End of the Year Open Invitational

[Braddock]

1 of 2: cd only giving a little background
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Newham London, England
Fall of 2012
Off Camera
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We look at the television and we see celebrities, athletes, or other well known public figures.  People like Aaron Rodgers, President Barack Obama, and Jennifer Lawrence are beloved by many, and even those that do not like them still have a secret envy to be like them.  We desire to have their same luxurious lifestyle, the same kind of praise heaped upon them, and the same spotlight shining down upon us.  And yet the public face is all that we typically see of these celebrities.  The outward appearance is all we get and never do we get to know what goes on in their lives behind closed doors.  Even in the growing popularity of social media where the lives of famous individuals become more and more public, there is still a great deal of information left unknown.  Perhaps that is for the best because if we did know everything there is to know about our beloved celebrities we would not really want to be like them?

One particular family that is quite famous not just in Great Britain but all over Europe is the Braddock family.  Glenn Braddock was the first and he earned his fame by amounting a sizeable and very impressive undefeated streak as an amateur wrestler and then continued on with his winning ways as a professional.  An injury forced Glenn into early retirement but he trained his daughter, Glory Braddock, to follow in his footsteps and in 2008 she made her professional debut.  In less than two years, Glory Braddock had already done something her own father never could; she won a recognized World Championship. Seeing the success of his oldest daughter, Glenn would pressure his youngest child, 22 year old Julia Braddock, to also follow along in the family trade.  But unlike Glory Braddock who took to the fame and spotlight of wrestling like a duck to water, the younger Julia Braddock has had some hiccups along the way.

Training was never smooth.  Glenn Braddock was a tough, ruthless trainer.  When training, Glenn no longer resembled her loving father.  He more closely resembled a rampaging Godzilla.  Or maybe a more realistic comparison would be Gunnery Sergeant Hartman from Full Metal Jacket.  Things didn’t get much better when she training ended and she finally got down to wrestling.  Glenn did not show nearly as much confidence in Julia as he did Glory.  Early on Julia was confident that she could be, or maybe even was, just as good as her older sister.  But Glenn seemed to dash her confidence at every turn.  For example, Glory was allowed to debut in a major worldwide promotion.  A major worldwide promotion wanted Julia but Glenn wouldn’t allow it.  He forced her to start in a regional independent league, claiming she wasn’t ready for the big time yet.  Her confidence was completely shot and she felt the overwhelming pressure from friends and enemies alike to live up to the Braddock name, to be just as successful as her father and her sister.

This afternoon in Newham the lovely younger sister of Glory Braddock happens to have a rare day off, a day free of training endlessly with her excessively ruthless father and free of trying to live up to the pressures of the Braddock name via in ring success.  How does Julia Braddock spend her free time?  For starters she spends it trying to trying to clear her head and ease the pressure.  But there is only one way she knows to do that and if her family ever knew what she was doing, she would be disowned.

Julia finds herself in a small, run down, motel room.  This is a far cry from where you would expect a popular figure like her to be.  Though she’s not popular, not yet anyway, that success is still to come.  Right now its her family that is popular and successful.  Julia just wants so badly to make them proud.  Instead she sits on an uncomfortable bed in this motel room next to a brunette, about her age, named Charlotte.

“I envy you, Jules.” Charlotte states.

“Envy me?” Julia scoffs. “Your daft.  There’s nothing to envy, Charlotte.  Trust me.”

“Oh come on, mate.  You get to travel the world.  You get to wrestle in so many unique places.”

“I’m stuck in a regional promotion in the Southeastern United States.  Y’know, the Bible Belt?  I hardly do much traveling, love.”

“But you do get to travel with its parent company that IS a worldwide promotion, don’t you?  You travel to watch your sister compete.  But I’m stuck here.  I don’t even know why you keep coming back here.”

“Not exactly have much choices, mate.” Julia says with a chuckle. “Dad trains me here.  Hell, he refuses to set foot on American soil unless absolutely necessary.  So I have to come back here anytime Drill Sergeant Braddock demands my presence for one of his bloodthirsty sessions of hell. And I figure hell, while I’m here why not spend some time with friends?”

Charlotte wraps an arm around Julia’s shoulder. “Well I’m glad you’re here, Jules.  Otherwise it’d just be me and my idiot brother.”

“Your brother isn’t that bad.”

“Of course you’d say that.  You are his girlfriend, after all.” Charlotte says with a knowing wink.

Charlotte Samson’s brother is Jacob Samson.  Jacob and Julia began dating a few months ago.  They met as a result of Julia’s recent habit that she picked up; namely, a drug habit.  Jacob knows how to score significant amounts of drugs and he has shared with his sister and Julia.  Eventually Julia and Jacob grew to have a romantic relationship.  While that relationship has been blossoming, their drug habit has been hurting them in more ways than one.  It has hurt them financially.  They owe money to several drug dealers now.  And as a result, Jacob is finding it more and more difficult to get his hands on drugs.

Julia and Charlotte hear the sound of the door knob turning.  They turn towards the sound and they see the door opening and a brown haired young man entering.  Immediately Julia leaps to her feet and runs to embrace him in a tight hug.

“Jacob!” Their lips meet in a passionate kiss.  Charlotte rolls her eyes.

“Gross.  Will you two quit sucking each other’s tongues out long enough to let me see the stash?”

Braddock and Jacob cease their kissing.  Jacob turns to face his sister with a look of disappointment on his face.  The sigh that follows lets both Julia and Charlotte know that there is no forthcoming stash, at least none that Jacob has with him at the present moment to share with the ladies.

“I didn’t get any yet…”

“What?!” Charlotte snaps at her brother angrily.

“Hey, yo, calm down.  I did find a new source.”

“Great, just what we need, someone else to deal with.” Julia says with a frustrated sigh.

“Let’s face it, Jules, we are running low on funds.  And our old dealers, well, you know as well as I do we haven’t paid them all back yet.  We need new sources.  And this guy seems legit.  He even showed me what he has.”

“So why the bloody hell did you come back here without any of it?”

“Because, Jules, I needed to make sure we had enough money to pay the guy.  We don’t wanna owe any more money do we?”

“Great.  Just great.  You know damn well that we’re low on cash.  You said so yourself.” Julia approaches Jacob, who backs away cautiously, but he backs right into his sister Charlotte.  Jacob turns to face Charlotte who stares him down.

“You had better not be thinking what I think you’re thinking, brother.”

“Hey, I was hoping we’d have the cash, but yeah, just in case we didn’t have any I did offer him an alternative method of payment.”

“You told him Julia or myself would have sex with him in exchange for the drugs, didn’t you?”

Jacob nods his head. “Yeah, that’s what I told him.” Immediately Charlotte rears back and slaps the taste out of her brother’s mouth.

“Fuck you, Jacob.”

“What?!” He exclaims. “It isn’t like you two haven’t done that before!”

“You’re right, we have,” Julia says, sounding exhausted “but I am literally tired of this.  At first it was easy, because I had money.  But now that money is drying up.  Wrestling pays the bills, and on a good night when I win I might get an extra payday that I can use for drugs, but eventually I run out.  I heard it everywhere growing up, about how drugs can be addicting, but I didn’t believe it.   Now here Charlotte and I are prostituting ourselves for drugs.” Braddock shakes her head. “Well I’m not doing it.”

“Please!” Jacob drops to his knees before Julia. “One of you, doesn’t have to be both, just on eof you do it this one more time!”

“You say it’ll be one more time, we say it’ll be just one more time, and then it turns into another time, and another.  When does it end, Jacob?  When?!”

“I don’t know, love.” Jacob shrugs his shoulders.  He rises back up to his feet. “But I’m telling you, this guy has a ton of the good stuff.  And he has promised to give us practically everything he has in exchange for a hot and heavy night with one of my two favorite ladies.”

“Jacob…” Julia’s voice trails off.

“Come on, Jules.  You need it.  I need it.  Charlotte needs it.”

“Jacob, I…” Braddock is fighting back tears because she knows how degrading this is and she doesn’t want to do it but her addiction is making it difficult to say no “...I can’t…”

“Julia, wait…” Charlotte steps in between Julia and Jacob “...Jacob, I’ll do it.  I’ll sleep with this bastard.”

“Great!” Jacob is quite pleased to hear this. “I’ll be right back with his contact information.”

“Julia and I better get the majority of whatever product he has.” Charlotte says angrily.

“You got it, sis.” Jacob says with a wink.  With that Jacob rushes out the door.  Charlotte sighs with frustration.  Then she turns to find Julia Braddock sitting on the edge of the bed, crying in her hands.  Charlotte approaches and sits down next to her.  She wraps an arm around her shoulders to comfort and console her.

“It’s ok, Julia.”

“No, it isn’t.” Julia responds adamantly. “I am a part of a famous wrestling family, already well known all over Europe and quickly becoming popular in America as well. My dad was a champion and was almost an Olympian caliber wrestler.  My sister is a world champion.  And me?  I’m a drug addict.  My addiction is so intense that I was almost willing to prostitute myself out for drugs.”

“See, this is the kinda shit that doesn’t make any bloody sense to me, mate.  You ARE part of a famous family that would take care of you.  So why the hell did you even get started in the first place?”

Braddock scoffs. “Everyone thinks being in a famous family is awesome.  The money and the spotlight…” she shakes her head “...it really isn’t all its cracked up to be.  My dad was already a huge celebrity in Europe.  My sister has already surpassed his achievements. Now I have made my debut and the pressure to live up to such lofty standards has become too much.”

“And the drugs kills the pain…it kills the pressure…” Charlotte asks.  Julia nods her head.

“Yeah.”

“Look, Julia, just go to your family, tell them what’s wrong and let them help you.  You don’t need this god awful life.”

“You think they would understand?  My dad is a bloody perfectionist.  He held my sister to the bar of perfection.  He demanded perfection from her and somehow she managed it…or at least close enough to satisfy him.  But I can’t seem to make him happy.  I can’t seem to live up to that.  If they learned that not only was I unable to live up to their standards in the ring but that I also became a druggie?” Julia shakes her head. “They wouldn’t understand.  None of them would.”

“Isn’t there another way you can escape this?  I can tell this is hell for you.”

“Well there is another way.  But it isn’t easy. There is a woman I know back in the states named Aphrodite Noel.  She is my frenemy and also tag team partner.”

“Frenemy?” Charlotte furrows her brow in confusion. “What the hell does that mean?”

“Well we’re not exactly friendly.  But we are partners, she holds up her end of the bargain and I hold up my end.  But she is quite the bully, she tries to be intimidating, all because she is hell bent on proving her superiority to me.  Just because my last name is Braddock makes her want to prove her superiority to me.  Well Aphrodite somehow found out about my drug addiction.”

“Damn.” Charlotte remarks. “Did she blackmail you with it?”

“At first she threatened to. But then she changed her tune.  She offered help; legitimate, genuine help.  She’s willing to pay off the drug dealers we’ve gotten involved with and pay to get me rehabilitated and off drugs for good.”

“That sounds like a bang on deal.  I’d take it.”

“But there’s a catch.” Julia wipes tears from her eyes. “I would be in debt to Aphrodite and she expects to be paid back.  But she doesn’t want money.  She wants me to work it off by becoming her servant, and Aphrodite would become my Queen and ruler.  I would become her personal bitch in front of god and everybody.”

“So you either tell your family and humiliate yourself that way, take her deal and get humbled that way, or you stay stuck in this hell?”

“That’s my options.” Julia nods her head.

“Honestly, whatever option you take, it’s better than staying in this hell.  We both knew that there would be consequences by getting involved in this world.  My damn fool of a brother is apparently the only one oblivious to the eventual consequences we all will have to face.  My advice, Julia, is to go ahead and face the consequences.  Either way you’re going to have to face some consequences of your actions.  And by the sounds of it, both ways you get help.  Both ways you escape all this.”

“You’re right.  If I tell my family maybe I can avoid dealing with Aphrodite but how do I know they’ll help?  They may disown me for all I know.  Aphrodite is at least a guaranteed help, even if it means temporarily being her bitch for a few weeks or months or whatever.”

“So what are you thinking?”

Julia sighs. “All hail my new queen…”