Post by veronicaaaahhhh on Feb 19, 2019 0:25:44 GMT -5
Lying in a gurney, in the middle of a bustling emergency room in downtown L.A. was never the kind of victory party Penny Shannon imagined herself having. No, if the newly minted WFWF World Champion had her way- the second woman to hold it, ever, in history- she would have gotten one of those private, exclusive pool-side hotel rooms, called over all her friends, and flat out deplete the state of California’s marijuana reserve. But things happened, and here she was: fully aware and in absolute pain.
“Oh my God,” Penny hissed. “Please give me the drugs already!”
“I’m sorry Mrs. Shannon,” said the muscle-bound orderly. “The doctor wants to run some tests before we can give you a sedative.”
Penny smiled despite the pain. She liked being called ‘Mrs. Shannon’. “But I don’t even want to get high. I just want to not hurt.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be a professional wrestler?”
Penny winched a smile, tapping on the WFWF World Championship belt on her waist. “Thought it was fake, huh?”
“Alright,” Mary said, stepping forward to cut in before it got any further as she turned to the orderly. “So, how soon can the doctor see her?”
“Dr. Santos will be with you momentarily.”
And with that, the orderly turned away and covered Penny’s corner of the emergency room.
Now, to recap everything that happened in the last ninety minutes: Penny beat Drakz and became the WFWF World Champion. Like her winning was something that only sunk at the moment the referee handed her the belt. And even that took a moment to process. It was weird. Penny heard her music, she heard everyone collectively losing their sh*t. But it just didn’t sink in until she had the belt in her arms. The one thing she never once thought she’d do, she did: the became the champion.
Cut to a moment later, and she’s out of the ring kissing Mary… Like, by now, Penny has probably kissed Mary over a million times. Like there isn’t a day that goes by when she doesn’t kiss Mary at least five times. And right next to the first kiss they ever shared, this kiss meant something. She just wanted to celebrate with her… That was all.
And then, in the middle of a kiss that could have led to a night to sexual congress so steamy that it could have distracted Penny from the pain, she got blindsided by Drakz. Who, naturally, took her back into the ring to give her what could only be described as the most vicious beating she had ever received in her life. He tries to take off with the belt, Slater takes it away from him. The medics rush in, Mary jumps over the rail. They rush out of the arena and as a nice little parting gift, Lila Slater just hands Penny back the belt as she’s being loaded into the ambulance.
Here she is: with all the glory and adrenaline giving way to the worst pain imaginable that Penny thanked the Goddess above that she made her into a lesbian… Though it didn’t help that she was now alone with Mary, who wasn’t concerned anymore. No, she was pissed. And by the looks of things, she had a lecture coming her way.
“What the f*ck?!” Mary hissed beneath her breath.
“Here we go…” Penny rolled her eyes, holding out her arm in some lame attempt to tell the universe she was ready for the drugs.
“Baby,” Mary began. “I know you’re in a lot of pain right now and if things were just a little different-”
“-You mean if I hightailed out of the ring as soon as the match was finished?” Penny asked, cutting her off.
“Yes. If that happened, I know we’d be off somewhere celebrating, but I just watched you get beaten without any remorse. Like, this is the most horrifying thing I had ever seen in my life!” Mary sighed, as she sat down next to Penny. “Yeah, you’re champion, but you have to ask yourself: is it really worth it? And if it is, does that piece of leather really mean that much to you?”
“You know what I’m going to say,” Penny sighed, looking down.
“I know and it’s f*cking stupid,” Mary said. “You could have died tonight, and you’re pretty much telling me that it would have been worth it. And for what? One tiny moment of glory.”
“You know,” Penny shot out, raising her voice a little. “Just because I got beaten up after a match doesn’t mean it’s going to happen again.”
“You know, the last time you got beaten up after a match, you got stabbed in the eye.” Mary shot back, rolling her eyes as she crossed her arms. “There is obviously no reassurance that this won't happen again.”
“It won't because I’m not going to make it happen.”
“I really want to be proud of you and excited for you, but I can’t,” Mary said as she got up. “Anyway, I’m going to look for that doctor. This won’t be the last time we’re going to be in an E.R. after a show.”
With those words, Mary was gone… Leaving Penny alone with herself and her brand new WFWF World Championship belt. She closed her eyes and sighed. She just hated it whenever she and Mary had an argument like this. She hated it because while she was being a real b*tch, there was no denying that Mary was right. And that her anger came from a place of concern. And Jesus Christ, she hated coming off like an even bigger b*tch, even if Mary didn’t get it.
But then again, Penny opened her eyes and smiled.
“I’m WFWF World Champion,” Penny whispered. “How cool is that?”
And so, as a small jolt of joy ran through her body, Penny held her hard-won title in her arms and smiled.
“Big girl did it…”
Motion Sickness
A Penny Shannon Roleplay
If somebody ever told her that one day she’d have her own office when she got started in the business all those years, Penny probably would have laughed it off. But here she was, all those years later, sitting in her own office, surrounded by a file of papers she had managed to neglect for the last few weeks. Truth be told, she wasn’t in the mood to work.
She wasn’t in the mood to celebrate either. It was crazy. Penny took a draw off her vape as she leaned back on the chair and stared at her hard-fought WFWF World Championship belt as it stood on her desk. Like she should be rapturous right now- and it wasn’t that she was happy, but it just didn’t feel like a proper win given how everything went down.
Penny took a deep breath and looked away from the belt and looked at the stack of papers she needed to sort out. Ugh, she just wasn’t in the mood. So she sat there in silence for a moment, rocking back at her chair as she took her mug of coffee in her hand and held it close. She wasn’t in the mood for any of this.
The knock on the door came when she brought the mug close to her lips. Not a second later, an intern popped his head into her office and said, “Uhm, Ms. Penny. You’re one o’clock is here.”
Penny looked up at the young, bright-eyed boy with spikey hair and nodded. “Send her in.”
With a deep breath, Penny closed her eyes as she heard footsteps walk into her office. “This is so weird.”
Penny put on her game face as she looked up and saw former WFWF World Champion, Scarlett Quinn stroll into her office. “Hey you!”
There was a time so many years ago, when Penny and Scarlett were so inseparably close. Whatever Scarlett did, Penny was right there behind her, cheering her on. And vice-versa. Their antics had become so legendary that for a good while, no promoter in the United States would book them in their right mind. And they held on to that like a badge of honor.
But wrestling happened… And so did life. And it wasn’t like they stopped being close, but there was always going to be a rift there. Penny chucked it to the two of them expecting something more from the other that neither one was in a place to give them.
“Hey,” Scarlett said, closing the door behind her as she took a moment to look around at what was best described as a room with a desk. “Nice place.”
“Hard to believe, huh?” Penny smiled, walking over to Scarlett.
“Truth?” Scarlett asked, walking over to Penny. “Not really?”
“You think so?”
“Yeah,” Scarlett crossed her arms. “You sold out a long time ago!”
“Good to know,” Penny grinned.
The two considerably young women stood each other down before breaking into a laugh that was followed by a long-overdue hug.
“Sit down, take a load off!” Penny shrugged as she popped open the button of her blouse and sat down at the edge of the desk. “You want anything?”
Scarlett held us a cup of Iced Coffee from the Tim Horton’s across the street as she sat across from Penny with her legs crossed.
“You actually did it,” Scarlett said, looking at the WFWF Championship belt on the table.
“Wanna take a look?”
“Sure.”
Penny turned away from Scarlett for a moment to hand the belt over to her. Scarlett, in turn, tucked a lock of her hair behind the back of her hair as she licked her lips now, easing back on her seat as she held the title in her arms.
“It looks a lot different from when I had it.”
“They changed it a couple times.”
“That’s the big trend, isn’t it?” Scarlett said. “Remember how it was like when we were kids? They hardly changed the belt, ever. And it wasn’t like they needed to because it already looked perfect enough as it was.”
“Well, I like it.”
“Hey, it’s a nicer belt that the one I held,” Scarlett shrugged, passing the belt back to Penny. “What’s up with you?”
“Nothing’s up with me.”
“Exactly,” Scarlett shot back. “You’d think you’d be as high as a kite!”
“It’s nothing,”
“Penny…”, Scarlett trailed.
“Aren’t we supposed to talk about your contract?”
“What’s there to talk about?” Scarlett shot back. “I’m just here to sign a bunch of papers.”
Penny rolled her eyes and sighed, taking a deep breath now as she prepared herself.
“So, what’s the deal?”
“Well, I beat Drakz and now I’m WFWF Champion!”
“Good for you,” Scarlett nodded as she fished out a pack of cigarettes from her purse. “Mind if I smoke here?”
Penny handed Scarlett the ashtray.
Scarlett placed a Marlboro Light between her lips, lit it, and took a drag, blowing away now as she looked over at Penny and said, “I saw the match, you know…”
“And?”
“Honest truth?”, Scarlett sighed, exhaling a trail of smoke. “You got lucky."
“What do you mean?”
“What I’m saying is that your championship win is nothing more than a fluke,” Scarlett said, in a very curt, and well, rather-Scarlett kind of way.
“Gee, thanks.”
“Hey,” Scarlett began, tipping the cigarette over the ashtray. “I’m not taking anything away from you, but you obviously caught Drakz at a bad night. I mean, he was basically a step ahead of you throughout the entire match. Hell, you only beat him because you were lucky enough to catch him at an opening.”
“It’s not a fluke,” Penny shot back. “I put my whole being into that match, and I’m still feeling it until now.”
“Hey, you don’t need to get defensive,” Scarlett shot back. “I’m just being honest with you.”
“So what,” Penny crossed her arms. “You don’t think I can do it again?”
“No,” Scarlett said, turning her head. “I mean, yeah, I’m happy for you and everything. But let’s face it, you’re not exactly championship material.”
Penny dropped her jaw and rolled her eyes. “I’m going to pretend like you didn’t just tell me that.”
“Neither were you.”
“Were,” Scarlett nodded. “There’s a big difference. I mean, look just enjoy it for what it is and what it’s going to do for you. At least that’s one thing off your bucket list. But you have to come to terms with the fact that you’re only vaguely successful whenever you’re inspired enough to go on a whim and do it. I’m telling you now, you can’t sustain it.”
“You know, I could have said the same exact thing to you when you became Champion back in 2012, but I didn’t. And you know why, you’re my best friend and I actually believe in you. And I want to see you succeed.”
“Thank you,” Scarlett nodded, taking a drag. “Look, I’m not gonna deny that I wouldn’t have been the champion if it wasn’t for you. But you have to realize that this,” Scarlett stopped to spread her arms. “The office job and managing people is more up your alley than anything.”
“So, what you’re saying is that I’m one of those wrestlers who have one moment of glory they eventually blow because they’re not good enough, but still good enough to mentor and groom people to become champions themselves?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Penny grabbed Scarlett’s contract and handed it over to her. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“Look, I’m not alone in this,” Scarlett said, taking the folder in her hand. “Do you have a pen?”
Penny handed her a pen and asked, “What do you mean?”
“Don’t you read Twitter or any of the dirt sheets?”, Scarlett asked as she sifted through the papers to sign her name.
“Yeah, I have no room in life for that kind of negativity.”
“Well, give it a look,” Scarlett said. “Everyone’s betting that Drakz’ll come back with a vengeance.”
“For sure he will. So where that does leave me?”
“The sentimental favorite,” Scarlett replied, handing Penny back the folder. “Like Yukio Blaze.”
“Aren’t you going to read that?”
“Nah,” Scarlett shrugged. “I don’t have time for that. Besides, I know you’re not going to f*ck me over.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Well, you already did it once,” Scarlett said, stubbing out her cigarette on the ashtray. “I know you well enough to know you’re not going to do it again.”
“Thanks,” Penny scoffed, taking the contract from Scarlett.
The thing about Josh Dean is that, even though it’s been a while since he last stepped inside a wrestling ring, it’s that he never stopped keeping himself in-ring shape. Penny always figured that there was still something in him that never had entirely given up even though he made sure everyone knew he had hung up the boots already.
As one of the leading sports and entertainment agencies in the United States, Championship Connections always had the best trainers in every field available on staff. On one hand, it was part of the spectacle. Got their eyes on a fresh NCAA prospect? Fly them up to Atlanta on a grand tour of the corporate headquarters. And at the same time, because of their line of work and Josh Dean’s drive for being the best, it was apparent they needed to have the best in-house fitness facility in the country.
To help temper down the testosterone, Mary has started looking into expanding the company’s clientele to include promising young indie rock acts in the country. That aside, Penny walked into the gym, which took up an entire floor, to find Josh Dean hitting the punching bag with a team behind him. She could hear Eminem blasting away from his headphones as she came closer and closer.
“Hey Penny,” Josh sighed, slipping off the headphones as he took several deep and heavy breaths. “Hey boys, give it up for your new champ!”
Team Dean, all twelve of them, gave themselves a moment to grant Penny a round of cheers and high-fives. Given how Mary’s been and the talk she just had with Scarlett, the reaction did feel pretty nice.
“Thank you, thank you,” Penny murmured, as she bowed to the team for a moment before turning to Josh. “Hey, think I could steal you for a couple of minutes?”
“Of course,” Josh said, closing a bottle of water as he turned to his team. “Let’s take five, boys.”
Josh led Penny over to one of the multi-purpose wrestling rings they kept by the corner, figured it would give them a little bit of privacy. “Hey, I’m really proud of you. I hope you know that.”
“You can save it,” Penny sighed, crossing her arms now as she leaned against the apron.
“What’s going on?”
“You ever feel like sometimes, you want to be happy and you know that you have every right to be happy, but you can’t because it feels like the world won’t let you?”
“Every damn day,” Josh chuckled as he sat down on the apron and patted himself dry with a towel. “So, Mary’s giving you trouble?”
“Well, that…” Penny sighed, rolling her eyes. “It doesn’t help that I talked to Scarlett.”
“That’s worse than Twitter!”
“You’d think I would have known that,” Penny trailed.
“So, what’s getting you down, champ?”
“Mary’s pissed and apparently, no one believes in me,” Penny replied, hopping on the apron to sit beside Josh. “I mean, I don’t need people to believe in me.”
“Oh?” Josh asked as he cracked open a bottle of water. “Then what’s bothering you?”
“I should be happy right now!” Penny shot back. “I should be celebrating with you and the wifey; instead I feel like I should be putting aside how I actually feel because the people I’m closest to are a little hurt.”
“Understandably so,” Josh said. “Look, while I can’t tell you anything about Scarlett that you don’t already know, I will tell you this: Mary’s still relatively new to the business. So you have to understand how delicate this all to her. It’s not every day that you see the love of your life get ripped apart like that.”
“I guess we’ve both been in the business for so long that it feels like an occupational hazard everyone’s going to go through.”
“Exactly,” Josh said as he opened a bottle of water. “Now, I don’t want to say that she is going to get used to this. But you are going to have to prepare yourself for the reality that it could get worse if you don’t do something about it at Sin City Showdown.”
“So, what?” Penny shrugged. “Do you really think me beating Drakz was nothing more than a fluke?”
“As a matter of fact, I don’t,” Josh said, sipping his water. “Penny, in one night, you did what I spent a whole year trying to regain. Think about that. You slayed the monster and you took the title away from him.”
Penny smiled. “You don’t have to say nice things to make me feel better, you know?”
“But it has to be said,” Josh replied. “I watched that match with one eye open. Did Drakz have the upper hand? Yeah, he did. But you did what no one else has been able to do to and that’s take him to the distance. I don’t wish for a lot of things, but for a moment, you had me wishing that I was you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You got nothing to be sorry about, Penny,” Josh smiled. “But you have to let me in on your secret. How’d you do it? How’d you beat him?”
“Truth?”
“Yeah,” Josh nodded. “I need this.”
“I just knew that I could beat him,” Penny smiled. “And I wasn’t going to stop until I did. To tell the truth, the only way he could have beat me was if he brought a gun to the ring.”
“That’s all it took, huh?”
“Yeah,” Penny smiled. “I’m obviously going to have to do it again though, but that’s a different story.”
It wasn’t unusual for Penny and Mary to come home together. More often than not, Penny would finish early enough and kill time before Mary gave the go-signal. Sure, there were the rare cases when maybe Penny would take a little longer than usual, or maybe, Mary wanted to go out and get a few drinks. But other than that, coming home together was kind of their thing.
They hadn’t talked once since they flew back in from Los Angeles. Penny figured it was because they both knew what it was like to get into a fight and neither of them had the time nor the emotional capacity to deal with one unless something really triggered them.
And so, Penny let Mary go home ahead. And for the first time in like ever, she walked back alone. If there was something she actually missed about being single, it was her alone time. Granted, she had too much for her own good, but one thing she had were those tiny little moments that allowed her to kick back, slip on a pair of earbuds and escape to another world through sound. Even if it lasted just a few short moments, it was still that little break from the drudgery of every-day life to surrender to what her brain decided was the most blissful sound in the world.
It wasn’t fair… Any of this!
Even if she walked home slow enough, she still got home a lot faster than she wanted to. She didn’t come up right away, obviously. Instead, she sat on the front steps to watch what looked like a crew shooting a new episode of Queer Eye. It happened so often in this neighborhood that people sort of let them carry on was the initial excitement wore off.
“Wanted,” Penny sighed. “Five sassy gay guys who could show one gay girl that she’s actually worth a lick of salt.”
Metallica’s “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” slipped into her Spotify mix without apology or irony, Penny took a deep breath and veered her head high enough to see their lights on. This wasn’t going to be pleasant.
“Big girl pants,” Penny hushed. “Big girl pants.”
And with that, Penny took a deep breath and headed upstairs. She would have taken her time, but her heart was beating unnecessarily fast. And on top of that, she started to think about all the little things that Mary did that always got on her nerves… How sometimes, especially when she was super busy, Mary hardly cleaned the apartment. Like Penny wasn’t the cleanest person in the world, but at least she wasn’t a slob.
Then again, to Mary’s credit. She has been trying to stay on top of keeping the apartment neat. It didn’t help that she was learning how to cook, so she could feed them instead of having to order take-out every night. But she’s also been trying to get Penny to throw out old things because she started watching Marie Kondo’s show… And Penny hated that. And she hated her, kinda, for making the apartment neat and forcing her to let go of excess baggage.
The nerve of that short, beautiful woman for wanting her to have a better life!
Penny dropped her head against the frame of her front door and sighed. “I’m a f*cking a**h**e.”
Whatever it was… It was unavoidable. This time, Penny was going to have to put her career first. If she was going to keep the title or get anywhere. She had to do this. She had to put her foot down. She had to fight with her wife.
“F*ck me,” Penny sighed as she placed her key into the lock and twisted the knob. “Hey, we’ve got to talk…”
To Penny’s surprise, there was nothing going on in the apartment. Like yeah, the lights were on. But the cats were fed, and the place was tidy. And the open door that led to their bedroom was just ajar enough for Penny to see her already asleep.
Penny put down her bags and plopped down on the sofa before sinking her forehead into an open palm. Amy, their three-year-old ginger, jumped on Penny’s lap and soon found herself curled into her belly. And so, as she gently stroked, caressed, and kissed her cat-child, Penny sighed.
“Isn’t that funny?” Penny sighed as she spoke to Amy. “I’m nowhere as scared of Drakz as I am of Mary right now? Well, not scared. But we both know how she gets now, don’t we?”
And as she pressed Amy to her cheek, against her will, Penny closed her eyes and imagined Drakz being in the same room. She was getting into that zone a lot of wrestlers did right before a match. It was almost like cutting a promo on someone who was never going to see or hear any of it unless you somehow recorded it and uploaded it online…
“And isn’t that the most ridiculous thing ever? I’m not even afraid of the most influential and psychotic wrestler to ever grace a wrestling ring as much as I’m afraid of getting into a fight with my girlfriend!” Penny chuckled. “Drakz, you were so scared all through the match. Sure, maybe you were more experienced, more composed, and probably a lot more ready than I was but admit it, I gave you a more interesting match for the title than Michael Kyzer ever would.”
Amy started to squirm in her arms and with that, Penny gently placed her on the ground. A moment later she saw the large, belt-shaped bag the WFWF gave her to store the title in for easy travel.
“And I won! Isn’t that the craziest thing ever? Like how high do you have to be to even think about the odds of something like this happening!”, Penny chuckled once again as she threw out her arms. “The one person no one ever expected to see back into a wrestling ring beat you in her second match after getting her butt handed to her by the greenest rookie in the world! Oh, I bet right now, wherever you are, it’s gotta really sting. Like you probably aren’t even as mad at me as you are with yourself! You thought I was going to be a walk in the park and you f*cked up.”
Penny took the bag and cradled the covered strap of leather and gold in her forearms.
“But that’s the thing isn’t it?” Penny asked. “In a land whose rules were dictated by men like you and Michael Kyzer, it’s easy to just cast someone like me aside because no matter how good I’ve proven myself to be in all the years I’ve been here, I’ve never been on that level. I’m not serious enough, I’m not committed enough, and as good as I am, I just simply don’t have what it takes. You see, a long time ago, I believed that, because people like you made me believe that. And I accepted it even though I knew that I was capable of so much more.”
Penny took a step back now as she gently laid the bag down on the coffee table before her. She took a deep breath and leaned forward to carefully remove the belt over the bag, taking her time until she was face-to-face with WFWF World Championship Belt in all its glory.
“I never thought I could do it until I tried and now here I am,” Penny smiled. “And here’s the thing, Drakz, I gave you everything. No weed. No fairy dust. No magick. Just me and the 135 pounds of blood, tissue, and bone that my soul happens to be attached to. I didn’t stop because I knew that even though you were coming into this match on nothing more than a lark, I was going to beat you. It doesn’t matter to me if you were there at 10-percent or even a hundred percent, I still would have beaten you. Because maybe it hasn’t sunk in yet, but Drakz, and you have no idea that excited I am about breaking this… But, I’m better than you! I’m better than Kyzer. And I’m better than any man, or woman, whoever laced up their boot to set foot inside a wrestling ring.”
Penny smirked, knowing that in the eyes of the WFWF’s most loyal fans, she had just committed one of the sins imaginable. How dare she? The sheer audacity of that statement. How could a woman who spent most of her adult life in a state of perpetual purple haze dare say something as wrong as that?
Taking a deep breath, Penny gave herself the one thing she never had the chance to do since she won the belt. Slowly, she lowered the title down to her waist, and with the centerpiece tucked on the side, Penny closed the golden buckles of the WFWF World Championship belt. And once it was firmly secure, she moved the center plate to the front of her waist and looked down.
“Get used to this sight, Drakz,” Penny sighed. “Because this is the woman who’s marching into SuperBrawl as the reigning and defending WFWF World Champion. And sure, I’ll accept that I can’t hold on to this belt forever. And that’s fine. But don’t you dare think that just because I'm realistic with my expectations that I’m going to allow you to take it away from me at Sin City Showdown!”
Goddess, this was the best feeling ever!
“Kicking you’re a** for the second time, and getting away with it, is all the momentum I need as I take the WFWF, and the world of wrestling to newer and better heights. You may have revolutionized this place a long time ago, but when you did you corrupted every good thing this title stood for. And it’s time to clean the WFWF from you and your kind once and for all.”
Penny grinned.
“I know you Drakz. There’s no way I’m walking out of Vegas the same way I walked in. You are going to do everything you can to beat me and break me and take me to my limits. And you know what? I dare you to do it! No b*tch, I double dare you. There is nothing you can do to me that I’ve already felt before. And because of that, you have no idea how ready I am. So I am telling you: bring it on, because nothing is going to get me off harder than beating you, humiliating you, and walking to Superbrawl as the WFWF World Champion.”
“I mean,” Penny shrugged. “Do you and Kyzer really need the title at this point? I mean, really? Ten years ago, yeah. That was the most exciting thing ever. Today? It’s just sad and pathetic. And a reminder of why the world needs someone like me-” Penny paused as she gently grazed the WFWF World Championship belt in her fingertips. “Penny Shannon, to lead the revolution as the greatest WFWF World Champion, ever!”
“Hey,”
Penny turned around and saw Mary standing wearily against the bedroom door. Surprisingly, she looked like she was wearing the same clothes she was wearing when she left for work this morning.
“You think you can keep it down?” Mary shot out. “Some people to sleep so they can trying to run a company so you can run off and be a champion.”
Motion Sickness
A Penny Shannon Roleplay
ATLANTA, GA
Championship Connections
Penny’s office…
If somebody ever told her that one day she’d have her own office when she got started in the business all those years, Penny probably would have laughed it off. But here she was, all those years later, sitting in her own office, surrounded by a file of papers she had managed to neglect for the last few weeks. Truth be told, she wasn’t in the mood to work.
She wasn’t in the mood to celebrate either. It was crazy. Penny took a draw off her vape as she leaned back on the chair and stared at her hard-fought WFWF World Championship belt as it stood on her desk. Like she should be rapturous right now- and it wasn’t that she was happy, but it just didn’t feel like a proper win given how everything went down.
Penny took a deep breath and looked away from the belt and looked at the stack of papers she needed to sort out. Ugh, she just wasn’t in the mood. So she sat there in silence for a moment, rocking back at her chair as she took her mug of coffee in her hand and held it close. She wasn’t in the mood for any of this.
The knock on the door came when she brought the mug close to her lips. Not a second later, an intern popped his head into her office and said, “Uhm, Ms. Penny. You’re one o’clock is here.”
Penny looked up at the young, bright-eyed boy with spikey hair and nodded. “Send her in.”
With a deep breath, Penny closed her eyes as she heard footsteps walk into her office. “This is so weird.”
Penny put on her game face as she looked up and saw former WFWF World Champion, Scarlett Quinn stroll into her office. “Hey you!”
There was a time so many years ago, when Penny and Scarlett were so inseparably close. Whatever Scarlett did, Penny was right there behind her, cheering her on. And vice-versa. Their antics had become so legendary that for a good while, no promoter in the United States would book them in their right mind. And they held on to that like a badge of honor.
But wrestling happened… And so did life. And it wasn’t like they stopped being close, but there was always going to be a rift there. Penny chucked it to the two of them expecting something more from the other that neither one was in a place to give them.
“Hey,” Scarlett said, closing the door behind her as she took a moment to look around at what was best described as a room with a desk. “Nice place.”
“Hard to believe, huh?” Penny smiled, walking over to Scarlett.
“Truth?” Scarlett asked, walking over to Penny. “Not really?”
“You think so?”
“Yeah,” Scarlett crossed her arms. “You sold out a long time ago!”
“Good to know,” Penny grinned.
The two considerably young women stood each other down before breaking into a laugh that was followed by a long-overdue hug.
“Sit down, take a load off!” Penny shrugged as she popped open the button of her blouse and sat down at the edge of the desk. “You want anything?”
Scarlett held us a cup of Iced Coffee from the Tim Horton’s across the street as she sat across from Penny with her legs crossed.
“You actually did it,” Scarlett said, looking at the WFWF Championship belt on the table.
“Wanna take a look?”
“Sure.”
Penny turned away from Scarlett for a moment to hand the belt over to her. Scarlett, in turn, tucked a lock of her hair behind the back of her hair as she licked her lips now, easing back on her seat as she held the title in her arms.
“It looks a lot different from when I had it.”
“They changed it a couple times.”
“That’s the big trend, isn’t it?” Scarlett said. “Remember how it was like when we were kids? They hardly changed the belt, ever. And it wasn’t like they needed to because it already looked perfect enough as it was.”
“Well, I like it.”
“Hey, it’s a nicer belt that the one I held,” Scarlett shrugged, passing the belt back to Penny. “What’s up with you?”
“Nothing’s up with me.”
“Exactly,” Scarlett shot back. “You’d think you’d be as high as a kite!”
“It’s nothing,”
“Penny…”, Scarlett trailed.
“Aren’t we supposed to talk about your contract?”
“What’s there to talk about?” Scarlett shot back. “I’m just here to sign a bunch of papers.”
Penny rolled her eyes and sighed, taking a deep breath now as she prepared herself.
“So, what’s the deal?”
“Well, I beat Drakz and now I’m WFWF Champion!”
“Good for you,” Scarlett nodded as she fished out a pack of cigarettes from her purse. “Mind if I smoke here?”
Penny handed Scarlett the ashtray.
Scarlett placed a Marlboro Light between her lips, lit it, and took a drag, blowing away now as she looked over at Penny and said, “I saw the match, you know…”
“And?”
“Honest truth?”, Scarlett sighed, exhaling a trail of smoke. “You got lucky."
“What do you mean?”
“What I’m saying is that your championship win is nothing more than a fluke,” Scarlett said, in a very curt, and well, rather-Scarlett kind of way.
“Gee, thanks.”
“Hey,” Scarlett began, tipping the cigarette over the ashtray. “I’m not taking anything away from you, but you obviously caught Drakz at a bad night. I mean, he was basically a step ahead of you throughout the entire match. Hell, you only beat him because you were lucky enough to catch him at an opening.”
“It’s not a fluke,” Penny shot back. “I put my whole being into that match, and I’m still feeling it until now.”
“Hey, you don’t need to get defensive,” Scarlett shot back. “I’m just being honest with you.”
“So what,” Penny crossed her arms. “You don’t think I can do it again?”
“No,” Scarlett said, turning her head. “I mean, yeah, I’m happy for you and everything. But let’s face it, you’re not exactly championship material.”
Penny dropped her jaw and rolled her eyes. “I’m going to pretend like you didn’t just tell me that.”
“Neither were you.”
“Were,” Scarlett nodded. “There’s a big difference. I mean, look just enjoy it for what it is and what it’s going to do for you. At least that’s one thing off your bucket list. But you have to come to terms with the fact that you’re only vaguely successful whenever you’re inspired enough to go on a whim and do it. I’m telling you now, you can’t sustain it.”
“You know, I could have said the same exact thing to you when you became Champion back in 2012, but I didn’t. And you know why, you’re my best friend and I actually believe in you. And I want to see you succeed.”
“Thank you,” Scarlett nodded, taking a drag. “Look, I’m not gonna deny that I wouldn’t have been the champion if it wasn’t for you. But you have to realize that this,” Scarlett stopped to spread her arms. “The office job and managing people is more up your alley than anything.”
“So, what you’re saying is that I’m one of those wrestlers who have one moment of glory they eventually blow because they’re not good enough, but still good enough to mentor and groom people to become champions themselves?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Penny grabbed Scarlett’s contract and handed it over to her. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“Look, I’m not alone in this,” Scarlett said, taking the folder in her hand. “Do you have a pen?”
Penny handed her a pen and asked, “What do you mean?”
“Don’t you read Twitter or any of the dirt sheets?”, Scarlett asked as she sifted through the papers to sign her name.
“Yeah, I have no room in life for that kind of negativity.”
“Well, give it a look,” Scarlett said. “Everyone’s betting that Drakz’ll come back with a vengeance.”
“For sure he will. So where that does leave me?”
“The sentimental favorite,” Scarlett replied, handing Penny back the folder. “Like Yukio Blaze.”
“Aren’t you going to read that?”
“Nah,” Scarlett shrugged. “I don’t have time for that. Besides, I know you’re not going to f*ck me over.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Well, you already did it once,” Scarlett said, stubbing out her cigarette on the ashtray. “I know you well enough to know you’re not going to do it again.”
“Thanks,” Penny scoffed, taking the contract from Scarlett.
Championship Connections
The In-House Gym
The thing about Josh Dean is that, even though it’s been a while since he last stepped inside a wrestling ring, it’s that he never stopped keeping himself in-ring shape. Penny always figured that there was still something in him that never had entirely given up even though he made sure everyone knew he had hung up the boots already.
As one of the leading sports and entertainment agencies in the United States, Championship Connections always had the best trainers in every field available on staff. On one hand, it was part of the spectacle. Got their eyes on a fresh NCAA prospect? Fly them up to Atlanta on a grand tour of the corporate headquarters. And at the same time, because of their line of work and Josh Dean’s drive for being the best, it was apparent they needed to have the best in-house fitness facility in the country.
To help temper down the testosterone, Mary has started looking into expanding the company’s clientele to include promising young indie rock acts in the country. That aside, Penny walked into the gym, which took up an entire floor, to find Josh Dean hitting the punching bag with a team behind him. She could hear Eminem blasting away from his headphones as she came closer and closer.
“Hey Penny,” Josh sighed, slipping off the headphones as he took several deep and heavy breaths. “Hey boys, give it up for your new champ!”
Team Dean, all twelve of them, gave themselves a moment to grant Penny a round of cheers and high-fives. Given how Mary’s been and the talk she just had with Scarlett, the reaction did feel pretty nice.
“Thank you, thank you,” Penny murmured, as she bowed to the team for a moment before turning to Josh. “Hey, think I could steal you for a couple of minutes?”
“Of course,” Josh said, closing a bottle of water as he turned to his team. “Let’s take five, boys.”
Josh led Penny over to one of the multi-purpose wrestling rings they kept by the corner, figured it would give them a little bit of privacy. “Hey, I’m really proud of you. I hope you know that.”
“You can save it,” Penny sighed, crossing her arms now as she leaned against the apron.
“What’s going on?”
“You ever feel like sometimes, you want to be happy and you know that you have every right to be happy, but you can’t because it feels like the world won’t let you?”
“Every damn day,” Josh chuckled as he sat down on the apron and patted himself dry with a towel. “So, Mary’s giving you trouble?”
“Well, that…” Penny sighed, rolling her eyes. “It doesn’t help that I talked to Scarlett.”
“That’s worse than Twitter!”
“You’d think I would have known that,” Penny trailed.
“So, what’s getting you down, champ?”
“Mary’s pissed and apparently, no one believes in me,” Penny replied, hopping on the apron to sit beside Josh. “I mean, I don’t need people to believe in me.”
“Oh?” Josh asked as he cracked open a bottle of water. “Then what’s bothering you?”
“I should be happy right now!” Penny shot back. “I should be celebrating with you and the wifey; instead I feel like I should be putting aside how I actually feel because the people I’m closest to are a little hurt.”
“Understandably so,” Josh said. “Look, while I can’t tell you anything about Scarlett that you don’t already know, I will tell you this: Mary’s still relatively new to the business. So you have to understand how delicate this all to her. It’s not every day that you see the love of your life get ripped apart like that.”
“I guess we’ve both been in the business for so long that it feels like an occupational hazard everyone’s going to go through.”
“Exactly,” Josh said as he opened a bottle of water. “Now, I don’t want to say that she is going to get used to this. But you are going to have to prepare yourself for the reality that it could get worse if you don’t do something about it at Sin City Showdown.”
“So, what?” Penny shrugged. “Do you really think me beating Drakz was nothing more than a fluke?”
“As a matter of fact, I don’t,” Josh said, sipping his water. “Penny, in one night, you did what I spent a whole year trying to regain. Think about that. You slayed the monster and you took the title away from him.”
Penny smiled. “You don’t have to say nice things to make me feel better, you know?”
“But it has to be said,” Josh replied. “I watched that match with one eye open. Did Drakz have the upper hand? Yeah, he did. But you did what no one else has been able to do to and that’s take him to the distance. I don’t wish for a lot of things, but for a moment, you had me wishing that I was you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You got nothing to be sorry about, Penny,” Josh smiled. “But you have to let me in on your secret. How’d you do it? How’d you beat him?”
“Truth?”
“Yeah,” Josh nodded. “I need this.”
“I just knew that I could beat him,” Penny smiled. “And I wasn’t going to stop until I did. To tell the truth, the only way he could have beat me was if he brought a gun to the ring.”
“That’s all it took, huh?”
“Yeah,” Penny smiled. “I’m obviously going to have to do it again though, but that’s a different story.”
Later That Night…
Penny & Mary’s Apartment,
Hipster Atlanta
It wasn’t unusual for Penny and Mary to come home together. More often than not, Penny would finish early enough and kill time before Mary gave the go-signal. Sure, there were the rare cases when maybe Penny would take a little longer than usual, or maybe, Mary wanted to go out and get a few drinks. But other than that, coming home together was kind of their thing.
They hadn’t talked once since they flew back in from Los Angeles. Penny figured it was because they both knew what it was like to get into a fight and neither of them had the time nor the emotional capacity to deal with one unless something really triggered them.
And so, Penny let Mary go home ahead. And for the first time in like ever, she walked back alone. If there was something she actually missed about being single, it was her alone time. Granted, she had too much for her own good, but one thing she had were those tiny little moments that allowed her to kick back, slip on a pair of earbuds and escape to another world through sound. Even if it lasted just a few short moments, it was still that little break from the drudgery of every-day life to surrender to what her brain decided was the most blissful sound in the world.
It wasn’t fair… Any of this!
Even if she walked home slow enough, she still got home a lot faster than she wanted to. She didn’t come up right away, obviously. Instead, she sat on the front steps to watch what looked like a crew shooting a new episode of Queer Eye. It happened so often in this neighborhood that people sort of let them carry on was the initial excitement wore off.
“Wanted,” Penny sighed. “Five sassy gay guys who could show one gay girl that she’s actually worth a lick of salt.”
Metallica’s “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” slipped into her Spotify mix without apology or irony, Penny took a deep breath and veered her head high enough to see their lights on. This wasn’t going to be pleasant.
“Big girl pants,” Penny hushed. “Big girl pants.”
And with that, Penny took a deep breath and headed upstairs. She would have taken her time, but her heart was beating unnecessarily fast. And on top of that, she started to think about all the little things that Mary did that always got on her nerves… How sometimes, especially when she was super busy, Mary hardly cleaned the apartment. Like Penny wasn’t the cleanest person in the world, but at least she wasn’t a slob.
Then again, to Mary’s credit. She has been trying to stay on top of keeping the apartment neat. It didn’t help that she was learning how to cook, so she could feed them instead of having to order take-out every night. But she’s also been trying to get Penny to throw out old things because she started watching Marie Kondo’s show… And Penny hated that. And she hated her, kinda, for making the apartment neat and forcing her to let go of excess baggage.
The nerve of that short, beautiful woman for wanting her to have a better life!
Penny dropped her head against the frame of her front door and sighed. “I’m a f*cking a**h**e.”
Whatever it was… It was unavoidable. This time, Penny was going to have to put her career first. If she was going to keep the title or get anywhere. She had to do this. She had to put her foot down. She had to fight with her wife.
“F*ck me,” Penny sighed as she placed her key into the lock and twisted the knob. “Hey, we’ve got to talk…”
To Penny’s surprise, there was nothing going on in the apartment. Like yeah, the lights were on. But the cats were fed, and the place was tidy. And the open door that led to their bedroom was just ajar enough for Penny to see her already asleep.
Penny put down her bags and plopped down on the sofa before sinking her forehead into an open palm. Amy, their three-year-old ginger, jumped on Penny’s lap and soon found herself curled into her belly. And so, as she gently stroked, caressed, and kissed her cat-child, Penny sighed.
“Isn’t that funny?” Penny sighed as she spoke to Amy. “I’m nowhere as scared of Drakz as I am of Mary right now? Well, not scared. But we both know how she gets now, don’t we?”
And as she pressed Amy to her cheek, against her will, Penny closed her eyes and imagined Drakz being in the same room. She was getting into that zone a lot of wrestlers did right before a match. It was almost like cutting a promo on someone who was never going to see or hear any of it unless you somehow recorded it and uploaded it online…
“And isn’t that the most ridiculous thing ever? I’m not even afraid of the most influential and psychotic wrestler to ever grace a wrestling ring as much as I’m afraid of getting into a fight with my girlfriend!” Penny chuckled. “Drakz, you were so scared all through the match. Sure, maybe you were more experienced, more composed, and probably a lot more ready than I was but admit it, I gave you a more interesting match for the title than Michael Kyzer ever would.”
Amy started to squirm in her arms and with that, Penny gently placed her on the ground. A moment later she saw the large, belt-shaped bag the WFWF gave her to store the title in for easy travel.
“And I won! Isn’t that the craziest thing ever? Like how high do you have to be to even think about the odds of something like this happening!”, Penny chuckled once again as she threw out her arms. “The one person no one ever expected to see back into a wrestling ring beat you in her second match after getting her butt handed to her by the greenest rookie in the world! Oh, I bet right now, wherever you are, it’s gotta really sting. Like you probably aren’t even as mad at me as you are with yourself! You thought I was going to be a walk in the park and you f*cked up.”
Penny took the bag and cradled the covered strap of leather and gold in her forearms.
“But that’s the thing isn’t it?” Penny asked. “In a land whose rules were dictated by men like you and Michael Kyzer, it’s easy to just cast someone like me aside because no matter how good I’ve proven myself to be in all the years I’ve been here, I’ve never been on that level. I’m not serious enough, I’m not committed enough, and as good as I am, I just simply don’t have what it takes. You see, a long time ago, I believed that, because people like you made me believe that. And I accepted it even though I knew that I was capable of so much more.”
Penny took a step back now as she gently laid the bag down on the coffee table before her. She took a deep breath and leaned forward to carefully remove the belt over the bag, taking her time until she was face-to-face with WFWF World Championship Belt in all its glory.
“I never thought I could do it until I tried and now here I am,” Penny smiled. “And here’s the thing, Drakz, I gave you everything. No weed. No fairy dust. No magick. Just me and the 135 pounds of blood, tissue, and bone that my soul happens to be attached to. I didn’t stop because I knew that even though you were coming into this match on nothing more than a lark, I was going to beat you. It doesn’t matter to me if you were there at 10-percent or even a hundred percent, I still would have beaten you. Because maybe it hasn’t sunk in yet, but Drakz, and you have no idea that excited I am about breaking this… But, I’m better than you! I’m better than Kyzer. And I’m better than any man, or woman, whoever laced up their boot to set foot inside a wrestling ring.”
Penny smirked, knowing that in the eyes of the WFWF’s most loyal fans, she had just committed one of the sins imaginable. How dare she? The sheer audacity of that statement. How could a woman who spent most of her adult life in a state of perpetual purple haze dare say something as wrong as that?
Taking a deep breath, Penny gave herself the one thing she never had the chance to do since she won the belt. Slowly, she lowered the title down to her waist, and with the centerpiece tucked on the side, Penny closed the golden buckles of the WFWF World Championship belt. And once it was firmly secure, she moved the center plate to the front of her waist and looked down.
“Get used to this sight, Drakz,” Penny sighed. “Because this is the woman who’s marching into SuperBrawl as the reigning and defending WFWF World Champion. And sure, I’ll accept that I can’t hold on to this belt forever. And that’s fine. But don’t you dare think that just because I'm realistic with my expectations that I’m going to allow you to take it away from me at Sin City Showdown!”
Goddess, this was the best feeling ever!
“Kicking you’re a** for the second time, and getting away with it, is all the momentum I need as I take the WFWF, and the world of wrestling to newer and better heights. You may have revolutionized this place a long time ago, but when you did you corrupted every good thing this title stood for. And it’s time to clean the WFWF from you and your kind once and for all.”
Penny grinned.
“I know you Drakz. There’s no way I’m walking out of Vegas the same way I walked in. You are going to do everything you can to beat me and break me and take me to my limits. And you know what? I dare you to do it! No b*tch, I double dare you. There is nothing you can do to me that I’ve already felt before. And because of that, you have no idea how ready I am. So I am telling you: bring it on, because nothing is going to get me off harder than beating you, humiliating you, and walking to Superbrawl as the WFWF World Champion.”
“I mean,” Penny shrugged. “Do you and Kyzer really need the title at this point? I mean, really? Ten years ago, yeah. That was the most exciting thing ever. Today? It’s just sad and pathetic. And a reminder of why the world needs someone like me-” Penny paused as she gently grazed the WFWF World Championship belt in her fingertips. “Penny Shannon, to lead the revolution as the greatest WFWF World Champion, ever!”
“Hey,”
Penny turned around and saw Mary standing wearily against the bedroom door. Surprisingly, she looked like she was wearing the same clothes she was wearing when she left for work this morning.
“You think you can keep it down?” Mary shot out. “Some people to sleep so they can trying to run a company so you can run off and be a champion.”
I dont know good luck 
