"Beck, I gotta go. It's almost on," on the other end of the line her boyfriend lets out a sigh, Jade knows that is as close to a compliant as she will ever get, at least regarding this.

"Alright, can I come over once it's finished?" Jade ponders the question, if she was totally honest the answer was 'hell no!' Yet the unspoken boyfriend/girlfriend law sort of said that her basking in post CFC adrenaline wasn't a terribly good reason to deny him. "It's okay, I'll see you tomorrow. Love ya," with that Beck hangs up, Jade still having not responded to his question, perhaps she was silent for just a tag too long. On the bright side at least she didn't have to say no to him.

Focusing back onto the TV, as the announcer introduced the challenger, Stacey Mackerel, not a bad fighter but she's never stood a chance against Shelby Marx. Jade had never missed one of Shelby's fights since she had first seen the fighter. Nothing else mattered to her during the matches, not Beck, not her friends, not school. Not a thing. She would become completely absorbed into the match. Watching Shelby punch, kick and just generally beat her opponent into submission got Jade's blood pumping like nothing else ever had.

"Reining champion, Selby Marx" the announcer began rattling off a bunch of statistics of the champ, every single one Jade already had memorized to heart. Instead she was admiring the visual perfection that is CFC's best female fighter. Honestly, and she would only ever say this in her head, if she had the chance, however small, to be with Shelby, Jade would switch teams in an instant. That being said could anyone pass up a chance with her, like really?

Soon enough the pre-match yabbering was over and the fight bad began. Two rounds later and about 50 seconds total time combined, the match was over. Shelby let had Mackerel face down on the mat both times. And it didn't matter that it was an easy win, it still managed to get Jade's heart racing. She would never get tired of seeing that brilliant smile light up the room, or screen, whatever, whenever she won a match, which was always.

"Now everyone be sure to stay tuned, because after the ad-break we have a special announcement from Shelby Marx herself."

Jade impatiently waited curing the break, mind running amok in an attempt to come up with whatever she was about to tell the world. Maybe she was going to come to LA, for some reason. While a logical part of her said that's stupid because CFC isn't terribly big here, but she couldn't help but hold out hope.

"And we're back. So Shelby, what is it that you want to tell us?"

Cheers erupt from the live crowd as Marx is given a microphone. Jade gets lost in seeing her up-close in HD, you could still see the faint shine to her skin where the sweat hadn't been entirely wiped off. "Well I just wanted to let everyone know that after this completion, I'm retiring from the CFC," there was an echoing silence as Shelby paused for a moment, one that let Jade's brain slowly process what exactly that meant. "It's just... I want to go back to being a regular teen. You know, hang out with my friends, live with my family again. Stuff like that. So yeah," Shelby trails off, and there is silence from the TV, it only lasts a moment before the crowd and the press start hollering questions at her. She is whisked off screen by someone, that Jade would guess to be her manager, as they say that their questions will be answered shortly.

Jade didn't want that. Her announcement was meant to be good news, not 'I'm going to fall off the face of the earth and none to you will ever see me again.'

Suffice to say Jade ended up in a funk for the rest of the day. And the next and the next. Any poor soul that happened to cross Jade the wrong way, and when she was in a bad mood everyone crossed her the wrong way, was left in her wake wishing that they never rolled out of bed that morning. No one was excluded, not her friends, parents, teachers or Beck.

It continued until Shelby's next fight. By this point Jade had decided that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing. After all if Shelby wasn't the starring person on her TV maybe she'll just forget about her celebrity crush on her.

While the fights played out, Jade was her usual self, becoming completely enthralled with every movement, her whole being soaring higher every second, adrenaline running wild through her. Yet, after every victory Shelby Marx's approaching retirement reared its damned ugly head. Sometimes it wouldn't come up until they neared the end of the post-match commentary, others it seemed to be the first topic that came up. No matter when, it was enough for Jade to go from cloud nine down to the ninth circle of hell.

It took a while before Beck asked about her increasing nastier mood, unfortunately for him it wasn't a good day to bring it up and all he received was a half-drunk water bottle to the head.

He did seem to figure it out a week later, if only because Jade insisted, with more vigour than usual, that they watch the CFC match. He loved watching Jade when she was focused on the CFC; it was one of the few times he could see her unguarded. When Jade watches the CFC he could see every emotion flutter over her face, emotions that Beck himself never seemed to draw from his girlfriend or at least never with such vibrancy. However, this time instead of seeing excitement he could see pain, pain of what he could not say. Not until he moved his attention to the TV and caught the tail end of Shelby's retirement talk.

He understood then. While it wasn't that Jade didn't care about him or their friends, she just would lose interest in any of them quickly. It could be frustrating but it was something that simply came with her. Shelby Marx however, would only appear on the TV for only a few minutes every other week or so; and for that entire time anything around Jade might as well not exist. Early into their relationship Beck had made the mistake of vying for her attention during a match, he could swear that he could still feel the blow from her fist and the cold shoulder she gave him for two weeks.

So when Beck ran into their friends next all he did was mention that someone important to Jade was going away for a while and that she was having trouble coping with it. He may have slightly twisted the truth, but he knows that only Andre might pick up on the lie, but he was too scared of Jade to ever mention it to her. Besides Beck highly doubts Jade would appreciate any sort of word getting out about her small obsession with the fighter.

It was roughly four months after the retirement was originally announced, that Shelby Marx fights her last fight. While Beck was never a fan of it, and only watched the CFC when Jade was over, he found himself watching Shelby Marx and Maya Feckner both launching attacks at one another to win the championship, and he was sure to stick around for Shelby's victory/retirement speech.

"Wow. You know, being in the CFC has been an absolutely incredible experience. One I know I'm never going to forget. I know I should have written a speech for this, but really all I can do is say thank you. So thank you to my family, friends, my coach Juan, my manager Rod, and my human-punching bag Gary. To all my opponents and to all my fans. I thank each and every one of you and I wish I could do it all one by one, but I can't sadly. So, um, yeah. See you all around I guess," with that she walks off camera waving her trophy about, not to be seen again.

He is tempted to head over to Jade's house, to be there for her, even if she just needs someone to sock in the arm. He resists though, because more than him she needs to just be by herself, and it hurts that he isn't what she needs.

Over the next few months, he sees her mood slowly lift. From the insane angry version of Jade that was present for the couple of weeks following the retirement to the regular angry version of her. Slowly the recorded fights slipped lower and lower on her most watched programs listing. And Beck thought it was getting better, and he would be right. Shelby had managed to slip from Jade thoughts.

But six months after the fighter had disappeared off the face of the planet and a week after the Big Show Case, Shelby Marx's doppelganger stood in their classroom.

Beck was shocked into complete silence as Shelby Marx, The Shelby Marx, attempted to clean his shirt. Oh god! Jade was going to kill him. Not only had he spilt her coffee, but Shelby was all over him. His entire body stiffened into an ice block when his girlfriend's voice pierced through her ramblings and his manic thoughts.

When Jade walked through the door all she could see was the top of a brunette head standing much too close to Beck. Didn't she know who Beck belonged to?

"Dude, why you rubbing my boyfriend?" Beck turned to look back at her, shock and dread on his face. But what really caught her attention was the person behind him. She would have known that face anywhere, what was she doing here though? Shelby Marx certain does not go to school here, Jade would know if she did. So, what the hell? After a good few awkward moments, Jade finally finds her voice again; it's far from her own though, it's strangled and much, much quieter than her previous question was.

"Shelby?"

This idea has been bouncing about my head since I saw iFight Shelby Marx like three months ago. And since I never could come up with a decent plot line to write a whole story about it, its going here.