Jones Family Curse

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Off Camera

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It’s safe to say that every bride wants the perfect wedding.  The groom, quite frankly, just wants it to be over with but the bride wants everything to go off without a hitch; no problems, no issues, no troubles.  Unfortunately, things rarely ever go off “without a hitch” in this crazy world we call reality.  The truth is that Murphy’s Law all too often proves accurate: if something can go wrong, it will go wrong.  In a way, the groom has the right idea: just get through the wedding and hope for the best.  But try telling that to all of the blushing brides who want perfection and especially the mother of the brides, who at times, can be just as “bridezilla” as the bride and want perfection for their little girl about to embark upon this crazy journey of wedded bliss.

Angelica Jones wanted perfection for her daughters, Marie Annabelle Jones and Corey Jones.  The two sisters had been engaged to their respective boyfriends, Arthur Pond and Kyle Butler, at around the same time and the matriarch of the Jones Family thought it would be spectacular to host a joint wedding ceremony to celebrate both girls.  Corey, who had always been close to her older sister Marie, also thought it was a great idea.

Truthfully, it was a great idea on paper.  The next generation of Jones women would be married to the loves of their lives.  As for Angelica, she just hoped that this ceremony would be the only marriage they would have.  She didn’t want her children to go through the relationship problems she had during her life, a tumultuous life that involved multiple lovers and multiple marriages, none of which panned out for Angelica Jones.  Angelica once had a romantic relationship with Sean Williams and after that a relationship with the man who trained her to be a pro-wrestler.  Later on she married Andreas Lasiewicz, a fellow pro-wrestler.  When that marriage failed she had a romantic involvement and eventually married fellow pro-wrestler Sean McBride.  After that she was romantically involved with Brittany Lohan.  Now she’s married to Lindsey Carter and who is to know if that will actually last?

Kayla Jones was just as ecstatic about this wedding as Angelica.  Kayla Jones, like her sister, has not had a sparkling record when it comes to relationships.  Her first and thus far only marriage was to Jason Redfield but that marriage didn’t last.  Kayla had a romantic involvement with none other than Andreas Lasiewicz, Angelica’s old flame, but that, too, did not last.  Now Kayla is romantically involved with GCW superstar Trenton Snow.

Ultimately she, like Angelica, wants Marie and Corey to have the one thing they never had: a lasting relationship and a true fairy tale ending.  Angelica wants it especially because they are her children.  Kayla, though, feels that same kind of connection to Marie and Corey.  Kayla always wanted to be a mother and yet, for the longest time, she never had any children.  She had to live her motherhood dreams vicariously through Angelica.  Thus, she grew connected to Marie and Corey, almost as if they were her children too.  And this wedding of Marie Jones to Arthur Pond and Corey Jones to Kyle Butler was supposed to be perfect.  It was supposed to be a celebration of wedded bliss.

Murphy’s Law came back to bite them in the ass.  If something can go wrong, it will go wrong, and it did go wrong in spades as the eldest child and eldest bride, Marie Annabelle Jones, for reasons still unknown to the family, freaked out during the wedding march and ran out of the church. Marie tripped over her white wedding gown, fell down, and hit her head.  She knocked herself unconscious as a result.

This is definitely not how Angelica had planned for this wedding, the wedding of her children, to go down.  She had wanted perfection and she wanted a grand spectacle because she felt her children deserved it.  Instead what the Jones family got was chaos and insanity.

Kayla, for her part, feels equally as bad, and not just for the children whose wedding day was turned into an utter madhouse.  Kayla also feels bad for her own sister Angelica.  She knows how important this was to Kayla.  She knows how badly Angelica wanted this to work out.  And she can tell, looking across at her sister in the waiting room of the hospital, that Angelica is about to snap.

That’s right, no reception for the Jones Family.  It had to be canceled.  All that money wasted and all of those guests sent home.  All of the planning and preparation was pointless.  And now Angelica and Kayla are here in the waiting room of a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

At least the waiting room is rather comfortable.  The floor has light carpeting , colored a thin brown mocha color.  In the center of the waiting area are several red cushioned chairs sitting back to back.  Against a wall is one single sofa, also colored that same red as the chairs.

Kayla and her older sibling Angelica find themselves on the sofa.  Due to the fact that they had to rush over here immediately after the chaos from the wedding, they had no time to change and are still wearing their dresses.  Angelica is wearing a jacket dress that features three-fourth inch sleeve embroidered lace jacket with an open front.  The dress gown itself is sleeveless and has a scalloped hem.  The skirt falls to ankle length.  Her feet are encased in high heeled sandals which are the same color of pink as the jacket dress.  Kayla is wearing a V-Neck A-Line silhouette empire waist royal blue dress with a skirt that falls to just below the knee.  Her feet are encased in black peep toe high-heeled pumps.

The waiting room is nearly empty with the exception of Angelica and Kayla and a few others sitting in the opposite end of the room.  This is a good thing, Kayla realizes, for she stares at her older sister and the look on her face tells the story that she is boiling over.  And yet while Kayla stares at Angelica, Angelica is not staring back.  Angelica is staring unblinkingly at the door where they expect the doctor to emerge anytime now with news of Marie.

“Sis…are you ok?”

Kayla is quiet and cautious as she tries to break the ice.  Angelica has been silent ever since they sat down several minutes ago and it’s becoming quite disconcerting, to be perfectly frank.  Kayla needs to know if Angelica is fine.

“…”

“Huh?”

Angelica had said something, she muttered something very quietly under her breath but Kayla couldn’t make it out.  Angelica repeats herself, again very quietly…

“…”

Kayla sighs and shakes her head.

“I can’t hear you, sis.  You need to speak up.”

The elder Jones turns to face Kayla and if looks could kill, the rage in Angelica’s eyes would kill Kayla on the spot.

“WHAT ABOUT NOW?!  CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?!”

The receptionist at the front desk of the waiting room as well as the other guests at the opposite end of the waiting room all turn and stare at Angelica and Kayla.  Obviously Angelica’s outburst was enough to draw their attention.  Kayla slaps her forehead and shakes her head out of embarrassment.  Angelica takes in a deep breath and sighs to try and calm down.  Kayla looks back up at her sister and frowns.

“Angelica Jones…are you ok?”

Angelica shakes her head.

“No, I’m not ok.”

Kayla is thankful that Angelica is at least whispering now.

“We don’t need this, Kayla.  We just do not need this right now.”

“I know, but…”

Angelica shakes her head and interrupts her before she can get her thought out.

“…no, Kayla, you don’t know.  We have been busting our collective asses for how long now ever since Autumn Valentine and Gable Winchester took those tag titles from us?  How long has it been?  And now finally we have our opportunity to get the belts back at Taking Hold of the Flame.”

She points to herself and then to Kayla.

“Hell, you or me could win the Taking Hold of the Flame battle royal.  We could go on to Rise To Greatness and wrestle for the world title.  But we need to be focused, we need to be ready.”

She points towards the door where soon the doctor will emerge.

“Instead of focusing and preparing for what could be the biggest night of our lives, we are here, dealing with my daughter who decided to freak out on her wedding day like a little child!”

Angelica does speak some truth here.  From a wrestler’s perspective this could not have happened at a worse time.  Angelica and Kayla, arguably due to their own shenanigans, have had to jump through hoops and overcome obstacles in order to earn their rematch for the SCW World Tag Team Championship.  And yet finally they earned that opportunity by defeating Winchester and Valentine on an edition of Breakdown.  Now they would get the chance to win back the SCW World Tag Team Championships at Taking Hold of the Flame.

It’s been a goal of theirs ever since they lost the tag team titles back in November of 2015 at Final Level.  It’s been a goal that has eluded them due to distractions such as Angelica’s entrance in The Shot of Adrenaline Tournament and Kayla Jones chasing the United States and Television Championships.  Now the opportunity to redeem themselves and win back the gold they wanted so badly is finally here and Angelica realizes that they have to make the most of it.  She realizes that they may not get another opportunity after this one.

Kayla knows that her sister speaks the truth as well.  But perhaps Angelica took things a bit too far?  Kayla thinks so, at least, and she lets her sister know with a hard slap across the face, which yet again, draws the stares of the receptionist and the other visitors.  But by now, Kayla doesn’t really care.

“Do NOT talk about Marie like that.”

There is a tense stare down between Angelica and Kayla.  Eventually, the matriarch of the Jones family realizes that her younger sibling is right.  Angelica she sighs and nods her head.

“Ok…you’re right…I…”

Tears begin to form in her eyes.  Angelica reaches up and starts to wipe them from her eyes.

“...I’m sorry.”

Kayla leans forward and embraces her older sister in a tight hug.  Angelica buries her face in Kayla’s dress and cries.  Kayla pats her gently on the back in an attempt to comfort her.

“It’s ok, Angel.  It’s ok…”

“No…”

She looks up at Kayla, her eyes now red from the crying.

“…no, it’s not ok.”

“Angelica…”

Angelica shakes her head as she again interrupts Kayla.

“No, it’s not ok.  I mean, don’t you see?  This is the curse.”

“What curse?”

“Jones women are just never meant to be happy.  How many different guys have you and I been with and we still haven’t found Mr. Right?”

Kayla grins.

“I think Trenton is pretty right…”

She points at Angelica.

“…and you seem happy with Lindsey.”

“Yeah, a marriage that was based upon deceit, lies, and trickery.  Sure, we may have worked things out, but how long do you really expect a marriage based upon lies to last?”

Kayla rolls her eyes.

“For starters, there is no such thing as a curse, Angelica.  So quit being damned foolish.  Secondly, you’re right, you and I haven’t had the best of luck with relationships, but guess what?”

“What?”

“Marie and Corey are NOT you and they are not me.  They are their own people.  And to be honest with you, I think they’ve grown up and matured into great, independent young women.”

Angelica sighs as she reaches up and wipes some more tears from her eyes.

“I guess you’re right but…”

She shakes her head.

“…I just want things to be different for them, you know?  And after what happened today, with Marie freaking out, I am so worried now that…that…”

Kayla holds up her right hand to silence Angelica.

“Hush.  I know you want them to have better than what we had and so do I.  But Marie and Corey are grown women and it is their time to make these decisions.  And if you ask me, I think they’ll do great.

“Do you…do you really think so?”

Kayla grins.

“I know so.”

Angelica now is the one who leans forward and embraces Kayla in a tight hug.

“Thanks, Kayla…I don’t know what I would do without you…”

Kayla snickers after breaking the embrace.

“You’d be dead or locker up one.”

Angelica frowns.

“Not funny…”

“It’s true.”

Angelica sighs.

“Hey, on the bright side Corey didn’t have any issues.  It’s only Marie.”

“Speaking of Corey, why isn’t she here?”

“She was a little shaken up by the whole thing, so she and Kyle went home.”

Kayla is about to speak when, out of the corner of her eye, she spots the door opening.  A man in a white lab coat, a Carolina blue button up shirt on underneath, and light brown khakis, emerge from the door.  He has a stoic expression on his face as he walks over towards Angelica and Kayla.  The two sisters, realizing that the time they’ve been waiting for has come, stand up to meet him halfway.

“Angelica and Kayla Jones?”

Kayla nods her head.

“Yeah, that’s us.”

“What’s wrong with my daughter?  Where’s her husband?”

The doctor motions back to the door.

“Mr. Pond is still back there with his wife.”

“And what about Marie?”

“Ms. Jones suffered no concussion.  In fact, other than a few minor scratches and bruises, she appears to be perfectly fine physically.”

Angelica lets out a big sigh of relief.

“Thank God…”

While Angelica seems to be relieved, Kayla doesn’t quite share in that sentiment just yet.

“…uh, doctor, what do you mean by she seems fine physically?”

“Physically there is no major damage.  But I question whether something may be wrong…”

He taps himself on the forehead.

“…mentally.”

“What do you mean?”

The doctor sighs.

“Ever since she regained consciousness she’s been ranting about this man she supposedly saw at the wedding, someone who frightened her beyond imagination.  A few times she even claimed to see him in her hospital room.”

Both Kayla and Angelica gasp in unison.  The doctor nods his head.

“And Mr. Pond indicated to me that his wife has been acting this way for quite awhile now.”

Angelica blinks furiously and pulls at her hair as she tries to contain herself.

“So what do we do?”

“My recommendation, Ms. Jones, is that your daughter see a psychologist.   I believe that there is perhaps a deeper issue here, one that is beyond my area of expertise.”

Angelica wants to snap back but before she can say anything she is interrupted by the ringing of Kayla’s cell phone.  Angelica turns to face Kayla who looks at the caller ID.  Her eyes grow wide.

“Sorry, I have to take this…this is the police.”

“Huh?”

Kayla uses her finger to silence Angelica as she puts the phone to her ear.

“Yes, this is Kayla Jones.”

Kayla continues to listen.  Angelica and the doctor both watch.  Kayla’s entire features change. She begins to look frantic and shocked.

“No…it can’t be…”

She sighs and nods her head.

“…I understand.  Thank you.”

Kayla hangs up the phone and puts it away.  Angelica looks stunned as now tears are welling up in Kayla’s eyes.

“What’s wrong, Kay?”

“It’s…it’s…”

Kayla just shakes her head and takes off, running the opposite way towards the exit.  Angelica sighs and takes off after her, leaving the doctor behind.  Angelica exits the hospital and finds Kayla outside with her face buried in her hands crying.  Angelica approaches and pats her gently on the back.

“What’s wrong, sis?  What was that call about?”

“That was…”

“Who was it?”

Kayla finally looks up at Angelica.  Her eyes red from the crying.

“It was the police.”

“The police?!”

Kayla nods her head.

“They found…found…”

“What…or who…did they find?”

Kayla’s face contorts with grief.

“…daddy…”

“….what?”

“They found daddy’s body…he’s dead…”

Only now does it begin to sink in for Angelica.  She hugs Kayla tightly.  The two siblings bury their faces in each other’s shoulders as they cry in grief over the sad news of their father’s death.

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On Camera

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A bright, warm sun blazes down upon the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on this lovely day.  The sky is a boyish bright blue and a Canadian flag waves proudly in that blue sky in front of the entrance to the Air Canada Centre.  But right now we have a zoomed out view of the famous arena, catching a glimpse of a good piece of it.  The camera now zooms in closer towards the front entrance.  As we get closer we see Kayla Jones step into the scene from stage right.  The redhead is wearing an elegant shift dress with sheer peasant sleeves and latticework panels. Black stockings run all the way up the dress and they blend in almost perfectly with the black dress itself and the black high heeled pumps that comfortably encase her feet.  It may be a bit colder up here in Toronto but this Boston native is used to weather like this.  She faces the camera.  Her usual pleasant smile is not here.  She is all business.

“I made my professional wrestling debut back in January of 2001.”

She nods her head and some slight laughter can even be heard escaping her lips.

“That’s right, for nearly fifteen and a half years I have been a professional athlete.  And for nearly fifteen and a half years I have enjoyed what I have done, I enjoyed the opportunities professional wrestling gave me, and yes, I enjoyed entertaining the great fans who filled the arenas.  It was truly an honor knowing that they paid good money just to see me compete.”

She balls up her right hand into a fist and smacks it against the palm of her left hand several times.

“So I wanted to give and give and give, I wanted to give as much as I could, not just to the fans who were responsible for me being able to do this job, but also for professional wrestling itself, for this great industry, that provided me with so many great opportunities.  And I did give a great deal to the fans and to the industry.  Some would say that I gave too much.”

Kayla rubs her neck with her right hand in a massaging manner.

“I suffered severe neck injuries during my fifteen plus year career.  Now a neck injury is enough to end a normal person’s career but what you have to realize about Jones women is that we are stubborn little bitches and I wasn’t about to be stopped by a few neck injuries.”

Jones shakes her head.

“I kept coming, I kept giving back to the industry and to the fans, and perhaps…”

She sighs.  She looks down at her feet almost in shame of what she’s about to admit next.

“…perhaps I became a little self-serving?  Or selfish?  Or egotistical?  However you want to slice it, I began to think that this industry owed me.  When me and Angelica defeated Simon and Donovan for the SCW World Tag Team Championships, at that time the thought first entered my head that I didn’t just deserve this because we won, but I was owed this.  I began to believe that SCW owed this to me for everything I had done for professional wrestling.”

Kayla looks up and points at the camera with a long slender finger.

“Autumn Valentine and Gable Winchester, you came along and you beat us for the tag team championships.  You took those belts from The Sisterhood and that should have been a wake-up call.  That should have been a reality check for me but was it?”

She shakes her head.

“No, no it wasn’t.  I still felt as if professional wrestling owed me.  I felt YOU two owed it to Angelica and I to give us our tag team title rematch.  I wasn’t prepared to do a damn to earn it.  And why should I?  I felt as if I had already earned everything I needed to earn in my career.  I felt my career now owed me.  And therein lies the reason behind acting like a fool, therein lies the reason behind the stupid Free Botswana campaign...”

Jones shrugs her shoulders.

“…I felt Angelica and I didn’t need to do anything to earn our tag title rematch.  I felt it should’ve just been handed to us on a silver platter.  But…and someone had better be recording this somewhere because I don’t say this often…”

She chuckles lightly before getting serious again.

“…but I was wrong.  I was wrong.  This sport owes me nothing.  SCW owes me nothing.  The fans owe me nothing.  And quite frankly, if that’s the kind of treatment I want, then I may as well quit because that’s just not the way this sport works and that’s not the way life works.  It just wasn’t right, but now things are different.  Now The Sisterhood have turned over a new leaf, we have rediscovered who we are, and now that we earned our tag team title shot the RIGHT WAY by defeating you once before on Breakdown, now we’re going to go to Taking Hold of the Flame and win back the SCW World Tag Team Championships the RIGHT WAY by defeating you for a second straight time.”

Kayla pauses momentarily and stands there with her arms folded over her chest.  It isn’t long until she is joined on the scene by her older sister, Angelica Jones, who steps into view from stage left.  Angelica is wearing a lavender tank dress that features a pleated stretch lace bodice and a skirt that flutters at the hem.  Angelica is wearing a matching lavender long sleeve jacket styles in a stretch lace with a scattering of sequins.  Her feet are encased in strappy silver sandals.  A pair of sunglasses cover Angelica’s eyes.

“It’s time for a change of mood, champs, because the fact of the matter is that my sister here does care about morality.  She does care about what’s right and what’s wrong.  But me?”

Angelica laughs almost maniacally.

“You really don’t know what you’ll get when that bell rings and you’re staring across the ring against me.  There are three faces to Angelica Jones; The Golden Goddess, Firestar, and The Dragon, and you had better pray to God or to whatever deity you believe in, Gable and Autumn, pray that you don’t see The Dragon, because if The Dragon comes out to play, you can kiss your stinking asses goodbye.”

Kayla rolls her eyes but says nothing as her older sibling continues.

“Point is that no matter which of me you get, no matter which persona you face off against, not a one of us gives a damn about the right thing and the wrong thing.  I don’t care about good and bad or evil or whatever you want to call it.”

She holds up one finger.

“There is only ONE thing I care about, Autumn and Gable.  Do you know what that one thing is?”

Jones now uses that finger to point at the camera.

“What you currently carry around with you, those tag team title belts, they represent the one thing I care about more than anything else.  Those tag belts symbolize the one reason I got into this business in the first place, the reason I continue to bust my ass day in and day out...”

She shakes her head.

“…and unlike Kayla, for me it isn’t for the fans, and I don’t do this for the sport.  However you could potentially take a look back at Standing Room Only, take a look back at Donovan and Simon, the guys we originally beat for the belts, and catch a hint from them as to why I do what I do each and every week.  So you tell me, champs, what did they preach about near the tail end of their reign as tag champions?  What did they try to instill back into the tag division?”

Angelica waits, as if waiting on a response that she knows will never come.  Finally she nods her head.

“If you said anything about competition or the spirit of competition then you’d be right.  That shouldn’t have been too difficult a quiz for you, because if you’ve been paying attention to what I’ve had to say lately, competition has been something I’ve been preaching rather frequently lately myself.  But where me and Standing Room Only differ is that I compete not just for the sake of competition, I compete because I have to be the best.”

Angelica snickers.

“And that’s where you come in, because you Autumn and you Gable currently have the SCW World Tag Team Championship belts in your possession and those belts symbolize not just greatness in tag team wrestling but they are beautiful objects that quite honestly shout to anyone and everyone who will listen, telling the world that the team who proudly wears or carries those belts is truly the best tag team in professional wrestling.”

We cut back to Kayla who motions to herself and then to Angelica.

“This is about competition not just for Angelica but for me as well because I truly believe, as does Angelica, that we are the best tag team in professional wrestling.  We believe and we own it, right here…”

Kayla touches her head, indicating her mind.

“…and right here.”

Kayla touches her chest, indicating her heart.

“We believe that we are the best and defeating you on Breakdown was the best thing that could have happened to us.  It doesn’t matter that it was non-title.  The fact is that we defeated the champions and that proved to me and to Angelica what we had already believed in our hearts and our souls; that we were the best.”

Angelica nods her head in agreement.

“That’s right, Kayla.  We were the best and a few weeks ago on Breakdown we proved we were the best because we BEAT the best.  But that’s not good enough, at least not for me.”

Angelica points at the camera again.

“Now I want those tag team belts and to get them we have to beat you just one more time.”

Kayla Jones, the younger sister, nods her head.

“Now let’s bear in mind a few important facts.  For starters, you Autumn and Gable have never pinned The Sisterhood or made The Sisterhood submit.  But we DID pin you…or rather I did…after I kicked Gable’s teeth down his throat just as I promised I would.”

The younger sibling turns and winks at her older sibling.

“Isn’t that right, Angelica?”

“I could’ve done it too.”

“Ah but you didn’t.”

Angelica rolls her eyes.

“Whatever.  The point my sister is making is that you beat us in a four-way clusterfuck. Fair play to you because you did beat us according to the rules of that match.  I’m not going to deny it and I’ll give you all of the credit in the world for winning that chaotic match.  But when it came down to one team against one team, matching wits, matching strategy, matching skill, which team came out with their hands raised high?”

Angelica motions to herself and to Kayla.

“It was us!  The Sisterhood won and oh had we not stupidly pissed off Mr.  D, that would’ve been a championship match as we had originally planned and we would be champions now.”

Kayla and Angelica both shrug their shoulders in unison.

“But it’s like you said, Kayla, beating them in a non-title match in order to EARN this championship match at Taking Hold of the Flame is really the best thing that could have happened to us, because not only did it bring The Sisterhood back into reality, not only did it help us to realize that we needed to drop the gags and the jokes, but it also gave us even more confidence and an even stronger belief in ourselves and what we represent.”

Kayla nods her head in agreement.

“We represent the best of tag team wrestling and by that I don’t just mean in the sense that we are the best tag team in professional wrestling, even though I do believe we are the best and that we will prove it by defeating you two at Taking Hold of the Flame, but we also represent the best of tag team wrestling in the sense of what it should be.”

Angelica takes off her sunglasses and tucks them inside of her jacket.

“Autumn Valentine, Gable Winchester, come to Taking Hold of the Flame prepared, because you had better believe that The Sisterhood will be prepared.  And shine those belts up nicely and kiss them goodbye, because Kayla and I are taking them home.”

Kayla snickers.

“And get a good dentist this time…”

Angelica furrows her brow.

“Dentist?”

Kayla nods her head.

“Yeah, because we’re going to kick their teeth right down their throat!”

Angelica rolls her eyes.

“Oh…funny…”

The camera fades to black.