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Aw, thanks so much to Showni13, matt-hardy-lover-101, Cdand941, Cupid-Jayne, and O. Ferchito .O. Means a lot that y'all took the time to review! Sorry this chapter took so long. It took a while for me to find out where I was going with it. I hope that everyone enjoys!
Twelfth Wonder
Chapter Four: Fleeting Inspiration
Maggie returned to her hotel room an hour or so later, but not without having a parting shot directed at her by Wade. Her cheeks were still red, even as she shut the door to her room and flopped down on her bed.
"Need to get back and ponder the mysteries of time travel, huh?"
Oh, she could just kill him.
When she had sat back at the table after her epic fail of a request to Dolph Ziggler for an interview, the Superstars immediately saw something was wrong. She had stirred her coffee until it was practically a whirlpool in her cup, thinking of the blonde show off every time she glanced at the coffee stirrer, and how it had looked clenched between his teeth in such a casual manner it was infuriating.
They hadn't left her alone until she told them what had happened. Miz, being a lot kinder than his in ring persona showed, had volunteered to be her first interviewee for her article. Maggie had been beside herself with thanks, spilling her coffee in the process, and that caused a whole other number of problems.
Maggie had an appointment tomorrow with Miz, seeing as his schedule was already busy enough, it was an accomplishment. Since the appointment was so soon, and she was certainly going to get a call from Jared soon regarding the timing of the article, she sat at the desk in her hotel room and tried to clear her mind. They had given her this article assignment rather late. The January issue would go out in a matter of a week or so, and she needed to get this done as soon as possible.
Sighing, she brought out her notebook and pen and began to write.
The introduction to the interview was one of the most important parts of the article itself. It had to be enough to garner attention from the reader, but not enough that it becomes lackadaisical and unattractive. It was one of Maggie's favorite parts of the writing process, but…
Her mind was blank.
The ability to write was there. The ideas, the tenses, the way she would describe The Awesome One himself. But her mind was completely muddled, as if not wanting to form the words, and she couldn't figure out why.
With a frustrated groan, she threw her pen down and looked over to the television, which she had carelessly left on during her breakfast excursion. It was on some kind of morning show, the kind that she had never watched but took up the majority of the day. They were talking about some kind of wine tasting, and the hostesses obviously had had too much. Maggie rolled her eyes before turning away from the television and laying her head down on the desk with a bit too much force.
"Ow," she murmured half-heartedly, allowing her eyes to slide closed.
Millions of thoughts swirled around inside her head, all of them strange and none of them sticking around long enough for her to analyze them. She breathed deeply through her nose and out through her mouth, trying to grasp what she could not and failing.
Her brain decided to hurl an image of Dolph straight at her, and instinctively she winced away from it and opened her eyes in a rush to get away.
"None of that," she told herself, blinking a few times and then grasping the discarded pen. "None of that."
So she set her pen to paper and began to write.
It was like this sometimes, having a major case of oh crap what do I write about followed by a revelation of oh I can write this. The whole thing was just a matter of learning to overcome the feeling of being overwhelmed, and sometimes Maggie felt she had yet to master it. Still, the pen scribbled across the paper without much pause, and for that she felt like she had accomplished something.
When the term "awesome" was coined, many people might not have had one particular man in mind. However, this term has become synonymous with one individual - WWE Superstar Mike "the Miz" Mizanin, and as he walks to the ring with confidence set in his shoulders and a rather gaudy and amazing trench coat over his ring gear, I cannot find the words to argue against this claim…
As soon as she got those first few words on the paper, the rest flowed out like water from a tap. Maggie felt the tightness in her shoulders decrease as she slouched, relaxed and yet enraptured in her work, as she busily scribbled words and notes and anything that comes to mind along the paper. It was just a rough draft, of course, but she can edit it up later and pick and choose what to keep and what to drop from the final product.
She hadn't realized she was biting her bottom lip until she almost sawed it off when a loud knock sounded through the hotel room. Maggie yelped in pain as her fingers shot up to press against the wounded area, coming back and revealing just a bit of blood. She closed her eyes and rose from her seated position, feeling satisfied as her eyes raked over the massive amount of doodling she had done on the exposed piece of notebook paper.
She marched over to the door and opened it.
Emptiness greeted her.
Maggie puffed her cheeks and then blew out the air. Millions of episodes of CSI came back to her, in which the unsuspecting girl was murdered in her room in a situation just like this. She shuddered, thinking of David Caruso leaning over her dead body and making a quip while sliding his shades on.
Stupid, she thought. Maggie leaned out the door and looked down either side of the hall. The left side was empty, but when she turned to look down the right side.
"Ah!" she shouted in surprise, her hand leaping to her throat. "Geez!"
"I scared you?" Miz asked. "Sorry, couldn't resist."
Maggie started to laugh nervously, a result of her adrenaline pumping through her veins for no reason at all, it seemed. Miz rolled his neck, earning a few pops for his efforts, and crossed his arms, though the welcoming smile never left his face.
"Ah…how did you find my room?" she asked, feeling her eyebrows knit together in her thought.
"It's amazing what a little research can do."
"Creeper," she accused lightly.
Miz let that comment roll off his shoulders. He gave her an impish grin and said, "Wanna come down to the arena and see a practice match before the show?"
"It's…ah…not even one o'clock yet."
"We go over stuff before game time. Nothing too major in case someone gets injured. Just basic moves and whatnot." He gave his shoulders a roll. "You up for it? Might be able to get some inspiration from it."
Maggie cocked her head to the side, thinking for a moment before looking over to her desk. She was very tempted to see how everything worked backstage, but she had to finish the rest of the introduction for the article. She turned and looked at the Miz and, after warring with herself, said, "Um...yeah. Why not!"
"Awesome!" Miz said. Maggie almost laughed at that. She retrieved her messenger bag and shoved the rough draft and her cell phone into it before turning and facing him yet again.
"Let's go, I guess," she ventured.
Miz laughed - at what, Maggie had no clue - and lead her out of the hotel room and into the hallway. It was deserted, and Maggie couldn't help but think of The Shining. She phased out for a moment, imagining R-Truth coming out of no where and saying, "Heeere's Little Jimmy!"
She fought back a snicker at her own childishness. The two of them continued walking in awkward silence, with Maggie not sure exactly how to break it, so she just fiddled with the strap of her bag and tried to keep her footsteps light and not as clunky as she was bound to sound.
Eventually, they arrived in the parking lot. Eve and Rosa were standing next to a car with grins on their faces.
"I see you got her to come," a very familiar, very British voice sounded from the passenger's seat.
Maggie felt the urge to be sick.
Miz climbed into the car, motioning for Maggie to take the backseat. She watched as both Eve and Rosa loaded themselves into the car, and Maggie gave a light sigh before doing the same. She was squished against the car door for the majority of the trip, but she tried to think of other things. Soon enough, though, the arena's bulking shape came into view, and she almost breathed a sigh of relief. Miz did some crazy turning and ended up taking a secret passageway to a parking lot beneath the stadium itself, but not before checking in with a few massive security guards.
It was almost like these employees of the WWE were presidential candidates...
After the car was parked, everyone filed out of the car, Maggie almost falling on her head as she did so. She felt very much like the odd man out as they walked to...well, wherever it was. Wade slung his arm over Rosa's shoulders, and Miz and Eve talked together with their heads very close. It was almost like looking in on some intimate moment that she wasn't supposed to be witnessing.
Eventually, after many twists and turns and passing tour buses - so that's where they parked them - they arrived at the ring. There were still people getting ready for the day, all up in the rafters and hooking up pyro, checking the entrance music to see if it worked properly. Maggie was entranced by it all, unable to do anything but gape.
"Here," Wade said, walking over to the ring before grabbing a steel chair out from under it. He unfolded the chair and presented it to the journalist. She eyed it, wondering idly just who was going to get smacked with that later tonight. She sat down on it, ringside, and placed her bag on her lap.
Wade and Miz then went to go change into more comfortable clothes, as did Eve. Rosa followed her, opening her cell phone, automatically saying, "Primo! Where are you?" and then breaking off into angry Spanish.
Of course, that left Maggie alone.
She fiddled with the strap of her bag, uncertain of what to do. She felt rather out of place here, sitting in a chair ringside with nothing better to do than watch. Maggie found it entertaining. The people that had occupied the ring when they got there were still practicing a few moves - nothing too risky, as to not be injured pre-show. From what she saw, Alex Riley and Ryback were going over a few things. It was surreal, being able to see them at work just feet from where they were.
As long as one of them doesn't get tossed out of the ring at me, I'm golden... she thought, wincing.
"Hi, Maggie!" a voice chirped.
Maggie had been so immersed in watching the practice session that she hadn't even noticed Kelly's presence. She jumped, and then flushed. "Um...hey!"
Kelly laughed. Maggie noticed she was in her street clothes, and not even in the locker room with Eve to change. "What are you doing here?"
"Um...ah...well, Miz kind of invited me to watch a few practice matches to help with my article."
"Cool," Kelly commented, placing a manicured hand on her hip. She looked at the ring, her face glowing. "I'm so glad Alex has a match tonight, even if it is against Ryback."
"Yeah?" Maggie smiled. "He looks like he's holding up good - I mean, ah, not that I thought he wouldn't. I, ah, just know I would be scared." She chuckled nervously, seeing it best to stop talking then.
Kelly laughed at her. "I know what you mean. Heath was practically pissing himself last week when he had to go up against him."
Maggie joined in, just as Ryback slammed Alex on the mat, causing the whole thing to shake. Maggie winced despite herself.
The minutes passed by sluggishly. Luckily enough, Kelly was chatty and it alleviated the awkwardness of being alone. She clapped when Alex did something particularly impressive, and Maggie found herself clapping for his opponent - since, well, they were the only two here, and it was only fair.
After a while, the two of them ended their session and climbed out of the ring. Alex came over, covered in a thin sheen of sweat, and gave Kelly a hug. She didn't seem to mind, which was kind of funny to Maggie. She figured that she would squirm away when confronted with her sweaty...boyfriend? At least, that was what their relationship seemed like to her.
Ryback rolled his neck from side to side as he walked towards them, clapping Alex on the shoulder. He gave both Maggie and Kelly a friendly nod, but didn't say much other than a greeting, before heading back to the locker room, most likely to cool down before the actual show started. Alex pressed a kiss to Kelly's temple before doing the same.
"Hey, I'm about to go get a bottle of water from the vending machine," she said. "Do you want one?"
"Oh...ah...no, thank you. I'm fine."
"Alright! Be back in a bit!"
Kelly left Maggie by herself, staring at the empty ring. She decided to bring out her papers and look over them to check for any kinds of errors she missed before. Just as she was about to start proofreading, the papers were snatched from her hands.
She almost jumped out of her skin for the second time that day. A little squeak escaped from her, and then familiar, cocky laughter entered the air around her.
Maggie turned and saw that Dolph had managed to sneak up on her. He held her work in his hands, going over it with a growing grin on his face. He didn't look at her as he said, "Damn, you're skittish."
"I...ah...wouldn't be if...well, you weren't such a...uh..."
"I'm waiting," he drawled.
"Shut up."
This caused him to chuckle more, and Maggie felt as if she would actually murder him. "Can...you give me my papers back?" She reached up, as if to take them from his hands. Her fingers grazed his forearm before he jerked his hands away, out of her reach.
"Nah...I'm rather liking this article of Miz-worship," he said, amused.
She flushed. "It's my job..."
"Well, if you're this glowing about Miz, I can't wait to see what you're gonna write about me."
"...why would I write anything bad about anyone?"
Dolph looked at her finally, his eyes quizzical in his face. He didn't say anything, only slowly handed her the papers back. She took them, and he continued to look at her as if never seeing her before, before a sound from the distance caused him to look up and off towards the back. It sounded like footsteps, and Maggie supposed it was his partner for his practice session. "Why are you here, anyway?" he asked, still pointedly not looking at her.
Maggie related to him her current situation, and he then cast his eyes down at her, smiling.
"Well, then, I guess I'll have to give you a show," he said before hefting himself into the ring.
End Chapter Four.
