Friend;
1. a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.
The Faithful Fangirl w/ Zelda Clark
The camera opens up on a shot of a special sound stage, where two small but comfortable looking chairs are set up on a three-stair stage in a circular form. Between the chairs is a small, round table with two glasses, each filled with a raspberry iced tea and mint leaves floating in the ice for added flavor. In the chair to the right of the stage, sits the hostess of this broadcast, none other than the 'faithful fangirl' herself, Zelda Clark. Clad in jean shorts and a Kris Halc t shirt, Zelda is the epitome of the fangirl with her bright smile lighting up the studio. And in the other chair, sits the familiar form of Jamie Dean aka 'the Sausage King.' He looks calm and relaxed, wearing a lavender, button down polo and white shorts, his sandaled foot is kicked up over his knee as his hands rest on the SCW World Tag Team Championship belt which lays upon his lap.
Zelda Clark: Hello everyone, and welcome to this very special and unique edition of 'the Faithful Fangirl!' Now usually I do my thing in blog form, which is my forte, but it has been a long time since my last blog.
Jamie Dean: Not since the end of March, actually.
Zelda Clark: Yes, March 23 to be more exact. And I do miss it. I keep meaning to get back into the swing of things but one thing or another pops up. And I really hate it when that happens.
Jamie Dean: Really? I kinda dig it myself.
Zelda Clark: ............................. That's not what I meant and you know it!
Jamie just smiles and shrugs at the color he caused Zelda's cheeks to flush to.
Zelda Clark: I know I keep saying that I'm going to get a new blog posted as soon as things clear up.
Jamie Dean: Yes you do! When is that going to happen, anyway?
Zelda Clark: .... I thought I was supposed to be the one interviewing you?
Jamie Dean: Well you were, but a few people on twitter asked me to work you a bit so I thought I'd work that in. Notice how I did it all sly and cool?
Zelda Clark: Oh yes! Verrry smooth!
Zelda gives him a thumbs up with a sarcastic wink, while Jamie clucks his tongue and does the 'bang, bang' gesture with his thumb and forefinger.
Zelda Clark: But onto the important business! First of all, I just wanted to thank you for asking me to interview you for your upcoming match! I know most of the Superstars and Bombshells do their own things, or SCW has Pussy Willow, Miss Rocky Mountains and Scott Oliver talk to the wrestlers. Why you picked me to interview you in my own little setting when you were already spoiled for choices is just beyond me!
Jamie waves away her thanks.
Jamie Dean: No biggie, Zelda. It kind of just came to me.
Jamie looks into the camera 'knowingly,' before turning his attention back to her.
Zelda Clark: Well! I do appreciate it, and I went through a lot of topics before I found the most fitting one that revolves around this match! Friendships!
Jamie nods.
JC: I can see that. This match does have a lot to do with friends and friendships, both past and present.
Zelda Clark: Did you have a lot of friends growing up?
Jamie shakes his head.
Jamie Dean: I didn't, no. Wait, I tell a lie! In my earliest grades in school, I did. From kindergarten right up to about the fourth grade, I had a fair amount of friends. It's pretty easy making friends as children. You can bond over the simplest things. At least, it was easy for me. But as easy as it was then to make friends, that's how much harder it became to have them, or keep them, as I got older.
Zelda Clark: How come?
Jamie Dean: Well, you know what they say about kids when it comes to their treatment of each other.
Zelda Clark: You mean that kids can be cruel?
Jamie nods.
Jamie Dean: I was going to say they can be little douche bags, but cruel works. When I think of my earliest childhood friends, I can't help but smile and remember them with fondness. Especially the girls.
Zelda giggles.
Zelda Clark: Figures you'd be the chummiest with the girls. That's a trait that carried over into adulthood. You seem to have a lot more female friends than male.
Jamie Dean: It seems to come with the whole gay territory. Even as a kid I knew I was different. I tended to like the boys better than the girls, I just didn't know why. I just found them cuter. On the playground and on TV. I had it pretty damn bad for Kevin Sorbo when he did 'Hercules' and 'Xena.' Men just didn't come any hotter than that guy. Then there was others like Leo Dicaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Jared Leto...
Jamie coughs into his hand.
Jamie Dean: *coughs*BillyRayCyrus*coughs*
Zelda blinks.
Zelda Clark: Excuse me?
Jamie Dean: Hm? Nothing. I said nothing.
Zelda Clark: No, I distinctly heard you say...
Jamie Dean: I didn't say Billy Ray Cyrus.
Jamie looks in all directions.
Jamie Dean: And there's nobody here to prove that I did.
Zelda points at him with wide eyes!
Zelda Clark: Ah HA! You just....
Jamie calmly turns his head to face her with an exaggerated expression of indifference on his youthful, handsome face and she sighs and shakes her head with resignation.
Zelda Clark: ... Never mind. So things were good for you in school as far as friends went?
Jamie nods.
Jamie Dean: For the most part, yes. I just had more girlfriends than boys who were friends.
Zelda Clark: You mean, you had girls who were friends.
Jamie Dean: No, I mean I had girlfriends. A lot, actually.
Zelda just stares at him in disbelief.
Jamie Dean: What!? Hey, things were a lot different in school than they are now! And just because I didn't like girls that way, didn't mean I didn't know how to treat them. My first kiss was even from a girl. I was in first grade I think. We were playing at recess and I was just at the top of the slide, ready to go down (pun not intended), when a girl named Jeri came right up behind me. I turned around and she planted one on me!
Zelda Clark: When you were in first grade??? You had to have been, what? Ten?
Jamie Dean: About. I guess she was an early bloomer and I sure as hell didn't know how to react.
He laughs.
Jamie Dean: I just turned around and went down the damn slide and kept playing! Then, after a few years, things started to go to hell.
Zelda Clark: May I ask why?
Jamie Dean: Well this would be a pretty limited interview if you didn't, but the long story made short is the fact my parents got a much needed divorce.
Zelda Clark: Oh... I'm sorry.
Jamie shakes his head and shrugs.
Jamie Dean: Don't be. I'm not. I wasn't then, and I'm not now. My brother and I handled it well because we both knew that it was coming. My parents fought more than they showed affection, and the simple fact of the matter is that my dad was a downright miserable fuck.
Zelda winces.
Jamie Dean: Sorry. You can edit that part out later.
Zelda Clark: I can't, actually. We're live.
Jamie Dean: Oh. Well .... fuck. Anyway... as far back as I can remember, my dad was the abusive sort. He was a drunk that never did amount to much. Hell! Even my grandpa, his own father, said he'd never amount to much. Of course, my dad was passed out beneath the kitchen table at the time.
Zelda Clark: ... You're kidding.
Jamie shakes his head.
Jamie Dean: I'm not, actually. Though I wish I was! The man terrorized my brother who was older than me by three years. He'd beat him for the slightest offenses, but never did much to me. I think that in itself was the main source of hostility between my brother and myself. But it was bad. Bad enough that my brother ran and hid at my neighbor's, an old man named Jim. Jim knew what my dad was about so he hid my brother for a couple of days and told my dad he hadn't seen him. And as bad as my brother had it, our mom got it even worse.
Zelda Clark: Oh no...
Jamie Dean: See, our mom was a strong woman. She was born three months premature and had cerebral palsy. She had never been able to walk without crutches, and an accident in a grocery store caused her to slip and fall, and after that, she had been confined to a wheelchair. So in reality, my dad had a captive audience for a time where our mom was concerned. I remember being told about a time where he kicked her crutches out from under her...
Zelda Clark: No!
Jamie Dean: He did, and I was told he hit her in the stomach when she was pregnant with me. And despite all of this, the worst memory I had of witnessing his bad treatment of her was the time I saw him open a carton of milk and he dumped it over her head.
Zelda can only shake her head as she covered her mouth with her fingertips. Her eyes were misty as she listened, and she could see the emotion in Jamie's eyes and facial expression; but it wasn't simply sadness. She could see the suppressed anger and the hatred he had within him. A sight many would not think to see in the resident "party boy" of SCW.
Jamie Dean: My brother would defend her as best he could and paid for it every time. I would just run and hide, or cry. I didn't know how to handle the situations in front of me. And pour dad kept it up, right up to the point our mom's brother dragged his sorry as through his car windshield and told him if he ever laid a hand on his sister again, it'd be the last thing he ever did. It wasn't long after that, our mom finally had enough and she filed for divorce. The sorry bastard kept trying to talk her into staying and when she refused, he laid all the blame on my mom's sisters rather than admit to any fault of his own. Still, the divorce happened and my brother and I went to live with our mom and it was good. No, great. Until I made probably the biggest mistake of my life.
Zelda Clark: And that was?
Jamie Dean: My brother had anger issues, and we fought. A lot. Our mom always made excuses for him because of what happened with our dad, but the simple fact was he'd hit me, a lot. And after one fight too many, I had enough. I moved back with my dad.
Zelda Clark: You ... you did?
Jamie nods with a sad resolution.
Jamie Dean: Like I said, it was the worst decision of my life. My dad was a pig, and without my mom to care for him and the trailer, he lived in squalor. Trash was everywhere in the home. Roaches. Cats and cat pee. It'd have to be upgraded to be classified as a dump. Child Services was called on him at least twice, and I came close to being taken away from him. And as bad as things were, that's how scared I was of leaving. It was the only home I had and I knew I couldn't go back to my mom. Not after I had hurt her by going to that bastard to live with. And that's where the fallout happened in school, with kids who had previously been close friends. I went to school dirty, and my clothes smelled horrid because there was a taint in our well water.
Jamie closes his eyes and shakes his head.
Jamie Dean: I was tormented daily, without reprieve. Literally. There were a couple of kids who still treated me well, the two nicest girls I had known when I had first went to that school; Joanna and Connie.
Jamie smiles brilliantly for a moment.
Jamie Dean: They were dolls, through and through. But for the most part, I was tortured day in and day out, and the staff of the school didn't do jack shit to put a stop to it. That's why I started playing hooky, trying everything to keep from going to school where I knew I'd just be hurt. Over the years, I spent more time at home than I did in school, and it cost me a chance to walk down the aisle to get my diploma at graduation. And you know the ironic thing? The kids who treated me the worst, are the ones now trying their hardest to kiss ass on social media, Facebook and Twitter. Like nothing ever happened and we're best buds.
Zelda shrugs helplessly.
Zelda Clark: They say time heals all wounds.
Jamie Dean: That's a crock, and I speak from personal experience. The only thing that helped me move on from the pain? Was when my dad died from congestive heart failure when I was just twenty years old.
Zelda looks shocked at Jamie's choice of words.
Jamie Dean: Sorry if that offends, but not everyone is surrounded by the Brady Bunch. Towards the end, I hated that man more and more. My brother and I would have danced on his grave if we could have gotten away with it. But after he died, I got my first job and moved out of that trailer and into a little apartment. I left all those bad memories behind me.
Zelda Clark: And is that when things finally started working out for you as far as friends were concerned?
Jamie Dean: Yes, and no. See, the apartment I rented? The landlady was a friend of my brother's. She was like a second mother figure to him, and she became the same to me over some time. She and her family basically took me into their fold and I thought for a time they actually cared for me. I couldn't have been more wrong. Her two kids were always stealing from me whenever I wasn't around. They even stole from my mom when I had taken her out shopping. She had this bad habit of leaving money beneath the placemat on her kitchen table, and they had a key to her apartment. Well they went in when I had her out shopping and took the cash she had saved for a little family vacation, then when she found it missing, they told her I had taken it.
Zelda Clark: Are you SERIOUS!?
Jamie Dean: Unfortunately so. And the part that hurt the most was she believed them over my denials. For years things were never the same between us. Then one night I was coming home from a night at the local gay bar where I actually had a few true friends, and as I was walking up the steps to the front door, some big ass monster of a man came out from behind the bushes and right towards me.
Zelda Clark: And...?
Jamie shrugs.
Jamie Dean: And I don't remember anything else. Just staring down at my bloody hands before I woke up in the hospital. I still don't remember what happened, but that moment is the source of paranoia I hold to this day. The first person I called was my mom, and you know what she told me?
Zelda shakes her head, unsure if she actually wants to hear the answer.
Jamie Dean: She told me I probably deserved it. No expressions of concern, no sympathy. Nothing. That was the moment I decided to get the hell out of Lima and move to California. I never looked back. Over the years, family has tried everything to get me to move back, but I'd sooner saw my left one off with a rusty hacksaw.
Zelda's eyes clench shut and she silently mouths "Owwwww!" In the meantime, Jamie took a drink from his glass of raspberry tea before he eased back into his chair and lightly exhaled.
Jamie Dean: Look, I know I took the long way around to get to the actual point. But I had my reasons and a tale to tell. I could have done it with my usual style, but I thought having someone to talk to, to confess some of the sordid details of my past and where it got ,me, would help hit things home.
Zelda Clark: And where did it get you?
Jamie Dean: Exactly where I am now. I know I didn't have the perfect life. I'd be lying if I said my childhood was all sunshine and rainbows - pun intended. But if I hadn't went through all of that, it wouldn't have toughened me up enough to be able to face the trials I have in the past and still do to this day. I never would have moved to California had I not went through all I just described, and I would be where I am now; a somewhat successful championship caliber wrestler.
Zelda scoffs.
Zelda Clark: 'Somewhat!' A two-time World Tag Team Champion!
Jamie just winks at her.
Jamie Dean: The simple fact is, I am proud of who I have become, and I acknowledge the fact that the hell I was put through, and my new lease on life helped me to evolve as a human being and as a man. I used to be intimidated and shy around men like myself, but a very sweet man by the name of Terry first helped break that shell. He was the first man I ever dated in Lima, and is one of the few sweetest memories I have of that time of my life. And in California, I just would not go back to being the man I had once been. So I started working out and asserting myself. I got a job as a bartender in AKBAR as you know, and also became one of the new roster members for Can-Am.
Zelda Clark: And Can-Am is...?
Jamie Dean: Let's just say an adult film industry centered around gay wrestling.
Zelda Clark: Ah!
She nods, then blinks and her eyes widen in stark realization.
Jamie Dean: I wanted to be a wrestler, and I loved being with men, and Can-Am gave me the best of both worlds! And it also forced me to mature as a proud and healthy gay man. I mean, let's face it. You can't claim bashfulness when you're on camera and getting plowed by a man like Brian Maxon!
Zelda Clark: OH!
Zelda colored a bright shade of pink and Jamie realized what he had just said.
Jamie Dean: Sorry, Z! What is it about you that makes people feel like they can just open up so freely?
Zelda shyly shakes her head that she had absolutely no idea!
Jamie Dean: Anyhoo! The hell I was put through in Ohio. My tenure with Can-Am. Working at AKBAR and being surrounded by people... I was, am -- happy. I was able to be comfortable with myself and who I was then and am today. That's why I have friends, true friends. Now I don't have many friends. I know. You probably watch me day in and day out on the SCW broadcasts and think you're going to call me out on a line of 'bullshit,' but I'm being honest here. I go for quality over quantity and I have been blessed. Sandra King and Kathy Greene. Chad Campbell.
A brief moment passes and Jamie smiles.
Jamie Dean: Amy Marshall. Sam Marlowe. ....
Zelda Clark: And ... Ben Jordan.
Jamie closes his eyes briefly and nods.
Jamie Dean: Oh yes, good ol' Saint Ben. A good man, a charming individual, and one whose heart exceeds any and all expectations. There is a reason why Ben has so many friends, and why you'd be hard pressed to find someone -- anyone -- who has a single bad thing to say about him. As few friends as I have? I have even fewer straight male friends, but Ben is a cut above the rest. He's comfortable with who he is, and who he's with. He'd have to be to be friends with me!
Jamie laughs!
Jamie Dean: He doesn't let anything weak like homophobia come between him and meeting someone knew. He takes my flirtation in stride and is there for me every step of the way. He made friends with my gal pals Kathy and Sandra with no effort what so ever. I would honestly hate to think what my life would be like if I didn't have Ben Jordan in it as a friend.
He frowns and looks to Zelda.
Jamie Dean: I think that's why what happened hurt all the more.
Zelda Clark: You're referring to the attack on you and Ben by the Bad Boys?
Jamie nods.
Jamie Dean: Yeah. I just ... I can't fathom the how or the why. Well, Giani I can. The guy was always an arrogant bitch. Granted, a bitch with a great set of pecs, but a bitch none the less. Dax Beckett -- I never knew what to make of that guy save for the fact he thinks he's all that and a bag of chips when he really can't even stack up to the crushed Pringles left over in the bottom of a can. But Mickey...
Jamie shakes his forefinger as if admonishing the aforementioned grappler.
Jamie Dean: He's the one who astounded me, and I imagine Ben as well. He can attack me all he wants, but what his butt buddies did to Ben...
He shakes his head in disgust.
Jamie Dean: And then Mickey just stood there and watched! He let it happen! As long as Ben and Mickey knew each other! As close as they were, or are -- how can you just stand there and watch as someone beats the shit out of someone you call friend and profess to care about!? Oh I know. Mickey went out and told everyone it was some huge mistake and that the intended target for that steel chair concerto was me, not Ben.
He scoffs.
Jamie Dean: Well that just makes everything all right then, doesn't it Mick the Dick? The Bad Boys were already the Number One Challengers! What more did they have to prove? Ever since then, all we hear from Mickey is his attempts to apologize and get back into Ben's good graces.
Zelda Clark: And is it working? Has Ben forgiven him?
Jamie shrugs helplessly.
Jamie Dean: I don't know, but I would be very surprised if he did. As it stands, Ben really isn't talking. I think he's more affected by what happened than even he is willing to admit. He's been in London ever since he snuck out of the hospital, and I don't know if he's going to end up making it to Prescott Valley this weekend. But truthfully? Part of me is hoping he doesn't.
Zelda Clark: What? Why?
Jamie Dean: Because I don't want him to feel pressured into choosing a side. I don't want him to be standing there backstage, watching his childhood friend and his current friend tearing each other apart. And, I don't want him to see what I am going to do to Mickey Carroll once we set foot inside of that ring, or even if we make it to the ring. Never heard of a Hardcore Tuxedo match, but whether it starts backstage or in the ring, either way Mick the Dick is going to end up hurt very badly, just so he can feel first hand what it was that he and his cronies put Ben and myself through. There are no ifs, ands or buts where this ass kicking is concerned. Let's even forget the fact that Kris Halc took it and turned it into an original gimmick match. I don't think there's ever been a Hardcore Tuxedo match in wrestling history, and all fun aside where tearing a man's clothes off can be, the key word here is 'hardcore.' Meaning, anything goes. I imagine Mick just might use that to his advantage and have his bitches out there to help him, because god knows he doesn't have the balls to face me without having help in his corner! But that also means that whatever it is that he wants to do to me? I can do to him.
Jamie looks briefly to Zelda.
Jamie: I can only say so many times what I plan to do to Mick before it gets old and repetitive, so let me finish by saying this; I've been through a lot. A lot more than I even discussed today, and more than those closest to me is probably aware. Some of what I talked about tonight? Ben, Amy and Samantha may not be fully aware, but now they are. And now Mick is.
Jamie looks again closely into the camera.
Jamie Dean: I went through the Trial By Fire and baby, Jamie Dean came out FUH-LAMING! And everything I've been put through, is just going to make all the more easier to wipe you out of existence as easily as I do this.
He extends a finger towards the camera and with a click, the screen winks out to blackness, and only voices can be heard.
Zelda Clark: I was supposed to do that.
Jamie Dean: ... Sorry.</color>
