Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or real people portrayed in this story. Their characters belong to WWE and the people own themselves. This story will contain bad language, so fair warning to all.

A/N: So this is a new one from me. I asked a friend what couple I should write and she suggested this one, so yeah, never written Maria and never really written Jeff, so let's see how this goes. Let me know if you like it or not, be brutal if you want. Enjoy, hopefully! :)

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Maria felt like she was back in high school. She knew it was a silly comparison, but walking down concrete-lined hallways, doors leading to places unknown, it was all so high school. Add in some lockers and the desolate picture would be complete. She might as well be holding a bunch of books in her hand, looking around for her classroom instead of a duffel bag. She sighed and looked around, trying to find the women’s locker room. There were people milling about, but they looked busy and she hesitated to ask them something that was probably so obvious. She didn’t want to look stupid.

She knew that people tended to blur the line between character and reality. A lot of the negativity towards her intelligence probably came from the way she looked. But then, that could probably be said of most divas. She certainly looked the part of the ditz, but she wasn’t. No, she wasn’t looking to join Mensa any time soon, but she also wasn’t as stupid as her character had dictated.

She had been trying, at least a little, to distance herself from that persona. She knew that people were still going to see her as that ditzy girl from Raw, but she was trying to shed herself of that image. She had brought up with creative the fact that she didn’t only want to be classified as that character, no matter how well they thought she played it. They had been mildly receptive and had allowed her not to be totally presented as an idiot, but more like just a sweet person who was a little naïve.

She wished now, as she walked down the hallway, that she had made her debut right after the draft shake-up. She felt completely out of the loop since they had decided to hold off her debut on SmackDown. She was actually really surprised she was sent over here in the first place. She’d had no idea, but apparently, only the most higher-up wrestlers knew they were moving beforehand. Everyone else it was pretty much a surprise and a shove in the direction of your new show. She was completely disoriented that evening, wondering what this would do for her career, if anything.

If there was one thing she was happy about with this switch over to SmackDown it was the fact she wouldn’t have to be around her ex. It had been hard enough being on the same show as he was, so being far away from him, working on different days, was actually a blessing. It wasn’t that she hadn’t moved on from him. She had certainly forgotten about him, but the damage of the relationship had been done and she was glad for the fresh start.

She finally found the women’s locker room and pushed her way inside. There was a bit of chatter going around, groups of women talking with one another. She noticed the room got quiet as she walked in. What a nightmare. She gave what she hoped was a friendly smile and found a spot where she could put her things. She had a match against Victoria tonight. She looked around to see if Victoria was there so they could speak about their match, but she was nowhere to be found.

Diva locker rooms were a different animal altogether. If guys were protective about their spots on a roster, the divas were even more paranoid about theirs. For that reason alone she knew her presence wasn’t wanted here. It was weird because it wasn’t like she had changed companies, lost a job and then started up somewhere else. This was the same company, just a different brand and yet she felt completely like an outsider. She got dressed quickly, not wanting to spend time in here. When her back was turned she could feel the eyes on her from the other divas and yes, this was just an uncomfortable situation.

She threw on a sweatshirt to keep her warm and then left the locker room, the noise rising up as soon as they thought the door was closed. She could just imagined whispered tones of assessment and ultimately disapproval from the other divas in that locker room. Let them be paranoid though, she’d just do her job and blow them away. She’d been training hard in the interim between being drafted and this evening. She had wrestled before that, sure, but now she was getting more confident with her skills. She’d prove to them all that she wasn’t just a pretty face.

She walked down the hall with no particular destination. She figured she should try and get acquainted with the buzz of this show. Maybe it’d be the same as Raw, maybe it’d be different. She guessed it would be a slightly more relaxed atmosphere, what with SmackDown being pre-taped and Raw being live. There was a certain franticness to Raw because everything had to go perfectly or the live audience would know something was wrong. With SmackDown, there was on the crowd to worry about and they probably understood that things could or would be changed later if they didn’t turn out as hoped.

“Maria?”

Maria turned around saw her boss coming towards her, “Hi, Stephanie.”

“Hey,” Stephanie said with a cordial smile. “I’m glad you made it, did you have any trouble getting here?”

“None at all,” Maria told her.

“Good, good,” Stephanie said, through with the idle chit-chat. “I’m sure you know what you’re doing tonight, right, you were informed?”

“Yeah, I was informed, I have a match with Victoria.”

“Yeah, have you met with her to discuss it?”

“I actually just got here,” Maria explained. “She wasn’t in the locker room when I got here so I haven’t really had a chance to talk to her.”

“Oh, well, make sure you do, of course,” Stephanie said and there was a tone in her voice that said she didn’t want the divas to disappoint in the ring because sometimes there was a chance their match would be the weakest on the show and they needed to keep the fans invested.

“I will, don’t worry,” Maria nodded obediently, feeling like she was being scolded. “It’ll be fine.”

“Good, I’m glad you take this seriously. I just want things to run smoothly for you,” she said, her tone changing slightly, making Maria think she actually cared about what happened to her.

“Yeah, of course I am.”

“Good,” Stephanie said.

She looked around quickly, her eyes scanning the area, prompting Maria to say, “Is everything okay?”

“Oh, everything is fine, just some people I don’t really want to run in to, you know how it goes,” Stephanie said, glancing around again, looking like someone who was being hunted and trying to listen for the smallest sound.

Maria, and everyone else, knew who Stephanie was talking about. She and Paul had publicly come out with their divorce not two weeks before and Maria could only guess Stephanie was trying to avoid her soon-to-be ex. She hadn’t heard if the divorce was particularly messy, but still, it was awkward sometimes around your ex. She could certainly relate, though she hadn’t been married like Stephanie and Paul.

“Oh, well, I can let you go then.”

“Thanks, just make sure you know what you’re doing,” she said, giving one last reminder to Maria, patting her on the shoulder.

Maria sighed, looking around like she would find someone to speak with or talk to, but there was nobody she knew. She stuffed her hands into the front of her sweatshirt though her hands weren’t cold. She felt herself leaning back against the wall, thinking about Stephanie not wanting to be around her estranged husband. She could certainly relate to that feeling. In fact, if she had actually chosen to come to SmackDown, some people could probably call it running from her past.

She didn’t much care about that. Let them think what they want. She was beyond caring about him and she wondered why she had ever started in the first place. He wasn’t worth her time anyways and she should just stop thinking about him altogether. Out of sight, out of mind and all that junk. Let him go off with that little slut who he cheated with, she didn’t care about him anymore.

“Can you believe they brought her over here?” Maria easily recognized the accent as Maryse.

“I don’t know why.” She had a harder time placing that voice.

“It makes us look bad, you know, like we need help over here or something. Like oh, that Maria is so popular or something, we should put her over there with those lame divas.”

“Okay, that’s a little harsh,” the other woman laughed.

“Well, I don’t like it and I don’t like her.”

“I don’t know, I don’t know her yet.”

“You can’t like her, she’s probably just like how she is on TV,” Maryse said and Maria scoffed silently. She wanted to slap Maryse right this second, but she had a little more decorum than that.

“Maybe, she hasn’t disproven it.” Well that was decidedly snobby.

“Exactly, she is stupid. We should ignore her,” Maryse said.

Maria left before she could hear anymore. This really was high school and those were the mean girls. They were adults and yet still, they acted like children most of the time. She could be part of the roster very easily, she thought herself a nice person, she could’ve been a part of it without trouble, but no, they had to be juvenile. Now who was that ditz? At least she didn’t seek to exclude people.

She already felt out of place and this was just amplifying it so much. She spotted Victoria up ahead reading a magazine. She walked over quickly, calling out the woman’s name. Victoria looked and gave a short smile. Maria welcomed it greatly because it was the first genuine one she’d seen yet.

“Hey, I wanted to discuss our match.”

“Yeah, sure, have a seat,” Victoria said. Maria sat next to her and they started to plot out their match.

Luckily for her, Victoria didn’t subscribe to the crap the other divas did and seemed to be more interested in putting on an entertaining show. She was thankful that she at least had maybe, sort of, kind of an ally here, at least someone she might be able to talk to and not feel like she was barging in on anything.

“You look bummed or something, what’s up?”

“Nothing,” Maria said, “just kind of feeling out of place is all.”

“Oh, don’t let those others get to you, trust me on that one,” Victoria said. “I’ve got to go, I wanted to call someone, but seriously, they’re all just jealous bitches.”

Maria laughed, “Thanks, I needed to hear that.”

“Why do you think I was out here?” she asked. “I can’t stand to be in there for more than five minutes at a time before I start wanting to put some real fighting maneuvers on them.”

“Maybe we should team up.”

“Yeah, that’d take them by surprise,” Victoria said with a laugh.

Maria definitely felt better after that and with a renewed kind of confidence, she stood up and started walking, going over the match in her head. She liked to visualize her matches ahead of time so she could go out there and perform at her best. She wasn’t paying attention and all of a sudden, someone grabbed her by the shoulders and gently pushed her to the right.

“You were just about to run into that.”

Maria looked over her shoulder at Jeff Hardy. His hair was slightly falling in his face and he had a warm smile gracing his lips. She looked ahead of her again and saw she had nearly run right into a huge trunk. How she didn’t see that, she didn’t know, it was as plain as day.

“Thanks,” she said softly.

“Well, I wouldn’t want you breaking your leg or something before you even have one match here,” he said, coming around the front to face her. “Not quite the welcome you probably would’ve seen coming.”

“No, no, it wouldn’t have been,” Maria said. She found herself smiling at Jeff. She didn’t really know him that well, except for the couple times he had hung out with Punk, when she had been dating Punk over a year ago. He seemed like a nice guy. The world was lacking in nice guys. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” he told her. “Just watch where you’re going.”

“Kind of funny coming from you,” she joked.

“Wow, I save your life and that’s how I’m treated?”

“You think that was saving my life?”

“Saving your face then,” he drawled. “When I take risks, I know about them.”

“I suppose you do. Don’t worry, I’ll watch where I’m going from now on. I’ll take your advice,” she said with a smile.

He winked, “Good.”

“Thanks again.” Jeff gave her a wave and started practically skipping backwards down the hallway.

“Welcome to SmackDown.”