บท 8: Champions
The final Friday bell rang, signaling the end of school for the week and the start of the weekend. I let out a jubilant chuckle as I threw my books in my kicker and shut the door. The stampede of excited students sounded through the school’s halls. Commands of slow down and no running from teachers did nothing to curb their enthusiasm. No school for a couple of days, I’m finally cleared to get back in the ring and I’ve got a match this Sunday! Life is good.
“ Hey Josh!” Came a voice. I turned around to see Vala walking towards me with a flyer in her hand.
“ What’s going on?” I asked leaning against my locker.
“ Just wondering about this flyer I saw you put up in the hall,” she said, handing me the blue flyer. I grabbed the paper and looked at it, smiling as I recognized the flyer.
“ Oh yeah, this is an advertisement for our next show, Fight Forever.”
“ I didn’t know you were a wrestler,” Vala commented.
“ I could’ve sworn I told you at some point.”
“ No. You didn’t.”
“ Must have been the concussion,” I said, shrugging. “ Anyway, you should come see it. It’ll be a good show..”
“ I don’t see your name on here” she commented, her eyes scanning the flyer again.
I smirked “ Well that’s because no one knows I’m making my return tonight. I’m in the match for the tag team championships as Gunner’s surprise partner. You should come check it out.”
“ I dunno” Vala said, “ my parents will probably be okay with it but I don’t have the money for a ticket.”
“ Well you’re in luck” I said with a smile. Travis always gave his wrestlers five tickets to give to friends and loved ones so they could watch them wrestle. “ I can give you one, you’d just have to go to the ticket booth to get it.”
“ Really? No charge?” She asked.
“ Nope. It’ll get you a good seat too, right in the front row.”
“ Huh, well I just may drop by. 5 o’clock in the afternoon right?” She asked looking at the flyer again.
“ Yeah, at the Shrine. You won’t be disappointed, it should be a great show.”
“ Alright I’ll be there,” Val said with a grin “ Will you still be at church Sunday?”
I nodded “ yeah but I have to leave right after to go help set up and stuff.”
“ Okay. Well I guess I’ll see you Sunday,” she said before walking off. Before I could even take a few steps away from my locker both Gunner and Brooklyn walked over to me.
“ Okay what was that?” Gunner asked.
“ What was that?”
“ That! We saw that dude.”
“ Yeah and? All I did was invite her to our show.” I said confused as to why he was making such a big deal out of it.
Brooklyn gave Gunner a sinister smirk “ I think little Josh here has himself a crush.”
“ What? No, where the hell did you get that from?” I asked a tiny bit confused.
“ You pretty much asked her out,” Gunner said with a sly smile.
“ What?! No I didn’t!” I exclaimed.
“ Yes, you did.”
“ All I did was ask her to come to our show, it’s not like I’m going to be spending a lot of time with her like you two.”
Both of their faces flushed and it was my turn to wear a sly expression.
“ What are you talking about?” Gunner stammered.
“ Oh you know, the fact you two have been getting lunch together every day for the past week and have been hanging out after school.”
“ That doesn’t mean anything!” Brooklyn protested.
“ Uh Huh. Yeah. Sure. Okay,” I said. “ Just know that you two are really bad liars. There’s something going on with you two. You don’t have to tell me, but I am going to tease both of you maliciously. Anyway, I’m gonna head to the pawnshop and see if they have any fishing poles. See you later.” I gave them both a mock salute and walked off, chuckling at the slightly embarrassed looks in their faces.
I was up at the crack of dawn Saturday morning and got dressed in a gray t-shirt blue jeans and my one pair of shoes. I was careful not to wake Gunner up, he knew I was going fishing but he didn’t know with who I was going fishing with. If he knew I’d never hear the end of it. I grabbed my fishing pole and tackle box and headed towards a local favorite fishing spot called South Pond. South Pond was located at the edge of town. It had a small jungle gym that was devoid of the sounds of playing children. The fish were active, jumping up and down. I was excited to cast my line, no one else was here, leaving the fish for myself and for my companion.
“ Josh, you going to help me out?” Came a cry. I looked at the parking lot and saw a silver Dodge pickup that had a green boat in the bed. Vala had let the tailgate down and was waiting for me. She wore jeans, a pink t-shirt and tennis shoes. Her black hair was pulled up into a ponytail and wore a Michigan State ballcap.
“ I’m coming,” I said heading towards her. Together we wrangled the boat out of the tailgate and pushed it to the pond.
“ Thanks for inviting me. I haven’t been fishing in years” I said.
“ Not a problem. I prefer to fish with someone else. It’s just too boring when I fish by myself.”
Vala and I pushed the boat onto the water and grabbed the oars. We rowed the boat to the center of the pond, baited our hooks, and cast our lines. We had bites immediately and we reeled them in. There was no need to throw the big mouth bass back on account they were too small to keep, they were the perfect size. We each got a decent haul of six fish each, seemingly getting a bite the second our hooks landed in the water.
“ What is that?” I asked, pointing at the distance.
“ What?” Vala asked, looking around.
“ Right there. What the hell is that?” I asked with a look of confusion on my face. Vala stood up to get a better view and my look of confusion was replaced with a sinister look. With a chuckle I pushed Vala out of the boat, laughing as she yelped and fell into the water. She came up spluttering and gave me a very angry look.
“ What the hell is wrong with you?!” She demanded.
“ A lot of things,” I said with a cocky grin.
“ You’re such a jerk!”
“ You’re not wrong.”
“ Whatever, help me back in the boat,” she said, holding up a hand.
“ I dunno, I may just take this boat and leave you to swim back,” I said leaning over the side of the boat.
Vala smirked and before I could realize my mistake she grabbed my left arm and pulled me over. I came up to the surface a moment later spluttering and wiped the water from my eyes.
“ That is Karma acting really fast!” I exclaimed.
“ Now we’re even so there!” Vala said, sticking her tongue out at me.
I playfully growled and splashed her. She jerked her head back as the water hit me face, laughed, and splashed me back. We got into a splash fight for several minutes before having enough and crawled back in the boat. We rowed back to shore and loaded the boat and our fishing poles in the tailgate after collecting our fish. Even though I pushed Vala in the pond, she was nice enough to give me a ride back to Gunner’s house after we went through the Hardee’s drive-through for breakfast.
She dropped me off, and we both said goodbye followed by promises to see each other tomorrow. I watched her drive off for a couple of moments before going inside. Gunner was watching a movie on TV but his attention snapped to me when he saw how wet I was.
“ What happened to you?” He asked.
“ I fell in the pond,” I said.
“ Did you at least catch anything?” Gunner asked.
“ Oh yeah, I’ll clean them after I get changed.”
“ You want any help? This movie is terrible and there is nothing better on.”
“ Sure man, thanks.”
“ No problem. I’ll meet you outside.”
I went to the small room Gunner’s parents were kind enough to give me and started to change clothes. As I put another shirt on my phone buzzed. It was a text from Vala. I picked up my phone and read the text.
“ You’re cute when you let yourself smile,” it read.
I smirked and texted back “ You think I’m cute?”
No response followed that. I finished changing clothes and headed outside to clean the fish. As we worked on the fish my mind flashed to that morning. I realized I had the most fun I’ve had in a while. Although I’d never tell Vala or else I’d die of embarrassment, although I had only known Vala for a short time, I was happy I met her. I continued my laments as we finished cleaning the fish and using Google, Gunner and I found a recipe for baking the fish. Luckily Gunner’s mother helped us prepare the fish, neither Gunner or I were good at cooking at all. One of Brooklyn’s favorite jokes was we would burn cereal if it involved turning on the stove, she wasn’t wrong.
We had coleslaw and cornbread to go with our fish. It was a nice southern themed lunch. Once we were done, Gunner and I got in his car and drove to the wrestling school. Together we had a mock match in order to see whether I had any ring rust. Because I hadn’t been in the ring for a few months I get a little awkward in the ring, my reflexes were slow and I messed up a few simple holds. However Gunner worked with me until I was fully comfortable in the ring. We went home close to dark and went to bed early, wanting to be rested for the show tomorrow.
I put on my brand new black wrestling trunks, my elbow pads, my knee pads, and had just tightened my boots when my opponents for the evening walked in the locker room. Richard and Evan Morton, the tag team champions. They were identical twin brothers,, both medium height, had red hair, amber eyes, both had short beards, and wore red and black tights, black elbow pads, and black boots.
“ How’s it going guys?” I asked.
“ Good man, how are you?” Even asked.
“ Pretty good, I’m glad to be back. I missed this.”
“ I bet. It’s good to have you back,” Richard said with a kind smile. “ Where the hell is Gunner?”
“ He has to talk to Travis about something,” I replied, “ He should be back soon.”
Just then Gunner came into the locker room wearing his white, red, and gold tights and boots. The four of us sat down and started talking through our match. As we talked the show started, the roar of the crowd was audible from the locker room. I was already excited sitting there, eagerly awaiting our match. After an hour it was time for our match. The four of us stood up and walked backstage. The theme for the Morton Brothers, Pain by Three Days Grace began to play.
“ We’ll see you out there,” Evan said before he and his brother went through the curtain. The crowd roared as the tag champions made their entrance. Once their music died down, Gunner gave me a fist bump as his theme, Last Resort by Papa Roach began to play. A backstage worker handed Gunner a microphone for his promo and he was gone. I paced back and forth, waiting for Gunner to speak.
“ I looked long and hard for a tag team partner. And I didn’t think I’d find one until I got the news that a certain someone was cleared to wrestle again. Ladies and gentlemen, my tag team partner, Jason Ryan!”
My new theme Ultranumb by Blue Stahli began to play as the crowd cheered wildly. I grinned widely and walked through the curtain. The Shrine was full of people who were cheering loudly for my return. I took a minute to take it all in. The cheering crowds, the feigned look of surprise of the Morton brothers, the commentary team hyping up my return. I walked over to Gunner to give him a fist bump and together we walked down to the ring. As we walked down the ramp, I noticed Vala in the front row and my smile grew even wider. I walked over to her and leaned over the railing.
“ Hey you made it,” I said.
“ Yeah I did. Looks like you weren’t lying,” she said.
“ I told you. Now, I gotta go knock these people dead. I’ll see ya later,” I said before backing up and headed towards the ring. My music died down and the ring announcer spoke into her microphone.
“ Introducing first, the challengers. Weighing in at a combined weight of two hundred forty pounds, Gunner Jefferson and Jason Ryan!”
The fans cheered loudly for us, I was sure it was audible from outside the building.
“ And the champions. Weighing in at a combined weight of three hundred pounds, they are the TSW Tag Team Championships, Richard and Evan Morton!”
The champions gave the referee their championship belts who he’d them up, signaling the match was for the titles. The belts had a purple strap with square gold belts. On the center plate was a screaming eagle on top of a blue world. Below the world were the words Tag Team Championships. The left and right side plate had an image of two hands joining into a fist. The referee handed the titles to the ring announcer who took them with her outside of the ring. After making sure we were all ready, the referee signaled for the bell to ring.
I started off the match with Evan. We locked up for a little bit before I executed a snapmare. Once I had him on the ground I put Evan in a headlock. I held him in for a little bit before letting him go and stood up. I bounced off the ropes and went for a dropkick but Evan got out of the way. He scrambled to his feet and hit me with a belly to belly suplex. Evan picked me up and went for a neck breaker but I pushed him away and hit him with a running high knee.
I picked Evan up and threw him in the corner. I ran and hit him with another high knee. I went to the top rope and landed a moonsault. I went for the cover but only for a one count. I hauled Evan to his feet and dragged him to the corner where I tagged in Gunner. Gunner leaped over the top rope as I threw Evan in the corner, setting him up for a Bicycle kick.
I went to the apron so me and Gunner did not get disqualified. Gunner hit Evan with a series of running knees. He went for a clothesline but Evan sucked and hit Gunner with a Pele kick. He tagged in Richard and got on the apron. Richard continued where Evan left off, hitting Gunner with clubbing blows. He helped Gunner to his feet and went for a backbreaker but Gunner was able to push him away, bounced against the ropes, and hit Richard with a float over DDT.
Gunner climbed to the top rope and went for a splash. Gunner went for a pin but Richard kicked out at one. Fast as lightning, Richard locked Gunner in a head-scissor. Gunner struggled to free himself so I got involved. I hit Richard with a jumping elbow and immediately got out of the ring. Gunner stood back up and hit Richard with a Hurricanrana Driver.
Gunner tagged me back in the match and I walked over to Richard. Richard sprang up unexpectedly and hit me with a cutter. Richard tagged in Evan and the two picked me back up and both of them hit me with a Suplex. Evan went to the top rope and hit me with a diving elbow. Richard followed that up with a Rolling Thunder Senton. Evan went for the cover but I kicked out at two. Evan picked me up to my knees and hit me with an Enziguri.
Another pin and I kicked out at two once more. Evan dragged me to my feet and whipped me into the corner. He ran and hit me with a splash in the corner, causing me to crumble. Evan backed up and hit me with a big boot. Gunner started clapping vigorously, getting the crowd involved and yelled for me to reach him for the tag. Evan moved me away from the corner and went to the top rope. He waited a moment before going for a diving elbow but I moved out of the way at the last moment.
We both lay there a few minutes as the referee started his count.
“ 1...2...3...4...5…”
Both me and Evan crawled to our respective corners. Evan tagged in Richard and I lunged to tag Gunner. Gunner ducked a clothesline, bounced off the ropes, and hit Richard with a flying shoulder. Gunner hit a standing Senton on Richard, went to the middle rope and hit another Senton, and landed one more from the top rope. Gunner went for the cover but Richard kicked out. Richard rolled out of the ring as I rolled back in. Gunner and I looked at each other, bounced off the ropes and both hit a Suicide Dive on the Morton Brothers. The fans popped as all of us laid on the ground.
Richard and Gunner got back in the corner as I crawled away. Richard went to punch Gunner but he countered with hitting him with a roundhouse kick to the head. Gunner went to the top rope as Evan got back in the ring. He started for Evan but I intercepted him by climbing to the apron and hitting him with a springboard spear. I forced Evan to his knees and exchanged a smile with Gunner. This was it.
Gunner hit his finisher, the Red Arrow as ran behind Evan, bounced off the ropes and hit him with the Desti-Knee then got out of the ring. Gunner went for the cover and the fans counted alongside the referee.
“ 1,2,3!”
The fans exploded with cheers as the ring announcer took to the microphone once again.
“ Here are your winners and new TSW Tag Team Champions, Gunner Jefferson and Jason Ryan!” I got in the ring and started to celebrate with Gunner. The referee handed me one championship belt and gave Gunner the other one. We triumphantly held our new prizes up high as we celebrated in the ring. I sank to my knees and lifted my eyes to the ceiling, yelling my joy to the rafters. I had tears stinging my eyes, a day I thought would never come had arrived. I was a champion.
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