Deanna Frost vs. Konrad Raab

[SnowQueenSCW]

The Witches of Alden

”After-School”

Frost ‘Forever Home’
Manhattan, New York
July 15th, 2024
4:13pm

She hadn’t heard anything from Selena in a few days and had it taken all her restraint not to pick up a phone and call her. Was she worried? Of course she was! There were numerous reasons for her to be, not the least of which was seeing her soon-to-be-ex-wife bloody from a damn cage fight. Okay, yes Selena had won, and, yes, had been standing at the end over Polly. But the redhead knew what kind of damage with Pignotti could do! Had the platinum-blonde suffered another concussion? Bruised ribs from that high crash Polly had landed on the Snow Queen? That particular move had stolen Deanna’s breath as she had watched it from the back, unable to stop the scream that escaped her at the sight.

Breakdown had been an emotional mess for her. While Selena continued in her way towards the main-event, Deanna’s kept feeling like her problems were mounting. In a repeat of last year, not only was she prepared to fight on the preshow – which she needed in order to find a way to help Jessica – but now she was fighting on the main show against Mike Knox. A newcomer that had… she sighed. The man, a veteran outside of SCW, had gotten to her, almost to the same level as ‘The One’ Kristen Scott had done – but she had had to break Deanna’s arm to do that! This guy? Had managed it just with his words. Now? She had to not only find a way past the demon that was Enigma, but Knox as well – both scenarios involving her defending the United States Championship (if applicable).

And yet… all I can do is think about Selena… she thought, even laughing a little bitterly. Two possible title defenses – more than any other champion in SCW – and here she was wondering what Selena was up to.

Still… she thought… she had a right to. She knew something that very few people knew about the Snow Queen. It had come out during one of their dates as ‘Chica’ and ‘Evelyn’ – something that Deanna, in her most private thoughts, missed each day. In those happy moments, the platinum-blonde’s time in SCW was running out…

Well… okay, maybe that was a slight exaggeration. But Selena’s whole ‘master plan’ had been to ‘undo/unmake’ her past at Rise to Greatness XX. As such, she had only signed a short-term contract, where she had put in her all her clauses and stipulations – Deanna shook her head. She didn’t need to think about those. The whole world knew of those, and most probably didn’t care about the other perks like the higher percentages on merchandise sales, box office cuts, and technical jargon that just made Deanna’s eyes go cross. Rather, for the United States Champion, it had been the ‘short-term’ nature that had caught Deanna’s attention. According to the current world champion, Selena’s contract would come to an end the day after Rise to Greatness. And while most people would just expect the woman to sign a new contract and renew things… she hadn’t just yet – Selena had been quite playful with that revelation. Why? Or why not – was that the proper question? Either way, Deanna wasn’t sure.

Either way, what was Selena waiting for? A better offer? For RTG to ‘play out’? Or was this just some elaborate plan she was concocting for the next ‘phase’ of her plan?

Either way, the older Frost had kept silent the last few days, leaving Deanna in the dark on how things were progressing not only with SCW but also with their son, David, and the summer school project. And while the young boy had filled in some of the blanks whenever she had asked, Deanna still remained mostly in the dark about the project as well. What was Leslie Sanderson up to? What was Selena doing to stop her? Could she even stop her? It wasn’t like the vile woman was doing anything illegal, wretched woman as she was. All she was doing was protesting, albeit only to try and bully the school into making the ten children fail.

“Those poor dears…” Deanna thought as she walked around the kitchen of her home, trying to keep her eyes off of the landline-phone hanging on the nearby wall. If she looked at it too long, she’d knew she’d just pick it up, and then the number-buttons would just ‘press themselves’, wouldn’t they? And, like magic, they’d dial Selena’s apartment/castle number and she’d sound like an idiot, wanting a divorce but still ‘calling cause she was worried’. As back and forth as she seemed to be in SCW!

With a frustrated groan, Deanna turned away from the entire wall where she knew the phone was hanging. She had to keep her focus on the most important things: David, Jessica, and then being a decent champion, in that order! And for the first part, she had done her best. David continuously showed his homework to Deanna, who would check (as best as she could). From what it seemed, and what she had gathered, things were progressing rather well. Yes, David still got to play sports now that he was making good on correcting his errors, but provided maintained the passing grades that would enable him to stay in the right grade starting in September, that was what mattered.

Knock knock.

The sound almost didn’t register in Deanna’s brain. Rather, it was the barking of Oberon as he bounded out of his kennel and towards the door that got Deanna’s attention. By the time she had gathered her thoughts into action, David was already moving down the stairs.

“David…” Deanna called out, instantly getting the young boy’s attention. She wasn’t sure what part of the house Elsianna and Amiliah were, but she did not hear anything from the other parts of the house, so they must have been playing quietly, allowing her to refocus in time to see her son turn to stare at her. “Don’t you have homework to do?”

“But…” he gestured to the door. “It’s for school.”

Despite the wildness of such an answer, and a raised eyebrow from the redhead, Deanna slowly could tell from his expression that her son… wasn’t lying. “For school?” She asked. “What is?”

“The people at the door.” David explained before turning his head to regard the door before turning the silver-colored handle. Immediately, the bright light flooded the section of the house, cause Deanna to look a little away for a moment to allow her eyes time to adjust. As they did, she saw the two children standing at the door. One was a short, large boy with curly brown hair and the other was a girl about David’s height with blonde-hair and blue eyes. She recognized the girl as one of David’s close friends, Sara, but the boy, she could not place.

“Hello…” she tried, offering a smile to the two children as she knelt down. “Can I help you?”

The two children seemed to regard Deanna for a moment. She was wearing simple clothes. Dark green shorts and a dark red t-shirt. Her hair was freely falling against her back, with a slight curl in them for volume. Still, none of these things seemed to matter to the children as they turned their attention back to the little man standing beside the nearly year-long champion.

“I thought you said your mother was here!” the boy asked in surprise.
“She is.” David shrugged before gesturing to Deanna with a hand.
“Say what?” the other boy asked.

“Okay, let’s clear this up.” Deanna smiled. “Hello.” She offered the unfamiliar boy. “I’m Deanna. I’m David’s mother.”

“No! No!” the boy shook his head. “Mrs. Frost is our teacher! She looks like Elsa from Frozen.”
“Okay…” Deanna almost choked on a laugh. “Do NOT ever say that to her. I’m telling you this for your own sake.”

“Garret,” Sara chastised. “Don’t be an idiot.” Before turning her attention back to Deanna. “Sorry, Mrs. Frost. Garret’s really sheltered.”

“I understand, Sara.” Deanna nodded before turning her emerald gaze back to Garrett. “Garrett. Who are your parents? Your mom and dad?”

“Yeah.” The boy nodded.
“Well… instead of having a dad and a mom, David had two moms. The Mrs. Frost you know as your teacher is his one mom and I’m his other.”

“Oh…” Confused beyond reason could not even describe the look on Garrett’s face. It was as if something broke within the mental clockwork of the young boy, as he tried to process what he had just been told.

“I’m sorry.” Sara butted in again, offering a slightly guilty expression. “I’ll try to explain it to him later.”
“I’m sure his parents can as well if he really wants to know.” Deanna nodded. “Now, how can I help you? I’m afraid David can’t come out to play until he finishes his homework-“

“You’re still not done it?!” Sara asked the boy (who was still standing by Deanna), her blue eyes wide. “We were supposed to go over our answers together.”

“It’s hard!” David whined, even giving a shrug of his shoulders. “Ms. Harris always gives us hard questions.”

“Yeah.” Garrett nodded. “Sophia and Mara make it look so easy.”
“Well, duh!” Sara remarked. “They’re in grade 5!”
“Maybe you could ask them for help then?” Deanna offered, her eyes switching between the three children.

“That’s why we’re here!” Garrett suddenly explained. “Mrs. Frost – uh… the other Mrs. Frost – TEACHER Mrs. Frost! She said that if we needed help, we could call or arrange a meeting and study and go over work.”

“Long story short.” Sara sighed. “When David texted us back and said ‘his mother was here’.”

“You were looking for Selen- the other Mrs. Frost.” Deanna slowly nodded her head, earning little nods from the three children.

She didn’t really feel any ill feelings towards not being the ‘preferred Frost’ in this particular scenario. It was a far cry to the ‘Shadow of Selena’ she had dealt with, and tried to fight out of, for the majority of her SCW career as a wrestler. Selena was these children’s teacher and if she was doing all she could to help them succeed and thus stay in their grades – to learn from their mistakes – well… it was admirable, Deanna could easily admit that. It was admirable and, she could feel it in her heart, she was certainly proud of the platinum-blonde for taking such a step, even if it was just in their private lives while she paraded around SCW as ‘The Blue-Eyed Devil’. Instead, rather than those familiar emotions of ‘association with the shadow’, Deanna really only felt curiosity.

“Tell me…” She spoke slowly. “What is Mrs. Frost like as a teacher?”

The question took a few seconds to process in the youngsters minds, each one giving a shrug before speaking.

“Really nice.” Sara remarked. “She supervises us so we can stay in the library after class.”
“But she’s really strict in the playground stuff.” Garret groaned. “She makes us do all these exercises.”
“Really?” Deanna asked. “Isn’t that what she’s supposed to do?”

“Yeah.” Garret continued with a bit of a whine. “But it’s so hard! And she thinks we can do better. And that we can be better. And that we can beat the other kids…”

That statement sent an alarm through Deanna’s frame. “Beat the other kids?” she repeated. Immediately, her mind flew back to that fateful soccer game that had started all this. The ends justify the means… the lesson Selena had taught to David that had put all this in motion. “What do you mean ‘beat other kids’?” Deanna asked, her voice a little raised.

“Oh…” the large boy, hearing the change in Deanna’s voice, fidgeted a little, clearly uneasy with the alteration with the adult speaking to him. Nervously, he hopped from one foot to the other. “It’s just that next week is the ‘Special Sports Games’.”

“SSG.” Sara added. “Mrs. Frost will be putting all of us against some students picked by Mrs. Sanderson.”
“Leslie?” Deanna asked with surprise. “A competition?”

“Yeah.” David noted with a bit of excitement. “We all get to do events against a bunch of the other students that aren’t in summer school.”

It seemed to the redhead. Why would Selena or even Leslie want a competition like this? I mean… yes, okay, they are both competitive as hell… Deanna reasoned. There was enough history between Leslie and the Frost, with such things as the annual Halloween decoration contest, the bake-offs during Christmas, the neighbourhood committees, and more that showed that. Leslie was always trying to stand out as the ‘greatest’ person in the Black Arrow neighbourhood. So the idea of her and Selena making some kind of competition was not so far fetched.

But there was one little thought nagging at the back of Deanna’s mind: Why?

Why would Selena bother with Leslie when the focus was on David and the other students and getting them to pass? Was it an ego thing? She certainly could believe that. Her ‘whatever-wife’ had certainly developed something of an ego since her return to SCW, though whether that was all real or part bluster-and-con the young woman wasn’t so sure. Still, where someone like Konrad or Knox were egotistical simply because they thought of everyone as beneath and weaker than them, Selena’s ego was rooted in her own abilities and accomplishments. It was why Deanna refused to rest on her laurels or ‘oversell’ the notion of her year-long reign as the United States champion. Because she knew what a slippery slope it was to go from being ‘confident’ to being ‘narcissistic’ and ‘egotistical’. And there was already one hated Frost woman in SCW. The SCW Universe didn’t need another.

Still… as Deanna returned to her line of reasoning… Selena’s ego was still not as important to her as her family. Of that, small as it was, Deanna could still whole-heartedly believe of the world champion. Which meant that there was no way that the platinum-blonde would risk David’s only chance to stay in the right grade over some lousy competition. Which meant…

She racked her brain… and came up with nothing. Well, what do you expect when your brain is filled with your son, one of your best friends that happens to be bedridden, the mystical fiend-maniac that made her that way, the brute that’s after you and the brute you’re facing this week?!

“Mrs. Frost…” came the small voice. “I think smoke is coming out your ears.”

Yeah, you could have smoke coming out your ears at this rate! Deanna thought before releasing she had heard those words spoken as well, giving her head a shake and returning to the present to focus on the child speaking. “Sorry…what was that?”

“I said I think smoke was coming out of your ears.” Sara repeated herself.
“That would have been cool.” David added with a grin. “Part mom… part robot!” he added a sort of ‘robot impression’ with the last words before breaking into the robot-dance (cherry on top, it seemed). Dorky as it looked, it got a genuine laugh out of Sara.

“So, what are we going to do?” Garrett whine, throwing his arms up, the gesture stretching his red t-shirt. “The math test is tomorrow and we’ve barely studied.”

The three kids looked at one another before David gazed at his mother. “Any chance you can call mom?” he asked.

“I…” Deanna opened her mouth before closing it. Truthfully, she could call Selena, though the Snow Queen’s aforementioned silence continued to make the idea an uneasy one. Still, seeing the children’s faces like that, looking at her…

“I don’t…” she tried. “I don’t think I can call her.” She started. “But…I think I know where we can find her!”

“Really?” Garrett and Sara’s expressions instantly morphed to ones of joy and hope. “Because if she can help us…” Sara explained. “And we pass the math test, it’ll be so much easier to pass summer school!”

“Where is she?” Garrett asked with a tilt of his head.

“Well… you’re not going to believe this but…” Deanna started, only for David to interject.

“In a castle.” He stated. “She lives in a castle in the sky.”
“No way!” Garrett shook his head. “Castles don’t fly!”
“She does too!” David countered.
“Does not!”
“Does too!”
“Does not!”
“Does too!”
“BARK!”

The barking of Oberon, finally remaking his presence known, effectively broke the argument, to which the big, white furball sauntered over to Sara, allowing the small girl to loving pet the dog’s ears and head.

“Good Obi!” she said lovingly.

“Anyway!” Deanna clapped her hands together. “If you kids will follow me to the car, I can take you to where I think Mrs. Frost is.”

“Let’s go!” David rejoiced, sliding on his shows before running back upstairs to grab his math book. Garrett, meanwhile, stared at Deanna with a bit more confusion.

“Now, when you say ‘where Mrs. Frost is’… do you mean-“
“She means Teacher Frost, alright?” Sara sighed in frustration before walking away towards the driveway. Garrett and David followed, leaving Deanna alone there for a moment.

Quick as she could, she ushered Oberon back inside and closed the door. As she grabbed her keys, put on her running shoes, and checked her pocket for her cellphone, she allowed herself a second to contemplate what she was planning to do.

She was going to take three kids, including her son, to a possibly empty house… where the last time she was there, her dog accidentally got poisoned by NX.

Without hesitation, Deanna pulled her cellphone out, using the contact app to quick-dial Selena’s number.

“Hey, it’s me.” She spoke as soon as she heard the answering machine. “Got three of your students here looking for you. I’m coming over…. Hide the NX.”

She hung up the phone and was out of the room within a minute. Another minute later and she, with the three children in tow, were heading off on the roads towards New York City… and the castle in the sky that awaited them…