It had been a couple of weeks since Summer debuted and it had been a crazy ride indeed. Although she was still wresting dark matches, the writers were currently writing plenty of storylines for her to be involved in. The crowd went crazy for her every time she came out; even in house shows when they were touring around the different cities. People liked her wrestling style and her positive attitude, so she had quickly developed a fan base. Vince had never seen such popularity in a character this quickly and was proud to have Summer as part of the WWF crew.
"Why do you think they like me?" Summer asked Jeff as they were unpacking their suitcases at the arena for tonight's show.
"Who like you sis?"
"The crowds during a show"
"How'd you mean?"
"You know, the way they cheer for me like they've known me for years"
"Because you're amazing sis"
"You're only saying that because you're my brother"
"No actually I'm saying it because it's the truth, you're one in a million sis and the crowd can see that, you're first dark match must have been pretty successful as the crowd cheered louder than ever during you're second one, I know they're not televised and we can't see them, but the crowd is always loud whenever we're backstage and you're out there. They've never seen a diva wrestling with guys like you can"
Summer smiled at her brother's words because he was speaking from the heart, a thing that Jeff did all the time. He told you the truth whether you wanted to hear it or not because that was the way Jeff was.
"When do you think I will have a televised match?" Summer asked as she fiddled with the chains on her pants.
"I'm not sure, pretty soon I hope. I've heard rumours that the writers are having a field day writing about you"
"Writing about me?"
"Yeah they're coming up with new storylines"
"Working with who exactly?"
"I'm not sure, it's just a rumour sis"
"I hope they're not taking me away from the cruiserweights, they're fun to work with"
"But you can't work with them forever, you need to change once in a while to keep your character fresh and exciting"
"So they'll put me in the women's division then?"
"They might do, then you'll have to tone the high flying moves down"
"Why?"
"Because the other divas can't wrestle like that, did you watch the match on Raw this week? Jillian hit Maria with a slap and then got the pin, I mean what the hell is that about? That's not a finishing move"
Summer smiled as she loved it when Jeff got stressed, he could rant about anything and still make her laugh until she cried. "Stop smiling sis I'm annoyed about it" Summer continued to smile because she knew she'd get Jeff to crack and smile widely, as he could never stay angry for too long.
"Quit it I mean it" Jeff said fighting the urge to smile at his sister's infectious grin.
"I'm not doing anything, can't a girl smile once in a while?"
"Yes but not when I'm trying to be angry"
"You can never stay angry, even when I painted your nails bright pink that one night you still laughed about it"
"It was funny though"
"They kinda suited you, matched your hair colour at the time" Jeff lost it and soon smiled widely.
"Haha knew I'd do it!" Summer said getting up and doing a victory dance.
"No fair" Jeff said getting up off the couch to try and grab Summer but she danced out of his reach and said, "You can never catch me you big oaf"
"Watch me" then Summer squealed as she opened the door and ran all the way down the corridor towards catering. Jeff was following right behind her shouting things trying to make her laugh so she'd slow down.
"Aww what's wrong Jeff? Old age affecting your speed?" she shouted over her shoulder and laughing when she heard Jeff growling, "That's not funny Sums" he shouted back but Summer laughed again and said, "Maybe I should get you a wheelchair or a scooter for your next birthday, rest those aching knees"
"I mean it Summer!" he shouted back as she wheeled round the corner but came skidding to halt just outside catering when she saw Undertaker, Kane, Hunter and a few others standing in a big group discussing something. But they all turned when they heard the screeching from Summer's sneakers on the polished floor, she held onto the wall for more balance but was shoved forward when Jeff came crashing into her for stopping so suddenly.
"What the hell Sums? Why'd you stop like that?" Jeff said rubbing his forehead from where he smacked into the back of Summers head. She couldn't answer and only rubbed her neck from Jeff's forceful shove.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing" Summer eventually said.
"Then what's the deal with trying to knock us both out by stopping like that?"
"I just saw all of them that's all" she said nodding her head towards the bunch of guys who had gone back to their conversation.
"Oh the big guys, by the way have you introduced yourself to them yet?" Summer hung her head and shook her head for no.
Jeff smirked and said, "Let's go then"
"Jeff no!" she tried to protest but felt herself being pushed forward with Jeff's hands firmly placed on her hips "Jeffery Nero Hardy let me go now!" she said trying to stop herself moving forward, her sneakers screeched on the floor again as she dug them firmly into the ground.
"Nuh-uh you need to do this" Summer thought for a moment, then wriggled free from his grip and crouched down so that Jeff had no choice but to spread his legs to let her through, then she stood up behind him and grabbed his boxers giving him a wedgie. "Ouch dammit Summer!" he said rearranging his underwear before chasing after her again.
"Come back here Summer!" he shouted as he ran towards catering where Summer turned the corner with her sneakers still screeching on the floor, getting the group to turn to look at her again. They watched her run into catering laughing as Jeff came careering round the corner going straight after her. Taker had watched them both and snorted and carried on talking to the other guys.
"Dammit Summer that hurt" Jeff said still rubbing the part where Summer had given him a wedgie.
"Don't try and make me do something I don't want to do then" she replied standing the opposite side of the table from Jeff so he couldn't get her.
"You can't hide from them forever you know"
"I know"
"So go and introduce yourself, Summer it's been nearly 3 weeks and you haven't spoken to them, it's not right"
"Why isn't it? Even if I don't introduce myself it isn't going to make a difference, they don't even acknowledge me in the first place"
"That's not the point Sums, you've spoken to everybody else in this place but them, and that looks bad" Summer sighed and knew he was right, but she didn't really have the courage to go and speak to them now, not after she just ran past them like an immature little girl being chased like she was in high school.
"Later okay, I promise I'll do it later" she said making Jeff smile.
"Good girl, now lets eat and I need to fish my underwear out of my ass" Summer laughed at that as they strolled over to the catering section still pushing and shoving each other.
"Who's the new girl?" Hunter asked casually as he just watched the young redhead run past him and the guys and into catering with Jeff hot on her heels.
"New diva maybe?" Glen suggested also watching the girl.
"They look like twins," Mark said watching the two of them exchange words by one of the tables.
"I heard about Matt and Jeff having a little sister," Hunter said turning back towards the guys, "Also heard rumour that she signed a contract to be a diva"
"Looks like she's got an ignorance problem" Mark said with disgust.
"Why'd you say that then?" Hunter asked curiously.
"Well she hasn't come to introduce herself has she? Another lost cause not sticking to traditions"
"Lighten up Mark I'm sure she'll come and speak to us, remember we all look quite intimidating when we're all together" again Mark snorted at his comments and continued to stare at the young diva who was laughing and smiling with her older brother. She did look like a pretty lil thing but Mark scowled, as he wanted to know why she hadn't introduced herself to everybody yet. It was strict tradition to introduce yourself to everybody to show respect to the superstars who had paved the way for the younger generations. But obviously she was just like the rest of the divas, stuck up, ignorant and floating around in the clouds with their big air filled head.
Deciding he couldn't stand to look at her for another second he made a disgusted noise and said "I'm going to go and get ready, I'll see you round" then he walked off back to his locker room, in a foul mood as usual.
"What's his problem?" Hunter asked Glen who shrugged and said "Grumpy as usual, anyway I'm hungry so lets go eat"
"Dude we ate like half hour ago"
"I'm 7 foot Hunter I need food"
"Sorry I forgot, you big oaf"
"Watch it" Glen growled with narrowed eyes. Hunter however smiled sweetly as they strolled into catering to get something to eat. They looked around and saw that the new girl was sitting alone whilst Jeff was still picking out food to eat and talking amongst other friends . Hunter admired her young features and noticed that she was indeed a very pretty creature.
"No time like the present" Hunter said keeping his eyes fixed on the young girl.
"What are you doing?" Glen asked curiously, noticing the small smile forming on Hunters lips and his eyes fixed on the girl. "Don't do something you'll regret" Glen said after cottoning on what Hunter was up to.
"I'm not doing anything you big dork, you're coming with me"
"I'm what?"
"You're coming too"
"But… food… hungry"
"Oh come on, it'll only take a few moments" Glen rolled his eyes but did as commanded and followed Hunter heading towards the young girl who was currently reading a book.
Summer was so engrossed in her book she almost didn't hear somebody clear their throat and sit next to her. She tore her eyes away from her book and nearly jumped in fright when she saw Kane and Triple-h sitting next to her.
"Hi there" Hunter said cheerfully to the young girl who looked slightly scared, but she eventually smiled and said "Hey"
"And who might you be?"
"Hi sorry I'm Summer Hardy, I'm the new diva and I'm so sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier it's just I was scared and-" she realised she was rambling so she closed her mouth and looked back to her book. Hunter and Glen smiled but Hunter said "No worries sweetie, I know we all may look a little intimidating when we're all together but we're not all bad I promise"
Summer smiled at them both and said "Good to know"
"Well I'm Paul and this big monster here is Glen"
"Who you calling a monster?" Glen said trying to look hurt but failed, "Come off it Glen we all know the truth" Hunter said flashing Summer a grin, who smiled right back.
"So how long have you been here Summer?" Glen asked trying to refocus the conversation to something else.
"I've been here about 3 weeks and like I said I didn't deliberately avoid saying hi it's just I was…scared"
"Oh don't worry about that darlin' there's divas here who I haven't even spoken to and they've been here for years"
"You mean Chyna and Jazz?"
"Oh I've spoken to them, they started near enough when I did so we got along, but the newer ones"
"What newer ones?"
"The blondes"
"There are a lot of blondes"
"Sometimes the brands merge together so all the divas are together and it's the likes of Torrie, Stacy, Jillian and Dawn etc"
"Dawn Marie?"
"Yes"
"Is she bad then? She seemed fine with me in the locker room"
"Don't under estimate her is all I can say, she can cause some damage and really cause a shit storm of a rumour"
"Oh" is all Summer could say as she played with the spoon in her half eaten yoghurt.
"Just watch out is all I'm saying, there can be a lot of bitching in the women's locker room and trust me you don't want to see to the leader of the locker room if you cause trouble"
"That leader being Taker?"
"We call him Mark but yeah everybody has to see to Taker when you screw up so tread carefully"
"Well he was on my list of people to still say hi too so now that's made me even more nervous about talking to him"
"I will be honest and say that Mark can be an ignorant ass when he's backstage but if you just go up to him and say hi at least you've done your bit and can leave it at that"
"Where did he go? I thought he was with you both" Summer said looking around noticing Taker wasn't in sight.
"He stormed off down the corridor after mentioning yo-" Glen cut Hunter off by kicking him under the table.
"Oww what the hell man?" Hunter said rubbing his leg where Glen had kicked it. Summer wasn't stupid, she knew there was summat going on.
"Were you gonna say he mentioned me?"
"No" Hunter said quickly and felt like smacking his head, as he'd just given it away.
"What did he say?" Summer asked curiously.
"When you ran past he just said that you looked like you could be Jeff's twin and he looked pissed that you hadn't introduced yourself"
"Oh right" Summer said feeling herself sinking into a deep hole, "I didn't know he'd take it personally"
"Not so much personally I guess, its just Mark's all about respect"
"Yeah Vince told me, I guess I should go and say hi"
"Best bet is to do it after his match, when he's warming up he hates being disturbed" Summer nodded and then looked back at her yoghurt and pushed it away. "That all you've eaten?" Hunter said noticing the yoghurt pot.
"Yeah I've lost my appetite"
"Don't be one of these divas who doesn't eat, we've got enough of them already" Hunter nodded over to the table filled with all the divas who were glancing over at Summer and then whispering in each other's ears. Hunter frowned at that, as that normally meant the start of some vicious rumours, but Summer wasn't paying attention thankfully so Hunter continued talking. "Anyway, you never told us… what sort of wrestling style you into then? From the rumours I've heard, you're wrestling against guys?"
"Oh, erm yeah I'm getting close with the cruiserweights because they're so much fun to work with"
"So you're a high flyer?"
"Pretty much, I was trained by Shawn and Rey Mysterio"
"Really?"
"Yeah Matt and Jeff brought them home with them one day and I trained with them"
"Shawn trained you?" Hunter said with a small smile on his face.
"Yeah he taught me all about ground wrestling, and I've combined that with my judo moves"
"So Rey taught you about high flying dare devil moves?"
"Yep I can leap around the ring just like the guys"
"So obviously you're not in the league of the other divas?"
"I don't think they're all bad and I pretty much want to keep my head on my shoulders instead of it floating into the clouds along with my ego" Hunter laughed with Glen and said "I understand but I've never seen one of your matches, you have wrestled haven't you?"
"Of course I have"
"I haven't seen you on the TV before"
"I work dark matches"
"Ohhh"
"Yeah"
"Well they're still good, at least for a beginner with new talent. How're fans takin' to ya?"
"Pretty well"
"You can tell us, we're not gonna judge ya or say you've got an ego problem"
Summer smiled at Glen's words and said, "They've taken to me a lot, the crowd cheers so loud when they see me"
"Well that's good then"
"I just don't get why though"
"How'd you mean?"
"Its just weird, I came to the ring, got the job done and left. Normally whenever somebody new debuts the crowd is just quiet"
"But..."
"But the crowd went crazy for me and Rey"
"You went against Rey?"
"No I was partnered with him against Kai en Tai"
"I love those guys" Hunter said with a huge grin.
"Only because you wind them up because they can't understand you" Glen interjected making Summer laugh. "Anyway Miss Extreme, don't worry about anything. If the crowd has responded to you then more power to you, just work with it but don't oversell yourself and make the fans think you're loving the attention, just smile and salute them etc but don't milk it"
Summer nodded, grateful that the guys were being so friendly to her. "You guys are so nice, it's like we've been friends for years" Summer said smiling at them both who smiled in return.
"I know it's weird isn't it, we've pretty much talked the afternoon away, now we need to start getting ready for practise for the show tonight, you wrestling?" Hunter said getting up from the table and stretching.
"I think so, but Vince has called me to his office about something and I gotta meet him soon"
"You worried?"
"Kinda, I don't know what he could want. Do you think I've done summat wrong?"
"You really are a worrywart aren't you? Do you think you've done anything wrong?"
"No"
"Well there you go, if you can't think of anything you've done to upset him then there's nothing to worry about" Summer smiled at that and said "Thanks guys"
"No problems, anyway we better dash and we'll catch you later, or in the ring if you're practising?"
"Yeah I reckon I'll be down there in a little while, maybe we could practise a match?"
"You reckon you could take on us?" Glen said standing to his full height trying to look intimidating, but Summer just beamed up at him.
"I reckon so" is all she said and Glen relaxed and smiled.
"Damn you've got some effect on men"
"Well I don't like to brag" she teased and laughed when Glen and Hunter raised their eyebrows at her.
"Wanna put that to the test darlin'?" Hunter drawled.
"Hmm maybe one day, but certainly not with you… jeez I do have standards" Hunter's face dropped and Glen nearly doubled over with laughter next to him. Summer flashed him a grin but jumped and ran off before Hunter swatted her on the ass for being cheeky.
"2 down 1 to go" Summer said to herself quietly, referring to the people she's had left to check off her introduction list. It was only Taker left and he was surely proving to have a mean and powerful reputation around this place. She shuddered at the thought of talking to him, but she knew she'd have to suck it up later and go and talk to him. But right now she needed to head off to go and see Vince to see what he wanted now, it had only been 3 weeks and she'd been to see him more times than somebody who would in a year of working here. But she shook her head and proceeded forward to Vince's office.
"What do you think of the new girl then?" Dawn asked a couple of the divas around the table. "I like her she's awesome" Ashley said as she was bopping along to the music on her iPod.
But Dawn ignored her comment and said, "She's been here 3 weeks and is loved by everybody, it's not right"
"Well what should we do?" Stacy asked, also taking a dislike to the new diva.
"I think we should play a little prank on her, just to see how far she goes without cracking"
"I like your thinking" Stacy said grinning, "But what do you have in mind?"
"I heard rumour that she hasn't introduced herself to Undertaker yet"
"So?"
"So maybe we can have a bit of fun with it, maybe say some stuff that will make Taker mad at her"
"So sort of like a high school prank?"
"Yup, we'll show the new girl not to mess with us and our men"
"Okay then let's go" Stacy said rising to her feet with Dawn following her. They headed down the corridor to go and find Taker to tell him about what Summer 'apparently said about him'.
"You sure about this?" Stacy asked as they stopped outside his locker room.
"Relax it'll be fine" Dawn replied as she knocked on his door and waited for a response.
"Come in" she eventually heard him reply and she opened the door to see him standing there in just a pair of jeans and completely shirtless. "Ladies" is all he said as he rummaged around in his bag for some deodorants.
"Hey Taker" Dawn said cheerfully entering the room, Stacy slowly entering behind her looking worried.
"Dawn, Stacey, call me Mark in the future" he nodded towards them, "What can I do for you?"
"Well" Dawn said perching herself on the corner of the couch pretending to be a little upset "We just wanted to tell you something that we've heard about the new girl"
"The new girl?"
"Yeah Summer Hardy" Mark looked up at the sound of her name, "The one who was running around like a child earlier?"
"Yeah"
"I had a feeling she and Jeff were related, go on"
"Well I heard her talking to some of the other divas earlier about the whole traditional greeting thing"
"And"
"And she mentioned you"
"What about me?" Mark said narrowing his eyes not liking where this was going.
"Well she said that she didn't want to introduce herself to you, said that you weren't worth it and she didn't wanna waste her breath on you, you're a lousy wrestler, worthless and she'd never respect or like you" Mark felt his blood boiling at this point, why would that little bitch say that about him? Just because she was a little Hardy girl didn't give her the right to say things like that, he'd paved the way for the likes of the Hardyz and he wasn't going to let her get away with it by running for cover behind her brothers.
"I'm sorry Mark" Dawn said sympathetically but inside she was laughing.
"It's alright, I'm just glad you told me"
"Well I thought it was best telling you as you're the leader, she obviously needs straightening out"
"She certainly does" Mark growled out and didn't notice both women smirking to each other. "
Well we'll leave you now to think about what to do"
"Thanks for telling me"
"You're welcome and if there's anything else you need you know where to find me" Dawn said as she rubbed his arm before turning around and leaving with Stacy leaving Mark with a smirk on his face.
-------------------
"I can't believe that worked!" Stacy said happily as they strolled down the corridors, "I know, he's so gullible"
"What was with that whole arm thing? Got a thing for him have you?" Dawn blushed and Stacy said, "Oh my god you have haven't you!"
"Yes okay I have"
"Oh my god that's awesome, and seeing him topless was just amazing"
"It was wasn't it?"
"Err yeh!" they both laughed and then carried on down the corridor until they reached their locker room to prepare for their match later in the night.