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Kelly and her friends ch 27 Roller Derby Rumble

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Kelly and her friends ch 27 Roller Derby Rumble
« on: February 12, 2015, 09:02:49 AM »

Chapter 27 Roller Derby Rumble

Introducing a new star the delightful Mona played by Moaner to whom I owe many thanks for her help

“So Peter...what did you expect?   Women of Wrestling, or some other choreographed sham fighting ballet on roller skates?” Kelly was dismissive.  “This is a social game, not some TV titillation. I do it for fun.” We were returning home from the first of Kelly’s roller derby games – or at the least the first one she’d allowed me to see. I’d told her that it hadn’t been what I expected. And I got an earful.
 
“Fun wasn’t the reason you told me you were taking up roller derby,” I argued.  “No, not at all. You said you thought you were becoming too – ” I let my tongue linger on that ‘too’ “ – arrogant. You said you’d been shocked at how Heidi Foster treated Elena. Not that Heidi was arrogant. Taunting, bratty, teasing, yes...rude even...but arrogant, no. You said you’d never given Elena a fair chance. You said that was going to change...though not that I’ve noticed.  You manipulated Elena into fighting Violet Tennant.”
 
“So?  You liked seeing them fight. You liked seeing Elena crush Violet.” Her white face told me how angry she was.
 
That was a good thing.  Kelly needed her cage rattled. She’d been nagging me. But I knew I’d better throw her an olive branch. “Ok, I’ll admit it.  I loved watching Elena fight both Heidi and Violet...and I’ll admit that you didn’t manipulate Elena too much to make it happen either.  She’s always ready for a fight...so long as she has Malcolm’s approval. And he certainly approved, that night.
 
“You said you’d been too hard on Wendy Armstrong too...and I haven’t seen any changes there.” I thought I’d rattle Kelly’s cage a little more with that comment. Kelly didn’t like Wendy. She saw her as a rival – which was stupid. Yes, I’d had a roll in the hay with Wendy – once, and Kelly had told me to. Then when I’d expressed sympathy for Wendy, Kelly had been furious. She shouldn’t have put temptation in my way.  Kelly needed to stop trying to manipulate me – and others. It was time for me to manipulate her a little in return.
 
“So?” she replied.  “We haven’t seen Wendy.”
 
“No we haven’t.” I wondered what would happen when we did. After Kelly’s bitter denunciation, I couldn’t see her changing her attitude toward Wendy. No, Wendy was too much like Kelly herself.  ”But that’s not the point. You distracted me. You so often do...very pleasurably.” Kelly suppressed a giggle. I’d calmed her down a little. “You said you were going to drop the arrogance and that was why you were taking up roller derby.”
 
“That’s not what I said.  I said I was going to change...and I said I was going to play roller derby. You made the connection between the two, in your own mind. You jumped to a conclusion. Still,” she conceded, “you’re partly right. All sorts of women play, and almost all ages. There are even women in their forties.  But roller derby is fun.  It’s competitive too...and I am competitive. Roller derby is almost as good as fighting...better in some ways. Girls don’t get hurt as much, and other people don’t put down roller derby players like they do when girls fight.” She looked at me archly.  “Peter, you’re just sore that you can’t see that ‘power exchange’ you love so much. Well, too bad.”
 
So – to use Kelly’s favourite conjunction – I’d gotten my ear chewed.  I decided it was time for me to lob a few hand grenades – metaphorically speaking – again. It was too long since I’d rattled Kelly’s cage like she needed. I’d done that once, intentionally, when I’d provoked her by recounting what my friends and I had seen on the beach when she’d been on a business trip away.  Jenn Peccavi had fought – and beaten – a girl named Fiona Burke who turned out to be one of Kelly’s college buddies. I’d done it once by accident, when I’d taken Wendy Armstrong home after she’d been beaten by Kelly’s Australian namesake Kelly Rivers. My Kelly had told me to do so.  She’d also told me to fuck Wendy if I needed to, just so long as her friend Mari Hely Hutchinson didn’t have to confront Wendy. As I said to my Kelly later – I only did as she told me. That had not gone down well.
 
I knew where there was bagful of hand grenades all ready for me to lob. The roller derby may have been a little more subdued than I expected but there was more than enough tension to cut with a knife.  It was a very physical full contact sport. Kelly was right – it was almost like fighting.
 
We had arrived at the rink with only a few minutes to spare. I’d had my ear chewed for that. True, I’d taken a wrong turn but as I said to Kelly, “Hon, I’ve never been to the rink before.  You told me I wasn’t welcome till you got some experience at the game. Why didn’t you drive?”  I should have saved my voice. All that – entirely reasonable – comment got me was another ear chewing.
 
Kelly surged into the arena, all but pushing people aside. She grabbed hold of her new friend Mona who was talking with another girl.  “Please entertain Peter while I get ready. Can you introduce him to the girls?  Sorry I’m late.  It’s all his fault.“
 
Mona did as she was asked. “Gaelle, meet Peter...Kelly Haldane’s boyfriend.” She involved me in their conversation about sports – ice hockey and a bit of baseball.
 
I was surprised that Mona knew as much about ice hockey as she did, and I said as much. “She used to play,” said Gaelle.  “Amateur, but she was very good. She played for her faculty at Northwestern U.” She turned to Mona directly. “And you played a little after we left college too.”
 
“Why did you stop?” I asked.
 
“I took up roller derby instead. I play volleyball too...that’s how I know your friend Elena...and there’s a limit to what a girl can do when I have to hold down two jobs to make ends meet.”
 
I nodded.  I understood about being time-poor. “But why go from hockey to this?”
 
Mona blushed a little. “I like impact sports.”
 
“You mean barging into people?” I was surprised.  This girl, five foot five and neither slim nor heavy, who’d verbally diced up Vic Hely Hutchinson, didn’t seem the type to ‘get physical’.  Then again, I remembered I’d thought the same of Kelly when we’d first met.
 
“Yes!” Mona answered with a laugh.  I was about to find out more when a bell rang and the two girls excused themselves to go get ready for the game.
 
When the match started, I spent more time watching Mona than I did watching Kelly.  Mona was more interesting.  I was sure some of her ‘checks’ were quite illegal – a belief reinforced by Mona’s quick glances to see where other players were and whether the referee was looking.  The first instance was when she charged another player. I’d thought the rules prohibited a player elbowing another. Mona also collided full on with another girl – that was legal though I was sure it would be painful. What wasn’t legal though, and more painful too, was the elbow jab Mona gave the other girl as she cannoned into her.
 
I noticed another spectator looking at me as I shook my head. He'd seemed vaguely familiar but I couldn't quite place him. Still, I guessed I must have known him from somewhere because he nodded to me, then came over to sit next to me. We spoke intermittently as semi-strangers do, but that changed when he saw me watching Mona.  “Yeah,“ he said in response to the question I was thinking but hadn’t asked.  “Mona’s quite the expert at not quite breaking the rules. She'll crash into another girl side on...that's legal. But she'll also crash into a girl at an angle, more to her back then to the side. Hitting someone in the back is isn’t legal. That's what I mean about not quite breaching the rules.  You saw her, just a moment ago.”
 
Indeed I had. Mona raced towards another girl who whirled around a moment before Mona would have struck her. She looked as if she’d avoided Mona’s checking. Mona too changed directions and struck the other girl between the collar bone and right arm, or perhaps – it was hard to see – her body hammered both parts of the opposing girl’s body and everything in between at the one time.  The momentum carried the other girl about three or four feet to the side and cannoned her into Kelly. Kelly hip tossed her backwards.  “That was almost like pass the parcel!” I remarked.
 
“Yeah...but a big parcel and at about twenty miles an hour,” the man said. “Then there's the way she grabs a player. Grabbing with your hands to ‘initiate contact’ is a foul. But grabbing someone when you've already checked them isn't. Mona seems to do the two together...but it's hard to tell out there. The referee gives the players the benefit of the doubt, and Mona trades on that. Sometimes she goes too far though, and then she gets into trouble.”
 
I turned to my fellow spectator, still trying to place this guy.  He was about my age and height but a good deal heavier. He had big arms that only just fitted in his shirt.  “You know her?”
 
“Not really,” he replied.  “My girlfriend plays for the Red Perils. She's also a blocker, but she doesn't bend the rules like Mona. Still...once Julie blocks you, you know you’re blocked,” he said proudly. “Look...there she is.” He pointed out a solid – some might say chubby – girl sitting with her team mates. “Yeah, all dressed, ready and waiting for the second match. There aren't enough venues so we have two games, one after the other, every Friday and Saturday night.”
 
I looked at his girl again.  She had bright red hair – too bright to be natural. “Yeah,” he said, “she’s a natural blonde but blonde doesn’t really go with ‘The Red Perils‘ so she dyed it.”  He smiled at her. She waved back then stood up and walked up the gangway to where we sat.
 
It was then that I remembered where I'd seen them both before.  “You’re Max, and she’s Julie.”
 
“Yep.  I thought I recognised you.”
 
“We met at Wrigley Field...or I should say, outside it.” I stumbled for words.
 
“Yeah...you were with those two half-drunk girls. They err...kinda thrashed you, babes,” Max turned to Julie, “and Ashley.” He smiled ruefully. “Well it wasn't the first time you two fought and it won’t be the last. But oh man, it was the first time I've seen you so badly worked over. I remember Ashley had one of those blondes on the ropes when – "
 
“When her friend kneed me and knocked the wind out of me.” Julie finished his sentence. “That dirty blonde who laid into me was tough. I was just watching Ashley demolish her friend when she attacked...I guess to stop me helping Ashley.”
 
“Not that you’d have interfered,” added Max.
 
“No.  It was between Ashley and the other blonde.”
 
“Hey, you’d had a lot to drink too, babes,” Max reminded her.
 
“Not as much as those two skanks but drunk or not, that dirty blonde could fight.”
 
“Her name’s Elena” I threw that in. “I’m Peter.” I stood up and shook her hand.
 
“Hey there Peter. Yeah well...she slugged me good. Then she went to rescue her friend. For a while I thought Ashley might slug it out with Elena while – “
 
“ – while you went to town on the other one,” Max finished for her.  “You were working her over, babes. It was great to watch.” He squeezed Julie around her waist. “That is, till Elena finished Ashley off. Then she could help her friend against you.”
 
“Yeah...it all went downhill from there.” She shrugged.  “I guess that’s the price you pay...win some, lose some.”
 
“Babes...you win most of them. Oh man...yeah...you win most of them.” Max chuckled.
 
 Julie sat down and we chatted for a while. I pointed out Kelly as my girl. Julie didn’t seem to know her but when I mentioned Mona, Julie could hardly stop badmouthing her. It seemed there was a lot of bad blood between them.  It was just as well that I found a common interest – well, another common interest besides catfighting.  Max restored old cars and was active in a club, which was something I’d often wanted to do. . We chatted about our cars.  He had a couple of 1950s Chevys and,  surprisingly I thought, a Hillman Imp. He talked eloquently and very persuasively about that heroic failure of the British motor industry – a car so advanced for its era that forty years later it was still almost unbeaten in gas consumption.  He rallied in the Imp, not the Chevys, saying the Imp’s rear engine gave it unrivalled cornering. He chuckled, recounting how his little car had outperformed some far more expensive Porsches.   He smiled broadly as he told of Julie rallying, and her award for best female in a hill climb and of the picture with her posed, helmet in hand, rally suit “unzipped enough to flash your tits, babes”  curled up on top of the Imp.  I’d never thought of the Imp as a sports car – the Rootes Group’s sports car had been the Singer Alpine. I knew a few people who owned Alpines and I shared their stories.
 
I became almost instant friends with this big carpenter and his girlfriend, who was a driver for FedEx. We shared hot dogs and I bought each of us a beer. But we really got going when Max asked me to a car collectors’ meet – at Skokie.
 
“Is that where you live?”
 
“Yeah.  Julie and I bought an apartment there last year. Why?”
 
“Malcolm Sergant...Elena’s partner...owns a bungalow in Skokie. They’re doing it up. It was pretty run down but it’s getting to be a real picture now.”
 
Julie pricked her ears up. “What does he do?”
 
“Malcolm?  He’s a lawyer in a magic mile firm.”
 
“Right...you mean he’s a latte-sipping yuppie. Max, they’re the kind of people who’re pricing us out of the market.” She turned back to me. “We were looking at buying a bungalow ourselves but the prices are way too high now, even for one that needs a ton of work. I wanted one of those...not a cookie cutter apartment.” She sniffed. “They oughta stop those kind of people buying.”
 
“Does Elena live there too?” Max asked. I nodded and he went on, “Oh man...babes, what’s gonna happen if you see her shopping?”
 
“I’ll rip her apart. We don’t need those fat cats coming into Stokie.”
 
“Babes...calm down.  It’s not a political meeting now.” Max turned to me.  “Julie gets all worked up about this sort of thing.  She’s a Move On member.  All the team are.”
 
“Yeah, that’s why we called ourselves the ‘Red Devils’“
 
We ended our discussion when Kelly’s team finished their match.  As I excused myself, Max reminded me again about the car collectors meet – the first one that year for his club.
 
I went down to meet Kelly. Mona was out of the locker room before Kelly was. I heard her berating another girl, “Well, Jager...sign ups are still open. Why don't you come on in, join a team and back up that li’l potty mouth of yours?  Or are you afraid it will wind up kissing my feet?”
 
The other girl – Jager, I supposed though surely that was her surname, was a well-endowed blonde.  She shrugged and walked off. Mona smiled as if in possession of the field of battle.
 
“You scared off that wannabe!” Gaelle emerged from the locker room with a grin on her face. She must have heard Mona. They high-fived and giggled together. “Where are we going now? You told me there was a new hot spot.”
 
“Yeah, it’s named Galeforce...and no, it's not named after you. It's a leather and lace place. It’s not as extreme as Chatro or even Ronaldo but it’s a great spot to be seen and to see the scene...mixed, straight, gay, les and bi too.  Hope you brought your gear.  More than a few fights there too. Did you see that guy Peter’s face drop when I mentioned ‘impact’?”  She laughed.  “He doesn’t know the half of it.”
 
Gaelle nudged her and whispered something.
 
Mona looked over at me.  “So what if he’s there?  Who cares?  Come on, let’s go hit the bars!” They walked off.
 
Yes, I reflected as Kelly and I drove home, I had a whole bagful of grenades ready. I just needed to wait for the right moment and I’d throw a few. And I’d tell Vic. He’d spread it all over our circle.  Of course, he’d add his own spin on it – that he was right, that roller derby girls were nothing but trashy, low life fighters. And he’d include Kelly in that description.  He’d never much more than tolerated her since I introduced her to my circle of friends. “Old money, old families...she’d be more at home on the set of the Magnificent Ambersons,” he had sniffed. He’d love to tarnish – even ever so slightly – the Haldane ancestral silver with a bit of gossip about roller derby. And Kelly would be so pissed at him – largely because it would be true.
 
The opportunity to lob those grenades came sooner than I expected. Two weeks after that first time I’d seen Kelly play roller derby, we were back at the arena again.  There was a match between the Bruins, the team on which Kelly played, and the Red Perils.  I sought out Max, the only man I knew.
 
We shared a cold beer and a hot dog while we watched the girls warm up, and talked a little about cars.  Kelly’s team paraded around the rink, each girl holding a part of a cardboard bear.  The jammer had the bear’s head with its wide open mouth, while others carried limbs and others again had the body. It was quite a show.  The Red Perils contented themselves with wiggling their backsides as they raced around the ring in a conga line. Their trashy outfits were perfect for showing off their butts.  I was sure Kelly would have refused to wear their uniform – booty shorts, tank tops and fishnets – though maybe Mona might have had a different view.
 
And they sang – I wasn’t too surprised to hear the strains of The Internationale.  I said as much to Julie as she skated to the side. She replied, “Yeah...and there’s something I’ll bet you don’t know. You’ve heard of Arturo Toscanini?”
 
I gulped a little.  What did this girl know about the famous conductor?
 
“Yeah well, in 1944 he conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra in an updated version of Verdi’s Hymn of the Nations. He wrote the updates to include the Star Spangled Banner and the Internationale. It was released as a film...but the McCarthyists had the Internationale edited out of the film. Only in the last few years has the original film been rediscovered. Yeah, like Orwell wrote, ‘He who controls the present controls the past. He who controls the past controls the future.’  She grinned at the obvious surprise on my face.  “Well, I’d better go. They’re waving at me.” She skated away to rejoin her teammates.
 
Each team retired to their respective corners where the girls sipped water and put on their helmets. I walked down to hug Kelly and wish her well.  Then the reserves skated to the sidelines and the starting players took their places.
 
Rumble time.
 
It wasn’t much more than a minute before Mona and Julie clashed. Julie accelerated to block the Bruins’ jammer. Mona raced after her. Julie swerved, turned sharply and Mona, surprised, seemed about to skate past her when Julie swerved and all but hip-tossed Mona out of the line of play. Julie  went on to block another Bruin while yet another player intercepted the Bruins’ jammer. No points.
 
I got a better look at Mona as she skated past. She was shorter than Kelly and Julie at about five feet five, heavier than Kelly in build but lighter than Julie. I'd guess she was about one hundred thirty or one hundred thirty five pounds.  She looked like the athlete Gaelle said she was. Athlete or not, she had a hard time with Julie who seemed to single her out for special attention. Maybe it was mutual since the two girls repeatedly clashed. More than once Julie had Mona crashing out of the rink and into the barrier, though Mona bounced back each time. After the second time, Mona really went out of her way to attack Julie.
 
Julie was skating quickly, trying to intercept a Bruins blocker when Mona, elbow out in front of her, head lowered, charged her. Mona's head hammered Julie's shoulder just before her elbow slammed into Julie's midsection. Julie gagged and buckled. Mona backed off a pace or three, then charged again, this time driving Julie hard into the barrier.
 
“Hell!  She's coming along for the ride!” Max said, pointing.  Mona hadn't backed off. Instead she crashed into Julie's body a second or less after the bigger girl hit the barrier.
 
“At that speed,“ Mona was skating very fast, “she'll crush her.” I was worried for Julie.
 
“Nah, Julie's taken worse than that. She'll have more than her regular bruises tonight though.” He took a pull on his beer. “Mona had better watch herself.  Julie will be after her now.”
 
Max was right. From then on, Julie really singled Mona out. Still the smaller girl evaded most of Julie’s attempts to corner her.  Julie did manage to knock Mona into the barriers a few times but never as savagely as Mona had done. She tried once but it back-fired when, after Mona crashed into the barrier, the smaller girl skated aside just a foot or two, enough so that when Julie tried to crush her, she hammered herself into the wall instead.
 
Mona said something – I didn't hear what – that angered Julie, who tried to grab her arm and swing her into the barrier again. She would have succeeded if the ref hadn’t blown the whistle and reprimanded Julie.
 
“Jeeez! I wish the ref had been looking at what Mona did.“  Max shook his head. “Still, can't see everything I guess.”
 
Julie stayed out of trouble for the next few minutes. I began to enjoy the game. It was very different to what I'd seen on TV which I suspected was indeed like professional wrestling – staged. That made this level of competition more violent – very few people got hurt in staged matches, but here they were attacking each other for real.
 
Yet for me there was still something missing, something I only saw in fights – the venomous anger of the fighters, their hatred, even if only short lived, and most of all their determination, the sheer will to win, to beat their foe. And yes, at the end, that transfer of power, where one woman abjectly surrenders to the other. It's even better when – as I'd seen with Kelly a few times – two alpha women clash and one ends up turned inside out.  That was what was lacking in this game – it was a game, not a true battle.  Regardless of that though, it was more than entertaining to watch. Now if a proper fight happened at a roller derby match, that would take things to an entirely different level.
 
I left that thought to simmer and focused on the game again. Mona and Julie had resumed their private battle. Julie was just about to block the Red Perils’ jammer when Mona whizzed up behind her, striking her on what would have been her port quarter if Julie were a sailboat. The impact sent Julie sprawling into the barrier where she was hung out, doubled over like a sheet on the clothesline, for a moment. One of the Bruins’ reserves skated up on the outside of the barrier and helped Julie stand. They spoke and while I did not hear what they said, their body language told me the reserve was asking if Julie wanted to come off. Julie’s reply – including a dirty glare at Mona – told of trouble in store for the smaller girl.
 
It wasn’t long in coming. Julie took every legal chance she could to get after Mona. Within minutes the blonde had hurled or shoved her foe against the barriers three or four times.  Mona started to look around and, if she saw Julie coming, to skate away. During a lull she had a whispered conversation with Gaelle.  After that, the two girls stayed close. When Julie next came after Mona, the two Bruins linked their arms – outstretched, shoulder high – and whirled around, Gaelle being the hub of the wheel. Committed to her charge, Julie couldn’t avoid the clothesline, which put her down on the floor groaning.
 
I thought that Gaelle and Mona would have been sent off for that but weren’t – merely cautioned. I shook my head. Max explained some of the penalty rules but I still didn’t understand why two girls who’d done something so potentially dangerous weren’t penalised.
 
Nevertheless, that was the end of Julie’s game that night. She came to sit with Max, seething with anger and an obvious thirst for revenge. Max tried to gently suggest it was time to end the feud, that maybe Julie herself had stoked the fires, but she would have none of it.  I smiled inwardly. Here, I thought, was the opportunity I was hoping for. 
 
I clucked sympathetically, taking Julie’s part against her boyfriend’s attempts to play down the incident. “What they did was outrageous.  I know that, Max, even if you don’t.  Not even Elena and Wendy...yeah, those two who took you and Ashley down...would do something like that.“
 
Actually I wasn’t so sure of that.  Wendy was almost as ruthless as Kelly. I remembered what she’d done to Kim Curzon.  Then I corrected myself.  It was Violet who had put the idea into Wendy’s head, so Wendy wasn’t that ruthless.  Violet would like to be, but she didn’t have the strength. Only Kelly knew how to take another woman’s power completely.  No one, not one woman, was as ruthless, as domineering, and as powerful as my Kelly.  Another reason she needed a little shaking up.
 
“Still, I’m glad you don’t seem too hurt by their low blow. It could have been much worse.” I stoked the fires a little more. ”You might have really gotten hurt out there. Especially by Mona. She can fight. Oddly enough, she’s had a run in with Elena, just like you. She gave Elena a hard time. She’s a tough bitch."
 
Julie’s eyes flashed.  “Are you saying I couldn’t handle her?” she snapped.
 
“No!  No, not at all,” I replied conciliatorily.  “But it’s a good thing you’ve calmed down. Yeah, she might have really hurt you in a fight.  You were hurt already, so she would have had an advantage.”
 
“Shit!  It takes more than that to knock me down! Yeah, I can deal with that skank.”
 
By the time the game finished – a victory for the Bruins – Julie’s anger was bubbling like lava.  Nevertheless, no amount of stoking would do any good if Mona left before Julie confronted her – or if Mona herself wasn’t just as fired up. I needed to get to Mona.
 
I excused myself, saying I wanted to see Kelly, which was true enough. I waited for her to come out of the locker room. When she did, she was glowing from her team’s victory as much as from her shower. I greeted her warmly with a kiss and hug. “Well done.  I’m so pleased to see your team win...again! It’s a much more skilled game than I thought.“ I ate some crow, voicing my earlier thought that the amateur game wasn’t choreographed like the professional matches I’d seen on TV – that it really was a game and not a staged spectacle.
 
Kelly smiled.  She didn’t need to say ‘I told you so’. She was sure she’d scored her point – and indeed she had.  I’d been wrong about roller derby. But I was about to score a bigger point of my own.  Roller derby might be a sport but it was a sport played by trashy, aggressive lowlifes. At least, that’s what Vic would tell all our friends once he heard of the fight. I wouldn’t even need to tell him either. He’d hear about it.  Vic heard just about everything.
 
I just had to get Mona and Julie together.  Then, I was sure, the fight would happen.  I called Julie and Max over to meet Kelly. As we stood chatting, I steered the conversation around to roller derby by asking some dumb-sounding questions – but then, as I said to them, I didn’t know much about the sport. We’d got onto the penalty system – which really did baffle me – when Mona and Gaelle appeared.  Here was my chance. “So...why wasn’t what those two did to Julie, a penalty?  Why weren’t they sent off?”
 
“Because it’s a legitimate move?” Mona replied, her voice heavy with sarcasm.
 
“You could have hurt her badly,” I pointed out.
 
“You mean like she’d already hurt me?” Mona shot back, her anger clearly mounting, both at me and at Julie.
 
“You got a nerve!” Julie snapped.  “You’re always bending the rules but you can’t take your own medicine. Yeah...you should spell you name M O A N E R...you bitch and moan to the referee, you even white about your own team members!”
 
“I’m not the one moaning now!  It’s you, whining because your team lost. You’re just a sore loser!”
 
“At least I don’t cheat!”  Julie sneered, her face flushed. She took a threatening step toward Mona, then suddenly doubled over, gagging. “Ouffff!” Mona had kicked her hard in her stomach.
 
Just as it had outside Wrigley Field, Julie's mouth had gotten her in trouble. She spluttered and retreated, still bent over, as Mona pressed her advantage. The smaller girl grabbed a handful of blonde hair, yanking Julie forward and shaking her hard. She raised her knee and buried it in Julie's stomach again. Julie groaned, her legs trembled and I thought she was about to go down.  Her hands flew to her shattered stomach as she gulped air desperately.
 
Mona yanked Julie’s head up and slapped at her face, hard, stinging slaps. Each made Julie gasp. It couldn't last but Mona got a lot of slaps in while Julie got her breath back. The bigger woman's face was red, her hair was a tangled mess and her neck had red weals where she'd partially evaded Mona's blows. Her blouse had lost a couple of the few fastened buttons so it was all but hanging open.  Mona kept yanking on her hair, successfully keeping her enemy off balance.
 
Finally Julie broke away.  She grabbed onto Mona's shoulders, steadying herself, and shoved. Mona came away with a clutch of Julie's hair, leaving a bald patch about the size of a quarter just above her right ear.  Julie backed away, her hands up defensively, her mouth opening and closing, fish-like, as she got air into her lungs again.
 
Mona attacked but Julie evaded.  Though Mona was faster and nimbler, dodging around to the still-flatfooted Julie's sides, the bigger girl blocked or parried most of her punches. Those that hit though, did more damage. They were lightish blows designed to weaken, not destroy. Julie had to keep retreating. So far she hadn’t landed a blow.  She'd hardly even attempted one. Those blows she had tried – heavy punches that would have shaken Mona to her boots – were delivered too slowly, almost telegraphed and Mona had no trouble dodging them.
 
“Look at her,“ Kelly whispered in my ear, “eyes wide, white face...well, between the red blotches anyway.  She's scared.  She knows Mona's working her over.”
 
“Your eagerness betrays you,” I whispered back. “At least you’re barracking quietly for your team.” I looked around.  “You’re a magnet for fights, my love, but this is one you didn’t ferment. Judging by what other people are doing...watching the fight and not trying to break it up, or just going about their business, I’d say fighting here is pretty common. See?”  I pointed to several groups of people packing up equipment or loading their belongings into their autos.  “They’re not even giving these two a second glance.”
 
Mona moved, in punching again. She changed her tactics, going for heavier blows now. Julie seemed more able to defend herself, perhaps the heavier blows were slower but also perhaps because she was getting her breath back. She kicked forward. Mona dodged to the side. Julie turned and fired a punch at Mona's face.  Mona was just a split second too slow in swinging her head and while Julie’s fist barely kissed her cheek, it was the first time Julie had hit her.
 
It didn't faze the smaller girl. Mona stepped back, but then pressed her attack again with a barrage of the same light punches she'd used before. Again Julie found them hard to counter.  She backed away. Mona kept the pressure on, stopping her foe from regrouping, until Julie kicked again. The kick missed but forced Mona back. Julie sent a few jabs that that prevented Mona from attacking for a few moments, but then the brunette broke through again. She got in close and began peppering her foe's sides.
 
Julie seemed to just take the blows at first, until she suddenly pulled her head back and slammed it forward. Mona swung her head up just in time to take the head butt on her cheek and not her nose. Then, in a surprisingly quick move, Julie hauled off and pounded Mona’s jaw with a solid uppercut. Mona reeled backward.
 
“I saw that blonde do something similar to Ashley, at Wrigley Stadium,” Max reminded me.
 
“Maybe your Julie learned something from Elena,” I replied with a grin.
 
Whether she had learned from Elena, or whether she was as skilled as Max said she was, Julie didn’t waste time. She fired a fast left-right combo at Mona, driving the smaller girl back even though the punches didn’t hit. Mona parried the left and sidestepped the right. She wasn’t so lucky when Julie kicked though.  Her foot struck Mona’s thigh. Mona groaned and stumbled, then as she stood again, Julie hit hard, her fist striking Mona’s chin. Mona’s head snapped back.  She staggered and retreated, breathing hard.
 
As Mona stood panting, Julie fired another punch at her face but mistimed it.  Mona bobbed down and Julie’s fist hit her shoulder instead. It jolted Mona but didn’t prevent her returning fire. Still crouching, she sent a blow to Julie’s plumpish tummy. It hit low – well below her navel – and hard, sinking in deep. Julie gasped.  She bent forward slightly. Mona followed her success with another at nearly the same point.  Julie lurched back, gagging, clutching her middle. She put some distance between herself and a revived Mona.
 
Mona tried to capitalise, advancing, ducking and trying to get under her foe’s guard but Julie kept her at bay, kicking at her, defending, dodging and, when Mona got too close, firing back with her own sparring punches. Both girls struck home, Mona’s light jabs more often than Julie’s heavier kicks and punches. Neither girl seemed to make much of an impression on the other. Perhaps Mona had a slight advantage. Julie seemed tired.  Her movements were slower and her mouth gaped wide as she tried to breathe.
 
Suddenly Julie counter attacked, swinging her fist up hard and fast, though not fast enough to stop Mona blocking it. Then, while the bigger blonde was still stretched out from her attack, Mona drove her own knuckles deep into Julie’s lower belly. Julie grunted – almost a belch.  She wobbled as if her knees were about to give out. She stumbled back.
 
Mona followed up quickly but Julie pivoted on her heel as, committed to her blow, Mona staggered forward, allowing Julie to grab her hair and slam her hip into Mona’s side. Mona buckled then squealed as Julie’s free hand, fist clenched, powered into her kidney.  Mona groaned aloud in pain, her back arching.
 
Julie charged forward, body slamming the smaller girl once and then, as Mona staggered, a second time. She let go of Mona’s hair.  Mona stumbled for maybe a yard or so, half bent over. Julie shoved her hard and she almost fell.
 
Mona straightened up and glanced around as though she was looking for a way out, when Julie grabbed her hair again. Julie yanked hard, swinging Mona around and straight into an uppercut to her chin. Mona groaned again, and again Julie grabbed her hair, yanking the brunette forward and into the path of Julie’s upswinging knee.  As that sank deep into Mona’s stomach, Mona’s mouth opened in a perfect O. Air and spit rushed from her mouth.  She sagged and Julie repeated the move. Mona shook all the way to her shoes. Julie slapped her hands on Mona’s shoulders and shoved. Mona staggered back. Julie kicked hard but she had misjudged Mona’s retreat and the kick only just tipped Mona’s stomach.
 
Still, Mona looked dazed.  Julie dashed forward. She parried a feeble punch. Mona tried to move away but too late. Julie folded her arms around Mona’s body and squeezed hard. She was crushing Mona in a bear hug. She even had the smaller girl lifted off the ground, shaking her – Mona’s feet kicked frantically in the air.
 
Then Julie bellowed in pain.  Her arms fell to her sides. Mona had bitten her. She dropped Mona and the smaller girl stumbled backward.  I saw Mona’s teeth running with blood as she spat out some skin and flesh. I glanced across to Kelly.  Was she remembering how she had turned around her own fight with Jenn Peccavi – the first day I saw her – with a similar move?
 
Kelly winked.  She remembered alright.
 
Julie stepped back quickly, putting distance between herself and her foe. She touched the wound on her shoulder, then took her finger up to her lips, tasting her own blood. Her face white, her eyes narrowed into slits, she waited for Mona’s next move. It wasn’t long in coming. Mona swept in, her fists up. Julie dropped back, circling Mona.
 
“She’s waiting, biding her time,” Max said quietly. “I’ve seen her do this before.” He half smiled.
 
Mona attacked confidently.  She clearly thought she’d damaged Julie. She had good reason – Julie was defensive, dodging, ducking and weaving. Mona kept up the attack. For a while Julie avoided her, keeping Mona at arm’s length, but it couldn’t last. Mona darted in.  She avoided Julie’s sparring shot. She ducked under another and then, still bobbed down, she launched a fist that thudded into Julie’s stomach.  Julie staggered, gasping.  Mona followed up with another punch but Julie parried that one, swinging her left arm to catch and deflect Mona’s jab.
 
Julie replied with a counterattack, a hard kick that seemed to lift the smaller girl to her toes. Mona swung back, her arms windmilling to keep her balance. Julie stepped in and sent her fists crashing one after the other into Mona’s exposed stomach.  Mona groaned as she swayed on her feet.  She retreated and Julie followed, jabbing at Mona, keeping her enemy on the run, denying her the time she needed to recover.
 
Mona was still game.  She tried to counterattack several times. Julie parried most but not all of her blows. Those that struck did some damage – Julie wheezed and gagged – but the bigger girl always came back with seemingly harder blows that made Mona scurry away again.
 
That was until Mona’s back hit a partition. Mona’s face whitened as she realised she had nowhere to retreat now.  Julie smiled. It wasn’t a pleasant smile. She threw herself forward and began to work Mona over in earnest. Punch after punch thudded into the smaller girl’s body. Mona seemed unable to defend properly.  Each time she tried to evade or strike back, Julie was there to block her attempt.  Julie mixed up her shots well, confounding Mona’s increasingly weak defense.  Julie’s blows hit all over Mona’s torso and in less than half a minute, the smaller girl was a whimpering wreck.
 
Then Mona somehow seemed to pull herself together. She dodged to her left. Julie followed but Mona had sold her a dummy.  Mona lunged to her right. She broke free of Julie's grasp – or so it seemed until Julie thrust her arm out and, in a move I hadn’t seen outside the staged professional wrestling matches until tonight, 'clotheslined' Mona, her outstretched forearm catching Mona across the throat. Mona all but crumpled.
 
Julie stepped behind Mona, seized her around the neck and began to choke the smaller girl. Mona struggled briefly, arms flailing wildly, lashing at Julie's face and body. It did her no good. Julie maintained her hold.  It took only ten seconds before Mona's body slumped forward.  Julie let her drop to the floor, out cold.
 
Julie stepped up, placing her foot on Mona’s prone body in a classic victory stance. Cameras flashed. Julie smiled. “Yeah!  I’ve spurned the dust to win the prize.”
 
I was sure her friends on the Red Devils knew the allusion.
 
Max lowered his phone where he’d just taken a picture of his own and said to me “Another one for her hall of fame!”
 
Julie stepped back from Mona, then walked over to Max as Gaelle rushed forward.  She looked at Mona and ran off to get some first aid. People were still congratulating Julie when she came back.  I'd been right – from the audience’s reaction, fights were common here. That was something I would soon be telling Vic – and Vic would tell the world.
 
 
 
 
Blondes are cool Brunettes are Hot!!