THE BLACK SWANN
For a woman like Sierra Swann who has big shoes to fill, her career didn’t exactly start on the right foot. After defeating a nobody, she was able to et out of the first round of the SPIRIT tournament but was eliminated in the second round by YUYO, who eventually won the entire tournament. For Many called it an upset, Sierra didn’t understand why and then it hit her, they were not comparing her as a wrestler or even how many matches she’s had, three total, oh no, they were going by her last name because of her older sister and the success she has had in recent years, Sienna Swann. Sierra didn’t want to fall into that trap, the last thing she wanted was for the comparison of her sisters to be the focal point of her career but was it avoidable? Was it really going to end that way. Her name was already being embarrassed, the words upset, and shock were the descriptions used and it really did upset Sierra.
She wanted to keep her cool, be nice and embrace the profession.
The young, gorgeous model and wrestler was a prize possession of the beauty Factory. She was going to show the World that she indeed was her own person. Would the pressure though of following in Sienna’s footsteps be too much for Sierra? Only time would tell but an entry into the Pyramid would be just what the Doctor ordered. Sierra knew that there was going to be a lecture from her sister, it would be all in constructive criticism.
Sierra was sitting poolside in her parents Hollywood Hills home, her mother, Amanda brought her out a lemonade. Sierra wore a white bikini, her toenails polished a matte pink, her icy blue eyes covered in sunglasses, she might even have fallen asleep working on her tan.
Swann Home
Hollywood Hills, CA.
Last Week
Amanda walked out wearing capri pants, a button up top and sandals. She stood over Sierra for a few moments before the young Swann opened her eyes…
Sierra: “Mum?”
Amanda: “Hi sweetheart, Ginger lemonade, just like you love it. I figured it was pretty hot out here, I felt like you could use a pick me up since you’ve been pretty quiet, I don’t like it when you are quiet, so how about it?”
Sierra: “Thanks mum. I love you for this.”
Amanda: “I love you too. Sienna is coming over with Nathaniel, I invited her to lunch.”
Sierra: “Oh…. Ok.”
Amanda: “Are you avoiding her, Sierra?”
Sierra: “No… no of course not.”
Amanda: “Sierra?”
Sierra: “Okay, maybe a little.”
Amanda: “Why?”
Sierra: “I lost to that little Japanese girl mum, they were calling it an upset, shocked, it really embarrassed me and it’s all because of Sienna. She is so good and I…. well I suck.”
Amanda’s eyes widen, she has never heard her daughter talk with such lack of confidence…
Amanda: “Sierra, Sienna has lost matches too, that is part of the game, you cannot win them all. At least not yet, starting out can be tough sweetheart, give it a chance, you cannot just give up like that, it is not fair and definitely not the Swann way.”
Sierra: “Isn’t that the problem though mum. The Swann way? Maybe that is why I am cracking under bloody pressure. The expectations, they suck. I wish things could be so different right now and they are not. Sienna is like a brand, an institution almost, I am the sister, that’s it.”
Amanda: “You are being too hard on yourself.”
Sierra: “I think I’m being realistic here. Maybe this is not for me. I should stick to modeling, stop embarrassing the family name. isn’t that how it was always, Sienna was the prettiest, Sienna was the smartest, Sienna was everything.”
Amanda: “Talk to your sister, she will have good advice for you because she has experienced this already as well. Oh, and tonight, do me a favor, get your brother out of the house, take him somewhere, anywhere, please!!!!!”
Sierra: “Mum… come on. Samson is crazy, he’s a bloody drungo. I wish I could take him out somewhere, but I don’t; want him to embarrass me further. I think Sienna would kill me if anyone found out he was our brother.”
Amanda shakes her head, almost laughing some when Sienna walks inside and starts to step out into the back patio wearing a skirt, loose blouse and wedge sandals, her nails polished a watermelon color and long blonde hair slicked back in a ponytail…..
Sienna: “Hey mum.”
Amanda: “Oh there he is, Nathaniel! How are you baby.”
Sienna: “Why don’t; you take him inside; I want to talk to Sierra alone.”
Amanda: “She needs it, don’t be too hard on her, please? She is being really hard on herself.”
Sienna: “I won’t, promise.”
Sienna hands the baby over to Amanda and stands there for a second staring at her younger sister who turns and looks away. Sienna takes off her glasses and sits across from Sierra, she waits unto they finally make eye contact…..
Sierra: “What?”
Sienna: “Are you going to bloody mope the entire time?”
Sierra: “It was a mistake.”
Sienna: “Was it a mistake? OR is that what you want to tell yourself to make it feel better and not sting as much. Listen to me very carefully, when I first started, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I lost my very first singles match to Simon Lyman in the Best of the Best Tournament, as a matter of fact. Both tournaments I was in I was ousted in the first round so you can imagine when looking back at that. How embarrassing it was. That was then and if it happened now, I would win the whole thing, that is what time and experience does here, Sierra.”
Sierra: “I lost to YUYO.”
Sienna: “She is good, but she is no Swann. You made mistakes; God knows that I have made them countless amounts of times as well. We all do. All you must do is fix them and then there are no more mistakes. I did them with Ravyn, Syren, even Bree and I learned rather quickly. It will come Sierra, but you have to be ready to take a long road. It will not happen over night but what I will say is this…. Part of it is your attitude.”
Sierra’s blue eyes widen, pointing at herself trying to figure out what she meant by that. Sierra wants to be nice; she tries to be a professional and very outgoing where Sienna on the other hand will go for the jugular and uses her For the People campaign to get what she wants. Sierra doesn’t know if she could do that, go so far, for the younger Swann she has a morality issue, she doesn’t want for people to identify her for her sister and that is what will make her road and journey tough. She lowers her head as Sienna Speaks….
Sienna: “I love you Sierra but the last thing you need to be doing is pandering to a bunch of fakes and people that couldn’t give a damn about you love. They don’t care, the fans don’t care and no matter what you do. They are going to associate you with me. You had a great debut and then suddenly you lose a match and the stock goes down, suddenly no one is talking about the future with you, they are talking about YUYO, now the question is, are you going to allow that to happen? See, you are in a very peculiar position, there are those that expect you to be this nice, young good looking model and wrestler that will be cheered and adored….. Sierra, you are a Swann, they don’t give a shit about you. They are fake, maybe you want to be genuine? Fine, I am trying to be genuine too and look how they treat me.”
Sierra: “What are you saying, that I say fuck it and start acting like a cunt?”
Sienna: “No, what I am saying is stop acting like you owe them something, you don’t owe them a damn thing, instead live your life, that is what you need to do. They don’t care about you Sierra, they hate me. Is that fair to mum? Dad? Even the oaf?”
Sierra: “What if I used Samson for my advantage?”
Sienna: “You are NOT putting that big hippo on national TV.”
Sierra: “He could be my muscle!”
Sienna: “Muscle? He doesn’t have a bloody developed muscle in his entire body, have you not seen him!?”
The younger Swann shrugs her shoulders….
Sierra: “Well…. Yeah… Oh come on, help me here sis!”
Sienna: “I am, trying Sierra. What do you want to be? Yourself and get insulted or give them exactly what they deserve, not your kindness, they will grab it and throw it back in your face. Instead give them what they expect from a Swann. They want to hate me? Do you think they will love you?”
Sierra: “I…. I don’t know. I am so confused right now, I want to succeed, I want to be like you but not like you if that makes sense.”
Sienna: “It does, and I started like you. After I was dropped on my head, knocked unconscious and then paralyzed temporarily? It changed me Sierra and when they cheered, when the fucking cheered as Blake Mason dropped me with a piledriver from the second rope? I knew right there that NONE of these people give a damn about me, they only care about my looks and my charity. This is all you are to them Sierra, EYE CANDY. That is it and let me ask you this, is that what you want to be remembered by?”
Sierra: “No.”
Sienna: “There’s your answer. Come on, let’s go inside. You can see Nathaniel, we can talk more about this, okay?”
Sierra: “Okay, thank you.”
Sienna: “Anytime and remember….. I love you, okay?”
Sierra: “I love you too.”
The two sisters embrace one another as they hear the sliding glass door open and a familiar voice….
Samson: “Heyyyyyyyy!”
Sienna: “Oh for God’s sake!”
Sierra facepalms….
Later That Day
The Beauty Factory
Photoshoot
Sierra had some photoshoots to do both promotional for EMERE and for the latest magazines coming out. She was with Jennifer who was finishing out her contractual obligations after Regan had decided to trade in her Trios contract for Jennifer’s Beauty Factory Contract. Jennifer was wearing jeans, open toed heels and a form fitting long sleeve top, her nails a glossy color and long hair hanging down. The gorgeous model sat back and watched some of the other models take pictures, Sierra was in white pants, pink heels and a matching halter top, her long hair hung down. The model behind her trips and falls, she drags Sierra down with her. Jennifer quickly runs over to check on them, Laura Steinbeck turns and sees what happened from her office and quickly walks out…..
Model: “I am so sorry, I tripped. I didn’t know how to walk in these heels.”
Sierra didn’t say anything, she was simply going to brush it off, smile, tell her it was okay and move on but instead she rubbed her ankle and closed her eyes for a second. Jennifer checked on Sierra….
Jennifer: “Are you alright?”
Sierra just nods. The other model was one of the special ones brought in by the Beauty factory for PR purposes, she had no prior modeling experience. Her name was Sadie……
Jennifer: “Sadie, are you alright?”
Sadie: “I hit my knee, but I am fine, Sierra? I am so sorry, I know that you are always understanding about things but I want to make sure you know that this was a total accident and I am really sorry.”
Sierra is helped up by Jennifer and Laura. Jennifer pats Sierra in the back and put, trying to take the stains from the runway and wooden floor……
Jennifer: “Are you hurt?”
Sierra: “I will be fine….. I will be fine…..”
She hesitates and then remembers what Sienna told her, that nice gals finish last, they will never find her genuine, no matter what she does, they will never see Sierra Swann as anything but the sister of Sienna. She wanted to say something, holding her breath and biting her tongue….
Sadie: “Are you sure?”
Sierra: “Yes… I….. I….”
Sierra closes her eyes for a moment and then they open wide, turning toward Sadie and pointing her finger right in the plus size models face….
Sierra: “If you can’t wear the shoes then don’t walk the runway! You could have seriously injured me, not like you are a small woman, Sadie! Maybe instead of thinking about how I am going to be okay with it, I think you should worry about what I will do and demand Laura take you off the show until you learn your steps! I am tired of working with unprofessionalism that think they can do what they want while we who are trained for this in many years has to work with women like this who could hurt me!? I will NOT work with her anymore until she is trained, so remove her!”
Laura: “You want me to remove her?”
Sierra: “Yes, look what she did to me!? This is not a safe work environment and besides in this show, I am the star and she was almost taken out by a girl with two left feet and bigger than a house!”
Jennifer: “Sierra? What the hell has gotten into you?”
Sadie continues to beg for forgiveness…..
Sadie: “Please… I am sorry.”
Sierra: “Laura, please remove her form the show, please tell me you are not considering keeping her? I am asking you to please get rid of her and like now!”
Sadie: “No please, this is my dream!”
Laura: “Sierra is right darling, I can’t have you be a risk to the rest of my models so out you go, come on. Once you learn the routines and can actually walk in some shoes, I will bring you back. Come on darlin, I don’t have all day.”
Sadie: “Ms. Steinbeck….”
Laura leads Sadie out, Jennifer turns to Sierra, shaking her head….
Jennifer: “What the hell was that, it was an accident, Sierra?”
Sierra: “Accident or not, she almost took me out and could have hurt me seriously. I am sorry but I will NOT tolerate the disrespect any longer, they already think I am not genuine because of my name, well that is then, nice girls finish last and I am tired of being that girl no one cares if they hurt!”
Jennifer: “Where is this coming from?”
Sierra: “Does it matter? They will NOT protect them anymore; do you hear that! No someone get me a coffee!”
She storms off, leaving Jennifer scratching her head. That is not Sierra, something happened and she is going to find out what it is…..
Before it is too late.
SCENE FADES
REC:
“Shock?
Awe?
Upset?
These were all words used to describe my loss to YUYO in the SPIRIT Championship tournament and while everyone else had a moment at Invasion, I sat in the back forgotten. I guess I could come out here and congratulate YUYO for a job well done, beaten me in the second round and now the champion? I could but I will not. I heard your words, calling me a Princess and saying I am beautiful, well thank you. What you will not be doing is thanking me after Monday night when I lead my team with a revenge minded Danny Darko who wants to get into that Pyramid with Willow Wilkes and while I don’t blame you, we all have our reasons?
Mine is destiny.
I already took a back seat to YUYO and now I get another crack at her this time with bigger stakes, the winner gets to go on to the next round and the winner of that will get to wrestle for the EMERGE Championship. I want to make it clear right now that I know what you people think. I have seen the way my sister is treated, how the Swann family is recognized, where I will Always be looked down upon and guilty by association. Is that fair to me?
You might think so but what has my sister done?
Good deeds?
Now I will be chastised for the same thing? NOT HAPPENING.
Instead I will follow the path that was set to me by Sienna. She knows what it takes, she understands that sometimes the person you have to be and the person you need to be are two totally different things. The person I have to be was the one that lost to YUYO, I was insulted and embarrassed at the way the announcers described my loss to someone who has been wrestling longer, it was simple fact that I lost to the better and more talented wrestler which was not good enough on my part, right?
WRONG!
What you are going to see on Monday is not some bird, the Swann of EMERGE, a woman that stands for something more than looks and beauty. I have tried my best to do what is right and all you have done is treat me like Sienna, like dirt and it is wrong! So I am going to give you exactly what you asked for and then lets see you try and upset me again, YUYO for I will not allow my kindness to become my weakness.
Everyone wants to label the Swann’s as villains, they think For the People is hogwash?
It is that hard to believe in what we can do for society? Then fine….
Label me the villain but don’t expect Sierra Swann to get involved in your war….
I’m not a part of that….
Because you don’t deserve my help!”
/REC