Note: As with all my stories, the emphasis is on the who, why and how of the women who fight. The fight is in Chapter 3. Chapter 2 will be posted Friday, Chapter 3 on Sunday.
The Tutors- Chapter 1- Distant Memories
They were young. They were pretty. They were athletic. They were single. And they wanted to fight each other. They just needed the help of a couple of tutors to instruct them on how to pull it off.
Elliot Central School District was typical of hundreds of suburban districts throughout the country. Upper middle class, a High School, a Middle School and several Elementary Schools. Top notch academics and an outstanding athletic department. The Spring was a highlight for the sports teams, especially softball and girl’s track.
Blonde Biology teacher Sandy O’Conner had been the coach of the highly successful girl’s track team for 4 years. She herself had been an all-American sprinter in college. Each year on the last day of practice a traditional highlight of the season would be her 100 meter match race against the top sprinter on her team. She hadn’t lost to any one of them yet!
It was the very day that Sandy defeated her top sprinter that something seemingly harmless would happen and set in motion events that would find Sandy in a brutal fight to the finish over a year later. The shortstop on the softball team had watched Sandy win the annual match race and thought she could do better than the sprinter.
“I bet I could beat you coach,” said the girl.
Sandy laughed and said, “Well softball girl, put up or shut up.”
The members of the track team started to chant “Race! Race! Race!” And without further comment the track coach and the softball player toed the starting line for an impromptu race of their own. If the race had only been 50 meters, the shortstop would have won, but Sandy put on the jets and won the race by a hair. It was the closest that any student had ever come to beating the track coach.
“Wow,” said Sandy to the ball player. “You are fast! With some coaching you could be All-State!”
The incident was quickly forgotten. But one year later, the shortstop, now a Senior, quit softball and signed up for track. Losing her best player infuriated the Softball coach. She thought the girl had been poached, and didn’t like it one bit.
Beth DiNapoli, History teacher, had been the softball coach for 5 years and her teams had won the league championship 3 times. Like Sandy, she had been an outstanding Division 1 athlete, patrolling centerfield with the grace of a gazelle. Batting third showed her prowess at the plate too. She hated losing, and now she was losing her best player to the track team and its coach, Sandy.
All agreed that Sandy and Beth were hot. Blonde Irish Sandy and brunette Italian Beth. They certainly were not supermodel thin, both about 5’5, 125. They could have been on a poster to exemplify the true All-American girl. In fact, a couple of senior boys got suspended for a week for running a Poll on FaceBook, “The Elliot HS Teacher I’d Most Like To Fuck.” Beth and Sandy were the runaway winners. No one else came even close. Sandy got 114 votes, Beth 112. The evil French teacher, Mrs. Jenkins got 15, mainly because some guys imagined being spanked by her.
Outwardly Sandy was mortified by the poll. Inwardly, quite pleased by her narrow victory.
Outwardly Beth was mortified by the poll. Inwardly, she complained that guys favor dumb blondes.
Sure they were pretty, but they were also strong. Sandy had the strong thighs of an explosive sprinter blasting out of blocks over and over, while Beth had powerful shoulders from 50 swings with a weighted bat everyday during her playing career.
Beth and Sandy should have been best friends, but they disliked one another from day one. If they had started teaching the same year, they might have been best friends, but the fact that Beth had already been around for a year when Sandy was hired, made her a bit of an interloper and they never seemed to get along. Without any good reason they were instantaneously jealous of each other. Although they would deny, it each had momentarily let their mind wander to thoughts of what would happen if they ever fought one another.
Things heated up when the shortstop decided to become a sprinter. Beth confronted Sandy in the hallway outside the gym one afternoon just before the start of the Spring sport’s season. There were dozens of students coming and going, so the women took extra care to keep their voices down. But it was clear to all the witnesses that the conversation was anything but friendly.
Beth got right to the point, “Do you think you can steal my best player and get away with it Sandy?”
“I didn’t steal anyone Beth. The girl simply chose to ditch your program and join mine.”
Beth then lowered her voice further, leaned in closer to the blonde and whispered, “If I wouldn’t get fired for it, I’d fuck you up right here and now.”
“I’d like to see you try it Beth.”
“Well maybe we should find someplace private? What do you think?”
Sandy never batted an eyelash. “Anytime, bitch. Anytime.”
Beth turned and stormed away. The students who had observed the whole thing, never heard a single word of the conversation, but they ALL knew it wasn’t friendly.
Rumors immediately spread throughout the school about the confrontation.
Schools are hotbeds when it comes to gossip and rumors. In fact one rumor had floated around Elliot High for almost 30 years.
No one was certain if it was true, but that didn’t keep folks from repeating it, although there were scant details. And some of what was said was complete fantasy. Nonetheless, the age-old tale of two female teachers fighting tooth and nail carried on throughout the school district, decade after decade. Was any of it true? Or just an urban (in this case suburban) legend?
If the legend had any basis in fact, was it possible that history might repeat itself in the present day?
Both Sandy and Beth figured that nothing more would come of their argument, but they both had internal reactions that surprised them. They couldn’t quite explain it, but each really wanted to fight. To face their bitter rival and pit their bodies against one another in a fight without interference.
Three days after the confrontation, librarian Monica Peterson showed up at Sandy’s classroom. Sandy was alone sitting at her desk grading papers. She barely new the older woman who was gray haired and matronly, closing in on 60 years old.
“Hello Sandy,” said Monica.
“Hi Monica, what brings you to the Biology wing?”
“Well I heard you had a bit of a spat with Beth DiNapoli the other day. Would you like to talk about it?”
“There’s not much to talk about. I hate that bitch, and I’m sure she hates me.”
“Well,” said the librarian, “There’s talk going around school about it. Are you considering fighting her?”
Sandy was taken aback by the question. She couldn’t quite figure out why the elderly librarian would be the least bit interested in an argument between two 20 something teachers. “Monica, I’m confused why you would be concerned about it.”
“Well, you see, I was in a similar situation many years ago and I want you to avoid the mistakes that we made.”
“We?”
“Yes. Me and Barbara Knight,” replied Monica.
“Barbara Knight? The librarian at the middle school?”
“Yup! She and I ran the library here at the High School many years ago. And then she transferred over to the middle school after it was over.”
“After what was over?”
“It’s a very long story, and it all happened a long time ago,” replied Monica. “And I won’t go into all the details unless you are seriously considering fighting Beth.”
Sandy was careful with her response. “I’ll tell you this, Monica. I’m not scared of her, and if she wants to fight I’m happy to oblige. Now could you please explain why any of this is of interest to you?”
Monica cleared her throat. “Funny thing, it was 30 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. Barbara and I were so young. Probably around your age. We worked well together for a 2 or 3 years and then we both started dating a hunk who taught in the math department. Tom was his name, we both fell in love with him, and like a light switch we flipped from friends to bitter rivals. After school one day we agreed to meet in the book storage room off the main library for the purpose of talking it over, but we both knew that we were really going to fight. She didn’t know, but I spotted her rubbing vasoline on her face before the ‘meeting.’ We hardly said a word to each other. We simply nodded and raised our fists. And then we fought. It was awful, and disgraceful but we both needed it to be done.”
Sandy could barely believe what she was hearing. This kindly, matronly old woman in a catfight? It seemed so implausible. But then she recalled hearing that mysterious rumor that had floated around the school since she started teaching there. That two female teachers had fought one another many years ago, but that was all the details anyone seemed to know. Apparently those two women were Monica and Barbara. The rumors were true.
“Who won?”
“That’s not important Sandy. But the fact that we came very very close to being fired is why I’m here talking to you. I don’t want you to lose your job. Or Beth either.”
Sandy asked “So you don’t want us to fight then?”
“Of course I don’t want you to fight, but more importantly if you do intend on fighting, I want you to do it right and not make the mistakes that Barbara and I made.”
Unbekownst to Sandy was that Barbara Knight was having a similar conversation with Beth. Trying to gauge whether Beth actually wanted to fight the blonde sprinter. And apparently Beth was just as motivated to fight Sandy.
Beth told Barbara, “If I could kick her ass without getting fired, I’d do it in a second. I want to hurt her. I want to make her pay, woman to woman.”
Barbara and Monica now conferred about their conversations with the two rivals, and the two older ladies decided that they would take on the role of tutors for the young women.
