One Shot
Jet City South - SAN DIEGO
23 SEPTEMBER 2020
OFF-Camera
I’m not the same wide-eyed girl that I was the first time I stepped into the Jet City Sports Lab years ago. It seemed like I was having to explain that to people more and more often these days. Ever since SCW decided to let me come back, it was a nonstop parade of people trying to treat me like I was a rookie again. Maybe that was why I snapped at Kris like I did and put his ego through a cheese grater. He hadn’t really provoked me. I was the one that surprised him. I was the one putting him on the defensive. It was a nice change of pace, and if I’m honest with myself, it felt good. I mean, I owe the guy a lot, and Mikah even more, but neither hold back when it comes to criticism. Both of them tend to spill that over into their day-to-day lives instead of leaving it in front of a camera. Having to hear the two of them tell me over and over again that I was messing up, too fragile, or just not good enough hasn’t been easy. Maybe that is why I came at him the way that I did. What I didn’t expect was how much I liked it. Last week had given me back some of the confidence that I had been lacking for the last couple of years. I had finally turned the tables. I wasn’t about to take the pressure off now.
Kris: You should stop stalking me….
He was winded again. I was starting to get his schedule down, which in itself wasn’t easy. The guy kept the weirdest hours of anyone that I had ever met, but I guess that it made sense given his checkered past and spotty relationship with the truth. There are less people to have to lie to when nobody is around. He could hide in plain sight. That’s why I knew that I would find him working out at Jet City South even though it was three o’clock in the morning and normal people should be partying or asleep by now.
Court: Oh, you wish! It’s been almost three years and I can still barely tolerate you.
I couldn’t let him know that I was here specifically for this opportunity, and I had done well to cover my tracks. The apartment I rented in the city was only a few blocks away. All I ever had to do was throw on gym clothes and run down to the gym to make it look like I had been there working out all along. It had come in handy more than once since half of us made the move to San Diego from Seattle. Even though Kris was a huge dick, there was no way I was staying at JCSL with his brother’s friends running it. It wasn’t that any of us liked being around Kris, he was just better than the alternative by a longshot.
Kris: You’re in good company there….
I roll my eyes, but the gesture is more for him than it is for me. The word had been that something was off about him for the last week or so. The timing fit perfectly to our last conversation. If he was still sulking about it, then maybe I was spot on. Either way, I wasn’t going to give him time to pull himself out of the ditch and dust himself off. I wanted to see how far I could push him as payback for all of those times he had done it to me.
Court: Do you ever get tired of being unbearable? Or is it what gets you off or something? It seems exhausting.
He was laying on his back in the center of the Jet City’s six-sided ring. Walking over, I stop just short of his head and lean forward to look down at him. I give him my best disappointing look, but it was still a work in progress.
Kris: Yeah, well… it has its perks.
Everyone had been right. He was definitely sulky. Now was my chance.
Court: Does it? I’ve gotten a peak or two behind the curtain you put up to hide from everyone else. I know that it’s all just an act. The problem is, it’s not just for the cameras or the crowds. It’s for everyone. You’re always “on” for some reason. Why is that?
Maybe it was too much. He sat up from the ring, and pushed himself up to his feet. It looked like a struggle. He had definitely been pushing things too hard. Something was bothering him for sure. I just needed to find out if it was actually me.
Kris: Why do you ask so many questions?
He was trying to flee, but I wasn’t going to let that happen.
Court: Why did you push so hard to get me to give this Kate thing a chance?
Call it giving him a window. If I let him thing that he successfully changed the subject, maybe he wouldn’t try and bail out.
Kris: That was for your own good and you know it. She can help you. You’ve been away for two years. At the very least, she is more familiar with the roster than you are. You should at least hear her out. Pump her for useful info. Plus, she is Jet City. Think of it as a favor to Violet more than me.
Either I was getting better at playing this game, or he was getting worse at it. I still had my suspicions that it was a little bit of both columns. Now that he was talking though, I could push some more buttons.
Court: I don’t owe any of those Cooper bitches anything. You and Mikah trained me and I got my own deal without any help.
He shrugs his shoulders, but gives a little grimace of annoyance that I could tell he hoped I didn’t see. The look didn’t linger on his face, meaning he didn’t mean to let the mask slip off his face. It looked like he was doing his best to seem nonchalant.
Kris: Free help is free help. What is there to complain about?
Time to pull the rug out from under his smug ass.
Court: How about that we are only talking about it so that you can deflect away from answering my question.
It was his turn to roll his eyes, and this time any chance he had of hiding how much I was bothering him was gone. If I could stop him from turning around to leave the ring, then I had him in the palm of my hand.
Court: You know, everyone thinks you’re so open and honest about who you are all because you outed yourself and had that stupid sex tape thing. It would really fuck them up to find out the truth about you, wouldn’t it?
I didn’t expect that the words would cause him to relax. He actually laughs in my face, and shakes his head like I was missing something important.
Kris: Like too many people, you boil something real complex down into who I do and don’t sleep with….
He was painfully arrogant, and I still can’t see how nobody has been able to put him in his place after all these years.
Court: Then set me straight….
I give him the same shrug that he had given me moments ago in the hopes that it would get under his skin. From what I could tell though, he was loosening up.
Kris: People like me out there because when I came back a few years ago I was honest about my shortcomings. I aired everything out. Then I went about making amends for all of it. I made it up to everyone, and I did it without sugar-coating anything or holding back what I thought. I am genuine. People like that, even if they don’t like everything that I do. That’s why the drug thing didn’t end up killing my career.
I got it. He was comfortable because all I was doing was letting him sell me the same line that he had sold everyone else. He was calm because it was all part of some mental script that he had worked out for himself. If I wanted to get him off balance, I needed to get him off message again.
Court: Imagine if they knew that it was all bullshit though...
I was still just fishing, but I was hoping that he wasn’t going to notice.
Kris: I still don’t know what you think you know, but you’re wrong.
If I couldn’t call him out on another specific lie, then I was going to have to call him out for lying in general. If I could convince him that I figured out the rules of his game, then maybe he would think that I had all the other answers already.
Court: I know that your whole off-the-cuff style is bullshit. You try to act like you don’t plan anything, but you do. You act like you think you’re better than everyone, but you know that you’re mediocre at best. You know that most everything you have accomplished can be chalked up to luck...
He turns away and starts walking towards the ropes without listening to another word.
Kris: ...I don’t have to listen to this...
He steps between the top and middle rope and drops out to the floor, but I was in pursuit. I made my way from the center of the ring over to the ropes, resting both of my arms on the top one. Maybe it was the adrenaline rush of it all, but I just starting talking and the words kept coming faster and faster.
Court: ...and you know that if you were actually honest with everyone, that nobody would cheer you. You’re not some recovered addict that made good and went on to become a success. Nothing about you is recovered. That’s why you’re here. That’s why your debut was so sloppy. And that’s why you can’t go home. You make the mistake of thinking that nobody notices, but that’s only because not a lot of people are actually paying attention.
When he spun back towards me, his face red, and a scowl that I had never seen in real life burning a hole through me, I knew. It took this long for me to put all of the pieces together. Looking at the whole picture made everything make sense. It all added up so well that I didn’t even need his anger to know that I was right. There was no other way that the puzzle pieces fit together. I knew his secret, and now there was no denying it.
Kris: You need to stop.
I raise my hand up in front of my face, focusing on the deep purple color of my nails. It was a way of avoiding his eyeline without showing how nervous this kind of raw anger made me. I was hoping that he wouldn’t focus on the glove on it that never came off in public anymore and hid the scars that he gave me, among other things. I drop it and hide it behind my back, not wanting to give him the opportunity to direct the conversation towards it. I did my best to sound confident.
Court: You need to realize that I’m not your mom. I’m not your wife. Not a girlfriend. Not a sex object, or whatever it is that you and Mikah are to one another. Fuck Kris, we aren’t even actually friends.
I got the answers that I wanted to get, and now I had to get out of the conversation without him thinking that getting them was the only thing that I came here for. He couldn’t know that I was playing him, because then the game was over.
Kris: What’s your point?
It was okay though. When all else fails, flatter the shit out of him and his ego will guide you to an exit.
Court: This is about business for me. You’re a hell of a trainer when you actually put some effort into it. I mean, the bullshit and head games are rough to get through, but I learn from you. That’s better than I get from most people. You make me better, but I also see through the bullshit. Yet, I have still been coming here for your help. I’m not here to judge. You do whatever is best for you….
If he wanted to hear the rest, it meant that I was home free.
Kris: ...but...
Suddenly the weight was off my chest. Just as he had his mask that kept everyone at arm’s length, I had mine. He was back on my script now, and didn’t even know it.
Court: You can’t bullshit me like you do everyone else. I’m not just some part of a game that you’re playing. I see through it. You can say that I’m Jet City or ask me to work with Kate but I don’t answer to you. You don’t own me. I’m not going to be stuck in yours or Mikah’s shadow like Jet City has done to Coby and everyone else. I have one shot left. I intend to do something worthwhile with it.
Defeated, he gives in. It was almost pitiful seeing him like this.
Kris: I’m not trying to mess up anything for anyone else. All I want is to get this gym off the ground, and do what I can with the time I have left in SCW.
His words make me think that maybe he realizes that what he is doing is unsustainable. He really is just a miserable bastard. It almost takes all of the fun out of breaking him down.
Court: If you don’t get it together that might not be very long.
He shrugs, clearly that wasn’t something that was worrying him.
Kris: I’m pretty sure I have the longest current winning streak going. I think I’ll be alright for a while.
I reached for just one more of his buttons to push, hoping I could get him to walk off as fucked up as he had made me when we were first starting out.
Court: Is that what you are? Alright? Could have fooled me...
He shakes his head, and tosses the towel from around his shoulders at me. By the time I snag it out of the air he has already turned around, headed towards his office. I didn’t need to follow or say another word. I knew I had gotten to him, and even worse, I knew what he was hiding from everyone else. There was a sort of power in that. It felt good.
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>It’s been a long time since I’ve had to do something like this, so I’m more than a little nervous...I think that’s a good thing though. It is healthy to be a little anxious about walking into any kind of fight. It just makes it worse when it is inside a ring where thing have gone so terribly wrong for me in the past.
Yeah, there wasn’t going to be any getting around talking about it. I know that every opponent that I have from here on out is going to talk about hurting me, or putting me back on the shelf. I have had to deal with being called fragile, or being told to retire for a couple of years now. I would be lying if I tried to say that I didn’t consider it at least a few times. Between the broken bones, the torn muscles, the scrapes, the bruises, I would have been crazy not to think that it would have been easier just to give up. I would have to be insane to not consider packing it up and getting a job that doesn’t require any high impacts.
I didn’t though. Every time that I got knocked down, I got back up. Every time I have gotten hurt, I have put in the work to come back stronger than I was before. I have had to carry all of that pain around with me for years, and I have grown from it. I didn’t run away. I kept training. I kept getting better. Sure, I’ve made some mistakes. I have tried to rush myself back a couple times, and paid the price for it. But I have learned from all of it and I am still here. I’m the same Courtney Pierce that nobody thought could win Blast from the Past with Fenris. I am the same Courtney Pierce that everyone thought was going to be the next big thing in SCW. I was the #1 Contender to the Bombshell Championship after just a handful of matches in this company because I was that damn good… I’m still that good, and now I’m a whole lot more fearless on top of it.
I don’t have to wonder what it is going to be like to get hurt. I’m not going to shy away from the bumps and bruises that come with being inside the ring. I’m not going to be afraid of what could happen or when the next setback will be. The last couple of years have taught me that all of that is outside of my control. All I can do is show up and do my thing. Everything else is just a temporary obstacle. The SCW ring is where I want to be. Nothing is going to stop me...and I guess that brings me to Kate Steele.
While I was biding my time in the audience and just enjoying the shows, she threw out an open challenge. I couldn’t help but to jump at the opportunity if it meant that Mark and Christian would give me another chance despite the fact that I haven’t been able to gain much momentum in the past. Any chance I was going to have to have them sign off on my return was going to have to come from a situation like this. Kate just happened to give me the opportunity. Since then she has started showing up at Jet City South. She wants to be some kind of mentor to me like I need a babysitter or something like that. I’m not exactly as thrilled about the two of us working together as she is, but I have to respect her at least a little bit. She is one of the few Bombshells that have come through this company and really stuck it out with some of the best in the business. She isn’t some flavor of the week. She isn’t a perpetual loser like Jessie Salco. There is no such thing as a perfect opponent, but things could have been much worse than Kate.
If I win this match, nobody is going to roll their eyes at me. If I can show everyone that I can hold my own with someone that is a staple of Sin City Wrestling then I get to prove that I belong here, regardless of any setbacks. And that’s what I need. The whole time that I was going through Blast from the Past, people were saying that I couldn’t do it. I proved them wrong, and was finally getting things going before the wheels came off. I know that everyone is going to do the same thing this time around, so coming out and beating Kate would go a long way to silencing the crowd. So Kate, I appreciate the fact that you have been so nice to me. I can respect that you are one of the few wanting to help get me back into the swing of things in Sin City this time around. I can’t thank you enough for all of your insight in the last few weeks, and I hope that you’ll want to continue working together after the dust has settled from Violent Conduct….
...but none of that is going to cause me to take it easy on you.
I have a lot to prove, and not a lot of time to prove it. I can’t afford to let any personal shit stand in the way of the things that I want. When the bell rings and our match gets underway, nothing else matters but winning. I hope that you aren’t going to take that personally. I know I won’t, no matter what happens. May the best woman win. This is my first step back into the spotlight. I’m not taking it for granted this time.