AN: You guys can check out Mackenzie's ring gear on my profile! (Kickpads and knee pads aren't included, but her kickpads are the just the same color as which ever gear she's wearing and you all know what knee pads look like.) It links to my polyvore account and I haven't decided if I'm going to make outfits for all my chapters or not, but if you guys want me to do that, please let me know. I love making polyvore sets!
Wrestlemania 31
Levi's Stadium
San Jose, CA
This was the biggest night of Mackenzie's life and she was pretty sure she was about to vomit. She was extremely nervous and no one could calm her down. There was so much going on around her and she just really needed to take a minute for herself. This was her first Wrestlemania and she'd be participating in a six-man tag match with Paige and AJ against The Bellas and Natalya. She had been fine all weekend, but it didn't really hit her until she arrived at the stadium that morning.
She found the women's locker room to be empty, since everyone was out socializing with everyone backstage, and hid in there. There was a monitor in the room, so at least she'd still know what's going on. The Intercontinental Championship ladder match had just ended, which meant she'd have at least 30-45 minutes to herself until her match. She watched as Daniel Bryan left the ring with his new Intercontinental Championship. She was extremely happy for him, and she'd have give him a hug and congratulate him later. Even though Bryan had won, she knew that her friend, Wade Barrett would most likely be a little disappointed and she'd have to deal with that later.
Mackenzie and Barrett's friendship was a strange one. The two had actually met before Mackenzie was called up to the main roster, since they lived in the same area and had a few mutual friends. They didn't really get along at first, Kenz actually couldn't stand him, but the two eventually ended up bonding over their love for coffee and this cute little coffee place in Tampa.
As she sat in the empty locker room, she heard a knock on the door. She didn't really want to answer it and she just hoped that the person would go away. They didn't. She got up to open the door and when she did, she was surprised to see the man on the other side.
"What are you doing here?"
"Paige asked me to come check on you."
"And you thought I'd appreciate a gross, sweaty Brit at the door?"
"Yes. I thought that was exactly what you needed." He stepped inside the locker room, closing the door behind him. "Now what's wrong?"
"I'm freaking out and I kinda just want to be alone right now." She back down on one of the couches that was in the room. Wade followed behind her, taking a seat right next to her.
"Well, that's not going to happen."
"I can't go out there and I can't do this."
"I promise you that you can do this."
"I can't. There's like 70,000 people out there. I'm going to go out there and embarrass myself." She was panicking and he could hear it in her voice. He placed his hands on her shoulders, trying to calm her down.
"Kenz. Breathe." She had let a few stray tears spill out, but Wade wiped them away for her." Once you get out there and you make your entrance, your adrenaline is going to be pumping so much that you're going to forget about the crowd around you. You don't need to worry about them. You just need to worry about yourself and the five other girls out there."
He pulled her into a hug, resting his head on top of hers. She returned the hug by wrapping her arms around his waist. "You're going to be fine. You're going to go out there and you're going to kick ass."
"Thanks, B."
"No problem, love. Now you have a match to get ready for."
"I guess I do. You should probably go shower and put some clothes on."
"Your reverse psychology won't work on me. If you want me to stay in my trunks, you should just say so."
"If I wanted to see amazing abs, I'd go ask Balor if he'd take his shirt off."
"I have better abs than Finn Balor!"
"You keep telling yourself that. Now go." She pushed him out the door, closing it behind him. She had a match to get ready for.
By the time she got dressed and ready to go, it was time for the Sting and Triple H match. She wasn't cutting it too close. Their match was scheduled to be next, but the giant musical performance was moved in between the two matches. This gave Kenz plenty of time to warm up.
She found the girls sitting on a few crates that were close to gorilla. When she approached them, they all practically jumped off the crates to greet her. Paige had told them about her nerves and they wanted to see how she was doing.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine now. Wade gave me a little pep talk and calmed me down. I think I'm good to go now."
"Oh, I'm sure he did." Nikki winked at her.
"Not this again." Kenz groaned. Nikki Bella was probably the biggest, or at least the most vocal, supporter of "MacBarrett". She had even coined the name herself. Kenz had told her many times that it would be a cold day in hell when the two of them got together. She wouldn't buy it.
"I just think you two would be hot together, that's all! There's clearly something there between you two anyway. I can sense these kinds of things."
"Okay so while you live in bizarro Nikki-land, I'm going to warm up over here."
"Whatever. One of these days I'll be able to say I told you so." Kenz shook her head as she began her stretches.
The Sting and Triple H match had ended. She wasn't exactly thrilled about how it all played out, but she was going to keep her mouth shut. She really liked her job and she wanted to keep it.
After a long, insufferable musical performance from Skylar Grey and Kid Ink, it was time for their match. In just a few short moments, Mackenzie would be making her first ever Wrestlemania entrance. The nerves were starting to come back.
"See you girls out there." Paige spoke as her music hit. She stood at the top of the stage for a few seconds, soaking everything in before making her way down the ramp. When she got halfway down the ramp, she stopped and waited for her tag team partners.
Mackenzie was next, but before her music hit, she pulled AJ in for a hug. "Thank you so much. For everything." She could already feel herself start to tear up, but that would have to wait. She couldn't go out there crying, she'd do that after the match.
Her music hit and she let go of AJ. "Don't forget to go out there and have fun. Don't worry about anything and don't get in your head." Kenz nodded as she made her way to the curtain. She went through the curtain when she was cued and as soon as she did, her nerves were gone. The sound of the crowd cheering her on was all she needed. She met Paige on the ramp and they waited for their final member.
The sound of the crowd erupting as the sound of "Let's Light It Up" played in the stadium was incredible. It even gave Kenz goosebumps.
"Do you see this?" She asked Paige as she pointed to her arm.
"Me too!" Paige pointed at her arms and the two laughed.
AJ did her thing at the top of the stage and skipped down the ramp to meet her girls. AJ was in between the two girls as they all three skipped down the ramp together. The three girls entered the ring together, each doing their usual thing. They all three balanced on the second rope, waiting for their opponents.
AJ was "knocked out" on the floor for most of the match, which was a decision she made to let Paige and Mackenzie have their Wrestlemania moments. Kenz tried to help Paige out as much as she could with tags, but she found herself dealing with Nattie pulling her off the apron more than she'd like. She couldn't even help Paige and keep Brie away from interfering.
Mackenzie brawled with Nattie outside of the ring as AJ finally made her way back to the apron. Once she got the hot tag from Paige, she hit Nikki with everything she had. Paige worked on Brie, keeping her away from Nikki. AJ eventually got the Black Widow locked in on Nikki, causing her to tap out. Once Mackenzie heard that bell ring and the sound of AJ's music being played, she almost lost it right then and there.
"Here are your winners, the team of Mackenzie, Paige and AJ Lee!"
The three girls raised each other's arms in victory as the crowd went wild. After raising their arms, the group hugged.
"Thank you so much." Paige whispered.
"I can't say anything because I'm this close to bawling my eyes out." Mackenzie replied. AJ just chuckled.
The celebrated once again, Paige and AJ climbing to the top rope and Mackenzie standing in the middle of them. Paige hopped down from the top rope and rolled out of the ring. Her family was sitting ringside and she made her way over to them. Mackenzie's mom was also ringside and she made her way over to hug her. AJ stayed in the ring and waved at the Bellas and Nattie as they made their way back up the ramp.
"Can we skip up the ramp together?" Mackenzie asked.
"Let's do it."
The girls locked arms with AJ in the middle and they skipped up the ramp together. If this wasn't the perfect moment, she didn't know what was. This was her Wrestlemania moment. Being here with her two best friends, this is what she'd remember for years to come. It was like their version of the time Shawn Michaels, Triple H and The Undertaker all walked up the ramp together at Wrestlemania 28. She just hoped that someone in the audience had gotten a picture of that moment.
When they reached the locker room, they weren't expecting to be greeted by the applause that erupted the moment they opened the door. Paige and Mackenzie stepped back, letting AJ have her moment. Sure, she didn't always get along with all the girls, but she made sure that she wasn't going to leave on bad terms with anyone.
"You guys are going to turn me into an emotional mess like Kenz over there." She joked.
"Hey!" She exclaimed as she wiped at the tears that were close to spilling from her eyes. Paige wrapped her arm around her friend, pulling her into a side hug.
Everyone was very cordial to AJ. Thanking her and wishing her the best of luck. When it was all over, they were left in the room with the Bellas.
"I know we've never really seen eye to eye, but we just wanted you to know that we are truly grateful for everything you've done here."
"We wouldn't be at this point if it weren't for you. So, thank you."
"I really appreciate that. Thank you." Nikki and Brie both hugged AJ before leaving the locker room. Nikki had to go watch John's match and Brie needed to go find Bryan.
"I think they were the most genuine out of all of the girls."
"Which is actually kinda shocking, right?"
"Definitely."
Wrestlemania was over and Mackenzie was very pleased with how it ended. She had walked out into the stadium to watch the main event with a few of the NXT roster and the moment Seth's music hit, she started to freak out. Bayley even recorded a video of her jumping up and down in excitement and posted it on Instagram. Everyone seemed to get a kick out of that.
Kenz had been invited to go out and celebrate with a some of the roster but she just wasn't up for it. She had been awake for at least 22 hours at this point and she wanted nothing more than to take a hot shower and go to bed. Her feet hurt, she was starving and she felt like she could pass out from exhaustion at any minute.
She was originally sharing a hotel room with Paige, but since her boyfriend was in town, the two had been sharing his room. Kenz was fine with that, especially after tonight.
She felt much better after taking a hot shower. She was more relaxed and she was sure that she would fall asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. She didn't. Her mind was running a mile a minute and she just couldn't turn her brain off. She was physically and emotionally drained but her brain wasn't having it.
She grabbed her phone from the bedside table and tapped on the messages icon. If her brain wouldn't let her sleep, she wasn't going to let someone else sleep. She pulled up her messages with Barrett and sent him a quick text.
"Are you awake?"
"No."
"Okay :("
"Why aren't you asleep?"
"Body says sleep. Brain says no."
"Count sheep."
"Tried it already. I got up to 300 before I got bored."
"I don't have any other solution for you."
"Thanks for not being any help."
"Excuse me? I told you to count sheep like a normal person."
"Well it was a lame suggestion."
"That's not my fault. At least I contributed an idea."
"What if I just stayed awake all day?"
"Aren't you wrestling tonight?"
"Yes."
"I think that's a terrible idea."
"But if I wasn't wrestling tonight?"
"Still an awful idea."
"You're no fun."
"That's just not true."
"Will you bring me food?"
"It's 3 in the morning."
"I don't see your point."
"Go to bed."
After about 4 hours of sleep, a workout at the hotel gym, another shower, packing up all of her shit and checking out of the hotel, having lunch with Brie, Bryan and Nikki and a quick trip to the nearest Target with Summer Rae, she finally arrived at the arena.
She entered the women's locker room and immediately went straight for the couch that was in their room. "Can someone figure out how to get this into my bloodstream as quickly as possible?" She held up her unopened energy drink and dramatically fell back onto the couch. She closed her eyes and hoped that she could sneak in a quick cat nap before she had to do anything important.
"I hate to interrupt you, but all of us in the tag match tonight are needed down in the ring." Paige spoke as she laced up her Doc Martens.
"Ughhhh" she groaned as she sat up from the couch. "Let me change and I'll be down there in a minute." Paige left the room and Kenz stayed on the couch. A few minutes had gone by before she decided that she should probably get up. She dug through her suitcase for a sports bra and a pair of leggings, quickly changing into them. She laced up her boots and headed down to the ring with her energy drink in hand.
She made it down to the ring and the other girls were sitting in it while a few of the guys were hanging out around the ring.
"You look like shit." Dolph pointed out.
"Oh stop, you'll make me blush. I bet you at that to all the girls."
"Only you, babe."
She took a big gulp of her energy drink before setting it down on the announce table.
"Are we waiting on Nattie?"
"Yeah. I think Carrano had to talk to her about something."
"She's stealing my gimmick of being late to everything. How dare her." She got in the ring and did her stretches while they waited for Nattie.
They had been going over their match, going over spots for tonight, but now they were all just sitting in the ring talking.
"Don't tell Bayley, but I'm going to wear her shirt tonight since she's not here." The majority of the NXT roster, including Bayley, had flown back to Florida early this morning.
"She's gonna freak when she sees it."
"I hope so. I'm expecting a hundred freak out texts from her later."
"You know those pictures you guys took? People have been freaking out because they think you're pregnant." Paige informed her. AJ and Bayley had taken a few picture over the weekend and in all of them, Bayley had her hand on AJ's stomach. This led to people on the internet believing that AJ was pregnant.
"They're really gonna think that when they find out you're leaving. Wait, you're not pregnant, are you?"
"Have you seen my abs? You really think I'm going to give these up?"
"Just checking!"
"Besides, I'm 100% sure that Steph wouldn't let me wrestle if I was pregnant."
"My mum wrestled when she was pregnant with me and look how I turned out."
"Age, you don't want your child to turn out like this weirdo." Paige playfully slapped her on the arm.
"Soooo... what's going on with you and Barrett?" Nattie asked.
"Oh my god. Please don't start with this. There is nothing going on between us."
"But you like him."
"No? We're honestly just friends. Nothing has ever happened between us and nothing will ever happen."
"She wants something to happen."
"Go away, Nikki!"
"Ignore her. I just want you two to become an onscreen couple so we can do tag matches with him and Bryan."
"Ughhhhh I'm so tired of wrestling you, Brie. We're going to end up being the female John and Randy. Just wrestling each other all the time. Just let me wrestle Eva Marie. That's what the people really want to see." Brie pouted.
"Aw Brie. I'd wrestle you a million times before I'd ever get in the ring with her. I don't want to die." Kenz went to hug Brie, but she turned away from her. "Alright bitch, Nikki is getting the wine that I was going to give you for your anniversary."
The mention of wine quickly changed Brie's mind. "I love you, Kenzie." She wrapped her arms around her, squeezing her tight.
"Uh huh. Now you only love me because of the gift of alcohol. I see how it is."
"Do you want me to take the rental?" AJ asked Kenz. Since AJ had been back, the two always shared a rental car, but today Kenz carpooled with Summer Rae since they both needed to make a Target run.
"Oh yeah. I can hitch a ride with someone. It's no problem."
Mackenzie sat down next to AJ's things as she packed up her suitcase. "I'm really going to miss you."
"Me too. You'll have to come visit me and Punk when you're in Chicago."
"Extreme Rules is in Chicago..."
"I'm serious. Come visit me then. You won't have to get a hotel, you can stay with us."
"You might want to run that by your hubby first."
"Oh who cares what he says!"
"You will when you're not getting laid."
"...True."
Kenz wrapped up the smaller girl in tightest hug. "It's going to be so different without you here."
"Yeah, but you'll get used to it. After a week, you won't even miss me at all."
"That's absolutely not true."
"If you ever have something exciting happening on TV, let me know and I'll always watch it for you. You or Paige."
"I don't think that'll be happening anytime soon, but I'll be sure to keep you in the loop."
"See you later, Mac." AJ hugged her one last time before leaving.
"Bye, April."
After saying goodbye to one of her best friends, she went on the hunt for best friend #3. Wade would probably throw a fit if he knew he was number three on her best friends list, but he'd have to deal with it. She made her way to the men's locker room but before she could reach it, she came across just the man she was looking for.
"Hey! Do you mind if I tag along with you guys tonight? My normal ride is headed to Chicago."
"Not at all. I'm sure Cesaro won't mind."
"Awesome. Let me go grab my stuff."
She grabbed her things from the locker room and met the guys outside at their rental car. Luckily the wrestlers got to park in the parking garage because Kenz couldn't handle fans right now. She just wanted to get in the car and go. These past few days had just been exhausting and she wanted to get to the next town as soon as possible and sleep.
"So on the drives with you two, do you just talk about European things or what?"
"Sometimes, yeah."
"Great. What have I gotten myself into?"
"3 hours of road trip fun."
"Can't wait."
They loaded their bags into the trunk of the SUV. Wrestlers generally like to rent SUVs because they were all six foot giants and they needed the room. This was fine with Kenz because this meant she'd get to stretch out in the backseat that she'd have all to herself.
"You know, it be bad if the fans ever saw good girl Mackenzie getting into the same car as bad guys, Cesaro and Wade Barrett."
"They'd think you were dating one of us."
"Gross."
"I agree." Cesaro piped in.
"How is ol' Death Rey doing?" Cesaro was dating NXT trainer, Sara Del Rey. While Kenz was in NXT, the two had become close and she thought of her as an older sister. If it wasn't for Sara, Mackenzie wouldn't be where she's at today. She was working some miracles down at the Performance Center. The nickname, Death Rey, came from Sara's indie days and when Kenz learned about it, she loved the name so much that she had to start calling her that.
"She's good. You should come see her sometime."
"Every time I go to the performance center, she's never there. What's up with that?"
"She's always there. You're just not looking hard enough."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."
"So why didn't you ride with Paige?" Wade asked her.
"Her boyfriend is still in town, so they were riding together. Didn't really want to be the third wheel, which is also why I didn't ride with Brie and Bryan."
"What about AJ?"
"Oh. You didn't know?"
"No, Road Dogg. I don't."
"Tonight was her last night. She's retiring."
"April Fools Day isn't until Wednesday, Kenz."
"I'm not joking."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. I'll miss my best friend to pieces, and I've cried more in the past two days than I have since forever but I'm fine. I'll be fine."
"Where does that leave you and Paige?"
"I honestly have no idea. We haven't really been told anything or at least I haven't. I guess we'll just wait and see what they have for us for Smackdown."
"Is there anything you want to do?"
"Obviously I want the title, but I'm don't think that'll be happening any time soon."
"Why not?"
"I think they want to keep the title on a Total Diva, which is fine. I get it. You want someone on the show to be champ so they have it on the show. There's nothing wrong with that, but I don't know. I mean, Emma, Layla and myself are the only ones who aren't on Total Divas and I just feel like we'll never get that shot. I'm honestly just waiting for Charlotte to get called up so she can take the title from Nikki."
"You'll get there."
"Yeah, if Vince ever decides to take us seriously. I'm just thankful for house shows or else I'd probably go crazy."
"What if he wanted to put you in a romance angle?"
"I think I'd be okay with that. It'd just depend on who it was, I guess."
"Randy?"
"I'd rather have someone that didn't have an insane female fanbase. So no Randy, Ambrose, Roman or Dolph."
"What about Cesaro over here?"
"Sure. I'd be up for it. I'll turn heel and I'll team up with you, Tyson and Nattie. What a team that would be."
"Well what about Barrett?"
"Why are you two asking me about each other? Do you know something I don't know?"
"I'm sure we know a lot of things that you don't know."
"I hate you both."
"Answer the question!"
"It would make sense, I guess. We're already friends, so we already have that going for us. I think we could pretend to be a couple."
"My fangirls would eat you alive."
"I could take them. It's you so there can't be that many of them. It's not like you're Roman Reigns."
"He wishes he had as many fangirls as me."
"You're delusional."
"Do you two always argue like this?"
"Yes." "No." They answered at the same time.
"We don't argue."
"You two argue like an old married couple."
"Gross."
After about an hour into their drive, Mackenzie fell asleep in the backseat. They were now on hour two and she was drifting in and out of sleep.
"Have you told Kenz yet?"
"No. I wanted to wait until I got some clarity on the situation."
"You want her though, right?"
"Yeah. We have a good dynamic. I think it would work and it'd be good for both of us."
"Don't wait for someone else to tell her. You don't want her hearing it from someone else."
Kenz was half asleep while the guys were having this conversation. She swore that she heard her name, but she couldn't be entirely sure. She wasn't even sure if she was even awake right now or if she was dreaming all of this.
An hour later and they had arrived in Fresno. Mackenzie woke up as they passed the Fresno city limits sign. She yawned as she sat up in her seat.
"How long was I out?"
"About two hours I think? You crashed about an hour into the trip."
She checked the time on her phone. It was 11:45 PM. This is what Mackenzie hated about the west coast. She was so used to getting into towns around 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning and going straight to bed when she got to the hotel. It always threw her off when they were on the west side of the country. However, this did mean that she'd get more sleep than she normally would, so she definitely didn't mind.
They arrived at the hotel and once again, Mackenzie had the room to herself. The first thing she did when she entered the room was head straight to the bathroom. She was going to hop in the shower and then hopefully go to sleep.
After her shower, she wrapped herself up in one of the hotel robes. She made herself comfortable on her bed and began channel surfing. She didn't expect anything good to be on at this hour, but luckily she came across some old episodes of the Golden Girls that were being marathoned.
She grabbed her phone and checked her messages. She had one from Paige, informing her that she was with her boyfriend, which she already knew. Kenz just told her to be careful and have a good night.
She went to send Wade a text to tell him that she'd need a ride to Smackdown later but before she could type out the rest of her message, she had fallen asleep.
AN: Alright! Here's the first chapter! Let me know what you guys think. Let me know what you like or what you don't like. I've read over this a million times, but after a while it just looks like a jumbled mess. I apologize if there are any mistakes. I'm really excited about this story and I hope you guys are too! Don't forget to review/follow/favorite!