Sophie and Dan.
By Bumsquashed, 
Little Sophie refuses to hand over her money to Dan 

Dan Lynch was a bully. He'd been a bully since he was the biggest 
kid in junior school and now at fifteen he had established himself 
as the playground scourge again. Most of the younger kids were 
scared of him, none of the older kids used the playground. 

Sophie Jackson had joined the school this term. She was a pretty 
little girl of twelve who lived in the nicer part of town and 
enjoyed the walk to and from school where she could lose herself in 
her thoughts. Lose herself until she was interrupted by some foul 
mouthed bully barging into her and demanding money that is.

Dan blocked Sophie's path and sneered down at her. Sophie had 
money. But no way was she going to give it to him. She attempted to 
walk round him without touching him but the fat lump moved in front 
of her again to block her path. Again she tried to round him 
without touching him but again he blocked her, this time though he 
pulled at her school bag and she had to tug back to evade him. 
Dan's sneer turned into something that might have been intended as 
a smile. It was an awful sight and Sophie tried to shut it out of 
her mind quickly. Then he started towards her, inviting her to try 
and take him on in a fair fight. A fair fight? Between a little 
twelve year old girl and a big fifteen year old bully? Doesn't seem 
that fair. 

But Sophie hated that smile. She had never seen anything so ugly 
and she couldn't let it spoil her day. She threw her bag and her 
school blazer down and raised her fists at the monstrous 
apparition. Dan Lynch  whooped for joy and threw himself, fists 
flailing at little Sophie Jackson. His punches were cumbersome but 
big and usually battered little kids into submission before long. 
But Sophie swayed and weaved  and dodged them all. His fists 
flying left and right and over her head. Dan launched himself 
bodily at her, but Sophie, sleek little sylph, side-stepped and 
tripped him over onto his face.  

Dan roared in anger. Roared out her death sentence. Leapt to his 
feet and threw wild swings at Sophie and this time she dodged then 
blocked, dodged then blocked alternately. Eager to test his 
strength she parried punch after punch and she knew that he was 
punching at full strength but that he was punching wild swings that 
carried no power from his body, just from his arm speed. Sophie 
side-stepped another lunge and jabbed the side of his head, 
knocking his mouth open , and bringing another grunt and another 
roar out of him. 

Dan swung round and this time put his whole body behind a punch , 
but Sophie's whole body was somewhere else by the time the punch 
arrived. And as she wound her upper body up she delivered a punch 
that came all the way up from her boots and that landed smack on 
the jaw of big Dan Lynch. Dan fell like a tree, bouncing on impact 
with the ground. His senses were scrambled. He knew nothing of his 
defeat, knew nothing of where he was. Sophie was gone when he 
returned to his senses, but as his mind cleared it all began to 
come back to him. The lucky trip, the pounding he had given her, 
the way he slipped and banged his head, and the way she had run 
away afterward. Next time Sophie Jackson. I'll get you next time. 

Sophie knew he would be there. She wanted him to be there. She had 
beaten him so easily that it worried her at first that he might 
avoid her, but it was obvious that he was a bully and an arrogant 
one too. Most likely he would not remember his beating as a beating 
and even if he did then he would want to try and get her back.

There he was again. Shouting at her what she had coming to her. 
What a lucky bitch she was yesterday and  what an unlucky bitch she 
was going to be today. He wasn't punching today. He was going to 
wrestle her to the ground and crush her scrawny little body. 
Scrawny? She was much smaller than he was but she was plainly fit 
and flexible. He locked arms with her and she squeezed his fat 
upper arm with her fingers expecting and finding no noticeable 
biceps. He made to push her down but he felt the world moving 
quickly around him as his body flipped over her scrawny little 
shoulder and flat on his back with a thump. She danced away and let 
him up. Again he locked arms oblivious to how easily she had taken 
him down and again he wondered why the world was spinning round him 
as she fell backwards with her foot in his stomach and flipped him 
back over her head. Again she let him up. Why kick a bully when he 
was down, she loved to wrestle, loved to impose her will on people, 
loved to watch a bigger boy slowly realise that he was being taken 
apart by a little twelve year old girl, loved the fear and 
desperation as they struggled to escape her. But that was to come, 
for now he was still confident. 

Dan got up and locked more cautiously and paid by being first put 
into an arm bar and then tossed over her hip to land on the twisted 
limb. He howled at that one and got up much more slowly, tending 
his arm. Angrily he kicked at Sophie who calmly caught his ankle 
and kicked his other leg from beneath him. She wrapped her leg 
round his and leaned forward bending his knee sideways and pushing 
down on it with her body weight until he squealed in pain. Next 
time he got up he went back to punching again and she just parried 
his blows and fired two of her own into his gut as his knees 
crumpled beneath him. Next time he nearly fell down on his own so 
she had to hold him up with one hand under his throat and the other 
under his shoulder. She lifted and slammed his whole body down 
and climbed astride his chest. Explained to him that he was hurting 
badly now and if he persisted in getting up then she might really 
start fighting him seriously. He was fat and slow, he was soft and 
easy. She knew a hundred holds and moves and he really wouldn't 
like most of them, and she closed her hand round his neck and heard 
him beg and beg and submit and apologise. And she was right. Over 
the next weeks  he didn't like any of her holds and moves, and she 
beat him so often and so easily that she just got bored and took to 
skipping the pretence and simply knocking him out in no time 
whenever they met.