Growing up in Cameron, North Carolina was amazing, fun, wild, and crazy. We were known as The Richards sisters--Kay and Danielle, we are both extremely out-going and friendly, Kay--the older, smarter one and myself--the younger, niave, and wild and crazier of the two, life was sure spontaneous with us. We were born a year apart--her birth month in May and mine in June, she was known for her gorgeous long-flowing dark brown hair and dark grayish-blue eyes, as I was recognized for my short, dark brown-auburn streaks with my light brown eyes with a hint of sparkling blue in them. I tend to dress casually while she's more of the skirt type, we were exact opposites in taste, but somehow, death brought us closer together.
Upon my arrival in the WWF--life was overwhelming, my parents had died in a car accident 4 years ago, when I was 15. I kissed our mom good-bye before she and my father left for their yearly vacation.
They asked me to embark on the trip with them, but no luck--I refused to go with them. The chance to have an open-house party while they were gone was fresh on my mind. Plus, I had been angry at my dad the previous night before for driving my current boyfriend away from the house--we had a heated argument and I called him a few things that I should never have. It was one of many guy friends I had--I was very popular at school, so life was great at an average teenage girl standpoint. I lost my virginity that night as well, I always think that dad knew what I was doing and he was just trying to protect me, but me being a 15-year old pubescent girl, I hated every word he said. They left for the airport later that night, he was of course still upset, and a Mack-truck drove head-on into the side of their Benz.
It so happens that the truck blew the horn, but suspiciously, the German-import's brakes had failed and my dad couldn't make it out of the intersection in time. Ironically, the song that was playing in the car when the police came was my favorite at the time, the whole family listened to it, weird, eh? That was the last time I had ever seen my parents, and I missed them dearly.
I cried heavily at their funeral, I felt like I could've died, maybe throwing myself into their grave was the only way to achieve that semi-goal. If I hadn't yelled at him--he would still be here, right? Right? These questions filled my head on a day-to-day basis, the guilt factor still weighs heavily on me, I always kept in the back of my mind that I was the sole fault my parents died. I couldn't bear to think about if my sister blamed me too, she was the only person I had, she couldn't hate me too. I was glad that she assured me that was untrue.
Parties, drinking, boys, my friends--life was whirling around me, but when our parents died, that all came crashing down.
I stopped going out, partying with my friends was out of the question, even talking to them was a challenge. I got through the last two years of high school with the support of my only friend, my only sibling who which of course was Kay. She was always there for me no matter what was said about my sudden change and the fact that I had gone through a deep depression. She knew what it was like to have only one person to help you cope with everything. We only had each other for a long time, after the burial of mom and dad.
We were raised watching the WWF, we always talked about joining it together--we laughed and joked about it, but we never thought it would be a reality.
We went to wrestling school when we were 16 and 17--it was near our North Carolina home, we enrolled with two of our good guy friends we'd known for almost all our lives, better known as Matt and Jeff Hardy.
They were like the brothers we never had and we were like their little sisters, we all grew up together and we cared about them as they cared about us. They were really sweet guys--I had an insane crush on the youngest one, Jeff, while Kay's feelings about Matt were obvious--they started dating while we were training to one day be in the World Wrestling Federation, and had been on and off since then.
Though they had found romance, Jeff and I still hadn't decided what we were, but we did remain close friends. We did go to the junior prom together--he asked me, I thought he was joking, but when he showed up at my door with a tux, a corsage, and a limo, I knew that he was my sweetheart. We had fun that night--we always do when we go out together, but we never decided to take that extra step.
There always is the memory of that night, but the only thing I had besides my memory was this picture of himself in the tux from the pictures we each took alone, with a message he wrote himself, having a tinge of a special meaning to me. I guess you could say he was giving me his autograph before he made it big, you know...just in case he ever did make it into the WWF. I can't say I don't cherish the picture...well I can, but I would be lying pretty badly. I guess in a sense, I loved the feeling that the memory of that night gave me, it definitely was one of the best days of my life.
I told him everything from when we were in high school--him and Matt were the only guys that stuck around to find out why I had transformed from "Miss Popular" to some kinda hobbit that stayed in the house all the time. I got the feeling he never really wanted to know what was going on with me, but of course, my sister told me otherwise.
She basically told me that he never really wondered why I changed, but he was glad that I was his friend for so long. I never really understood Jeff's reasoning for keeping me around, but Matt was sure expressive of his feelings for me and Kay, and before we left wrestling school, we made a pact that we would stay close, no matter what federation we ever went to.
One unsuspecting day, a man by the name of Vince McMahon, (whom we all knew VERY well) called our wrestling school and asked for an audition with The Hardy Brothers, Vince liked what he saw and decided to sign them to a brand-new contract. It was tough saying good-bye to them, Matt promised he'd write and call us, while Jeff told us he'd never forget the times we shared. He also gave me a kiss in front of his brother and Kay for the first time--ever since we were 13 and when my parents died, I loved the kiss, but it was more of a "good-bye, hope I see ya again" smooch. When he left--I was heartbroken, I tried to tell him the night before that I liked him a lot, but I couldn't muster up the nerve to make him aware of my feelings.
I always wanted more with him, just one romantic kiss would've suited me just fine, but he never caught the idea that I was in love with him. So, the guys, WWF-bound, left for star-dom and a chance to make it big, leaving us and the ratty wrestling school behind.
*~*~*~*~***
During this time, Kay and I became enormously close, we did everything together. The owner of the wrestling academy was our uncle, he always noticed our tight bond and chemistry in the ring and decided to team us up together. We were known as The Bodacious Brunettes, the most talented and gorgeous female tag team in North Carolina--we competed for a whole year, traveling here and there, meeting new people and embarking on new adventures. Soon enough, we had defeated every female tag team in North Carolina and we were making a great name for ourselves as an awesome southern tag team. Word got around to many independent federations, as well as the top-names, such as ECW, WCW, and our personal favorite the WWF.
It seems as if we had a big fan base, because everywhere we went in N. Carolina, people were recognizing us from our shows, we literally had the talent for sure. We kept in touch with the guys, they told us to expect a call from Vince very soon, and they put good word in for us that we could be a top WWF team. They were right too because soon enough, he finally caught word and called us, he asked Kay and I for an audition and a bit of a "trial" to see if we were WWF material.
We signed our contracts the very same week, we were in the WWF!! After years of praying and waiting, we finally made it to the top wrestling federation...it meant a lot, to be with old friends and to meet new ones. Not only were we wrestlers but fans as well, so the experience was a new one to us both. Only time would tell how big we would get and what friends we would make, when we got there, we were greeted with open arms. We soon learned the backstage rituals and our friends came easy.
Adam Copeland--better known as Edge, Jay Reso--a.k.a Christian, Andrew Martin--Test, and of course Jeff and Matt Hardy were our best guy friends in the federation, they were extremely nice and very handsome in person as well on tv. My crush for Jeff still engorged my heart, but Andrew seemed to be catching my attention, we became good friends very quickly, and to find out that he was very sensitive, open, and better yet, single. Kay and Matt started back up again, after their long journey away from each other, being together all the time was becoming familiar again to them. We rarely saw them outside of work in the evenings; they spent most of the time in their hotel room if you catch my drift.
We also met new female friends, Joanie--Chyna, Stacy--The Kat, Terri--Tori, and a new girl as well, by the name of Toni Smith, from Michigan, became our newest, closest friend out of all of them. The three of us traveled together with Andrew (Drew as I call him), Jeff, Matt, Jay, Adam, Jean-Paul (Hunter--HHH), and Chris Irvine (Jericho), we all had a great bond on and off camera, but off-camera is where the action really started to take into play.
Toni had a big crush on Adam, he liked her as well, but he was involved with someone else, his fiancé Elana. She controlled everything he did, he was at her whim. Kay and I, especially Toni, disliked her over-protective attitude. Adam is a grown man, if he wants to go out and have fun with us--he can, he didn't seem to catch the hint yet that his girlfriend is a psycho, so we let it be for the moment.
We didn't have many enemies off-camera, except for the over-zealous Amy (Lita), Trish Stratus (Trash), and the likes of Kurt Angle and a new guy by the name of John Rivers. John was pure evil--he hated us for being so happy and popular, in a way, I think he wanted to be a part of our group, but he couldn't stand to speak to us. I did have a brief romance with him that no one knew about, and I guess he still shows animosity from our nasty break-up. John was also a wrestler in the Federation, short dark brown hair, nice body, 6' 1", killer smile, and the most gorgeous gray eyes I have ever seen. My sister used to tell me he looks like he could be Jay's brother, both have the same high cheekbones and great teeth, but one difference...John is and always will be a schemer. I didn't trust him with anything--at least I thought I didn't, but he soon found his way into my heart...*sighs*...you'll definitely hear more about him later, and believe me, you won't like it.
In all aspects, life was soooo reeking in awesomeness, at this point, Kay, Toni, and my romantic life began to take a drastic turn for the better.