THE QUEEN'S GAME

Chapter 1

"Breathe. Just breathe." The timid girl from North Carolina curled into herself. This would be her first time in front of a crowd this huge. This would be her first time without her support system behind her. This would be her first time being fed to the wolves.
"You're up, new girl." The snide comments of one of the stagehands shook her out of her rapidly depressing thoughts. She wouldn't let these people deter her from her goal to be the best.
"I was born for this. I'm supposed to be here." With her eyes clamped shut, she repeated it until the words were etched into her brain.
"New girl." She felt a tap on her shoulder. Shrugging off the unwanted physical contact, she faced the woman vying for her attention. "You have to get out there. They don't like it when you're not standing at the curtain."
Staring at the seemingly oblivious woman, she held her head up and threw her shoulders back. "The name is Charlotte, and I know exactly where I'm supposed to be."
Moving to her place at the curtain, she could hear the chatter of the woman she'd come to know as Ivory standing with a blonde by the name of Terri whispering how she'd never make it in this business. They said her attitude would get the better of her. It was ironic given the fact that they were in the middle of what was dubbed the Attitude Era.
As the end of Who I Am loomed, Charlotte swallowed hard and waited. It seemed like an eternity until the music she'd handpicked and witnessed the mixing of started. She was surprised to hear a crowd pop if this magnitude. Was it all for her? Of course not, they didn't know her, not yet. But they would.
Pushing through the curtain, Charlotte saw the surprised looks from the crowd, and when she thought all was confirmed for them, her name was announced. The city of Fort Lauderdale Miami was the first crowd ever to see Charlotte live, and hearing the chants for her, the applause, she vowed to make it one of their most memorable.
All the way down the ramp, Charlotte could feel her heart about to beat out of her chest. This was as electrifying as she'd heard. The energetic crowd fed her soul. This was truly where she was meant to be.
Through the ropes and into the ring, Charlotte stood there in awe of the moment. Her opponent, Chyna,  looked aggravated. Maybe it was her nerves, or maybe the fact that she'd be facing a veteran of this caliber, but a shiver raced through her and quickly dissipated. 
It wasn't until she was standing nose to nose with the woman that would either make or break her debut until she reeled herself in.
"Just follow my lead." A mic was placed in her opponents hand, and Charlotte watched as a chain of events that would guide the rest of her career unfolded.
"They said you were something to see, but here I am wondering why."
It's kayfabe. It's kayfabe. Charlotte had to keep reminding herself of this. This scripted world was new to her.
Handing her a mic, the sweetest person she had met thus far, Lilian Garcia, nodded and encouraged her to speak in front of their max capacity sold out crowd.
"Now is that so?" Charlotte spoke with venom dripping from her words. She was instructed to decimate on the mic as a heel would, but ultimately she would be a face. At least until people were used to her.
"Yeah. They go on in the back, genetically superior this—second nature that. All I see is a girl who rode someone else's coattails to get here."
"I'm here because I'm the best." Charlotte was amazed when the crowd cheered. Chyna was a heel, she was used to getting booed. "I'm here because I'm your match. I'm here because you deserve to be silenced once and for all."
"Silenced? So daddy's little girl is going to silence me? What are you going to do, strut on me?"
"I'm going to end you. You've made a mockery of this women's division by spanking your opponents. I'd like to see you TRY to spank me."
"I'll do more than try, Charlotte."
"That's Charlotte Flair to you."
As if a bomb was detonated, the crowd began to react. Up until this very moment, only a handful of people knew Charlotte's full identity. She'd stayed away from this profession most of her life, only coming to events in the crowd to support her father, sixteen time world wrestling champ Ric Flair, but now this was her moment.
Charlotte threw her mic to the ground after her declaration and Chyna locked up with her, grabbing a handful of her newly dyed blonde hair. With a toss of her body, Charlotte felt herself fly across the ring. That hurt.
The match was intense, Charlotte didn't feel like she was at the best of her ability. She missed a few hits, went early on a few falls, but Chyna never made her feel bad. She could hear the counting of each new movement, and soon, she found her stride.
Eventually, the match felt as easy as breathing, and the crowd noticed. What started off as lukewarm cheers turned into pandemonium. Landing her signature handspring back elbow, Chyna and the crowd thought she had it won. Charlotte was down and out until her father's words rang in her head—well a simulation of them—anyway. To be the woman you have to beat the woman. She had to win.
Pulling herself from the floor of the ring, Charlotte staggered to her feet and cracked her neck. She wasn't done. She wasn't a quitter. She wouldn't lose.
Running at a stunned Chyna, it became clear to both women, this would be Charlotte's moment to make her mark in Monday night Raw. Her opportunity to show all the people watching that she was more than a pretty face or the daughter of wrestling royalty. She would live up to the name bestowed upon her.
Catching Chyna in a heart stopping spear, Charlotte watched as a woman who had been one of her biggest inspirations in this company fell to the ground. Pinning her, she heard the ref count one, two, three, and the crowd started to boo as her music hit. In that moment she felt a magnitude of things.
Shame, embarrassment, but above all else she felt unworthy. Maybe Vince had been right in telling her this was no place for her. She'd all but told him she wouldn't do the things the divas before her had. She refused to be one of the props. She wanted to be a serious wrestler, it's why she had all but begged to face Chyna as her first real match.
Chyna was one of the only women who didn't cower to the pressure and participate in the degrading matches the company had forced upon the other women. Maybe she had overestimated her talent and underestimated the fact that she was only a woman in this business of dominant males.
Attempting to walk to the back with her head held high, Charlotte got as far as the entrance before she heard the conversations backstage.
"No wonder she was handed all this training and spotlight. She's Flair's kid." A few of the women were standing in a group, and rather than let them see her upset, she ducked around a corner. She was only there a few seconds before a pair of arms wrapped around her.
"You were great, kid." Hunter. He'd been her father's friend, she'd known him since she was a kid. He was older, but he'd always been nice to her. Mostly.
Shaking her head, finally allowing her hidden tears to fall, Charlotte broke down. "I messed up so many moves. I wasn't that good, and I can't believe they let me beat her. The crowd booed me."
"Chyna is the be of the best and you hung in there with her. You beat her. That takes a lot of guts, kid. And they didn't boo you."
"You heard it. Everyone heard it. All of Florida could hear them."
"You don't get it do you? Did you pay attention to any of your dad's matches?" He pulled out a video recorder and played a few seconds back for her. "Those weren't boos, they were wooing for you. You're Flair's kid. Wooing is their way of cheering you."
Puzzled, Charlotte stared at the tape harder, wondering why he'd recorded her when the show would be televised. Her dad hadn't been able to make it, he hated it too. Maybe it had been for him.
"You recorded my match?"
"Well, Yeah. I said you did good, not great. You're going to need to watch this to learn what areas you need work on. Training is critical to getting to where you want to be."
"You're going to train me?"
"Well, no, but I got you someone great to help." He said the words and Chyna rounded the corner. He smiled and kissed the side of her head. "Hey. Right on time. I was showing her the tape."
"Good. We have work to do. That was a good first match, but we want more than good, right?"
"Right." Charlotte was confused but eager to learn. From all she'd heard, Chyna wasn't a big people person. She tended to keep to herself in the locker room. Or at least that's what the gossip that floated around the company said.
Hunter bowed out and left them alone, and Charlotte saw the way Chyna smiled at him as he sauntered down the hall.
"You guys dating?"
"He's a good friend, but no. I have a feeling he's interested in someone else." Charlotte shrugged and looked around the long hall.
"I wouldn't know. I hadn't seen him in years before all this. Well except once. He's friends with my dad, but I don't know him as this. This guy is new to me. I still think of him as Paul, not that hateful brute they show on tv every week."
"I'm sure you're new to him too, and he totally embraces that hateful brute, we all have to embrace who they want us to be because we rarely get to be ourselves. So why didn't you tell anyone you were Flair's kid?"
"I didn't want special treatment," Charlotte laughed.
"Well even though you don't want it, get ready for everything you earn to be regarded as a perk of being his daughter. I don't envy you one bit. These people here—just watch yourself. They will smile at you while stabbing you in the back."
"You have a lot of experience in that area?"
"Too much." Chyna was very candid about her issues. "My last relationship ended in a way that wasn't pleasant, and before I could even dry my tears and pull myself up, a person I thought was my friend told every woman in that locker room the intimate details of our split. Rather than hear my business splashed all over this company, I keep to myself now. It's been the only thing keeping me sane."
"But you and Pau—Hunter seem close. How does that work?"
"Hunter has also been a topic of discussion around here. He knows exactly how I feel." Chyna stepped back and looked her up and down. "Not what I expected."
"What, me?"
"Yeah," She laughed. "I thought you'd be more of a brunette."
"I used to have darker hair," Charlotte admitted, "They wanted me to go blonde."
"Figures. They want everyone to go blonde and then they want everyone in a bikini. Have they had that talk with you yet?"
"Yeah, and I comprised with the hair, but the only way they're getting me into a bikini is somewhere on a beach with a Mai Tai in my hand."
Chyna laughed. This was the first time Charlotte saw Chyna amused by any part of their conversation. "I'm going to like you. This could be fun."
"I'm really glad Hunter got us together. He must have known I'd need a friend."
"Everyone needs one in this company."
"Trust me, I know. I'm already the blonde bimbo who's famous last name and fake breasts got her into the building."
"Who said that?"
"Terri, Ivory, and probably whoever else they have encountered on the way to the back. They don't really like me very much."
"Well they're about to hate you even more."
"Why?"
"Because by the end of the year you're going to be women's champ."
"That's yours, I really couldn't."
"Why do you think I asked for you? I wanted to be your first match because I wanted to establish our rivalry onscreen."
The weeks of agonizing about if she'd picked the right opponent for her first match had been for nothing, Charlotte realized. It was the plan all along, her destiny to face Chyna. It was funny how life worked out.
"I don't understand..."
"I love what I do, but I know my talents lie elsewhere. Being intercontinental champion is my dream. I've done it before and now I want to win a Royal Rumble."
"They don't have a women's Royal Rumble."
"I know. I want to win the men's."
Charlotte was blown away. "That's a tall order."
"The one thing you should never do is sell yourself short. We're too good for that."
Charlotte nodded and let Chyna's words soak in. She was absolutely right. They could do anything as long as they pushed each other.
"Thank you." Charlotte smiled incredulously and Chyna scratched her head.
"For?"
"The help, the advice, you name it."
"Don't mention it. In fact, don't thank me yet. My kind of training isn't like most. I hope you're up to the challenge."
"I'm ready." Charlotte had become surprisingly sure of herself.
"I hope so."
Chyna walked away, and Charlotte stood there reflecting. This was her first big test, she felt as if she passed. Things were falling into place, well almost.
She now had a sum total of two friends, Chyna and Hunter— well that's if she could truly call Hunter a friend. He'd helped her with Chyna, but was it just as a favor to her dad? He'd disappeared not soon after introducing them, like he'd done once before, so she couldn't be sure.
Rounding the corner to head into the locker room and grab her things before heading to her hotel room, she stopped upon hearing voices. When she heard her name, her ears became much more focused on the conversation around her.
"What are you doing with that?" The first voice was one she couldn't put a name to, but the second she'd heard earlier in the night, Terri.
"I just want to see what daddy's little whore packs in her precious little bag."
Charlotte could hear items hitting the ground and drew In a deep breath when she heard the other woman's voice reprimand Terri.
"This isn't funny, what has she done to you? All she's done is have one match."
"Don't you get it? She thinks she's better than us. You of all people should be worried. Another blonde inflatable should be threatening to you. I heard what she said about us to Vince. She called us pieces of meat and demanded to have real matches unlike ours."
"She's good," The other woman admitted, and Charlotte felt a smile creep to her lips. "If she wants to get out of these ridiculous storylines they give us then we should applaud her."
"She wants to upstage us, and I'll be damned. We all put in the work. We dealt with Vince and his sleazy storylines and matches, she's not going to come in here and take everything we built."
Just when Charlotte was ready to charge around the corner and give Terri a piece of her mind, she heard another voice join the conversation.
"What are you doing with her bag? Never mind, put it down."
"Adam," Teri spoke "I was just..."
"Just being an epic bitch," he interrupted. "It ends here."
He snatched the bag and Charlotte walked around the corner, surprising all three people in the room.
"Thank you." She removed the bag from his hand. "I'll be going now. Wouldn't want to miss my call with daddy."
She stormed out of the room but heard someone running behind her, calling her name,
When the out of breath woman stopped behind her, Charlotte slowed down to hear her out.
"I'm sorry she did that. I don't know what's gotten into the women here." She held her hand out. "I'm Trish."
"I know who you are." Charlotte smiled. "You've been the women's champion more times than I can count."
"And you could easily be next, you're amazing. I wanted to tell you that after your match, but you were a little busy."
"Thank you."
"No thanks necessary. I just wanted to say I'm sorry for the things she said and to wish you well."
"I appreciate that."
Trish turned to walk away but stopped. "You and Hunter, what's the deal there?"
"Hunter? Nothing. What do you mean?"
"Nothing, he was just super focused on your match, he never took his eyes off the monitor back here. At first I thought it was because of Joan, but when she knocked you down and you took a while to get up he ran to the curtain. I've never seen him watch any of the other women's matches."
"He's friends with my dad. He probably asked Hunter to watch out for me."
"Maybe that's it." Trish shrugged. "Besides you've definitely caught Adam's eye. He was ready to rip Terri's head off over your bag."
"Adam?"
"Edge. I forgot," she laughed. "I mostly call people by real names off camera. It get's confusing."
"But you call Paul Hunter."
"For the longest time I thought Hunter was his real name."
"Right." Charlotte agreed. "Well thank you again, and I'll see you in the ring, I guess."
"You will." Trish walked away, and Charlotte shook off the ridiculous notions of anything but her career. A man wasn't in the cards anytime soon. Especially not Hunter—Paul or whatever the hell he wanted to call himself here.