Chapter 2
Corinne pulled out a pad and pen to take notes during the matches. So far nothing exciting had happened yet or at least nothing worth writing about. The matches that had taken place were X-Pac vs. Billy Gunn, Eddie Guerrero vs. Perry Saturn, and a tag team match between the Dudley Boys and the Acolytes. She shivered as she felt cool air in the arena.
She pulled on a gray sweatshirt over the dark gray boat neck tank top she wore with black capris and smiled at the little blonde girl about four years old who had just sat down next to her who was holding one of the Hardy Boyz foam hands wearing a huge lime green hardy boy shirt. The little girl grinned back, and clapped her hands in excitement.
"Hi!" She said to Corinne jumping up from her seat.
"Hi. So, you like the Hardy Boys?" She asked, knowing the answer.
"I love them! They're the best ever." The girl said hopping after every syllable she spoke.
"Sweetie, sit down." The girl's mother said, holding her daughters shoulder and pushed her gently down. She smiled at Corinne.
"So are you one of the wrestlers your boyfriend?" She asked after handing her daughter a bag of cheerios from her purse.
"Oh no, why do you ask?"
"Oh, because the only reason we got this seat was because of my husband, and since I've met all of the other wrestlers wives, I just figured you had to have a boyfriend or a friend here."
"I just work for the WWF. Who's your husband?" Corinne asked, thinking that the little girl had looked familiar. Just as she said that the lights all turned off and a huge burst of pyro was heard. Then Jericho's music hit and all of the fans cheered wildly. As he came out, the little girl grabbed Corinne's hand to make her stand up.
"Daddy!" She yelled, pointing at him then let go of Corinne's hand so that her mom could pick her up.
He walked past them and had Corinne not been so amazed and watching him intently, she would have missed him wink at his daughter, who just waved as he walked by.
Corinne winced as she heard Jericho hit the mat hard. The little girl tilted her head and looked up at Corinne. She touched her shoulder tentatively and said:
"Don't worry, Daddy says it doesn't hurt a lot when he does that." She said, nodding at Corinne as if to convince her.
"Ok, thanks for telling me," Corinne said, smiling at her reassuringly while the little girls mother mouthed a thank you behind her.
"Guess what?"
"What?" asked Corinne.
"I'm not supposed to tell people that he's my daddy." The little girl whispered as if in conspiracy.
"Oh," Corinne whispered, then quickly jotted down a few notes about the crowds reaction. She would have to go to the RAW the next day and compare the reactions and actions of the crowd along with the wrestlers.
As the match ended, and the crowd cheered for Jericho's win, his wife turned towards Corinne.
"I'm sorry, I never introduced myself. I'm Taylor and this is Julia."
"What's your name?" Julia asked, pushing herself in between her mother and Corinne.
"My name's Corinne." They shook hands and then the little girl grabbed her mom's hand and pulled her down closer to her.
"Mommy, I wanna see Daddy now."
"Alright honey but don't you want to see the Hardy Boys?" Taylor asked stalling, because she knew that Chris didn't like to see his daughter right after a match since he was usually getting iced up or in pain from the match. He usually needed at least ten minutes to calm down.
"But their not coming on yet, come on Mommy."
"Umm, wait a minute sweetie." Taylor said.
Corinne noticed that Taylor didn't seem to be too eager for her daughter to see her husband.
"Hey, Julia, wanna tell me about the Hardy Boys?" Corinne asked, as the Big Show's music came on.
"Ok! They're friends with my Daddy. They always bring me good stuff." She said happily and at least for now seemed preoccupied. Taylor smiled at Corinne in relief and shook her head.
"Really? When I was younger they were my favorite too. Umm which one of them do you like better?"
"Jeffy's funny, but Matt is real nice. He calls me his lil' half pint. Mommy what's a pint?" She asked, as if just wondering this now.
"It's a kind of measurement sweetie. Matt calls you that cause you're little."
"Oh," she said contemplatively.
"I guess I like em both same. How about you?" she asked Corinne.
"I liked them the same too. But I think sometimes I like the way Matt looks more than Jeff." Corinne said, and then blushed when she realized Taylor had heard what she had said and had raised an eyebrow at the comment.
Just then Robert came up to Corinne.
"Hey, they're bringing people backstage now, if you wanna come, I can take you now, just make sure you got your pass. Or else I ain't taking you." Bobby said gruffly, figuring that Corinne would know he was kidding.
Taylor, who didn't know that Corinne knew Bobby interjected in what she deemed to be a rude and obnoxious comment.
"She doesn't need a pass to get backstage, we'll take her." Taylor said.
"And who are…" Bobby began thinking that it was one of Corinne's friends, but then realized that it was Jericho's wife whom he had met earlier in the day.
"Oh, Mrs. Irvine, I didn't know you were sitting…" Bobby mumbled.
"Taylor it's ok. I know Bobby, he wasn't being rude." Corinne said.
"Mommy, I want Corinne to meet Daddy," Julia said, feeling left out since the adults had taken over the conversation.
Taylor looked down at her watch.
"Well I guess we can go, there's three more matches before the Hardys come out and an intermission. How about it Corinne?"
"Umm, sure, that'd be great. Let me just find my pass," Corinne said bending down to her purse and rummaged through it.
"Don't worry about it, you'll be with us," Taylor said, and laughed when Corinne triumphantly pulled out a closed envelope holding the pass.
"Ah hah, found it! Oh, it's okay…besides I've never used this thing."
"Your purse is like mommy's purse but smaller." Julia said.
"Jule's, my purse has to be big because I have all of your stuff in my purse. I can never find anything." Taylor said to Corinne, as they began to walk towards the backstage area.
"Sweetie, stay close to Mommy okay?" Taylor said, to her daughter, but once through the swinging doors and Julia caught sight of her father she let go of her mom and ran to him.
"Daddy!" She yelled as she wrapped her little arms around his legs.
"Hi baby," Chris said, picking her up, and tried not to wince as the tightness in his shoulders got to him. Taylor saw the expression on his face and quickly took her daughter.
"Hun, you okay?" She asked concernedly.
"Daddy?" Julia asked worriedly.
"I'm okay, now that my girls are with me." He put his arm around Taylor and kissed her on the lips then kissed his daughter on her forehead.
"Chris, if it hurts go to the trainer now," Taylor said seriously.
"Tay, it's alright. I'm…"
"Chris!"
"Alright, alright I'll go see the trainer…" he mumbled, then smiled for his daughters benefit.
"Dad'll be right back ok? Just gonna go get an ice pop."
"Grandpa's an ice Pop!" Julia giggled since she called her grandfather that, after finding out that he had been a hockey player.
"Hey, umm Taylor I didn't know you were bringing a friend with you?" Chris said as he walked by Corinne.
"I'm Corinne, I work for the WWF. I just met Taylor and Julia outside."
"Oh, nice to meet you. You a writer?" Chris asked.
"Ah, kind of. More of a substitute really, I'm just helping out a friend."
"Alright, well stick around, I'm sure Tay will talk your ear off."
"Chris, go!" Taylor said, and Chris just smiled and walked away.
"He never wants to show Julie when he's hurt," Taylor whispered to Corinne as Julia began playing with the foam hand that she was still clutching.
"Is that my lil' half pint?" a deep voice said from down the hall.
"Matt!" Julia yelled and ran to him.
He picked her up and she kissed him on the cheek, the rubbed her little palm on his face and giggled as the hair tickled her hand.
"So what have you been doing?" He asked.
"I was watching Daddy, he went to get some ice. Look Matt, I got a shirt."
"Yeah, you got my shirt," Matt said as he walked to Taylor, then noticed the tall woman standing near her in the shadows.
"Hey TayTay," he said then looked at Corinne.
"Hi, I'm Matt Hardy." He said extending a hand, still holding on to Julia who was now playing with his hair.
"Uh, Hi." She said, as he took her hand and shook it swiftly.
"This is mine and mommy's friend Corinne, we just met her today." Julia said as she pulled up his ponytail distractedly on top his head.
Corinne and Taylor looked up and cracked up since Matt looked ridiculous since Julia was still holding up his hair.
"Jules, wanna put my hair down?" Matt said a little embarrassed.
"Nope, you look funny Matty." She said giggling and placing another wet kiss on his cheek. Suddenly there was a loud yell down the hallway.
"Oh my god! It's Queen Jules," Jeff said and he ran towards her, while Julia struggled to get out of Matt's arms.
"Jeffy!" She said, and then laughed loudly as Jeff grabbed her and threw her up into the air.
Taylor shook her head.
"This is why she loves them so much. They have the same mentality. Jeffrey over there has the mind of a four year old and Matt….Matt's hair is still messed up." Taylor said laughing out loud and Corinne who had been staring at Matt couldn't help but laugh either.
Matt quickly took down the ponytail and fixed it, smoothing the strands of chocolate brown hair only to be mussed again by his brother who gave him a noogie before running away with a laughing Julia. He fixed his hair again.
"Umm, so, Corinne, what brings you here?" He asked.
"Yeah, I never got a chance to ask you that either." Taylor laughingly.
"Oh, umm I was just asked to basically write a short article on the difference between the house shows and the broadcasted shows. Essentially to make house shows sound good since attendance hasn't been up to par as in the past years. But I'm just doing this as a favor for a friend, I'm really just an accountant. And I've only been working for the WWF for a few months."
"So you live in Stamford?" Matt asked.
"Brought up there." She said.
"Well Matt, we'd love to stay and chat but I wanna introduce her to more important people than you. Since you haven't worked here for very long, have you met Mark Calloway? Or Steve Williams? Or Jeff?"
"Hey, Taylor, Jeff is not more important than me!" Matt declared.
"Yeah whatever." Taylor said, pulling Corinne with her as she walked down the hallway to find her daughter.
Matt looked appreciatively as Corinne was pulled down the hallway with Taylor.
"Ugh, I hate this shoulder!" Chris Irvine grunted when he came out of the trainers room with a huge icepack wrapped around his right shoulder.
"Hey, where's Taylor going and where's Julie?"
"Julie's with Jeff and Taylor is gonna introduce Corinne to the other wrestlers." Matt said not taking his gaze away from the women's backs.
"Hardy, you better be looking at Corinne and not my woman." Chris said, raising an eyebrow.
"She's cute huh?"
"My wife? Thanks I think so too, that's why I married her," Chris said purposely misunderstanding Matt.
"I meant Corinne."
"I know, but I don't know much about her. Is she a writer?"
"Nah, an accountant."
"Oh forget about it bud. That means she's in the office, meaning not much traveling and no chance for you." Chris said.
"I meant like ask her for a date. What is with you and Jeff? It's like every time I show even a hint of interest in a girl, you guys just go insane."
"Umm, it's cause you don't show any interests in girls. I mean since Amy got with…"
"Chris, I'm over her. We had an agreement; I just didn't think she'd end up with new so quickly. I guess I just got used to always having her around."
"What agreement? You never told me about…umph," his daughter jumped into his arms and interrupted Chris.
"We're gonna go watch you now Matt!" She said giggling as her father tickled her. Taylor came too and wrapped her arm around Chris.
"Is it better now honey?"
"It's fine, can't even feel it with all this ice on it."
"Where'd Corinne go?" Matt interrupted
"She went back to talk to one of her friends. I think he works here." Taylor explained just before a stagehand came and told Matt that Jeff was waiting for him in their locker room.
"Come on sweetie, let's go back to the ring so Daddy can finish dressing and we can leave right after the Matt and Jeff wrestle okay?" Julia nodded slowly, and Taylor could see that she was getting tired so she picked her up and brought her back to the audience.
Corinne pulled out a pad and pen to take notes during the matches. So far nothing exciting had happened yet or at least nothing worth writing about. The matches that had taken place were X-Pac vs. Billy Gunn, Eddie Guerrero vs. Perry Saturn, and a tag team match between the Dudley Boys and the Acolytes. She shivered as she felt cool air in the arena.
She pulled on a gray sweatshirt over the dark gray boat neck tank top she wore with black capris and smiled at the little blonde girl about four years old who had just sat down next to her who was holding one of the Hardy Boyz foam hands wearing a huge lime green hardy boy shirt. The little girl grinned back, and clapped her hands in excitement.
"Hi!" She said to Corinne jumping up from her seat.
"Hi. So, you like the Hardy Boys?" She asked, knowing the answer.
"I love them! They're the best ever." The girl said hopping after every syllable she spoke.
"Sweetie, sit down." The girl's mother said, holding her daughters shoulder and pushed her gently down. She smiled at Corinne.
"So are you one of the wrestlers your boyfriend?" She asked after handing her daughter a bag of cheerios from her purse.
"Oh no, why do you ask?"
"Oh, because the only reason we got this seat was because of my husband, and since I've met all of the other wrestlers wives, I just figured you had to have a boyfriend or a friend here."
"I just work for the WWF. Who's your husband?" Corinne asked, thinking that the little girl had looked familiar. Just as she said that the lights all turned off and a huge burst of pyro was heard. Then Jericho's music hit and all of the fans cheered wildly. As he came out, the little girl grabbed Corinne's hand to make her stand up.
"Daddy!" She yelled, pointing at him then let go of Corinne's hand so that her mom could pick her up.
He walked past them and had Corinne not been so amazed and watching him intently, she would have missed him wink at his daughter, who just waved as he walked by.
Corinne winced as she heard Jericho hit the mat hard. The little girl tilted her head and looked up at Corinne. She touched her shoulder tentatively and said:
"Don't worry, Daddy says it doesn't hurt a lot when he does that." She said, nodding at Corinne as if to convince her.
"Ok, thanks for telling me," Corinne said, smiling at her reassuringly while the little girls mother mouthed a thank you behind her.
"Guess what?"
"What?" asked Corinne.
"I'm not supposed to tell people that he's my daddy." The little girl whispered as if in conspiracy.
"Oh," Corinne whispered, then quickly jotted down a few notes about the crowds reaction. She would have to go to the RAW the next day and compare the reactions and actions of the crowd along with the wrestlers.
As the match ended, and the crowd cheered for Jericho's win, his wife turned towards Corinne.
"I'm sorry, I never introduced myself. I'm Taylor and this is Julia."
"What's your name?" Julia asked, pushing herself in between her mother and Corinne.
"My name's Corinne." They shook hands and then the little girl grabbed her mom's hand and pulled her down closer to her.
"Mommy, I wanna see Daddy now."
"Alright honey but don't you want to see the Hardy Boys?" Taylor asked stalling, because she knew that Chris didn't like to see his daughter right after a match since he was usually getting iced up or in pain from the match. He usually needed at least ten minutes to calm down.
"But their not coming on yet, come on Mommy."
"Umm, wait a minute sweetie." Taylor said.
Corinne noticed that Taylor didn't seem to be too eager for her daughter to see her husband.
"Hey, Julia, wanna tell me about the Hardy Boys?" Corinne asked, as the Big Show's music came on.
"Ok! They're friends with my Daddy. They always bring me good stuff." She said happily and at least for now seemed preoccupied. Taylor smiled at Corinne in relief and shook her head.
"Really? When I was younger they were my favorite too. Umm which one of them do you like better?"
"Jeffy's funny, but Matt is real nice. He calls me his lil' half pint. Mommy what's a pint?" She asked, as if just wondering this now.
"It's a kind of measurement sweetie. Matt calls you that cause you're little."
"Oh," she said contemplatively.
"I guess I like em both same. How about you?" she asked Corinne.
"I liked them the same too. But I think sometimes I like the way Matt looks more than Jeff." Corinne said, and then blushed when she realized Taylor had heard what she had said and had raised an eyebrow at the comment.
Just then Robert came up to Corinne.
"Hey, they're bringing people backstage now, if you wanna come, I can take you now, just make sure you got your pass. Or else I ain't taking you." Bobby said gruffly, figuring that Corinne would know he was kidding.
Taylor, who didn't know that Corinne knew Bobby interjected in what she deemed to be a rude and obnoxious comment.
"She doesn't need a pass to get backstage, we'll take her." Taylor said.
"And who are…" Bobby began thinking that it was one of Corinne's friends, but then realized that it was Jericho's wife whom he had met earlier in the day.
"Oh, Mrs. Irvine, I didn't know you were sitting…" Bobby mumbled.
"Taylor it's ok. I know Bobby, he wasn't being rude." Corinne said.
"Mommy, I want Corinne to meet Daddy," Julia said, feeling left out since the adults had taken over the conversation.
Taylor looked down at her watch.
"Well I guess we can go, there's three more matches before the Hardys come out and an intermission. How about it Corinne?"
"Umm, sure, that'd be great. Let me just find my pass," Corinne said bending down to her purse and rummaged through it.
"Don't worry about it, you'll be with us," Taylor said, and laughed when Corinne triumphantly pulled out a closed envelope holding the pass.
"Ah hah, found it! Oh, it's okay…besides I've never used this thing."
"Your purse is like mommy's purse but smaller." Julia said.
"Jule's, my purse has to be big because I have all of your stuff in my purse. I can never find anything." Taylor said to Corinne, as they began to walk towards the backstage area.
"Sweetie, stay close to Mommy okay?" Taylor said, to her daughter, but once through the swinging doors and Julia caught sight of her father she let go of her mom and ran to him.
"Daddy!" She yelled as she wrapped her little arms around his legs.
"Hi baby," Chris said, picking her up, and tried not to wince as the tightness in his shoulders got to him. Taylor saw the expression on his face and quickly took her daughter.
"Hun, you okay?" She asked concernedly.
"Daddy?" Julia asked worriedly.
"I'm okay, now that my girls are with me." He put his arm around Taylor and kissed her on the lips then kissed his daughter on her forehead.
"Chris, if it hurts go to the trainer now," Taylor said seriously.
"Tay, it's alright. I'm…"
"Chris!"
"Alright, alright I'll go see the trainer…" he mumbled, then smiled for his daughters benefit.
"Dad'll be right back ok? Just gonna go get an ice pop."
"Grandpa's an ice Pop!" Julia giggled since she called her grandfather that, after finding out that he had been a hockey player.
"Hey, umm Taylor I didn't know you were bringing a friend with you?" Chris said as he walked by Corinne.
"I'm Corinne, I work for the WWF. I just met Taylor and Julia outside."
"Oh, nice to meet you. You a writer?" Chris asked.
"Ah, kind of. More of a substitute really, I'm just helping out a friend."
"Alright, well stick around, I'm sure Tay will talk your ear off."
"Chris, go!" Taylor said, and Chris just smiled and walked away.
"He never wants to show Julie when he's hurt," Taylor whispered to Corinne as Julia began playing with the foam hand that she was still clutching.
"Is that my lil' half pint?" a deep voice said from down the hall.
"Matt!" Julia yelled and ran to him.
He picked her up and she kissed him on the cheek, the rubbed her little palm on his face and giggled as the hair tickled her hand.
"So what have you been doing?" He asked.
"I was watching Daddy, he went to get some ice. Look Matt, I got a shirt."
"Yeah, you got my shirt," Matt said as he walked to Taylor, then noticed the tall woman standing near her in the shadows.
"Hey TayTay," he said then looked at Corinne.
"Hi, I'm Matt Hardy." He said extending a hand, still holding on to Julia who was now playing with his hair.
"Uh, Hi." She said, as he took her hand and shook it swiftly.
"This is mine and mommy's friend Corinne, we just met her today." Julia said as she pulled up his ponytail distractedly on top his head.
Corinne and Taylor looked up and cracked up since Matt looked ridiculous since Julia was still holding up his hair.
"Jules, wanna put my hair down?" Matt said a little embarrassed.
"Nope, you look funny Matty." She said giggling and placing another wet kiss on his cheek. Suddenly there was a loud yell down the hallway.
"Oh my god! It's Queen Jules," Jeff said and he ran towards her, while Julia struggled to get out of Matt's arms.
"Jeffy!" She said, and then laughed loudly as Jeff grabbed her and threw her up into the air.
Taylor shook her head.
"This is why she loves them so much. They have the same mentality. Jeffrey over there has the mind of a four year old and Matt….Matt's hair is still messed up." Taylor said laughing out loud and Corinne who had been staring at Matt couldn't help but laugh either.
Matt quickly took down the ponytail and fixed it, smoothing the strands of chocolate brown hair only to be mussed again by his brother who gave him a noogie before running away with a laughing Julia. He fixed his hair again.
"Umm, so, Corinne, what brings you here?" He asked.
"Yeah, I never got a chance to ask you that either." Taylor laughingly.
"Oh, umm I was just asked to basically write a short article on the difference between the house shows and the broadcasted shows. Essentially to make house shows sound good since attendance hasn't been up to par as in the past years. But I'm just doing this as a favor for a friend, I'm really just an accountant. And I've only been working for the WWF for a few months."
"So you live in Stamford?" Matt asked.
"Brought up there." She said.
"Well Matt, we'd love to stay and chat but I wanna introduce her to more important people than you. Since you haven't worked here for very long, have you met Mark Calloway? Or Steve Williams? Or Jeff?"
"Hey, Taylor, Jeff is not more important than me!" Matt declared.
"Yeah whatever." Taylor said, pulling Corinne with her as she walked down the hallway to find her daughter.
Matt looked appreciatively as Corinne was pulled down the hallway with Taylor.
"Ugh, I hate this shoulder!" Chris Irvine grunted when he came out of the trainers room with a huge icepack wrapped around his right shoulder.
"Hey, where's Taylor going and where's Julie?"
"Julie's with Jeff and Taylor is gonna introduce Corinne to the other wrestlers." Matt said not taking his gaze away from the women's backs.
"Hardy, you better be looking at Corinne and not my woman." Chris said, raising an eyebrow.
"She's cute huh?"
"My wife? Thanks I think so too, that's why I married her," Chris said purposely misunderstanding Matt.
"I meant Corinne."
"I know, but I don't know much about her. Is she a writer?"
"Nah, an accountant."
"Oh forget about it bud. That means she's in the office, meaning not much traveling and no chance for you." Chris said.
"I meant like ask her for a date. What is with you and Jeff? It's like every time I show even a hint of interest in a girl, you guys just go insane."
"Umm, it's cause you don't show any interests in girls. I mean since Amy got with…"
"Chris, I'm over her. We had an agreement; I just didn't think she'd end up with new so quickly. I guess I just got used to always having her around."
"What agreement? You never told me about…umph," his daughter jumped into his arms and interrupted Chris.
"We're gonna go watch you now Matt!" She said giggling as her father tickled her. Taylor came too and wrapped her arm around Chris.
"Is it better now honey?"
"It's fine, can't even feel it with all this ice on it."
"Where'd Corinne go?" Matt interrupted
"She went back to talk to one of her friends. I think he works here." Taylor explained just before a stagehand came and told Matt that Jeff was waiting for him in their locker room.
"Come on sweetie, let's go back to the ring so Daddy can finish dressing and we can leave right after the Matt and Jeff wrestle okay?" Julia nodded slowly, and Taylor could see that she was getting tired so she picked her up and brought her back to the audience.