'Say hello to the girl that I am!
You're gonna have to see through my perspective,
I need to make mistakes just to learn who I am,
And I don't wanna be so damn protected.' – Overprotected, Britney Spears
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Chapter Two
:
The Beginning Path
Vince and Dawn both stood from their respective seats, Vince extending his hand across the desk which Dawn took and shook politely. Nothing had been made definitely, but he'd given her an opportunity and that deserved a hug in it's own right. However, Dawn felt it wouldn't look to professional if she were crawling over the desk to give the man a hug. What Vince had proposed to her was more then what she could have hoped for. Not only would she be designing t-shirts, but jewelry, hats and even the possible ring attires of some of the superstars who were in need of something fresh and new. She smiled widely as the owner handed her a paper in which had the name of the hotel he was staying at scrawled across it along with his room number and cell phone number.
When Dawn had asked about how this would effect her schooling, he'd said that she would only be traveling half of what the wrestlers did since her services weren't required at the arena specifically. The days of school that she did miss would be either made up or she would receive private tutoring while traveling with them, she'd opted for a private tutor.
But, Dawn did have one little dilemma. That dilemma was her parents. Often times they were unpredictable so she didn't know what to expect when she told them about her job opportunity. She assumed they would be pleased to know that she had a chance to make a very good amount of money, one that would be based upon how many of the shirts are sold, yet not giving her a percentage of the money. That was slightly confusing, but Vince said it was guaranteed good money. Who was she to doubt him?
Mr. McMahon kindly ushered her out of the door where Jeff, Matt, Lita and now Chris Jericho, known as Chris Irvine offstage, were scuttling into what they deemed to be a good distance away. Unfortunately, they were caught in the act they tried to act as if they'd been engrossed in conversation when they saw Dawn come out of the office. Overgrown kids…
"So what was that all about?" Matt asked knowingly.
"You tell me, you guys were the ones eavesdropping," Dawn pointed out. Now that she had completely gotten over the star-stricken awe she'd felt earlier, she could finally feel comfortable acting like herself.
"Alright, you caught us," Lita giggled.
"Well just so you don't make me and 'I Love Stephanie' shirts, I'm Chris Jericho, undis-" Chris stopped mid-sentence when he realized that everyone except for Dawn was glaring at him for she had a bemused smile playing about her lips.
"What?" he pretended not to know why he was getting all the looks and they just rolled their eyes at their heavyweight champion.
But Chris being in or out of character wasn't exactly on the mind of Dawn, rather she was wondering how she was going to get home. She didn't have to go outside looking for her brother to know he was gone. He always made good on his word. So either she was stuck walking home or bumming a ride off of one of the guys, being driven home by a WWF superstar didn't seem so bad. Thank you, Kyle!
"Hey, I hate to ask this, but I know my brother's left since I came in here and he didn't get to… So would it be possible for me to get a ride home?" Dawn asked innocently, her shyness suddenly starting to creep up and make her slightly nervous. What if they said no?
"Sure, I'll take you," Jeff piped up.
She smiled at him gratefully. Matt dug a pair of rental car keys out of his pocket and tossed them to Jeff as the rainbow-haired wrestler walked side by side with Dawn in silence out into the private parking lot. He opened the door of the car for her and then closed it for her, going around the car over to the driver side and sliding in himself.
"Thanks," she murmured.
"No problem," he replied cooly.
It wasn't the least bit surprising when Jeff popped in a certain Creed c.d. and 'My Sacrifice' was then playing in the car. Dawn smiled and shrugged, giving him the directions to her house and taking some time out to analyze the all-might colorful one. She could see why girls swooned over him and his looks, there was no denying that he was gorgeous. But Dawn went ahead and looked past the surface. What she found was someone quiet and perhaps even the slightest bit shy. Some considered his look to be 'gothic', but she knew it was. The painted nails, dyed hair, the tattoo on his arm, even the way he dressed. As the thought of dress entered her mind, she suddenly noticed something and was surprised she hadn't noticed earlier – He'd put on the shirt she'd made for him. It looked good too.
"I can't believe your brother left you like that," he stated flat-out. Blunt.
"It's not the first time," she answered equally as blunt and Jeff knew well enough not to pry.
"Do you think your parents will agree to you working for the federation?"
"I don't know with them. I'd say it's a fifty-fifty chance," she shrugged as she was even unsure of that.
"Hey, is this it?"
Dawn looked out the car window and nodded.
"Sure is. Why don't you come on in for a few minutes? Help me sway my parents mind," she flashed him a broad smile and he chuckled lightly. She'd almost expected him to say no, but he agreed and stepped out of the car. Dawn opened the door of her house, it was just a standard home it what would be an average neighborhood. It wasn't some huge mansion, but it wasn't some cramped up space either. There was some hustling and bustling going about, Dawn could tell from simply the air of the room, a kind of sixth sense. Her parents were probably going on another trip.
"'Ey pop, mum!"
They shuffled out of the bedroom to drop a couple of traveling bags near the door, just now noticing that Dawn had someone with her. Someone who somehow looked oddly familiar. He looked like one of those guys on one of the numerous posters in her bedroom.
"Jeff, these are my parentals."
He smiled warmly and offered a hand, shaking first her father's then the mother's as they introduced themselves as David and Jasmine.
"Hey, doll, we're really busy at the moment. We're going to have down to Indianapolis for a business meeting," her father informed her.
"Wait a second, daddy. I just need to ask you something real quick," she spit out and then shuffled her feet nervously. Here goes nothing.
"See, Vince McMahon offered me this job with the WWF. It would require minimal traveling and I'd have a tutor the days that I was with them. I've been promised a decent salary as a designer."
With the hurry to get to the airport and a plane leaving in under an hour, both of them nodded without even really considering anything. She wasn't sure they'd even heard her. But if they were giving her their consent, who was she to stop them?
"Great!" Dawn pulled out a couple papers from her jacket pocket. "All you have to do is sign these," she handed them the paper and produced a pen from the pocket as well. They turned her around and used her back as a surface to write on as both scrolled their names in the designated areas. As soon as that was done, they picked up their bags and shuffled out of the door.
All Jeff had really noticed about the parents was that Dawn looked like neither of them. The mother had blonde hair, which was fading into a gray and blue eyes, her dad having a big bald spot in the middle of his brown hair and brown eyes. They were obviously busy people, too busy. 9 times out of 10 a person doesn't choose to look a bit… different… from the normal crowd because they just feel like it. In Dawn's case, it might have had something to do with her parents who seemed like they were always this busy. Did they make time out to spend quality time with their daughter? From the looks of it, the answer was leaning more to the negative. However, also from the looks of it – Dawn looked nothing her parents. She had odd eyes, one green and the other bright brown, neither from her parents. Also, both the mother and father had high cheekbones, square chin and larger-than-average noses. Dawn seemed to be just the opposite of that. She seemed to be the opposite of her parents in general.
"Jeff!"
"Huh? Oh, sorry," he hadn't realized she'd been talking to him and he grinned sheepishly.
"I said it's getting late and there's going to be a lot of drunk drivers getting onto the road, it might not be a smart move to go out driving," Dawn warned.
"Well what do you suggest I do? Fly?" he asked sarcastically. Dawn smiled and was tempted to nod at the comment, but she held and did her best to give him a 'Duh!' kind of look.
"You can stay here for the night and leave as early as you like," she offered.
"What about your brother?" The little shit, err, wonderful older brother Kyle hadn't even come home yet. Instead of facing the wrath of mom and dad, he'd probably stayed the night over at one of his dear darkling friends' house.
"He'd probably be ecstatic to find you sleeping in my bed."
"Your bed?" he arched his brows questioningly and Dawn rolled her eyes. Oh brother.
"My room also happens to be the guest room. Parents room is off-limits. I wouldn't even dream of going into my brother's piss-infested room. So I'm used to the couch whenever there's company," she explained.
"Well how 'bout I call my brother and let him know where I'm at and then I sleep on the couch?"
Dawn shook her head and held up a hand.
"Nope, I get couch or we share the bed. Your choice."
It wasn't in Jeff's nature not to be a gentleman as he and Matt had been raised well by their father despite the loss of his mother when he was only 9. It wasn't right to let her sleep on the couch, but it wasn't proper to share a bed with a girl so young either. He pondered this a while, looking at the couch all the while.
"Share," he said grudgingly. The couch was old by any obvious glance and also looked rock hard to sit on. But so long as Kyle didn't plan on coming home that night, Jeff figured he could get out of this unscathed. Dawn pointed him in the direction of the phone and went to change into her sleepwear while he called Matt.
Dawn had tossed on a pair of boxers and a tank top to sleep in and crawled into the sleeping bag that rested on the covers of her bed. She had it turned inside so that the smooth satin is what she felt against her skin and so that she didn't get overly hot. She could hear Jeff shuffle into the room, taking off the shirt Dawn had given him and pulling his pants off as well to leave him only in his boxers. He folded the shirt and placed it on a nearby chair for safekeeping and than crawled under the warm covers of the bed.
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She snuggled closer to the body that was next to her, enjoying the heat when she knew the rest of the house would be absolutely freezing. Wait a second… Warm body? Dawn opened her eyes with a start, but she didn't sit bolt straight up. There was an arm wrapped snugly around her waist that prevented her from doing that. Somehow in the middle of the night the sleeping back had slipped down to her knees and the bed sheets were down to Jeff's hips and she was curled up right against him. Must've instinctively rolled towards the heat, she figured. Dawn carefully unwound herself from Jeff's arm, not wanting to wake him since this is what could be considered a rather compromising situation. She finally succeeded and slipped out of the bed, checking Kyle's room to make sure he hadn't come home. And he hadn't.
The smell of something rather delicious reached Jeff's nose. Breakfast. His green eyes fluttered open and he was drawn out of the bed by the alluring smell, at least having the presence of mind to put his pants on. What he found was two plates of food, both with a couple pancakes on them, eggs and bacon. Dawn smiled wryly as she sat down in her chair, motioning for Jeff to do the same. It had been a while since Jeff had eaten a home-cooked meal. Even if it wasn't fancy or anything home made, it still tasted pretty damn good.
"So I guess you're now employed by the WWF?" he asked in between mouthfuls.
"Not yet. I still need to sign my contract."
"Need any help with the designing fashion?"
"I'll let you know," she winked.
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A/N – Okay, I decided to start putting these things at the bottom. *sighs* Slow development of story, I know. I'm trying to put some depth into Jeff, but I always seem to get Dawn instead. And since I'm rambling, I'll shut up now. However, I hope it's not too boring that you can't review!
Note – Just a little side note here. The title of this had originally been 'If By Chance', but I didn't realize there was another fic out there in the wrestling department that had been posted only days ago with that same title so I changed it to 'More Than A Dream Come True'. I'm hoping that this title will work out better in the long run. One last thing, since it's so early in the morning (1:30) please excuse any stupid spelling errors and grammar and such. I promise to try harder! And be sure to review!!!
