Butting Heads With A Butthead (Gina RP v Rebecca Saint)

I

Gina Carelli winced as her best friend pulled her by the arm, dragging her towards the row of metal lockers lining up the nearby wall.

'What's the big idea, Mandy? You tryin' to break my arm or somethin'?' The youngster gave her friend a baleful look, rubbing the area Amanda Fratelli had tugged at a moment previously. The second girl, however, simply shrugged.

She pointed at the spot the two had been occupying a moment previously, through which a tall, athletic couple now strode. Both partners were clad in athletic gear – the girl in a cheerleading outfit, the boy in a football jersey – but their demeanors and expressions were diametrically contrasting; where the blonde wore a smirk of triumph on her features, her escort simply seemed befuddled and powerless. Despite his efforts to keep step with his companion, he was not so much walking arm-in-arm as being dragged along by the haughty blonde.

'Hey!' Gina leant forward slightly, squinting as if to make sure her eyes were not deceiving her. 'Waitaminnit! What's Jared Phillips doin' with Nicole Van Peet? I thought he was datin' Hayley!'

She had barely finished formulating this thought when a third character appeared, pacing rapidly down the hall after the power couple. In stark contrast to the blonde's ice-queen demeanor, this girl – herself clad in a black and red Trenton Central Tornadoes cheerleading outfit -  wore a distraught expression, her cheeks flustered and her manner agitated.

'Nicki', she cried. 'What are you doing?'

The blonde turned to face her interloper, giving her the sort of quizzical look usually reserved to things which have only just entered one's mind.

The ice-queen's casual tone seemed to further incense her team-mate, who pointed at the boy with a trembling finger. 'What...are you doing...with Jared?!'

The surprised expression on Nicole's face indicated that she either had not considered her actions up until this point, or was highly adept at pretending not to.

'Oh', she exclaimed, 'That!' She let out a forced giggle. 'Well, honey, you know Scott and I broke up...and you know when you break up with a boy, you gotta make them jealous...' She smirked. 'So I'm making him jealous.'

'With my boyfriend?!?!' The second girl's tone indicated that she was having a very hard time seeing her friend's side of the equation.

'Oh.' Nicole's face suddenly took on a devastated expression. 'Oh.' She turned towards her companion. 'JARED! You said you'd tell her!'

'...tell me what?' The second cheerleader's voice wavered, causing the boy to step forward urgently.

'...he's not your boyfriend anymore', Nicole cut in, her tone as cutting as a polished steel blade. 'He's with me now.'

'No way', the boy immediately protested. 'That ain't what you said, Nicki. You said it wasn't gonna be for real! You said it was gonna be just for sh--'

The boy's words were muffled as the blonde leant forward, kissing him square on the lips as she cast the second girl a venomous look. The boy pushed her away in disgust, turning pleadingly towards his real girlfriend, but it was too late – the girl had taken off down the hallway, bawling.

'What the hell, Nicole?!' The boy's eyes all but let off sparks as he rounded up on his escort.

'Whatever', the girl shrugged. 'You said it was okay.'

'To walk down the hall with you', the boy roared. 'I never said nothin' 'bout kissin'!'

'Sucks to be you', Nicole retorted. 'When I pay someone to help me, I expect full service.'

'Well, you ain't getting it from me again', Jared said, making those his final words as he turned away from Nicole and hurried off down the hallway after his girlfriend. The cheerleader seemed unaffected, simply shrugging as she prepared to go about her day; someone else, however, had other ideas.

Nicole van Peet turned to see a thin ball of righteous fury stalking her way.

'That was crummy, Nicole', Gina Carelli said, jabbing her finger into her fellow cheerleader's chest. 'You knew Jared was datin' Hayley!'

'So?' The disgust in Nicole's eyes as she looked down at Gina's finger was matched only by that in her voice. 'What's it to you, Duh-relli?'

'Ain't nothin' to me', Gina retorted. ''Cept that was ya best friend, an' you were crummy to her for no reason!'

'Yeah, well...' Nicole shrugged. 'She didn't need to send me hate like that.'

'Yeah, well, you didn't have to make her cry, neither', Gina said, not losing a step to her interloper. 

'Ugh', the blonde sneered. 'Drama alert! Why are you being such a hater, anyway? Hayley isn't even your friend!'

'Well, I don't like to see nobody getting treated that way', the brunette stated in return. Then, turning to her friend, she added: 'C'mon, Mandy. Let's go find Hayley an' see if she needs anythin'.'

With that, she began to stalk down the hallway, in the direction Hayley and then her boyfriend had gone. She had not taken more than a few steps, however, before she turned back towards Nicole, her finger once again outstretched.

'Oh, an' by the way', she said. 'If I knew you were gonna be a butthead to Hayley, I wouldn't'a tried to help you when you broke up with Scott. Next time, find someone else to talk to!'

Then, gesturing for her best friend to follow her, she once again started down the corridor, a few dozen fellow students' eyes following her as she set off in search of the betrayed girl.

II

They found Hayley and Jared in an empty classroom, sitting close together on a table. Whatever attrition there might have been between the two seemed to have passed, but Hayley's eyes were still puffy, and her cheeks flustered, as she clung on to her boyfriend.

'Oh, gosh', she said, as she saw her two fellow cheerleaders enter. 'D-d-don't come in here!'

Gina, however, did the exact opposite, stepping further into the room and addressing Jared:

'She's gonna be', Jared said, nodding. 'We talked.'

'That's good', Gina said, nodding herself. 'You should talk to ya girlfriend when you guys fight!'

'S-s-stupid Nicole', Hayley sobbed. 'What a b-b-b--'

'—butthead', Gina pre-empted. 'Yeah. She is.'

'I never agreed to no kissin', y'know', Jared hurriedly put in. 'We was just gonna make Scott jealous! An' I only did it 'cause she gave me fifty dollars...'

'It's okay', Gina cut in. 'I know it was all her idea. I was just worried 'bout you guys!'

'We're gonna be fine', Jared said, looking down at his girlfriend fondly. 'Ain't we, babe? We're stronger'n' that, right?'

Hayley nodded, sniffling, and Gina grinned. After another moment, however, a stern expression retuned to her features as she pointed the Finger of Judgement at Jared:

Jared seemed uncomfortable with the telling off from the cheerleader, but eventually nodded.

'Yeah it was', Gina said. 'Glad you agree with me.'

Then, she once again grabbed Mandy by the sleeve, beginning to lead her out of the classroom and back towards the still-bustling school hallway.

'C'mon, Mandz', she said. 'They need some time alone.'

Before the two of them had completely exited the room, however, Gina stuck her head back in the door to add a few parting words:

Jared nodded, and the brunette once again began to make her way out of the classroom. Two simple words, however, halted her in her tracks, and brought a genuine grin to her features.

III

Amanda Fratelli gasped as she took in the events of VoW Breakthrough #43. On the screen of the laptop she shared with her room-mate, up-and-coming Visionary Kelsey Spencer had just been dismissed as a partner by the woman she had, until then, called her friend and mentor, Rebecca Saint, in front of thousands of paying viewers.

'She did', her best friend confirmed, forlornly. 'She totally did.'

'—butthead', Gina pre-empted quickly. 'Yeah, she is. A major one.'

'And she's found religion?! Is that what's goin' on?!' Mandy was growing increasingly perplexed.

Gina shook her head vehemently. 'No way. God doesn't tell you to be a jerk to your friends. You should know that. Whatever she found, it wasn't religion, baby!'

'I swear', Mandy said, shaking her head herself. 'What is it with some people?'

'An' somehow, they all seem to end up in wrestlin'', Mandy mused.

Gina seemed poised to reply, but before she could put a word in edgewise, both girls' attention was drawn to Mandy's pocket, where her cellphone had emitted the familiar e-mail chime. Its proprietor hurriedly fished it out of her pocket and unlocked it, peering at the small screen.

'All right', she enthused, 'it's the new VoW card! Let's go see if you're in it!'

The two hurriedly logged out of the Visionaries of Wrestling website and accessed Mandy's e-mail address, to where the company sent each new card. They clicked on the freshly-received e-mail, holding their breaths...

...only to let them out a moment later, as their jaw dropped.

'No way', Gina said.

'No way', Mandy said.

'I'm seein' what you're seein' and I can't believe it.'

Gina suddenly drew her eyes away from the screen to look at her partner, a grin on her features and a twinkle in her eye. No words were needed to convey the message to Mandy – the non-wrestling half of the duo promptly returned a grin of her own.

'Go get dressed, Gigi', she said. 'I'll go get the camera.'

IV

'Hold on a minute, Geeg!' Amanda Fratelli buried herself deeper in Gina's father's old VHS camera. 'I think I know what's wrong!'

She flicked her hand deftly inside one of the camera's many compartments, and the device whirred to life, going through the familiar sequence of adjustments which indicated it was ready for use.

'All right!' Gina punched the air, whooping delightedly, and even Mandy couldn't suppress a grin.

'That was a close call', she observed. 'I really thought it was broken. I was scared there for a minute...'

'Yeah.' Mandy grinned, visibly proud of her own repairing abilities. 'Anyway, you ready?'

'I was born ready, Mandy baby', Gina retorted. Mandy chuckled as she took her usual place behind the camera and held up four fingers, in the now-familiar pre-video countdown routine.

The last two fingers came down silently, as they always did, and Gina wasted no time starting her address.

The youth removed her trademark neon-coloured shutter shades, revealing an unusually stern expression.

Gina leaned forward, her tone imbued with a different intensity than usual.

Gina's glare hardened as her tone went up yet another notch.

The youngster sought to compose herself, but it was clearly a struggle. Still, she managed to sound only moderately angry as she continued:

Even Mandy could not help but gasp at the genuine display of anger from the perennially peppy Neon Princess. Gina, however, showed no signs of relenting as she continued.

The youth stopped a moment, for effect, before proceeding:

The first genuine smile since the video had started rolling flourished on Gina's lips.

Gina's gaze once again became more serious.

Gina leaned forward again, bringing a fist up in front of her face as she concluded:

With that, and without even waiting for her friend's order to 'cut', Gina hopped off her and Mandy's living room couch and made for her bedroom. A flabbergasted Mandy barely reacted as her friend patted her on the shoulder, and it took her several seconds to collect herself enough to where she could start putting away the filming equipment. As she did so, she could not help but feel a pang of admiration for Rebecca Saint; after all, despicable though she might be, she had managed to do something many had tried and failed to do in the past.

She had made Gina legitimately angry.

And that, in itself, was a feat.