know. It's just a long walk, that's all."

"Dicky, you have a car. You know what; I'm done talking about it. I don't wanna listen to excuses." When Alice was done talking the small group sat there for a few quiet moments. Dicky looked around the place and saw that nothing special was going on in the diner today. He and his family ate their frequently, and the place always had the same people eating there, the same people sitting at the bar, and the same coffee scent. Suddenly, Alice spoke again.

"So on the way over here Micky and I saw an old friend of yours." Alice's words made Dicky wonder who they saw. "That old girlfriend of yours, Donna is her name I think?"

"Oh. Yeah, Donna. I haven't seen her in years." Dicky uncomfortably, but casually responded to his mother. He and Donna were together about ten years ago, but they broke up after a string of arguments and just growing apart. About a year later, she moved to New York.

"Good. She was a bitch." Alice confidently told him, even though it wasn't necessarily true. Donna was a nice lady and the rest of the family liked her when she and Dicky were together.

"Alice, she wasn't a bitch. Everyone liked her, right Mick?"

"She was alright. But if she was so great you would have stayed together."

"Well it wasn't just her, it was me. And maybe I'll run into her while she's in town. We'll see if she's still so great." Dicky said with a smirk while Alice glared.

"No, man, I wouldn't do that. She had a wedding ring on." Micky said while Alice scoffed.

"I have pity on the man who married that skank. Do you remember the one time she ate over for dinner and she—" Suddenly, she was cut off by the waitress who came to the table.

"Hi, can I take your order?" The waitress asked kindly, but she seemed like she didn't want to be there. She had light brown hair that was carelessly fixed into a messy bun and she barely wore any make up on her face. She had deep green eyes and the name tag on her Club's Diner waitress uniform read 'Vanessa'.

Micky started to give her his order, but Alice interrupted him to complain. "Excuse me; can you see that we're trying to have a conversation?" Alice asked the waitress irritably.

The waitress seemed a little intimidated by Alice. She responded, "Oh, I'm sorry. Do you want me to come back in a few minutes?" Alice was about to bluntly tell her yes when Dicky spoke.

"No, it's fine. You're already here. Finish your order, Mick." When Dicky said this, Alice gave him a dirty look. She knew her son and she knew that he was only being nice because he was attracted to her. Within a minute or so, they all gave her their orders and she left the table.

Immediately after the waitress left, Alice completely forget about her Donna story and started babbling about random occurrences that her sons couldn't care less about. Dicky listened to his mother at first, but soon started to drift off. He saw their waitress standing behind the counter. It looked like she was taking notes or writing something. Either way, she seemed really focused, like she was thinking real hard about what she was doing. Dicky thought she was beautiful, even when her hair was falling in her face and she was wearing the cheesy waitress outfit for Club's. Suddenly, he realized that his mother had been snapping at him from across the table for about a minute.

"Dicky, hello! He then blankly looked at Alice. "Hi, this is your mother talking to you. Stop checking out our waitress." She ordered sternly. Alice always seemed to know what her children were thinking, but she didn't always have the best way of handling it.

"Come on, I wasn't checking her out." Dicky was lying and Alice and Micky both knew it.

"Yes, you were!" They replied at the same time. They looked at each other and only Alice spoke next. "Dicky, I know my kids, and I know you were checking her out. I'm not a moron, so don't lie. But cut it out, she's a dumb waitress. You don't need to get involved with another bimbo."

"Yeah, yeah, I know mom. I can only look at girls that you approve of. Not that there is such a thing."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Mom, neither me nor Dicky have ever dated a girl that you approved of." Micky pointed out, and he was right.

"That's because you guys can't find a good girl in this town."

"Well I'm with Charlene, I have been for a while now and I love her. I think she's a great girl. Why can't we just be with who we want to be with? You don't have to date them or anything."

"Well it's really upsetting to see my only two sons who I worked so hard to raise dating some dumb MTV girl."

"Well it's really annoying that we as grown men can't even look at a girl without our mother snapping at us."

"You say what you want, Micky. But I raised you boys better than to be running around with stupid girls."

Then, the waitress brought over the food. The boys thanked her, but Alice didn't say a word. The family ate in a slightly uncomfortable silence. However, the beautiful waitress kept catching Dicky's eye over the course of the meal.

…

Soon enough, they finished their meals. It took about ten minutes to eat, but it felt like longer. Dicky saw the waitress still behind the counter, where they had the desserts. He thought about an excuse he could use to go up there and talk to her—he pondered getting himself a slice of pie or something, but then decided on getting something for his son, DJ.

"Hey, I'm gonna go up there and pick out a treat for DJ." Dicky smoothly said, hoping his mom wouldn't figure out the real reason why he was going up there.

Of course, Alice realized his plan and tried to mess with him before confronting him. "I have ice cream at my house." She said with a smart tone.

"Yeah, but I want to give him something from his dad. Is that okay with you?" Dicky said playing around his words.

Alice wasn't sure how to respond to it, which surprised them. Micky watched the two of them as they watched each other, working to outplay each other in a discrete battle of words. Eventually, Alice spoke and she didn't even fight back. "Fine, I need a smoke." And she slid out of the booth, went outside of the diner, and lit a cigarette.

"Well are you gonna talk to her or what?" Micky asked his brother after a couple moments.

"Yeah, I guess. But this really is for DJ. Me talking to her is just a side, you know." Dicky said trying to play it cool.

He got out of the booth and approached the counter. The waitress noticed him and put down her pencil. "Can I help you?" She said, this time with a genuine-seeming smile.

"Uh, yeah. I was gonna pick out a dessert. I see Club's has a new collection." He said with a sarcastic grin. Club's had had the same things on the menu since the 70s.

"Well, it's all pretty new to me. I've only been here for a couple weeks."

"Yeah, I noticed." He was suddenly embarrassed and wondered if that seemed creepy. But she laughed a little so he figured he was okay. "I mean, I'm here a lot so I didn't recognize you."

"It's okay, I understand." She said with a smile. They both looked down at the dessert rack for a moment and then looked back up at each other.

"So where are you from?" Dicky asked trying to avoid an awkward silence.

"Originally, I'm from Connecticut. But I just came from New York City." She explained.

"So what made you move from big, glamorous New York City to Lowell?" He asked again in a sarcastic tone.

"Well, in New York I was trying to get my music sold. I'm a songwriter and musician—aspiring, I guess." Dicky looked over and saw the papers she was working so diligently on before had a bunch of words, musical notes, and eraser markings on them.

"Oh, so that's what you were working on before." Dicky said as he pointed to her papers.

"Wow, so you've really been watching me today, haven't you?" She said with a playful smile. He was a little embarrassed at this, but she didn't seem to care. She was playing along with him and didn't take things too seriously like a lot of girls did. He liked that about her.

"Darn it, you noticed. I was hoping to continue but I blew my own cover." When he said this, she laughed and then continued talking.

"But yeah, Lowell's not too bad. I'm just looking to settle down for a little while in a small town. Preferably a town with really nice, funny, attractive guys. And I think I got that here." He didn't realize it at first but she was flirting with him. "However, I'm still not very familiar with the city. Maybe you could show me around sometime?"

"Yeah, I would love to." He said and was happy that she was interested in him. They smiled at each other for a moment and then she spoke again.

"So, you wanted dessert?"

"Oh, yeah. Can I have a slice of blueberry pie to go…" He cued for her to say her name.

"I'm Vanessa. Vanessa Mills. And yes, you can…." Vanessa smiled and cued back.

"Dicky. Dicky Eklund." He said with a smiled back at her. But when he said his name and put his hand for her to shake, her smile faded. She cleared her throat and got the box for the pie wordlessly. Realizing she wasn't going to shake his hand, Dicky put his hand down and sensed that something was wrong.

"Is everything okay?" He asked confusedly.

"Yeah, everything's fine. Here's your pie." She handed the box that contained the pie to him.

"Okay…well, I guess I'll see you soon and we can discuss when I could show you around a little. Or we could just exchange numbers—"

"It's okay. You don't have to show me around anymore." She said icily.

He decided to confront her about it. "Okay, did I say or do something? Because all of a sudden you're acting kind of snooty. You seemed pretty nice before. And I'm a nice guy, I like to think anyway."

"It's okay, I know who you are." She said without looking up.

"Excuse me?" Dicky was confused.

Vanessa looked up and said, "I know that Dicky Eklund used to be a boxer and now he trains his little brother, who's pretty good. I know that he is a druggie, a con, and a criminal. And I know that he had an HBO special on a couple years ago about crack and it disgraced Lowell and his family. I know his reputation, and now I know that he's you." Dicky felt incredibly hurt by her words. But even if something happened between them, she would have to find out at some point. But before Dicky knew what to say there was a moment of awkward silence.

"First of all, that was all true. I was a druggie and I was in jail. But I'm not him anymore. I'm in shape, I still train my brother, and I gained back my reputation in this town. Where did you hear all that from?"

"Why does it matter? I like to know about where I'm moving. And I'm sorry, but I'm not interested." Vanessa said very honestly.

"Well it seemed like you were interested in me before you knew my name."

"So what?"

"So…that means something right? I'm a good guy now. You can ask my brother, he's sitting over there. Or my mom—never mind, don't ask my mom." He knew his mother would tell Vanessa anything to keep her away. That, or she would tell Vanessa off for criticizing her son.

"I don't need to ask anyone about you, because I know the truth."

"I just don't feel that it's right. You don't really know me. Haven't you ever heard the saying 'Don't judge a book by its cover'?"

"Well I already know everything I need to know about the book. And it's just not a good read." When Vanessa said this to him, it made Dicky sneer.

"Psh, okay, that's real cute. Nice play on words. That's just…great." Dicky said sarcastically as he scoffed.

"Okay, well you got your pie so you can go now. Nice to meet you."

"Oh, you too. I'm glad we're friends; you're a dime, really. I mean that. So kind and accepting. Welcome to Lowell!" He said as he walked back across the diner to where his brother was sitting.

"That went great." Dicky said sarcastically as he sat down across from brother, who he knew had watched, but not heard, the whole thing.

"Yeah, she was definitely into you at first. But then you started talking and it just went downhill from there. As usual."

"Shut up Mick. She liked me at first. We almost had a date. But once I told her my name, forget it. She's all hooked up on my "reputation". She doesn't even know."

"She's just not worth it. If she can't accept you then she doesn't deserve you. Forget her." Micky encouraged.

"You know, I was thinking about that. But I think I might reinforce the fact that she did like me. I just wanna prove that I'm right, and changed, and perfectly capable of having a pretty girl be interested in me."

"Go for it." Micky said and continued with a question after taking another sip of his coffee, "So if she does wind up liking you, are you just gonna go out with her or just tell her to beat it?"

"Eh, we'll see what kind of mood I'm in." Dicky decided, and just then they heard their mother calling them from the door.

"Dicky! Micky! Let's go!" She practically yelled across the diner. At that, the boys finished off their beverages and left a mediocre tip for Vanessa. As they were passing the front counter on their way to the exit, Vanessa was still standing there and she said one last thing to them before they left the diner.

"Thank you for eating at Club's!" She exclaimed with a phony smile as she waved goodbye.

The family left and as they walked down the sidewalk, Alice thought about how Vanessa had said goodbye to them. Without even knowing what had happened with Vanessa and her son, she said exactly what she would have said if she knew.

"What a bitch."

The end of the first chapter (: It took a little while, but I'm glad that I'm done. I'm sick today so I finally got the chance to finish this long chapter, and I think I'll start the next one =) Please leave reviews and keep posted for the next chapter! Thanks!