Speak Now
by barry effin gibb
chapter two;
Enchanted
[1994 – Cushing Academy – Ashburnham, Massachusetts]
"Have you studied for your biology test?" Matt Cena asked as he quickly in step beside his younger brother, John. Both boys had grown, John stood about five foot eleven and rather built thanks to football and weight lifting. Matt watched as his big brother stopped in his tracks.
"Biology test?" he asked, glancing up at the six-foot-two basketball player that was his brother. He cracked a smile to see that he was kidding. "Of course, last test of the semester, how could I forget?"
Matt chuckled, "Man, Springfield better have a sense of humor for your sake," he laughed, walking along with his brother into the cafeteria. He adjusted his hold on his backpack and scanned the room bustling with students.
John's blue eyes looked over the entire student body, his free hand idly playing with the purple and white mesh football jersey that was fit over his torso. He always did this while in line waiting for the horrendous high school lunch food to be slopped onto his plate.
He and his brothers had been shipped to the private high school and Chelsea followed suit. Even though John and Chelsea and he hadn't spoken in years, with the exception of school projects, his dad and Chelsea's father were the best of friends.
He had a general idea of what Chelsea was into at Cushing, she was a cheerleader for the school and every Friday night before kick off, he would watch her go through routines and catch as many glimpses as possible. At seventeen, she was the exact opposite as she was when they were kids – hell, they both were.
John had been a somewhat chunky little kid, ate everything in sight and now he was on strict diets, working rigorous work outs and had sprouted from three-foot six to near six foot in the past ten years. And Chelsea, who had been a typical little girl with long lashes and a wide smile had grown into a curvy, normal teenage girl at Cushing – who took the dress code to the limits, their skirts barely at the acceptable length and shirts with as little buttoned as possible.
Her hair had grown out and had natural curls he noticed, having seen her with both straight and curly hair on occasion. When he didn't see her sitting at her normal table, he finally clued back in and listened to his brother nag him about studying.
John let his free hand rest in his black bermuda shorts, his Cushing lanyard holding his keys in his pocket. He had one more class to take his final in and then he would be done for winter holidays. Thank goodness, he thought.
The holidays at the Cena home meant that he would have two weeks of sitting in his pajama bottoms in his home with no dress code and watch wrestling with the old man. He raised an eyebrow at Matt who asked for double servings of the mystery meat while he opted for the oatmeal – needing to bulk up by eating the least amount of food. Oatmeal let him work out and gave him fuel without making him sluggish.
He sprinkled some raisins on top and bid Matt goodbye, walking out of the cafeteria and out in the hallway. He took a spoonful and started walking, his mouth keeping the spoon face down against his tongue as he walked to where he would eat lunch every day.
When he turned the corner, he found his spot in front of his locker. He let his bag slide down and rested against the metal, reaching into his backpack and grabbed his walkman. He let the headphones rest on his ears and pushed play. The sounds of The Offspring, a new band, filled his ears as he dug into his lunch, bite after bite, bobbing his head with the songs.
As he dug his spoon in for the final bite, his eyes looked up as he realized a pair of black Mary-Jane heels stood in front of him. His blue eyes slowly slid up and saw a pair of nude panty-hose and a purple skirt that went to her mid-thigh, a white blouse with the Cushing logo on the right side, the top two buttons undone leaving enough to his imagination and blonde ringlets down.
"Chelsea," John said shocked, pulling his headphones off. "Uh..." he cleared his throat and spoke a bit more confident. "What's up? How have you been?"
Chelsea popped her hip and raised an eyebrow, chewing her bubble gum. "John, move. You're in front of my locker," she said.
He shook his head, "No, no, this one is mine," he said, knocking back on the metal door he was laying on.
"Well, if you weren't such a genetic freak," Chelsea said, "I would be able to get into my locker," she said, putting her hand on the one to her right – that John's shoulder was against. He quickly moved to stand up so she could get in.
Senior year was one semester away from ending and he had no idea that her locker was right next to his? He bit his lip and watched as she spun her combination into the locker, opening it and revealing the decorated door.
She had photos of her and her Dad... and his dad? He stared and looked on, a few pictures of her and her brothers, her mom and one of herself and... Hulk Hogan?
"You-" he stopped, shocked. Wrestling had been one thing that she hadn't seemed too into when they were friends. "You have a picture of you and Hulk Hogan?" he demanded.
Chelsea glanced up and looked to the picture and nodded once, "Yep," she said simply, throwing one of her text books in and grabbing another one which was covered in paper and Lisa Frank stickers. He watched her and was shocked that it seemed like it wasn't a big deal.
"Are you serious?" he asked as she shut her locker and started to walk off. He followed, abandoning his stuff behind. "How?"
"My mom is his lawyer," she told him. "And the lawyer of the WWF," she shrugged. "She's friends with Vince McMahon."
John looked shocked, "Why the hell did you not tell me?" he demanded.
Chelsea stopped in her tracks and glared up at John, now that he towered over her at least by a foot and a half. "It's none of your damned business," she said with a shake of her head.
She stormed off and he bit his lip, wondering if he should follow her. He hadn't spoken to her since they graduated the fourth grade and now, in four months they would be headed to college... He would be lying if he said he didn't miss her and her jokes. Sure, she had changed since they last were friends but he could tell there was still that same girl deep down inside.
He turned on his heel after watching her walk out of sight and walked back to his things, trying to find a way to get her to talk to him again.
Since he had spoken to her last week, John hadn't been able to stop thinking about Chelsea. He tried every passing period to talk to her at their lockers but wasn't having any of it. She would ignore him or have a friend with her and say she couldn't talk with a friend around... even with all of these disses, he refused to let it go. And now, with them on Christmas vacation, it seemed like a lost cause.
He had started to eat lunch in the cafeteria with his friends, watching for her, but she never showed up. He was about to give up when he finally voiced his frustration at the dinner table on Thursday night.
The Cena boys were digging into their meal of spaghetti that John Sr, had cooked when John finally spoke up.
"I've got something I need advice on," he said with sigh, putting his fork down.
"Yes, you should shave your head," Sean Cena said with a nod.
"No, you shouldn't give up on your dream of being an ice cream man, what with summer right around the corner," his younger brother Steve said.
"What is it, son?" Senior said with a raise of an eyebrow.
"I saw Chelsea the other day," he said.
Sean gave a wolf whistle, "I saw her the other day, she came into the shop when I was working and she was..." he trailed off. "Man, she grew up."
"You sure missed the boat on that one," Matt finished.
John groaned, "Anyways, I saw her and she looked beautiful and I can't seem to understand why she is still mad at me!"
Senior gave an incredulous look to his second oldest son. "Are you serious?" he asked. "John, if I remember correctly, all in one summer, you pushed her down a flight of stairs-"
"On accident!" John cried out.
"You told her that fire didn't burn..."
"She should have known that at age seven!" John defended.
"You threw her ice cream cone down to the ground and stomped on it," Senior continued.
"Because she said that Macho Man was better than Hulk!"
"And made fun of her for not hitting puberty until she was older," he said.
"That one I don't remember," John said.
"You proceeded to make fun of her for not having a chest and then stuffed your shirt after you saw her do the same thing one day," Senior finished.
The table got quiet.
"How do I fix it?" John asked, "I'm not a dick anymore!"
"First of all, watch your language," Senior said. "And maybe you just need to think out of your comfort zone."
"How?" John demanded.
These were the moments where John Sr. wished that his ex-wife was around more for the boys. Especially now where they were starting to date and wonder questions about the opposite sex that even he didn't have the answer to.
"Don't girls like flowers?" thirteen year old Steve quizzed.
"Give her flowers!" Sean nodded, "That's perfect. Go give them to her at her house," he said. "That way, if she denies you again, you don't have to be humiliated in front of the entire school."
John nodded and finished his dinner as he thought some ideas. "Dad," he said, "Can I borrow twenty bucks?" he asked. "I'll pay you back when I become wildly famous," he told him.
Begrudgingly, Senior grabbed his wallet out of his back pocket and handed his son a crisp twenty dollar bill. And like that, John was out of the house and in his 1992 Honda Civic.
Chelsea was sitting upstairs, laying on her stomach as she watched MTV on her television, doodling idly in her diary. The pink furry pen she was using moved with ease before hearing a loud shriek from downstairs.
"Chelsea!" her mother yelled out, "You have a visitor!"
Chelsea, who had a guacamole facial on her face groaned and rolled out of bed, adjusting her satin baby blue short-shorts and her gray sports bra. Even though it was snowing outside in West Newbury, she was inside a sauna thanks to her mother's obsession with heat. She pulled her blonde hair up into a ponytail and walked downstairs, expecting a cheerleader friend who just didn't have the manners to call ahead of time before visiting.
When she got to the door and cracked it open, she was shocked to see John in a pair of jean shorts and a gray hoodie, he seemed to be freezing. "What the hell?" she asked, shutting the door for a minute before undoing the chain that kept the door from opening all the way (thanks to her mother's paranoia), and opened it again. "Come in..."
John thankfully walked into the house and looked around at the home he hadn't been in for years. It looked the same but with new photos, recent photos and pictures without Chelsea's old step-dad.
"Where did Dean go?" he asked, raising an eyebrow trying to act like a friend.
Chelsea shook her head, "Vacation," she said. "What do you want?" she asked, her arms crossing against her chest to cover herself.
John pulled out a bunch of roses with snow on them behind his back and held them out to here. "Merry Christmas?" he asked hopefully.
"I don't want them," Chelsea said.
"What?" John asked, "Doesn't the creature from the black lagoon even celebrate Christmas?" he asked, pointing at her guacamole mask.
Scoffing, Chelsea rolled her eyes and opened the door for him again, letting the cool air hit him.
He flinched, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he said. "I didn't mean it. Look, Chelsea," he said, "I use humor when I feel awkward and if this isn't awkward," he trailed off.
"I hate you," she reminded him.
John nodded, "And I understand, but I wanted to hand you these roses as a peace offering. We're graduating high school in four months and I don't want to graduate without knowing that we're alright with one another," he said.
Quietly and contemplating this, Chelsea slowly reached out for the roses before stopping. "Anything else you want to say?"
"I'm sorry for when we were kids," John nodded his head.
She pursed her lips and took the roses, "Thanks," Chelsea nodded.
"So," John said softly, "We're friends?"
Chelsea scoffed, "No, John, we're not friends. We're acquaintances, if I see you in the hallway, I may or may not acknowledge you. I won't go out of my way to talk to you until you start to prove to me that you really are sorry," she said, shaking her head.
John nodded, "Can I ask you something?"
"I suppose," Chelsea said, sniffing at the roses.
"Can I take you to dinner tomorrow night?" he asked.
"No," Chelsea said.
John grabbed the door handle.
"Awesome," he said, "I'll pick you up at seven?"
"John," Chelsea repeated, "No."
He gave a grin, "I'll see you at seven, then," he said and before she could object again – he was gone.
"Dammit," Chelsea said. When the door shut, she turned her back to the metal and inhaled the roses, giving a soft smile.
Her mother walked past and watched, "Oh? Did John give you those?" she asked.
Chelsea nodded softly, holding them out for her mother to smell.
"Those are lovely," she said. "What did he want?"
"To apologize," Chelsea informed. "And he's taking me out to dinner tomorrow night," she grinned.
"That's wonderful," her mom smiled softly before it fell. "But what will Jake think?"
Chelsea bit down on her lip. She had been dating Jake for a month, but it wasn't anything serious.
She looked up, "What he doesn't know won't hurt him," she finally decided.
"Watch what you do, Chels... but for the record, John looked amazing," she laughed.
Chelsea burst into giggles and nodded, "So dreamy," she laughed, walking back upstairs after she put the roses in a vase.
Author's Note;
I KNOW I SAID, THREE REVIEWS BUT I WAS ON A ROLL. SO.
So, the brothers are in this one a lot.
Cushing Academy is a real boarding school that Cena went to – he was a prep-school brat, haha. 3 The uniforms were of my idea – I mean, they have a dress code at the school now but I used mine to make things better. ;) More of a fantasy for Cena.
Did you notice how Chelsea got a little defensive about her step-father? ;) It's gonna tie in soon, I promise.
This is my first Cena-centric story, I mean, mainly in his POV – but I think it'll switch over to Chelsea's after they graduate college. I don't know if I will work out the date in the story; the next chapter will be set at Springfield College. And after that, I'm 90% sure that it will be set with Cena at FCW trying to get into the business while Chelsea is down in Florida just keeping John company working there. And then – when Cena debuts on Smackdown – that's when I think I might set it up in mainly Chelsea's POV.
I hope you liked this chapter. 3 3 The roses? Cute?
What will the next chapter be? ;) TELL ME, TELL ME. 3
THREE REVIEWS?
xoxoxo
Ashley.