A new girl in town
Chapter 30
Vince/Kayla
"What do you have for me? I told you I wanted results." Vince said glaring at Kayla.
"You need to give me more." Vince said. "You've been here two weeks now you should have more done." Vince growled.
"I've also used your licensing agreement with ITunes to add the roster's theme music to their collection. I'm surprised that no one else did that so I did. So far, it's charting well," she concluded.
"With all due respect sir, I'm running an entire department on my own," Kayla said.
"You agreed to the terms when you were hired. You knew you'd be working alone." Vince stated.
"As things stand right now, I'm limited to working when I'm here because the truck takes my equipment afterwards," she added.
"I'd be able to give you the results you expect if I had a couple of laptops and some external drives," she added.
"I'll think about it." Vince said storming out of the office.
"Have a bad fucking day to you too," Kayla muttered when she was sure he had gone.
"Jesus fuck, his demands are ridiculous," Wade said angrily.
"To be fair, I didn't work my first couple of shows aside from looking at roster pics with J.J," Kayla said.
"Still... not providing you with a team? Who the hell does that?" Cassie said.
"He seems like a jackass," Vanessa added.
Kane/J.J./Taker
Walking into their locker room they looked at the time four forty five.
"Just made it." Kane laughed. "Where is Sammy?"
"Yeah," Taker said. "Any later and Vince would have had something to say then I would have had to hit him. Sammy decided she'd rather stay at the hotel."
"Well we've got about an hour before the first meeting." Kane said. "He knew how far we had to come I don't know why he couldn't have given us a little more time to get here."
"You know Vince." Taker said. "Hurry up do as I say then wait on me."
"Yeah." J.J. said. "That's about him alright."
The three of them sat and talked for a while just wasting time.
"J.J." Kane said. "What do you think of the whole phone thing?"
"I've told you before you should carry one in case there is an emergency and I'm not there." J.J. said. "Taker what do you think of Twitter?"
"I like it." Taker said. "Give me a chance to talk to my fans. See what they think."
"Why?" Taker asked.
"Because Kayla and Wade were trying to talk me into one for twitter on the way here." Kane said.
"I think you should go for it." Taker said. "For both reasons."
Vanessa/Cassie/Wade
Wade looked around the hotel room in utter boredom. Vanessa and Cassie were just as bored.
"The downtime alone would kill me," Cassie said.
"Yeah, me too," Vanessa said.
"No fuckin' wonder Kayla got fucked out of her mind," Wade added.
"Have you seen Bri's latest Snapchat?" Vanessa asked.
Wade shook his head.
"I probably don't want to know," he said but he took out his phone anyway and opened up the app.
"Jesus fuck, put your damn clothes back on girl!" Wade yelled as a mostly naked girl writhed on a table. She was covered in Jell-O shots and people were taking turns eating them off of her.
"Hey, she has an amazing body," Vanessa said.
"What have we all said about body shaming and ownership?" Cassie added.
"Yeah yeah, whatever Beyoncé," Wade said as the video began again.
"Fuckin' hell," he said as he closed the app.
"We should jam," he said.
"Agreed... with our nonexistent equipment I suppose," Vanessa quipped.
"And no car," Cassie added.
Wade sighed in defeat.
"I am so fuckin' bored," he complained.
"Join the club," Vanessa and Cassie said.
Kayla
Kayla sighed as she finished creating yet another video package. This one focused on Chris Jericho and she was reasonably happy with the result.
He's a total 80's metal reject but he does have talent. She thought as she watched the finished product and automatically moved on to creating the next.
As she fell in to the rhythm of work, a video conversion program ran in the background. There was years of material to re-encode if this network had any hope of launching. Fortunately, all she needed to do was ensure that the video conversions didn't encounter any unexpected errors.
While she edited videos she continued to code the website on the second screen she'd used the night before. She thought about creating a promo page for the network but quickly decided against it. Sighing she began working on the roster profiles. It wasn't going to be as hard as she'd led Vince to believe. All of the information she needed was already available; she just needed to recode everything to meet current web standards and update images.
Taker/Sammy/Kane/J.J.
"It's about time." Kane said looking up at the clock.
The three of them headed to the meeting.
When they arrived they took their usual spots and again waited on Vince.
He says one time then shows up late every time. Kane thought looking at his watch.
Finally Vince arrived and the meeting began. It was like every other meeting they had ever been to. Vince was nasty, demeaning to everyone and demanding. Then he dismissed them as he walked out of the room.
The three of them headed back to the locker room.
"At least I don't have to put a guard on Sammy tonight. Though I do wish she was here at least she's safe back at the hotel." Taker said once they were inside.
"Yeah," Kane said. "If Hunter busted down the door once he could easily do it again."
"I can't believe he did that. Did he honestly believe that a non-wrestler could take on three wrestlers and win?" J.J. said. "That's nuts."
"Apparently so is Hunter if he thinks he can get away with what he did. I'm going to kill him next time we meet." Taker said.
Kane laughed. "Remember if you kill him it will be manslaughter."
"Do you honestly think I'm scared of that." Taker said.
"No, just thought I'd remind you." Kane said with a smile.
Kayla/Cena
Kayla was in the middle of coding Cena's page and creating his video package when the man himself arrived at her door.
"I guess I should've expected you," she said.
"Yeah, it's been a minute," Cena said with a grin.
"You look pretty busy though," he added as he surveyed Kayla's screens.
"You could say Vince has made it rather clear: either I deliver results or I'm gone," Kayla said as she cropped a frame and finished coding yet another line.
"What kind of results are we talking?" Cena asked as he took a seat.
"A complete revamp of .com because it sucks and the network idea I mentioned yesterday," Kayla said.
Cena whistled.
"He's hiring you other people to work on this, right?" he asked. Kayla shook her head.
"It was part of my contract's terms that I'm expected to work alone," she said with a sigh.
"That's ridiculous," Cena said.
"I don't know much about digital media but you're one person. How can he expect you to rebuild a website and launch a network at the same time?" he asked.
Kayla shrugged.
"Kane thinks I'll get through it," she said.
Cena rolled his eyes.
"That guy knows less about media than I do," he said shortly.
Kayla looked at him curiously.
"RVD told you about the video. Well, I was there too," Cena explained.
"So you think he's what? Still pissed about that?" Kayla asked.
Cena shrugged.
"I never know what the hell that guy is thinking," he said.
"Anyway, how was your crazy night?" he asked.
"I got more fucked up than I've ever been in my life," Kayla said. Then she recapped the night. By the end of her story, tears were streaming down Cena's face and he was gasping for breath.
"You told... The Undertaker... fuck... eyes...?" he managed.
"Among other things that I'm glad I've forgotten," Kayla said.
Once Cena had finally calmed down, he met Kayla's gaze seriously.
"I knew you were kind of fucked but I had no idea it had gotten that bad," he said quietly.
"That's kind of the way I roll," Kayla said with a shrug.
"But I'm your friend, Kayla. I want to know when things aren't going well. I'd be a pretty shit friend if I only wanted to be around when things are fine," he said.
"It's hard for me to admit when I'm struggling," Kayla said.
Cena nodded in understanding and pulled her into a hug. Then he looked at the clock on one of her screens.
"Crap, I need to get going," he said as he got to his feet.
"I'll text you later," he added. Then he left.
Wade/Cassie/Vanessa
Cassie finally had enough and being completely out of ideas herself, connected one of her tablets to the TV and began browsing through Netflix.
"We could always watch season 2 of Daredevil," Wade teased.
Cassie gave him the finger and purposely scrolled passed the title without pausing.
"C'mon, it really is awesome," Wade insisted.
"Don't care," Cassie said.
"I think you'd actually like it," Vanessa said.
"Don't care," Cassie repeated.
"Stop! Game of Thrones!" Wade yelled.
"Everyone fucking dies!" Cassie protested.
"It's still amazing," Wade said.
"Fine, whatevs. There's nothing else to do in this place," Cassie said as the first episode began to play.
Kayla stopped working when her stomach growled.
Jeeze, when did I last eat? She wondered distractedly.
Then she looked at the time.
Oh fuck me, I'm supposed to be at that stupid meeting! She thought in panic. Then she wondered what she should` do.
Is it even worth it to go this late? She wondered.
Vince will definitely give me a dressing down in front of everybody if I arrive now.
Then she pictured Hunter's face and groaned.
Fuck it. Besides, I've got a good rhythm going here. Why mess with what's working?
She shrugged to herself and went back to work.
Kane/J.J./Taker
"Hey," J.J. said suddenly. "I didn't see Kayla at the meeting."
"Yeah she wasn't there." Kane said.
"She's in for it then. Staff meetings are mandatory for everyone. She's not due at the talent meeting in a few but Vince is going to have her ass for not showing up at staff." Taker said
Kayla
Kayla was sitting in her office working furiously when the door opened.
Well, I knew that was coming. She thought as she looked up from the screen.
"My father wants to see you." Shane said rudely.
"Ah. So there are more of you, hmmmm?" Kayla drawled not missing the kid's rudeness.
"Just come with me." Shane said.
Kayla got up and followed without a word.
"Guess who's going to the principal's office." Hunter called back into the DX locker room." Smiling as he watched Kayla getting walked down the hallway by Shane.