Annie's Story 039

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“Heyyy guys,” Annie chirps as she waves at the camera; she’s holding a cell phone in her other hand, recording this brief message as she’s standing outside on this unseasonably cold December afternoon. Wrapped up warm in a prototype Kickass Smurf hoodie that she got as a present, Annie is standing in front of a red brick wall as she speaks. “It’s December 31st, it’’s New Years Eve, and I’m here in Manchester, England ready to celebrate tonight with some of my friends . But before the clock strikes twelve and we start the new year, I just wanna say a huuuuge thanks to all my Anniemaniacs who have supported me over these last twelve months.”

“Whether it was wrestling in FGA, LDFC, GFP, SCW, PWP, or for Ronie’s Rasslin’ Services, I just want to thank you all for cheering for me, and supporting me. You have no idea how much you all mean to me.” She holds a hand over her heart, partially covering the cartoony face of her masked friend as she does so. “Or those who watched haVok on Evolve back in October, thank you, and be sure to tune in for season two next year! And those of you who bought or listened to my two albums, ‘Annie Does The 90s’ and ‘Annie Does The 80s’, thank you so much.”

“And I promise you all next year is gonna be even better. So I hope you all have an amazing New Years Eve, and an even better 2016. And I love you all,” Annie blows a kiss to the camera before waving, “see you next year!”

The video stops recording as Annie pockets the cell phone in her front pocket. Kickass Smurf must have spoken to either Laurel or Leanne to know her size, but the blue hoodie fits her perfectly – she’s snug as a bug in rug, even after this cold snap hit the UK. The wind begins to pick up, though, so Annie heads back inside, where Chase, Molly, Laurel, Leanne, Smurf, and the rest are all waiting to get their party started. Then it’s a flight to Japan for the GFP tour tomorrow, all before Annie faces Izzy Anders on the first FGA show of the new year.

She’s going to need all the support she can get…

---

The fireworks light up the night sky with various shades of yellow, red, blue, and green, exploding at various intervals as the different homes set off their displays despite the others. But there, in the back garden of the three storey semi-detached home on the outskirts of Manchester sits Annie Zellor and her friend, Kickass Smurf. Their lawn chairs positioned at the top of the rolling lawn – Jay has cut back some of the growth, so there’s more space than there has been before, but it still needs some work.

The SSWA wrestler has decided to wear his mask during the visit, to keep up kayfabe around the outsiders – namely Annie’s boyfriend, Chase. After all, it’s not like Molly Reid has never seen him without the mask before. The temperature in Manchester is dipping into single figures, in celsius, no less, so the pair of them are wearing thick Winter jackets, gloves and woolly hats.

“There you go, buddy,” Kickass says as he hands Annie a bottle of Rekorderlig wild berries, or Smurf Juice as he calls it. “Smurf up.”

“Thanks,” she replies before taking a sip of cider. A wide smile on her face as Kickass settles down into his seat. “How come there’s so many fireworks tonight, it’s not even New Years Eve yet?”

“There’ll be more tomorrow, buddy,” he replies with a shrug, “it’s not like New Years Eve is a one day holiday. You should see it for Bonfire Night, they go a whole week from Halloween with fireworks every night. It’s smurftastic…” and he doesn’t even realize Annie may not know what Bonfire Night is.

“We don’t have Bonfire Night,” Annie muses, her eyes fixed on the house from the East; they’ve bought the more up market fireworks, louder bangs and brighter colours filling the air with each report. The house to the West can do little to respond, with their simple barrages going off every couple of minutes of so. But Annie likes them still. “But there’s, like, tons of fireworks on the 4th of July. And I like that.”

“Smurf yeah,” he replies before pausing, “so, buddy, you and Chase have been together a while now. Any talk about marriage or that stuff yet?”

Annie giggles at her friend’s casual attempt to steer the conversation away from fireworks, and she holds out her left hand,displaying the promise ring that Chase gave her a few months ago. “We’re like pre-engaged at the moment,” she boasts, “but there’s Valentine’s Day and our two year anniversary coming up in the next few months, so who knows…” Annie giggles again, which may be due to the fact she’s on her third Smurf Juice of the night.

The house to the East sets off a cake, the long succession of explosions lasting for nearly thirty seconds as Annie and Smurf watch in awe of the pyrotechnic display. She takes another sip of cider as Smurf speaks again. “He seems like a good lad, bit quiet though.”

“He’s the best,” Annie replies, smiling all the while, “he’s just a bit shy sometimes. And he’s never been to England or Japan before, so this whole trip is just, like, a whole new world for him!”

“That’s smurftastic, buddy,” Kickass says as he offers his bottle of Rekorderlig out to clink. Annie reciprocates the gestures before taking another sip.

“Smurf yeah it is,” she jokes, “and once he’s comfortable around you all he’ll open up a bit more, you’ll see. By the time we come home from Japan you two could be, like, the best of friends. And talking of marriage and stuff, what about you and Leanne?”

“Whoa, buddy,” Smurf protests, “we ain’t even been together as long as you and Chase…”

“Don’t you wanna marry her someday?” asks Annie.

“Smurf yeah I do,” he answers after a brief pause, “but one step at a time, buddy. We’ve been talking about me moving in some time soon. See if I can live under the same roof as Ai without, you know, killing her…” he shrugs, “…if that goes smurfy, then I’ll keep looking at rings.”

“Keep looking?” Annie nudges him with her elbow. “So you’re already looking then?”

“Buddy, I love her like I’ve never loved a woman before. She makes me feel things I ain’t felt before,” Smurf says, shyly; he might even be blushing under that mask, but Annie can’t tell. “I wanna spend the rest of my life with Leanne. But we’re young, and there’s no hurry.”

“Aww,” Annie coos. The firework displays seem to have come to an end now, the night sky returning back to its previous state of peacefulness, pitch black and as quiet as quiet as the grave. Annie takes another sip of cider as she looks over at her friend once more, “Sooo…” she starts, “…what happened with that game of Risk?”

Kickass turns to glare at her, his lips pressed tightly together. “We don’t smurf about that, buddy.” He exclaims in mock anger, a tiny hint of a smile breaking through his stoic expression. It’s enough to cause Annie to laugh out loud; she’s already from Laurel about the marathon game the household endured on Christmas Day, when Laureltopia defeated The Smurf Empire after nearly six hours of playing and drinking. He held Africa bravely, but those troop bonuses overwhelmed him in the end. And Laurel hasn’t let him live it down yet.

Annie is still laughing, holding her sides as she does so, as the back door opens. The sound of footsteps precedes the arrival of Molly Reid, who isn’t dressed for the outdoors in only a t-shirt and jeans. “What’s going on out here then?” asks Molly when she sees the bottle of cider in Annie’s hand. “And is Annie getting drunk?!”

Kickass turns to Molly and shakes his head, but Annie speaks first, wiping a tear from her eye. “Nuh uh, it’s just juice, Molly.”

“Yeah, buddy, just juice…” Smurf says knowingly.

“Well sorry,” Molly says, clueing herself in on the joke, “the foods arrived though, if you two are hungry.”

“Smurf yeah!” they say in unison, as both Annie and Kickass Smurf rise from their seats in the lawn chairs. The trio heads inside to partake in some Chinese takeaway as the scene comes to an end.

---

Annie breathes a sigh of relief as she slumps down on her own bed for what feels like the first time in forever. Between the GFP tour and her visit to the UK, last night was the first Annie slept in her own bed since before the last FGA show.

With her arms extended out to the sides, she closes her eyes and contemplates the future for a moment. With her victory over Yasu Yoshida in the first round of the Glory Cup, Annie has booked herself a match against The Crimson Baroness in the second round – a match made even more interesting by the fact the pair of them currently hold the GFP Jr. Tag Team titles together.

Katie even suggested they enter the W-Crown Tag Team title scene, but Annie is reluctant to go after a second pair of titles just yet. But she’s agreed to appear in SSWA – the promotion working with GFP to operate the W-Crown tag titles – in a trios tournament this Spring, alongside Emily Carter and Molly Reid. All of that, plus Annie has agreed to act as a play by play commentator for some upcoming Ronie Rasslin’ Services shows in February and April, after their original commentator was injured on New Years Eve. And Annie has heard her tentative match against Savannah Taylor at Canadian Stampede has been confirmed by FGA management.

So much has been set in stone, but there’s still a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the youngster. While she was away, Annie received a text from Dom saying that he and Sabrina are breaking up over irreconcilable differences … something neither of them have clarified exactly what those differences are. But Sabrina is packing up her things and Dom is getting ready to fly to Miami to escape for the weekend. Soon it’ll just be the two of them living here again and Annie isn’t sure how she feels about that just yet.

What she does know for sure is that she has a non-title match against the Mid-Atlantic Legacy champion coming up, and she needs to get ready for it. Rising up from her supine position on the bed, Annie straightens her hair, pushing it back behind her ears as she takes a deep breath. The wide smile crosses her face as she presses record on the bluetooth remote. “Heyyy you guys!” she says, winking at the camera as she makes the fingerbang gesture with both hands, “I hope you all had an amazing new year, and you’re all ready for some more wrestling action!”

“‘Cause this weekend is the first FGA show of 2016, and that means the debut of my friend and my opponent at the upcoming pay-per-view, Savannah Taylor. The debut of Chris Vector. The start of the Joker’s Wild tournament,” she counts off each one on her fingers, “and my match against none other than the current reigning and defending Mid-Atlantic Legacy champion, Izzy Anders.”

“The longest reigning, most dominant Mid-Atlantic Legacy champion in FGA history by the time next weekend rolls around. But this match this week isn’t for the title…” Annie shakes her head, “…and for me, anyway, it’s not even about revenge or anything like that. I mean, I still don’t like what Izzy did back at Final Frontier. And I still don’t, like, condone attacks like that. And the way she’s been gloating about what she did, the way her Twitter name is Izzy Hits Harder? and some other stuff is all really rubbing me the wrong way.”

“But I don’t…” Annie pauses, her lips twisting as she tries to think of the word; her hands are paused mid-gesticulation, palms up in the air as Annie speaks again, “…I don’t hate Izzy Anders. ‘Cause it’s not too long ago that I can remember a time when I liked her, when I thought of her as my friend. I can remember when she debuted here in FGA; she was all bright eyed and hopeful, and I really liked that person. And when she was wrestling in that five way match for her debut, or against Fujiko, or in the Gold Rush Rumble, she had that spring in her step that always fun to watch.”

“But something changed…”

“And part of me wonders if it’s kinda my fault.” Annie admits, holding her hands to her chest, “‘Cause of that time me, you, and Yun all met up at the ’lab’–” or gym, to be more specific, “– and tried to open up the time portal with our 540 kicks. ‘Cause I look at the way you and Yun are acting now – the way neither of you seem to care about the fans anymore. The way you’re taunting others. And just the way you’re both acting like…” she pauses again, “…like jerks, I guess.”

“Something must have happened that day to affect all three of us the way it did. I dunno, maybe we brought about the darkness or something. If this is a sign of the end of time, or whatever. ‘Cause you and Yun have all but given in, and I felt the pull of the dark side these last few months…” Annie sighs, “…that devil on my shoulder has grown louder, I just have to try and ignore him as much as I can. Sometimes I slip, though. Sometimes I do bad things, the difference between us is that I feel remorse for them. I say I’m sorry when I slip up…” Annie exclaims, “…I don’t gloat about injuring people. I don’t boast about trying to end careers. The way you’re acting almost makes me ashamed to even share a finisher with you…”

“And I told you after Final Frontier that I didn’t like what you did. I told you two weeks ago before my match with Johnny Karma that if you try it again, then I’ll stop you again. I don’t care who it is that you’re trying to injure, Izzy.” Annie states, boldly. “It doesn’t matter if you think they deserve it, ‘cause nobody deserves to have their careers ended by another person. ’Cause of what you did, Dom Harter is on the injured list now. ‘Cause of what I did, he’s only there for like six months, instead of forever…” and hopefully that doesn’t come back to bite Annie on the ass “…and I hope he comes back a better person than he was. I hope he doesn’t just come hunting for your head, Izzy. But if he does, then I’ll stop him too…”

“This week, though, this Saturday night in Boston, Massachusetts – it’s not about Dom. It’s just me and you, Izzy, and I’m just hoping you don’t have those same evil intentions in store for me. ‘Cause if you’re thinking that I wronged you, and you need to take me out of action, then we’ve got very different ideas about how this match is gonna go down.”

“For a moment, forget about all the bad stuff that’s happened to you, Izzy. Whatever Dom did to you here in FGA, whatever the masked man did to you in SSWA.” Annie jabs her finger at the camera, “Getting screwed out of your Rising Star title by Misha LeCavalier and Adam Adonis. Nothing like that is gonna happen to you this time around. ‘Cause when we’re in that ring, Izzy, I’m gonna fight you like you were the same person you were when you first stepped foot here in FGA.”

“Like you’re my friend.”

“‘Cause I liked you not so long ago, I respected you not too long ago, and when we’re in that ring on Saturday night there’s a chance you might be able to fight back the darkness that’s rising in you long enough to put on a clean match. If there’s just a chance you can ignore that devil on your shoulder telling you to hold that choke for four and a half seconds, or to put your feet on the ropes when you’re going for a pin, or jab your thumb in my eye – whatever dirty trick you might wanna use to get ahead – then I hope, Izzy, that you can, like, prevail through this. And not give in to those urges, ‘cause you’re better than this.”

“I know you’re better than this, the fans know you’re better than how you’re acting. But you seem to have given in. The same way Yun has, or Cami and Maurice did. You didn’t win that title through dirty tricks and underhanded tactics, Izzy. You didn’t get to the semi finals of the Frontier Lions Cup by cheating. I’m not even gonna say anything more about the Round Robin Challenge! But Fujiko and Cami, you beat them cleanly. And I dunno what was going through your head then – I’m not even gonna pretend to know the, like, full extent of what you’re going through…”

“But if you try and pull those tricks against me this week, Izzy. If you try to do to me what you did to Dom, then just know this. I’m coming to Boston prepared to deal with the worst.”

“I’ve toppled giants like Jimmy Page and Chris Q, I’ve stood toe-to-toe with Chandler Scott and others like him. So if you wanna act like them, or treat me like they did, I’ve got the answer for you right here…” she feigns a right hook at the camera, “POW! Right in the kisser. And I’ll knock that stupid out your head, and I’ll set you straight, Izzy.”

“Like I said, though, I hope it doesn’t come to that. Hopefully you can face me cleanly, and honourably, and we can put on a match these fans want to see. So those in the Matthews Arena can leave with a smile on their faces, and so the fans watching at home like what they see. ‘Cause I promised my Anniemaniacs that this year was gonna be better than last. And I don’t wanna let them down – I don’t wanna disappoint them the way I did at the end of last year. So even though I’m going to Boston prepared for the worst, I hope I don’t have to use everything in my arsenal … but if you’re gonna act like that, then…” Annie pulls her patented #grrface, her top lip curled upwards, one eyebrow lowered as she throws up the devil horns too. With that the scene comes to an end with a fade to black.