Chapter Two

Batista

She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

She always sat in the same seat. The row closest to the window, third seat back. He loved the way the sunlight from the window shone on her red hair. More than that, he loved her style, the punk-rock, don't-mess-with-me kind of look that she had seemingly trademarked.

He had been thinking about her more and more lately. When he went home and ate dinner, she was on his mind. When he was supposed to be doing homework, he was too distracted thinking about her. When he was working out, she was all he could think of. He had known her since the first day of tenth grade, when they had the same Math class. He'd always been too nervous to even approach her. He thought she was out of his league.

During history, he knew that Candice had caught him staring at her best friend. He averted his gaze quickly, but they both knew he had been caught. He blushed. He had turned his attention onto his notebook and half-listened as Mr. Michaels droned on and on about World War II. He didn't care about any of it. Two rows over from him sat an angel. He wanted to pass her a note, asking her out, but the fear of getting caught squashed that. He didn't even know if she was seeing anybody. He knew Candice was seeing Shelton. Dave was athletic, but preferred the solitude of a gym. He didn't exactly run with a crowd, let alone the athletic crowd he assumed Lita ran with.

The bell rang. Class was over. Dave shut his notebook and gathered his backpack from the floor beside his desk. He noticed that Candice was eyeing him suspiciously. He left the room and made a beeline for his locker. His good friend, Rey Mysterio, was waiting for him.

"Hey, Rey," Dave greeted, opening his locker. "What's up?"

"Did you get an invite?"

"Invite for what?" Dave asked. He shoved his backpack and books inside the locker and grabbed his gym bag. He was going to get in another workout before going home.

"Torrie Wilson's winter party! I know she sent you one. She was telling me about it. I got mine just the other day."

Dave shook his head. "I can honestly say I didn't get the invitation."

"Well, you are invited. Come with me, you big loner. I have it on good authority that the lovely Lita is going to be there."

Dave's ears perked up."She is?"

"Yeah. I heard her talking about it with Candice during lunch." Rey was lying, of course. He didn't know for sure that Lita would be at the party. He just hated that Dave spent all of his time by himself. Rey was willing to do anything to get Dave out of the house. If he had to use Lita, then so be it.

"I don't know, Rey..."

"Come on. I bet tonight will be the night she notices you. I'll see to it." Rey exhaled. "Would you just come on out? It's been forever since you've left your house."

Dave took a deep breath as he sat down at the bench-press machine. "Fine. I'll go. What time did Torrie's invite say it starts at?"

"Seven."

"Did you want to meet and go together or meet up there?"

"I can come get you," Rey offered. He was at the leg press machine.

"Sounds good. Be ready by seven."

"Make it seven-thirty," Rey told him. "You're going to want to be fashionably late to catch an eye or two." Dave laughed. "Come on, Dave - you could be a real ladies man if you tried."

"You kidding? That's way more trouble than it's worth. Did you hear about Ken?" Ken Kennedy was a star soccer player. He'd been engaged in a scuffle recently when his girlfriend Layla El had caught him with Ashley Massaro.

"I heard about that. I heard it got ugly," Rey commented.

"Yeah. There's a reason Ken's off the team for a few weeks," Dave answered with a laugh. He upped the weight on his machine by twenty pounds. "Layla really took it to him."

"She's a tough cookie," Rey commented. "She's head cheerleader for a reason. She can kick some ass." They worked out for about half an hour. "What time is it, Big Guy?"

"Three-thirty."

"Damn. I have to get going. I promised my mom I'd take Kris to the vet today." Kris was the Mysterio family dog. "I'll see you in a few hours."

"See you then, Rey." With that, Rey was gone, leaving Dave to work out in the school gym by himself.

Dave didn't like being alone in the school weight room. It was wooden and old, and creaked with every movement he made. With Rey leaving, Dave decided to cut his workout short. He justified it by Lita's presence at Torrie Wilson's party later on. He wanted to look his best. Tonight was the night she was going to notice him. He showered quickly and changed into his school clothes; a dark red T-shirt and dark jeans with a grey hooded sweatshirt unzipped over the T-shirt.

"Dave Batista."

He wheeled around. He stood among the lockers, mystified. He cocked an eyebrow. "Orton, is that you, man?" There was no answer. He shrugged off the voice as best he could, although he felt extremely uneasy.

"Dave..."

"Oh, for crying out..." Dave trailed off as he wheeled around. "Okay, seriously - whoever this is had better come out. If you do that, I promise I won't kick your ass."

He felt something ram into him and the world went black.