Disclaimer: Chapters 1-3.
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Chapter Eight
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Tess paced the women's locker room. It was about midday, and Vince had requested a meeting with her around one. Tess was nervous. She had no idea what it was about.
'What if he's going to make me stop valeting? Am I not doing a good job?' she asked herself as she walked from one side of the room to the other. She snapped out of her daze as she heard the door open.
"Hey chick, what's up?" Amy asked from behind her. Tess turned around to face her friend.
"Not much. I have a meeting with Vince in an hour, and I'm nervous. I have no idea what it's about." Tess told her before plopping down on one of the benches.
"Don't worry about it, Vince really is a nice guy. Besides, I'm sure it's nothing." Amy said, before taking her gym bag and walking back to the showers. Tess sat there and listened to Amy sing in a high pitched, off-key tune as she showered, and couldn't help but laugh at her best friend. Deciding that she may as well get her shower in before her meeting with Vince. She grabbed a pair of hip huggers and a light green button-down shirt, a towel, and walked to the showers. Amy was just getting out and flashed Tess a smile before proceeding to towel off and change. Tess was off in her own world again, though, and didn't notice. She started the shower and was in there for a good fifteen minutes before she began to wash her hair. She used a fair amount of her coconut shampoo, still not really paying attention to anything but her thoughts.
"Tess, you better hurry up or you'll be late for your meeting!" she heard Amy yell from the main part of the locker room. Tess snapped out of it and finished her shower quickly. She changed, applied a small bit of makeup, and dried her hair curly before walking barefoot back to the locker room. She sat down on the bench and slipped on her new boots, then stood up.
"How do I look?" she asked Amy.
"You look fine. Stop worrying Tess, you'll make yourself sick." Amy said. Tess nodded.
"I gotta go now, I'll come and tell you what it was about before the show tonight." Tess replied, refering to the house show they were putting on tonight in Phoenix.
"Alright. Good luck, chick!" Amy said to Tess's retreating back. She was out the door and headed to Vince's office. She smiled at Glenn as she passed him, and walked on to Vince's office. She breathed out a breath that she didn't realize she was holding as she approached the large oak doors. She reached up and tapped softly on one.
"Come in." said a voice from inside. Tess pushed the door open and walked timidly in.
"You...you wanted to see me?" she stammered. Vince nodded.
"Have a seat." he said, flipping through a large stack of papers on his desk.
'Oh no,' Tess thought to herself. 'He IS going to stop me from valeting, or I'm in trouble for something...' All her worry came flooding back to her.
"I wanted to talk to you about a provisional contract." Vince said, finally pulling out a few papers. Tess looked at him and quirked an eyebrow.
"Pardon?" she asked.
"I want to sign you for a month, and see how you do at some house shows. If you didn't know, Amy and Rob taped you working out a few times, and I reviewed the tapes to see how your progress was coming along. You have amazing natural talent, just like your father. If you decide to sign this provisional contract, which I hope you will, you will have your first match tonight." Vince said, flashing a small smile at her. Tess breathed a sigh of relief before smiling widely.
"I would love to, Vince. Thank you so much for offering!" Tess said, her smile growing bigger.
"Wonderful. Just sign here, and initial there." Vince replied, pointing to two lines. Tess signed and initialed like he told her to, and stood up.
"Your match tonight is against Trish. It's not predetermined, so it could go either way. Just wrestle the best way you know how, and we'll see how it works out." Vince said, before motioning that she could leave. She nodded and walked back to the women's locker room.
"AMY!!!" she yelled as she walked back in. Amy poked her head up from her locker, where she was rummaging through a bag.
"What?! What happened?!" Amy said, quickly walking over to her. She looked concerned.
"I got signed! Vince signed me! It's just a provisional contract, but still! I have a match tonight against Trish!" Tess squealed, jumping up and down. Amy laughed and smiled, hugging her friend.
"See! I knew you could do it, chick! I'm so proud of you!" Amy said. "But we need to go down to the seamstresses' room like now, to see if she has any wrestling outfits laying around in your size. You can just wear something simple tonight, and we can get her to measure you and begin working on your actual costumes." she grabbed Tess's hand and drug her along towards the room. The seamstress was the same that had made Tess's first valeting outfit, a nice, older woman. She smiled as Tess and Amy barged in, and went right to finding Tess an outfit. She finally came up with a nice, plain black one that used to belong to Trish. The seamstress decided that it would work, as soon as she did some hemming on it. Trish and Tess were about the same size, all except for the bust area. The seamstress took Tess's measurments again and sent them along their way, telling them to come back in an hour for the costume.
"I was thinking we could do your eye makeup dark and smokey," Amy was telling her as they walked down a hallway towards catering. Tess was only half-listning, though. "You'll look great." she finished. Tess smiled and nodded.
"Hello? Earth to Tess? Are you listning to me?" Amy asked, playfully tapping on Tess's forehead. She blinked and looked up.
"Yep, I'm here. I'm okay." she laughed. Amy rolled her eyes and grabbed her by the arm, leading her over to a table where Adam, Matt, Jeff, and Jay were sitting. Amy took a seat beside Matt, and Tess took one beside Jeff.
"Hey guys, whacha up to?" Tess asked with a smile.
"Not too much, how about yourself?" Jeff said before taking another bite of his sandwich.
"I have a little suprise."
"Spill," Jay said, eyeing her with curiosity.
"I got signed!" Tess squealed, grinning from ear to ear.
"Way to go Tess!" Jeff said, throwing his arms around the small girl. She hugged him back, then went around and hugged everyone else at the table. "I knew you could do it." Tess smiled and glanced down at her watch. She needed to be back with the seamstress in about fifteen minutes.
"Alright, I'm gonna go ahead and go down to see the seamstress. See you guys later!" Tess said, before getting up and walking out of catering. She began to make her way to the seamstresses' room, smiling slightly to herself.
"Hey, dollface." she heard behind her. She turned around with a roll of her eyes.
"Chris, what the hell do you want?" Tess asked in an annoyed tone.
"Aww, sweetheart, I was just coming to say congratulations! I heard you got yourself a contract. What did you do, fuck Vince?" Jericho asked, grinning. Tess narrowed her eyes and stepped up in his face. Her tone softened some as she spoke.
"Chris, I really don't know why you insist on making my life a living hell. No, I didn't sleep with Vince. I practiced. I got here the same way you did. Yes, I'm sure that my father being the Undertaker helped. I'm admitting that. But I did work to get here. Please tell me why you keep doing this to me." She took a seat on the floor, resting her back against the wall as she looked up at him. He sighed and ran a hand over his face, before taking a seat opposite her.
"Because...hell, I don't know. I'm used to getting what I want, y'know?" Chris said, his tone also softening. Tess looked suprised for a moment; she didn't actually think he would be civil about it. "And when you first got here...I wanted you. I thought you were beautiful, and from what I've heard from some of the other people around here, you have the best personality. I guess...it was just a huge blow to my ego when you and Rob became a thing." he finished. It seemed to Tess that what he had just told her took a hell of a lot of guts, and she respected that.
"Look...Chris, I really would like to be friends with you. Me being with Rob doesn't make me off-limits as a friend. And you never know what's going to happen. Me and Rob could stop being together tomorrow for all I know. Just give things time. But...now...let's just start over, okay? Forget all that's been said and done." Tess offered him. He looked down at the floor for a moment, before nodding his head and looking up at her.
"Alright." he said. She smiled softly at him before standing up. She offered a hand down to him, which he accepted. She pulled him up off of the floor.
"Hi. I'm Tess Calloway." she said. He smiled.
"Chris Irvine." Chris replied. She smiled and threw her arms around his neck in a friendly hug.
"Alright...well, I need to go get my last fitting done now. I'll see you before the show starts, okay? Then we can talk and get to know each other a bit better." Chris nodded and waved his goodbye, before walking off down the opposite end of the hall. Tess finished the short walk to the seamstresses' room. She knocked on the door and walked in.
"I've just finished your outfit, dear. Go try it on." the seamstress told tess, handing her the black costume. She smiled and took it, walking into the small back room. She closed the door and changed into the outfit; it was all black, and was a one piece body suit. The top was made like a halter top, the bottom, stretchy flare-legged pants. It fit perfectly, now. She walked back out.
"Thanks so much, I appreciate it. I gotta go get ready for my match now, though." she smiled. The seamstress nodded and Tess left, walking back to the women's locker room. It was empty when she arrived, so she rolled up her pants and put her knee pads on, followed by her boots, then rolled the pants back down. Before putting on her elbow pads, she fixed her hair curly, like Amy had, and did her makeup. She was putting on her elbow pads when Trish and Amy entered the room.
"Look at you, girl!" Amy said, giving her friend a hug. Tess laughed and hugged her back.
"I am so excited. Don't go easy on me, Trish." Tess replied. Trish rolled her eyes playfully.
"Like I would. I'm giving it my all, girly, you better to." she laughed, also hugging her friend. Tess smiled.
"Our match is first tonight. We better get down to the ramp, show's about to start." Trish said. Tess nodded and Amy smiled.
"I gotta stay in here and get ready, I'm sorry, chick. I'm gonna watch it on the moniter, though!" Amy said.
"See you later, Ames." Tess said, before following Trish to the ramp. Trish's music hit just as Tess arrived. A minute or so later, her music, which she and her father had selected together, hit.
"Look at that, JR! A new Diva wrestling tonight!" Tess heard Jerry 'The King' Lawler say, before she came out onto the ramp. "Hell, it's Tess! She's wrestling!" Tess smiled and threw her hands up to the crowd, who were yelling at the valet-turned-Diva. She climed into the ring and onto one of the turnbuckles, throwing her hands up again. She climed down as the bell rang. She and Trish mostly just pushed and shoved and grabbed hair for the first few minutes of the match. Then, Trish hit her with a dropkick. She groggily got up threw Trish into the ropes, letting her bounce back as Tess clotheslined her. She tried to go for the pin, but only got a two-count. Trish recovered and threw her into the turnbuckle, pounding on her. Tess pushed Trish off of her and climbed onto the turnbuckle, trying to nail a hurricanrana while Trish's back was still turned. Just as she jumped off of the turnbuckle, Trish turned around and dodged it. Tess hit the mat hard and rolled over onto her stomach, her arms curled up underneath her. Trish shoved her onto her back and layed her body over Tess', getting the three-count. Tess groaned as she got out of the ring and walked back up the ramp, as Trish smiled and waved to her fans. She got back to the women's locker room, where Amy was waiting for her.
"You did great, girl! And don't worry about the loss, Trish has been doing it much longer. It was a great first match." Amy said. Tess smiled.
"I know, and I think Trish deserved to win, honestly. I need to get a little bit more experience under my belt before I beat you or her." Tess replied. Amy nodded and they talked for a few minutes, before Amy had to leave for her match. Tess changed back into her street clothes and decided to find Rob, since he didn't have a match that night. She grabbed her bag and walked out, only to be met by Rob in the hallway. She smiled and went to hug him, before noticing that he had his arms crossed across his chest. He looked angry.
"I saw you with Jericho earlier." he said to her in an accusing tone.
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Chapter Eight
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Tess paced the women's locker room. It was about midday, and Vince had requested a meeting with her around one. Tess was nervous. She had no idea what it was about.
'What if he's going to make me stop valeting? Am I not doing a good job?' she asked herself as she walked from one side of the room to the other. She snapped out of her daze as she heard the door open.
"Hey chick, what's up?" Amy asked from behind her. Tess turned around to face her friend.
"Not much. I have a meeting with Vince in an hour, and I'm nervous. I have no idea what it's about." Tess told her before plopping down on one of the benches.
"Don't worry about it, Vince really is a nice guy. Besides, I'm sure it's nothing." Amy said, before taking her gym bag and walking back to the showers. Tess sat there and listened to Amy sing in a high pitched, off-key tune as she showered, and couldn't help but laugh at her best friend. Deciding that she may as well get her shower in before her meeting with Vince. She grabbed a pair of hip huggers and a light green button-down shirt, a towel, and walked to the showers. Amy was just getting out and flashed Tess a smile before proceeding to towel off and change. Tess was off in her own world again, though, and didn't notice. She started the shower and was in there for a good fifteen minutes before she began to wash her hair. She used a fair amount of her coconut shampoo, still not really paying attention to anything but her thoughts.
"Tess, you better hurry up or you'll be late for your meeting!" she heard Amy yell from the main part of the locker room. Tess snapped out of it and finished her shower quickly. She changed, applied a small bit of makeup, and dried her hair curly before walking barefoot back to the locker room. She sat down on the bench and slipped on her new boots, then stood up.
"How do I look?" she asked Amy.
"You look fine. Stop worrying Tess, you'll make yourself sick." Amy said. Tess nodded.
"I gotta go now, I'll come and tell you what it was about before the show tonight." Tess replied, refering to the house show they were putting on tonight in Phoenix.
"Alright. Good luck, chick!" Amy said to Tess's retreating back. She was out the door and headed to Vince's office. She smiled at Glenn as she passed him, and walked on to Vince's office. She breathed out a breath that she didn't realize she was holding as she approached the large oak doors. She reached up and tapped softly on one.
"Come in." said a voice from inside. Tess pushed the door open and walked timidly in.
"You...you wanted to see me?" she stammered. Vince nodded.
"Have a seat." he said, flipping through a large stack of papers on his desk.
'Oh no,' Tess thought to herself. 'He IS going to stop me from valeting, or I'm in trouble for something...' All her worry came flooding back to her.
"I wanted to talk to you about a provisional contract." Vince said, finally pulling out a few papers. Tess looked at him and quirked an eyebrow.
"Pardon?" she asked.
"I want to sign you for a month, and see how you do at some house shows. If you didn't know, Amy and Rob taped you working out a few times, and I reviewed the tapes to see how your progress was coming along. You have amazing natural talent, just like your father. If you decide to sign this provisional contract, which I hope you will, you will have your first match tonight." Vince said, flashing a small smile at her. Tess breathed a sigh of relief before smiling widely.
"I would love to, Vince. Thank you so much for offering!" Tess said, her smile growing bigger.
"Wonderful. Just sign here, and initial there." Vince replied, pointing to two lines. Tess signed and initialed like he told her to, and stood up.
"Your match tonight is against Trish. It's not predetermined, so it could go either way. Just wrestle the best way you know how, and we'll see how it works out." Vince said, before motioning that she could leave. She nodded and walked back to the women's locker room.
"AMY!!!" she yelled as she walked back in. Amy poked her head up from her locker, where she was rummaging through a bag.
"What?! What happened?!" Amy said, quickly walking over to her. She looked concerned.
"I got signed! Vince signed me! It's just a provisional contract, but still! I have a match tonight against Trish!" Tess squealed, jumping up and down. Amy laughed and smiled, hugging her friend.
"See! I knew you could do it, chick! I'm so proud of you!" Amy said. "But we need to go down to the seamstresses' room like now, to see if she has any wrestling outfits laying around in your size. You can just wear something simple tonight, and we can get her to measure you and begin working on your actual costumes." she grabbed Tess's hand and drug her along towards the room. The seamstress was the same that had made Tess's first valeting outfit, a nice, older woman. She smiled as Tess and Amy barged in, and went right to finding Tess an outfit. She finally came up with a nice, plain black one that used to belong to Trish. The seamstress decided that it would work, as soon as she did some hemming on it. Trish and Tess were about the same size, all except for the bust area. The seamstress took Tess's measurments again and sent them along their way, telling them to come back in an hour for the costume.
"I was thinking we could do your eye makeup dark and smokey," Amy was telling her as they walked down a hallway towards catering. Tess was only half-listning, though. "You'll look great." she finished. Tess smiled and nodded.
"Hello? Earth to Tess? Are you listning to me?" Amy asked, playfully tapping on Tess's forehead. She blinked and looked up.
"Yep, I'm here. I'm okay." she laughed. Amy rolled her eyes and grabbed her by the arm, leading her over to a table where Adam, Matt, Jeff, and Jay were sitting. Amy took a seat beside Matt, and Tess took one beside Jeff.
"Hey guys, whacha up to?" Tess asked with a smile.
"Not too much, how about yourself?" Jeff said before taking another bite of his sandwich.
"I have a little suprise."
"Spill," Jay said, eyeing her with curiosity.
"I got signed!" Tess squealed, grinning from ear to ear.
"Way to go Tess!" Jeff said, throwing his arms around the small girl. She hugged him back, then went around and hugged everyone else at the table. "I knew you could do it." Tess smiled and glanced down at her watch. She needed to be back with the seamstress in about fifteen minutes.
"Alright, I'm gonna go ahead and go down to see the seamstress. See you guys later!" Tess said, before getting up and walking out of catering. She began to make her way to the seamstresses' room, smiling slightly to herself.
"Hey, dollface." she heard behind her. She turned around with a roll of her eyes.
"Chris, what the hell do you want?" Tess asked in an annoyed tone.
"Aww, sweetheart, I was just coming to say congratulations! I heard you got yourself a contract. What did you do, fuck Vince?" Jericho asked, grinning. Tess narrowed her eyes and stepped up in his face. Her tone softened some as she spoke.
"Chris, I really don't know why you insist on making my life a living hell. No, I didn't sleep with Vince. I practiced. I got here the same way you did. Yes, I'm sure that my father being the Undertaker helped. I'm admitting that. But I did work to get here. Please tell me why you keep doing this to me." She took a seat on the floor, resting her back against the wall as she looked up at him. He sighed and ran a hand over his face, before taking a seat opposite her.
"Because...hell, I don't know. I'm used to getting what I want, y'know?" Chris said, his tone also softening. Tess looked suprised for a moment; she didn't actually think he would be civil about it. "And when you first got here...I wanted you. I thought you were beautiful, and from what I've heard from some of the other people around here, you have the best personality. I guess...it was just a huge blow to my ego when you and Rob became a thing." he finished. It seemed to Tess that what he had just told her took a hell of a lot of guts, and she respected that.
"Look...Chris, I really would like to be friends with you. Me being with Rob doesn't make me off-limits as a friend. And you never know what's going to happen. Me and Rob could stop being together tomorrow for all I know. Just give things time. But...now...let's just start over, okay? Forget all that's been said and done." Tess offered him. He looked down at the floor for a moment, before nodding his head and looking up at her.
"Alright." he said. She smiled softly at him before standing up. She offered a hand down to him, which he accepted. She pulled him up off of the floor.
"Hi. I'm Tess Calloway." she said. He smiled.
"Chris Irvine." Chris replied. She smiled and threw her arms around his neck in a friendly hug.
"Alright...well, I need to go get my last fitting done now. I'll see you before the show starts, okay? Then we can talk and get to know each other a bit better." Chris nodded and waved his goodbye, before walking off down the opposite end of the hall. Tess finished the short walk to the seamstresses' room. She knocked on the door and walked in.
"I've just finished your outfit, dear. Go try it on." the seamstress told tess, handing her the black costume. She smiled and took it, walking into the small back room. She closed the door and changed into the outfit; it was all black, and was a one piece body suit. The top was made like a halter top, the bottom, stretchy flare-legged pants. It fit perfectly, now. She walked back out.
"Thanks so much, I appreciate it. I gotta go get ready for my match now, though." she smiled. The seamstress nodded and Tess left, walking back to the women's locker room. It was empty when she arrived, so she rolled up her pants and put her knee pads on, followed by her boots, then rolled the pants back down. Before putting on her elbow pads, she fixed her hair curly, like Amy had, and did her makeup. She was putting on her elbow pads when Trish and Amy entered the room.
"Look at you, girl!" Amy said, giving her friend a hug. Tess laughed and hugged her back.
"I am so excited. Don't go easy on me, Trish." Tess replied. Trish rolled her eyes playfully.
"Like I would. I'm giving it my all, girly, you better to." she laughed, also hugging her friend. Tess smiled.
"Our match is first tonight. We better get down to the ramp, show's about to start." Trish said. Tess nodded and Amy smiled.
"I gotta stay in here and get ready, I'm sorry, chick. I'm gonna watch it on the moniter, though!" Amy said.
"See you later, Ames." Tess said, before following Trish to the ramp. Trish's music hit just as Tess arrived. A minute or so later, her music, which she and her father had selected together, hit.
"Look at that, JR! A new Diva wrestling tonight!" Tess heard Jerry 'The King' Lawler say, before she came out onto the ramp. "Hell, it's Tess! She's wrestling!" Tess smiled and threw her hands up to the crowd, who were yelling at the valet-turned-Diva. She climed into the ring and onto one of the turnbuckles, throwing her hands up again. She climed down as the bell rang. She and Trish mostly just pushed and shoved and grabbed hair for the first few minutes of the match. Then, Trish hit her with a dropkick. She groggily got up threw Trish into the ropes, letting her bounce back as Tess clotheslined her. She tried to go for the pin, but only got a two-count. Trish recovered and threw her into the turnbuckle, pounding on her. Tess pushed Trish off of her and climbed onto the turnbuckle, trying to nail a hurricanrana while Trish's back was still turned. Just as she jumped off of the turnbuckle, Trish turned around and dodged it. Tess hit the mat hard and rolled over onto her stomach, her arms curled up underneath her. Trish shoved her onto her back and layed her body over Tess', getting the three-count. Tess groaned as she got out of the ring and walked back up the ramp, as Trish smiled and waved to her fans. She got back to the women's locker room, where Amy was waiting for her.
"You did great, girl! And don't worry about the loss, Trish has been doing it much longer. It was a great first match." Amy said. Tess smiled.
"I know, and I think Trish deserved to win, honestly. I need to get a little bit more experience under my belt before I beat you or her." Tess replied. Amy nodded and they talked for a few minutes, before Amy had to leave for her match. Tess changed back into her street clothes and decided to find Rob, since he didn't have a match that night. She grabbed her bag and walked out, only to be met by Rob in the hallway. She smiled and went to hug him, before noticing that he had his arms crossed across his chest. He looked angry.
"I saw you with Jericho earlier." he said to her in an accusing tone.
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