If she was any more excited, she probably would have been bouncing up and down in the cramped backseat of the car.
Although she didn't particularly want her friends to see such a thing. She was a grown woman after all, not a child. But maybe that didn't matter after all. They've always tended to see her that way before. Not that she was the most mature one of the bunch, by a long shot, for sure.
But still. It's not like they would understand her passion for getting to be a part of the wrestling business. Her friends didn't even watch it, didn't get it, and likely wouldn't understand. To them, they probably thought it was just another job for a check.
She considered this for a bit, with a small sigh, as her friends chatted, laughed, complained and argued about the trip around her for the last 4 hours. Even so, that still doesn't explain why the hell they all insisted to come, 4 hours after an airport, along with her to this place, anyway.
Not that she didn't want her friends along. In fact, they were comforting to have along, occasional arguing aside. It just didn't make a lot of sense.
Maxine Mars just closed her eyes and smiled to herself. But... that's why they're her friends, she supposed. They still care what she does, even if they aren't fans themselves, and how could Ruth, Daisy, Fawn, Terry, and Gisele possibly resist a road trip? Especially when it was free for them.
After all, it's not like the entire world outside the profession of anime dubbing always fully took that job seriously, either. Even though they didn't get wrestling, they still could understand why a TXA/CWA reunion was a big deal to Maxine.
With that said, she sat back, and allowed herself a little bit of visible excitement. After all, the fact is, she couldn't wait to call a wrestling event again. It had been so long since her last opportunity in The Xtreme Alliance to call matches, right? She was excited, after all. No doubt about that. So why did she have this strange feeling of apprehension or doubt in her mind about returning to doing what she loved to do?
She thought back to all of the matches, all of the segments, all of the history that Maxine, even for her short few years of employment had been able to see and comment on to thousand of homes and Pay-Per View audiences. It was kinda like stepping back into another world that she hadn't visited in years. Kinda like that Narnia book with the wardrobe and the lion, and all the talking animals, dwarves and witches, isn't it?
But before she even had the full time to ponder whether or not that metaphor was apt, or just the ridiculous musings of a full grown girl obsessed with pop culture, they had arrived. The arena in which the CXA event had been scheduled. The place that was eventually going to be packed with fans, and where one night of the return of CXA was going to take place.
"This is where they do that wrestling crap, huh? It's a lot bigger than I thought it'd be." Comes the unpredictably blunt words from an attractive young woman with a full head of red hair, the first out of the car, gazing irritatedly at the venue with a curious stare and massaging her cramped shoulder. "How many people actually watch this junk?!"
Maxine would have been more annoyed at the comment from the red haired woman, if she hadn't already known of Gisele's need to be more condescending than necessary, in order to vent her frustration at being cramped in a two door Ford for 4 and a half hours, rather than the roomy, carpeted SUV's she was accustomed to.
"You'd be surprised, actually..." Came the reply from the next young woman to emerge from the car.
Fawn Clayton, A smartly dressed woman with a lighter tint of hair than the others finishes her small lecture towards Gisele. "...This "Crap" as you put it, is actually a pretty major business. Say what you will about it's content, but it's a pretty sizable share of the entire entertainment industry today. So it must be doing something right."
Fawn continues on, "...Not that i'm a big fan myself, but my cousin's kids watch it religiously. Y'know, to them, This guy, John Cena from the WWE is bigger than the President."
"Oh.." snapped Gisele, a smile beaming across her face like a tiger ready to pounce on a limping zebra. "So you're saying this John Cena guy cares more about bodyslams than bailouts? You got me there, I guess i'd vote for him too."
"Oh no, don't you start that again!" retorts Fawn, glaring directly at Gisele.
A pretty young woman with a long head of straight, silky blonde locks and a light blue shirt is the first to get between them, smiling politely. "Now, come on you two. We'll have none of that now, ok?"
Fawn and Gisele turn their backs to one another with a mutual "hmph", as the blonde girl pats the two women on the shoulder cheerfully, pleased at the quelling of political argument #13 since Ohio.
Meanwhile, Maxine exits the car, suitcase in hand, and walks a few steps towards the large building standing across the street in the middle of the day and stares.
The momentary silence between Maxines's stare and the quelled argument between the two previously arguing women, is broken by the low voice of a long raven-haired young woman in the passenger side of the front seat, sitting next to the green haired female driver smoking a cigarette.
"So, Maxine.." says the woman with the long black hair, "this is the first time you've done one of these in a while, now huh?"
"Yeah.... it has been a while..." Maxine's words waft backwards towards the car, never having turned her head from her steady, wistful state at the building.
Maxine feels a lump in her throat as she swallows, trying to keep down the strange nagging feeling of worry that had welled up further upon staring at the building across the street where the event was scheduled to take place.
"And to be honest," she continues, "i'm more than just a little nervous, y'know? More like.... anxious, but worried. Am I really going to do a good job out there? I mean, so much pressure, and this just feels like this night, when it comes, is going to be really special. I just hope... that I can do the event justice by being even a small part of it as a member of the announce team."
Maxine just looks over at the building across the street, down the cement steps, to the front door, where a warm breeze ruffles her shaggy, brown hair framed around her face, where thousands of screaming, cheering fans are going to be packed to see their favorite wrestlers return for another show since the days of Parental Advisory, all those years ago.
A time that seems not so far away, but yet an invisible feeling of electricity nipping at her consciousness, coming back to her.
The blonde haired woman approaches Maxine. "Wow, Max. I've never quite seen you this.. uhm... serious about something. It really means that much to you?"
Maxine smiles "Yeah.... I know that you guys really dunno that much about wrestling. It might even seem dumb to some of you. But I grew up in Canada, watching WWF every week. I was 7 when my dad took me to see Bret Hart win King Of The Ring in 1993, and that whole time meant more to me than anything i'd ever done before in my life."
A look of nostalgic and comforting pride casts across her expression as she recalls her childhood, as her look of worry fades for an instant as she recalls the memories.
"From then I always wanted to be part of this wrestling world so badly. When I got to be there at the TXA, I was more thrilled to somehow get to be a tiny part of this whole world that I dreamed of, that I never wanted to leave it or go home ever, once it started. Because whether good or bad, it was like living in a world that felt more exciting and more amazing than the rest of the world often felt like."
She turns back to her friends at the car, looking back at her, listening to her intently as Maxine's face once again casts a worried, and uncertain look.
"But now... when I look at it again, it's like knowing that I'm about to step back into this whole entire universe, bigger than life, that was so much larger than just me, like looking at a skyscraper so big it feels like i'm just going to fall backwards."
She turns back to the building again, with a sigh, raising her arm in a motioning gesture towards it.
"....I worry that after all this time, I won't have what it takes anymore to bring millions of people back into this vast, and overwhelming universe with just a pair of headphones and a microphone, and sit and describe an entire universe i'm seeing in front of me to millions of strangers out there."
She turns back to the others, with a sheepish look.
"But... I guess to everyone else, it's just a thing where I put on a headset and say what moves they do and try to remember the names. So, yeah... I probably sound really dumb being so dramatic about it, huh?"
The blond girl, smiles and approaches Maxine, looking her in the eye and putting her hands on her shoulders as she answers Maxine.
"No. I can tell what you mean when you say that's a whole other world across the street. There's probably all kinds of things I don't get about how wrestling works. But that's why we came to see you off. I know that you do, and you can do this for everyone else that does." she says with an infectiously pleasant smile. An encouraging smile that Maxine returns.
"Thanks, Daisy." Maxine turns to the others by the car.
The green-haired driver with the short haircut and cigarette in her mouth, arm resting on the rolled down window, looks over at her with a nonchalant expression and adds "Yeah. Seriously. Relax. You'll do fine."
Maxine nods to her friends. "Really. Thanks Terry, everyone. Means a lot."
Maxine Mars fixes the lapels on her black formal jacket with newly re-installed confidence and a beaming, thankful smile to her friends. "Well, they're going to be setting the show up, getting everything taken care of, briefed up, organized and all that. So.... I guess until then, this is goodbye for now."
Fawn looks at her with a warm, smile as she sarcastically quips "Well, Not so much 'goodbye'. We'll be watching you, too. I mean, did you think we weren't gonna tune in? Just don't screw up or get anyone's names wrong, ok?"
Maxine chuckles with a sly look back. "Hah! I'll have you know that you'll be lucky if you guys and Nicole can manage back at Spimosa without me."
Fawn replies with a friendly "haha. sure", before heading back with a reassuring wave.
Maxine's friends exchange quick goodbyes with her, and return back to the in the car as Gisele begins to complain of another 4 hours of leg cramps, and insistence of a restaurant on the way home that isn't a total dive.
But before leaving, Gisele stops, and turns back to Maxine one last time, offering the last remark:
"Good luck on the wrestling thing, Max."
With that, the car takes off, four arms waving goodbye as it diminishes out of sight down the road.
Maxine, now left all alone by the side of the street with her suitcase, her smile and her self-confidence in tow, turns and walks towards the future site of the CXA Reunion.
After all, CXA is a wrestling event, filled with the millions of fans, the incredible athletes with their own life stories, their own victories, hardships, triumphs, tragedies, blood, sweat and tears, the winners, the losers, and the wresting that everyone really buys their tickets to see....
....But someone still has to put on that headset.
- This one's for you, Vic.
Subject: #1 - On Returning 
Mon Dec 13, 2010 2:12 pm
