Post by Holly Buchanan on Feb 25, 2017 11:34:01 GMT
(Friday, February 24,2017, 8:31PM)
"Popcorn's ready."
Holly Buchanan looked up from the magazine she was reading and smiled as her sister-in-law, Charlotte, walked into the living room with a tray full of snacks. These days it was rare for the two of them to get together for a girls night, what with Charlotte's busy schedule running "Buck U Productions" and helping raise her step-son, Haruto, and Holly absolutely hating despising her brother's guts. She shook that last thought from her mind as she rose from the couch to go help.
"Let me take that, Charlie," she said as she took the tray, "I don't want you to strain yourself."
"Holly, I'm pregnant, not feeble," Charlotte retorted, giving Holly a punch to the arm.
This only made Holly giggle. She placed the tray on the coffee table and plopped back down in her spot on the couch. Seconds later, Charlotte joined her on the couch and grabbed the remote control.
"Ok, Haruto's in bed and Eli's out of town, so we've got the whole evening to ourselves. What do you feel like watching tonight, "Gilmore Girls" maybe?"
Holly wrinkled up her nose.
"Why did you have to bring up Eli's name? He's such a jerk these days."
"Hey, he happens to be my husband," Charlotte answered, indignant, "and your brother."
Holly snorted before brushing the hair out her face with her hands.
"Too bad he isn't acting like one," she shot back, "Ever since I came back from Paris, he's been making life hard on me."
"Holly, he's just trying to look out for you."
Holly jumped off the couch and glared at her sister-in-law.
"Really, Charlie? How is using his influence to have me banned from competing at every promotion I've applied helping me. If it wasn't for Chaos Dragon sticking up for me, I probably wouldn't be able to compete there either.
"Or," holding up her hand to stop Charlotte's protest, "how about the way he's been treating me since I started dating, Hammie? He even let that stupid yoke-head, El Hijo del Pollo get away with calling me a she-male and dropping me on my head without doing anything, just because he knew that it would hurt Hammie too. I mean what kind of brother does stuff like that? He should want me to be happy. He should be supportive. Instead he's turned into a Carlos Diaz ass-kissing clown, who puts getting money and power ahead of family."
She stands there fuming for a moment, silently daring Charlotte to say anything. The tension in the air suddenly drops as a small voice calls out from the back bedroom.
"Haha! Haha!"
Charlotte sighs and slowly gets up from the couch.
"Hold that though, Sweetie, I've got to go settle Haruto back down."
Holly curses under her breath as her Charlotte goes to check on her nephew. This is not how she wanted this evening to go. Despite how things were with her brother, her relationship with Charlotte had remained good. She seemed to be the voice of reason, even during Holly's days a wild child. How she put up with her brother, Holly might never know, but she didn't want to hurt their relationship.
A few minutes later Charlotte walked back into the living room, letting out a long sigh.
"I managed to get him back to sleep," she said, as she plopped back down on the couch, "I had to read him 'Momotaru, the Peach Boy' to him again, he really likes that story for some reason."
"Charlie, I'm sorry," Holly said, making sure to keep her voice down.
“Its ok, I understand how frustrated you’re feeling,” Charlotte replied, “your brother can be hard to deal with at times.”
“You can say that again.”
“But,” Charlotte continued, “you need to understand a few things. Do you remember Freddy?”
That name caught Holly off guard. She sank down on the couch and looked at her sister-in-law.
“You mean Eli’s twin? No, not really; I was only three when he and Mom died.”
Charlotte looked at her kindly.
“Well I do. He and Eli were inseparable all the time, where you found one, the other was close behind. They had that mental thing where they knew what each other was thinking and while I never believed them, they claimed they could feel when each other was in pain.”
Charlotte paused for a moment before continuing.
“When Freddy died in that car crash, Eli went into shock. He seemed to block out the whole world. He wouldn't eat or drink, he had to be attached to an IV just to get fluids into hi, and he wouldn't speak to anyone. It was like he had was in so much pain he shut out the whole world. You're father finally took him to see some specialists and eventually he got better but he was never the same. I think that's when he started having issues with Dissociative identity disorder, although no one clued in until he was much older.”
“What does that have to do with how he's been treating me lately though?”
“A lot actually. When you were attacked last month by Pollo, Eli started having nightmares about Freddy’s death. He would wake up in the middle of the night screaming. We spoke about it and it was clear that blamed himself for his death because he couldn't protect him. Eli had been trying to stop you from wrestling before that, hoping to stop you from getting injured like he did but now he vowed that he would protect you, no matter what. Since he can't prevent you from competing, he's done everything in his power to make Jacob’s life miserable, hoping to drive you two apart.”
“Well that's just stupid.”
“Perhaps,” Charlotte replied, “but Eli would do just about anything for us. Look what he did to bring Haruto home after finding out his mother died in Japan. He called in favours with your father and borrowed money to get Haruto here and then borrowed even more money from your father to start up ‘Buck U Productions”, just so he could try to build a legacy for Haruto to inherit.
“Holly, if you want to know why Eli seems so angry, just realize how much it kills him that he has to ask your father for anything. You know how he feels about him, you know what he believes your father did. He doesn't make a dime off our company, instead giving everything he personally earns to your father so he can pay the debt off more quickly. That's why he took jobs with Lion’s Road and GOL, to make money for us, that's why he ‘kisses Diaz’s ass’ as you put it. Fans want to hate him because of what he used to do when he was Tiger Mask Red. People will pay to come see someone try to shut your brother up, even if he can no longer compete, and Eli will take full advantage of that if it puts more money in our pockets.”
“But the GOL fans don't feel that way about him,” Holly protested, “Did you hear how they cheered for him when his Hall of Fame induction was announced? They absolutely love Tiger Mask Red there.”
Charlotte sat up straight and looked directly into Holly’s eyes.
“That's why when you compete against Julliet Brooks on Sunday, you need to give it your all. You're not just competing for yourself, you're competing for him. You want him to respect you as a competitor? Then you need to go out there and earn it. Show him that you have that fire in you. Let him hear the crowd cheer for you. Let it remind him of who he once was before the weight of the world was placed on his shoulders. If you can reawaken that spirit in him then he will no alternative than to see you for the woman you've become.”
Holly sat there dumbfounded for a moment. Her sister-in-law’s words echoed in her head and seemed to reach inside her and squeeze her chest. This all seemed so much more to her now. She wasn't just fighting for herself, she was fighting for everyone she cared for.
“Wow Charlie,” she finally said after several minutes, “you're still good at making those speeches. Maybe you should have staid in the wrestling business, you could really motivate a lot of wrestlers.”
Charlotte simply smiled and grabbed a handful of popcorn.
“I leave that to you and your brother now. Convincing companies to go into business with ‘Buck U’ is so much more rewarding to me right now. So, you never did answer my question, what do you feel like watching? We could check out the new ‘24’ series.”
“Nah, I stopped liking ‘24’ when Elisha Cuthbert left the show. Let's watch ‘Gilmore Girls’ instead.”
Silent Charlotte nodded and grabbed the remote control. Soon the two sisters-in-law were cuddling together completely absorbed by the show and it's incredible dialogue.
***
“Julliet Brooks, I don't blame you for what you said about me, about how I should get used to failure and not being able to live up to my brother’s legacy. The thing is, bitch, I never wanted to be just like my brother. I didn't want to grow up be a wrestler when I was a kid, this business was thrust on me because my father wanted to stop his slutty daughter from getting pregnant and what better way to do that than pass her off on her psychotic brother.
“You see, Brooks, I'm used to being called a joke. When I first broke into this business, I hung out with a seven foot eunuch who could only say ‘I am Brute’ and I flirted with a six foot tall wooden dummy and a space alien. It's no wonder why no one took me serious and my own brother didn't want to have me around. I was the laughing stock of Pollomania, and if you know anything about that place, it says a lot.
“But you know what, that's ok. Let people looked down on me. Let people underestimate what I can do. That only drives me to get better, to work harder. You act like if you beat me that my career is over. Bitch, please! I've been beaten so many times, what's one more loss to a legend like you going to do to my rep? I'm a strong believer that it doesn't matter how many times you get knocked down, it's how many times you get back up.
“Now, you're right, my brother doesn't believe I can beat you, I don't think anyone who's been watch our two careers possibly would. There's the thing, I've won matches against opponents even my brother couldn't beat. On the same night he lost his most prestigious title, I beat the same guy who took it from, much to the shock of everyone watch. When Tiger and I won Pollomania’s Trios tournament, it was me that made sure that we even made it out of the first two rounds and when he and I won the tag team titles there, it was me that got the victory while he wasn't even in the ring. Am I saying that I'm going to walk into our match and guarantee I'm going to beat you? Absolutely not, it's simply a privilege to be in the same ring as you, but if you think I'm not going to do everything in my power to win, you're sadly mistaken. I'm trying to show the world how serious I'm taking this business now and I'm trying to stay on the straight and narrow, but that don't mean I'm not afraid to fight dirty and if I get a chance you can expect that I might grab my hockey stick and do a bit of high sticking, if you get my meaning.
“This Sunday night, I'm coming for more than just the opportunity to enter the inaugural La Azteca Rumble. I'm coming to show the world that that little girl everyone once knew as Holly Guacamole is gone, and in her place is a grown woman named Holly Buchanan. Lose, win or draw, you will respect me, the fans will respect me, and damn it, if I have to beat it out of him with my own two hands, my brother will respect me. So Julliet, on Sunday bring all your violent rage, because I'm bringing all the crazy.”
***
(February 25, 2017, 2:07AM)
Holly crept into her brother’s study. She has tossed and turned since going to bed, but sleep alluded her. Her first thought was to call Hammie, but he was probably fast asleep and she would feel guilty waking him. So here she was lurking around Eli’s study, looking for that bottle of expensive Scotch he had stashed away somewhere.
Her eyes wandered to his desk and she began opening the drawers. The top couple were filled with nothing but files, but the bottom one was locked. Fortunately a lock had never stopped her before, thank you Jose,wherever you are, and she quickly picked the lock and opened the drawer. Much to her satisfaction, she found the Scotch, but when she pulled it out of the drawer she noticed another file. Grabbing it, Holly opened it on top of Eli’s desk and once she had poured herself a drink, she began browsing through it.
She gasped as she read through the documents, many of which were copies of X-rays and medical reports, and they were all about the brain injuries Eli had sustained last year. Holly was the first to admit that she didn't understand a lot of medical terms and what different diagnoses meant, but the more she read, the more shocked she became.
Suddenly the light in the study came on and she looked up to see Charlotte standing in the doorway.
“Sweetie, what are you doing in here?”
Holly looked blankly at her for a moment before she replied.
“Oh my God, Charlie. There's no damage to Eli’s brain, he’s cleared to wrestle!”
"Popcorn's ready."
Holly Buchanan looked up from the magazine she was reading and smiled as her sister-in-law, Charlotte, walked into the living room with a tray full of snacks. These days it was rare for the two of them to get together for a girls night, what with Charlotte's busy schedule running "Buck U Productions" and helping raise her step-son, Haruto, and Holly absolutely hating despising her brother's guts. She shook that last thought from her mind as she rose from the couch to go help.
"Let me take that, Charlie," she said as she took the tray, "I don't want you to strain yourself."
"Holly, I'm pregnant, not feeble," Charlotte retorted, giving Holly a punch to the arm.
This only made Holly giggle. She placed the tray on the coffee table and plopped back down in her spot on the couch. Seconds later, Charlotte joined her on the couch and grabbed the remote control.
"Ok, Haruto's in bed and Eli's out of town, so we've got the whole evening to ourselves. What do you feel like watching tonight, "Gilmore Girls" maybe?"
Holly wrinkled up her nose.
"Why did you have to bring up Eli's name? He's such a jerk these days."
"Hey, he happens to be my husband," Charlotte answered, indignant, "and your brother."
Holly snorted before brushing the hair out her face with her hands.
"Too bad he isn't acting like one," she shot back, "Ever since I came back from Paris, he's been making life hard on me."
"Holly, he's just trying to look out for you."
Holly jumped off the couch and glared at her sister-in-law.
"Really, Charlie? How is using his influence to have me banned from competing at every promotion I've applied helping me. If it wasn't for Chaos Dragon sticking up for me, I probably wouldn't be able to compete there either.
"Or," holding up her hand to stop Charlotte's protest, "how about the way he's been treating me since I started dating, Hammie? He even let that stupid yoke-head, El Hijo del Pollo get away with calling me a she-male and dropping me on my head without doing anything, just because he knew that it would hurt Hammie too. I mean what kind of brother does stuff like that? He should want me to be happy. He should be supportive. Instead he's turned into a Carlos Diaz ass-kissing clown, who puts getting money and power ahead of family."
She stands there fuming for a moment, silently daring Charlotte to say anything. The tension in the air suddenly drops as a small voice calls out from the back bedroom.
"Haha! Haha!"
Charlotte sighs and slowly gets up from the couch.
"Hold that though, Sweetie, I've got to go settle Haruto back down."
Holly curses under her breath as her Charlotte goes to check on her nephew. This is not how she wanted this evening to go. Despite how things were with her brother, her relationship with Charlotte had remained good. She seemed to be the voice of reason, even during Holly's days a wild child. How she put up with her brother, Holly might never know, but she didn't want to hurt their relationship.
A few minutes later Charlotte walked back into the living room, letting out a long sigh.
"I managed to get him back to sleep," she said, as she plopped back down on the couch, "I had to read him 'Momotaru, the Peach Boy' to him again, he really likes that story for some reason."
"Charlie, I'm sorry," Holly said, making sure to keep her voice down.
“Its ok, I understand how frustrated you’re feeling,” Charlotte replied, “your brother can be hard to deal with at times.”
“You can say that again.”
“But,” Charlotte continued, “you need to understand a few things. Do you remember Freddy?”
That name caught Holly off guard. She sank down on the couch and looked at her sister-in-law.
“You mean Eli’s twin? No, not really; I was only three when he and Mom died.”
Charlotte looked at her kindly.
“Well I do. He and Eli were inseparable all the time, where you found one, the other was close behind. They had that mental thing where they knew what each other was thinking and while I never believed them, they claimed they could feel when each other was in pain.”
Charlotte paused for a moment before continuing.
“When Freddy died in that car crash, Eli went into shock. He seemed to block out the whole world. He wouldn't eat or drink, he had to be attached to an IV just to get fluids into hi, and he wouldn't speak to anyone. It was like he had was in so much pain he shut out the whole world. You're father finally took him to see some specialists and eventually he got better but he was never the same. I think that's when he started having issues with Dissociative identity disorder, although no one clued in until he was much older.”
“What does that have to do with how he's been treating me lately though?”
“A lot actually. When you were attacked last month by Pollo, Eli started having nightmares about Freddy’s death. He would wake up in the middle of the night screaming. We spoke about it and it was clear that blamed himself for his death because he couldn't protect him. Eli had been trying to stop you from wrestling before that, hoping to stop you from getting injured like he did but now he vowed that he would protect you, no matter what. Since he can't prevent you from competing, he's done everything in his power to make Jacob’s life miserable, hoping to drive you two apart.”
“Well that's just stupid.”
“Perhaps,” Charlotte replied, “but Eli would do just about anything for us. Look what he did to bring Haruto home after finding out his mother died in Japan. He called in favours with your father and borrowed money to get Haruto here and then borrowed even more money from your father to start up ‘Buck U Productions”, just so he could try to build a legacy for Haruto to inherit.
“Holly, if you want to know why Eli seems so angry, just realize how much it kills him that he has to ask your father for anything. You know how he feels about him, you know what he believes your father did. He doesn't make a dime off our company, instead giving everything he personally earns to your father so he can pay the debt off more quickly. That's why he took jobs with Lion’s Road and GOL, to make money for us, that's why he ‘kisses Diaz’s ass’ as you put it. Fans want to hate him because of what he used to do when he was Tiger Mask Red. People will pay to come see someone try to shut your brother up, even if he can no longer compete, and Eli will take full advantage of that if it puts more money in our pockets.”
“But the GOL fans don't feel that way about him,” Holly protested, “Did you hear how they cheered for him when his Hall of Fame induction was announced? They absolutely love Tiger Mask Red there.”
Charlotte sat up straight and looked directly into Holly’s eyes.
“That's why when you compete against Julliet Brooks on Sunday, you need to give it your all. You're not just competing for yourself, you're competing for him. You want him to respect you as a competitor? Then you need to go out there and earn it. Show him that you have that fire in you. Let him hear the crowd cheer for you. Let it remind him of who he once was before the weight of the world was placed on his shoulders. If you can reawaken that spirit in him then he will no alternative than to see you for the woman you've become.”
Holly sat there dumbfounded for a moment. Her sister-in-law’s words echoed in her head and seemed to reach inside her and squeeze her chest. This all seemed so much more to her now. She wasn't just fighting for herself, she was fighting for everyone she cared for.
“Wow Charlie,” she finally said after several minutes, “you're still good at making those speeches. Maybe you should have staid in the wrestling business, you could really motivate a lot of wrestlers.”
Charlotte simply smiled and grabbed a handful of popcorn.
“I leave that to you and your brother now. Convincing companies to go into business with ‘Buck U’ is so much more rewarding to me right now. So, you never did answer my question, what do you feel like watching? We could check out the new ‘24’ series.”
“Nah, I stopped liking ‘24’ when Elisha Cuthbert left the show. Let's watch ‘Gilmore Girls’ instead.”
Silent Charlotte nodded and grabbed the remote control. Soon the two sisters-in-law were cuddling together completely absorbed by the show and it's incredible dialogue.
***
“Julliet Brooks, I don't blame you for what you said about me, about how I should get used to failure and not being able to live up to my brother’s legacy. The thing is, bitch, I never wanted to be just like my brother. I didn't want to grow up be a wrestler when I was a kid, this business was thrust on me because my father wanted to stop his slutty daughter from getting pregnant and what better way to do that than pass her off on her psychotic brother.
“You see, Brooks, I'm used to being called a joke. When I first broke into this business, I hung out with a seven foot eunuch who could only say ‘I am Brute’ and I flirted with a six foot tall wooden dummy and a space alien. It's no wonder why no one took me serious and my own brother didn't want to have me around. I was the laughing stock of Pollomania, and if you know anything about that place, it says a lot.
“But you know what, that's ok. Let people looked down on me. Let people underestimate what I can do. That only drives me to get better, to work harder. You act like if you beat me that my career is over. Bitch, please! I've been beaten so many times, what's one more loss to a legend like you going to do to my rep? I'm a strong believer that it doesn't matter how many times you get knocked down, it's how many times you get back up.
“Now, you're right, my brother doesn't believe I can beat you, I don't think anyone who's been watch our two careers possibly would. There's the thing, I've won matches against opponents even my brother couldn't beat. On the same night he lost his most prestigious title, I beat the same guy who took it from, much to the shock of everyone watch. When Tiger and I won Pollomania’s Trios tournament, it was me that made sure that we even made it out of the first two rounds and when he and I won the tag team titles there, it was me that got the victory while he wasn't even in the ring. Am I saying that I'm going to walk into our match and guarantee I'm going to beat you? Absolutely not, it's simply a privilege to be in the same ring as you, but if you think I'm not going to do everything in my power to win, you're sadly mistaken. I'm trying to show the world how serious I'm taking this business now and I'm trying to stay on the straight and narrow, but that don't mean I'm not afraid to fight dirty and if I get a chance you can expect that I might grab my hockey stick and do a bit of high sticking, if you get my meaning.
“This Sunday night, I'm coming for more than just the opportunity to enter the inaugural La Azteca Rumble. I'm coming to show the world that that little girl everyone once knew as Holly Guacamole is gone, and in her place is a grown woman named Holly Buchanan. Lose, win or draw, you will respect me, the fans will respect me, and damn it, if I have to beat it out of him with my own two hands, my brother will respect me. So Julliet, on Sunday bring all your violent rage, because I'm bringing all the crazy.”
***
(February 25, 2017, 2:07AM)
Holly crept into her brother’s study. She has tossed and turned since going to bed, but sleep alluded her. Her first thought was to call Hammie, but he was probably fast asleep and she would feel guilty waking him. So here she was lurking around Eli’s study, looking for that bottle of expensive Scotch he had stashed away somewhere.
Her eyes wandered to his desk and she began opening the drawers. The top couple were filled with nothing but files, but the bottom one was locked. Fortunately a lock had never stopped her before, thank you Jose,wherever you are, and she quickly picked the lock and opened the drawer. Much to her satisfaction, she found the Scotch, but when she pulled it out of the drawer she noticed another file. Grabbing it, Holly opened it on top of Eli’s desk and once she had poured herself a drink, she began browsing through it.
She gasped as she read through the documents, many of which were copies of X-rays and medical reports, and they were all about the brain injuries Eli had sustained last year. Holly was the first to admit that she didn't understand a lot of medical terms and what different diagnoses meant, but the more she read, the more shocked she became.
Suddenly the light in the study came on and she looked up to see Charlotte standing in the doorway.
“Sweetie, what are you doing in here?”
Holly looked blankly at her for a moment before she replied.
“Oh my God, Charlie. There's no damage to Eli’s brain, he’s cleared to wrestle!”