Tomboy, Part Five
by brooksie brooksie@pacificcoast.net
The tomboy enters high school with plans to be the first girl on the wrestling team


Author's Note: Part Five advances the story where Part Two left off. This
time, the narrator is the Tomboy's older sister. Because these stories were
not originally intended to be a series, the chronology is out of order. To
read them chronologically, follow this sequence - Parts 3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 6 & 7

It was bad enough my sister was the center of attention all through elementary
school. She was such a pain! Always coming in first in competitions and
winning trophies - our house was full of the stupid things. She won them for
swimming, gymnastics and track and field. She was the captain of the soccer
team and the volleyball team. It seemed like all my parents ever talked about
was what a great athlete she was. Not only that, she was smart. Why couldn't
she have been a dumb jock like most. She had to be a straight A student too. I
was so happy the year I started high school because I wouldn't have to hear
about my sister all the time, and how she had done this or that. I couldn't
wait to go to a different school and get away from her.

Because she skipped a year, I'd only be two grades ahead of her, even though I
was three years older. So I'd have to go through two more years with her in
the same school, but I'd be in grade 11 when she started grade 9 and everyone
knows grade 9's don't hang around grade 11's. There would also be a lot more
jocks in high school and I doubted she would be top athlete in school every
year like she was in elementary. But leave it to her to get the whole school
talking about her before she even started going there!

She was really into wrestling and I have to admit, she was quite good at it.
She's been able to kick my ass since she was six years old. Even though I was
three years older and a lot bigger, she'd get me pinned and sit on me,
pinching my nose and making me slap myself with my own hands for as long as
she wanted. She wouldn't let me up unless I said things she wanted me to say,
like "please, pretty please and pretty please with sugar on top." I would try
everything to get her off but I couldn't, and she'd keep me there usually
until I started to cry. It was horrible having her tease me in front of all my
friends about how she was so much stronger than her big sister. Some of my
friends tried to get revenge for me and the same thing wound up happening to
them. Whenever our family got together with relatives, she'd wrestle our boy
cousins and could beat them too.

In my last year of elementary school, she was always getting in wrestling
matches with boys, and sometimes other girls. I don't know how she got so good
at it, but no one at school could beat her. I heard she was doing it even more
after I graduated and my mom even got called in to talk to the principal
because of it. Mom told her this wrestling stuff had to stop or she might be
transferred to another school. It was the only time I can ever remember my
sister being in trouble. It was great! I was in my bedroom the next day when
her two best friends and her were in the backyard. My window was open and I
heard them talking. She told her friends she wasn't allowed to wrestle
anymore, but all they said was it didn't make any difference because everyone
was afraid to take her on. My sister started talking about how she was going
out for the wrestling team when she got to high school. Of course, this turned
into a big deal too because there was no girl's team, so she was going to try
out for the boy's team. My dad was a lawyer and when he found out that the
school didn't allow girls to join the wrestling team, he said they might have
to go to court, because it was illegal to ban girls from going out for a team
if there wasn't a girl's team in the same sport. Like I said, she was always
the center of attention.

One of her friend's older brothers was on the wrestling team. That's how my
sister found out they didn't allow girls. He said it didn't matter because
she'd never make the team anyway. Her friend told her what her brother had
said and that's how it all started. My sister and her friend were over at her
friend's house one day after school when her brother came home. He started
teasing my sister about wanting to go out for team, said girls couldn't
wrestle and stuff like that, so she challenged him. They went back to our
house because it was more private and from what I heard, beat him really
badly. His sister started spreading the story around. She told kids at school
my sister had made him kiss her feet and beg for mercy. Some kids at high
school heard about it and started teasing him. He denied it and said it was
all stupid lies, but after they heard that, my sister and her two friends
who'd watched her beat him came down to our school. They waited outside until
he came out. A bunch of us were hanging around and they went up to him. My
sister challenged him to another match right there, but he wouldn't do it. He
tried to say he wasn't going to wrestle a little kid but she just laughed,
flexed her arm and held it up, showing him that her muscle was bigger than
his, which it was. Everyone started laughing and he just got real red in the
face and took off. After that, people started talking about how one of the
guys on the wrestling team had gotten whipped by a a 12-year-old girl.
Everyone who knew she was my sister kept asking me about it. I told them to
ask her themselves if they were so interested. It was so embarrassing, why
couldn't she just be a normal girl who liked normal things, instead of a
weirdo freak who ran around wrestling guys? Thank god the year was almost over
and summer holidays started in a few weeks.

Summer was great! I hardly saw my sister at all. I got a job at a cool clothes
store at the mall and my boyfriend got his first car, so we could take off
anytime we wanted. My sister turned 13 and, for her birthday, she asked for
lessons in some jujuitsu-type class. I guess it was something like wrestling,
I don't know. She called it grappling. Trust her not to ask for anything
normal like clothes or CD's. Anyway, it turned out good because she spend half
her time there. When she wasn't taking lessons, she'd hang around and watch
other classes. She even got a part-time job helping clean and straighten the
place up. On weekends, her best friend's grandparents had a fruit and
vegetable stand at some farmer's market and they needed some help, so my
sister and her friend worked there on Saturdays and Sundays. She was hardly
ever around. When she was home, she started spending a lot more time in her
room, on her computer. She never watched TV anymore. It was almost like she
wasn't living there.

The summer went by way too fast for me. Before I knew it, we had to go back to
school. My sister was still talking about the wrestling team and my parents
said they'd support her if she wanted to try out. Dad said they'd take the
school board to court if they had to. There's a week or two at the start of
the year before sports really starts up, so I didn't hear much about it for a
little while. When things started to get going, my sister was right in there
just like in elementary school. She was on the soccer and volleyball teams and
in track and field. The school had a weight room and she started working out
there, plus she was still doing her martial arts thing...whatever it was. The
funny thing was, the wrestling idea just kind of died. Everyone was all
excited at the beginning of term, about this 13-year-old who was going to
start kicking guy's butts at wrestling and it started out as this big stink.
Some of the guys on the team were asking about it and their coach told them
the school had decided they would allow her to try out because some new law
said they had to. A few of the guys said they'd quit if girls were allowed and
stuff like that. My sister went to watch a couple of practices, but she told
my parents the coach wasn't very friendly and it didn't look all that
exciting, so she decided not to bother. When it got out that she wasn't going
out for the wrestling team, some people started teasing her that she was
afraid, she was all talk and so on. Even the boy she'd humiliated last year
started getting lippy. It wasn't even October and I was already sick of
hearing people talk about her. I was hoping it would all blow over, but it got
worse instead, when this whole "submission-style challenge" thing got started.

The best wrestler on the team was this kid in one of the middle weight
divisions. He didn't lose a single match last year and was named top wrestler
in the high school league. This year he was expected to do really well at the
state championships, may be even win. My boyfriend was in the weight room when
my sister and this kid got into it and he told me what happened. A bunch of
guys from the wrestling team were working out and so was my sister. She's
really muscular and strong for her age, but of course she wasn't lifting as
much as the wrestlers were. They started giving her a hard time about how she
"wasn't bad for a little girl" and stuff like that. They were saying stuff
like "she was lucky she chickened out because she would have got hurt, she
never would have made the team, girls can't wrestle anyway," whatever they
could think of to piss her off. My boyfriend said she ignored them for a while
and then finally she walked right up to this kid, the one who was undefeated
last year, and challenged him to a submission-style match and then they'd see
who was chicken. He told me she said it in a really loud voice, so everyone
could hear. All of the sudden, everyone in the weight room was watching them.
My boyfriend said he just stood there frozen, like he didn't know what to say.
I guess he tried to fluff it off and go back to the weights, but my boyfriend
said there was another girl working out and she asked my sister what
"submission-style" meant. She told her it was way more interesting than the
kind of wrestling these guys did, there was not punching or kicking but you
could use any hold and pins didn't count. You had to make your opponent give
up, either by saying they did or tapping out. My boyfriend told me my sister
kept after this kid, taunting him by saying, "who's chicken now?" He said she
was really sticking it to him. The kid got mad and said he'd take her on,
anywhere, anytime, any rules. She said she'd only do it in the gym, on
wrestling mats and that anyone who wanted to watch would be able to. He told
her that was fine with him and he'd make her sorry she ever mouthed off to
him. Then my boyfriend said my sister just smiled and went back to her workout
like nothing had happened. The wrestler kid was still pissed I guess, and he
took off. Some of his teammates went with him but a few stayed and kept
working out. My boyfriend said they left my sister alone and never said
another word to her.

Naturally, the rumours about this "submission-style" match spread like
wildfire around the school and the wrestling coach got wind of it. He went
ballistic and said there was no way he would allow it. He told this kid to
forget about it, so the kid tried to call it off, but it was way too late for
that. People teased him wickedly and it started gong around that he was afraid
of a 13-year-old girl. He couldn't take it and went back to talk to his coach.
I found out from one of the other guys on the team that he was totally freaked
and wasn't wrestling anywhere near as well as he had last year. I guess the
coach decided it wasn't going to blow over and so he called my sister and the
kid into his office to find out exactly what they had in mind. My sister told
me later what happened. There were some types of holds, like chokes, the coach
wouldn't allow, but the bottom line was the match was back on. It was supposed
to be a best two out of three and the coach was going to referee to make sure
no one got hurt. It was going to take place in a few days, after school. She
insisted that it be open, so other kids could watch, but the coach didn't want
to turn it into a big event and wanted them to settle it in private.

My sister wouldn't budge and told the coach she'd just tell everyone he
chickened out again. The kid begged his coach to agree to her condition so
they could do it. My sister also said she had one other condition - the loser
would have to raise the winner's arm and declare them the winner of the match
and the submission-style wrestling champion of the school! She got them both
to agree to that and so, the match was on. My sister and I actually got into a
big argument about it. I told her she was embarrassing me at school and she
should just forget it. She said it wasn't her that started this. All she did
was decide not to go out for the team. It was this kid and his friends that
started hassling her and giving her a hard time. I knew that was true, I just
didn't see why she couldn't find some other way to settle it. I didn't say it
to her face, but I was hoping she'd get her ass righteously kicked and maybe
she'd finally stop all this stupid crap.

The day of the match was horrible. That's all anyone talked about all day. I
didn't want to go. I'd rather hang out at the mall and shop for clothes or
makeup, but my boyfriend really wanted to see it, so we went. Some kids had
jobs after school or had to catch buses to other parts of town but there were
still tons of kids there. The wrestling mats were spread out in the centre of
the floor. Everyone was milling around talking and it was really loud until
the coach came in, wearing a sweatsuit with a whistle around his neck. The
wrestler kid was behind him, in his team uniform and wearing wrestling boots.
He asked one of the girls to knock on the women's locker room door and my
sister came out. She had on a one-piece swimsuit and was barefoot. The coach
told everyone to get seated and explained the rules for this match. Kicks and
punches were not allowed, there was to be no choking and he could step in and
stop the match anytime he thought there was a danger of injury. In that case,
the hold would be broken and the match restarted. When he mentioned the
special way they had agreed on ending the match, there was a chorus of hoots
and hollers. He had to blow his whistle to quiet everyone down. He called on
my sister and the kid shake hands and then blew the whistle again and the
match was on!