There are two kinds of music - good music and bad music. Good music is music that I want to hear. Bad music is music that I don't want to hear.

- Fran Lebowitz

.

Chapter 20

.

{o}-{o}-{o}

.

.

Life was good and getting better in Mox's opinion as he and Roman headed to one of the indoor rings together. Roman had one more treatment to go, but the confidence that he was going to beat his cancer had revitalized him even further. Maybe the cannabis brownies had helped, but a good shot of optimism had done its part too. Roman wasn't limping, wasn't shuffling like he was for so long, he wasn't ghostly white. He walked like someone who might have been a little sore, but it was only the bald head and lack of eyebrows and eyelashes that indicated he had cancer.

He wasn't in any condition to do serious working out, or wrestling, but the doctor was encouraging him to go for walks and do mild exercising. Of course, sometimes it was argued what exactly "mild" meant, because Roman seemed determined to push it to the limits. But fortunately, Roman had May and Mom to remind him not to overdo it, which was fine by Mox. Mox was Roman's brother and he was enjoying having the relationship going back to normal. Having to remind him not to overdo made him feel like he was Roman's babysitter or something.

"The way you're grinning reminds me of our first storyline," Roman remarked. "When you were playing crazy, and I was playing the snotty owner's son. You looked like you were so happy that you were on the manic scale. It freaked me out sometimes, how easy you could do it."

Mox knew he was grinning, and maybe it was a little wild, but he just couldn't seem to stop himself. "Sorry, I don't mean to freak you. I just feel like I'm finally able to breathe again, you know? I mean, I was breathing of course, but when the news came that you were getting better, I just felt like I'd been having trouble and now I wasn't."

"If our lives were a movie, this is the part where they'd play Walking On Sunshine," Roman said, and he was smiling too. It was a corny thing to say, but it was accurate. "Oh, speaking of good news, I overheard Dad and Marc talking last night. They're going to put Alexa in the show Saturday night."

Just when I thought things couldn't get any better, Mox was sure his grin was wide enough now that he probably looked like The Joker. "Really? Have they told her?"

"I don't think so," Roman said. "I think they're going to tell her today."

Since they were headed to the ring where Alexa and May were working at, Mox hoped he might be there when Alexa was told. She had been working hard, her immediate goal being to get to perform on one of the Saturday night shows. He wanted to see her reaction when she was told. "Who is she going to face?"

"May," Roman said, and added with a grin, "Who else?"

It made perfect sense. Sefa preferred to put a "greenie" with an experienced wrestler whenever possible. Professionals usually knew better how to protect themselves from botches and not to botch themselves. May and Alexa would be great because they also had the advantage of being coach and student. "Does May know?"

Roman nodded. "I couldn't keep my mouth shut. I told her this morning when we went for a walk together. She promised to act surprised when Dad tells her." He tried to have a guilty expression, but his eyes were glittering, ruining the effect. "She's really happy, she thinks the two of them can put on a great match."

May was in almost every Saturday show, just as Mox was and Lance when he was able. Now that he was back at ESU, he wasn't in any shows and wouldn't be, most likely, until Christmas break. Performing to an audience was something they were used to. But this would be a first for Alexa, at least with wrestling. "Is that why May insisted the two of them work together this morning?"

"Probably," Roman said. "I have to give Alexa credit, she's really devoted to this."

"I know," Mox said. A tiny part of him wished it was him that would be her opponent in their first match, just in case she lost it, but she and May had worked together without a problem or an injury that wouldn't be expected from a green wrestler, so maybe it was just time for him to relax and start realizing Alexa was finally getting over her internal anger issues. She's pretty amazing.

They had entered the ring building, and saw Sefa was watching May and Alexa as they worked together in the ring. When they got close enough, Mox said in a low voice, "Roman says you're putting them in the show Saturday. Is this true?"

Sefa eyes narrowed as he looked at Roman. "Someone was eavesdropping. Who else did you tell?"

"May," Roman cheerfully admitted. "And if you don't want me to overhear, then you and Marc should have discussed it at his place. Or at least kept your voices down."

"Don't be a wise guy," Sefa said. "You're not too old for me to whoop your ass."

Mox had to stifle a laugh. Sefa had never whooped his kid's asses or any other part of them. He had told Mox as much the second day he lived here. He and Jen did not believe in physical punishment.

Roman however, did laugh, clearly not at all bothered by the threat. "Don't worry, she promised to act surprised when you told them. Have you, yet?"

Sefa shook his head. "I was just about to and she might actually have reason to be surprised, despite your spoilers."

Before he could be questioned further, both May and Alexa had finished whatever moves they had been working on, and wandered over to where the guys were. They didn't leave the ring, but May leaned over the ropes. "I thought you were supposed to be watching us," she said cheerfully. "What's so important you stopped spotting?"

Sefa gave her a look that made it clear to anyone in the know that he knew May had been told the surprise. "I'm putting you both in the show Saturday night." He looked over at Alexa, "This will be your first time in front of an audience."

"Oh, that's great!" May said, doing a good job of pretending she didn't know.

Alexa stood next to her looking dumbstruck, then the news seemed to settle into her brain and she smiled, her eyes wide. "Really?" she finally managed to ask.

"Of course," Sefa said. "I wouldn't joke with you about something this important. And, I'm not joking about this part either, you're going to be the main event."

Now May's eyes were wide with shock. "Seriously? But we haven't even built up a story line!"

"We can wing it," Sefa said. "We don't have a major storyline going on right now, so we'll do a promo where one of you does something to piss the other off. Something quick and dirty."

May had been in the main event several times for SPWA, but she still reacted with delight, leaping over the ropes, and first hugging Sefa quick and hard, then hugging Roman. "Main event! That is awesome!"

Mox studied Alexa, whose eyes were still wide, almost as if in shock, until the news sunk in. "Really?" she asked.

"I don't lie," Sefa said. "You've worked hard and you deserve it."

"My first time wrestling with an audience and I'm going to be in the main event," Alexa said, her voice one of breathless wonderment.

"You deserve it," Mox said. Granted, the SPWA shows were about as far down as you could get for professional wrestling shows, but it was still a tribute to how well she had learned to be asked to main event the very first time. It also showed that Sefa, who could be a tough critic to new wrestlers, believed in her.

"I-I can't believe it," Alexa said, still looking a little awestruck, then the news sunk in further and she let out a whoop. "First time and main event! Look out, world, I'm on my way to the top!"

And Mox was so happy for her. And he knew she wasn't the type for huge displays of affection, and she sure wasn't comfortable enough to hug Sefa, but he still wished she'd reacted like May had, jumped out of the ring to hug him. She'll fuck me, but she won't hug me.

.

Their conversation dominated the lunch table, working out how they were going to come up with an instant rivalry that would justify main event status.

"Don't worry that it's the main event," Sefa said. "You deserve to be in the main event because I know you'll put on a hell of a show. We just need to worry about why you want to fight in the first place."

Several ideas were tossed around, most of them basic, but most wrestling plots were basic. Alexa bumps into May and May takes it personally. May bumps into Alexa and Alexa takes it personally. May suggested maybe Alexa and Roman could be seen talking together, nothing serious, just a conversation, and May sees it and thinks Alexa was trying to steal her man.

Mox watched Alexa stiffen at that suggestion, and was about to dismiss it, but Roman spoke up. "I don't like that. I'm getting better but the last time I got on stage here, I was fit, strong, and had eyebrows and eyelashes. I'm not that person right now, and I don't want to be seen as a wrestler here as SPWA until I look more like my old self."

May nodded in agreement, and Mox watched Alexa's rigid posture relax. He had gotten pretty good at coming up with on-the-fly story lines, both from his time here and in the indies. "How about we stem it off of what's already going on?" he asked.

"Elaborate," Sefa said, helping himself to a sandwich from the platter.

"Well, last week, May had a match with Zelina Vega," Mox said. Zelina was on her second week of camp and the match had been nothing special. She was good enough that Sefa felt she deserved a chance to actually be in the ring, so they had just done a match early in the show. "How about we build on that?" he suggested. "We start with a promo showing you or Marc telling Alexa she's going to have a match with Zelina."

"Go on," Sefa said, a slow smile appearing.

"Well, May hears that and doesn't like it. She's the one who should fight Zelina, not Alexa."

"That would make sense," May said nodding, "Since I put her over. I should get a rematch."

"Exactly," Mox said, warming up to this, the more he spoke. "So, we do another promo we show just before Alexa and Zelina are supposed to go on. May, you do something to Alex, lock her in the closet or something, and go out to take her place. Zelina is surprised, but you can go into a live promo of how you and only you deserve a chance at Zelina, not Alexa." He looked at May, "You can say some disparaging remarks about Alexa too. How she doesn't deserve it, or whatever."

"Then, let me guess," Roman said, "The match barely starts, May throws Zelina out of the ring. Then, Alexa's music starts and she comes running down."

"Yeah," Mox said. "She runs down and distracts May so Zelina gets another win. Zelina disappears, but May and Alexa stay in the ring. You both start arguing."

"Then pushing," May said. "Maybe a little cat fighting?"

"That would work." Mox looked at Alexa, "You could grab her hair or something. And, just when it looks like you really are going to get in an all out cat fight, complete with ripping off each other's clothes, Marc comes out and tells you to cut it out and if you're both so eager to beat each other up, you'll have your chance later that night."

"That works," Sefa said, nodding. "How do you ladies feel about it?"

"I think it's great," May said. "I get to be a heel, which I love. Zelina should be thrilled too, because I put her over twice."

"She's worthy of that," Alexa said. "I've seen her, she works harder than most of the other campers. And she pushes herself on the weight and cardio training too. I know you're much more experienced than she is, May, but she still deserves it."

"I agree," May said. "But what do you think of the idea?"

Alexa nodded, a little slowly, as if she needed a few extra seconds for it all to sink in. "I think it's a good idea."

"Good!" May said, then looked at Sefa. "Who should win?"

"You," Sefa said, and looked at Alexa. "No offense. If this match is as popular as I think it will, we'll be able to spin it into a long going rivalry between the two of you. You're going to eventually have your times at the top."

"I-I don't mind putting her over," Alexa said. "She's been so good at teaching me, it seems only fair. A teacher always keeps a few tricks from her students."

"Okay then," Sefa said nodding. "We've got our reason." He looked over at Marc, who had joined them for lunch. "We need to get the promos filmed and read for Saturday night. Are you up to it?"

Marc nodded. "That shouldn't be a problem."

.

After lunch, Marc took May and Alexa off to shoot promos. Mox wanted to go with them, but he also knew Alexa didn't want him to hover, besides he had classes to teach. He noted Zelina wasn't in the class and hoped she'd been taken off to discuss the new storyline and maybe even to shoot a promo herself. He liked Zelina, she was an eager learner and completely dedicated to wrestling.

He wished he could say the same for the rest of the greens. A lot showed some promise, but there were a few that shouldn't have wasted the money. They didn't have the ambition or the talent. Mox wasn't allowed to openly discriminate against anyone who spent their valuable money to be here, but that didn't mean he couldn't be more likely to see some hands in the air when it came time to ask questions over others.

.

That night at dinner, he found out the shooting had gone well. "I've got plenty of video to work with," Marc said. "And most of it is good enough that my problem won't be trying to find enough good, it will be figuring out what I can eliminate." He looked over at May. "You do much better at talking heel trash than I realized."

May grinned. "I've made extra sure to listen to Raven's promo."

Marc and Mox laughed. "She was born to be a heel," Mox said. "She'd talk shi- uh, crap to the ring post if she had to." The twins were at dinner too, along with Noella, and while it was bad enough to swear with Mom around, he'd get a double dose from her and Noella if he slipped. He didn't escape completely unharmed, Mom still gave him 'one of her looks.' The look that said and here I thought I raised you better! A look that both irritated and thrilled him. He loved it when Jen seemed to forget he'd joined the family when he was almost sixteen and thus, she hadn't had all that much time to raise him.

"All we need is entrance music for Alexa," Marc said. May was still using Pat Benatar's Hit Me With Your Best Shot, the song she and Raven had used as their tag team theme the first summer they attended camp. Technically, the use of popular songs could be a red flag with the original artists, but Sefa figured the worst they were going to do is to remind people of how great they were. Still, he wouldn't let anyone use a song that was from after about 1995, despite a lot of protests from wrestlers, especially if there was a chance their videos would make the website.

"I'd like to use Thunderstruck," Alexa said. "The AC/DC song, I really like it."

Mox knew the song and it would make good entrance music. He looked at Sefa and saw he was frowning. Mox himself used AC/DC's Back In Black and Sefa really didn't like having major wrestlers likely to be involved in the videos to share songs by the same band. Also, he wasn't a complete stickler on this one, but he liked it when women picked songs sung by women. He didn't want to subject Alexa to Sefa's possible rejection, so he spoke up. "Cherry Bomb by the Runaways would be a good choice too."

"Cherry Bomb?" Sefa asked, looking puzzled.

Marc pulled his Ipod out of his back pocket and fidget with it for a bit. Mox sneaked a look over at Alexa and knew he'd made a mistake. She didn't say anything, the expression on her face like one of stone, which usually meant she was seething inside but didn't feel she could let it out. How much shit am I in, now?

Marc found the song on his Ipod and handed it over to Sefa. "Here, listen."

Sefa put on the earplugs and listened. His expression was unreadable, until the first "Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!" played, then he started nodding, which did nothing to make Alexa's expression change from stone. Nobody but Mox seemed to notice, they were all focused on Sefa's expression. Ultimately, it was his choice as more than one camper had learned. Roman hadn't been happy when Sefa picked the song Whata Man for him for awhile, even though it worked with the character he was playing. Eventually, everyone learned even if you had always dreamed of using a particular song as entrance music, Sefa wasn't going to listen to you if he felt it wasn't going to work. When the song was over, he took out the earplugs and handed the Ipod back to Marc. "I like it. We'll go with that."

Mox had the feeling he was in serious trouble.